Blog Flipping: 10 Important Factors When Selling Your Weblog Or Website
By Chuck Crawford © 2009

The market for blogs has exploded. Many companies do not want
to invest the time in developing a blog in their respective
niche, which has given rise to a whole new cottage industry,
blog flipping.

Blog flipping is done in a few different ways. Some flippers
buy an existing blog that has potential, but is not currently
producing. They take that blog and build the traffic and sales
up to a level productive enough to reap a profit from their
investment, and then sell it.

Or, more common in today's blog flipping market, is to research
a specific niche, develop a domain / blog, and then sell it.

But what does "developed" really mean? It depends on the
flipper. So buyers really need to do their homework (read due
diligence) before investing in an "established" blog or website.
Because "established" is in the eyes of the beholder, and means
many different things depending upon who you consult.

In my opinion, established means that the site, or blog, is
profitable. Now profitable can be defined very differently for
different companies. It doesn't mean that the site has to be
making money, though it does help justify the investment when
purchasing the blog. It can mean to a prospective company only
that the site has traffic that company believes it can convert
into sales. Not everyone can convert website traffic in the same
way. So there are companies out there looking to buy blogs that
have a certain, specific reader demographic that fits their
market. However, these types of sales are few and far between.
Companies that are buying blogs normally want to see one thing.

Profit.

Not just income, because a blog's gross monthly income and it's
actual profit margin can be two very different things as well.
We've all seen the advertisements screaming that you can make
ten thousand dollars a month blogging, or with Adsense, or
whatever. But the part usually left out is the investment it
takes to get that income. Sometimes the cost is far greater than
the income, making the blog or website a LOSER.

So what steps should you take to sell your blog if you are a
would be website flipper? Here are a few factors your blog or
website should have in order to get top dollar:

1. Real Web Property

Your blog needs to be a real web property. What I mean by this
is that it needs to be a real domain, on hosting you are paying
for. Free hosted blogs are not a viable investment for most
companies and corporations. There are exceptions to every rule
and I'm sure that there have been a few sales of extremely
popular Blogspot blogs, but unless you have a million visitors a
month, you're probably not going to sell a free hosted blog
anytime soon. Buy a domain, pay for some hosting, build
something that has value.

2. Professional Appearance

Your blog or website needs to have a professional appearance.
Custom design is always better, but at the very least, it needs
to have a template or layout that fits that blog's readership or
market. If you have poor graphics, even if your blog has monster
traffic, you'll sell it for much less than you could have if you
had professional web design. It's sort of like house flipping or
selling a used car. If you can afford it, a fresh coat of paint
usually brings the resell value up substantially.

3. Developed Traffic Sources

Potential buyers want to see traffic. Not just any traffic will
do for most serious investors. They want to see solid, search
engine traffic and a solid bookmarked reader base. StumbleUpon
and other social bookmarking websites are awesome traffic
sources, no doubt. But when it comes to someone buying your
blog, they want to see more than just a few traffic spikes from
a front page listing on Digg. They want to see that the traffic
is going to keep coming for months and years to come. Without a
lot of work if they can get it.

4. Documented Traffic Statistics

It is going to take more than just the summary of "hits" screen
capture from your webalizer stats to make the sale. You are
going to need at least three months history of actual traffic
statistics. Unique visitors, tracking cookie info if you have
it, Google Analytics, etc. Numbers, numbers, numbers.
Corporations want numbers in order to convince their board of
directors that your blog would be a sound investment. Private
investors are no different for the most part and they want to
know exactly what they are buying when it comes down the actual
traffic your blog has.

5. Profit and Loss

Lots of income statistics. If you are looking to sell your blog
or website for real money (read more than a few bucks nabbed on
EBAY) then you are going to need to show your buyer some stats
about money. P&L statements (Profit and Loss) for as far back as
you can go will help your buyer make his or her decision. It is
one thing to tell a potential buyer what the gross income per
month is, it's a completely different thing to show them exactly
what the net income is and how it is obtained each month. Keep
good records of your website expenditures and what the income
received from those investments are. Include every cost. Website
hosting, design, redesign, employee or outsourcing costs,
whatever. Include everything and show them the real bottom line.

