Before reading this post, we recommend that you get Generate UK - Digital Marketing Blog delivered directly to your email inbox

The blog world was buzzing with the news that the finance related blog Bankholic.com has been acquired for $15m this week. It’s a huge amount of cash for a blog that has until now been run by one person.

After taking a good look at the site, it is interesting to try and break down what was attractive about this site. In terms of traffic, it is receiving around 8,000 hits a day, not huge by any stretch of the imagination, however it is a very competitive market and 8,000 visitors to a site with high paying affiliate advertisements is not to be sniffed at.

The ads are very well positioned and integrated well into the content; I would guess that this site is making a lot of money via the affiliate adverts. This is a highly competitive market, one that pays top rate for qualified leads so I would not be surprised if this site was turning over mid to high six figures per annum.

The site is also very well indexed in the search engines, such a large footprint would take a lot of time to achieve, so this would be very attractive to a potential buyer. Remember, this has all been achieved by the hands of one person, imagine what could happen if you put a team of professional finance writers on the site.

This site is a lesson for all businesses on how to make the most from a web property. It focuses on a specific market and provides quality information and content to its readers.  The site’s clear objective is to attract visitors and encourage them to click through the lucrative adverts.

Is the site worth $15m? This is hard to say, the buyers were bankrate.com. Their revenue for the first six months of 2008 was $82.7m, so they’re a decent sized company who are looking to continue their growth. You could argue that bankholic.com was a competitor, so who is to know whether this was a purchase designed to open their market.

If you’re toiling away on your own blog and wondering why you’re doing it; remember that there may be $15m reasons just around the corner. If you’re still wondering, visit the site quickly to see what they are doing well that can be implemented on your own site.

Do you have a view about this blog post? Please feel free to comment below, if you would like to speak to someone at Generate UK please call us on 0845 388 9185 or email us.

BlogCatalog