I’m not sure if any of you out there are curious just how the sale of A Penny Saved went down, but I thought I’d try and give you the basics and if anyone wants the nitty gritty of it, they can ask.
First things first. I needed to find a place to advertise. It wouldn’t do to advertise on the blog itself as that has the potential to push subscribers/readers away. In this case, I chose to advertise the site on the forums at digital point. I could also have listed it at sitepoint, but that costs money and it isn’t as if I am selling a $1000+ blog. Digital Point is free and all you have to do is meet a minimum post requirement. I’m well over that, so it was super easy to post the advert.
Since it was my first time putting up an advertisement like this, I left out about half the information that I should have included. Things like proof of revenue and proof of traffic. Details like the expiration date of the domain and where the revenue comes from. In the case of Penny Saved, I just took screen prints of the various revenue sources, blurred out the non-related info (account numbers, other sites, etc.) and stitched them all together into one image and posted that.
In the case of A Penny Saved, I decided to run the auction about 11 days. I did this because of scheduling conflicts with my schedule as if it had gone 7 days (standard) it would have ended on a Friday and I would have been out of town until Monday. That spells communications breakdown and a lost sale to me. In any case, as the auction proceeded, I got a feel for what the market was willing to pay and tried to entice buyers by lowering the buy it now price. I also set a reserve price that I wouldn’t sell for less than.
By the end of the auction, no person had bid more than the reserve. I received a private message offering to pay the reserve for the site. I accepted. Communications began and quickly ended. I was unable to get a response from the person and had received another offer for the same price in the mean time. I waited one week to hear back from the first person and then offered it up to the remaining people who had made offers.
One of them accepted the price and we began communications. Communication is, at this point, the most important part. The buyer is going to give you a fairly large sum of money and trust that you will follow through with the files for the site. In some cases, a buyer will ask to get the files for the site first. In those cases, the seller will get them the files, they will pay and then the seller will get them the databases and the more important data.
In the process of selling A Penny Saved, I had forgotten several things. A couple of advertisers and one or two affiliates had slipped my mind. As I remembered them, I passed the information on. The process from payment to finished took about 1 week. There is still the possibility that questions might arise, but for the most part the transaction is complete. All parties are happy.
Selling a blog really wasn’t as difficult as it appeared. I’m glad I jumped in and did it. The site is in good hands, and I’ve got a little more free time.
Technorati Tags: sell, sale, blog sale, blog, sell a blog
About Shane Ede
Just wanted to say that if Shane sells a site again, he’s a good person to buy from. A Penny Saved was the first site I purchased, and it went way smoother than I could’ve hoped. Communication was definitely the key to everything.
Thanks for the recommendation Leroy. It was a pleasure doing business with you and as anyone who’s done a transaction before knows, it can only go smoothly if both sides do the steps right. Guess that says a bit for both of us!