I was intending to wait to announce the mystery blog until the seller posted his view of the process, the whys and the wherefores and such. However, the time we’d agreed for him to post to has come and gone, and he’s in bed dead sleeping.
Once he posts his account, I’ll link to it (obviously), however I felt it was rather cruel of me to not announce it sometime around when I said I was going to.
So, what is the blog being sold, who is the owner, and what is the story behind it (oh, and what are the high bids?)?
The blog is The Blog Herald, as several people at Blogaholics guessed (ultimately, John Evans won the contest, which included a free copy of Blog Marketing).
Why did Duncan sell it? I’ll let him give the full reasons, but the biggest and best were that he was no longer enjoying writing it as much as he used to, and that there was a perceived conflict of interest with a blog that was in a blog network reporting on blog networks.
Duncan’s been considering this move for a while now, but could never get enough interest up with the people he was talking to to make it worth his while. I told him I’d help out, broker the deal and take some of the stress off his shoulders. It’s always hardest to sell something you care deeply about (I know, having been there), so we both felt having someone who wasn’t directly involved with it doing the selling would be best (ie: me).
The current high bids are 60K, 65K and 72K. The private auction will be ending today sometime, after which we’ll get down to the business of sorting out the transaction. Once that’s all done, we’ll be announcing the winner at whatever time works best for the winner.
The current high bidders are all looking at the blog as a brand / profile investment more than a pure cash investment. After all, 36 times monthly revenues is a fairly high multiple for any site, even if it experiences 10% growth every month (as Blog Herald does) and could earn more. At 72K, it would likely take someone about a year to earn it back with a redesign and with the growth it’s experiencing.
Overall, this has been a great experience. Some really top companies (including a Fortune 500) inquired about the blog, and everyone was extremely professional. I’ve made some great connections that I’m hopeful I’ll have be able to work with in the future.
This process isn’t quite over, but I’m much more able to answer questions now that the blog is public 
So have at it! Is The Blog Herald worth serious coin? Are blogs worth anything at all? What kind of business valuations would go into making a blog worth upwards of 75,000$?
Oh, and feel free to swear and call me names if you’d like. Enough folk have been doing it all throughout the process that I’d kinda be disappointed if it ended now 
Update: I forgot to say, that it’s entirely likely there will be a transitional period post-sale. During that period, the blog will likely stay as part of b5media, and Duncan will likely keep writing it. Obviously this could change if a new bidder flew in, but based on the current high bids, this is how it looks like it’ll play out.
#1 by Jon Gales - January 16th, 2006 at 15:47
That was one of my top guesses, but it doesn’t match what you were claiming.
It’s #151 on the Feedster list–you said it was in the top 100 on every list besides T-Rati.
Yahoo has 11,358 pages on the BlogHerald.com domain, not 150,000.
To me those were the important metrics to find what the site was–both pretty rare. Especially considering about half of the Feedster list is Weblogs Inc/Gawker sites and almost no blogs have 150,000 pages indexed.
Anywho, congrats Duncan.
#2 by Jeremy Wright - January 16th, 2006 at 15:52
Jon: Yeah, I corrected the top positioning earlier. And the pages indexed was meant to be links, sorry. I’d corrected that on the internal documentation. See here: http://blognetworklist.com/sitedetail.php?siteid=48.
It is top 100 for CNET, for example: http://news.com.com/2311-10784_3-116702.html, and often is for PubSub, is just outside it on BlogPulse (http://blogpulse.com/profile?url=blogherald.com&image.x=36&image.y=10 ), etc.
Sorry about the confusion.
#3 by Jon Gales - January 16th, 2006 at 16:14
No worries Jeremy, it was the 150K pages thing that really astounded me–that’s a lot! I hope the new owner does well with it.
#4 by Jeremy Wright - January 16th, 2006 at 16:21
Yep, just wanted you to know it was an honest mistake, not some blog scheister at work.
#5 by John (SYNTAGMA) - January 16th, 2006 at 17:44
Jeremy, could you clarify what the “transitional period post-sale” means?
You write: “the blog will likely stay as part of b5media, and Duncan will likely keep writing it. Obviously this could change if a new bidder flew in, but based on the current high bids, this is how it looks like it’ll play out.”
