Today’s podcast and blog post below focuses on one thing: selling your blog. Here to chat today is Marc from Vital Dollar—who has sold blogs ranging from $1k to $200k(!).
Let’s start with an awkward thought…
Not everybody reading this post will be blogging a year from now.
Yes, even some of you out there goin “naaaaa that’s not me.”
And while this is a totes awkward subject—it does bring up something interesting to me:
What if, instead of simply stopping or quitting your blog, you could sell it for $1,000? $5,000? Even $300?
Would you?
Should you?
What if you have no plan to quit—but receive a nice offer anyways?
Let’s discuss.
Listen to my episode with Marc from Vital Dollar
or listen on Apple Podcasts \ Google Podcasts \ SpotifyLet’s start with the “sell or quit” extreme first, then we’ll move into some selling tips!
Should you sell your blog instead of quitting?
For this argument, let’s assume that you COULD find at least one interested party, even if it’s for a small amount.
We’ll chat about how you’d do that in a minute.
If you’re contemplating quitting/stopping your blog, here are your options:
- shut site down
- leave site up
- sell site
My guess is that 90% of bloggers who stop fall into bullet point 2.
They get burnt out, don’t see results, etc, and simply stop—until their hosting is up for renewal, then they shut it down.
In my opinion, letting your blog die like this is a huge missed opportunity.
Let’s weight the pros and cons of each.
1 – quit, delete site completely
Pros: You’re done and don’t have to think about it anymore I guess?
Cons: You do NOT leave yourself open to continuing the blog in the future, you don’t serve whatever organic traffic you do have, you make $0.
Don’t ever just shut down your site, please.
There’s no way to predict the future, and yes, you MAY become interested again.
2 – quit, leave site running—EVEN RENEWING HOSTING.
Fact = 99.99% of bloggers who quit are likely on hosting plans that would cost them less than $100/year.
Is paying < $100 for another year of hosting/domain worth it? Worth the opportunity to continue and renew passion, or to sell?
Why, yes, yes it is!
Several years back, I actually quit my personal finance blog—but left the site up and running—and logged back in to find my traffic had literally 10x’d.
As it turns out, Google juice doesn’t present itself overnight, and I was ranking #1 in Google for “passive income.” Derp.
And what happened to that blog in the end?
I shut it down.
Why why why why why did I do this? I could’ve sold it!
It wouldn’t have made millions of course, but if I had known then what I know now, I’m certain I could’ve found a buyer for a few thousand dollars.
Even if I got $200, that would’ve been far better than $0.
3 – quit, sell blog.
Pro: This really seems doable in 2019, and you could hopefully make your initial hosting/domain investment back!
Con: You don’t leave yourself open for coming back to the blog.
Honestly, I’m surprised more people don’t know about this option. There ARE loads of weird people like me who would be more than open to purchasing a 9-month old blog that went nowhere.
You may not see the value in your lost blog, but somebody else might.
Awkward but true.
How to sell a dying blog instead of quitting.
Below we’ll lay out some general venues for selling your blog—but those venues are mainly geared towards blogs that are making money.
Monetized, or at least medium-high traffic.
But what about smaller sites that don’t make any money and have little traffic? Is there value here to sell?
Value is in the eye of the be-blogger-holder.
Here’s a 3-step process for selling a dying blog:
- Email meta-bloggers (like myself) or side-hustle/entrepreneur bloggers.
- Ask for referrals.
- Optionally list on the traditional platform/brokerage venues.
We’ll dive into #3 later in this post.
Step 1 – Email meta-bloggers asking for people who might want to purchase your blog.
Here’s the general gist of the email:
- Subject line: “trying to get rid of my blog,” etc. Something to make it known this is NOT another spammy email.
- Intro: Introduce yourself and your intentions, 100%. Say you’re going to quit, and just hoping to offload it for a small sum.
- Stats: You will have to provide some initial stats—whatever you have. This includes page views, traffic sources, domain authority, anything you can grab.
Pro Tip: How to present a small site’s blog stats in the best way possible:
If you only have 100 visitors a month, very few revenues, etc, is there a way to showcase your stats in a positive way?
Yes!
In my podcast chat w/ blog sponsorship guru Rachel—she threw out the idea of presenting your growth, in addition to your regular stats.
Has your blog growth, like, at all? Showcase your growth curves. That’s far more appealing for somebody looking to capitalize on a small site.
One important note:
You are NOT asking the meta-blogger to purchase your site. You are asking for referrals.
I personally don’t think it’d be out of line to ask them to tweet it out.
Heck, maybe you could offer them a 20% referral fee as well. I think that’d be super cool.
