Happy Monday, folks! Last week I told you that I decided to invest in a blog. Well, I am happy to share with you my plans for this investment today and also reveal the blog……
Using Flippa to Buy a Blog
I have browsed Flippa quite a few times. It’s just fun to see the crazy high numbers that some blogs sell for. Originally I had thought that purchasing a blog from Flippa would be too much money. Not to mention it’s a little intimidating to think about transferring a blog. I am not techie – at all.
I started browsing the business/finance niches on Flippa. Immediately I saw a PR3 (Page Rank is Googles website ranking system) personal finance blog with a buy now price of $55. There were three other bids on the blog already so I snatched it up fast.
Purchasing a PR3 blog for $55 sounds like a great deal and I think it is, but there are some down sides too.
- The blog is new. It was built on an expired domain name.
- Questionable content.
- No Moz Rank, Domain Authority, or Page Authority (ranks that advertisers look at)
It’s not all bad though. I really like the theme and it seems like it’s definitely set up for SEO (search engine optimization.) This theme alone costs $99. I also have a ton of content that I can use in my back linking strategy and a good domain name.
The transfer of the blog was super easy. The seller I worked with was fantastic. Overall I am feeling great about the purchase.
My Plans for the Blog
Now that I have the blog in my possession it’s time to get busy. I figure I have two options:
- Try to sell for more money in 6months to 1 year
- Work on building income and keep it
What would you try to do? Right now I am thinking it would be pretty fun to work on it for 6 months or so and then see what kind of money I could get out of it.
So, the site I purchased is Defeat Our Debt. If you check it out let me know what you do and don’t like about it.
Here is a gist of what will happen to this blog:
- Delete spammy/sleazy posts and use them as part of the back linking strategy
- Write one or two posts a week for the blog
- Research and write a handful of really valuable posts
- Do keyword research
- Work on back linking (carnivals and the above mentioned strategy)
- Find quality affiliate programs to promote
- Work on monetization methods
I realize right now that the content on this site isn’t the best. I have deleted a few posts as of now but there are 471 articles on this blog. It’s going to take me awhile to edit and remove them. (The first two posts on the blog are the only two written by me.)
I am excited to get to work on this and see what I can make of it. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and any money that I make off of it.
If you have any suggestions let me know! Also, are any of you interested in seeing if I can flip the website or do you think I should hold it if it produces income?
I think you should try to build it up for the next 1-2 years and then sell it, assuming you can get the right price. At the same time, I also personally really like the idea of having multiple websites bringing in revenue to mitigate the risk of any one of them imploding. It’s a big reason I plan on starting one or two new blogs in 2014.
I want to see what I can do with it but six months probably isn’t enough time. 1-2 years is probably a little smarter. I love the idea of flipping it but if it does bring me extra income I’m not sure if I’ll be able to part with it.
Hey Alexa, good luck with the new project! I’m still a little suspicious of why the price was so low but maybe you just got lucky. I’d probably give it a year or so and see what kind of revenue you can build. At that point you should be able to flip it for a profit or hold onto it as another revenue stream as long as it doesn’t interfere with your core business.
It was built by a company who builds new blogs and flips them. He says he always uses expired domains and I think it was luck that this one came with a PR3. There are a lot of posts on it but my guess is that they are all spun. I was suspicious too but for $55 I couldn’t pass it up.
This is well out of my area of expertise so I don’t have any advice, but I’m really excited to learn from your experience. It’s such a small investment and I think you’ve got a chance to do some really cool things with it.
Sounds awesome, Alexa! I think that buying an existing blog is an awesome idea. Some new blogs never get to a PR 3 at all…and you’re already starting there =)
I think you should try and build it too – just for fun. Could be a huge money maker, especially starting off at a PF3!
Thanks for the tutorial…it sounds like an interesting idea. I didn’t know there were companies which solely focused on building a site to flip. And only for $55? Good luck with building it. I checked out the site and it looks pretty good…and PR 3 sounds good.
How cool! It sounds like you have a lot of content to work with and for $55 you really can’t go too wrong. Seems like a pretty low risk (other than your time commitment) with potentially significant rewards.
I say build it up first as well. Sounds like a great deal!
