Syndicate Your Content For Search Engine Domination How Much Is Your Blog Really Worth?
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We’ve recently received a private offer of $30,000 which got us thinking how much this blog was really worth to us. Besides the obvious advertising income per month, we found out that a popular blog can make so much more with indirect sales. We have been promoting our own product, GoogleTime.info for example and within a couple of days, we’ve made more than $1,000 with it - just over 50% of that was made via a promo post we did here. We’d normally have to pay a bigger blog plenty of moolah for a review, or spend tons of money on an adwords campaign to get that kind of exposure.
This blog’s average advertising income is about $3,500 per month, and that’s private ad sales only. If we have empty spots, we usually fill those up with affiliate deals which often make us more money than the regular ad sales! So yes, if you take the rule of thumb, where sites get sold for 10×12 times their monthly revenue, the $30,000 offer was pretty much dead on, and we’ve rejected it.
Sure, 30k is a lot of money to turn down, especially for a site that’s just over 6 months old. But if someone is willing to offer such an amount, it must mean they too see more potential in the blog. Besides, we’d get bored if we didn’t have anywhere to blog!
Here’s a few things we take into consideration if we look at the value of a blog;
1) Online Reputation - Your reputation and online presence will grow along with the growth of your blog. Reputation is very important when it comes to promoting your stuff online. The more people know you, the better your odds are when you’re offering them a product or service for sale.
2) Networking Opportunities - You’ve build up a brand and people want to be a part of that brand. You’ll receive invites for beta programs, free stuff to review and get invited to work on bigger projects with others. We’ve got a couple of the big boys on our IM list since we’ve started blogging and favors are being thrown around left and right.
3) Building Content - The longer you keep working on your blog, the more content gets added and in the course of time you will have build up a substantial amount of affiliate links. Subscribers who just read your new content might now see these anymore, but the search engine visitors will and they provide you with a nice passive income stream that keeps expanding. Take the eBooks and Tools section for example; that gets over 50 hits per day via search engines from people that are looking for things like making money online.
4) Influence - The bigger you get, the more influence you will get on the things around you. This links into point 1 and 2, the online rep and networking opportunities. No company want’s to get slagged by a well known blog because it means they can lose out on business. Chances are that that company will go the extra mile to make sure that the bloggers with the most influence get whatever they want. That’s where you’ll receive the freebies and discounts. 
Obviously there’s more factors you can take into account when you’re trying to put a price-tag on your blog. Try to look ahead and see where you could possibly be in 12 months from now. Compare statistics with bigger blogs in your niche with tools like the Feed Analyzer and Alexa. See where they were a year ago and where they are now. If we’d manage to become as big as JohnChow or Shoemoney or even Problogger are now, within in a year, would the 30k have been worth it?
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Good deal for not selling. Your blog is up a coming and will be worth lots more moolah in 6 more months, and 1 year and 2 years. If you love what you’re doing you are udderly drazy to sell this soon!
Man, those typos kill me.
30k? I would have been tempted!
I dunno, I’d have been tempted, but probably have said no.
If you accepted that offer, I would have…err, I don’t even know what to say. It was a very good move though not to sell it. Yes, it’s tempting, but if you think about it (and you did), you’d make more money in the long run compared to just the one-time payment of 30,000.
Did you get our email Sly?
$30k is too few when you make $3500 per month, and thats now. In 1 year you will be making may be $10k per month or may be more! You did good rejecting the offer (Y) keep growing and you will get > $30k
I’m glad you didn’t sell. CashQuests sold and that blog is complete garbage now.
30K once off is 10 times underpriced in my opinion. Much better off keeping the blog, getting and building on the 3.5K per month and having a long term stream of revenue.
Glad you have not sold it. The value of your blog worst more than 30k. A long term vision will get you 10x 30k. Keep the good work!
Seriously cashquests has gone to crap.
