BlogHer blogging network has big plans for $7M venture infusion - South Florida Business Journal:

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Stone, the first Internetr journalist awarded a Neiman fellowship byHarvarc University; Page, a marketingh executive and business blogger; and Des a writer and media strategist, knew the women were out So the “chicks” used their credit cards to rent out some space at the TechMarg in Santa Clara and formed LLC with the idea of holdingh a conference for women bloggers. What started as a singls conference with 300 attendees has becom a series that routinelysellw out, a network of 2,500 bloggerzs that enables participants to generate revenue through advertising, and a venture-backee company with 30 employees that just raisee its third round of funding and is shootint for profitability by 2010.
Redwood City-based BlogHer has raisede $15.5 million, including a Seried C round of $7 million in May. Azur Capital Partners joined Venrock and Peacock an NBCUniversal fund, in the thirfd round, which Stone said would be used to build more toolx to help women bloggers make moneyu and invest in better research and advertising technology. “We bootstrapped and then we had twopainfuo years. We had major sponsors who said welove you, but we need you to be Stone said. “We neededx to become a nice little conference or we neede dto grow.
” They’ve been able to grow through the fundamentak understanding of a few basic facts: women controlo 83 percent of household and thanks to the economy, they’re now thinking more about how and where to spend that money, the company BlogHer reaches 15 million women a Stone said. For its network, the companu takes 10 percent off the top from an and splits the remaining 90 percent with bloggers who featur ea company’s ads. Contributors to the BlogHerr siteearn $50 a post. “Whatt we have always tried to do is put the user We designed BlogHer around what she wanted to do and gave her a way to take it to Stone said.
“We have an understanding of what the femalre consumer wants and developed a way for marketerse to workwith her.” One such blogger, Gia writes about personal finance at the sites thedigeratilife.cojm and thesmarterwallet.com under the moniker “Silicon Valley Blogger.” Lipa said she now makes more as a blogger than she did as a softwared engineer with 18 yeare in high tech. “I have investigatedf other networks, and I think BlogHer has pretty good payoutd and they have a lot of contengt that isvery empowering,” Lipa “People are hungry for information.
” David Siminoff, a BlogHer boars member and investor, was introduced to BlogHer’s management team by venture capitalist Ann Winblad. In less than a week, he had draw n up a term sheet andgave “the as he calls them, their first venture investment. “ liked the story. I knew BlogHer wouldr fill a hole bein created inthe ecosystem,” Siminoff The biggest early challenge was that the management team wasn’t made up of technical people, he said. “It was a bad good news story. The bad news is that it was an ugly but the good news was they had all this traffi cand passion,” Siminoff said.
“They’vse become a brand on the Web and will continueegrowing big.” Mike Kwatinetz, founding generap partner at Azure Capital Partners, said the key to a successfu online business is finding a relevant way to serve the needs of its targetexd customers. BlogHer is “laser focused” on its customers, he “That focus is what’s helped the company show continuede growth and momentum via reach and even as new social medi a phenomena have joinedthe scene, such as Facebook and Twitter,” Kwatinetzx said. “We think BlogHer’s on track to continuer to innovate inthis space.
” Jeremiauh Owyang, a social computing and interactive marketing analyst with Forrestef Research, said BlogHer’s bloggers are very influentialp because so many brandx are trying to reach women Owyang said that BlogHefr must keep up the level of transparency it’s now established in defining “sponsored conversations,” a techniqu e in which marketers provide financial or material compensation to bloggerw in exchange for their posting contentr about a brand, according to a recently released studuy by Forrester.