It’s become vogue to sell established blogs. I think it’s fantastic because it makes the blogosphere completely unpredictable and it proves to all of us that there is serious money to be made at the end of the tunnel. It’s one thing to make $1,000 a month online, but it’s another to make $1,000 a month with one blog because it increases the value of that blog.

We had heard a few weeks ago from 45n5 a theory that each RSS subscriber a blog has is worth about $30. Blogging Fingers sold for $6000 and Ryan Shamus’ blog went for $.2,500 Whoever owns and runs Cash Quests – at this stage I have absolutely no idea who that is – dropped a few hints about wanting to sell the blog after seeing how much money could be made by doing so.

Cash Quests had an average of about 900 RSS subscribers a day. The site makes about $1,300 a month. There is another theory that a site will sell for 10 times its incoming revenue. I had no idea Cash Quests was even up for auction until right after the hammer dropped. The final price? As I reported a couple of days ago: $15,000. The 10-times-income theory seems to hold more weight than the RSS theory.

That $1,300 a month is not guaranteed. Do you think $15,000 is a fair price? It’s a pretty sweet payout, but looking at Cash Quests now, there has been no activity for several days and not a single mention of the sale. It looks like it might be the end for that blog.

In another surprise sell, 5xMom is selling 5xMom.com. The current asking price is $10,000, but reception to the sale is lukewarm because the blog’s income is only $600. It will be interesting to watch which other blogs go up for sale because we will all be able to learn something from how buyers react. It also means bloggers can assess the value of their blogs. I’d say that a fair price for 5xMom.com would be about $5,000 to $6,000 given the current climate.

At the moment I wouldn’t be able to sell this blog for much more than $200, but my priorities lie in making money through other streams. Perhaps I should focus a bit more on monetizing this blog and then sell it for a huge payout. $15,000 is more than a year’s salary for me (I live in Thailand).

Tags: Around the web by Angel
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Holy cow. Well if this isn’t the biggest news to shake the blogosphere I don’t know what is. Cash Quests has sold for $15,000. Check it out for yourself on Sitepoint.

Tags: Around the web by Angel
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For the past couple of weeks, the talk of the blogosphere has been about Scot Smith. He’s the guy behind RSSXplosion.com, which is a service that offers bloggers the chance to buy RSS subscribers. Bloggers around the world have been outspoken in denouncing the service as uber-evil, but is it the service itself that people are against or is it Scot?

Scot’s RSSXplosion offers a service that some people want. Despite many bloggers publicly lambasting this service, some have quietly taken Scot up on his offer. The problem is that Scot’s service is all about misleading people.

Scot left a comment on a blog inferring that I was a hypocrite because I’ve sold text links before, but the business of selling text links and passing on Page Rank is open and in the public. Doctoring RSS numbers is closed and conceited. No blogger who uses Scot’s service is going to come out and say they have a fake RSS count, whereas almost all bloggers are very up front about selling links.

The real problem with Scot is that he’s acted so aggressive throughout this whole ordeal. His defensive reactions to criticism have been childish at best. Scot’s lack of people skills and common sense will ultimately be his downfall. Using bloggers’ names to substantiate his claims was a mistake too.

If a blogger’s RSS count is to become the new Page Rank, as many have suggested, there will be increasing demand for services like RSSXplosion – it’s inevitable. This isn’t something that is going to just disappear. 45n5 wrote recently that an RSS subscriber is worth about $30. While you could theoretically buy 1,000 RSS subscribers and put your blog on the market, you have to remember that a large RSS count on its own is worthless. You also stray into fraud territory by selling a blog with fake RSS numbers.

You won’t get anywhere by buying RSS subscribers – you’d be better off spending the money on links or advertising space. We’ve seen it time and time again recently when bloggers have been called out only to act with hostility toward the whole blogosphere. That’s not the way to do business.

Tags: Around the web by Angel
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