Disclaimer – There are no “rules” in this arena. In fact, I don’t think there’s even another blog post talking about this. Everything I’m presenting here is my personal opinions—and you should take or leave what you choose to, and pursue your own path.
Things you could say:
“Hey! I’m really not interested in continuing my blog—I never could get it to provide what I wanted it to, but I’d still love to get back XYZ dollars.”
“Given my organic traffic has been growing inch by inch, I think somebody else might be interested in taking it over for cheap.”
“Do you know anybody who purchases sites like this? Link sellers? Niche site people?”
Let’s say you’re not contemplating quitting. Should you entertain selling?
Let’s quickly break out this scenario:
- You have a growing and/or decent sized site
- You are enjoying your work (or at least not quitting ASAP)
Whether you are receiving offers or not, what factors should you consider?
1 – Do I really, really, really LOVE my blog?
Like, if somebody offered you TRIPLE what you feel your blog is worth, would you still say no?
At the moment, this is the way I feel about DYEB. I wouldn’t sell for $250k or $500k today.
2 – How difficult will my site be to sell?
If you’re not heavily monetized, or if your niche doesn’t lend itself well to monetization—it might actually be tough to sell.
3 – Related: How closely is my blog tied into my name?
Some blogs/brands are NOTHING without their creator.
I could never straight-out sell my podcast for this reason. It’s pretty closely tied to me.
4 – Honestly, just how much are we talking here?
I know bloggers who SCOFF at the idea of selling, but my guess is everybody has their price.
The question is: What’s the price tag that makes you say “Um actually yeah—that’d be amazing.”
I love you, Do You Even Blog tribe—but if Elon Musk walks up to me for a $10M offer for DYEB—I’m probably out. ?
How to determine what your blog might sell for:
First, realize this is HIGHLY subjective, and will depend a TON of what platform you choose to sell through!
If you have an established/monetized site, you can head over to Empire Flippers free valuation tool.
Warning: You will be added to their email list for completing this.
Generally, your blog is worth roughly 10x-30x monthly profits.
I straight up stole that sentence from today’s podcast guest, Marc, and his AWESOME post How to Know When to Sell Your Website or Blog.
If you’re making (on average over the last 3-6 months) roughly $500/month in gross revenues, minus whatever expenses you have tied to those revenues, your blog might be worth:
- Low-end: $5,000. This could be the case if growth is slow, you already work 30-40 hours a week on your blog, it’s still relatively new, in a tougher niche, etc.
- High-end: $15,000. This could be the case if growth has been going exponentially lately, you don’t work on it a ton, it’s 3+ years old, under-monetized, etc.
You can use this as a VERY rough starting point.
This won’t give you an exact amount, but this rough estimate can provide valuable answers to the question: SHOULD I sell my blog?
Once you’ve decided to entertain the idea, it’s time to get offer and buyers—and brokers, ugh.
How to sell your blog: The Process Overview
Simple, but not easy:
- Decide whether or not to sell, and WHEN to sell (see above)
- Prepare your blog!
- Find a buyer 1-on-1, or
- Go through a broker/agency
We are NOT going to walk-through this process, step-by-step.
I recommend reading Marc’s post on the FinCon blog for a more step-by-step guide that covers all your bases.
However, it’s worth talking about the venues a bit.
- sell it on your own
- Flippa
- Empire Flippers
Yes, there are a few others, but these are the go-tos.
Sell it on your own
We’ve already talked about this a bit—the best way to begin a 1-on-1 deal is to reach out to people in your network and ask for referrals.
Heck, you can even reach out to other blogs or brands in your niche—advertisers, former sponsors, bigger media sites, etc.
There are no rules here—but the trick is to identify an entity that would realistically benefit from taking over your blog.
Practice empathy.
What’s in it for them to take over your current site? If there IS value there, reach out. If there’s really not—don’t bother.
Selling on Flippa or other exchanges…
…is expensive.
They take a huge chunk of your revenues (like, 10%. AND it costs a small fee to even list it. Ouch.).
The upside? It’s relatively easy/quick to list.
You’ll need to provide a ton of transparent information/data about your traffic, website history, monetization methods, etc.
Using a brokerage like Empire Flippers or [FE International](https://feinternational.com/)
If I WERE to sell a blog, it’d likely through a broker.
Yes, they still take a good chunk of change—probably around 10%—but they also do more work.
Brokers go and FIND you buyers.
I’d happily pay for that if I were selling.
Curious to hear your thoughts, so comment below!
Would you ever consider selling your blog?
Do you think selling is a viable option for “going-to-quit” bloggers?
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Related Reading: How to Monetize a Blog: The Complete A-Z Guide
