10. Freakanomics
Sold for: $8 million
Freakanomics was established in 2005 by Stephen J. Dubner, who was a journalist in New York Times, after huge success of his book (also titled Freakanomics). It shouldn’t be then a surprise that the site was eventually bought by his employer (New York Times) for a sum of $8 million in 2007.
Sold for: $10 million
Celebrity Baby Blog (CBB) was established by Danielle Friedland in 2004 to cover news about those who were born with “silver spoon”. Her blog quickly became a success when it started receiving huge amount of hits everyday. And Danielle fully capitalized from her brainchild, selling it for $10 million to Times Inc. in 2008. The site is then renamed to BabyRazzi.com
8. TreeHugger
Sold for: $10 million
Created by Graham Hill in 2005, TreeHugger became an instant success due to its quality content on its subject. The site was bought by Discovery Communication in 2007 for a sum of $10 million.
7. Wonkette
Sold for: $12 million
A blog focusing on Political gossips, Wonkette was developed by the famous Gawker Media in 2004 with Ana Marie Cox acting as its founding editor. Sensing another dotcom bubble burst, Gawker Media sold the blog for a whooping $12 million to Mr. Ken Layne in 2006. So two years of hard work and $12 million output, not bad han?
Sold for: $14 million
In 2002, Nikki Finke, a columnist at LA weekly, decided to take her work to the online world. So Deadline Hollywood, which was started as a column in 2002 turned into a blog in 2006. And in a span of three years, the blog got an offer from Mail Media Foundation (MMF). Did she take the offer? Well the offer was something “no one could refuse”. So for a sum of $14 million, she sold her blog to MMF.
5. Bankaholic
Sold for: $15 million
It was in 2008 when Johns Wu hit the jackpot as he got an offer for his blog Bankaholic from BankRate. Mr. Wu established his blog in 2006 and I’m sure he wouldn’t have a freaking idea that his creation would make him a multimillionaire in just two years. And did I forget to mention that he was just 22 years old when he got super rich?
4. Ars Technica
Sold for: $25 million
Developed by Ken Fisher and Jon Strokes, Ars Technica was a blog focusing on Technology related news, reviews, and guides. The blog was established in 1998, successfully faced the dotcom bubble burst, and made its owners super-rich in the end. The blog got an offer of $25 million (in 2008) from Condé Nast Digital which the owners gladly accepted.
3. Paid Content
Sold for: $30 million
Rafat Ali never would have imagined in his dream that his creation would make him multimillionaire someday. A journalist by profession, Mr. Ali created a blog in 2002 with an aim to cover news related to business and digital media. Six years later (in 2008), his blog was purchased by Guardian Media Group for an astonishing amount of $30 million.
2. TechCrunch
Sold for: $30 million
Founded in 2005, TechCrunch became an instant hit due to its quality stuff on technology related subjects. The blog was established by Michael Arrington and was able to sell the blog for a whooping amount of $30 million in just 5 years (in 2010) to AOL.com.
Sold for: $33 million
In 1999, two entrepreneurs Derek Drew and Carl Hamaan established a blog, giving quality analysis on consumer related products. Slowly and steadily, their blog started to gain widespread attention and also came on About.com radars. The blog was then purchased by About.com in 2007 for an amount of $33 million.
