Chris Brogan posted this on his blog a month ago –

“The time has come. I have a favor to ask. If you’re interested in our book, if you support all that I’ve given you over the past several years, if you want to buy a friend (or an entire small village) a gift, I’d like to request that you buy Trust Agents from your favorite online source. This request itself is a social media experiment in trust (or I’m just asking you to buy books) . . . Here’s the exact needle we have to move: 768. We need 768 more sales between now and Saturday night. That’s a lot of books, but I’m only asking you to buy one. (Well, if you’re a company, I’m asking you to buy hundreds.)”

By the end of the day, Chris’s book Trust Agents had reached number #55 of ALL books on Amazon.com and by the end of the week Trust Agents had reached the New York Times best seller list.

How much do you think Chris’s Online presence is worth? If we assume he reached his goal of 768 books, then it was worth at least $12,650 dollars on Aug. 17th. If you assume he sold more, a good assumption due to making the NY Times Best Seller list, then it’s worth far more than that. Assume he sold 1500 books that week, his online presence was worth $25,300 dollars that week alone. This is real money, making Chris’s online presence a real asset. Add up all the business it creates for him. Add up the relationships it creates. Add up the information it supplies. Add up the speaking engagements, exposure opportunities, and the powerful brand it has created and the Chris Brogan online property is a very, VERY valuable asset.

Chris Brogan was never a celebrity. Less than 10 years ago he worked in telecommunications. He was an average Joe. He didn’t have some big following when he started blogging over 5 years ago. He wasn’t a household name. Overtime, day by day, person by person he has built a solid, respectful, informative, and engaging online presence. A presence that has substantial value.

In the not too distant future, having an online presence will be the price to play. The person you marry, the job you have, the college you attend, the neighborhood you live in and the friends you have will ALL correlate to the value of your online presence. Your online presence; your social graph will be at the center of your life, impacting every aspect of it.

How much is Chris Brogan’s online presence worth? I have no idea. I wouldn’t even begin to put a number on it. But it’s for sure a valuable property. The better question is what is your online presence worth? Soon our online presence will be our most valuable asset, in many cases more valuable than our home.

Have you started investing in yours? You should!