5 Steps To Sell Niche Sites For 5 Figures, Fast
Reading Time: 10 minutes 
5 Steps To Sell Niche Sites For 5 Figures: Have you been thinking about selling your blog this year? Dale Persons of Blogging Her Way has started five blogs, three of which I recently helped her sell, as her broker.
The most recent one that she sold there was a one-year-old college niche site that sold for over $20,000.
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She is on the HerPaperRoute Podcast today, to share her growth-hacking blogging strategies for growing website traffic and income quickly. A process that allows her to build fast and sell for profit fast. Listen now: 5 Steps To Sell Niche Sites For 5 Figures.
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5 Steps To Sell Niche Sites For 5 Figures, Fast
If the thought of flipping your blog for profit fills you with excitement, you must listen to our guest, Dale Persons.
You may be surprised to learn just how easy it is to buy and sell niche sites.
Of course, it takes effort to build up the content and grow traffic.
But with Dale’s niche site-building tips, you are going to see just what is possible. As Dale has sold 3 sites that were less than a year old, each!
As I had mentioned, Dale has sold 3 sites at BlogsForSale. The first one sold for $4,400, the second for $2,250, and the third for $22,000 for a total of $28,650. And, she had only run each website for one year!
Sell Niche Sites Tools & Resources Mentioned
- Chelsea’s Blogging Course – Free access!
- ConvertKit free trial plus, plus bonus workshop – here!
- The best places to buy and sell niche sites
- Our advanced group coaching program: The Blog Flipping Society
Dale’s eBooks
Q. Welcome to the show, Dale. How did you get your start in blogging?
I first started blogging about three and a half years ago when I was still in college. And I wanted to find a way to start my own business.
So I could make some extra money on the side while I was a college student. So that’s how I got started. And after about a year, I wanted to kind of branch out. And so I started my second blog. And ever since then I’ve just been starting blogs and selling them.
As you mentioned, I’ve now sold three using your brokerage.
So that’s definitely something that I’m passionate about!
Q. Dale, you are really good at generating traffic quickly to new sites. What is your traffic-building strategy?
When it comes to selling a blog, or even just building up a site that you’re on that you want to keep on and monetize, it’s important to have traffic.
Because without traffic, you won’t be able to make any money.
So the two main areas that I focus on for generating traffic are SEO and Pinterest. The great thing about Pinterest is that you can get traffic a lot more quickly than with SEO.
With SEO or search engine optimization, it can take 12 to 18 months to really start seeing traffic from organic search.
But with Pinterest, I’m typically able to start generating traffic within a month or two of starting a new blog.
The way that I do that, is by creating multiple pins for every blog post that I publish. And then I just share them to my relevant Pinterest boards.
Generally, within a few days to a few weeks, those pins start circulating on Pinterest and driving traffic to my blogs.
I typically create three to five pins for every new article that I publish. And it doesn’t have to take a long time, I just use the free graphic design program Canva.
I’ve purchased Pinterest templates in the past, that I can use to quickly and easily create pins for those new blog posts.
So sometimes, I’ll just swap out a few little things like the stock photo that I’m using on that pin or the wording of the headline on the pin. Or the font, the colors, things like that.
Just have some different variations, and then I’ll share those over the next few days after publishing a new blog post.
Q. When you’re developing a site that you’re planning to sell, what types of monetization do you focus on?
So for me, again, I like to keep it simple when I’m monetizing a site that I’m planning to sell.
So I focus on just two income streams: ad revenue, and then affiliate marketing.
And the reason I chose these two income streams when starting a site to sell is that it’s easy to transfer over to a new owner.
You can transfer over your ad account and your affiliate accounts. And it’s a good way to earn consistent monthly revenue.
For ad networks, I like to apply to an ad network like Monumetric or Mediavine once you have enough traffic.
And then for affiliate programs, I tend to focus on Amazon because that’s just such a big well-known program.
Amazon has generated consistent revenue for me.
I created an ebook called Amazon Affiliate Affluence. It walks through my strategy of making sales with the Amazon affiliate program.
Plus, it focuses on how you can write blog posts that will get a lot of conversions, and what type of blog posts you should be writing to get people to actually click and buy from Amazon.
As well as the best ways to promote those blog posts.
Q. What are some ways that you found success in making sales with affiliate marketing?
There are certain types of blog posts that I have found convert really well. So for me, that’s been writing things such as gift guides for holidays, or seasonal events.
And then once I start making affiliate sales, I’ll go into my Amazon affiliate account, and I’ll see which products are specifically getting the most conversions.
And then I’ll go and sprinkle in mentions of that product inside various other blog posts, because I know that it converts well.
And that gives a boost to your affiliate sales.
Q. That’s so cool. Can you walk us through your process, when you’re developing a niche site to sell?
STEP ONE
When I’m choosing a niche for a new blog, Honestly, I just like to pick something that I’m passionate about for a topic!
Because if it’s something I’m not interested in at all, I’m going to get burnt out quickly.
