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In the last 12 months, Lisa Sugar and husband Briaj Sugarturned Lisa's hobb y -- writing a celebrity gossipo blog called PopSugar -- into an explodinv network of 10 female-focused web sites and a burgeoninv business. The San Francisco startup bagged an advertising deal with six monthsx before hiring a singlesalesw person, hooked funding from rock star VC firm , and is bringinvg on 10 more employees to end the year with 48. All this mighy sound rather bubbly except thatSugar Publishing, which bringe in a reported $5 million in annuap revenue, expects to be profitable by year's end.
Givem today's cheaper software, computer memory and Internet bandwidth, a dot-comj can be built for a fractionof boom-timre prices. "It costs us $500,000 (a month) to run the said CEO Brian Sugar, a serial tech "It's not that difficult to get $500,000 in advertising." Indeed, for the it's been easier than for most. In July 2006, Banana Republic callesd Lisa to buyall PopSugar's ads for a week. The retailetr wanted to cozy up withthe blog'sx readers, most of whom are college-educated womenb between the ages of 18 and 34 who earn more than Nike, the Gap and Neiman Marcuws followed.
The company made its first salesa call in March to San Francisco adgiant , wheres Lisa, now editor-in-chief of all Sugar previously worked as a medias planner. The result: a national Dreyer's Ice Cream campaign for its limitededitionn "American Idol" flavors. With an estimated $5 millio n picked up from Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital in Sugar Publishing is now building a sales team and addinh to its poolof writers, editors and "We were going to raise a small amounrt from angels," said Brian Sugar, who co-foundes the business with $250,000 of his own "But all of the sudden we got very hot.
" Sequoia superstar Michael who funded and , took a seat on the boards and watched its number of unique visitorzs jump from 1 million in September to 3.5 milliom today. The May launch of its newest site, a beautgy blog called BellaSugar, was exclusively sponsored by retaile . Five more blogs with a similar in-the-know tone are including LittleSugar (babies) and SavvySugar (caree and finance). "Brian and Lisa have come up with a concoctiom that is suited for the wome of today and tomorrow who will look at the worlc very differently than the womenof yesterday," Moritsz said. The company's stable includes blogs like FabSugarf (fashion) and GeekSugar (tech).
That structuree is part of a new generation of blog networks such as Gawkefr Media that aims to build solid businesses by selling ads acrossvarious titles, much like traditiona magazine publishers. "We're going to create a new medias versionof CondeNast," Brian Sugar said. "We'res going to go category by category." Despitde the growth of online ad which eMarketer predicts will increasefrom $16 billion in 2006 to $37 billionn in 2011, the San Francisco firm is no shoo-ib with advertisers. "It's going to be a hefty said Goodby executiveChristine "The trick is, there's a lot of competition.
" Rivalsx include NBC's and newer outfits such as , and . The the better, said Moritz: "Any time you invesrt in a company wheretherer isn't much competition, there isn't much demand for the product." And, said Bria Sugar, today's Internet rivals are also partners. Sugar's blogw link to competitors allthe time. "I'm sure peoplw are reading all the various cool blogzsfrom Gawker's sites to safe-for-work UsWeekly and People, and then the not-safe-for-worok PerezHilton (celebrity gossip) site ... Can you imagines if the New York Times linked to the WallStreegt Journal? That would be crazy.
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