24
Mar
2008
Posted by Bill as Blog Promotions

I may not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree but I have noticed a trend lately. People building up a blog, right to the point where it’s getting to be something, and then they cash out and sell it.
A number of blogs have been sold in the recent 5-6 months. These are only the ones that I know about and as sheltered as I am there must be hundreds more:
The latest blog to be up on the auction block is Blogging Experiment. I have been following Ben and his journey for the last few months and I even guest posted on the site once. Apparently he has bigger and better ideas in mind and wants to relieve himself of the blog.
I want to be clear here on something, I am in no way bashing anyone but I have to say I don’t agree with what these guys are doing. If you are smart enough and talented enough to build a blog that generates a few thousand dollars a month then why not keep it and turn it into a passive income source.
If you hired someone to write on your blog 3 times a week and pay them say 25 to 50 dollars a post. You would still come out ok in the end. Let’s say at 50 dollars a post, your expenses would be 150 a week or 600 a month.
If Ben is pulling in 2k a month then he’s leaving 1400 dollars a month on the table.
$1400 dollars a month pays a LOT of bills!
He could even turn it into a multi-author blog like Adnan is considering doing, so that the content value stays fresh and unique. Multiple authors would make you not so dependent on one source and would allow you to make changes if necessary.
I am more of a long haul kind of guy and once I have an income stream I wouldn’t want to give it up. Let’s say it sells for 10k dollars even, that’s still only 5 months revenue. I’d much rather have a steady income than a one time hit of 10k, you’re going to lose half of that to taxes.
I know Ben is looking for 5 figures out of his blog which I think is probably optimistic given the current state of the economy and the housing market but honestly I hope that he gets it. The higher he can drive the comp prices then the better for any Make Money Blogger who is looking to sell his/her own blog.
So Ben, even though I don’t agree with what you are doing, I hope you get what you want and that it all comes together for you.
We all come to points in our life where we have to make decisions. Sometimes these decisions are difficult and sometimes they are easy. I am sure this was a tough one for Ben as he genuinely seems to enjoy his blog and his readers and I am sure this is the right decision for him.
If you are ever faced with a dilemma like this then I would encourage you to consider your options. It’s very difficult to make money when you have none, it’s very EASY to make money when you have some. Two thousand a month affords Ben a lot of options but he is electing to go for the payday.
I personally would explore the option of subcontracting some posting duties and keep my fingers in the blog from time to time to ensure quality control. I’d much rather have a steady income stream than a payday, but ya just never know. If the payday were the right one, then people get crazy when money gets thrown at them.
How about you? What would YOU do?
18 Responses
Chris Moran
March 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
1Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Get Your Blog Posts Indexed INSTANTLY | The Blog Entrepreneur
March 24th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
2[...] What Is Your Price - Blogging Experiment Up For Sale [...]
Diane Drinkwater
March 24th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
3The idea of creating a blog just to sell it seems slightly crazy - if you set it up right and it makes you money every month then why would you want to get rid of it? Is it the challenge of the new that keeps people going? I suppose those of us who can’t bear to part with domains we’ve bought even though we do very little with them would have a problem letting go of blogs too.
I’m a hoarder of domains! Perhaps that should be the subject of my next blog?
Bill
March 24th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
4@Diane - I agree. I can’t see doing it although I guess people’s plans change. Ben has done a great job of it with his blog.
I might have a domain addiction myself. I have a 20 or so that I had plans for at one time or another but I am just sitting on right now.
Ben Cook
March 24th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
5Bill, my problem with contracting out the writing is that I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to the content. While there are talented writers out there, I have a feeling that it wouldn’t save me all that much in the way of time because I’d be editing and tweaking things etc.
Besides that, there’s the issue of capital. As I mentioned in my post announcing the sale, I’ve actually had two new projects spring up both of which I think have the potential to build a truly passive income once they’re established. Unfortunately, unlike the blog, these aren’t going to be projects that I can bootstrap and selling the blog will allow me to invest the proceeds and get both projects rolling very quickly.
When CashQuests and the other blogs were selling, I had thoughts very similar to the ones you expressed in this post. I figured I’d be in it for the long haul and in reality, I think I probably could continue to post and make the blog a success. I just don’t think it would bring is as much money as quickly as the other projects I have in mind.
Ben Cook’s last blog post..A Difficult Decision - BloggingExperiment.com For Sale
Bill
March 24th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
6@Ben - I hear ya. I can honestly say I hope you get a TON for it and set a new standard for what us poor MMO blog slobs can get for our blogs.