6. Set a Fair Price

I know you love your site, I love all of mine too. So it's easy
to attach an emotional value to your blog and inflate the price.
It's also really easy to confuse a blog's actual value with your
vision of it's potential value. What you think the site will
make someday and what it's making now are two very different
things. Sorry, but what you think it will make someday has zero
value to a would be investor. They only want to know what the
net profit is, right now. Yes, you can take some long term
income growth statistics and make profit projections, but unless
you have these statistics going back a year or more, most buyers
are going to dismiss them entirely.

Set a real price. In the bricks and mortar world most companies
sell for 2 to 3 years of the total net income. Online, this
number is usually cut down to one year. So if your website is
netting $300 per month, the actual value of your blog is
probably somewhere around $3600. Once again, it's easy to add an
emotional price tag for all the hard work you've done to get
that blog making $300 clams a month, but your sweat equity
doesn't mean much to a buyer.

Neither do website values created with online calculators.
These sites are traffic magnets and are built totally to obtain
webmaster traffic. If you search long enough and hard enough,
you'll find a website value calculator that comes up with a
number you like. It still means nothing to a buyer. It's not
what your site is really worth and should have no bearing
whatsoever on your sale price.

7. Where to Sell your Website

Where and how you sell your website is super important. The
profit you make will be directly related. Try to stay away from
auction type formats if at all possible. If your site has some
real value, use a website broker. A broker will help you
determine the real value of your blog or website and then help
you find a qualified and interested buyer. You would call a real
estate agent (read professional) if you were selling your house,
right? So why would you rely on your "for sale by owner" plan
when it comes to your web property? Call a professional.

Sadly, one of the main reasons most flippers don't call in a
pro is because deep down they don't really want to know what the
site is worth. They want to live in their imaginary world where
their holdings are worth millions. They can put a site up for
sale on Sitepoint or Ebay for whatever price they want. Creating
the illusion that they are worth substantially more than they
really are.

8. Pie in the Sky Promises (magic beans)

Stay away from "Pie in the Sky" promises to potential buyers.
When it comes to buying a website or blog, 99% of the buyers out
there are from Missouri (the "Show Me" state) and only want to
see the cold hard facts. Offering to take them to some new level
of income at a later date is only going to make you look
unprofessional and like an amateur.

There are sales contracts that require you to assist the new
buyer for a set period of time. But these are normally for sites
that are currently making money and allow time for you to teach
the new owner just how that income is made. These clauses in
sales contracts are not designed for you to hatch your half
baked plans or for time to realize "what you think" the site's
potential might be someday.

9. Accessible Communication

You need to be extremely accessible to both your broker and
potential buyers. They are going to have questions. So you need
to have a cell phone number and an office number where they can
reach you. You need to check your email often and respond
quickly. Slow response can be a red flag signaling uncertainty,
and that's something an investor just does not want to see when
they are thinking about laying some cash on you. Be available to
talk to them.

10. Know the Details

Communication is only effective if you have answers. If you
have to stumble and stutter with your answers, it's going to
have impact on the sale. You need to have done your homework and
you need to know the answers to the questions in advance.

There you have the basics for flipping your blog or website. Of
course there are many more points that can increase the actual
dollar amount realized when you sell your blog, this only covers
some of them.

But if you follow these guidelines and are realistic with
yourself and your buyer, you can sell your website for a profit.
So take the time to prepare your web property for a real sale.
Writing a good sales pitch is fine, but it's not going to be
sufficient for most investors. You're going to need to have
these bases covered.

Good luck. I hope you sell your blog for what it's worth.
================================================================
Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic
development and website financial analysis. He has been helping
people design and develop their internet business since 1995.
Visit http://www.business blogs.us/blog/
================================================================

Copyright © 2009 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Blogs, WordPress and Google

It’s no secret that a continually updated website with new content being added regularly stands a good chance of doing well in Google. One of the long standing methods to regularly expand a site’s content is through the use of a blog.

While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can’t be beat either.

