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On October 11. 2019 I bought a new domain worldoftablet.com for €274.88($304.58). I decided to try something I already knew and have done for a very long time. This time I was only doing it for myself, not my work, not clients, just for myself. I bought a used, expired domain. I thought that’s why my blog was so successful for quite some time – because I bought a used/expired domain. When I look back at it, it didn’t have any legit backlinks, it was just old, and the previous owner also wrote about tablets & iPad’s, just not as successful as I did.
So..did it help that I bought an expired domain? I would say – probably. If I would do it again, I would try to find an expired domain that had relevant content & relevant backlinks.
I stalked GoDaddy Auction for two weeks before I found a Domain name I liked that fits my niche. Back then, I thought that was a long time.
I actually found a screenshot on my laptop from Ahrefs when I bought the domain:
This will not be a step-by-step/guide article on how to sell a blog or create a blog. I purely wanted to share my experience and hopefully find some like-minded people to share experiences and, who knows, maybe partner up for a different project.
How I sold my blog
I sold it via a marketplace called – MotionInvest.
Would I recommend it to friends – No! I had a pretty horrible experience. A bit later about that.
The rules are pretty simple: You talk to their valuation team, they ask questions, verify everything you’re sending and saying, and they list the site in Dutch Auction.
After the site is listed, they are looking for buyers, or the buyers find you through the website.
- The valuation process was flawless – 10/10
- The selling process – 7/10. I wish there would be some update, how many people are viewing your listing, how many messages about the listing, etc. If you don’t email them, you don’t receive updates.
- Transfer process – 1/10. I’m not the one who likes leaving bad reviews – but, I don’t want to sugarcoat it either. The person in charge(I don’t have a name) was arrogant, rude, and too busy even writing an accurate email. Every email I received made me furious. After some while, the buyer reached out, and we just sort of skipped the middleman, but of course, they got the commission 🙂 After that, we chatted about the transfer team, and the buyer was even more frustrated than I was. We concluded that MotionInvest is probably outsourcing their transfer services from some cheap VA company.
If anyone from MotionInvest is reading this – your Transfer team is DOGSHIT!
Most of the marketplaces charge a 15% fee for the transaction. Honestly, that’s way too much if you ask me. Next time I’ll try to skip the marketplaces probably. 15% fee, VAT taxes, other fees from $115 000 I won’t be left with even half, so no, I can’t lend you any money :). I’m still in the process of paying the taxes, and I will come back with an update on this part when I’m done.
What I learned in the process?
- About site:
Not much. Things I already knew but sort of have confirmation now. Content is king. If your competitors have a better/faster site, more backlinks, but you have better content, you will still be at the top. Finding ways to improve the content really worked for me. Adding some additional information that is valuable to the reader. If there’s nothing to improve and that happens, well..yeah Backlinks are a king then.
One relevant link is more valuable than 100 shitty ones. I reached out to many blogs, most of which turned me down, but some were interested in exchanging links. I wrote about tablets & iPads, and I tried to reach out to people that wrote about Software that you can download on iPads or people that created accessories for iPads or just in a similar niche – laptops, PCs.
- About people:
It’s hard to find people that actually DO things. Many people like to talk about it but don’t have any real experience or valuable experience. When you find someone, save them as contact, it might come in handy. Try to exchange experiences—a nice source of inspiration.
It’s incredibly hard to find trustworthy people for content creation and I assume any other task as well.
What’s next?
I’m not sure yet. I have a couple of ongoing blogs, nothing big—all in starting phase. Now I have the time, the knowledge, and I want to do something bigger. If you’re into something similar, want to do something, have an idea, let’s have a chat. Maybe we can partner up or just exchange experiences.