All eyes on you.
bennie
March 25th, 2008 at 12:01 am
7Well if you can sell your blog lets say for more than 20k you better do it because you never know what will happen in the future. And then? Well start another blog as simple as that.
Lets put an example regardless of any monthly income :
Lets say someone offers Maki 40k for DoshDosh isnt it crazy to say NO? Well in my opinion yes because everybody knows who is MAki so it doesnt matter if it is in Dosh Dosh or any other blog he already have poularity so he can make a new blog and next day it have more than 5k readers.
It all depends on how many money is involved!
Anyway thats only my opinion but I would love to hear what you think of this!
bennie’s last blog post..Contadores de Visitas
Bill
March 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
8@bennie - If Maki sells Dosh Dosh for 40k then he’s a moron. That blog is worth waaay more than that and it is not even close to that easy to start over, no matter who you are.
If someone offered Ben 40k for BE then he’d be a moron if he DIDN”T sell it.
It would take a minimum of 12 months revenue to even get my attention let alone be willing to sell. Everyone is different though so really the decision is up to the individual.
Matt Jones
March 25th, 2008 at 4:47 am
9Bill - I sold BloggingFingers.com before CashQuests
I’m now hired to blog there, less frequently than when I owned it.
Often by the time a blogger has built up a blog earning good money they have learned so much that they can ‘move up a level’ and start a project that will REALLY make the big money - which is what I’m doing (or like to think I’m doing) now.
Matt Jones’s last blog post..LinkXL Lies To Its Advertisers
B Carter
March 25th, 2008 at 5:34 am
10Ben must think that his two projects in the pipeline will bring in more than what this blog brings in monthly. He’s a pretty smart cookie and I don’t see why he would do this otherwise.
Personally, I would wait until the other two projects were up, running, and earning before selling the original blog; but that’s me.
B Carter’s last blog post..What is your Mindset?
Bill
March 25th, 2008 at 6:36 am
11@Matt - Maybe. I haven’t been following it long enough to say for sure but I have yet to hear of anyone who sold their blog hitting it big with another project. Maybe it happens but we just don’t know about it.
@B - Yes no doubt Ben is a smart cookie. I am sure he’s made the right decision for him and as you can see in the comment he left above that he would probably still end up embroiled the blog. I definitely can understand that.
Adnan
March 25th, 2008 at 8:19 am
12Bill - If you had asked me a few months back whether it would be a good idea to cash out for 12 x monthly revenue, I would have said “Of Course”, and indeed I went on to put Blogtrepreneur up for sale with hopes to getting a lot more out of PPC > Affiliate Marketing.
However, I soon realised that firstly, I wasn’t getting the price I wanted, and secondly, the blog is a perfect source of income and I wouldn’t have to be active all the time if I went round doing things in the right way.
If I were Ben, then I would try and turn things round into a multi-author. I understand that he has capital restraints, but if he can manage to fund his new startups with another form of capital, then he would continue to enjoy the benefits of passive income from BloggingExperiment. In terms of a Blog Manager, I’m sure there would be a lot of people willing to moderate comments and the like for money too!
Anyway, a thoughtful post mate.
Adnan’s last blog post..Simple Steps to Improving Quality of Posts
Bill
March 25th, 2008 at 8:40 am
13@Adnan - Great minds think alike. I understand Ben’s motivation and while I would do it differently this works for him.
I wonder what the next 2 projects are that he has in miind, I would think that big ol blog would be a great platform to promote it from but then again maybe not.
Time will tell.
bennie
March 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am
14When someone sell a blog they actually sell it all? I mean is it only the domain or is everything including hosting, articles and any other thing.
Sorry for the stupid question.
bennie’s last blog post..Contadores de Visitas
Bill
March 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am
15@Bennie - In theory you could sell parts of it if you wanted to althought that wouldn’t make it very attractive to most purchasers. In any of the cases that I have heard about, you sell the blog, the domain, the theme, everything.
bennie
March 26th, 2008 at 12:56 am
16I just found a cool interview about wpdesigners
http://www.jeffro2pt0.com/wordpress-weekly-episode-11
Interesting!
bennie’s last blog post..Contadores de Visitas
Bryan Clark
March 26th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
17Thanks for the mention, but One Man’s Goal was only sold once, and then I bought it back. It is however for sale right now on sitepoint if anyone is interested. Ben and I have plans for a big project that we need start-up cash for… so that’s why OMG, and BlogEx have gone up for sale recently.
Bryan Clark’s last blog post..Sex, Drugs and Bloggers
Bill
March 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
18@Bryan - If you sold it once and then he sold it back to you…that makes it being sold twice right?
Am I missing something here?
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