A Personal Blog
Selling Ensight?
I was writing a comment elsewhere and realised I shouldn’t be revealing that type of stuff anywhere but here.
I recently had an offer for Ensight. An offer that was high enough to make me consider it. I don’t feel comfortable saying the amount, but it would be enough to pay off all of our debts as well as nearly pay off the furniture we just bought on credit.
A reasonably substantial amount.
My fear is that this will be construed as selling out. And, in many ways, I suppose it would be. The question is: is there anything wrong with that?
Realistically I’d simply start blogging somewhere else. I’d lose all the backlinks. But I never really cared about that. Heck, maybe I’d start a whole new topically significant blog. Maybe one that’s more focussed. I don’t know. I don’t know that I want to take the offer…
But I’m very tired. Love to get a hell of a lot of input on this as I don’t feel like making this decision alone. At least not today.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on September 14, 2004 at 9:42 am, and is filed under From My Life. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 7 years ago
Sell it. You’ve done well. Your voice has been heard. And if you sold Ensight – your voice will still be heard at all the other sites and places you write at. You can always start another blog, and although it may take some time to build up to the level that Ensight is at now, you always say that was never the point. You weren’t after enormity, just writing. So you are just writing, and we’re all just listening and if you sold Ensight, you’d still be writing, and perhaps a few less would be listening, but your words would still be read.
The weight that would be lifted off your family’s shoulders would be huge. Getting out of debt is incredibly important and if this is your opportunity, if this is what you have earned from Ensight, then I think you did a great job and you should see more of each paycheck go into your own pocket instead of having to turn around and give a chunk to someone else.
Please make sure the offer is legit.
Good luck.
about 7 years ago
An offer for the domain name, or the blog and all your past writing?
I guess it comes down to a question of royalties vs. unlimited-use exclusive licensing. Both have long histories (though are not always well understood) in the (book/magazine) writing, photography and similar fields, but fairly new in this all-electronic medium. It all comes down to relinquishing control of your words and, since you’re always going to be associated with those words, your reputation.
If the latter, you might want to stipulate that the purchaser disclose on every page that it’s no longer being written by you.
And perhaps make that license not quite so unlimited, list the types of ways it could *not* be used (I’d stipulate in a photo license, for example, that a photo of my family could not be used in advertisement of tobacco products).
about 7 years ago
Steven, I agree with your concerns as far as licensing, ownership and disclosure.
I honestly haven’t decided yet. I don’t even know which way I’m leaning. In fact if I was it might be best to open it up a bit more and see who else might be interested.
Gah!
about 7 years ago
I have to admit, when you said sell the site, I didn’t assume all the content went with it; I generally thought of the domain name and some sort of shell.
about 7 years ago
Go for it. You can always blog elsewhere. Just make sure you can blog elsewhere and do it freely. But remember to tell me where you are going ;)
about 7 years ago
You wouldn’t be a sell-out in my book. Just make sure you cover your butt like the others have mentioned. And if you decide to go through with it, make sure you leave us a forwarding address so we can continue to read. In no time, I’m sure you could make another blog just as successful.
about 7 years ago
I’ve decided to open this up a bit. I’ll post this at Ensight later.
But, a thread at SitePoint: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1402513#post1402513
about 7 years ago
Usually, the paradox of the artist is that true fame and fortune are not seen by said artist because they’re dead. If this puts your family in a better situation and you still have control over your “creation” (in this instance, your posts), and you can find the right buyer, I see nothing wrong with selling. Just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and with the right people. Finally, make sure you can still blog elsewhere and don’t get a “gag order” placed on you. People visit for you and your writing, not because of your domain name or design or PageRank. If somebody wants to buy all that then it’s their choice.
about 7 years ago
If the offers you received are in the range of the minimum $2500 you said you’d consider, I would consider that awfully low for this much content, traffic and PR. I’ve sold sites with none of the above for that much on eBay with little work. If the site were maintained by the new owner with just as many regular posts to keep up those levels of traffic, I can see advertising doing very well here.
about 7 years ago
I agree with Dan – $2500 is way less than this site is worth. If I was in the market and didn’t have my own sites to deal with, I’d offer more than that myself…
about 7 years ago
Well, if either of you want to broker a deal I’ll happily give you a reasonable percentage. At this point the 2500$ was enough to pique my interest. I know I can get at least 4000$ for it, given that I’ve had 3 offers at 2500$.
I’ve had a few interesting side offers as a result of this, which may combine to be the same amount and yet allow me to keep Ensight…
We’ll see.
But yeah, if anyone wants to broker this I’m quite happy to talk with y’all :)
about 7 years ago
Ensight is (or should be, locially) worth much more to Jeremy than to anyone else. It’s a very personal site. I just don’t see it being worth very much in someone else’s hands. If Jeremy sells, I guess a good portion of the links would move with him, there goes the PR7. Even if the content stays, the search engine rankings will be lower due to the loss of PageRank. The people who visit just because they know Jeremy (such as myself) would stop visiting. There goes the trafic. It’s a .org domain, that’s not of much inherent value. I’d love to have a blog as popular as this one (though it would probably mean more than ones a month posting, lol), but I just don’t understand people wanting to pay so much money for someone else’s blog. I never understood people who buy used clothing either, for that matter. :)
about 7 years ago
Personally I’d say sell. You can relocate and continue your work elsewhere … think of it as a change of business premises, inconvenient at first but a great chance to find a better location and deck it out in a new style. Your readers will follow you (provided you point the way) and you get a bit of cash to ease the transition.
Whatever you decide, wherever you choose to blog, I (and I assume many others) will continue to drop by and read.
about 7 years ago
I agree with Peter T…
Ensight is Jeremy. If it’s sold, it’ll be a worthless domain name. But, that’s the buyers choice.
Do what you think is best, hehe ;)