Blogging Network a Better Buy Than BusinessWeek?

I consider myself a trader who happened to fall into blogging originally as a means to create a stimulating diversion during the slow portion of the trading day. Almost three years into blogging, there is now a newsletter and a book on the way (yes, it is still a work in process), so now it appears that I have become a de facto member of the electronic media to boot.

Of all the content that appears on the blog, one which I rarely talk about, but take great pride in, is the list of “Blogs I Frequent” I maintain in the right hand column. Of the 300 or so feeds I subscribe to, this is what I consider to be the 80 blogs that are absolutely essential reading. This eclectic group spans a broad range of issues and individual biases. Any one of them might lead a reader down some bumpy intellectual roads or occasional dead ends from time to time, but as a group, these voices are consistently my best sources for stimulating new information and ideas.

I was thinking about all of this when I read that Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek for a sum described as in the $2 million to $5 million range. Surely the aggregate value of my blogroll has to be at least that of BusinessWeek.

For fun – because this is just a stimulating diversion after all is said and done – I went to the How Much Is Your Blog Worth? feature at the Business Opportunities Weblog to get one opinion on the value of my blogroll. Using a valuation methodology based on Technorati linking data, the Business Opportunities Weblog was able calculate the value of 49 of the 80 blogs on my blogroll. The aggregate value for these 49 blogs was $3.9 million dollars and since I was unable to obtain values for such media heavyweights as Bespoke Investment Group, Zero Hedge, Calculated Risk and The Kirk Report, among others, I have little doubt that the value of my blogroll is north of the $5 million figure at the top end of the BusinessWeek range.

For the record, in honor of Casey Kasem, I have reproduced below a list of the VIX and More Top 40 Most Valuable Blogs.

Go ahead and read BusinessWeek, but clearly there is more value to be had here.

Bloomberg, you have my email address.

[source: Business Opportunities Weblog]