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The University of Phoenix and Chitika just released a study revealing that the top 50,000 blogs for 2006 as ranked by Technorati accounted for $500 million in 2006 revenue. The methodology behind the study is debatable, as the final numbers are extrapolated from the earnings of 12,000 blogs signed up under Chitika with the assumption that bloggers, on average, diversify across three revenue sources.

The conclusions made from the study are intriguing, as it demonstrates the findings follow the Pareto Principle, often referred to as the 80/20 rule, which states that “for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes.” The big takeaway from the article is quoted below.

Summary of Findings: Ad revenue in a blog is more sensitive to the rank of the blog than what one would expect in a typical Zipf Law 80/20 curve situation. One reason for this may be the social value of advertising in a blog. If online advertising is like advertising in a mall, advertising in the blogosphere is like advertising in a country club.

• The top 1% accounted for approximately 20% of the total revenue.
• The top 5% accounted for approximately 50% of the total revenue.
• The top 10% accounted for approximately 80% of the total revenue.
• The top 15% accounted for approximately 90% of the total revenue.