I first delved into the world of niche sites and internet marketing in May 2011 and since then it’s been a great way of getting some extra income. I used to produce income reports detailing how much I earn and a ballpark would probably be around £400 (US$650) a month at a guess ever since although some months were down and some months were up.
I’ve sold a website
Yesterday I sold my first every niche site. That’s the first niche site I ever created and also the first time I’ve sold one too. It has been my one constant, full of great content, plenty of visitors, a a constant income stream earning me around £200 (US$325) a month on average but in the end I decided to cash out and get some money up front. If I’ve spoken to you about this website before then you’ll know it as the ‘minicab one’.
How much did I sell it for?
It’s a tough one putting a price on a website that earns through AdSense and in the past people were getting 24-36 times their monthly income for a site, but now it’s generally 12-18 times, and in the end I actually settled for x11 my monthly income which netted me £2,250 (US$3,656). Obviously I would’ve liked more money but that’s what it ended as for a quick deal.
A sure thing
The fact is that my money through AdSense was never guaranteed and although I could reasonably predict that I would’ve got £200 each month from the website I’ve just sold, the fact is it could also suddenly loose all it’s revenue should it lose its rank in Google. The fact is that it’s survived through all the Google updates so far (Panda/Penguin/EMD, etc) so I don’t expect that will happen but I’ve insured myself against that happening but selling up with a lump sum in my bank. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in a years time so it’s far better to get the money now and I feel happy with the sale.
What next?
Seeing that my best earning website has just been sold I will now definitely have to concentrate on my other sites which cumulatively earn around £150 (US$240) a month and try and get a couple of those to earn bigger. Most of my sites have been on autopilot since the Summer so I’m hoping that it won’t take too much work to get them ranking higher with a spring clean and some new fresh content. I usually write all the content myself but now that I have some extra cash I am going to look at outsourcing some of it as long as I can keep to a high quality.
Who knows, I may even get started on that ‘authority site’ that I’ve been banging on about for the past year!
Congrats Adem,
How did you sell the website? Just interested whether you’d marketed the site or someone had come to you looking to buy?
Jon
Funny story actually. A week ago I found a website that had copied all my content from the site and so emailed them to get them to remove it.
Yesterday I got a call from the website owner who had apparently commisioned someone to make the site and they had just ripped mine off! I explained that I wanted all the content removed and in the end he said that he’d rather just buy my site off me and get his money back from the rip-off guys.
Done.
That’s a good story! I don’t think my first website would fetch anything at all!
If that money is burning a hole in your pocket, you could try my new content writing service:
http://joecanwrite.wordpress.com/
Cheers, Joe
Joe´s last post ..Monthly Income Report: December 2012 and Plans for 2013
This is fantastic. Very happy for you Adem. I’d love to pick your brains about how this all came together – but I get the feeling if I do some digging on your blog i’ll find it? It’s funny – a few months back when I decided I was going to go freelance with my web design I was having a brainstorming session to come up with names/USPs. I made a list of sites with new/rare concepts/content that I could pre-prepare and sell to a bidder. Then I had the crazy idea of making them, monetizing them and managing them myself – just to see what happens. I didn’t think it’d be worth it at the time – and god knows I haven’t had the time since I started my new job – but with things smoothing out and there being a real need for my income to increase, this is really inspiring.
Dennison´s last post ..
If you have a look through the archives you’ll see what I’ve been up to but I’m free for a chat too so you know where to find me.
It’s hard to sell a website without the stats to back it up (revenue/visitors) and a history behind it so I don’t think I could make money by quickly turning around a website and selling it on, although there are plenty who do e.g. http://adsenseflippers.com/ but you have to roll a hell of a lot out.
I prefer to go down the monetisation route like you said which gives monthly income, and then the chance to sell a website for better money. I’ve had plenty of crap websites too which earn zero so be prepared for some failures too.
As I said feel free to come by for a chat if you want a few pointers of what I’ve done, but also check out my old posts too.
Congrats! Sounds like a good result for you there. Any plans to launch more niche sites or just concentrating on your remaining ones?
Thanks mate. I have some sites that have potential but I also have some that I should really cut loose. Once I’ve done that then I might get a few more domains and see where that goes but I’ve not got a set plan.