Would You Consider Selling?
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A blog is a business, as soon as you make your first dollar with your blog, it becomes a business. And of course, we’re all interested in finding out how much our blog is worth. There are many tools out there that can help us with that. Just have to keep in mind that the price tag you can put on your blog is the price someone is actually willing to pay for it.
I came up with a list of the things I think are the most important when buying or selling a blog, well those are the things I wanna know before I send the money:
There are probably a boat load of other things to consider when you sell your blog, but those are the ones I would consider to be the most important (to me). Another thing to consider, even though a blog has a nice alexa rank, and has a good PR and all, if all there is on that blog are viralink posts and memes, it probably won’t help get the best price possible, in my opinion. A technorati rank under 2000 doesn’t mean anything if the blog got that rank by gaming the system.
The most important point for me is “branding“. What is it that makes this blog so special and unique, and how will I be able to take it to the next level? What’s the domain name, is it memorable?
Your Turn To Talk
Would you consider selling your blog provided the offer was good enough? Do you feel attached to your blog so much, that you wouldn’t sell even if you had a really good offer? What are the things you find important when buying a blog?
Oh, by the way, no I’m not selling SWR. I got a pretty nice offer, but I’m not selling it. :)
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38 Responses to “Would You Consider Selling?”
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No, I would never sell my blog. Who would want to buy a blog with my personal domain and filled with personal posts? I do have another blog started that needs my attention to get it going so it’s not attractive to anybody at this time.
If I were a successful blogger presented with a lucrative offer, I think I would have to first consider whether or not keeping the blog would be a better long term investment than selling it and investing the money otherwise.
This Boomer has to think about retirement approaching faster and faster.
Angela, excellent point there, I would never sell my personal blog either, well unless another Jonathan Phillips really wants it, and is willing to pay big money.
You bring another good point, selling it to pursue other goals or do “something else”, like retirement, or another project.
I would never sell either of my blogs. I couldn’t fathom selling robertaferguson.com, because what is that site, without me? A black hole?
And earsucker.com is the coolest blog about music. That’s my passion right there, so I couldn’t sell that either. Some people are in the blogging thing to flip blogs….I guess I’m not one of those people.
Hey Roberta, totally agree, earsucker is such a cool name too! ;)
My main goal is definitely not to flip blogs, I’m really more into developing relationships through my blogs, and maintain them. Although I might change my mind someday, as of now I wouldn’t wanna sell it.
One of the big things that I think people who are buying blogs need to consider is how well they can connect with the readers. And how they can connect and build the readership “outside the blog” as the founder has.
Those things are both key to success, and having some sort of transition period with the original owner on board makes that much more viable. That’s something you see in most serious businesses deals, but not really in blogging.
From the “blogging as a business” perspective, you really need to look at what you’ve built and have a plan for the proceeds of the sale that can accomplish more than the blog you’re selling could.
Would I sell Zoomstart? Absolutely. But the pricetag would be far more than it’s worth to anyone else. That much I can guarantee.
So the real answer is … not likely.
Shane, as usual you bring good points! If I was to sell SWR, the new owner, in order to keep it working would probably have to network a lot with other bloggers and on social media sites. Of course a more experienced blogger could probably take it to another level.
Most of the blogs in my RSS list, I read and comment on because I can connect with the author(s), and I guess it’s the same with people that comment on and read SWR.
Jonathan,
I don’t think i would sell my current blog.I’m too attached to it.
However I do have future plans to create blogs worth selling and buy some blogs also..
It’s not in the near future unless a miracle comes around but those are my plans.
I believe if you’re building a blog for income then an exit strategy is just as much of that income as the cash flow.
My honest opinion,
Don
Don, great points, makes me think, I wouldn’t sell SWR, but building and promoting another blog and sell it later on, while keeping my “main blogs” is actually a pretty good idea. Just need a plan/strategy. :)
Hi,
Its a nice short term profit, but I don´t sell any of my web properties. why sell something at 8 or 12 monthly revenue? These have over 100% a year rate of returns!
Hey there, welcome to SWR!
Totally agree, if you’re to sell a blog, you have to think in terms of how much that blog would have made you over a set period of time (like 12, 24, or 36 months), or the income that blog generated over the last year or two.
Well, as the blogosphere is getting bigger and bigger, it’s hard to make a unique blog. But if I succeeded, I wouldn’t consider sellling it under $500k :)
Hi Cifra, good point, there’s around 70 million blogs out there, so if you can get successful running one, and get a nice income from it, no reason to sell, unless you have other plans. But it’s hard enough as it is, so when you reach a certain level, you kinda wanna keep it running :)
The issue in purchasing a blog would have to be maintainable reader base.
if its a tech/news/ review blog readers may not be overly effected by changing the owner, but a personal blog based on telling stories would experience a change in the exact items people are reading the blog about.
domain name, number of pages and links will get a web 1.0 price for the site as a static site.
Reader continued participation will effect the web 2.0 value of the blog
Hi Dubai news! Yep it’s true, depends on the niche, if it a conversational blog (like SWR for example), it’d be hard for the new owner to keep up. Regarding Net Business Blog, Courtney Tuttle wrote a great post on the topic: http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/06/24/netbusinessblogcoms-downward-spiral/
:)
Jonathan,
In keeping with the “Smart, Wealthy, Rich” message, I would not be willing to sell and of my blogs simply because making short-term cash was never the plan.
I am building a residual income source with my blogs, and even if someone came along and offered me $50,000 for one of them, after a year that money would be gone, and I would have no residual income!
