I've been doing freelance web design for over 6 years now and I love it. I've devoted myself to making it my job as I'm a single mom and it works out well for me and my son. I've owned my "hobby" site for over 2 years. All content was hand made by me, it's completely exclusive large clip art collection. I made all the clip art, animations, web page graphics, layouts ect. Over the last couple years I've put allot of work into and a friend suggested to make a membership site in so many words. Well I've been running adsense and a few other ads on my clip art site and it makes a good pocket money for the month which I love. It's very dependable, really predictable. I figured if I made a couple more of these sites with exclusive content I would make a full time jobs salary and then I found that I could simply make site and sell to people that need adsense type niche sites. In order to get started I need some start up money so I thought about selling my clip art niche site (www.pinkpony.org). Well here's my problem... I can't do it. I'm emotionally attached to my website? Seriously... do I need to admit myself? What's going on here? The logical side of my brain says "get your wordpress on, throw a nice hand made template on it and let it go"... and then I smack myself and say... "No way keep it, it's like an old friend... that would be so sell-outish".... So I figure since I've been going back and forth about it reason enough not to. It get's worse... I have a few other awesome sites that I was going to monatize for myself (before I discovered I could just sell them)... like www.scene-queen.com I began some general layout work on it (http://scene-queen.com/killer) (it has exclusive myspace layouts and it's very niche) So I though "I hate scene kids anyways... let's finish that site and sell it"... No... now my problem is that I think that site and domain are worth to much. Has anyone else ran into this road block? I mean I see sites with CRAP layouts, don't even include the psd files in the sale for the template and those sell for thousands sometimes... I'm sickened by the quality of some of these sites that sell for insane prices. I mean my free clip art site is a bit messy I admit but that's not my office that's my bedroom if you know what I mean? So I would like to bring some cool niche start up sites to the market place... but it looks like I'll continue haunting the site sales forums and continue watching some of the ridiculous sales and continue to horde my silly little sites...
If the site is providing a good passive cashflow already, it might be a good idea to hold onto it. Is there any way for you to NOT sell it and make additional websites? IMO don't sell off an asset that is spinning off regular / predictable cash to fund other projects. I would maybe try working on building more websites like it on your spare time or something.
Then is it safe to say that I haven't developed some wierd phobia that indeed I'm not crazy I'm smart not sell it?
Well, i had something similar for a few months actually, and then i finally sold it.. some times i have to say i regret it, but it was something good because it helped me a lot with my future plans =) And i wouldn't say you have a phobia haha =P... i guess everybody gets atached with their sites somehow xD
I wish I could sell everything I've done that isn't my main website..One thing about having the ability to make websites, you end up going NUTS..I have 80 plus domain names and too many sites to keep up with..it's makin me anxious just talking about it...BUT then i go to sell....haha..not gonna happen..each site brings in decent adsense cashflow, BUT..i know that if I had more time to tend to each site they'd make more..I'd almost rather just sell them off so that at least someone else can have the opportunity to let it florish.. Great post. I'm right there with you.
Oh gosh are we like cat ladies? Just with websites? I can identify with getting anxious just at the mere the thought of how much they're all worth... I guess the term "second guessing ourselves" is really the bottom line here. We're just constantly second guessing ourselves
Id say if the site is making good money, keep it. I can't imagine working on a site for years, getting decent revenue from it, and selling it to the highest bidder, then going online to see it ruined by their new design, or whatever they did to it. I love my websites, and don't like the idea of other people running them. It's like thinking about other people being the parents of your kids...I dunno.
Dont sell sites. Sell them only if you cannot manage them and if ur selling, sell for a price of wat the site is worth. Earn money by making a sites network. Work on all the sites u make. You will get enough revenue from them that you can use them for other sites. But the biggest problem will be time. I cant find enough time to manage all my sites thats y i recommend automated sites. Like if your making a hosting site, make it automated so that you wont have to do anything other than keep collecting the cash
I guess from what I've learned here the best route would be to build a network in my niche, and when finished with those projects, experiment with related niches add them to the network to gain initial traffic and revenue. If I decide I don't have time to manage the branch off sites Ii can sell them... Sounds like a good game plan
Ya..no doubt. I think from this post I've decided to sell what I can't manager..and I have alot to sell..but i'd rather the sites go to a good home..some would say I'm dumb cause I do get an adsense revenue from most of them, but that's even aggrevating, cause I know I can get more if I had the time to invest in them...in which case..how the hell do you sell something like that??..I don't want to take screen shots of the income..I just want to sell my stash!..lol..JUST TAKE THEM!!!..i think I'd sell for $10 a site at this point..lol
jeez I'm having the same problem.. with my blog it's about 3wks and 3-4days old. and I really like it.. my prob is I'm going for a long time vacation on oct. for about a month.. I'm thinking of selling it which I think I can't I've put so much work in it.. editing blah blah... you're not alone here..