Meet The 9 Millionaires Behind Your Favorite Blogs

From humble beginnings as a medium whose proprietors were stereotyped as internet nerds living in their parents' basements, blogs are now a billion-dollar industry. WordPress estimates that on its platform alone, 17.8 billion pages are seen by nearly 410 million people each month. Although most blogs never turn a profit, the most successful digital publications have made their founders very rich. Meet the people behind nine of the biggest blogs in the world.

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Gina Trapani, Lifehacker: $110 million

Writer and programmer Gina Trapani, the founder and former editor of self-improvement blog Lifehacker, rakes in about $100,000 a month, according to Investopedia. Tech Compas estimates her net worth at $110 million. Trapani is also the creator of ThinkUp, a social data insights engine, and Todo.txt, a to-do list app. She hosts two digital tech podcasts, This Week in Google and All About Android, in her spare time.

Kevin P. Ryan, Business Insider: $3 million

Best known as the founder of business, tech and entertainment blog Business Insider, Kevin P. Ryan is also the founder and chairman of online shopping enterprise Gilt. He has been at the forefront of online ventures like DoubleClick since 1996. The Yale graduate is estimated by Addicted2Success.com to be worth around $3 million.

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Peter Rojas, Engadget: $3.2 million

New York Magazine called Peter Rojas “the best-compensated blogger in history” after the tech blog he edits, Engadget, was purchased by AOL along with other properties in Jason Calacanis' Weblogs Inc. The amount he received has not been disclosed, but Rojas, who also founded Gizmodo, is presumed by Addicted2Success to be worth about $3.2 million.

Michael Arrington, TechCrunch: $15 million

According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is worth $15 million. The Stanford Law Graduate started as a corporate and securities lawyer before launching his technology and startup blog, which he sold to AOL in 2010 for between $25 and $40 million.

Harvey Levin, TMZ: $15 million

CelebrityNetWorth.com estimates Harvey Levin is worth about $15 million. Best known as the founder of celebrity gossip blog TMZ, which he began in 2008. Before that, he created and executive produced “Celebrity Justice” from 2002 to 2005. TMZ receives more than 1.5 million unique visitors every day.

Mario Lavandeira, Perez Hilton: $30 million

Miami native Mario Lavandeira, known professionally as Perez Hilton, founded his celebrity gossip blog of the same name in 2004 (the site was originally called PageSixSixSix.com). Perez Hilton gets more than 300 million hits a month, and Lavandeira is estimated to be worth $30 million by CelebrityNetWorth.com.

Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post: $50 million

Estimated by CelebrityNetWorth.com to be worth $50 million, Arianna Huffington is the president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group. Her Pulitzer-winning blog, the The Huffington Post, was bought by AOL for $315 million in 2011. As a syndicated columnist and the author of 14 books, Huffington enjoys success in both print and digital media.

Nick Denton, Gawker Media: $100 million

Nick Denton is a journalist and digital media pioneer who is most widely known as the founder and president of the Gawker Media empire, which produces its namesake flagship blog, as well as Lifehacker, Kotaku, Gizmodo, Deadspin and Jezebel, among others. Although he began his career as a freelancer for British newspapers and a correspondent for the Financial Times, Denton quickly turned his attention — profitably — to internet media. CelebrityNetWorth.com estimates his fortune to be $100 million.

Pete Cashmore, Mashable: $120 million

Born in 1985, Pete Cashmore was 19 years old when he founded Mashable in 2005. He has since been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, as well as Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list in 2012. CelebrityNetWorth.com estimates that the European-born digital mogul is worth $120 million.

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