Blog example number one, pictured above, is Cheezburger dot com. It’s essentially a meme blog. Two Hawaiian dudes launched it back in 2007. They uploaded a funny cat pic with an even funnier caption, “I can has cheezburger?” and the thing went nuclear. It was getting over a million hits a day. They sold it nine months later, pocketing two million! It was sold again in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. It still gets about two million unique visitors a month. This blog looks like they took every potentially viral thing from the internet, shook the sh*t out of it in a Yahtzee cup, dumped it out, then had a dog drag its butt across it. And it still made (and continues to make) millions.
NEXT: Speaking Of Making Millions With An Ugly Blog
Blog example number two is World Star Hip Hop dot com. Basically, they upload shocking videos. It was created in 2005 by a guy named Lee “Q” O’Denat. He hilariously called World Star “the CNN of the ghetto.” Lee died in 2017. He had a net worth of twenty million at the time, if that tells you anything about the success of that blog. They monetize mainly through ad revenue, but also charge as much as fifty-five hundred for a sponsored video. They still get about nine-point-three million visitors a month. That sh*t cray. Notice the first two blog examples I showed you were A) visual media (no writing) and B) aggregator sites (zero original content). You don’t have to be a writer to make big money blogging. Although you can be. For example:
I’m sure you’re familiar with this seizure-waiting-to-happen, Perez Hilton dot com. Launched in 2001 by Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (aka Perez Hilton), he (and now his big team of writers) basically talk trash about celebs. They also monetize through ad revenue. The success and polarity of the blog has made Perez a celeb in his own right. It’s opened doors for podcasts, TV appearances, book deals, consulting, and more. Perez’s net worth is also thought to be around twenty or thirty million. The blog doesn’t get near the traffic it used to, but I doubt Perez cares at this point. He’s pretty much set for life.
Last but not least, Pinch Of Yum dot com. A food blog by former fourth grade teacher Lindsay Mostrom. She launched in 2011. She and her husband Bjork used to do income reports, but stopped in like 2017 because it didn’t feel brand appropriate. At that time they were doing over a hundred Gs a month. Their traffic has roughly tripled since then, so do the math. They could easily be making three hundred K a month at this point. Probably more since you’re gonna get better at monetizing as the years go by. Their biggest money makers are once again ad revenue, but also affiliate marketing. Below most recipes, for example, they’ll link to cooking products you can buy on Amazon. Say Susie clicks and buys the food processor POY recommends. Cool, Lindsay gets an itty-bitty commission. But they add up fast when you have millions of readers.
