How I Sold My Niche Site (And How You Can Too).
Well I have some exciting news to share with you today.
Over the weekend I sold off one of my niche sites for a fantastic price – and I want to share with you the story of how how I did it (plus some exciting news if you are looking to sell one of your niche sites) …
…and I also some exciting news related to my next niche site project.
Why Did I Sell My Niche Site?
To be honest, selling any of my niche sites was the furthermost thing from my mind.
As you probably know, I am in the middle of a goal that I have set myself to create a $1,000/month passive income from new niche blogs by July 2011 – and obviously selling off my niche sites would seem counter productive to this goal.
That being said, I was made an offer that I could not refuse and here is how is how the story played out…
How I Sold My Niche Site
Out of the blue last Wednesday I received an email from a fellow blogger/internet marketer offering to purchase any of my niche sites at the standard going rate of 12 times monthly earnings (which would definitely make for an easy transaction – as there would be no fees like you would pay if you used a marketplace like Flippa). So I was definitely listening…
But along with that, he also included a higher offer for my Greenhouse niche blog, which I decided was worth more than the passive income it would bring me.
I could not have asked for an easier transaction, so I thought I would include a few tips that would help you if you are looking at selling one or more of your niche sites…
Tips For A Smooth Transaction
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Split The Payment In Half
If your sale is not more than $1,000 then the need for an escrow service is probably not essential (I personally have never used one). But what I would recommend is dividing the final sale price into two and get half of the payment upfront and the the final payment once the website has been transferred.
This can be easily done with Paypal.
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Let The Buyer Handle The Transfer
I will be the first to admit that transferring websites is something that I have never been good at. So I always make it a condition of the sale that I just provide cPanel and WordPress access and they complete the transfer. Not only does it save you time and effort, but it lets them set it up the way that they want it done.
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Make Sure You Have All Your Information
One of the reasons that the purchaser was able to make such a quick decision on the sale was because I was able to provide him with all the information that he needed to make an informed decision.
I emailed him screen shots of traffic and income from both last month and also the portion of this month that had been completed so far. And I also had domain, cPanel, FTP and WordPress login details ready to send.
Quick Tip
Make sure you change your passwords to something generic before sending them through. This means that you will not be giving out any passwords that you may be using on other blogs or accounts.
Great News If Your Looking To Sell A Niche Blog…
If you are looking to sell off one or more of your niche sites and are not looking forward to the hassle of putting it up for sale, then I have some great news for you.
The buyer of my niche site is looking to expand his portfolio even further and asked me to let him know if I hear of anyone selling niche blogs so that he can look at purchasing those as well.
So if you:
- Have Niche Site[s] Making Some Money (Doesn’t have to be hugely successful – Mine was making $20/month)
- Looking To Sell It/Them (For Whatever Reason)
- Wanting A Quick Sale
- Expecting A Fair Market Value
Then send me an email with your details and I will put you in contact with each other (and hopefully you can have a great result like I did!)
Why Did This Happen To Me?
I just wanted to touch on this point for a second, because I have been thinking about it since I received the email last week.
Why did I get an email about purchasing my niche blogs?
And the reason I believe it is, is because I have laid everything out on the table.
You can see how much each of the niche blogs are making – just by looking in my sidebar. And you can even find links to them scattered throughout my blog posts – and screenshots and thoughts.
This made me smile, because if you remember at the beginning of this challenge I set myself, I was planning on not sharing the domain names – and if I had followed through with that, I would have most likely never had this offer come through my way.
So I encourage you to be transparent. Share as much as you can and be as generous with your posts as possible – because you never know who may be reading your blog.
So What’s This I Hear About A New Niche Site?
Now if you follow me on Twitter (which I recommend you do @StandOutBlogger), then you may have noticed a tweet I wrote saying:
Just bought the domain for my next niche site :)
Now, I consulted my wife (cause she really pulls me into line when it comes to me trying to purchase new domains), and got the go ahead to start a new niche site to replace the one I just sold (oh and I plan on testing one or two Clickbank products with some of the profits as well – so stay tuned to see me put them into action), and the result is a new niche domain in the…. drum roll please….
‘Cruise’ Industry
Now I will share the back story in an upcoming post but the short version is after a lot of niche searching (BTW, found a great new strategy to brainstorm niche ideas), I found a fantastic keyword domain for a search phrase that is getting about a hundred exact searches a day (I got the .org) with a [VERY] nice CPC in Adsense – and I am looking forward to putting it all into action.
The keyword is Late Cruise Deals, and you will noticed that I’ve already installed WordPress, added one of my favourite new theme too it and used my free psd logo strategy to give it instant credibility.
The next step is to start working on some content, getting the blog indexed and then start the journey towards top 3 ranking in Google.
So you will see a new entry in the ‘niche blog stats’ section of the sidebar next month, and I will be using this blog to give you regular updates on exactly what I am doing as I build this new niche blog from the ground up.
To follow me on this journey make sure we are connected:





11 Responses
12.21.2010
Tom, great to hear the transaction went ahead as anticipated. Look forward to seeing how you tackle this new niche – you’ve got a real gem of a keyphrase there!
I’ve got another domain too which I’m slowly getting together lol.
12.21.2010
Thanks Mark, looking forward to the challenge of a new site!
Best of luck with your new one.
12.21.2010
Tom, it’s cool to see you make progress with your niche sites, I like the condition to make the transfer!
I do believe that generosity in sharing information is a actually a way of learning more and other things comes along!
Really smart post, more power to you!
12.21.2010
I totally agree Hesham.
My current goal for this blog is to just share my journey and what is and isn’t working for me as I progress towards completely my goal. What I personally get from laying this information on the table is secondary to sharing with my community.
12.22.2010
Hi Tom,
Is the buyer not considering newly created niche sites with no track record?
Thomas Sinfield Reply:
December 22nd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Well since he pays in multiples of monthly income, it just wouldn’t make sense selling him site that are not making any money because he wouldn’t offer you anything for them. Obviously he is looking for sites with organic search traffic, so that he has a base to work off.
12.24.2010
Tom, it’s cool to see you make progress with your niche sites, I like the condition to make the transfer! I do believe that generosity in sharing information is a actually a way of learning more and other things comes along! Really smart post, more power to you!
12.26.2010
Congratulations, Tom! I enjoyed the tips and the direction your site is heading in.
12.29.2010
Great stuff! I sold one of my niche websites in October when I got an email completely out of the blue as well. The tense part about it was not knowing the guy and thus being hesitant to trust him. But I got half of it up front, and I went ahead with it and it all worked out just fine. Congrats on your sale.
12.31.2010
Congrats on the sale… didn’t realize it was 12x the income, thought it’d be a lower multiple. Either way, inspiring. I have a portfolio of about 20 sites that I just keep slowly building and my ADD keeps me from finishing, but in the future do you plan on flipping more or keeping sites for their income stream?
3.7.2011
Hiya! Great site you have here. I think flipping sites is a great cash flow injection. It really depends on your business model, and your financial situation at the time. Niche sites can really be a hit and miss sometimes regardless of research. I always hold onto my sites for at least 90 days before deciding to flip or keep an expand on them.