AOL Buys Weblogs Inc. — $25 Million

[Cutter]

Heres what I posted about it on my own blog:

Blog publisher Weblogs Inc. was purchased by AOL for $25 million.

This is a company I have been following closely ever since I learned that they cleared close to $1 million a year from Adsense. The way the company works is they hire bloggers who can can then post on multiple blogs accross the network.

The company was founded sometime around 2003. The details I’ve gathered show they pay their bloggers roughly $1 million a year, make $1 million from Adsense, and make another $1 million from selling their own ad space. Some of their most notable blogs are autoblog, engadget, and luxist. They run a total of 80 blogs.

One of the advantages the Weblogs Inc. has by running a huge network of sites — rather than each one seperately of each other — is that launching a new blog is easy. Every blog is linked to on each and every page of every blog. This is a technique that lands some search engine optimizer’s websites in hot water but it appears to only have had a positive effect for Weblogs.

This is a great payday for two guys who started their own blog network a couple years ago. Its also proof that paying for content is worth it — even if it cuts into your immediate profit margins.

[piniyini]

holy f%FS!

[Cutter]

See guys, take your webpublishing seriously -- a lot of big media companies are shopping for websites

[deronsizemore]

The more I find out about big payouts like that makes me want to get real serious about it...now if I can just make my wife see its worth the effort. She thinks I'm just wasting time every night on my computer.

[Emancipator]

just keep in mind this is not like shooting fish in a barrel. The likelyhood of yahoo buying your site.. not likely. These guys lucked out by having a great site which fit the immediate need.

[John]

I love hearing things like this, chris's success story thread, and even about the milliondollarhomepage, it gives me some confidence in what I'm doing, and reassures me there is big money in web development.

[Emancipator]

definitely john... i always like to hear about people who do well

[Cutter]

I believe luck plays a role -- but only a role. IF you've already ran into this forum and know how to make websites -- thats luck. Your site might not sell for a million but that doesn't mean you can't make a damn good living.

Take it seriously, and work smart.

[Chris]

just keep in mind this is not like shooting fish in a barrel. The likelyhood of yahoo buying your site.. not likely. These guys lucked out by having a great site which fit the immediate need.

Nah, they lucked out because they had alot of media attention which added legitimacy and also drew the eyes of those with the big pockets.

[Emancipator]

exactly.. they lucked out. Good Factors and in the right market at the right time.

[Cutter]

And do you think that having lots of media attention was the result of lucking out? Its because their owners understand the importance of public relations.

[paul]

Old quote "The harder I work the luckier I get." Seriously, if they hadn't built the site they couldn't have gotten lucky.

[James]

I wouldn't have sold it outright. I'd have maintained that I should get stock, stay in the company earning a wage for doing nothing, etc. or something along those lines.

[r2d2]

Old quote "The harder I work the luckier I get." Seriously, if they hadn't built the site they couldn't have gotten lucky.

I'm with Paul on the luck thing.

Fair play to them for building something that someone else was willing to pay a lot for.

I would have liked to have kept a share too - maybe AOL said all or nothing?

[chromate]

Wow. $25m for a site only making $1m profit/year? Nice payout for those two guys!