How To Buy A Blog: 7 Steps To Acquire Established Sites

Learning how to buy a blog is worthwhile, as by doing so you give yourself an unfair advantage as an entrepreneur! Acquiring established websites is one of the best business hacks.

Buying existing websites was once rare, but now this is a profitable business. And interestingly enough it’s not all that hard to do.

But, in order to know how to buy a blog and make money after, you do have to know a few things – which I will explain.

In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at everything you need to know to buy a blog, and share some tips on how to make a profit after acquisition. So, to find out more, keep on reading.

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Can You Buy A Blog?

First things first, can you buy a blog? Well, as you have probably guessed, the answer is yes.

To start viewing what’s on the market, take a look at the blogs for sale listings, to find the right deal for you.

What Are The Benefits Of Buying A Blog?

Instant Authority

When you know how to buy a blog, you can buy one that has authority in a niche that you want to tap into.

Once you take over the site you get to instantly take over all the authority, backlinks, DA, customers, and credibility the business has achieved in the industry.

Forget spending a decade trying to build that authority up yourself, and just take over a business with already well-established authority that you can simply slap your name on.

Possibility Of Passive Income

An established blog is a revenue-generating asset. When you acquire it, you get to take over the customer list, traffic, products, and revenue streams the previous owner had established for the business.

For example, let’s say the site you want to buy earns $2,000 per month on Mediavine. (Mediavine is an ad network).

When you become the owner of the blog, you will be given the Mediavine property, and then Mediavine will start paying the ad income to you upon closing, instead of the seller.

The money will go right into your bank account each month.

So, although you are putting up some money to acquire the site now, it is a source of passive income with an active revenue stream, that grows every month from there on.

Increase Your Net Worth & Build Your Portfolio

Although it might stroke your ego to see some big number in your bank account, smart investors know that leaving money sitting in the bank is not going to get you very far.

Smart investors put their money to work and buy revenue-generating assets that increase their net worth.

You should be thinking about this, and start using your money to build a portfolio that will grow over time.

It’s good to have some savings set aside. However, a large collection of money sitting stagnant in the bank is a risk and can even lose its value and be lost to inflation.

Everyone’s goals and situation are different, so always talk to a financial advisor before making any decisions about your money.

Resale Ability (Flipping The Website For Profit)

As a website investor, blog flipping is my favorite way to generate cash.

I like to buy a blog with the intention to grow it for 6 months to a year, and then resell it for a profit before I get bored of it.

For example, I purchased a blog for $38,000 and sold it a few months later for $130,000. During those few months, while I owned it, it generated an additional $25,000 in revenue, too.

Another short-term flip was when I purchased a blog for $6,000 and then sold it less than 3 months later for $18,000.

Some investors will buy blogs with the intention to hold them in their portfolio for many years, others will buy to flip short-term.

Both are worthy options and the only thing that matters is personal preference to you!

If you are interested in learning my blog-flipping strategy, I host a group coaching program on the subject. You can learn more about the program by watching this free training.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the steps needed for how to buy a blog from someone.

How To Buy A Blog, Step By Step

12 Easy Steps To Acquire Established Sites

1. Find A Blog To Buy That Fits Your Interests and Budget

One of the great things about acquiring established websites is that there is something for every skill set, interest, and budget.

For example:

• Blogs that earn more than $3,000 per month
• Blogs priced $10,000 – 50,000
• Blogs priced $50,000 – 100,000
• Blogs prices $100,000+
• Blogs that earn from affiliate revenue
• just to name a few!

Across the board, you can expect to pay about $40,000 for a website that earns $1,000 per month.

So knowing how much money you are willing to invest in the acquisition is a key starting point. And it’s good to have extra money aside that you can invest into the site’s growth once you take it over.

Once you know how much you are willing to spend, there are two routes that you can go down when you decide to buy a blog.

They are similar to the two routes that you can go down when purchasing a real estate property.

You can either purchase privately, or you can purchase through a website broker that is specifically experienced in selling existing websites.

Let’s take a further look at these two options.

a) Buy a blog privately

If you want to buy a website privately, then it involves dealing directly with the owner of that website. A lot of the time, in the world of websites, this will involve approaching somebody and seeing if they are willing to sell their website.

It is rare for someone to sell their website privately after advertising that they want to sell it.

Instead, you will approach the owner of the website, and ask them about their plans for the website, and if they are looking to sell at any point.

If they are willing to sell, then you will go through the discovery process for the website. This will provide you with all the details and numbers that you need in order to do your due diligence and make an offer.

If your offer is accepted by the website owner, then you will organize to sell the website privately for the agreed amount.

