Advertise on Perez Hilton’s Blog for $54,000 a Day!

If I asked you who Mario Lavandeira was, most of you probably wouldn’t know… But if I asked you who Perez Hilton was, the response would be almost immediate. Just like I did a breakdown of how Guy Kawasaki uses his name for branding power, Mario Lavandeira has done the same… but in this case, without using his “real” name.

Everywhere you look, you see Perez Hilton somewhere… in addition to his power house blog, he’s always on TV (whether it be his own show, or a guest appearance)… but now he’s moving his name into his fashion, cosmetic and music. So where did this Perez Hilton come from and how in just three years did his blog become so popular (and help make blogging popular in the process)? As reported by Wire Magazine… here’s how Mario Lavandeira went from an unemployed fame-obsessed loner, to a celebrity super blogger that can rake in over $50,000 a day!

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The blogs-to-riches story of Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. is the stuff of online legend. In 2004, during what he calls “the worst year of my life,” he was a fame-obsessed loner who had just been fired from a reporting job at Star magazine. (”It poisoned my soul,” he says.) Dreaming of becoming an actor, he moved from New York to LA, unemployed and broke. Too cheap to pay for Internet access at home, he set up shop at a local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. There, enjoying the free Wi-Fi, he stumbled across a few personal blogs. He thought of writing an online diary of his own but concluded that his life was too boring.

Then he had what his idol, Ms. Winfrey, would call his a-ha moment: He realized that it was easier to be a famous blogger than a famous actor—all you needed was an oversize persona to stand out from the keystroking horde. In September 2004, he set up a free site using Blogger, chose a bland beige template, and began tapping out his musings. Over the course of a year, they evolved into what is now the hot-pink PerezHilton.com. (The site’s original name, PageSixSixSix.com, had to be changed after the New York Post, home to the “Page Six” gossip column, filed a lawsuit.) [Full article]

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Now that we have a quick breakdown of the Mario Lavandeira to Perez Hilton background, let’s take a look at some of his growth and revenue numbers. Keep in mind… four years ago (PerezHilton.com launched in September, 2004), none of knew who Mario Lavandeira or Perez Hilton were!

Power Blogger Worth Millions
- Ads on the PerezHilton.com homepage fetch up to $54,000 a day, and his overhead is minimal—his only employee is his sister Barby, who fields emails and corrects typos. Which means he’s pulling down millions a year. The site now averages 198 million page views a month, according to the Web ratings service Quantcast. Nielsen Online estimates that while visitors to TMZ.com, one of his main competitors, stay only 15 minutes, those on Hilton’s site linger for 45 minutes. (Click here for ad pricing)

Making the Jump from Internet to TV
- In 2006, he pitched a reality show based on his day-to-day activities—blogging and bitching about celebrities—and VH1 snapped it up.

The Power of Your Voice
- When he announced on his site, incorrectly, that Fidel Castro was dead (Hilton’s family fled Cuba for Florida in the ’60s), the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report picked up the item (albeit with skepticism). When Bloomberg invited him to be its guest at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, he was seated next to Tracey Ullman, who gushed, “I read your site every day!” For his LA-based novel, Bright Shiny Morning, author James Frey interviewed Hilton and modeled the character of a flamboyant gossip monger on him.

New Content Keeps them Coming Back for More
- Perez Hilton makes on average 24 posts per day day, but can post as many as 40 on a day depending on the craziness of the celebrity gossip world, and who might have flipped a switch that day.

To Mario Lacandeira, the past few years have been nothing short of a “rags to riches” dream come true… not only by the power of the internet, but by the power of motivation and doing what you do best. Mario took Perez Hilton to what it is today, despite all of his set backs and criticism by others. Not only does he now has the fame, the money and the life style… but he’s doing what he enjoys and does best… being the Queen of all Media!

  • Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Make Money, Marketing
37 pieces of wisdom given by ye faithful
  1. Debby Phillips said on August 28th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    I love his story. I love to read stories about people that made themselves successful, especially starting out with nothing. You know you have started a new chapter in your life when you can charge $54,000 a day for advertising… and you are booked solid!

    Reply
  2. Ultimate Blogging Experiment said on August 28th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    This guy loses lawsuits all the time. Maybe if he could do something without getting sued it would be worth it.

    Reply
  3. Monty's Mega Marketing said on August 28th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    Wow, I’d be lucky to charge $54 a day to advertise on my blog. What a story.

    Reply
  4. SEO Tricks said on August 28th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Great story, $54k is good price for advertising.. Hope I was lucky enough..

    Reply
  5. LetUsReviewIt said on August 29th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Wow I knew he was making some money but didn’t know he was making that kind of money. His blog is very influential though and can break big products. To many who do large advertising campaigns that is nothing for them to spend that for as much exposure as they are getting plus being thrown into popular culture like that helps with instant branding.

    Reply
  6. oli said on August 29th, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    You should really link to his site..

    Reply
  7. Hrvoje Livnjak said on August 29th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    45 min. on that crap?!? Wtf? I stayed like 1 min. that i read all of his post titles and i’m gone. and people actually pay cash for the ads?!? Ok I get it for that number of views… ;-). Buahahahhaa. It just show that everything is possible…

    Reply
  8. CoolProducts said on August 29th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Holy mother… 50K a day! I can’t even figure out how much that would be a year. Very interesting. I love these articles on branding. Seems like you just have to roll with it when it come to branding yourself.