Google likes fresh new content, and setting up a blog on your site, assuming it is updated often with interesting and relevant material, can be one of the best things you can do to help out your search rankings. The beauty behind WordPress is that there is a wide array of totally free plug-ins you can easily install that will make your blog totally search engine friendly.

The following are some basic guidelines and essential plug-ins you should consider when you install your WordPress blog.

Template Design

The first configuration you need to do is work on customizing the design template to match your existing site. I suggest finding a template that matches as closely as possible to the look you are going for then work on tweaking its graphics, colors, and other particulars till you achieve the desired appearance.

Most of your changes will occur in the header.php, footer.php, index.php, and page.php files in the theme editor, however, the theme you install will dictate which files actually need to be updated. You will also need to make some adjustments to your CSS file. These changes all involve working with code and graphics, and are most likely left to a professional.

Once you have your design set up, the rest of the customization is considerably less technical. The following are suggestions that most people can do themselves and you probably will not need an expert to help you here.

Settings

Permalinks
The next thing you need to do is customize your URL’s. You do not want the default post URLs (”pageid=#”) as they are simply not search friendly and you want your default names to have some meaning to them. While you can customize your URL’s with various plug-ins, you may not always think to do this, so be sure to have a default you can live with.

Under the settings tab in your dashboard, clíck on permalinks. Here I suggest choosing one of the settings that includes the post name. Including the month and year is totally optional as it will have little to no impact on your search rankings, but you definitely do want to include the post name.

WWW or no WWW
With WordPress, there is no need to worry about the www vs no www redirects. It is handled for you, but you do need to select which variation you want, and it’s very simple to do. Under “General Settings” you will see two fields; one for “WordPress address” and the other, “Blog address”. Ensure that both these fields include the “www” (or not), whichever you prefer, and that’s it. (I always recommend using the “www” version of your URL as most people linking into your site will use it, and this will help keep a consistency among your site.

Required Plug-ins

There is an almost endless supply of free plug-ins out there that you can add to your site ranging from photo galleries and spam protection, to social media integrators for Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and others. While many of these others will benefit your blog and search rankings, the XML Sitemap, and SEO plug-ins are truly essential.

SEO Plug-in
When setting up your new installation, the first plug-in you need to install is one that will allow for totally customized title, meta description tags, and page URL’s. There are a number of tools that do this ranging from the widely popular “All in One SEO Pack” to a relative newcomer “HeadSpace2″.

While I personally have yet to try HeadSpace2, it is high on my líst, as it has been recommended by many industry professionals as the best WordPress SEO plug-in. For any new blog installation I highly recommend this plug-in be installed right away.

XML Sitemap Plug-in
To the best of my knowledge, HeadSpace2 does not have an XML sitemap option, and as such I highly recommend “Google XML Sitemaps” . This plug-in will automatically generate XML sitemaps for you on the fly and submit it to Google every time you add, delete, or update a page or post. This helps ensure that Google has the latest information at all times. It’s a very simple plug-in to install and configure and once setup, you can forget about it and it will do the job for you.

A well optimized site loaded with relevant content can do very well in Google if setup correctly. The power of WordPress can make this process incredibly easy so all you have to worry about is writing those great articles and selling your customers. The plug-ins and functionality of WordPress are endless and when installed correctly can make the optimization of your blog considerably easier, increasing your chances for top rankings.

About The Author

Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott’s articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com, Tel – 250-385-1190, Toll Free – 877-385-5526, Fax – 250-385-1198

Some Help on How to Find Material for your Blog Posts,

Okay, you have set up your new blog, now what? The word blog came from the combination of two words, Web and Log. Does, this mean I have to log everything I do on the web. No, but you could if you wanted.

In order for a blog to become popular, the bots from search engines like to see new material whenever they come back and research your blog/website. If the bots don’t see anything new for a couple of days, the relevance and current factors of the algorithm start to fade. Pat Marcello from Overcome Everything, the parent company of great programs such as  “The List Building Club” and “List Hero” offers that in order for your blog to be recognized and rank hi in google listings, you should have a new post at least 5 days a week. Her personal, and mine too, goal is to post at least one new submission every week day.