The fact that your income will probably start rocketing from the blog soon, means you will be making more than 3.5k. And with your other site being promoted by this one, you will keep making more. Unless this site was a month year old baby, I would never sell it unless that cash was enough to let you retire. Even then, I’d still keep blogging. Good Choice, Cow
Justin Dupre
People shouldn’t sell their blogs period. I’m sure the ones that have sold it just recently are kicking themselves in the behind.
-Mike
Why shouldn’t people sell their blogs Mike? Blogs aren’t the ‘personal web logs’ they once were anymore anyway. Consider them the next generation magazines and tabloids.
Good job, I have been doing affiliate marketing for 2 1/2 years now through Commission Junction and as time goes by Im making more and more every month. Keep up the good work!
Hey Bob,
Wouldn’t it have been better to sell your blog for 30k and reinvest that money while creating another blog. True that this blog’s rise to fame was part effort and part luck but couldn’t you have tried to replicate this process and recreate another successful blog taking what you’ve learned through this experience.
Come to think of it, a counter offer for more than 30k would be better but selling isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Although I commend you for not selling as you can develop it further.
We can still make another blog, without having to sell this one
correct, no reason to sell johncow.com, build the empire
I just can’t believe it. But you guys took the right decision, in one year time you will be doint those 30k per month.
Good call on that one John. This blog is mostly your personal opinions and observations, and it wouldn’t be the same. Sure you would cash out, but the blog would go to dogs. Plus, you are just getting warmed up, and you have long ways to go…
Nice offer! Depends what your business model is. many people out there buy, build, sell as a business model (website flipping)
As you say though, the blog should continue to increase in value, assets should be bought and only sold if it leads to buying better assets.
@ Cow - Yup, I got your email. Sorry for the late reply.
my site is worth one million dollars.
if this was my blog, i wouldn’t sell either. this has grown to become one of the best internet marketing blogs around. if someone steps with 50k, you’ll sell tho
i’ll keep checking for you to offer an affilate program. nice work on this project
cheers
Gosh, my blog’s been going for about the same amount of time… I wish I knew what in the hell I was doing…
- Tevin
Help me find out if Blogging To The Bank is worth it.
I think the blog is better in your hannds becuase if the private buyer bought it mostly likely would loose most of your readership and ruin your name online .I think informaion sites and product sies can be sold but blogs no because they reflect to much of the owners personality unless you have the owner still writing for the blog after it is sold
Dont sell the blog John. Who will make us laugh and entertain then?
You have strong mettle to reject a 30k offer. But I suppose the readership base… the monthly earnings etc are worth a lot more than that.
When I check out using below link it gives your blog values somewhere USD20,000 compare to JohnChow USD150,000. Do you think JohnChow really worth that much?
http://www.smartpagerank.com/
Those tools are all crap.
My blog is worth $768,903.48.
How much is your blog worth?
Alot of money you have to have a reason for blogging. It’s ahrd work if you don’t know were your going then in like 1 to 2 years you will stop and sell so you need to start thinking about were you plan to take all your online ventures
I would have countered with 80K and not budged a bit.
@ Cow! Only 700k!!?? DEAL
It is said to see you guys going as I loved coming to this blog and just reading what you guys have posted. Great job as you helped out a lot of people.
lol, if you would have sold your blog, it would have been the deal of the decade…Ah, but I would have lost my favorite cow
Haven’t got the dollars over here in S.Africa but I’ll give you 2 camels and a half blind donkey?
Really wonderful. How much time we have to take our blog reach that wonderful traget?
John, I just used that tool and it said my blog is worth $31,614.24! Yea right. I wish. I wonder what criteria he’s using to determine that.
Just make sure you never sell (out) to iEntry. Look at what they have done to other blogs they have bought, such as cashquests. Talk about bad for the blogosphere.
I think it was right not to sell now though, at only 6 months old, there is obviously a lot of potential in the blog.
good job on not selling. Really 30k is a low ball offer cause you cant just set a websites worth on just income alone. So many things come into the formula. And you hit potential right on the nose.
Good Move you didn’t sell this Blog
Hi,
The most important lesson here is that everybody should have a big and clear goal for his / her blog. The truth is that if you don’t expect to earn more money via this blog, you would have sold out at this time. Keep dreaming and keep up the work.
