Top Blog Sites That Have Been Sold
The whole point of this post is to make you think of your end goal, where you want to go with your online business. Every day your working on your business, don’t just think about how much you made that day but how much your going to make for investing an additional day into your business when you go to sell your blog/company. Some of these guys were worth $30,000 a day – now that’s what gets me excited about blogging.
In my head, I have already decided I’m going to sell my blog network for millions of dollars. Here’s the clever thing about what I’m doing:
Here in the UK, if I make over £150,000 a year, I have to pay 50% (actually 51%) of anything over that to the government which makes it quite an easy decision to not take the money out of the company but instead to invest it in it. So my whole game plan is not take a big salary, live within my means and invest every penny into my business so that I can grow it to the point where it gets millions of visitors every month and ideally make me 7 figures a month also. If I keep reinvesting, growing my business for a few short years I will then be in position to sell the company for lets say a cool £10,000,000. On the first £2 million I have to pay 10% tax and then 18% after that. For me, the best part of this isn’t so much the financial side, it’s the fact that I would of built something amazing, something to be proud of, the money is just a bonus! This reminds me of this saying:
Entrepreneurship is about living a few years of your life like most won’t, so that you can live the rest of your life like most can’t!
Now think big and get inspired!
#1 Ugo.com – Sold For: $100 million
Founded: 1997
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $27,397
The website Ugo was founded in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online (UGO) by Chris Sherman.Action World Inc. bought them very early on and decided to rename the business. They changed the name to UGO Networks, however the name didn’t stick for long as it was once again changed to Online Underground. Eventually it was sold on to the Hearst Corporation approximately $100 million.
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#2 Fotolog – Sold For: $90 million
Founded: 2002
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $49,315
Fotolog was founded by Scott Heiferman, in 2002, and unfortunately the site began to have problems just 3yrs later in 2005 when the amount of visitors and members started to become too much for the websites servers. The website itself currently receives over 20 million unique visitors each month and was sold to Hi-Media Group for the tidy sum of $90 Million.
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#3 Consumersearch – Sold for: $33 million
Founded: 1999
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $11,301
Consumersearch was founded by co-founders Derek grew and Carl Harmaan in 1999, the pair also owned a privately held corporation at the time. The website sold for a huge $33 million and the news was first released by the New York Times Co. The buyers, About.com are also owned by the New York Times Co. In 2009 the website was honored in the 13th annual webby awards competition.
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#4 TechCrunch – Sold for: $30 million
Founded: 2005
Year of Sale: 2010
Daily Worth: $16,438
TechCrunch is a very well-known website publication, which is well grounded within the technology and gadget niche’s. The blog was first founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington, and the first time it was published live online was on June 11, 2005. It’s astonishing that in just five years Michael had created such a unique website which was full of valuable content and managed to sell the website for a total of $30 million to AOL.
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#5 PaidContent – Sold for: $30 million
Founded: 2002
Year of Sale: 2008
Daily Worth: $13698
Paidcontent was founded by Rafat Ali, in 2002, and was basically an online resource for; information, analysis and news. Rafat Ali the founder of the website, was a journalist and so the website itself was a natural progression for him. In the end the website was eventually brought out by Guardian Media Group $30 Million (2008) Ali Rafat however is still part of the website, and is currently working for the company as an editor.
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#6 Tatter and Company – Sold for: $30 million
Founded: 2002
Year of Sale: 2008
Approximate Daily Worth: $13698
Tatter and Company or TNC as it is also known, was founded by Chang-Won Kim and Chester Roh, they formed the company in 2002. Tatter and Company itself was and still is a blogging platform for the Korean nation. I’m sure it is not a major surprise that the company was purchased by Google for the sum of $30 Million, in 2008.
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#7 Ars Technica – Sold for: $25 million
Founded: 1998
Year of Sale: 2008
Approximate Daily Worth: $6849
Ars Technica was founded by Ken Fisher, in 1998 and quickly became one of the top and most authoritative blogs with the technology industry. The site provided a great amount of news and sometimes reviews on their chosen niche. The website was purchased by Conde Nast Publications for $25 Million in 2008, a decade since the year it was founded.
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#8 Weblogs.com – Sold for: $25 million
Founded: 2003
Year of Sale: 2005
Approximate Daily Worth: $34,722
Weblogs Inc was created by Brian Alvey and Jason Calcanis in 2003, with the help of an investment from Mark Cuban. In the early days the business was initially set up for professional readership, they also had a number of other websites running alongside Weblogs, in fact there were approximately a dozen websites in total. Weblogs was purchased in 2005 by AOL to the tidy sum of $25 Million.
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#9 Livejournal.com – Sold for: $25 million
Founded: 1999
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $8561
LiveJournal just as the name suggests was a virtual community where users could keep a blog or an online digital diary, through their free open source server technology. They didn’t stop there though, they had the software allowing users to easily create blogs and diaries online they even allowed for calendars, polls, and even have guest writers. The website sold for approximately $ 25 million to Six Apart in 2007.
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#10 Bankaholic.com – Sold for: $15 million
Founded: 2006
Year of Sale: 2008
Approximate Daily Worth: $20547
Bankaholic is the creation of founderJohn Wu who also created CB Land Investments. The website itself was an online banking marketplace which basically provided its customers with credit card offers as well as interest rates and personal financial advice. The website eventually sold for $15 Million to BankRate and now has a hefty team of banking and financial professionals behind it so who knows where it could go? maybe it will be worth double the amount in a year or so.
