Cashing Out - When Is The Right Time
written by John Chow
I was talking to my friend Matt Coddington and he told me he has listed his blog, Net Business Blog, for sale at the Sitepoint Marketplace. The current bid is $5,100 and there is a $20,000 BIN in case you want to take it right now.
All this got me thinking about the exit strategy. At what point do you cash out? Net Business Blog has been up for only five months but in that short time, Matt has build it into in a $1,500 per month revenue generating machine. Matt says the blog has no expenses (other than his own time updating) so all income is profit. If Matt sell the blog for the $20,000 BIN price, it would be a very good return for five months of work.
I am not sure if Matt started NBB with the intention of selling it down the road. He tells me he wanted to work more on his personal blog. This is not the first time Matt has sold a site. He seems to be following a model of build it and sell it. I have never sold any sites that I’ve created. I don’t have an exit strategy for this blog because I don’t plan to exit. This is why I run the blog using my name - that makes is pretty much impossible to sell. What’s a John Chow dot Com without John Chow?
I wish Matt good luck on the sale. I hope the new owner continues to deliver the quality content that Matt pumps out on a daily basis. Do you have an exit strategy? At what point do you sell and how much would you sell for? If you had sold a site, I would love to hear how the site is doing now.
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Wow, 20k Bin… higher than the usual rate around site point…
They usually pay 10 - 12 month advanced according to monthly NET revenue… I wonder how it will go for him…
there is no usual rate on sitepoint… sometimes every 100k + sales are there
Yikes! Just going to read up on it now. That’s pretty surprising.
It also surprised me a lot
John I think you mean “exit” rather than “exist” unless you really don’t plan on existing
lol, im sure her meant exit.
I hope.
LOL, good catch Dan! Maybe John was wanting to turn this into a philosophy blog. But I think you still need to have an “exist strategy” in order to do that. Or perhaps maybe not. Hmmm.
Ah what the heck, stay around - exist and don’t plan on exiting for any time.
Lots of word and gender confusion running here on a sleepy Sat morning.
Matt is a smart guy…:)
I definitely wouldn’t keep reading Johnchow.com if you sold it! The main way blogs differentiate each other is by being personal and very much owned by the author. If a blog is sold it would have completly lost it’s main factor which makes it stand out from the competition (the author being different) and the new author would have to rebrand everything.
Why doesn’t my mybloglog face appear?
Guess the problem still exists with my bloglog.
I see your shadow if that helps any
I am also in the process of selling my blog after only 4 months. I think I have a potential buyer, but he seems to want it at times, then not want it. I am selling for the same reason, I want to focus more on my personal blog, plus I just don’t have the time to write decent posts for the topic I picked.
I am not going to get $20,000, but I think I did pretty good for my first website. If anyone else would like to make an offer, let me know.
Don’t wanna be your grammar teacher but it’s exit strategy not exist strategy.
I really like Matt’s Blog. When he sells it, I think I will stop reading it. He is what makes his blog worthwhile.
Same here what matters is who writes it. To hold up the readers after he goes will be the toughest job
You have to admit, it would be interesting to see how the blog goes with a new person running it.
exactly, it takes a lot to maintain a good blog
without constant good contents, you’d eventually lose followers, consequently site traffic and income…
I doubt the blog will go for the BIN.
I covered this sale on my blog, and am interested in the value a blog has once divorced from its owner.
I welcome anyone’s opinions on this - I think it is a very interesting area for discussion.
- Martin Reed
That sounds a fair deal. 5 months 20000$. Just wondering whats the future plans
Being a proxy owner, I have sold many many sites.
I usually sell a site when its at its peak making about $100 a day. I get bored. I know its easy money. But I also know the site will get smart priced. I always let the buyer know the risks in proxies.
I build sites for profit. so I ALWAYS have an exit strategy in mind. Because the most profit will come from a single sale. The Best offer I have ever gotten was 12X monthly revenue.
The best ones are directories though, because much like “real” businesses, a directory can also gather ‘goodwill’ and can be sold for more than it is actually earnings.
If you want more information about flipping sites or earning a quick profit without being a ‘dot com mogul’ check out my blog.
Your site is so similar to John’s, it’s scary.
Get your own personality, he may help your blog out more.
Do you mean in terms of content or the look of the site?
Huh. I’m looking at your blog Mubin and nothing makes me think “John Chow” or “John Chow copycat” so I wouldn’t worry about it. Money Blog, what are you spotting?
Thank God for that! I was scared for a minute. I did copy the theme from John’s in the start and thought I would change it later, but so many things have changed and with the plugins etc, I think I’m stuck with mistylook for now.
what types of sites have you sold?
