Elanso

Have you ever sold a blog? Are you thinking of selling one? What do you expect from the sale? What does the buyer expect? Questions and more questions. I can answer a few of the questions in my own inimitable way, but I can't answer all of them because I've never sold a blog nor do I ever intend to do so.

Sales I've Seen

The first one I actually saw happen was when Jon Phillips wrote "Not An Easy Post To Write - SWR Is For Sale". It wasn't a bad sale at all since he sold it Liz Strauss of Successful Blog, an experienced blogger. Heck, I have the badge she awarded this blog with her thanks to week 112 SOBs in my upper left sidebar and it will remain there until I decide to do something else (maybe never).

The next sale I noticed was a little strange. The story actually started before Jon's sale. It was the sale of One Man's Goal by Bryan Clark (not Brian Clark of Copyblogger). He announced the sale on November 7, 2007 with "Sold!" and stated he had sold it for $8,500. On December 30, 2008, he announced he had bought it back from Austin [somebody] for an undisclosed amount, but for less than what he sold it for with "Surprise! It Feels Good To Be Home".

The next time he sold it, he sold it to Marc Galeazzi for $10,000 (I think) . I found out about it when I read the post at Blogger Unleashed titled ""Another DumbFuck Is Born LMAO!!!!" on April 12, 2008. I hate to say it, but Marc got robbed.

The latest sale I witnessed was when Rocky John sold Blogging Mix to Matt at Work at Home Blog on May 2, 2008. Rocky John didn't give the details away, but at least he sold it someone who actually knew what he was buying.

What do sellers expect?

I think expectations are different in each case, but I think some sellers do their best to milk (or bilk) the buyers out of the most money they can possibly get. I'm sure there are some honest bloggers selling blogs for reasonable prices. They're selling a blog with a decent Google PageRank, decent and steady traffic, a fair amount of backlinks and other good rankings.

What do buyers expect?

I think buyers, all buyers, expect the blogs they've purchased to continue to perform as they did with the previous owner. I'm sure they expect, at the very least, for the rankings to remain the same until they can get completely involved with their purchases. Most of the time that happens, but not always. One thing they never expect is for the blog to take a nosedive within a month.

Buyers should never expect the blogs they purchase to continue along their current paths. Unfortunately, that's probably exactly what they expect. If that's what they expect, then most of them are in for a rude awakening. It all has to do with loyalty.

Loyalties

Okay, so you've sold your blog. Do you really expect me, or anyone else, to continue reading and participating on that blog when you're no longer the owner? I don't know about anyone else, but I read blogs because of the bloggers behind the blogs, not because of the blogs. Does that make sense?

I no longer read the blogs that I mentioned were sold. The original blogger isn't there, so why bother? If I sold one of my blogs, I wouldn't expect anyone to keep reading it either. This isn't real estate and in my not-quite-so humble opinion, a blog is only worth as much as the blogger who created it. It loses its value to me the moment it's sold.

Where are YOUR loyalties? Are they to a blog or to the blog owner (and/or author(s))? Do you give your trust to the new owner freely or do you expect them to earn it? Am I alone in my thoughts?

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For the clueless, "hasta la vista" translates from Spanish to the English colloquialism of "see you later" which, in essence, simply means "goodbye".