And I’m not going to want to write the necessary amount of content to get the blog off the ground.
So I’ll do some research to see what other blogs (in that niche) are successful.
For example, maybe I’ve seen that there are many successful blogs in that niche. So that will inspire me.
It’s also just fun to branch out. So I’m not just always writing about the same topic.
When you start a new blog to sell, you can explore your own interest.
But in a way, you’ll be selling that blog down the line. So it’s not something you have to commit to forever.
STEP TWO
Once I’ve decided what to write about, I will just quickly set up the blog. I always build on WordPress, and I have some themes that I like to use.
And then my first priority will be building up a solid base of content on the new blog. I typically like to spend one or two months just cranking out a bunch of blog posts.
The sites that I’ve sold, I had anywhere from 25 to 60 blog posts on them. And I think that’s a good number to aim for, somewhere between there in order to start seeing consistent traffic and being able to monetize.
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STEP THREE
Next, as I mentioned with my Pinterest strategy, I’ll be creating three to five new pins for each blog post that I put out. I also like to plan ahead for holidays and seasonal events, because I’ve seen a lot of boost in traffic from writing content for holidays like Black Friday shopping, or Christmas or Valentine’s Day.
I’ll plan out my blog posts in advance. I’m getting that content out three to four months before that actual holiday or event to give it time to kind of start circulating and driving traffic.
STEP FOUR
Then when it comes to monetizing my blog, I like to monetize as quickly as possible right away. I will use affiliate links in my blog posts, and I’ll always be writing my blog post with monetization in mind.
Once I have enough traffic to apply for an ad network, I’ll do that. Ezoic is a great for new bloggers.
Ezoic is a way to start monetizing right away as well.
STEP FIVE
Now, when it comes to actually selling the blog – I never know quite what is like the perfect timing!
It’s hard to determine the perfect moment to sell.
But for me, I like to kind of have a quick turnover. So within a year is when I’ll typically aim to have consistent traffic and revenue and be able to list that site.
I think it’s good to wait at least a year because you want to have a demonstrated history of income for your site and have it more established. But within 12 to 18 months is a good time to go ahead and list and flip the site!
Chelsea – You just gave so many great tips in there. I think that is so important to mention about 12-18 months of development because, I know what a lot of people are thinking about flipping a blog: they see a little bit of income in the beginning and then they think “okay, I can sell it now.” But really, they could probably sell it for more if you just held it on a little bit longer. 12 months, 18 months so you have that history of revenue to show potential buyers.
Q. The most recent blog you sold, sold for over $20,000 What was it like selling that niche site for five figures?
So that was really exciting for me because that was definitely the highest value site that I’ve sold so far!
It was in a niche that did really well, seasonally, with holiday content. I wanted to just go ahead and sell it because it was in a good place.
That site was like gaining momentum. So it was a good time to sell.
And, it was really exciting to be able to sell that to a new owner for five figures!
Q. Do you ever work on more than one niche site at once?
Yes, so I’m always working on more than one site at once. I have two sites that I’m not planning to sell that are my main focus.
You have to strike a balance between growing your new sites that you’re planning to sell and working on your more established sites.
And the way that I stay organized with working on multiple sites at once is just by having a blogging schedule.
Some days I’m going to work on one site, other days, I’m going to work on another. And I like to be very old school I use a physical paper planner.
And every day I’ll just like write out the tasks that I’m going to do for whichever blog I’m working on that day.
There’s something so satisfying about crossing it out on paper!
Q. Totally! Do you have any advice for things that we should avoid when we’re developing a niche site?
One thing I would say, not necessarily to avoid. but just to keep in mind is: when developing a site, is don’t put your personal brand on it.
If you have any intention of selling it, you might not want to make it too much tied to yourself, or your personal identity.
Because it may be harder to sell later on, if you were using your full name as the domain name, for example, or have pictures of yourself all over it.
When I’m creating a new site, I like to make it a blank slate for the next owner.
So it’s not tied to me personally too much. It’s easy to transfer over to somebody else because there aren’t too many personal details or information.
So I think that’s something to keep in mind when you’re starting a blog with the intention to sell it.
Chelsea – As a blog broker, I often see sites from people who started their website with the intention to run it for a long time. And then when they decide to sell it, it’s a big job to remove their persona from it. So that’s great advice for anyone trying to develop their own site. You don’t need to put your persona on it. You can even create an avatar, put up a stock image of someone. Don’t put your name or your personal brand on a site if you’re just going to sell it.
5 Steps To Sell Niche Sites For 5 Figures, Fast – Conclusion
Would you ever sell your niche site? Let me know in the comments!
- To learn how to develop and sell sites for profit, enroll in my The Blog Flipping Society.
- Dale’s eBook: Amazon Affiliate Affluence
- Looking to sell your blog? Get a free valuation to find out how much it could potentially sell for.
- Looking to buy a blog? Take a look at our blogs for sale listings.
- Read more: The Ultimate Guide To Website Flipping
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