What is Blog Flipping? How to Make Money Selling Websites as a Side Hustle
There are many ways to make a living from blogging. These include affiliate marketing, digital products, and sponsored posts. One less-known method to make money with your blog is selling it or flipping it.
If you are anything like me, you may be familiar with “house flipping.” This is when you buy a house in good condition, renovate it, and then “flip” it to make a profit.
Blogs are the same. Five blogs were started by me, two of them later for a profit. The other one that I am currently working on, I expect to sell for at least mid-five figures.
A blog sale can be highly lucrative. Some bloggers make six figures by selling their sites. This is everything you need to know about how to sell your blog.
Three Ways to Sell Your Blog
There are three ways to make a blog profitable.
- Your blog can be sold.
This is the best route to go if you have a blog making money. Sell your site. Bloggers looking for an exit strategy from their blog can consider this option. You might consider selling your current site before starting a new venture or blog.
- You can create and sell your blog right from scratch.
You can also create a new blog entirely from scratch and build it up before selling it. This is the preferred way I use with my blogs. It’s a more time-intensive investment than other options, but it’s also less monetary.
- Flip an existing blog.
You can also buy an existing blog and build it up. Then you can flip it for a profit. This strategy is great because it eliminates the need to start a new blog and gives you a well-established blog to work from. For less than $1,000, you can buy blogs that already have dozens of quality articles and some traffic.
These paths will be discussed in more detail, but let’s first discuss the basics of selling blogs.
What Can You Make Your Blog Sell for?
It is easy to determine the typical valuation formula used to determine the selling price for a blog. To determine a fair selling price, you can multiply the average monthly net profit over the past six to 12 months by a certain multiple.
The multiple is usually between 20-40 and depends on various factors. For example, brokers may recommend you list your blog at the following price if you sell it.
Let’s take, for example, a blog that makes an average of $100 per month. It could be sold for as little as $2,000 (with 20x multiplier) or as much as $4,000 (with 40x multiplier).
How to Sell a Blog
Perhaps you are curious about the process of selling your blog.
Here’s a quick overview of what to do once you find a buyer.
- Adopt a site selling price.
- Sign the sales contract. If you’re working with a broker, handle the sales contract.
- You can receive a payment from the buyer via an escrow account. Escrow.com is the most popular way to do this.
- The assets should be transferred to the buyer. This includes website files, domain names, databases, social media accounts, and email subscribers.
- Once they have received all the items, the buyer can release funds from escrow.
- You will receive the money from the sale in your bank account.
That’s all. This process can take a few days, but I have found that it takes about a week to close the sale.
Create and sell a blog from scratch
A blog can also be sold by creating a new blog entirely from scratch. This strategy allows you to make a profit and monetize the blog.
- Select a niche to host your blog
First, choose a niche for your blog. These are some niche ideas to help you get started.
- Fitness and health
- Fashion
- Home decor
- Parenting
- Beauty
- Personal finance
- Organization
- Lifestyle
It is essential to plan when choosing a niche. Think about the topics you will be writing about and how you can monetize them (ads or affiliate marketing).
- Start your blog
It’s easy to start a blog, and it doesn’t cost much.
Web hosting and a premium WordPress theme are the only two investments you need to make for your blog. They can be bought for less than $100.
- Write content for your blog.
Before you sell your website, you should have at least 20 quality blog posts. This is the minimum content you will need to drive consistent traffic to your blog and make money with it.
- Traffic
Traffic is another thing you will need to sell your blog. Pinterest is one of the best ways to drive traffic to a blog. SEO (search engine optimization), however, is a long-term strategy.
- Make money with your blog.
Your blog will earn more money, which will allow you to sell it later for more!
Advertising and affiliate marketing are two of the best ways for your blog to be monetized.
My two blogs, which I sold, were only monetized by ads and the Amazon affiliate program. So it was much easier to sell the accounts and transfer them to new owners.
Interested in selling your blog at a high price? Get your ballpark valuation today! But also keep in mind that your domain name (.com name, for example) can be of high worth and your brand (social media followers, etc.). It is not only about the revenue that you make. So keep that in mind when selling your website/brand. Good luck with selling your blog!
