Written on July 7th, 2006 at 02:07 am by
College-Startup for Sale!
College Startup is a wonderful little blog that I was turned onto some time ago by Darren. Since then, it has been a notable little item in my Bloglines account which was where today I found out that its owner, Ben Bleikamp, has decided to sell. The auction is being held over at the SitePoint Marketplace and he is taking bids. Opening bids start at $1000 with a Buy it Now of $6500.
This really is a gem of a website and if I had the cash I’d make him the offer he can’t refuse. Hopefully, someone else will find the value in this site and give him the offer he can’t refuse.
19 Responses to “College-Startup for Sale!” - Add Yours
mattherzberger.com » Blog Archive » College Startup for Sale
July 7th, 2006 3:00 am
[...] College Startup which is a pretty cool blog that I read has recently decided to sell. It is a site that talks about how to make money in college or otherwise. Here is more about the sale from problogger [...]
Jason Clegg
July 7th, 2006 4:31 am
Interestingly enough, the Technorati API widget claims the College Startup site is currently valued at over $25k. Maybe Ben should up the “buy now” price…
Dirk Vansina
July 7th, 2006 9:43 am
Is it really 2550 unique visitors a month or is it in millions? Isn’t $1000 wayyyyyyy to much for 2550 uniques / month? According to standards, it’s worth about $520 (maximum!).
Leon
July 7th, 2006 10:57 am
Another blogger that made it big. Congrats. You bring hope to us all.
Aaron Brazell
July 7th, 2006 11:33 am
Jason: What is the link to the Technorati value tool? I’ve seen it before but I can’t find it now?
site flipper
July 7th, 2006 12:23 pm
Dirk, what standards are you talking about?
As I see it, he’s about 700 undervalued at $1000.
The risks of selling your blog | Money Matador
July 7th, 2006 2:03 pm
[...] Now it is put up for sale. Starting bid $1000. The price includes a Google PR rank of 5, unique design, pages indexed in Google, all the posts, a high technorati rank, links from high profile sites like ProBlogger and a monthly income of about $100 if I remember correctly. [...]
Ben
July 7th, 2006 5:24 pm
Thanks for the link, Aaron :)
And to everyone questioning the value I’ve assigned it – if you read the post at College Startup you’ll understand that I put more thought into it than traffic and revenue.
Peter
July 7th, 2006 5:52 pm
come on darren dont kid us with that “if I had the cash” talk. You are making so much money off your blogs and ur telling me you cant afford it? Darren why dont you just buy that blog and stop playing with us with your remarks.
Aaron Brazell
July 7th, 2006 9:13 pm
Peter: I wrote the entry. I am not Darren.
Stanley
July 7th, 2006 9:14 pm
Re: Peter
Have another look. Darren is on patternity leave, you are commenting on an article written by Aaron. He even says: “College Startup is a wonderful little blog that I was turned onto some time ago by Darren.”
Besides that, the fact that Darren is a six figure blogger does not necessarily mean that he makes a 6 figure profit. Think taxes, costs, investment in b5media etc. You can only spend your money once you know…
peter lee
July 8th, 2006 8:28 pm
why should we buy?, start the new one and builb it up. blog is all about hard working.
good luck
Darren McLaughlin
July 8th, 2006 10:26 pm
It’s interesting. Isn’t the blogger the main asset of the blog? If he sells it and leaves, then you have a blog without its’ main asset? Maybe it’s smarter to build one from scratch.
Brian Breslin
July 9th, 2006 8:23 am
So what is the magic formula for appraising a blog?
and where is this technorati api for price determination?
Aaron Brazell
July 9th, 2006 9:10 am
Perhaps, this tool? According to it, ProBlogger is worth nearly $2million.
Halfdeck
July 9th, 2006 9:22 pm
High PR and Alexa rank mean nothing if the blog’s not generating revenue. A friend of mine is selling her site that makes measely 400 bucks a month for 2k, so I figure for 6k College Startup should be pulling it at least 3x that (1,200 a month) for it to worth the price. I think Ben said his blog is covering his hosting bills? Assuming 100 bucks a month on hosting, College Startup is worth no more than 500.
Aaron Brazell
July 9th, 2006 10:39 pm
Halfdeck: Personally, I think that’s silly. Even if Ben is not monetizing, if there is solid content, it CAN be monetized. That’s where the value is. You’re talking about going into a house, saying “I don’t want to buy this house because the walls are green”. You could always paint.
Ben
July 10th, 2006 6:47 am
Well, hosting bills are about $10 a month…the site is making $40.
And if you’re not selling your site for at least 10x’s the monthly revenue you’re screwing yourself. Your friends site is worth at least $4,000. Maybe as much as $8,000 depending on the design. Valuing a website based purely on revenue is a mistake, anyway. Unique designs, unique content, steady traffic, etc. all have value.
Halfdeck
July 19th, 2006 3:41 pm
Aaron, I do see there’s a potential to be exploited with any acquired domain. The question is how easy is it to monetize on someone else’s blog targetting a micro niche as I see it? College Startup, which I read regularly, thanks to Darren, rode on Ben’s insight and personality. I’d ask what good is Matt Cutt’s blog, for example, without Matt Cutts? Needless to say, I’m keeping a close eye on what David does with College Startup.
Ben, in my niche, 10x the monthly revenue is too much risk. Traffic, design and content has some value, agreed, but in the end, I look at a site’s potential daily revenue. If I could buy a site generating $1000 a month for 6~10K, why gamble that money away on a site making $40 a month? A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.
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