The Mystery blog being sold by Jeremy is the Blog Herald. From what he’s been writing the bidding has been strong with bids now rising to be above $72,000 in the private auction currently being held. I think the ‘private’ part is that it’s happening in private and not private in the sense that only some people can bid. So if you’ve got a spare $73k to spend you might still pick it up :-)
‘The current high bidders are all looking at the blog as a brand / profile investment more than a pure cash investment. After all, 36 times monthly revenues is a fairly high multiple for any site, even if it experiences 10% growth every month (as Blog Herald does) and could earn more. At 72K, it would likely take someone about a year to earn it back with a redesign and with the growth it’s experiencing.’
It’s definitely an interesting process and I’ll be fascinated to hear more about what Jeremy, the eventual buyer and Duncan learn from it.
Update: Duncan has written a post with some of the reasons for the sale here.
Hey Darren,
Problogger takes longer and longer to load. All those external Javascripts are killing your site, to the point where it bugs me.
So are we assuming that this blog will have entirely new writers?
I’m not sure how the traffic will stick around for a whole new approach and attitude.
Help me out if I’m missing something…
I was kind of shocked that a blog with that kind of traffic earned so litte. Now I can see why. Blogs about blogging are notorius for not being high earners. Darren, I believe that you have stated that about ProBlogger several dozen times. :)
The new writers and owner will certainly have a head start since it already has lots of links, lots of regular readers, and ranks in technorati and elsewhere, but they’ve got their work cut out for them – what reputation the site has could disappear quickly with the wrong writer.
Seems a bit overpriced to me – I wouldn’t pay more than 24x monthly revenue for a site like that, and I’d be a bit worried at that because the site will be losing the writer that made it what it is – but clearly some people have good ideas for it.
Power Play, usually what happens around high profile sales like this, is that there’s a spike of traffic around the time the announcement is made, and a few weeks later it dies down. If the new owners already have readership from other sites they’ll migrate over to replace lost readers so it balances out.
It’s also a good idea to wait past this volatile point and keep the original writer on for a few weeks, then transition to new writers after the hubub dies down.
This is a very smart process they’re going through. Jeremy and Duncan are certainly showing what they’re made of here.
Michael, I don’t think it’s overpriced at all. The investment is being made in the brand and reputation of the site. It’s the perfect site to pick up if you want to position yourself in front of major portion of the blogging community and the increasing number of eyeballs watching it.
Not to mention that Duncan has been pumping out content for 3 years. That in itself has to be worth something. There’s no way anyone could step in, start a new blog like the herald and get it to where BH is at now for less than that selling price. It would take 2-3 years minimum.
Oh, and timing. The blogosphere is at a critical point right now. Whoever bought the site is positioning themselves not only in a market with massive potential for exposure, but doing it at a time when the money is starting to trickle in.
//If the new owners already have readership from other sites they’ll migrate over to replace lost readers so it balances out.//
Thanks Paul.
I had given that aspect some thought, but at the same time one has to wonder if those readers brought over will be willing to stick around when they already presumably have another one bookmarked.
Of course, the new owner could conceivably bring the whole kit-n-kaboodle over to the new digs ; )
It will be VERY interesting to watch the traffic on this one.
“It will be VERY interesting to watch the traffic on this one.”
Yes indeed it will ;-)
Paul, you are right when you say that the taffic on this one will be interesting to watch. I am thinking about all of the bloggers that initially linked to Jeremy’s blog when he first made the announcment that will probably go back and post a second link to the Blog Herald now that we know that it is the Mystery Blog.
Robb, yeah, and those are just the residual links. Wait until people like Scobel and Calacanis pick up on it, and then the mainstream press will probably follow.
Also keep in mind we don’t know who the buyer is yet and their sphere of influence. This can turn into a huge deal.
Hope BH is on a good server, cause slashdot and Digg will be posting about it soon.
Yeah, maybe the sale buzz will generate the value, that is in between of the selling price, and what one would think it is worth…
Not that it is my opinion, but you should consider the coverage a buyer might get, when it is made public who it is. That could easily be worth alot for the right kind of buyer.
Sorry to raise it but how do you sell a b5 blog? Or was BH never wholly part of b5?
Nothing like a bit of mystery to boost page views
Andy
The Blog Herald is part of b5media but like the other owners blogs (for example ensight and Problogger) were still physically in the ownership of the respective bloggers. Having said this however b5media is getting a cut from the sale.
I’ll only add to what Duncan said by saying that the reason that ownership has been retained by Duncan (as it has in the few other cases) is that these blogs were the only existing blogs that we brought into the network – all the others were started either by b5 or aboutweblogs before the merger.
[…] […]
Mystery Blog For Sale
Saw this somewhere and followed the link:
The Mystery blog being sold by Jeremy is the Blog Herald. From what he’s been writing the bidding has been strong with bids now rising to be above $72,000 in the private auction currently being held. I think
[…] Blog Herald Revealed as Mystery Blog – Bids stand at $72,000: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Half of me thinks he’s getting out while the going’s good, since blogs about blogs are terrible earners, while the other half reasons that the Blog Herald could have become something far larger, a news organization covering the blogosphere. I’m willing t (tags: blogs problogging) […]
[…] Flipping blogs can be a way to make a few quick dollars, but it’s not going to make you a millionaire. The “big sales” aren’t happening with blogs that we built to flip, they’re happening because someone has developed a great brand, steady revenue, and lots of traffic. You probably can’t accomplish that with a blog you plan on flipping. Maybe you’ll bet he one selling for $72,000 soon… Build it, flip it, profit was written on January 30, 2006 at 9:35 pm by Ben. It currently has 0 comments and you could help us out by adding one more. […]
I noticed this post this morning on Sitepoint:
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344298
Has a starting bid 0f 5k and a BIN of 50k. So I guess all the other bids mentioned above fell through? Darren, can you give us an update?