What does it take to make a blog worth $30,000 or $776,807.04?
While Brazell listed his blog’s marketable assets to include Google PageRank, SEOMoz.org’s Pagestrength, Technorati Ranking, Google Inbound Links, feed subscribers, and his web traffic statistics, what are the real selling points you need to highlight to sell your blog?
I went looking for the criteria for selling and buying a blog. What makes a blog a good buy? What are blog buyers looking for?
Blog buying and selling is still a new market. Domain buying and selling has been around for much longer. Buying a domain name is similar but different from buying a blog with content. When you buy a domain name, you are buying an address, like a piece of property without a building on it. When you buy a blog, you are buying the building, too.
BloggerTalk offers Blog Selling and Buying Guidelines, specifically designed for their forum and those offering their blogs for sale or buying blogs.
The information BloggerTalk requires for their blogs for sale listings are pretty basic. They want to know how much traffic the blog gets, income sources, average income, and other economics of the blog, as well as Google PageRank, Alexa Ranking, and Yahoo and Google top keyword search results. They also want to know the date the blog was established, how often you blog, and the blogging platform.
In the discussions between sellers and potential buyers, buyers want to know where traffic comes from. Incoming links have value. Do they come mostly from Google or Yahoo search results, or from Digg, Wired, Slashdot, Engadget, or other social bookmarking and networking style services or blogs? Are there solid and long term sites or forums that link to the blog? The correct number of backlinks are very important in judging the potential earning capacity of the site.
Average monthly traffic is expected, but they also want to know when and what caused traffic spikes, and how much of the traffic is consistently return traffic, not just an average pushed up due to some Diggs.
Blogspot blogs are not permitted to be listed for sale on Blogger Talk, as well as some other site selling websites I visited. Redirected sites are also not appreciated. The reasons are not clear other than the hassles of buying a redirect. I wonder if free WordPress.com blogs would also not qualify.
They say you need to be specific about exactly what you are selling. You can sell the whole shoebox, or just the domain name. Does your blog’s sale include everything on it, including the hosting service, all rights, licenses, trademarks, and customized programming and code? Or are you selling just the content and domain name? What about retaining licenses, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights? Are you keeping the content for yourself? What are you offering for sale?
Most buyers want the “whole thing”, taking over the hosting, and everything therein. But some sellers only want to sell part of the package, retaining control over the rest. You have to be specific about what you are offering when you post that first “buy this blog” notice.
If you, the packaged “blogger”, are part of the blog sale, you need to be specific with what your responsibilities will be after ownership has transferred. Are you giving up total control, or taking a step back from the power seat and only contributing? Or are you walking away? For extremely popular personality-driven blogs, new owners often want the old folks to hang around, at least for the transition.
SitePoint also offers established websites for sale in a forum-auction format. They offer a Selling A Website FAQ (pdf) and Guide To Buying A Website (pdf).
A key point they make in establishing your blog’s value is the power of its brand:
Similar to your domain name, if your website is an established brand in its content niche that might add value. For example, there is value inherent in the SitePoint name simply because it is a well-known brand among web developers and it has a presence in thousands of stores worldwide.
They also add inventory (if available), custom programming, script licenses, and an established community (regular return readers). Syndication rights and agreements would also be included in the content and services part of the blog’s value.
Looking through the list, I see a couple of blogs stating that their blog has been “appraised”. Who appraises blogs? How do you appraise a blog for sale?
Digital Point offers Domain Appraisals. According to their Domain Appraisal Guide and Appraisals: A Guide, they recommend a 10 point system for “grading” the quality of a domain name’s marketability. For them, it’s all in the name, not the history of the site itself, though for serious buyers, that’s critical. It just isn’t important for their appraisals.
Digital Point also offers Sites for buying and selling but I couldn’t find a guide listed in their forum.
I looked all over and couldn’t find any other resources or experts who specialize in appraising blogs. So I wonder where those appraisals came from? Do you know? Are there other blog buying and selling sites?