    Reply
  9. Indie Music Blog said on August 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    If any advertisers out there are interested, I’ll let you advertise on my site for $40k per day….for a limited time…while supplies last…if you call in the next five minutes…nothing?

    Reply
  10. Zac Johnson said on August 29th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    Nearly $20 million a year! Though he doesn’t sell out the full $50k every day.

    Reply
  11. Sire said on August 30th, 2008 at 5:02 am

    And to think before this post I never heard of him. To tell you the truth when I first saw the title I thought you were talking about Paris Hilton and my first thought was that you had to pay me that much to advertise on her blog. Oh well, you live and learn.

    Reply
  12. Web Freak said on August 30th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Freaky, thats a gangster man!

    Reply
  13. Edgar said on August 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am

    I dont hate on either of them , I give them Major Props

    Reply
  14. Eva White said on August 31st, 2008 at 12:34 am

    I hadn’t heard of either of his names. I like the story though, success is always cool. will check out his site.

    Reply
  15. Otooo said on August 31st, 2008 at 2:33 am

    Wow - that’s a lot of dough he brings in. Good on him though, kind of a bit of inspiration :)

    Reply
  16. Goran Web Design said on September 1st, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Wow, what an amazing story. Just to show that you can make anything possible with enough passion and determination.

    Reply
  17. Web Freak said on September 1st, 2008 at 6:07 am

    anyways, I dont find this profitable, advertising on your site would be muchhhhh better!

    Reply
  18. Web Freak said on September 1st, 2008 at 6:08 am

    Its just a waste :p

    Reply
  19. Web Freak said on September 1st, 2008 at 6:10 am

    Not that much too, I usually sell for $54 a month lool

    Reply
  20. Otooo said on September 1st, 2008 at 7:49 am

    Yeah, the price does seem overpriced, even for the amount of traffic it gets

    Reply
  21. SEO Tips said on September 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am

    Wow, its awesome to see when people are so successful in the industry we all love so much.

    Reply
  22. perdere peso said on September 1st, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    Big volume of traffic = big money.

    Celebrity gossip is a huge market with massive traffic.

    Great guy, he deserves his success.

    Roby

    Reply
  23. Gossip said on September 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 am

    Target traffic = Profit

    Reply
  24. Nicole Price said on September 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 am

    Inspiring! 54 k a day!!!!! That’s amazing!

    Reply
  25. Dustin Cucciarre said on September 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Wow this is amazing how much that cost. I would never pay that much to advertise with him I could spend that a lot more wisely on other advertising methods.

    Reply
  26. Kris10 said on September 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 am

    I’m so surprised you blogged about Perez, I thought only girls and gay guys read his blog. But you’re right… his story is great. I read his blog all the time (i am a girl tho lol)! I was actually wondering how much he makes and I would have never estimated that much! wow!

    Reply
  27. Symbian said on September 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 am

    You have to be really interesting person to start your business this way.

    Reply
  28. BlogSavvy said on September 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Zac, Great Post, about how blogging can turn into something BIGGER!

    Reply
  29. Tim Jones said on September 3rd, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    I think this says a lot about the direction of blogging and online media in general. This is a big step in market share for online media vs. traditional print/air/TV media.

    Reply
  30. Polly said on September 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    I think we better be celebrities first before blogging :)

    Reply
  31. darius said on June 23rd, 2009 at 8:21 am

    i’, not sure i believe it…WWW.DADDYSPANKGOOD.COM is way better CELEB GOSSIP and funnier than perezhilton’s site and i’m sure they get way more visitors, who knows…good for all those bloggers though

    darius’s last blog post..Teacher raped by 15-year-old pupil blames school for ‘putting her in the way of a rapist’

    Reply
  32. Become a millionaire with your blog said on August 28th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    [...] of income to go with it however I didn’t realise how much until Zac Johnson posted today that Perez is making over $54,000 every day. Read that back and let it sink in : he makes $54,000 every day through his blog. Zac also mentions [...]

  33. Tjener 250.000 kr hver dag på blogging! | Bloggdesigns.no said on August 29th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    [...] mitt firma omsetter for i løpet av et år. Og hvem bloggeren er? Vel, det er Perez Hilton. Ifølge Zac Johnson drar Perezhilton.com inn $54.000 hver eneste dag via annonser. Det er et helt vanvittig tall. [...]

  34. [...] read a few money making blogs including ShoeMoney, John Chow and Zac Johnson.  But a recent discovery I made was CPA Share, a blog run by a 16 year old dude that makes SIX [...]

  35. [...] Advertise on Perez Hilton’s Blog for $54,000 a Day! | Inside the Secret Life of a Super Affiliate ….      RSS 2.0     Response [...]

  36. [...] Zac Johnson writes about celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who charges $54,000 per day for blog advertisements! [Zac Johnson] [...]

  37. Internet Marketing Watch 29 August 2008 : Affiliate Dragon said on December 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    [...] Zac Johnson writes about celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who charges $54,000 per day for blog advertisements! [Zac Johnson] [...]

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