{"id":6087,"date":"2023-03-04T02:18:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T02:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/?p=6087"},"modified":"2023-09-25T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T20:40:08","slug":"niche-site-project-1-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nichetwins.com\/niche-site-project-1-sold\/","title":{"rendered":"#01 | 1 Blog. 3 Years. 7 Figures in Profit."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi. Hello? Is this thing on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first ever Niche Twins newsletter, and it\u2019s going out to 2,000+ people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know these are meant to be short and sweet, but this one is meaningful to me. So it\u2019s a bit lengthy, but hopefully it’s still sweet. (I promise you less words in the future).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyways, I sold my blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Beginning<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A little over 3 years ago, on the train ride into Boston for my 9-5 job, I started writing my first blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would do research the night before and save it to my laptop, because the internet on the train was so unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took 6 months to earn my first dollar, and I only published 43 total posts that first year.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"my<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But by the end of 2020 my site was getting 20,000+ pageviews a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I was doing was working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash forward a year and the site was consistently earning 5 figures a month, far surpassing even my most ambitious goals\/dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its peak, my blog did 780,000 pageviews and earned $42,775 in a single month (Aug 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A short time after sharing my income report for August, I got a DM on Twitter – someone was interested in buying my site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their offer – $1,265,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The First “Sale”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost immediately my desire to keep working on the blog vanished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had been a long 3 years. I had personally written 90% of the posts. I was building the site and simultaneously working my 9-5. I was a new dad. I was tired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything seemed to be going so incredibly well, until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just 12 days after signing an NDA with the potential buyers, my site was hit with a manual penalty from Google for \u201cunnatural inbound links to some pages\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gut punch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I immediately disclose the bad news to the buyers. They were a bit spooked, but still wanted to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3 months that followed were painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sign a Letter of Intent. But delays with the loan process means another exclusionary period extension. And another. And another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buyers went through two cycles of SBA loan applications. Meanwhile the traffic on my site is declining, month after month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d wake up. Check Google Analytics. See traffic down again. Rinse and repeat – for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But finally, some good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The buyers are SBA approved to buy my site at the original offer price! Amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we\u2019re working on the Asset Purchase Agreement. Almost there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They send over their draft, and my attorney provides feedback. Our lawyers go back and forth, but the changes are mostly minor. Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re just a little over a week away from signing and executing the deal when I receive an email from the buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re backing out. They\u2019re backing out?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A part of me knew this deal was too good to be true. But another part of me desperately wanted it to be real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality, however, was I had a site with a penalty from Google and traffic was down 50% from the highs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, my site was still earning 5 figures a month, but that wasn\u2019t even enough to service the buyers monthly debt payment. The math simply no longer made sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit, I was devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It felt like everything was starting to go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to that a few loud assholes on Twitter piling on, seemingly taking joy in the fact that my site\u2019s traffic was down, and I was emotionally in the dumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Second Sale<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I gave myself that night to feel sorry for myself, and when I woke up the next morning I asked my broker at Quiet Light to list my site for sale, publicly this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had already made my mind up – I was done with the site. I couldn\u2019t imagine working on it even one day longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We adjusted the price to reflect reality (traffic down and manual penalty) and only entertained all cash buyers – no more SBA loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days after going live with the sale I woke up to an email from Google, the penalty was lifted. My site was \u201cclean\u201d. Great news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got a lot of interest over that first week and multiple offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The offer I ended up accepting was for high 6-figures – 15% above the original asking price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Final Numbers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t end up getting the million dollar sale I had in mind, but it\u2019s hard to be upset about these numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n