Blogertize does a MillionDollarHomepage for Indian blogs
Blogertize is like old wine in a new bottle. Remember MillionDollarHomepage, the British website that shot into limelight in 2005. Blogertize is a controlled version of that same story with a few additional hooks that attempt to create a network out of its participating blogs.
How does it work? If you are a blogger, you can buy pixels (almost like adspace) under one of the 12 available categories for a fixed period of 3years. The pixel blocks are available in four different sizes of 2000, 4000, 6000 & 8000 pixels. The larger the button, the higher it is placed attracting more visitors. In each catgeory, 2860 slots are avalaible and they are priced at 150$, 80$, 40$, 15$ depending on the position salience.
To see what this might like, check out this page for socially oriented blogs.
Blogertize’s creator Dushyant Bhatia (an ex JP Morgan research analyst) insists that this is a legitimate advertising model for blogs. In fact he plans to spawn a community out of all the partcipating blogs and build features like a marketplace, online shopping portals etc. As of March, Blogertize has raked in a cool 43000$, having sold inventory to about 1500+ bloggers with space remaining for another 1360. The site was launched primarily for the Indian blogosphere, but more than 40% of the partcipating blogs are non-Indian. That’s one of the reasons why they had to move the site from blogertize.in to blogertizeworld.com.
So is this a legit business? Well to me it looks like a wacky idea, though not a sustainable model. It banks on its novelty value to lure users, much like the milliondollarhomepage idea. And wacky ideas like this have instant appeal for mainstream media. No surprise that Blogertize has managed to get written about in Mid-Day, Rediff, HT, CNBC, Entrepreneur.com et al. See the comments on this forum for bouquets and brickbats that come flying Blogertize’s way. And check out the video for Mid-Day’s interview with Dushyant.
Arun Srinivasan on Apr 13, 2009
I’m surprised that they have managed to get the revenues listed in the article. So one needs to actually get to blogertize to get to the recommended blog? That sounds far fetched to me, people end up on blogs with a google search, rather than by visiting a commerical site looking for blogs. Surely we know a better advertising site is not a good content site.
Amit Ranjan on Apr 13, 2009
Arun,
Yes even I was surprised… my sense is that people did it just for the novelty factor. The internet is a playground of the crazies.. never know what gets people going
Dushyant on Apr 13, 2009
Hey Guys
Dushyant here
Thanks for the post Amit
The concept is quite simple over here
One invests with us and gets an adspace for 3 years (3 years is a long time and the amt spent per year is negligible). We try and divert traffic coming onto our website to the blog advertisers. Larger the button better the placement.
A chunk of adspace proceeds would be reinvested in various avenues we plan to explore in the first year viz-a-viz - shoping portal, narket place, contest portal, comminuty, adnetwork exchange. Bloggers can make money out of these without having to promote their blogs 3-4 hours a day. In additon to that, if we make profits via all the avenues mentioned above, we distribute a portion among our 2,860 odd blog advertisers from the second year of operations
Risk factor definitely involved but note that unlike other startups we’re not cash strapped and that could be a decisive point.
Inshort - At worst, the amount invested by you is at stake… at best - there is no limit to earnings.
There are millions of bloggers who spend hundreds of dollars per year trying out various schemes/ traffic exchanges and get nothing in return except for a boost in alexa rank but we’re here to change the same. I’d like to believe this is the value for money investment for bloggers.
Raj on Apr 16, 2009
Dushyant…what are your plans for attracting traffic to ur site?i believe more traffic to ur site means more traffic for bloggers in it
S.V on Apr 18, 2009
Yea.. I heard about this startup a month ago on techspeak
http://techspeak.in/2009/03/blogertize-great-service-to-get-traffic-and-make-money/
Interesting concept. lets see if this guy can implement the business model. If he does, I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a dearth of such sites.
SKGupta on May 4, 2009
Hello Amit
I read this story the previous month and was quite amazed by the fact that such a venture could do well
I came across a tweet today.. check it out
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/internet/2009040822977.htm
Blogertizeworld is acquiring cash strapped startups and relaunching them under its brand.. What r ur thoughts.. Do u think it’ll work.. Its novel, no doubt about but is it feasible?
Indiancareerclub on May 6, 2009
New concept to me!! and interesting topic as there is no waste of money. If it works out really it will be a good business.
Good luck for your work.
geekevaluation on May 22, 2009
Dushyant
Can you post some stats to as to what is the current no of unique visitors on your site ?
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