When to sell a site

by Sapphire (August 5, 2008)

I’m thinking about selling this site and/or ChillyCool. No, seriously.

The traffic for B-2 Bomber quadrupled last month, and it took up every minute I had, because suddenly there were such opportunities for striking while the iron was hot, and every one of those opportunities I took paid off. The traffic gains doubled the site’s monthly income - which is not much, but then that site isn’t destined to make money by selling ad space. It’ll make money by becoming a real business, and we’re a big step closer to having the traffic I think we need to make the site into what I believe it will be someday.

Did I have a spare minute to detail any of that here? Nope. Do I have time now, as I type this? No, I have at least 30 things this time would be better spent on. I haven’t even had time to read your sites lately. The unfortunate reality is: if you have stuff to do because your marketing is working out, you don’t have time to journal your marketing. Especially on a site that doesn’t reach that many people and doesn’t earn the bulk of your income.

Someone else could make a lot of money on this site if they took it over, kept it within this niche, and put some time into it. For me to upgrade it and make it worth my while, I’d have to spend so much time writing posts that my other sites - which are already outperforming it - would suffer.

Anyone else dealt with this catch-22? Is it worth forcing myself to squeeze out an article a week and see what this site can generate in income? Worth trying different monetizing schemes in front of an audience that is so wise to monetization they only look at your ads to see if yours are better than theirs? I can’t even think up a product I could sell from this site - that you would want - to boost the value of the site, because it’s not where my mind is. My mind is on other sites in other niches that are doing better.

The one thing holding me back from selling is the fact that the sites wouldn’t go for much now. I have to admit, considering how rarely I update, it’s surprising how well they hold their traffic. ChillyCool hasn’t been updated in months, yet its traffic remains steady. Growing, even. That’s weird.

So maybe I should hold onto them, see if I can do something with them. If it was any other niche, I’d consider bringing on other writers and making it a group blog for shared income, but internet marketing is everyone for herself so I know that wouldn’t work. I can’t think of a way to change the focus so that it exploits better aspects of this niche because… well, wait? What are the better aspects of this niche? Are there any? Marketers marketing market talk to one another. See the problem?

Any thoughts?

Posted in Affiliate Marketing
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