BLOG REVENUE OR BLOG HITS? NUMBERS DON’T LIE

What writers in the wide world of blogging need to know: Who’s making it?

Once you leave the hobby blog behind, take aim at the big leagues where the pros play for keeps.

Even if your blog is smaller than a grain of sand in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, the numbers of the richest bloggers, and the most visited blogs, are helpful.

Where can you find such important information? Right here, with help from therichest.com on the money side, and ebizmba.com on the popular side.

The good news: some of the same blogs are on each list.

First, the top 3 money blogs.

The big boy on the block is TechCrunch with founder Michael Arrington pulling down between $500K-$800K a month.

A month?

With an estimated fifteen million visitors a month (via ebizmba.com which lists techcrunch #9 in popularity) and advertising campaigns beginning at $10,000, techcrunch.com opened the money spigot with up-to-the-second tech and startup news by an onboard writing staff.

From TechCrunch:

Founded in June 2005, TechCrunch and its network of websites now reach over 12 million unique visitors and draw more than 37 million page views per month. The TechCrunch community includes more than 2 million friends and followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and other social media.

Number 2: Mashable.

Pete Cashmore draws $560K-$600 a month on mashable.com.

According to ebizmba.com mashable attracts twenty four million visitors a month.

According to mashable.com:

Mashable is a leading source for news, information & resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable’s 34 million monthly unique visitors and 14 million social media followers have become one of the most engaged digital networks in the world.

The page shows up in three columns and and endless scroll. Tell me if you find a footer…ever. It’s a design thing that must work.

Number 3: Perez Hilton.

Founder Mario Lavandeira rakes in $200K-$400K monthly on celebrity gossip.

Ebizmba.com reports 14.5 million visitors a month, putting perezhilton.com at number 10 on the popular site list.

Top ten traffic, top three in cash. Hmmm. How much is due to the insatiable thirst for more news about Kardashians in sexy bikinis?

From perezhilton.com:

Perez Hilton averages 220 Million Impressions and 12 Million unique readers per month.

The media kit also includes pie charts on age (59% of the readers between 21-34), gender (88% female readers), and education level (86% have been to college). If you’re sharp enough for college, you’re into Perez Hilton.

The difference between traffic numbers reported on the sites and those counted by an independent source like ebizmba.com might be the difference in category of visitors. In other words, it’s a semantics difference.

The dollar amounts are another story. You might wonder if Perez Hilton has real numbers when the low and high are so far apart.

Here are the most popular blogs and their visitors for September 2014 from ebizmba.

1. Huffington Post: an estimated 110 million visitors a month.

2. TMZ: 30 million.

3. Business Insider: 25.5 million.

The last two at least have a close horse race, while HuffPo runs away with the win.

The numbers of visitors and dollar amounts add up to one thing for bloggers: There’s cash on the table and it’s flowing strong.

All you need to do is figure out how much you can earn with a sharp blog.

Are there better examples or better evidence that blogging is a real activity?

What is a good number for your blog?