Sell your blog? Not in a million years. You’re offering how much? Ah well that’s a different story then. I think maybe we could negotiate this deal. Blogs are starting to make big money for some folks with some impressive paydays. Recent buzz has been considering blog “exit strategies.” Do you have one?
I tip my hat to B.L. Ochman and her “What’s Next” blog. Peter Brady of Performancing and Stephen Baker of BusinessWeekOnline have differing opinions on the futures of blogs. A recent post by Brady discusses the possibility of an exit strategy from one’s blog
He raises some questions regarding the possibility of selling one’s blog to a larger company for a profit:
1. Do you as a professional blogger have an exit strategy?
2. Where do you want your blog business to be in say 2 years time?
3. Are you positioning your blogs with an eye to a big payday or for long-term organic growth?
4. Who might be likely purchasers of your blog business?
5. Have you considered the potential for a stock market flotation at some point?
All of these are valid questions, particularly if selling off your blog is something you’re interested in for the future. Baker has a different take on things. He suggests that blogs aren’t worth much unless the author is included because a blogger is the one driving a blog.
Some bloggers have made some decent payoffs in recent weeks. Political blogger Andrew Sullivan sold his blog to Time Magazine and he’s agreed to continue writing for his blog under the Time banner, which gets roughly 60,000 hits a day. Others have made the leap too. As more and more of these things happen, it stands to reason others will get itchy about it too.
Bake went on to ask on his blog for BusinessWeek, “are we getting way ahead of ourselves here?” Blogging is something relatively new with signs of becoming more mainstream but Baker said he believed the “overwhelming majority of our blogs have little or no market value unless the blogger is included.”
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
