Selling a blog – Does it involve more than cash?
Recently there is a furry of high profile blog sales. I got interested in the sale of BloggingFingers after Darren write about these blog sales. I used to subscribe to BloggingFingers in the past. Try as I may, I can’t seem to remember why I unsubscribed.
Well, the main thing is I feel a blog sale involves more than cash. It involves the community that the blog has build and the impact it has after its leader has left.
The sale of a blog is quite unique as it normally has only an author writing post after post everyday. So you as a reader will get the know this person from the tone and content of his/her writings. If you like the content, you subscribe to its feed. If you like it even more, you will promote some of its best articles to others in your community. They are what Maki called the “core audience“.
This is different from the sale of a site like Youtube. You don’t really know Chad Hurley from youtube. You are only concerned about your uploaded videos.
Matt from BloggingFingers have sold two blogs in 7 months. The first one he sold for $1000 and BloggingFingers was sold for $6000. I really applaud him for doing the hard work of starting a profitable blog and being able to flip it for profit. But selling a couple of blogs in such a short span does gives me the somthing to think about the next time he set up another blog. I quote a comment here from Mark of 45n5.com:
I think credibility is lost because when I’m asked for a link from somebody or asked to help promote something for somebody I’m doing it for them, it’s building a relationship. Or am I just being used to help get a higher price for the sale of a blog?
When I’m asked to subscribe am I doing it because you really want me as a reader or so you can sell my attention to someone else?
Anyway, I wish Matt all the best for his future endeavors (He is going to study for Entrepreneurship) and hope to see him back with a new blog (I am sure he’ll be back).
(Note: I have no problem with flipping a blog for profit. When you get a offer as good as Matt, you are stupid not to consider it. I just want to highlight the community factor)
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November 9th, 2007 at 2:51 am
Indeed there are so many blog sales going on.. the sitepoint marketplace is filled with them. I guess this can easily lead into a bubble where people overvalue a blog just because a few other blogs have sold pretty much for around the same price, even if the blog is not actually worth that..
anyway coming back to your point, of course, a blog sale is much beyond the cash aspect… in fact just today I blogged about this stating how important it is for the new owners of these blog to rebuild the existing brand image of the blog…
November 9th, 2007 at 8:05 am
The great blog bubble burst. Hope it would not be as dramatic as the dot com bubble burst.
Like most online trend, I think its cyclic, so we might be heading to a bubble burst soon.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:57 am
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