As Steven already said, sell it and start a new one. Call it YetAnotherJohnnyCow.com, build from your experience with this blog, and make another $30k.
Can you say: INTERNET BUBBLE? I know you can.
30k does sound good but for those who haven’t had that money at one time … It doesn’t last that long. trust me.
I think you’re very smart that you didn’t sell. This blog will only continue to start making even MORE on a monthly basis - imagine how much more it’ll be worth in another six months.
And here was me thinking I was doing rather well being offered $5k for my blog last week. Although it doesn’t nearly have the same income as you Bob, it does make a few bucks every now and again.
I’ve decided not to sell for the time being too !
If your blog is worth that much then you should not sell it because this means that your blog is value and famous. You should probably continue writing good post and earn money. My blog doesn’t even worth that much money, hope one day might be there.
I would say get a real high price for it. Sell it. Wait for it to “flop” like the sold cashquest and buy it back at a lower price..
I got an offer for $3,000 for my site and it’s only around 2 months old or less. I only made $240 last month so why are they offering me so much?
Good call John.
Now that you are going to be wealthy, are you going to get one of those cow cars.
Cheers
This is a very interesting article. It really let us think about the value of a blog. What is the value of a blog? Blogs are just another kind of website, or in a broad sense, it is a business. The value of business depending on the earning and earning growth, customer base and potential. Come back to a blog, it depends on the brand of the blog, or domain name, the reader base, broad or niche, saturate or has a growth potential. But one of the most important factor which most people overlook is the database of the blog. From all these, johnchow.com has a good brand now, the data base is excellent in make money online, blog tips, SEO etc. But one of the fatal problems with these kinds of blogs are the growth potential. I check alexa rank of Johnchow.com . http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/johnchow.com The rank of johnchow was down significantly for the last three months.
This review is on stumbleupon:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.johncow.com/how-much-is-your-blog-really-worth/
John Cow’s alexa is going down because he no more cares about quality content. How much do you think people can take his eating sessions and parties? There is a limit. When there is no value being provided, the demand obviously goes down. In his recent posts, I have noticed, he doesnt even bother to correct his grammar and spellings. If he doesn’t care, why should we?
That is whats going on with John Chow.
Cure Acne, John Chow? Seems you’re commenting on the wrong blog. Unless you’re spamming for your pimple site?
I am responding to Netmark John. Check his comment above and then read mine. Why would I spam with such a long comment.
Hey Cow…listen Mr Acne has commented back to Netmark..to what he said…Atleast open ur eyes before reacting…and i totally agree with his comment. You Suck man totally…Blind fool!!
John, my comment was just a response to Netmark. I posted this, but it didnt come through, so I am commenting again. Dont be mistaken.
blind fool?? lol stop trying to create controversy to get visits to the sites your linking up. anyone can see thats what you guys are doing.
Interesting. Ripari, why are you so keen on defending me? Weird.
lol who is linking up? i never gave any link in my comment..i jus replied to what Mr Acne said…i dont even know him…wat a joke.Interesting attitude…Keep it up..
John,
I like your blog a lot, at least many of posts before. I pointed this problem to alert you. This is the problem with many similar blogs, check problogger, doshdosh. All of the traffic is going down. When people realize making 100K from blogs is not for everybody. The readers will be saturated.
Most of people do not understand that delivering high quality contents continuously and expand the reader base are the two most importance factors in blogging. Social networks can give your some nice traffic to start. But the ultimate income sources are the people who search on the topic, click on google adsense. I found that traffic from google search spent more time on the blog.
I agree with you Netmark. Google visitors stay because they are looking for something specific.
@ Ripari - You say you don’t know him yet you ran to his aid right away. Quick to trash a blogger that made a mistake thinking it was a comment to him. Duh it is his blog and anyone can make that mistake - But who are you to criticize? How much money do you make Online?
I;ve started m blog six month ago. If I use technorati assessment, it sas m blog 12K worth.
I am not sure…