Are you planning to sell off a blog you no longer have time to update regularly? Follow my experience with Flippa.com.
My plan was to list my gardening website last weekend, but, as usual life got in the way.
I have never used Flippa before, so this is a learning experience for me.
Listing the Site for Sale
This took about an hour, with half of that because I could not find my cPanel log in details. I needed these so I could verify that I owned the site by uploading a small text file from Flippa. I had the log in details on my old laptop, which fortunately still works.
I verified the Google analytics and Adsense earnings because that cost me nothing. I decided not to take any of the upgrade options.
I set a reserve price and set a starting price of $50.
I have left the auction to run at the default 30 days.
How Much Does Flippa Cost?
$29 plus a success fee, which is $10 (or 5% EDIT)
Why Am I selling?
I started too many projects and have decided to end this one because I need to devote the time I have to the two projects that I am keeping on.
I love gardening, but dislike writing about it. Gardening is my relaxation from writing and I do not want to make it my writing subject.
How Much Does the Site Earn?
On the auction you can see that the verified Adsense earnings are $15 a month. This is over the past year and with only a few, weekly posts over the past few months to keep the blog active in Google’s eyes.
Getting Bids
My first bid (at the starting price) came in within two minutes of posting the auction
Follow the Auction
Here is the link to the auction of WebGardeningTips.com, the site I am selling. (It opens in a new window)
Are You Interested?
Do you want to see how Flippa works?
Do you have any advice for me?
Are you thinking of selling your own site?
Written by Phil Turner, an ex-teacher from Ireland. Phil believes that to succeed in anything you have to help others and share your own knowledge. He makes a living mostly by writing on his own sites, which include HowToMakeExtraMoneyWriting.com and 21CWoman.com.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Andrew here from Flippa.
Thanks for choosing Flippa to sell your site. Just to clarify, we only charge a 5% success fee (ie there is no additional $10). The $10 is just the minimum success fee. Eg if you end up selling for $200, you will just pay $10.
Quick tip is to highlight your best parts in the listing title. In this instance, I’d go with something like “Established and Profitable Gardening Blog. Over 1.6K Uniques/Month.” Contact our support team if you would like it changed to this.
Once you’ve done this – maybe try featuring your listing on our front page to get further exposure for your sale. I’ve taken the liberty of adding credits to your account to cover this.
Happy selling!
Thanks Andrew. Post edited and contacting Support re your suggestions . . . Like I said, I am new to this and appreciate your help
I have now done the reading I should have done before I started and shortened the auction to 7 days rather than 30…
Up to 3 bids now. . .
There are now 6 bids. I have also reduced the reserve, so the next bid will put it over the reserve. It is standing at $155 now. Even though I keep forgetting to do the $ – € conversion I am pleased enough
Now 7 bids and reserve met. Interest is increasing after the changes suggested by Andrew (see above) were implemented by Flippa.
So far proving a very positive experience
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I woke up this morning and found my sale was $100 higher. Wow! Currently 18 bids and standing at $265. I could get really into this.
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I checked out a few Value Your Site links and found values ranging from $50 to $4,000
Now…that **would** be nice
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13 hours to go and now standing at $505 – Still zero stress. I do like this idea, a lot,
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Final 4 hours. I could not sleep because I thought I might miss new bidders. (You have to authorise new bidders before their bid is accepted) Awake since 4am this Monday morning. Still dark even now at 5am.
1 new bidder, now at $655, so while I slept I made $100, that is cool!
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The auction has just been extended automatically because I have had another bid in the final hour or so. This is great news, now $705! No trickery of people sniping and putting in last millisecond bids. I will definitely be doing this again.
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$855, after charges I should have 600 euro, which is €400 more than I ever hoped for.
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