Starting a blog can be a very lucrative career choice, but many bloggers tend to transfer from blogging to something else after a while. That leaves them with a resource that they can cash in on, but how high can you go? Six figures is a realistic number to aim for a well-established blog, but how does it work? We are here to discuss the ins and outs of selling a blog for a ballpark price of six figures.
Signs you could sell your blog
One of the most visible signs that your blog is growing in value is usually unsolicited offers to sell your blog. These offers are often far lower than the actual value of your blog, so be careful when engaging in negotiation with these potential buyers. Sure, from time to time you can get a genuine offer, but that rarely happens.
Now, when you are starting to analyze the value of your blog, the first thing you need to look at is your blog traffic. If your blog has stable high traffic, that is coming from organic search or social media channels; then you are in a good position to sell.
Having multiple monetization methods for your blog is also a significant factor for most website buyers. In case you have found many approaches to monetizing your blog, you will have a much stronger bargaining chip.
The thing that most bloggers tend to forget about is that having a quality domain name can make a lot of difference when selling a blog. A weak domain is harder to grow and particularly challenging to brand. Keep this in mind from the very start and avoid losing your blog’s value.
Where do I sell my blog?
You can always sell your blog on your own by doing research and looking for potential buyers. But if this is not something you are interested in doing, then you can resort to using one of the following websites:
Flippa
If you are interested in buying or selling a website and getting it on its feet Flippa is the place to be. They have the biggest number of offers by far, but there is no vetting procedure. Anyone can post an offer here, and you are on your own when it comes to determining the price of the website. Most sellers will provide you with additional information, such as the website’s traffic and income reports.
FE International
These guys are an online marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Their clients are usually high-end companies, and they cover transactions that start out from five figures and go up. They ensure that each sale that goes through them is legit and they guarantee a scam free environment.
Empire Flippers
These guys provide a unique hands-on approach when it comes to sell (or buy) a website that is in the six-figure price range. They offer an evaluation tool to help you get a ballpark price for your site on the fly.
How do I determine the value of my blog?
While you can use online tools to determine the value of your blog, it’s not the most reliable way to go about it. If you use these tools, you might get different results, which raises questions about the precision of these instruments. They tend to use the Alexa rating and other not very precise parameters to provide you with an estimated figure.
The final sale value of a blog usually ends up being its monthly revenue multiplied by anywhere between 12 and 36. That means, the buyer can expect to get a return on investment within the 1-3 year period. Keep in mind that this calculation will hold up only if all the relevant factors check out and if the revenue stream is stable.
Older domains are also considered a more valuable commodity. That will impact the final price, and you should adjust your offer a little based on your domain’s age.
Legal issues
Let’s start with a word of warning first. Make sure that you are 100% sure that you want to sell. “Seller’s Remorse” is a common issue, especially with new dealers who decide they don’t want to sell when it’s too late. Make a decision and stick to it!
If the sale you are making is an international one, ensure that there is no legal issue when it comes to the transfer of ownership from you to your buyer. Some countries have a policy of banning foreign company ownership without a local director. Furthermore, some niches may be regulated differently in different countries. Gambling and sex-related blogs come to mind as prime examples of a tricky and messy legal transfer from one country to another.
Another potential issue is transferring all the assets to the new owner. Things that were bought over time by using other people’s names need to be included, stock photo ownership for example. Furthermore, transferring business numbers and domain ownership is a crucial thing to take care of. It can leave you liable to pay taxes for a business you no longer own or receive revenue from.
You also need to keep track of and transfer all the revenue if the transfer of control and assets doesn’t go through as planned.
Real stories of people selling their blogs
There is no real pattern when it comes to the sale of a blog. Real blog sale stories differ from one another. For example, the owner of Figuide.com invested very little into his blog and managed to keep the entire project lean and profitable. He didn’t even use a marketplace to sell his blog, he managed to sell it to a partner and got the first price he named.
Arseblog is also a particularly interesting example. The blog was estimated to have somewhere around $13.000 of daily income. It was finally sold for $5.000.000 to Ola Ola! The interesting thing about this situation is that the blog was one year old at the time of the sale. It was founded in 2006 and sold in 2007. That’s one year of work for $5.000.000.
In other cases, waiting pays off, as did with Conde Nast Publications’ acquisition of Ars Technica for $25.000.000 in 2008. The blog was started back in 1998, and it took ten years to find an excellent opportunity for a sale.
There are no rules set in stone when it comes to selling a blog. Keep an eye open for interesting opportunities. Don’t rush into things and ensure that you have all the necessary paperwork when you finally decide to sell your blog.
Conclusion
We hope we’ve managed to shed some light on the issue of selling a blog. The process of the sale of a blog in the price range of six figures isn’t something that you can do overnight. It requires an investment of both time and money. If your goal is to sell and cash out, make sure you prepare for any legal issues well before you put your blog up for sale. This way everything will go much smoother and with less last-minute hustle.
