Would Your Blog Sell For $1,000,000? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

No idea.   Nobody publishes those numbers, and I'm not one of Trent's friends, to get the secret.

My Personal Finance Journey said:

Cool! Any idea how much it sold for?

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Jason@LiveRealNow said:

Another one sold.

The Simple Dollar is now a property of Cut Media.

This is so cool! I'm with those that find this very encouraging. Even if I never have a site worth six figures, I love that we're all building online real estate that has value and could probably be sold at some point.

I sold my first site (Green Panda Treehouse) to M-35 network a couple of years ago [Mike wrote about his side of it here on Yakezie]. It was around 2x the annual income. I was overwhelmed juggling a couple of sites and I felt that if I had to drop one of my personal finance blogs it would be the one focused on college finances instead of couples and money. 

I'm still happy about the decision – I see Couple Money as a site to grow with and more potential for income. As an added bonus I get paid to make weekly contributions to my old site. I'm also happy about who I sold it to – M-35 has been doing a fantastic job with GPT. 

If you're looking at selling your blog at some point, maximize your price by getting your site in tip top shape:

• Keep good stats: Buyers will want to know the numbers over time. Don't guess – keep records on your subscribers, twitter followers, Facebook likes, etc. This is a business transaction, be professional. 
• Diversify your site income streams: If you have multiple ways that your site brings in money, it makes it makes it a more attractive buy as it appears more stable.
• Tailor to your potential buyer: Highlight your plusses that appeal to that particular buyer (or group of buyers) (like high engagement on Twitter) and use that to negotiate a higher price.
• Have a minimum in mind: Whether it's a certain amount or multiple, have some thing in mind before you start talking. 

Did I do all of the above with GPT? No; but I've learned quickly and adjusted. I hope it can help others with the process. 

By the way you may discover it's in your best interest to hold on to your site instead of selling. Only you can make that decision. 

If there comes a time to sell Couple Money I'd look for 4x-6x annual income and decide on whether or not to start another personal finance blog. 

To answer the thread's question about whether my blog would sell for $1 million that would be a no. Have to continue to put in some elbow grease in. :D

MyJourneytoMillions said:

Elle said:

If there comes a time to sell Couple Money I'd look for 4x-6x annual income and decide on whether or not to start another personal finance blog. 

To answer the thread's question about whether my blog would sell for $1 million that would be a no. Have to continue to put in some elbow grease in. :D

Elle that doesn't make sense at all. 4x annual income would mean that you have to be making more than $250K/yr? and 6x would mean that your income is more than $166K/yr.  Right? 

Call me crazy, but I really believe that 50% of all yakezie members and 99% of yakezie challengers would sell if anyone came to them with something above 6 figures.  Maybe it isn't the right choice to sell but that is a large sum of money for most people AND VERY HARD TO TURN DOWN if a check is sitting waiting for you. 

Isn't that like saying that all Yakezie members would sell their homes at a loss for $100k because $100k is a lot of money?  The multiple doesn't seem all that unreasonable, so it would make sense someone would hold firm.  

I have it on good authority that the multiples are higher.  Elle makes great points about record keeping.

I wonder if the multiples apply to direct revenue, or more so towards passive income.   I have made some offers on blogs, and I have seen the smaller blogs using the same multiples of the larger ones.  My issue with this is unpredictability with the smaller blogs (at least at a greater risk than the larger/aged ones)…and the income being all direct and little to none being passive.  That's a lot of work.  You would also need a big base of advertisers to make this effective and worth your time, and I would require a detailed list of all current advertisements and expirations.  Not something I have received upon request from the last few I made offers on…which in the end is what holds me off on a higher price.

Elle said:

The next paragraph was to address the actual question of the thread of whether Couple Money would sell for a million right now. I believe I have quite a ways to go before someone would offer that much to buy it. Sorry for the confusion Evan. 

 

Ah that makes sense Elle! 

JT_McGee said:

Isn't that like saying that all Yakezie members would sell their homes at a loss for $100k because $100k is a lot of money?  The multiple doesn't seem all that unreasonable, so it would make sense someone would hold firm.  

I am not sure if I think the multiple is or isn't reasonable but regardless it isn't the same because you are talking about a loss, most people started their blog for $60 bucks or less if they had a coupon code (or at least I did).  Even if I took into account ALL the freelancers I ever hired and hosting which is now on a VPS, we are probably talking about 2 months income. 

101 Centavos said:

There's some days I think I could be had for pretty cheap.  :-)

Just a guess, but I suspect that the more personality a blog has (versus more informatic, fact-based content) the harder the sale might be to a corporate buyer.  Just like a walk-through a listed house, the first thing a real estate agent advises is to "declutter". Get rid of the personal knick-knacks, and make the appeal as wide as possible.  

Just an opinion.

Good point. If you think you might want to sell in the future, then it would make sense to write more genarically.

I can't imagine my blog selling for even $1000. I wonder how many of those bloggers actually had this as part of the plan when they first started blogging. And I also wonder how many of them are already working to get another blog to that level….