Let Me Pose The Question Again: What Would You Do In This Situation?
Oct 3rd, 2007 by msdanielle
The Question
Back in May, two months after I began this blog, I posed the question, “If you were me, and let’s say this blog was worth $150,000, would you sell it?”
I asked this question after seeing that after only two months, my blog was estimated at a worth of $155,813.04, according to Dane Carlson’s blog worth calculator. Huh?! What?! No way!
Of course, this number is completely fictional and only based on data such as my blog’s Technorati ranking. But it’s entertaining in every sense of the word.
The Answer
I toiled over the thought of selling it if someone approached me with that offer. In the end I couldn’t really imagine letting it go, at least not at that time.
The Crossroads
Not that I’m thinking about selling my blog, but Jason checked Dane’s calculator again today and told me my blog’s worth was estimated at over half a million dollars — a whopping $502,440.60 to be exact!
Whoa, nellie!!
Now, if anyone was insane enough to offer me half a million dollars for my personal blog site, I’d be even more insane to not sell it, don’t you agree? Honestly, if someone said, “Hey, I’ll buy your blog site off you for a half million dollars right now,” would you hesitate? I mean, this isn’t JC’s blog, or Mr. Problogger. This is plain old MsDanielle dot com. My mindset has changed; I’m not planning on making a half million dollars off my site, so why not hand it over to someone who’d give it to me? Is that a bad thing?
Your Thoughts…Care to Chime In?
I’m posing the question again for all of you to ponder. If you were me, and we were in an imaginary world where this site was worth $500,000, would you sell it? And if you said Yes, what would you do with half a million dollars?
If I was handed that much money, I’m for sure I’d donate a good portion of it to different non-profit organizations. It’s easy to let go of free money when it’s for a good cause. The ASPCA, Susan G Komen Foundation, and Hud come to mind. But if anyone does want to buy this blog for $500,000, let me know, it’s for a good cause! 
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$502,440.60 !! That’s a lot of money!!!
I cannot imagine that.
it is mind-boggling. i wonder what it would look like in a big pile…
Depending on the denomination of bill it really wouldn’t look like all that much. Money stacks quite well…I mean they are always able to fit a $5 million ransom in a tiny briefcase on television.
I think if someone legitimately offered me that much for my site I would sell it to them. It would take a long time to earn that much from it.
With the money, I would pay off all my debt, start a new site, invest some of it, and also buy some stuff I really don’t need just because I could.
However, romandock dot com is only worth $82,987.38 and I think I would be quite hesitant to sell out for that amount.
seriously, im waiting for someone to give me a legitimate offer for 500k!
hahah yea right… keep going man, your site is growing really nicely 
That’s a lot of money Danielle! Hey, if you build a blog from scratch once, you could easily do it again, but the next time around 500,000 dollars richer!
i would sell, as people have said they come for the content and not the domain name, you can rebuild it again and be done faster as you have learnt your lessons
[...] What your price? okay, maybe I should ask what is the price for your blog? [...]
honestly that is a very difficult question, but i think i would definately do it, not just because i want a half million dollars i could really takecare of everyone in my life! i think it would be selfish not to do so, and plus you can always start up another blog!
Of course I would sell! Then Disneyworld – here I come! Ha ha – you’re right that it is an entertaining feature to know how much your blog is worth – but I’m sure that it’s value to you is priceless!
I would only sell sites if I was looking to get out and retire, other than that I would always look at the long term, how much I could earn off a site over its life, and what benefit I could derive from it in terms of promoting related sites.
If I was offered far more than the site was worth, then I would sell… but that is not likely to happen.
I was thinking of selling a site a while back, to me that site is worth three or four times its annual income, I would be very lucky to find a buyer willing to pay more than one years income….
I agree. If you can make something work 100K in a short time, then I’d keep it a little longer and see how big you can make it. 1/2 million, yes I’d sell it.
I wouldn’t need an offer for half-a-million to sell my site. According to Dane Carlson’s site, my site is worth $246,000, and I can’t imagine why. But seriously, I’d sell if offered $10K (Canadian).
That said, to answer your question, with half-a-million dollars, I’d pay off my debt, upgrade my coming wedding, buy a nice house here in Japan, and then donate the other $300,000 to help rescue people from hell. $300K isn’t much towards the goal, but it’s better than I can afford right now
ooh, wedding’s the big one… i think donating 300k is definitely a substantial amount. i was thinking i’d donate 25% which is only 125,000 but also a decent chunk of change. and i’d buy my mom a new car (she bought a new house already so i don’t have to worry about that one) and put a nice down payment on a house. you can’t buy a decent house in orange county for 300k unless it’s in the sticks. i think average is around 550k. guess my money’s gone after that
That site lists my blog as being worth $479k, and yes, I’d let it go for that. I’d buy my mom a house and donate some of the cash. Heck, I’d let it go for 10% of that. Any takers? hehe
hey roberta! you changed your theme again, i like your blog! that’s a clean layout that bob did, maybe i’ll have to bite it off you! lol
Heck yeh I’d sell
Mine is up to $685,392. I wouldn’t even have to think twice about that…lol.
