This is a guest post by Simon Rogers, a fifteen year old blogger who runs Teenius.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @teenius
First of all, let me tell you something. When I first started blogging I absolutely hated it. Why? Because I spent hours every day maintaining and advertising my sites, but I was getting no return at all.
After a couple of weeks of struggling, swearing and moaning, I decided it was time to move on. I ended up selling all the blogs I’d spent my time on (eight of them) and must say, I felt a lot better for it.
From doing this, I actually realised something which would turn out pretty important for me: you could actually make a decent amount of money from making blogs and selling them on. At the time I made about five hundred dollars profit from those eight blogs, which seemed like a really good figure (especially seeing as I was fourteen at the time).
That little story what gave me the idea for this article, which will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of short term blogging projects, and then comparing them with those of long term blogs.
Short Term Projects
Short term blogs are usually considered blogs where you spend a little time on them doing things such as setting it up to a web host, getting a design for it, and writing a few posts. After that, they are usually sold for profit by the blog owner.
Advantages
- You need to put a lot less time into the blog. Yes, it helps to advertise the site and it will increase the final sale price, but it’s not vital.
- Less commitment is needed. Because you’re putting less time into the blog, it’s not going to kill you if it isn’t a massive success. You’ll never find yourself worrying about whoís commenting, and you defiantly won’t lose any sleep.
- With short term projects, you should also find you make instant profit. You make the site, maintain it for a week or two, then sell it on. You don’t have to wait a long time to start earning decent money.
Disadvantages
- You won’t really get to connect with other bloggers which is, in my opinion, one of the most important things any blogger can do.
- Branding yourself is harder as you’re never tied down or connected to a certain sites, making it harder for people to remember you.
- Youíre unlikely to ever get much traffic to the site, which won’t give you much experience for future projects (should you choose to start a long term blog).
Long Term Projects
Usually long term projects are the projects we start to create recurring income. These are the projects we don’t flip, or at least don’t flip if we can manage it.
Advantages
- You can build long term relationships with people a lot easier, as they’ll remember you along with your website. It’s all about connections in the mind.
- There’s no real need to worry about other projects. For instance, when you’re commenting in blogs you don’t need to worry about which site to put as your URL.
- You can really put your personality into your blog. With short term projects, you should be making the blog for the buyer, so it needs to be very professional, but with your own blog you can put your stamp on it.
Disadvantages
- It’s easy to start worrying and even getting a bit obsessed. I know I check my comments a LOT, and when I go away for a few days I do think about how my blogs doing in my absence. I suppose it becomes a way of life.
- In most cases, you’ll have to wait a while to start earning from your blog. (Sorry, I can’t elaborate much on that!)
- You might get bored with your blog. OK, this probably won’t happen (especially if you really love your blog), but it is possible that you can get bored of posting about the same old niche.
Conclusion
In my opinion, it’s just that: an opinion. Some people will prefer the option to get cash from short term projects, whilst others would rather build up their blog to the point of consistent earning (and probably connecting with a fair few people along the way).
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting this Alex… hopefully your readers will enjoy it
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
I think it will go down well, great posts man!
I would say short term projects are good as they easy to do and do not suck lot of time. Even they need hard work though. Good post Alex
It was actually me who did the post
Yeah, short term projects are great for a quick bit of money… “no strings attached” comes to mind. That said, you’ll never be able to build to long term relationships with other bloggers as good as you would with a long term blog.
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
oh ! sorry did not know it was a guest post
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..List Building – Why And How ?
They are easy I guess, but I like long term projects a lot as well. I agree with the reason in the post that you can build better relationships with readers on them, opposed to shorter term projects where you start to get the community going, then change ownership!
Yeah, but a lot of the time there is no community, especially in smaller niches. The idea is really to sell the potential of the site, so your job is to basically set it up ready to be the next big thing in it’s niche
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
That’s not something I would want to do though. Even though you get paid, I think it’s not worth it if you do it a lot. I think it can harm your reputation if you sell your blog once you get a community going.
