RSS Feeds: You sold your blog? Hasta la vista, baby!
Have you ever sold a blog? Are you thinking of selling one? What do you expect from the sale? What does the buyer expect? Questions and more questions. I can answer a few of the questions in my own inimitable way, but I can't answer all of them because I've never sold a blog nor do I ever intend to do so.
Sales I've Seen
The first one I actually saw happen was when Jon Phillips wrote "Not An Easy Post To Write – SWR Is For Sale". It wasn't a bad sale at all since he sold it Liz Strauss of Successful Blog, an experienced blogger. Heck, I have the badge she awarded this blog with her thanks to week 112 SOBs in my upper left sidebar and it will remain there until I decide to do something else (maybe never).
The next sale I noticed was a little strange. The story actually started before Jon's sale. It was the sale of One Man's Goal by Bryan Clark (not Brian Clark of Copyblogger). He announced the sale on November 7, 2007 with "Sold!" and stated he had sold it for $8,500. On December 30, 2008, he announced he had bought it back from Austin [somebody] for an undisclosed amount, but for less than what he sold it for with "Surprise! It Feels Good To Be Home".
The next time he sold it, he sold it to Marc Galeazzi for $10,000 (I think) . I found out about it when I read the post at Blogger Unleashed titled ""Another DumbFuck Is Born LMAO!!!!" on April 12, 2008. I hate to say it, but Marc got robbed.
The latest sale I witnessed was when Rocky John sold Blogging Mix to Matt at Work at Home Blog on May 2, 2008. Rocky John didn't give the details away, but at least he sold it someone who actually knew what he was buying.
What do sellers expect?
I think expectations are different in each case, but I think some sellers do their best to milk (or bilk) the buyers out of the most money they can possibly get. I'm sure there are some honest bloggers selling blogs for reasonable prices. They're selling a blog with a decent Google PageRank, decent and steady traffic, a fair amount of backlinks and other good rankings.
What do buyers expect?
I think buyers, all buyers, expect the blogs they've purchased to continue to perform as they did with the previous owner. I'm sure they expect, at the very least, for the rankings to remain the same until they can get completely involved with their purchases. Most of the time that happens, but not always. One thing they never expect is for the blog to take a nosedive within a month.
Buyers should never expect the blogs they purchase to continue along their current paths. Unfortunately, that's probably exactly what they expect. If that's what they expect, then most of them are in for a rude awakening. It all has to do with loyalty.
Loyalties
Okay, so you've sold your blog. Do you really expect me, or anyone else, to continue reading and participating on that blog when you're no longer the owner? I don't know about anyone else, but I read blogs because of the bloggers behind the blogs, not because of the blogs. Does that make sense?
I no longer read the blogs that I mentioned were sold. The original blogger isn't there, so why bother? If I sold one of my blogs, I wouldn't expect anyone to keep reading it either. This isn't real estate and in my not-quite-so humble opinion, a blog is only worth as much as the blogger who created it. It loses its value to me the moment it's sold.
Where are YOUR loyalties? Are they to a blog or to the blog owner (and/or author(s))? Do you give your trust to the new owner freely or do you expect them to earn it? Am I alone in my thoughts?
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For the clueless, "hasta la vista" translates from Spanish to the English colloquialism of "see you later" which, in essence, simply means "goodbye".
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That man who bought the dead blog should have done some research before putting down $10,000. I mean, that is a really hefty investment.
If I was going to sell a social blog I would work at getting lots of guest posts so that readers got used to reading posts by different people.
Blogging is an art form. I mean, lets say you bought the rights to put the name "Peter Howson" on your paintings, people wouldn't buy them if they aren't actually by Peter Howson.
April’s last blog post… Tchai Ovna Review
I cannot sell my blog. I'd rather close it down then sell it..
Just noticed the mention of our purchase of BloggingMix.com so I thought I'd drop a comment speaking from experience. (We also bought ShylockBlogging.com less than a month before, and it's likely we'll continue buying up blogs in this space that are a good fit).
Business plans aside, I wanted to comment on the "what do buyers expect" piece of your question; we look for blogs with a ton of inbound links, niche search engine traffic, and quality well written articles. Unlike other buyers, we'll likely end up scrapping the blog and rolling all of the content into our main site (which is what we did with both bloggingmix and shylockblogging.)
Why?
Most people are scared of change. That is a fact of life. By letting the audience know of your plans, and not merely duplicating what the previous author did, you can prepare them for the transition without looking like a lame copy-cat of the original.
We bought the blog, we're getting rid of it, things are going to change, but if you still want to make money online (which is our niche) stick around and we'll teach what we know. That is the basic formula.
At that point its a 'Yes' or 'No' from the readers perspective (and not a 'I miss ____(insert old blogger here)____'). Most cases they'll stick around at least for a while to see what you have to say. Assuming your writing is engaging and useful you should be able to maintain much of the audience.
interesting insights…I'll keep track of you in my reader
p.s. I shed several tears when I read you unsubscribed from all the blogs you mentioned in your post :lol:
Matt
whydowork’s last blog post… I tried, and I failed; what is the secret?
Those better be alligator tears. :mrgreen:
Actually, I'm following WhyDoWork, but it doesn't have anything to do with the blogs you assimilated. I found some good stuff there before I found out about the rest. :smile:
You raise a valid point. I think that generally speaking, it helps to remember that people usually sell things when they're not working too well any more. (but not always)
I think one of the problems is that potential buyers tend to be impressed by the wrong metrics. I don't care if someone has 5,000 + RSS subscribers, buying that blog will probably not be a good deal … for exactly the reasons you stated … RSS subscribers are following the blogger, and will probably leave when someone else takes over.
On the flip side, I think if a blog gets a good percentage of it's traffic directly from search engines, and the posts generally don't contain a lot of personal touches, then it may be possible to make a rational evaluation of the site's potential value.
All that being said, as was pointed out to Marc (of One Man's Goal), if you've got 10 grand to spend, it would probably be much more effective to just find a good aged domain, start a new blog from scratch, and invest the extra money in link building.
But hey, some people just have to learn their lessons the hard way.
I was going to delete your comment because it doesn't follow the comment guidelines (right above the comment input box), but the comment has value.
And you're absolutely right. A blog getting a lot of search traffic is a good investment, in my opinion, whereas a blog getting all of its traffic through social involvement isn't worth anything without the person who made it socially viable.
I think certain people will relate to a blog that interest them. When the blog sells, if the content is different, or the point of the blog is different you will loose readers.