Om Looks at the "Return of the Eyeballs"

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According to Om, Boing Boing is worth $34 million. Who knew? Full article here. From it: Based on recent high-profile Web content deals, the value of a unique monthly website visitor currently hovers around $38 (the average purchase price per unique user of acquisitions during the past year). As a result, those who built popular websites over the last few years look prescient: They “bought” eyeballs when the market placed little value on them -- making daily blog posts or encouraging others to upload text and photos -- and can now sell their traffic at a markup. While I don't doubt the math - there are plenty of comps and Om has 'em all in the piece - I'm not convinced. Of course, I have a stake in all of this, what with FM and my involvement with Boing Boing. But we've been around awhile, and so far not many folks have come offering thirty million plus. Why? I'm guessing because buyers are smart enough to realize that Boing Boing and sites like it are unique voices with fierce attitudes about content and the author/audience relationship. It'd be pretty hard to buy that and simply shove a big dancing flash ad in there and make your investment back - you'd lose the very thing you bought it for - the audience. It's harder, but ultimately more profitable, to run sites like this as smaller, profitable businesses for a while, at least until the marketing approaches emerge that are accepted and embraced by author, advertiser, and audience alike. That takes time and experimentation, not a rush to sale. But it sure is fun to dream.......

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