I hadn’t thought of even having an exit strategy. When I started blogging it was out of curiousity, then I needed a habit to get me started writing.
Later on, I began to collect some real content, I had tried Adsense of course failed. But then PPP rekindled my interest last summer in creating a website for profit.
The big shift came in October when I migrated my old blog to another location and got started in what is now InvestorBlogger (version 2.0).
I’m currently making around 250-300 per month (so it’s not much), but I’m enjoying the ride!
Can we use your beer mug icon?
I sold a few of my domain names and sites. Mostly in the $750-1500 range. My favorite the name I purchased for $9 and sold for $750. No work, now advertising, just threw up a one page for sale sign and that was it.
Michael
I would guess you have to get really lucky with that though right?
I contemplated selling OCIA.net a few years ago, but it never happened and boy an I glad it didn’t. That would have been a HUGE mistake!
[...] Matt Coddington, the brains behind Net Business Blog, is planning on selling his creation. His blog is listed on the SitePoint marketplace, with a current bid of $5,100 and a buy it now of [...]
If i were Matt, i wouldn’t have sold NBB unless i run out of topics
Perhaps that’s what he feels like. I remember my old boss saying there were two kinds of business people: the starters and the managers. Maybe he’s the first!
Can’t sell my site either… Don’t even know another Dy Phan
John,
You have to give me some credit that we got talking about an exit strategy at your richjerk for sale article!
I strongly agree — John Chow dot com can’t possibly work without John Chow. It’s good to know you’re sticking around, man.
I’ve read this for the past week. i really enjoy your blog and I look forward to writing about it.
i sold my site monopolo.com last year, and it has been revamped and turned into a t-shirt site
looks nice
i should’ve asked for more!
What was it about when you were running it? Tshirts and monopolo — actually makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it.
Seeing as I’ve recently turned down offers to sell the Aaron Cook dot Com domain (there are two Major League Baseball players named Aaron Cook…one for the Colorado Rockies and one for the Los Angeles Angels), I have no plan on exiting.
I waited 4 long years to finally snag it and I don’t plan on letting it go. Perhaps if offers reached $50,000 or more I’d reconsider, but I highly doubt it. My name means a lot to me.
Nopes I won’t sell my lovely blog!!
Cheers!!
Jason
I Blog at http://jsbi.blogspot.com
That’s why I think bloggers should branch out a little bit and at least try to start something other than a blog.
Blog as long as you can, but remember that if you are blogging for profit, you may actually just be an employee of your blog.
I wish Matt the best! One thing that got me curious was this: A blog is supposed to be a personal thing, one’s thoughts and views. If Matt successfully sells his blog, which I think will happen, the content and writing style will totally be different from the moment that the sale is finalized. If the blog has gained a loyal following, what will the readers think? What will they feel? Just curiousity guys. Mabuhay! http://www.anitokid.blogspot.com
A smart person would buy the blog, and than put it in the hands of an experience freelance writer that could continue the style of Matt’s writing.
I tried commenting on this earlier, but I got a page error so here I go again:
That’s actually very feasible. I think it’s going to be tough to convince the old readers to stick around though. The new publisher has to provide really amazing content and a convincing style to get old and new traffic into the site.
John may not have an exit stategy but it’s obvious what his main plans are with this blog in the future and if you can’t see it, then you lose.
All websites and blogs need some kind of blue print or your just doing it for a hobby or fun and if your doing it for that then making money online and this website is of no use for you. If you plan to make money you need a beginning and end plan.
You all are and me part of the johnchow.com experiment that has just begun. Frightening isn’t it?
[...] exit strategy might not be an option. Think you can build a blog up for a year or two and sell it for a decent sum? Think again. “You” are the blog. Without “you”, your blog [...]
I actually happened across this sale listing too. I don’t think he’ll get anywhere close to $20k, and I’ve listed some of the reasons on my website.
The real reason he is selling it, is because he did a lot of advertising to get the traffic to where it was. Once he stopped advertising the traffic dropped off. The new owner will have trouble commanding the same price for paid reviews because of lower traffic. I don’t think you’ll see offers too much higher than the current $5500. And if Matt really thought he could earn $1500/mon he wouldn’t sell it for that low a price.
interesting point.. how do you know how much he spent on advertising?
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
[...] I wrote about a blog sale listing that I had run across. What do you know, John Chow wrote about the same sale. In yesterday’s post I was just trying to show that one has to [...]
1500/mth means that by 13.3 month you break even. 100% return in 13.3 month..not bad investment…other thant you will need time investment too
john your blog is worth $169,000
http://www.dnscoop.com do a check for it…nice payout if you take it!