As there are many risks and logistics of a business acquisition, all things a professional broker can protect and guide both you and the seller through.

A broker will manage the sale and transfer of assets securely for all parties.

b) Buy Through A Broker (recommended)

If you want to know how to buy a blog safely, you’ll buy it through a broker.

Niche Investor is a business-for-sale marketplace where each listing is managed by a dedicated agent whose job it is to ensure the sale goes smoothly for both buyer and seller.

The Niche Investor marketplace is incredibly user-friendly, and its easy to navigate. A great amount of the risk of purchasing an existing website is also removed if you use a site such as Niche Investor to purchase it.

This is because the listing agent acts as a supportive third-party to serve both sides fairly.

We provide the sale agreement, manage the Escrow, closing, and are there to answer any questions you have at each step.

As the buyer, you do not pay for this service. The broker’s fee is paid by the seller upon a successful sale.

2. How to buy a blog requires performing due diligence

When looking at websites that are for sale, consider factors such as the established community that the website has, the revenue streams the website has (and the potential to add more revenue streams), and of course the success of the niche that the website covers.

Take a look at the site’s profit & loss sheet, and Google analytics traffic history. And as the broker any questions you have, to really understand the business.

You will also want to do some research on the competition, as well as consider the needs of the blog’s current audience.

Running through the questions in this due diligence checklist will help you determine if a site is a good fit for your skillset.

3. Decide If It’s The Right Asset For You

Most importantly, consider what your experience is, as it relates to the niche and business model, and ask yourself:

• Do I understand the niche?
• Will I be able to write about this topic?
• Do I understand the revenue streams?
• Will I be able to further monetize the site?

A website may be successful now, under its current owner’s command. But its future success is only determined by what you do with it once it’s under your ownership.

When you buy a blog it becomes your responsibility to keep it profitable.

Get The Details

The most important thing is to get the details. You need to know exactly what you are buying, and exactly what you are getting out of the deal.

Be as specific as possible when you are gathering this information from the seller.

4. Consider The Growth Potential

One of your best assets as a website investor will be your ability to take what’s working for the website and ramp it up to generate even more traffic and sales.

This is called ‘scaling’ and it’s what will inevitably make the website worth more, for when it comes to reselling it later (if flipping it is your end goal).

So take a moment to consider the site’s current monetization and think of ways you could improve it, and add new revenue streams.

It could be things like negotiating higher commissions with the affiliate partners, creating better digital products, moving the site to a premium ad network, or improving the sales funnel.

If you can easily think of ways to better monetize the website and you feel excited just thinking about diving in, then you’ve probably found a great website!

5. Make Your Offer: Tips For Getting Your Offer Accepted

Now that you have completed due diligence and you feel confident about taking on the business, it’s time to make your offer.

This can be done easily at Niche Investor, simply by filling out the form at the bottom of the listing you are interested in. This way you can let the listing agent know how much you would like to offer for the site.

The listing agent will reach back out to you with the seller’s response.

We have had people make low offers before, thinking they were making an ‘intro offer’ to get the ball rolling, only for the seller to instantly decline it and then accept someone else’s offer that was better by comparison.

This has happened many times, leaving would-be buyers upset and regretting not making a better offer initially.

If you have the intention of paying higher, it’s best to just come right out of the gate and make your best offer first.

Some sellers may even consider seller financing.

Another tip is to make your offer as ‘clean’ as possible. Avoid making offers that ask for earn-outs or lengthy training requests, which tax the seller’s time.

Sellers already provide 30 days of post-sale support regardless, so aim to keep lengthy training periods out of the deal.

Additionally, we have seen many successful deals where the buyer hires the seller as a freelancer post-sale to offer them consultation and support.

6. Managing the actual website sale

Hooray! You have found your dream website and your offer has been accepted!

It is now time to get down to the logistics of the sale.

The Buying Process

Once you have made the decision to purchase a website, then you will probably want to know what the process is.

So what happens? Let’s take a look.

Use A Contract

Contracts can be messy, and generally a bit of a pain. But, the consequences if you do not get a contract can also be disastrous.

So, it is definitely worth considering getting a contract drawn up for the sale.

When buying a blog from a seller at Niche Investor, the listing agent will provide all the closing steps for you, as a white glove, complementary service.

You will be given a sale agreement which you can have your lawyer review before you sign.

Once signed, you and the seller will receive access to a private Escrow account where you can send the money securely.

Depending on the size of the business, you might want to consider adding a ‘no competitor’ clause to the contract.

This clause means that the seller cannot make a website that is similar to the one that they have just sold you.

