I’ve been creating content online since 2006. I started out building a camping website with my husband, which we would work on in the evenings after the kids went to bed. We came up with the topic through keyword research and looking at the stats. It was purely about the stats, because let me tell you, I hate camping. A true vacation to me includes a hotel room, a pool and maid service.
Needless to say, we weren’t successful and we ended up losing money. But I had been bitten by the online bug and knew this was where I belonged.
Start with a Topic You Know and Love
Fast forward a few months, when we decided to create another website. It was on a topic I could sink my teeth into, write hundreds of articles off the top of my head and just enjoy. My husband did the keyword research and I wrote the articles. We started making money within a few months and I knew we had something legitimate on our hands.
After working on the site for about 8 months and increasing the income to just under $1,000 a month on average, we decided to sell. I was bored. I felt like I really had nothing left to give to the site and I was ready to move on to something else. We listed the site on a popular online website marketplace and within a few days sold the site for a high four-figure sum.
Show Me the Money
This site had around 25 pages of content, so let’s do the math here: sold for $7,500, which was making $900 a month and we created around 3 pages per month. The first three months we made just about nothing. Then it went from $200, to $400 to $600 and stayed at $900 up until we sold. Let’s figure we made around $11,000 total from both the sale and the combined monthly income. That means we were paid around $440 per page we wrote. Not bad. The buyer was purchasing a website which was ranking really well for highly searched keywords in the search engines, plus a steady income we had built. It was a win-win.
I think this site sold for what it did for several reasons:
- I was writing about something I was passionate about and had first-hand knowledge of and experience with
- We did the research up front to make sure we had a reasonable shot at making the site quite profitable if we did the work required
- We wrote the content with our readers in mind first of all, but using words that the search engines would like and would reward us for
And Then Blogging Entered My Life…
After building websites, I discovered the world of blogging. I have not looked back since. Not only have I built and run several successful blogs, but I have also sold several. Some I built with the intention of selling, while others I decided to sell after simply losing the desire to continue pouring myself into it. Chalk it up to a short attention span.
Let’s play with the numbers for a minute, shall we?
I sold one blog for $4,000 after building it for 6 months. How did I come up with the idea for the blog? I focused on both keyword research and knowledge about the topic. Do you see a pattern here?
The blog was making just over $500 a month and I was working on it for about an hour a day. It’s not an extreme amount of money by any means, but $500 a month can make or break the bank for some people.
The Moral of the Story
What’s the moral of the story here? There are several actually.
Each post you write has value. Whether you are writing the posts on your blog for your readers, for the search engines, or to appeal to a potential future buyer, each post you write has value. So treat it that way.
It is possible to make a decent income with your blogging efforts. I have people ask me all the time “Can I really make money from this?” Yes. But, it takes knowledge about your topic, passion and a willingness to consistently do the work required.
You don’t have to be an A-lister to make money. I am by no means an A-list blogger. Most people in the online world don’t even know I exist. I kind of like it that way. But I can tell you this; I make a full-time income from my blogs and am thankful every day for this opportunity that I have been given.
Do you have any secrets to your blogging success? Have you bought or sold a blog? Share a little of your blogging story in the comment section below.
Knowing how to keyword research is critical folks. Make sure you target the right keywords. The estimator tools from Google can be a good source of keyword ideas; either the Google Keyword Tool or Google Traffic Estimator. HOWEVER, don’t take Google’s word for the monthly searches. Run a cheap and quick Google adwords test ($100 or so) to find out what people are actually searching for (ad impressions on Google search only). One additional note, consider all local configurations to such as keyword city, city keyword, city state initial keyword, keyword city state initial, etc. Hope that helps – Good luck! For more additional information visit http://www.dock29i.com. (@dock29)
@dock29 Great comment. We are planning to write a follow up step by step post on how to search for the most relevant keywords and integrate them into your blog. If you are interested in writing a guest post send an email to Matt@blogworldexpo.com
@blogworld@dock29 Looking forward to the post on searching for keywords.
@dock29 Thank you for your comment. I agree, keyword research is critical. Almost more now than ever, with the amount of content being produced. Thank you also for the tips!
@mattsurfs Notice! Be careful when using money spells! http://t.co/cGm5xxJF
@mattsurfs The Myth About How To Make Easy Money Online http://t.co/HTY3FgjV
Thank you for the tweets guys! 🙂 @mattsurfs @blogworld
Thanks for the mention Alli! @allison_boyer
@gerri50 Thank you for the re-tweet of my @blogworld article. Much appreciated! Have a great week.
@juliebonner No problem. It was a good read. Hope you have a great week too!
Wonderful read. I have just started out with my blogging and hope to sell it in the future. These tips have definitely helped me.
@Porrazzo You’re welcome! Thank you so much.
@JulieBonner The stats are awesome. Selling a blog for $4k within 6 months and also $7.5k for a 25 page blog. Your earnings also show why your blog sold for such high value. Can you tell me the site or place, where can I sell my blogs if necessary? And, how do I estimate the value of my blog?
I found your post really interesting, its a good post to share.You are doing a great job.Thanks for such a nice post.
It’s nice to hear about the success stories. Keeps the rest of us going 🙂
If your blog was making $1000 a month is it really worth selling it off? personally I’d be hanging onto it!