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Demand Media IPO

From the AuthorityLabs blog

Ever wonder how some of the webs most popular content driven sites do financially? Here’s an infographic pulled together by the folks over at AuthorityLabs which breaks down Demand Media, their holdings, how much they pay their freelance writers per article and best of all, the profitability behind the reported 5,700 articles & posts that are published daily on their network of high-profile sites like ehow.com, cracked.com and livestrong.com (to name just a few).

As reported by Demand Media, out of their network of over 10,000 freelance content creators, the average price per article is only a meager $15. Folks, that’s NOTHING! With around 86 million unique visitors per month (totaling around 550 million page views after re-visits) this means that those $15 posts are drawing in so much traffic that they’re able to generate an insane amount of capital, from both advertising networks as well as strategic partners who pay for the targeted traffic views.

According to their estimates, the content network alone is worth roughly $650 million dollars, and when combined with the rest of their holdings (including liquid assets around 33 million), it makes Demand Media a $1.83 billion dollar content network.

….and to think I was happy just being able to pay for the hosting fees from the meager ads on this website, damn!

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most-interesting-man-240.jpg

First off, I know that on this site there has been a lot of debate as to the real name of the actor who portrays the infamous Most Interesting Man In The World in all of those Dos Equis commercials so hopefully this will answer all your skeptics for the last time.

You can find the original post with the first round of ads produced here:
http://www.brentter.com/dos-equis-most-interesting-man/

Then if you’re still craving more you can visit the second post on the campaign with all new ads (that came out about a year later):
http://www.brentter.com/dos-equis-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world-revisited/

The man in the photo shown above, as well as in EVERY commercial is Jonathan Goldsmith. So the campaign has been running for well over two years now and has seen a sizable increase in sales of their product, not to mention an even wider growth of brand recognition. He was kind of enough to sit down for an interview on the success he’s seen with the character.

——Begin Interview (May 03, 2010)—–

We had a chat with actor Jonathan Goldsmith, the man behind the Most Interesting Man in the World. And, while Jonathan admits that he isn’t exactly like his Dos Equis borne persona, he isn’t far off. Read on to find out who his idols are, his advice to you for becoming more interesting, and, yes, what he drinks when he’s not always drinking beer.

MM: You’ve been part of one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time. You’ve helped Dos Equis post two phenomenal years of growth in a row. How much that comes from your powerful, powerful beard?

JG: 13.6%

MM: You landed the Most Interesting Man role by, in fact, being interesting. Tell us a little about what you said to them in the casting process. How much of it was true and how much did you have to improv?

JG: Most of it was not true and I had to improv all of it. True story.

MM: How did you start acting?

JG: A psychiatrist recommended it

MM: You’ve saved two people’s lives. You got kicked out of college for bedding a professor. Any other stories we haven’t heard yet?

JG: YES.

MM: So, interesting though you are, you are not The Most Interesting Man in the World. But, could you describe his personality? He seems a bit of a gentlemen…but a bit of a scoundrel.

JG: All of those things, as well as a first class raconteur and bon vivant with numerous other unnamed passions.

MM: Do you get spotted and recognized a lot on the street as the Dos Equis guy? What is the most interesting thing a fan has done?

JG: Yes. The most interesting was when a young man asked his son, 7 year old son, what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered the most interesting man in the world. 2nd most interesting story, an 80 plus year old man raised his cane at me on a bus and said when I come back to this world, I want to be like you.

MM: Do you have any advice for the readers of Made Man on how they can be more interesting?

JG: Yes, read. Interested people NEVER become uninteresting people.

MM: Who do you look up to as some of the most interesting men and women in the world? Feel free to list a few.

JG: Barack Obama. Nelson Mandela. Golda Mier. Jackie Robinson. Jackie Kennedy. Mother Theresa. Ghandi.

MM: The Most Interesting Man doesn’t always drink beer. When you’re not drinking beer, what do you drink?

JG: Anything available of quality.

—-
[original source]

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Today kicks off the first leg of the Boulder Startup Week. It’ll run from the 4th through the 8th and features 55 events ranging from hackathons, coworking sessions, parties, user-group meetings and even hiking & biking trips! To top it all off there’s a New Tech Meetup tonight where six local startups are given the chance to share what they’re working on followed by the Opening Night Party hosted by Pivital Labs. Now if that wasn’t enough, on Thursday the 5th there will be the largest Ignite Boulder event ever thrown (~2,000 people expected) at the Boulder Theater. Make sure to look for me there as I’ll be out in front of the venue before it starts along with a few other volunteers and organizers (come say hi, I promise we’re a fun crowd).

For a basic description of what you can expect during this week, head on over to boulderstartupweek.com and see what Andrew Hyde has to say about the experience. For the next few days the strong startup community based out here in Boulder is quite literally opening their doors to the public and inviting anyone who cares to attend the chance to check out their offices, grab a beer and chat with the folks behind some of the most creative and unique products & services out on the market.

This truly is a series of events that you won’t want to miss. You can see the entire schedule as well as RSVP for the events on the plancast.com/boulderstartupweek website. I’ll see you there!

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