With that said, we now have 5 posts a week for 52 weeks, that’s 260 blog posts a year! Ouch, that is a lot of work! Well, no one said internet marketing was easy, well not me anyway.  So how do we come up with relevant material for each of our blogs?
Let me tell you, there is more than enough information on the web to write 5 articles a week on any niche for many years. All you have to do is be creative and look for it.  Here is a list of 20 blog post ideas to help you come up with material for your blog.

1. Current events. Can you link what your blog is about to a current event? Open up your daily newspaper or your RSS news reader and see what’s happening in the world, your country, your state, or your city. Give your opinion about the event and a solution, if you have it, and relate that to your blogs subject.

2 Trends in your industry. I read constantly and subscribe to more industry publications than I have time to review. However, there are a handful that I do regularly read, and it’s to those that I look to for what the trends seem to be. When you blog about the trend, put your unique perspective on it, or write a rebuttal post, disagreeing with the relevance of the trend.

3. Get personal. Tell a story about what’s happening in your life or in your business that would be useful or instructive for your readers. Chronicle both your highs and lows, your wins and your struggles. One key to successful blogging is getting personal with your readers. The more “real” you are with your readers, the better your reader gets to know you and begins to like and trust you. You become a “real, live” human being to them who faces similar issues that they face.

4. Top 10. Form of a Top 10 list because it’s an easy way to outline the points you want to make and then go back and fill in the details for each point. In this case, each of your points for a topic can become an individual blog post, and when all the points are complete, you can compile the full list for an article for your ezine or website.

5. Frequently asked questions. If you’ve been in business for awhile, you know the questions that clients and prospective clients ask you to answer over and over again. Instead of repeatedly responding to the same questions, write a series of blog posts that answer your target market’s most frequently asked questions.

6. How you helped a client solve a problem. Clients hire you to solve a specific problem they’re having, whether they do that when they buy your service or your product. List 3-5 most recent problems that you have helped your clients solve. Create a post that talks about the problem and the solution you provided (either with your client’s permission, or by making it generic enough to hide the client’s identity) that becomes a learning experience for your readers.

7. Interview an expert. What people do you know and admire in your industry? If you admire them, chances are that members of your target market do, as well. Contact them for a short email or recorded interview and ask them 3-5 questions that you’d like to hear them answer about their lives, their businesses, industry trends, or how to solve a particular problem. Publish the interviews as blog posts, adding audio and graphics if you have them.

8. Solicit and answer questions. Ask your ezine subscribers or blog readers to ask you their most pressing question related to what you do. I do this and get questions for 1-2 blog posts per week, and it helps me stay in touch with the needs of my readers, as well.

9. Review something. Read a good book lately related to your industry? Just purchased a product to help you solve a problem? Reviews aren’t limited to the critics at the New York Times. Blog about your experience with a product, book, or service, highlighting both the high points and low points, and whether you would recommend that others use or purchase it.

10. Read other blogs. Go to Google’s Blog Search or Technorati and find other blogs related to your industry or your target market. Add those to your blog reader and take an hour or two each week to read the posts on those blogs. Do you agree or disagree with the post? Have another point of view? Think the blogger was on target but you want to expand on her point of view? Reading other blogs is a great way to generate ideas for your own blog.

11. Keep an idea file. Sometimes a blogging idea or concept will strike you when you don’t need (or want) to blog. Begin a blog idea file by creating a document or spreadsheet to track your ideas and thoughts. If you’re in the zone, go ahead and write the post, and then you can post it to your blog on a day when the idea well is dry.

12. Create a tutorial. There’s always something you can tell your target market how to do. Create a written, audio, or video tutorial of the process as your blog post. Depending on the complexity of the tasks, the tutorial may need to created in multiple parts, like Part 1, Part 2, etc., which would make for multiple posts to your blog.

13. Share a positive/negative email. I often share exceptionally positive or negative emails I receive from people (without names to protect their identity as appropriate) either to celebrate kudos I’ve received or to demonstrate how I responded to a particularly nasty or upsetting comment. I get the most mileage out of the negative emails, and I often ask for feedback about how my readers might respond to the situation.

