Glam.com's high-price visitors

Ah Samir Arora looks so beatifically happy in that photo, and it's no wonder why: Glam Media, the fashion site headed by the smiling web guru has just raised an astonishing amount of money, $18m. Arora, former boss of e-commerce provider NetObjects, is a credible founder, at least if one were looking for a software pedigree. Private equity firms such as the one that led the round have an indiscriminate appetite for online media right now. And it's no surprise that Glam's audience mix, largely female, is attractive to investors: women decide on the majority of offline purchases, and there is no reason that should not be the case online. 7m of these desirable consumers visit each month, an achievement of which Glam is so proud that it places the claim in the logo. Unfortunately, as claims go, it's a stretch, and here's why:

Comscore, the audience measurement service that advertisers use, shows Glam Network at 3.8m US visitors in November. Let's just assume that there are honest reasons for the difference between that and Glam's claims, such as millions of international readers not represented on Comscore's panel.

But even that number is a dodge. Let me introduce you to the Comscore rollup. A media property can boost its reach, the measure of its share of the total US internet audience, by bundling other sites. For instance, Federated Media Publishing, John Battelle's ad network, "rolls up" the numbers for sites such as Boing Boing and Digg. It's fair enough: Federated sells ads across its network, and advertisers want to know how many consumers a buy would reach.

Glam bundles together its core site, Glam.com, with about two hundred smaller blogs for which it sells advertising. It isn't as if Glam owns these titles, nor is its relationship with them exclusive. Several of the blogs I checked ran ads from other networks, such as Blogads. Nevertheless, they're pretty good smaller sites, it has to be said, generally on topic, covering fashion, parenting, lifestyle and gossip. Glam is clearly pretty selective.

So, what's the problem? Well, it isn't as though these blogs are a nice add-on to the Glam Network's numbers; they are Glam. Without the reach provided by Hot Momma Gossip and the like, Glam.com would be a small site. According to Comscore, the central site had just 527,000 US visitors in November. Alexa, for what it's worth, says its barely in the top 10,000 internet sites.

An audience of half a million shoppers is no mean thing, and Glam's numbers will rise, particularly if the company buys in more editorial such as the articles it is buying from Hearst's Marie Claire magazine. But, $18m in investment for Glam, and a valuation a multiple of that. That works out at about $100 per visitor to Glam.com. Please shoot me now.

Oh, and by the way, while I was checking out Glam's site, the logo audience claim just grew another million.

Disclosure: Gawker Media may at some point launch a women's title, in which case we would compete with Glam.

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