So, you don’t have to worry about the seller going back to their computer and creating a website that is almost identical to yours which becomes your biggest competitor.

Send The Payment To Escrow

At Niche Investor we use Escrow.com as a secure third-party to manage the actual transfer of money.

Your agent will provide the Escrow account for the transaction, and you will be able to pay from your banking institution.

Using Escrow adds another level of security to the purchase for you.

Receive The Assets and Close

Once payment is received, the seller will send you the website files, domain, and all included assets.

The agent will oversee the transfer of everything to ensure you receive everything in a timely manner.

Once the domain is on your site, you will release the funds from Escrow, and officially close.

This is as soon as you have all the information for the website, including databases, and the domain is assigned to your name, the website is then yours.

The purchasing process is then complete. Congratulations!

7. Post-Sale To-Do List

Here are some post-sale tasks I like to recommend, once you have completed closing, and you have full access to the website.

• Do a content audit, improve the on-page SEO
• Update or remove any plugins in the WordPress dashboard that need it
• Update the site’s legal pages
• Update all the affiliate links on the site to your own
• Create a schedule for publishing new blog posts
• Improve the site’s monetization
• Design a new product/offer
• Consider starting a paid ad campaign
• Write and schedule some newsletters
• Implement CRO

Is It A Good Idea To Buy An Established Website?

If you want to make money through a blog, but don’t want to put in the hours of time and effort that it takes to build a blog from scratch, then buying an established website is a good idea.

But, there are some things that you need to ask yourself before you do this.

Asking all these questions will help you decide if purchasing that website is a good idea, so let’s take a look at what they are.

How much Revenue does it Generate?

You will typically buy an existing website because that website is already generating money.

So, before you buy an established website, you want to know how much money that website is making

What is the Blog’s Niche?

Almost all successful websites have a specific niche. That niche might be finance, or golf, or exotic animals.

No matter what the niche, when you buy an existing blog, you want to ensure that the niche is something that you are familiar with, and something you are confident writing about.

Does the Website Compete With or Complement Your Existing Site?

If you already own a successful blog, then there are two routes that you might want to go down.

You might want to purchase a competitor site to remove that competitor, or you might want to purchase a website that complements your website to make it a sister site.

Do They Have a Mailing List?

One of the biggest attractions of purchasing an existing website is if that established website has a mailing list.

Websites often make the majority of their money through their mailing list, but it isn’t easy to generate one.

That is why a lot of people will purchase an established website, simply for their mailing list!

What Else Do You Need To Know As A First-Time Blog Buyer?

If you aim to buy a blog that is established, it is not cheap. It’s an investment that takes careful consideration and financial planning.

Acquiring a blog is not something that you do on a whim.

So, before you decide to do this, you need to research, and speak to your financial advisors.

In TV shows and in movies, blogging is often presented through rose-tinted glasses. It is typically sold as a fun pastime, and it can be.

But, if you want to make money through blogging, you have to appreciate that this is a serious industry.

You have to approach website investing with a serious mindset, and you have to make serious financial decisions from a business standpoint.

Should You Buy a Blog or Start One from Scratch?

Often when one thinks about starting a blog, it is likely that you consider starting that site from scratch. In your head, it might seem like a good idea.

But, when you realize that there is a pretty impressive amount of work needed to get a brand-new website off the ground, the dream is often shattered.

If you create your own blog from scratch, then it will take a considerable amount of time and effort to get your website to a place where it is making money.

But, if you buy a blog that is already established, then it will already be making money.

This is why it’s worth it to buy blogs that are already established.

Because an established website will come with content, traffic and authority. The three things that take the longest to build up.

Some websites even come with email list subscribers, social media followers, products, funnels, and customers!

Established sites are revenue-generating assets that

• a) generate money while you own it
• and b) there are things you can do to actually improve and grow the site to generate more.

Gaining traffic to your website is one of the most difficult things about running a blog, and it isn’t as easy as influencers and bloggers on TV shows make it seem.

Making money through a blog that you have set up yourself is a grind, which is why it is such a great thing that you can buy blogs that already exist.

How To Buy A Blog: Conclusion

In short, knowing how to buy a blog will set you apart as an entrepreneur and give you an advantage in your niche.

Buying an established blog isn’t as difficult as you might expect. In fact, this process is pretty easy as long as you know these essentials.

I hope this guide has given you a good starting point on everything that you need to know about buying a blog.

If you have any questions, comment below. And, learn more about my Blog Flipping group program here.

And be sure to check out our current listings, to see if the perfect blog is waiting there for you.