Blogging was once an enjoyable activity. However, the blogging industry realized that there was money to be earned from it, so blogging developed into a successful business model. But have you just realized that the value of your blog as a whole has increased significantly over the years? In that context, successful blogs today are valuable assets that can be purchased and sold just like any other kind of business.
If you’ve been blogging for some time, you are likely aware that your website has value. But do you know what it is worth, or how you can increase the worth of your website while preventing fraud or running afoul of the law? Let’s look at some tips to sell your content website, making sure you get the greatest price for it and avoiding typical mistakes.
Always Behave As A Media Company
You need the right mindset if you want $100k+ content buyers to see your blog. Instead of blogging for fun, act like a business owner selling a valuable asset. To achieve your goals, run your blog like a media company.
When you shift from personal blogger to content business owner, you start to see your hobby-turned-business as a valuable item that customers are willing to pay for. Your blog may have started as a hobby, but it can now be sold to content-site buyers. If you haven’t already, develop a marketable voice. Being the “face” of your blog or information should be avoided if possible because it makes it harder to sell to a potential buyer who knows if you leave, the audience will too.
Sort Out Your Documents
One of the most crucial things you can do as a business owner is to keep track of your documents, but many internet business owners neglect to do so. It’s important to have a thorough profit and loss (P&L) statement that breaks down every expense and dollar earned, not just for you as the blog owner but also for anyone who is contemplating buying your company.
To get your blog to where it is today, you should have a comprehensive understanding of the precise amounts for all expenses, earnings and losses by channel, and any other significant business charges. All of your future negotiations and any deal structuring that might be implemented should a buyer make that kind of offer, will take into account these important criteria.
Account access can be used to evaluate your analytics data, but tracking your P&L accurately requires a more labor-intensive manual process. Any further paperwork, such as asset acquisition agreements and trademark information, should be gathered and prepared to be presented to potential buyers before any negotiations start.
Establish SOPs
You’re preventing yourself from making a six-figure departure from your blog if you haven’t yet developed standard operating procedures (SOPs). A set of SOPs is a significant value-add for companies considering acquiring an established blog due to the nature of content sites in general. You will get considerably more value from having thorough instructions and step-by-step tutorials for every activity than you will from paying cloud storage fees.
When you outline the whole procedure you followed to create your blog, from beginning to end, you provide a potential customer with a more complete answer than they would receive by starting a new business from scratch. The buyer may concentrate on their core competency to scale the business if the operational details are documented and readily available to outsourced virtual assistants (VAs). Their VAs can follow your practices without requiring an in-depth demonstration from the new owner of the blog.
Negotiating Your Blog’s Price
If potential buyers are bidding on your blog-turned-media-company, you’re doing something right. When a company receives a lot of interest, deal structuring often begins, especially if the price is over seven figures. Buyers and sellers can benefit from bargain structuring because both want the best deal.
If you accept a full cash offer before knowing what other buyers are willing to do, you could leave money on the table. A buyer will often pay more for your company if they have an earnout agreement that reduces their risk after buying your blog, say, before the holidays.
For the buyer, who often has investors providing the initial capital for 7-figure+ assets, the risk is lower in an earnout that distributes the funds in chunks that both sides agree upon. If your blog isn’t making $3,000/month in net profit, you can still get close to six figures by listing for a larger multiple based on an earnout that matches your exit strategy.
Final Thoughts
Profitable blog sales are a lucrative opportunity. It’s a good way to make money online without much risk, but you must be willing to put in the work. Your sales success depends on how well you market yourself and your product. There are many ways to monetize a blog, but you must decide what works best. Do some research, think about what might work for your blog, and don’t hesitate once you have an idea.
