Drudge’s millions
: Matt Drudge tells the Miami Herald about his business:
By his own estimate, the former convenience-store clerk makes about $1.2 million a year, including revenue from his nationally syndicated Sunday night radio show…
According to the rates posted on www.intermarkets.net, advertisers are charged $3 per thousand impressions for banner ads, or $4,400 a day (discounted to $29,000 a week). The banner ads are rotated, so visitors may see one for AT&T Wireless, The New York Times or another client each time they visit the site.
On a typical day in August, Drudge’s site had nearly 6.5 million visitors, and it had 163 million in the preceding 31 days. The Internet traffic site Alexa.com ranked Drudgereport.com 215th in current Web traffic.
After Intermarkets takes its commission, the ad revenue is almost pure profit for Drudge, who says he shares a percentage of his profits with Breitbart. The overhead is minimal: $4,000 a month for Web-server costs plus about $20 a month for Internet service….
He avoids most investments and banks his money, he said, because he doesn’t know how long his site — and his reign — will last.
”What happens if everyone charges for content?” he asked. “It’s already started. Who will be left to link to?”
Drudge has said before that he doesn’t want to be called a blogger and now he says why: “Sounds too much like booger.” [via Paid Content]