It’s not clear if the above refers to a genuine post-sale or some kind of “promise” situation. Otherwise how could the blog remain with b5, if it’s been sold?
#6 by Jeremy Wright - January 16th, 2006 at 17:51
After the sale is complete, we anticipate a period of between 4-8 weeks while the buyer preps for the blog to come across, while Duncan continues to write, etc. During that time it may or may not stay as part of b5. That would mainly be the buyer’s decision.
Long term, I don’t anticipate BH staying with b5, largely because of the conflict of interest issues raised earlier..
Does that answer your question?
#7 by John (SYNTAGMA) - January 16th, 2006 at 18:03
Yes it does. Thanks.
#8 by Paul Montgomery - January 16th, 2006 at 18:09
Is that the first Web 2.0 cash-out by an Aussie? Congrats to Duncan, assuming all goes well.
#9 by /pd - January 16th, 2006 at 18:12
where is Duncun’s posting ?? Has he posted his experience and views yet ?
Con’gats Jermey , on this M&A closure :)- maybe you will be become a major blog broker in the furture.. no more selling blog stuff on ebay.. and hey dont tattoo it to the forehead too !! :)-
#10 by Paul Short - January 16th, 2006 at 18:54
Duncan and the blog herald, ensight, metafilter and a few others were my major inspirations for getting into blogging in the first place, so it’s kind of sad to see it go to someone else. His take on the blogosphere will be missed by me. I doubt anyone else could do it like Duncan does..
The price is about right though, in fact, I’m surprised it didn’t squeak past 6 figures. For such a cornerstone site in the blogging community, the buyer is getting a great deal. No offense to the new owners, but ets hope they don’t f*** it up.
#11 by David - January 16th, 2006 at 19:10
Jeremy,
Its great to see Duncan make this move. Will be sad to see him leave though.
#12 by Brian - January 16th, 2006 at 20:09
Can I have some of the money? thx
#13 by Anthony - January 16th, 2006 at 20:10
After a comment at problogger which speculated it was the BlogHerald yesterday I’ve been thinking wow that makes sense of course it is Duncan’s site.
Well done mate!
I think the price is fair considering that is basically the blog of record for blogs also given that there is a fair amount of improvement and growth still left in the blog with the right operator.
Good times.
#14 by Johan - January 17th, 2006 at 00:49
I’d put money on this transaction not being closed at anywhere near that $70K figure.
Even blog hypists aren’t that stupid.
#15 by Mack D. Male - January 17th, 2006 at 05:22
Nice of you to help out Jeremy - your experience probably helped quite a bit!
#16 by Chrono Cr@cker - January 17th, 2006 at 09:37
Wow, so it’s Blog Herald. The Mystery is solved atlast. I never guessed it would be BH though.
This has created a huge flurry in the blogosphere without doubt and loads of people were interested in this, from what I’ve seen. My Guess was Buzz Machine though! Drats! Wow, 70K, that’s huge man. But the Blog is worth more than that!
BTW, you have a nice blog Jeremy. First time, i’m coming here, I read about the sale somewhere else.
#17 by Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) - January 17th, 2006 at 20:56
C’mon Jeremy, fess up - we all want to know who the buyer is?
#18 by Jeremy Wright - January 17th, 2006 at 21:14
Martin, sorry, until the deal is finalized we aren’t releasing the information
#19 by Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) - January 17th, 2006 at 21:42
Oh well, no harm in asking
One last question (and tell me to m.y.o.b) - as the broker of the sale I presume you got a commmission - can you give us a percentage: 2%, 5%, 10% just for interests sake …. I’m interested to know because I see more and more of such sales during 2006 and you seem to be the go-to man
#20 by Dan Wilt - January 17th, 2006 at 21:45
Okay, I’m taking a guess. The Buyer is… a person who purchases something that was not previously their own, but now is, due to the exchange of a trade mechanism such as currency, tobacco or old comic books.
#21 by Jeremy Wright - January 17th, 2006 at 21:51
Martin, I got 5% for this sale. I’m sure it makes sense to have some kind of sliding scale (5% of 1000$ isn’t much, considering how much work goes into it) makes sense, but I guess I’ll tackle that bridge if I come to it.