No, I wouldn’t sell any of my blogs. Although I might hire someone to help me MANAGE them! :)
Aaron, selling was never the plan for SWR either, I would much rather like to hire someone to guest blog if I can’t keep up due to other projects for a couple days/weeks than sell it, and have to start over with a new blog :)
Well, honestly if someone was to offer 50 grand for SWR, I would probably think twice before saying no. I know I can start a new blog tomorrow and get my readers back in less than 3 months. I would really have to think long beffore selling it. The offer I got was a little under $5,000, which is good, but I declined it, I get a lot more out of SWR than what this money would’ve been able to get me. ;)
One of the main reasons I used my name for my blog was so that I would never be tempted to sell. If there is one thing certain in this world, it’s that I will own my blog when I die. :)
I don’t think I could be as passionate about my blog if I had secret plans to sell it at some point.
That said, I have other blogs that I probably would sell - they just won’t ever be as good as the one I have my name tied to.
Hey Court,
that’s good advice, get your name as your domain, so you’ll never be tempted to sell it, I like that :)
I feel the same way, the reason I have a blog (a couple of blogs), is cause I like to connect with other people and interact, and build nice recurring income, I’m more into the long term than into the “build it, then flip it” thing.
I won’t sell my blog unless someone offer me a very good price and continue to pay me 30% of the earnings for life! :)
But there are some bloggers out there who actually sell away their blogs as investments
Hey Erwin!
hum, 30% of the earnings for life, I would probably think twice before saying no to an offer like that, the mor the site grows, the more money you make, and you’re not working for it. :)
Everything is for sale…for the right price.
Hi Eric, I think you’re right, but on the other hand, if you feel attached to your blog, how much money would be enough?
Hi Jonathan :)
Yours is one of the best financial blogs out there and it’s due to your charming personality, my dear. In my opinion, this makes a world of difference when reading a person’s blog :D
To answer your question, I would no consider selling my blog than I would consider selling my eyes, nose, ears or well…YOU get the picture! LOL ;)
Peace, Love, Understanding and Respect,
Badthing/Marilyn
Hi Marilyn! Thank you so much for the kind words!!
hehe so I assume you wouldn’t sell your blog, right? :)
you missed the most important thing for web sites or blogs. its all about content my friend- content fun, interesting and well written.
unfortunately most blogs and web sites are full of boring childish crap copied from somewhere else. no vision no imagination nothing. remember content is king.
the baldchemist
Hi Ray, I totally agree with you, but I wanted to leave out the “content is king” thing, although this is probably the reason why netbusinessblog is getting less traffic these days. I wouldn’t buy a blog if i wasn’t sure I could keep up with what the previous owner was doing. I think that in order to successfully transfer a blog’s ownership, the previous owner has to stay involved for a couple of weeks or even months, and mix posts from the previous owner with posts from the new owner, so the readers get used to the new writing style.
Welcome to SWR by the way :)
I can see your point, and can comment from the other side of the fence, in that I sold a blog as you know. I didn’t get full dollar for it as the stats were quite nice and the money had started to come in.
But during this time I had an idea for another site that will take the idea from the first blog and expand on it. The reason for selling was time, I don’t have all that much time what with family and work commitments, so I would never manage 3 blogs at the same time.
I agree with most points here, a blog is unique and so is most content, so selling is like selling a bit of your personality, a part of you will be handed to someone else.
[…] chit chat about here in the cool shade of my blog.After reading Jonathan Phillips’ blog post, Would You Consider Selling?, I got to wondering how many bloggers, especially Baby Boomers, are blogging not only as a means of […]
Chris, thanx for joining the conversation. The “branding” thing I’m talking about in my post, I was thinking of the blog you sold, I think it has great brandability, which is the reason I was interested in buying it. But, you said it, time, I wouldn’t have had as much time as needed to maintain it and make it grow.
Great reply from someone who sold a blog! Thanx Chris :)
[…] Would You Consider Selling? - Jonathan asks whether you would ever sell your blog. […]
I would never sell a blog that, in anyway reflects my personality, however popular it may be. A blog when branded with your own name, becomes some sort of a personal identity of yours on the web and by selling it, you are simply selling yourself out.
The reasons I would sell any of my blogs would be that if I had no time to manage it or update it any more. In that case, by holding on to the blog you are restricting its growth and your revenue as well
Hi Vijay, I totally agree with you, I would never sell jonathan-phillips.com, and honestly I wouldn’t sell smartwealthyrich.com either, I put so much efforts into this blog, and it’s always growing, if I ever grow tired of it, which I doubt, I wouldn’t mind having guest writers though, but at that point that would mean I should probably focus on other projects, but so far I’m loving it! :)
I don’t plan to sell my blogs. Still… I might if they were worth a lot and I grew tired of blogging. After all, if I weren’t going to use it, why not sell it?
Hello Lucia, I agree, if one gets bored about his/her blog, usually the quality suffers, so selling it would maybe help reviving it, and that person can still start a new one and take it to the same level as the previous one.
Looks like I’m the odd man out about selling. ;)
I wouldn’t sell :)
And, hey Don, now you have a brand new blog! hehe
[…] has several really interesting posts. Currently looking at “Would You Consider Selling?” The answer is…of course. I always said I would, that has not changed. The next […]
I doubt I’d want to sell a blog. It’s like selling your bambino. But I wouldn’t mind selling this business opportunities website that I inherited. It’s all supposed to be above board and good stufff for people to do but I’ve never liked / felt comfortable with it. I haven’t touiched it for years but it’s old and has some PR. If anyone has any ideas or want to make an offer me ready to hear