14. Take a tour. Take a self-made in-person or virtual tour of something useful to your readers. For example, if you’re a dating coach, tour the top 5 online dating sites and report your experiences as a client in each. If you’re a restaurant consultant, visit 3 local restaurants and evaluate what’s often overlooked in staff training based on your experience as a customer.

15. Write about a Twitter or Facebook update. You only get 140 characters in Twitter to write about something. If you need more space, or want to respond in greater length to someone’s Tweet or Facebook status update, do so in your blog. Thought-provoking questions are often asked on Twitter, and the answers may inspire you to blog.

16. Create a “Best of” list. What are the top 7 blogs to read in your industry? How about the top 5 people to watch? What about the 10 most useful online tools you use? Nothing attracts attention on a blog quicker than a list, so create one yourself or ask your readers to help you in the process.

17. Report from an event. Attending a professional trade show, conference, or networking event? You can report live about your experiences at the event on your blog. Talk about the workshops your attended, the vendors you met, the speaker you heard — the sky’s the limit!

18. Debunk a myth. Each industry is plagued with myths and fallacies about success/failure or what does/doesn’t work that the industry professionals would like to see vanquished once and for all. Use your blog to debunk some of the most common myths/preconceptions/notions in your industry and set the record straight.

19. Talk to newbies. Picture yourself as a newbie in your industry once again. What do you know now that you didn’t know then? What questions did you ask? What knowledge do you have that you think everyone knows? Getting back to the basics can help bring all of your blog readers up to speed.

20. Write about a client conversation. Many times I’m inspired to blog as an expansion or continuation of a conversation I had with a client. The blog post focuses on a topic of the conversation, not the conversation itself. Typically the strategy/idea/technique you’ve discussed with one client will benefit your blog readers as well.

This is just a beginning. Stop for a second, close your eyes and relax. Then reopen them and take a look at life around you. You will soon begin to see the potential for many more blog posts than you ever thought possible.
Now – Take Action to make it a Great Day -

Optimize and Create WordPress Sites Easily

I recently discovered a new WordPress site creation webite, WordPress Direct.  I admit I discovered it awhile ago, but wasn’t willing to share it with anybody until I figured out if it was any good or not. Well let me tell you, It is awesome.

Here is a quick story to help you better understand what I mean.

In 1999 I left the world of Jobs. I was a service writer for a local Auto Dealership and the money started to go stale and To tell the truth, I was bored worth with the worst job in an auto dealership. Mind you when I started writing service in 1983, I was making 80k per year, when I quit, I was barely making 45k.

I have always been good at fixing things, so with a leap of faith I went out on my own and started a handyman business. I knew I had to have a web presence, so I created a web page with some WSIWYG software. It was okay. I forgot about it except once a year when the renewal came up.

Recently I have been studying internet marketing and took Ed Dales Thirty Day Challenge. A great free course that you can take anytime during the year. Just go here to learn more.  Anyway, I followed along and made a created a Wordpress Blog about tattoo design. By using WordPress Direct I was able to get this website indexed by Google and ranked by Alexa within 24 hours. Mind you this was from scratch, absolutely nothing but an Idea.  If you would like to check the site out, it is www.sexytattoodesign.com.

Now, back to the handyman site.  I used the same principles and services I used for the tattoo site at WordPress Direct and re-did the handyman site. The Alexa ranking before starting  was somewhere around 5 million and something.  And when I would type in my keywords in Google, I was somewhere on page 10 or more down the list.  I WAS GETTING NO BUSINESS FROM THIS SITE! Zip Nada!

Then I discovered WordPress Direct the all in one FREE WordPress site manager. As of today, the handyman site which is niched down to just my geographic area, enjoys being in the top 5 organic listing on Google,

and Alexa ranking of 416,008 and has produced over $20,000 dollars of business for me in the last 2 months.  Not bad huh. And all within about 24 hours of creating the new site.

I highly recommend you visit the WordPress Direct site and take the system for a test drive, it is free so you have nothing to lose and a whole bunch of cash to gain. So to Create Wordpress Blog Sites Quickly and Easily, visit WordPress Direct now and get started today.