Desi Baba calls it a day
It’s always a shame to see a good blog go down. Desi Baba has succumbed to the real world and sold his blog. After making more than $1,000 from Adsense in recent months, Desi’s blog became just too much work and he put it up for auction.
I made a couple of bids on the blog and went all the way up to $240, which I thought would have been a good investment, but once the bids got higher I wasn’t prepared to big because there weren’t enough stats available and I noticed that Kumiko wasn’t bidding, so I followed her lead. For a start, the task of taking over a popular blog, especially one that was in decline, is not going to be easy.
The blog was eventually bought for $420 by Vinay Kumar, a 30-year-old Indian chap living in Dubai. Vinay has been blogging on his own blog for a couple of years, but I don’t see much evidence of any solid game plans to blog for money.
Moving on
Ever since Desi announced he was selling the blog I was thinking of what I could have done with it if I had made the winning bid. How could you possibly take a blog molded around a person and make it your own? I came up with a few pointers:
- Carry on as usual: This would have been my first priority, and this is what I recommend Vinay to do. Desi has built up a great blog, Page Rank 4, more than 100 RSS subscribers, a Technorati ranking of about 15,000, and tons of good, quality content. People liked the blog, so carrying that on seems like a good idea.
- Aiming for a smooth takeover: As soon as I would have got that blog I would have made a big announcement that I was the new owner and changed some of the graphics and layout to reflect that. Vinay is going to want people to warm to him, and fast!
- Start adding content right away: Desi has been out of action for more than a week. His blog has suffered. The damage is reparable but it needs fast action to minimize the workload.
What would you have done with the blog, and do you think it was worth $420? It’s not a guaranteed money spinner, but there is potential there. I just hope that the domain does not go to waste.
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4 Responses to “Desi Baba calls it a day”
Blogging is hard work. i thought about getting his domain, but honestly my hard work has paid off in much less time, so I wouldn’t have gained too much. But I wish the new owner the best.
How has your hard work paid off? I’m interested to know.
I learned slowly by experimenting. But my blogging days are not over. I will start another blog sometimes later, but since I don’t have the time to blog now, I had to sell it.
Well it’s paid off in the form of more RSS readers, higher ranking in Alexa and Technorati, and more fulfillment from giving good content to the readers versus the money aspect of it. I also have learned a lot along the way so far!
To be really honest though, I think Desi’s blog is suffering now after the change in ownership. The style is different, of course, but it’s not as informative or interesting to read. I’d really be interested in seeing the stats from one owner to the next.