Hey, Simon. I think there’s a lot more satisfaction with a long-term blog. When that’s the case you’re going to put a lot more effort into it and you’ likely enjoy it. I was wondering, how do you sell blogs you make so quickly?
Nick Tart’s last blog post..Thinking and Growing into $100 Million – JJ Entry #16
I agree that a long term blog is much more satisfying, especially when you get to watch it grow
And, basically, all you do is make the blog, add some content and a design and sell it on. It’s stupidly simple and yet you can make a very tidy profit from it. I mean, there is a bit of a process to it, but it’s really easy. I might do a blog post about it on Teenius soon, so stay tuned
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
Looking forward to the post if you go through with it man.
Thanks for the reply. What I’m most interested in is how you find a buyer. Is there a website where you post these blogs and someone contacts you to make an offer?
I’m also looking forward to the post!
Nick Tart’s last blog post..Thinking and Growing into $100 Million – JJ Entry #16
Yeah, there are plenty of website marketplaces out there that you can sell your site on. Personally I would recommend the DP marketplace and Sitepoint, but there are loads of alternatives.
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
Excellent write up!
Monty | Make Money Online’s last blog post..Get a free PR 10 back link
Both short term and long term projects, i think success can be justified by settng the proper goal. Its a big misconception that short term projects don’t need goals… Short & long term projects are equally important especially if you’re planning to cash in on both of them.
Melvin’s last blog post..MMO Blog Monetizer Launch
I agree that you do need to have goals for short term projects and you should treat a short term blog well… the point I was making is that with long term projects I feel that these are probably more important
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
Great post Teenius. I was actually just thinking about this topic. i hope to start flipping short term blogs.
You are totally right about the stress that goes with long term blogs. I am constantly thinking about how to get more traffic and subscribers. I actually have lost a lot of sleep.
Jake| Web Journey’s last blog post..50 Tips to Improve Online Writing
Yeah, I think that’s a pretty serious problem when you start to worry about your sites. After all, for me it’s a hobby to run Teenius, so there’s no real need for me to get too worried about it, but on an old blog I ran I was falling behind in school and things because of it, and I really regret that, especially now my exams are coming up. Short term projects carry a little less stress with them, so are better in that respect, but are, in my opinion, no where near as enjoyable!
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Organising Ideas Effectively For Great Articles
I think if you are well organised then shoert term projects can work for you. Sadly I allow everythign to distract me form running my blogs properly so a short term project is not a good idea for someone like myself.
Great post by the way Simon.
Dean Saliba’s last blog post..May 2009 Blog Income Report
It could be a lot more effort to keep making short term blogs. I mean, I’d rather build on and improve one blog than do it for multiple blogs! A lot less work.
Personally I think it depends on what you class as a short term project. Quite often when I used to flip blogs (and will start again soon), I found that traffic was pretty much irrelevant, and people will buy for the domain, the fact it’s already listed in Google, and the amount of unique content. That said, you would obviously get more if you were already getting loads of traffic
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Knowing What Your Readers Want
I know some of my contents who are making huge by flipping short term blogs. But as you mentioned, you really do not get time to explore the blogosphere and enjoy the excitement it has to offer. I am glad my blog is a long time project..at least till now.
Richael | Domain Marvelous´s last blog ..Can .sex (or the new gTLDs) finally dethrone .com?
I’m sure it’s a really profitable business, it just takes way too much effort IMO!
Depends. I used to spend a max of 2 hours on my projects, and I got $50-60 profit each time. That’s like $25-30 per hour, which is a pretty good wage in my opinion. Also, you have lots of flexibility
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..4 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Do
So Simon, can I safely say that you are in the business of blog flipping? I guess a e book report from you might help aspiring blog flippers
Richael | Domain Marvelous´s last blog ..Can .sex (or the new gTLDs) finally dethrone .com?
I guess long term blogs are for those with an interest in writing. Though I do like money, I’d rather have one central place where I can express my ideas, help others, and burn some time, while creating a community. Look out for my new blog very soon
Exactly, I feel the same way. That’s why I prefer to make income from one source.
I guess you will make money the same way from real estate and stock market. There are day traders in stock market, and there are people flipping properties in real estate market