How do you determine value?

I came across a site recently, dnScoop.com, that claims to estimate the value of any website that you enter. Ok, just like all of you, I couldn’t resist. Yes, I typed in the sites of a bunch of my friends and the A-listers because of my own curiosity. Some of the numbers were staggering. The numbers were beyond ridiculous and I have no idea what kind of formula that dnScoop is using to determine value. I have always had a little personal saying that goes something like, “you ain’t got nothing thats worth a dime unless someone buys it.” There are variations of that also that I have been known to use, it depends on how much beer I’m drinking at the time.

For me, it all stems back to the baseball card craze where everyone claimed stupid values over cardboard cards with pictures of baseball players. Think about it. Unless it’s Babe Ruth, it’s a fairly dumb concept. Sorry all of you collectors who own Mark McGwire rookie cards where he looks like a bean pole. Mark’s steroid use and fake home runs have rendered that card pretty useless. Sorry to all of you Barry Bond rookie card collectors also. To me, value is what other people are willing to pay, not a number that you or other people put on something. Value is not actually determined until something sells. Once it sells, now you have something to go by.

I realize I am digressing but just trying to make a point.

Looking at the values placed on these websites got me to thinking a little. Starting a free Wordpress blog would have been the smartest investment the world has ever seen. Starting several would put you in the same league as Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. Those idiots actually used their own money to invest in things like the stock market and real estate. What losers. If they had only become professional bloggers, imagine what they might be worth today.

What would the Problogger put on his net worth statement? Should a bank require the CopyBlogger to list his $2 million dollar website as an asset? Should Seth Godin use his website as collateral when applying for a loan? What in the hell would the banks think if they even thought you had a website valued at these crazy values and did not list it as an asset when applying for loans? Would it be fraud?

Should the CopyBlogger list this on his net worth statement? See what a .pdf e-book aimed at noobs will get you.

The Problogger’s new forum site. Griz makes this in a month doesn’t he? BTW, it would not give me a value on Griz’s ugly blogger site that dominates the serps in which the new Problogger.com forum administrator advises against using.

Problogger.net is doing quite well. See what sea turtles can do to your bank account.

Seth is kicking ass. Seth is an A-lister who I think actually does give value.

The original Trust Agent. This begs the question.
Why would you build an A-list site with your name? How can you sell your name?
If he sold and walked away any so-called value would plummet I think.
If I was part of the herd of any site and I knew my master had sold out and left, I’ll find me another herd. Would you?

The Keyword Academy is probably grossly undervalued.

Wouldn’t most people think that Squidoo was worth less than HubPages? I guess not.

Sorry HubPages, you got schooled by Squidoo.

This is the one you have all been waiting on. Make me an offer folks.

This is B.S. The internet’s best internet marketing video blog is obviously undervalued.
I did not rig the number to be the same as mine.
Go to the site and check for yourself.

Are you kidding me? How long would it take to earn that kind of ad revenue?

I expect that BloggerLens will be worth a couple mil by 2012 and I’m willing to wait. What say you folks?

**Update** From my last post here on Bloggerlens about AWeber email marketing sucks, Josh Whitford from Marketing Ideas got my hint and acted on it. Thanks Josh. Whose your Trust Agent?

My Final Traffic Update

This article and video were written and produced based on my opinion of what I call Social Media Hype. You may have a totally different opinion. I base mine on actual events that happened to me and my blog. Please join in the discussion whatever your viewpoint may be.

I thought I would announce the final results of my recent surge in Social Media traffic and non-Social Media traffic. Guess which one won? Anyone who is familiar with this site knows that I was recently posted over at Chris Brogan. I made a spoof video about all the hype and hoopla that was being made over the release of Chris’s “Trust Agent” book. To my surprise and delight, Chris posted the video. What a cool thing for Chris to do for me.

At the same time, Allyn Hane at BloggerIllustrated.net, Internet Marketing Video Blog made several spoof videos of A-list bloggers also. Allyn was mentioned on Grizzly Brears blog, Make Money Online For Beginners. I also have been receiving some traffic from another up and coming internet marketer, Lis Sowerbutts, Passive Income Online. She made mention of our video spoofs and I have received traffic from her. BTW, if you haven’t read Lis, I would go and check out her blog. I dig chicks with attitude.

Allyn received a huge surge in traffic from a non-Social Media blogger (Griz). I appreciated the fact that Chris posted my video, but my Social Media traffic results were disappointing to say the least when you consider the huge amount of so called social media subscribers Chris has. As someone new to internet marketing, I feel lucky to received such a quick and helpful education that I hope I will carry with me as I continue to work on internet marketing in various forms. After I was mentioned on Griz’s blog, my traffic also surged and has been steady ever since.

There is a huge lesson to be learned here in Social Media marketing. However, I’m not the teacher, only a student. I made a video presentation of my Social Media surge and I hope that you will enjoy it and I also hope that the stats will open your eyes and help you on your journey in internet marketing. Your Social Media strategy may deserve a second look if you are serious about traffic to your blog.

For those who may be interested in the technical aspect of the video, here is how I made the video. Everything is Apple Mac based. I first made the presentation using the Apple Keynote program. All of the slides, transitions and typewriter text was made in Keynote. Keynote is how Apple kicked PowerPoint’s rear end.

To embed the video clips in Keynote, I used a screen capture program for Mac’s called IShowU.

Once I finished the presentation, I exported the presentation as a QuickTime movie. This is a very cool feature of Keynote. You can turn a presentation into a movie.

Once I made the presentation into a QuickTime movie, I imported it into my Mac video editing software, Final Cut Express. In FCE, I tweaked the video and added my music etc. I made this particular video in 4:3 aspect instead of the usual 16:9. The process is not a quick process but it’s very flexible. If you can think it in your mind, there is a good chance you can reproduce it in video form with these applications I mentioned. It’s not hard, it just takes practice like everything else in life we do.

Music by the O’Jays.

2009 BloggerLens.com

I awoke this morning only to find out that my Trust Agent, Chris Brogan, had featured my Chris Brogan Trust Agent Video (Spoof) on ChrisBrogan.com. That was very cool and I was glad that Chris was a very good sport about it. We had some fun making it and I never actually thought he would see it.

Since, BloggerLens is the #1 videoblog on the internet according to Seth Godin’s secretary (I made that up), I felt it was important that I spoke to Chris with a video response. Here is my direct message to Chris Brogan.

I have to tell you that this video interview is one of the most awesome video interviews ever made. I’m an official Trust Agent now and you can certainly trust me. As a matter of fact, I would like for you to Re-Tweet this article even before you watch the video. I would like at least 300 Re-Tweets on this article before anyone even watches the video.

This video was made as a result of the Green-Eyed Monster, Jealousy. I became very jealous of Allyn Hane at Bloggerillustrated.net because he has recently landed video interviews of some high-powered A-list bloggers while on vacation in Mexico. I have not had that type of success and I became jealous. He’s even claiming to be a Trust Agent now before I could claim to be a Trust Agent. I am not proud of myself. In fact, I’m a little ashamed I let my emotions get away with me. Through hard work and determination I was able to land my own A-list celebrity blogger, Chris Brogan. I hope you enjoy the video. Please for the love of God, buy the book from my link after you watch the video.

I think Chris has a good supply of books and you can order if you visit his site. You should comment on his blog too, you are not an official Trust Agent until you do. Get your scrolling finger ready, there’s a lot of little soldiers before you.

Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com