March 6th, 2007

Filed under:
Internet, Travel
13 Comments »

I’m Thinking of Selling GeekyTraveller.com

GeekyTravellerI started GeekyTraveller.com back in April, 2005. Ever since, it’s never really received enough of my attention. In that time, I’ve only written a couple of hundred blog entries on it, and have made only occasional attempts to seriously promote it.

Ultimately, I guess I was disinclined to split traffic between this site and GT, and didn’t have the energy, free time or inclination to promote the site.

I do think the site still has great potential. It’s got a distinctive design, and a good basis to build a popular and lucrative blog. I’ve had an inordinate number of enquiries for reviews, joining networks and the like. Here are the details:

Google PageRank: 6
Incoming Links (according to Google): 1410
Technorati Rank: 98, 860
Visitors in 2006: 16, 314
Current average daily visitors: 65

The site belongs to the Washington Post’s new blogroll program (they invited me to join) and the Blogburst network, so it’s syndicated on newspaper sites like the San Francisco Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman.

It currently has a trickle of AdSense revenue–US$5 per month. In the past three months, I have had six enquiries to write ReviewMe reviews on GT, which are worth US $50 a pop.

I’ve never sold a site before, so I’m pretty naive about the market, pricing and everything else. GeekyTraveller might be a good addition to a blogging network, or even for a travel company, travel writer (or travel product manufacturer) who wants to liven up their online presence.

What are my options for selling? Two that I’m aware of are SitePoint’s forums, or good ol’ eBay.

Have you ever sold a site? How did you do it? Any advice?

Comments: 13 Responses so far

Chris Garrett
March 7th, 2007
1:39 am

I recommend you speak to David Krug (http://www.901am.com/), he has been involved in quite a few blog sales from both sides of the table

[Reply]

Meg
March 7th, 2007
8:57 am

The only companies that approach me on ReviewMe are wanting me to review their dating sites… $100 a pop.

Please.

I would rather shove things under my fingernails.

I say sell it:).

[Reply]

Alexandre Brabant
March 7th, 2007
9:55 am

I knew I had some information somewhere about Domain name valuation in my inbox. I found information here that my help:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum25/614.htm

You ca also go to sedo.com. They are experts in appraising domains for resale.

Good luck!

[Reply]

Pete Quily
March 7th, 2007
10:16 am

might want to read these 2 posts

http://www.blogherald.com/2007/02/13/selling-your-blog-what-are-blog-buyers-looking-for/

esp this part Selling Points for Selling Your Blog

From my short research venture, here is a list of the information most frequently requested by those selling their blogs and those interested in buying them.

http://www.blogherald.com/2007/03/06/selling-your-blog-what-goes-into-the-selling-price/

but 65 readers a day and $5 in adsense is probably not a great selling feature unless someone just wants to buy it for the pagerank.

you might want to add some categories to the side bar, maybe a recent posts section to get more clicks and possibly spending a bit of time cranking up the traffic before selling it. or hire a jr blogger to crank out posts for a month or so to increase the value before selling it

[Reply]

Andrea >> Become a Consultant Blog
March 7th, 2007
1:24 pm

I think that Webmasterworld valuation is messed up. Depending on whether I input certain multipliers, I get a valuation of $31M to $325M for ConsultantJournal.com. I think that’s highly unlikely.

[Reply]

bobby
March 7th, 2007
6:30 pm

Darren:

You are a geek ?
You are going travelling ?
For a 6 plus period?

Yet you are selling geekytraveller.com

Come on, we need more explanation..

[Reply]

darren
March 7th, 2007
6:33 pm

Bobby: I’m afraid there’s nothing more to add–I’m just under-motivated to continue running GT.com.

[Reply]

Chris Mitchell
March 7th, 2007
8:07 pm

I’ll be very interested to see how this works out for you, Darren. I run a travel site that is very similar to yours in terms of Technorati ranking and also being part of the Washington Post blogroll program.

I think Chris Garrett is right that you have targetted a good niche with geekytraveller.com - but the work required to crank out quality posts that target that niche is a full time job.

As such, it’s probably for the best for you to sell it because it’s the lack of time thats stopping you from growing the site. I’ve learnt the hard way that it’s much better to focus on building one blog with regular, quality posts than trying to run several at once.

I was seriously interested in buying geekytraveller.com myself until I realised I didn’t know where I would find the time to develop it either!

[Reply]

bobby
March 7th, 2007
8:07 pm

darren, fair enough, respect your
honesty. Hope you get a decent price for GT.com — would be well deserved..

bobby

bobby

[Reply]

susie gardner
March 8th, 2007
3:10 pm

i’m with bobby — selling a travel blog right before you go traveling for an extended period is a little odd. on th eother hand, i totally understand the impulse to remove sources of built/stress in your life!

[Reply]

raj
March 8th, 2007
4:35 pm

Darren, David Krug is a great choice, as Chris Garrett said above. (I write for David.) Also, depending on what you’re selling GT for, I’ll buy it, having gotten into the niche through a client who runs 3 travel sites (including a geek one) and is developing 3 more. If I can’t afford it, the client may be interested in buying it. My email is included, if you want to contact me, and I’ve fired off an email to a friend that works indirectly for the client I mentioned.

[Reply]

Darren Cronian
March 10th, 2007
6:57 pm

Darren, I might be interested depending on the cost. I already run a travel blog, that’s getting great traffic, so the two would combine well.

Drop me an email when you have some ideas on the price and we’ll chat.

[Reply]

GeekyTraveller.com is Officially For Sale | DarrenBarefoot.com
March 12th, 2007
10:55 pm

[...] Last week I mused about selling GeekyTraveller.com, and received several informal enquiries. Quite reasonably, all of the prospective buyers expected me to name a price. [...]

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