Source : http://www.blogherald.com/2007/02/13/selling-your-blog-what-are-blog-buyers-looking-for/
While Brazell listed his blog’s marketable assets to include Google PageRank, SEOMoz.org’s Pagestrength, Technorati Ranking, Google Inbound Links, feed subscribers, and his web traffic statistics, what are the real selling points you need to highlight to sell your blog?
I went looking for the criteria for selling and buying a blog. What makes a blog a good buy? What are blog buyers looking for?
Blog buying and selling is still a new market. Domain buying and selling has been around for much longer. Buying a domain name is similar but different from buying a blog with content. When you buy a domain name, you are buying an address, like a piece of property without a building on it. When you buy a blog, you are buying the building, too.
BloggerTalk offers Blog Selling and Buying Guidelines, specifically designed for their forum and those offering their blogs for sale or buying blogs.
The information BloggerTalk requires for their blogs for sale listings are pretty basic. They want to know how much traffic the blog gets, income sources, average income, and other economics of the blog, as well as Google PageRank, Alexa Ranking, and Yahoo and Google top keyword search results. They also want to know the date the blog was established, how often you blog, and the blogging platform.
In the discussions between sellers and potential buyers, buyers want to know where traffic comes from. Incoming links have value. Do they come mostly from Google or Yahoo search results, or from Digg, Wired, Slashdot, Engadget, or other social bookmarking and networking style services or blogs? Are there solid and long term sites or forums that link to the blog? The correct number of backlinks are very important in judging the potential earning capacity of the site.
Average monthly traffic is expected, but they also want to know when and what caused traffic spikes, and how much of the traffic is consistently return traffic, not just an average pushed up due to some Diggs.
Blogspot blogs are not permitted to be listed for sale on Blogger Talk, as well as some other site selling websites I visited. Redirected sites are also not appreciated. The reasons are not clear other than the hassles of buying a redirect. I wonder if free WordPress.com blogs would also not qualify.
They say you need to be specific about exactly what you are selling. You can sell the whole shoebox, or just the domain name. Does your blog’s sale include everything on it, including the hosting service, all rights, licenses, trademarks, and customized programming and code? Or are you selling just the content and domain name? What about retaining licenses, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights? Are you keeping the content for yourself? What are you offering for sale?
Most buyers want the “whole thing”, taking over the hosting, and everything therein. But some sellers only want to sell part of the package, retaining control over the rest. You have to be specific about what you are offering when you post that first “buy this blog” notice.
If you, the packaged “blogger”, are part of the blog sale, you need to be specific with what your responsibilities will be after ownership has transferred. Are you giving up total control, or taking a step back from the power seat and only contributing? Or are you walking away? For extremely popular personality-driven blogs, new owners often want the old folks to hang around, at least for the transition.
SitePoint also offers established websites for sale in a forum-auction format. They offer a Selling A Website FAQ (pdf) and Guide To Buying A Website (pdf).
A key point they make in establishing your blog’s value is the power of its brand:
Similar to your domain name, if your website is an established brand in its content niche that might add value. For example, there is value inherent in the SitePoint name simply because it is a well-known brand among web developers and it has a presence in thousands of stores worldwide.
They also add inventory (if available), custom programming, script licenses, and an established community (regular return readers). Syndication rights and agreements would also be included in the content and services part of the blog’s value.
Looking through the list, I see a couple of blogs stating that their blog has been “appraised”. Who appraises blogs? How do you appraise a blog for sale?
Digital Point offers Domain Appraisals. According to their Domain Appraisal Guide and Appraisals: A Guide, they recommend a 10 point system for “grading” the quality of a domain name’s marketability. For them, it’s all in the name, not the history of the site itself, though for serious buyers, that’s critical. It just isn’t important for their appraisals.
Digital Point also offers Sites for buying and selling but I couldn’t find a guide listed in their forum.
I looked all over and couldn’t find any other resources or experts who specialize in appraising blogs. So I wonder where those appraisals came from? Do you know? Are there other blog buying and selling sites?
Source : http://www.blogherald.com/2007/02/13/selling-your-blog-what-are-blog-buyers-looking-for/
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