I wish I had some advice but I’ve never done anything like that! I’ll be curious to see how this goes for you and maybe I can learn a thing or two. Good luck!
Keeping our fingers crossed. It wasn’t too costly, so you don’t have what to lose. I personally like to develop my own sites and am also trying to keep as few as possible. Have tried the ‘many sites’ route and it didn’t really work well for me
When I tried my “niche sites” it was pretty time consuming. For this one though I think I’ll just write one or two posts a week and maybe outsource carnival submissions. Hopefully this blog will go better.
It is a lot of fun to browse Fippa, isn’t it?
Definitely keep it, build it up, and use it for either advertising or promoting your own sites (or the sites of your friends – hint, hint – me). If you’re not satisfied with the income you pull in after 6 to 12 months, then go ahead and sell it. Surely by then it should have DA, PA, and Moz. I’m guessing you could probably sell it for $500 to $1000 without a ton of effort, and that would be a huge multiple over your initial investment.
Well I do owe you for the good advice! I think I just need to put it in my head to allow the blog enough time to do something for me. Even if it does only bring $500 – $1000 in six months I’ll still feel pretty good about that.
This is just my opinion. I say keep it and build it. See how much you can get out of it. Good luck! 🙂
Thanks, Brit!
Checked out the site and can’t believe the content and theme you got for $55. What a deal! I look forward to seeing how your new adventure will work for you. Hope you have a wonderful day~
This such an interesting process. Thanks for showing me how to do it! So how mucho they income does a $55 blog come with? Are we talking $10/mo?
Right now it doesn’t have any income. The blog was just built using an expired domain. However, I think if I can work on the other rankings fairly quickly that I can make a minimum of $300/month in direct advertising.
Like most of your blogging commenters here I have a personal financial blog as well. I started it in March of this year with the two goals being to help others and earn an income while doing so. So far, I’m not sure if I’ve made progress on the first goal but I’m certain I’ve not earned any income!!!
I was kind of surprised that you chose a personal finance blog because it seems like it’s hard to monetize. I struggle with telling people to save money and then say “Hey, buy this!” I know it’s not unreasonable to suggest good products, but I’m still somehow uncomfortable with it given my focus.
I can’t wait to see how you do it and I wish you a ton of success!
Ree
Well, what I think about personal finance blogs is that finance companies have a lot more money to spend on direct advertising and CPC advertising than other niches. This is especially true with Google Adsense. My mistake with the coon hunters blog was that it did get clicks but the ad payout was pitiful. Also, there are a ton of direct advertising opportunities in the personal finance field if you can get your stats built up.
I love to look on Flippa and secretly want to list my blog to see how much I could get.
For your purchase, I’d built it up with a goal in mind of how much you would like to sell it for and see what happens. I am way to attached to my blog and it was too steep of a learning curve to do everything by the book. If it’s not something I want to say, I can’t write for keywords. It would be fun to have another site to run directly by the books to try to build income.
Assuming you have some good advertiser contacts, you can now offer them two sites instead of one! That doubles your blogging income immediately without much more work. I love it.
Investing in blogs is, in my opinion, a great way to make money if done right. As PR is being phased out by Google, getting that Domain Authority up will be really valuable to you.
Wow Alexa I ad no idea you could buy blogs like this. Congrats on your new blog and interested to see where you take it.
Purchasing a PR3 blog was a very good choice! Good luck with your new website and I’m looking forward to visit your blog.
Hey Alexa and congrats again on the new blog 🙂
Like most here, I would say keep the blog and build on it. It would be a great resource for those working on defeating their debt and could include great guest posts, interviews with individuals/families who have gotten out of debt and so on. You may also want to look into outsourcing some of the content when you are too busy rockin’ your freelance writing gigs 🙂
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.
Take care and all the best.
Lyle
Buying on Flippa can be risky as you don’t know what kind of sketchy linking has been done to already established websites that are for sale. Unfortunately, if you buy one that has been penalized it’ll take MAJOR time to get it where you want it to be and you’re better off starting from scratch with a brand new domain. Been there, done that. Never making that mistake again.
For example in early August of 2011 when there was economic crisis in the world, and then you’ll have to run away.
Because gold and rosland capital the other commodities, the supply and demand, and demand has surely soared over the past three years when compared to equity funds.