I’d probably help out family with the money and shove the rest in the bank until I figured out what I really wanted to do with it.
BTW, sometimes that blog value script is a little slow in catching up with your Technorati numbers, so occasionally you have to calculate the value manually which is just your authority number multiplied by $654.
hi mike! hmm, i wonder why it’s calculated that way. so according to Dane the value of someone talking about your site and linking to it is $654?
Hi Danielle
Yes, apparently…lol. I wish I had the URL for you but I found a site a while back that broke it all down and how it’s calculated. Basically after giving some huge explanation it all concluded with the rather simple equation of Authority x $654 
Sorry for all of the comments on this post, but I just noticed that the calculator gives you a different value if you don’t enter the trailing “/” after the domain name. At least I am seeing different numbers.
When I remove the slash, this site is only worth $564.
LOL that’s weird. i actually typed in “www.msdanielle.com” yesterday, and today the calculator is all funky. eh well, the numbers aren’t valid anyway, this is my imaginary world where my blog is worth a half million bucks. no way in HELL i’d sell this blog for 564 dollars!!!
glad to see so many familiar faces in this post thread!
feel free to leave as many comments as you want, derek. the more the merrier
Unless you don’t need the money at all (even the $150k) why on earth WOULDN’T you sell it?!? You could very easily start a new blog at a different domain name and keep doing what you’re doing!
Also, those numbers are really wacked. Because your blog might be worth that much right now, but if you sold it, somebody else would have to keep it going with new posts. Your content and regular advice, stories, communication, etc., are what keep people coming back and help the true value of your blog. If someone else took over, that value would instantly plummet. Of course, you wouldn’t care one bit then, because you’d be off doing your own thing at that point.
yea it’s ironic bc the value includes the contributions of the author… but careerramblings seems to be doing well despite the fact that it’s no longer being run by jane may and john anthony. so whoever buys the site has to keep the value at the same or higher level.
lesson: don’t do what the new owner of IamFacingForeclosure.com did! (i’m still waiting to see if he turns the site around, if not he’s an idiot!)
For half a million, I’d sell my blog. You could pay off any outstanding debts, put a bit of it into a retirement fund. But most importantly, use some of the money to help market and promote your new site
Yeah, I would certainly sell for that amount and I would pay off my mortgage and then stick the remainder into savings as I decided what to do with it. Then I would simply devote more of my time to my remaining blogs.
But since I don’t see that day coming any time soon, I will keep on keeping on with my site.
keep on keepin on derek!
can you believe it’s been 7 months?!
No, I really cannot believe it has been that long already. The time has been flying by and it feels like just yesterday that I was writing my first post and wondering if anyone would even read my site.
And who knew I would have such a cool blog buddy?
Assuming I was given that ludicrous amount of sum. I would pay off my $200k College Loans; save some for Grad School and construct a mock up mini-version of Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin…..with whats left of it…I’d then convert into pennies toss it into the money bin, and swim about it just like Good Ole McDuck!
please invite me over when u create this money bin… would love to test out to see if i can swim through it as easily as it looks in ducktales…
Sell, start again, rinse, repeat.
this plan is going to be incorporated into some of my other sites
I wouldn’t sell my blog for that much money, because my domain is jeffkee.com – my name exactly. That’s priceless for decades to come.
yea that’s a tough one. i think if it was my full name i’d probably keep it too. that’s the one that you can’t replicate with like-keywords
Is the price based purely on authority points since it is made by technorati?
according to mike (above) it’s your t’rati authority x a fixed dollar amount. not exactly a perfect science, but it gives you a number relative to other blogs…
I would definitely sell it. With 500k you can invest to get more $ while you can always start a new blog.
i’d say if possible come up with an option other than complete buy-out. partial buy-out perhaps.
you still hold creative veto how the blog shall be run at a webmaster level, you’re still at the helm
and at profit level divide the blog income between you and the partner at the end of the day, thus yet you still can enjoy the partial buy-out that the partner paid you yet still have some kind of steady monthly income from the blog that you started from scratch
just an idea
Half a million dollars for a relatively new blog? Maybe the algorithm of that calculator needs to be adjusted a little? No offence or anything btw, but a figure of $500k seems a little out, that’s more like what you pay for a house/property… (but not in Sydney though
LOL that’s the best MBL avatar i’ve seen in awhile!
in regards to site value, if we’re talking real-world and not my imaginary world, it depends on what can be extracted from the site in terms of monetization. i’m not sure what my earning potential is exactly bc i’ve never monetized this site. but in my imaginary world, i’d be able to buy a house in orange county
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