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#11 Deadline Hollywood – Sold for: $14 million
Founded: 2006
Year of Sale: 2009
Approximate Daily Worth: $5479
Deadline Hollywood started off as a column in the LA weekly, in 2002 by Nikki Finke. The column itself was basically an informative entertainment column based around the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Nikki decided to take her now well-known columnto the online world, and the site first went live in 2006 as a blog. She decided upon calling it the ‘Deadline Hollywood Daily’. It was so popular that in 2009 the Mail Media Corporation bought it from her in a lucrative deal with $14 million. The website has since been changed to deadline.com.
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#12 Wonkette – Sold for: $12 million
Founded: 2004
Year of Sale: 2006
Approximate Daily Worth: $16438
Wonkette is a website that was established in January 2004, it was part of the Gawker Media Network, and it’s founding editor was Ana Marie Cox, who has also been the editor of the well known website suck.com. Gawker Media thought a downturn in the internet boom was on the horizon, and not wanting to lose all the money they had poured into the website they sold it. The buyers were Ken Layne and his business partners, paying $12 Million in 2006. It’s also worth mentioning that Ken Layne was also the editor of the site at the time he and his partners bought it.
#13 Celebrity baby blog -Sold for: $10 million
Founded: 2004
Year of Sale: 2008
Approximate Daily Worth: $6849
Celebrity Baby blog was created by Danielle Friedland in 2004, and as you can see from the name of the blog, the topic is pretty obvious. Yes that’s right it’s another blog about famous babies. With celebrities a current trend at the time (when are they not, right?) and her website gaining a very steady stream of visitors, She managed to sell the blog to Times Inc in a deal worth $10 Million. Not bad for a blog based on babies, the blog has also changed names since to babyrazzi.com.
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#14 Tree Hugger – Sold for: $10 million
Founded: 2005
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $6849
Tree Hugger was the brainchild of Graham Hill, an environmentalist entrepreneur who knew how to use technology to his advantage. He managed to sell the blog to the Discovery Communication for a neat and tidy sum of $10 Million in 2007. You got to admit there’s probably not that many tree huggers out their worst $10 million!
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#15 Freakanomics -Sold for: $8 million
Founded: 2005
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $10958
Freakanomics, was founded by Stephen J. Dubner, in the year 2005 and was sold just two years after it was first created. Stephen was a professional journalist for the New York Times, when he started the blog, which was actually created after the huge success of Dubner’s book, which was also called ‘Freakanomics’ . The website was eventually bought out by the New York Times the sum of $8 million.
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#16 The Consumerist – Sold for: $7 million
Founded: 2005
Year of Sale: 2008
Approximate Daily Worth: $7305
The Consumerist, is yet another website which was developed by the Gawker Media Group, there doing quite well aren’t they? Anyway, Joel Johnson was the editor-in-chief although the site was originally the idea of Nick Denton and Lockhart Steele both of whom are highly ranked within the Gawker Media Group. They decided to sell the consumerist to Consumer Media LLC when they were offered around $7 Million. I think I may have sold for that price too!
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#17 World Hum – Sold for: $6 million
Founded: 2001
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $2739
World Hum is a very highly regarded and award-winning magazine-style blog which was created by Jim Benning and Michael Yessis. The pair were obsessed with travel and decided to create the blog as an outlet for their passion. Within the blog they had all sorts of various categories; how-to sections, question-and-answer sections and where the best places to travel were, as well as how to get there and where to stay once you arrive. Eventually the Travel Channel decided to make them an offer in 2007 to the tune of $6 Million, which they just couldn’t turn down. I can’t say I blame them though.
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#18 Arseblog – Sold for: $5 million
Founded: 2006
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $13698
Arseblog, yes I know you’re properly all sniggering, well at least those of you in the UK as it is a bit of a naughty word but anyway, the website was created by Andrew Managan in 2006,m due to his undying loyalty to the football team Arsenal FC (Soccer to all of you reading this in the US). In 2007 Andrew was made an offer god-father style, one he definitely could not refuse $5 million by the company Ole Ole. The site has since changed it’s name to Ole Ole.
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#19 GardenRant – Sold for: $1.3 million
Founded: 1996
Year of Sale: 2007
Approximate Daily Worth: $395.73
GardenRant was formed in 1996 by gardening enthusiast Susan Harris, mainly as a way to share her thoughts, tips and advice as well as sharing event details and special promotions. Though you may think that there wouldn’t be much value in a gardening blog it actually did amazingly well and was eventually bought out by the company GardenWeb for a rough figure of around $1.3 Million, not bad for a blog talked mostly about flowers. Never underestimate the power of any niche community, big or small!
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#20 Politicshome – Sold for: $1.3 million
Founded: 2008
Year of Sale: 2009
Approximate Daily Worth: $3561
Politicshome was founded just two years ago in 2008 by Stephan Shakespeare, who is also the founder and CEO of YouGov, which is basically an Internet-based market research company. After just one year of the blog being online, Stephan managed to sell the business in a very successful deal with Conservative politician Michael Ashcroft. The deal was worth an approximate $1.3 million.
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