Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs, According to 24/7 Wall St.
24/7 Wall St.’s dubious attempt at ranking the twenty-five most valuable independently-owned blogs puts MacRumors at number-two with a valuation of $85 million. Are you kidding me? Sure, they’re a Top 200 blog according to Technorati, but there’s no way in hell they’re monetizing their traffic to the tune of $12 million of annual ad revenue, which is what 24/7 Wall St. guesses.
How are they generating these numbers? Well, it’s a very scientific calculation that takes publicly accessible traffic data (via Alexa, Compete and Quantcast) and assigns a made-up CPM that’s based on what advertisers are running banners on each site. This from a site that doles out financial analysis and advice. I can only imagine what their methodology is for picking stocks.
In 24/7 Wall St.’s own words, “the task of valuing the largest blogs is impossible.” As a publisher, if you’re admitting this, then what’s the point in wasting your time compiling such a bogus list?
If I’m wrong and MacRumors is indeed bringing in that kind of cash, I think it’s time to bid farewell to advertising and get back into the Mac world with a site that doesn’t do anything but link to other site’s gossip and hearsay.