#22 by Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) - January 17th, 2006 at 22:04
Jeremy … Cheers on being so open - maybe you’ve hit upon a new business venture: brokering the sale of blogs.
You’re spot on: how do you charge for a sale of say, $5000 - 5% is peanuts - once this sale is neatly packed away would love to read about the whole process from your point of view.
#23 by Power Play - January 17th, 2006 at 22:41
Thanks for keeping us in the loop on this Jeremy.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the traffic plays out AFTER the spike dies down.
We all know how well a site does when it is part of a little controversy and the excitement it brings- the months to come will tell the real story.
It is good to see that Duncan will continue writing during the transition period.
Great drama…; )
#24 by Chrono Cr@cker - January 17th, 2006 at 23:22
@Martin: LOL!
Well, if the price is around 70K, then basically Jeremy gets $3500, which is pretty good!
Cheers!
#25 by Anita Campbell - January 18th, 2006 at 02:34
Interesting news.
The offers don’t surprise me in the least. It is a quality site with an established brand and following. Obviously the offerors recognize quality and value. I’m glad it is not being given away for a pittance.
I used to be in Mergers & Acquisitions, and acquired (and sold) a lot of technology businesses over the years. Using one of the typical “multiples” formulas, the purchase price range you mention is within reason.
I believe you said the site made $24,000 a year ($2,000/month). I don’t know whether that is revenues (i.e., sales) or earnings (i.e., profit). Either way, though, the purchase price offers you mentioned would still be within accepted norms and reasonable, either as 3 times annual revenue or 3 times annual profit.
Besides, those formulas are just starting guidelines, and there’s lots of art to buying and selling businesses.
And I assume that the purchase offers are all in the same currency as the site revenues/earnings, so that we are comparing apples to apples. (For instance, the site revenue is reported in Australian dollars and the purchase price is, as well.)
Anyway, I wish you and Duncan good luck.
#26 by Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) - January 18th, 2006 at 10:26
Chrono Cr@cker - yeah, obviously not every blog sale will go for 70K - I can easily see the majority of those seriously looking at selling their blogs going for under $10K - even $5K (heck, SmallBusinessBranding went recently for $2K!) - unless you’re a well-known blog brand with thousands of content pages, google juice and AdSense potential, then you’ll be lucky to get to 4 figures - hence a 5% commission on a $5000 sale is only $250.
Anita - good call about the currency. I don’t recall it being stated, just presumed it was US Dollars. Jeremy: what is it: USD or AUD?
#27 by Jeremy Wright - January 18th, 2006 at 10:27
It was USD (income and buying price).
#28 by Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) - January 18th, 2006 at 10:46
Jeremy, that’s good to know because in Aussie doillars that’s $96,000 - so close to being an Aussie six figure blogger
#29 by Power Play - January 19th, 2006 at 00:23
Thanks for your insight Anita.
It helps to put all of this into perspective a little better, as I was wondering like many others what the allure was…relative to the price.
#30 by JP - January 20th, 2006 at 01:32
Jeremy, my blog “Milblogging.com” was acquired this week by Military.com/Monster.com. I was a milblogger from Afghanistan, who started milblogging.com in Oct 05 after returning home. In only 3 months I sold the blog. Great site by the way, it was partially your blog that motivated me to constantly improve. If anyone has questions, feel free to email me at milblogging@gmail.com
Cheers!
JP
#31 by jeneane - January 20th, 2006 at 01:49
Damn. You can sell my blog anyday!
#32 by Chrono Cr@cker - January 20th, 2006 at 06:36
Nice Point Martin. I personally feel 3 main factors which affect the sale are - Revenue, Page Rank & Blog Rank, Unique/Day. And BTW, this wasn’t a 5K Sale, it was a 70K one. Think Big. But you are right, very few blogs currently will cross the 10K Barrier and even fewer 50K, but the age of blogs is definitely growing and we can expect 100,000 in the future.
@Jeremy: How come the Word “Cr@cker” automatically comes as a mailto? Cause of that @?
Also, when are you going to post who bought the blog?