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How to Sell Your Blog for Six Figures (Without Leaving Money on the Table)

To sell your blog for six figures, you need at least 12 months of steady profit, clean records and a price based on a multiple of your trailing 12-month net profit. Empire Flippers has sold 2,684 online businesses worth $600M+, and businesses on our marketplace sell in 129 days on average for 86% of their list price.

This guide covers when a blog is ready to sell, how buyers value it, how to prepare it, and what selling through a broker costs. For a quick number first, use our free valuation tool.

When Is Your Blog Ready to Sell?

Your blog is ready to list when it makes a steady profit, has a clean history and can run without you writing every post. To list on the Empire Flippers marketplace, a blog needs:

• At least $24,000 a year in net profit, about $2,000 a month.
• At least 12 months of consistent revenue.
• The same domain for the past 12 months if it earns from AdSense, Amazon Associates, affiliate links or advertising.
• A clean record. Two or more signs of manipulation, such as search penalties, deleted accounts, 301 redirects or short-term earnings, lead to rejection. Fake SEO or bought social followers mean instant denial.

We reject the majority of businesses that apply, so these minimums are the starting point, not a guarantee. If your blog is not there yet, use the timeline in How to Prepare Your Blog for Sale to close the gap.

How Much Is Your Blog Worth?

The amount your blog is worth depends on more than traffic and monthly revenue. Factors like profitability, traffic sources, revenue diversity, growth, and how dependent the business is on you can all affect its value.

The formula we use to determine how much a business is worth is:

Trailing 12 months annual net profit × multiple

The first part of this formula is easy to understand; however, figuring out your multiple takes further explanation.

Multiples typically range from 1.7x to 5x+ annual net profit. Across all sales on our marketplace, typical businesses sold at an average of 2.2X, premium businesses at 2.4X and $1M+ premium businesses at 3.2X their trailing 12-month net profit.

Here is what that means in practice. A blog that nets $5,000 a month makes $60,000 a year. At 2.2x it is worth about $132,000, and at 3x about $180,000. At a 2.2x multiple, six figures starts at roughly $3,800 a month in net profit.

Our free valuation tool asks for your monetization model, revenue, profit and traffic and gives you an estimate in a minute or two. For the full method with real sales data, read how to value a website.

Find out what your blog is worth. Free, no commitment, takes about two minutes.

Free Valuation

What Raises or Lowers Your Blog’s Sale Price

Buyers pay for profit they can keep after the sale. They ignore vanity metrics and look at traffic, revenue, niche trends and the hours the blog takes each week. These factors move your multiple up or down:

• Profit trend: stable or growing profit raises the multiple; a recent decline lowers it.
• Traffic diversity: search, email, social and direct traffic together are safer than one source.
• Revenue diversity: several affiliate programs, display ads and sponsorships are safer than one program.
• Owner involvement: a blog run by writers and an editor is worth more than one that needs you every day.
• Age and history: older sites with a clean record earn more trust.
• Email list and social following: an audience you own adds value.
• Backlinks: white hat links help; links from private blog networks (PBNs) are a risk.
• Niche: evergreen topics beat short-lived trends.

Distressed businesses sold at an average of 1.1x on our marketplace. Fixing a decline before you list often matters more than any other step.

How to Prepare Your Blog for Sale

Preparation starts about 12 months before you list. Businesses on our marketplace take 129 days on average to sell, and well-prepared ones can go much faster: we sold a $1.8M affiliate business in 46 days. Check the current numbers on our scoreboard. Here is how to stand out.

Run Your Blog Like a Business

In order for your blog to catch the eye of those willing to shell out $100k+ for a content business, you need to have the right mindset. You need to think like a business owner who’s looking to sell a valuable asset, not a personal blogger who’s doing it just for fun. Your blog should run more like a media company than a personal blog, and having that mindset is key to reaching your goals.

When you shift from the personal blogger mindset to the content business owner mindset, you start treating your hobby turned business as a valuable asset that buyers are willing to pay serious money for. Your blog might have started as something fun that you did in your spare time, but now it presents serious potential to content-site buyers as a real digital asset. If you haven’t already, you need to establish a voice that you become famous for among your target audience. However, if at all possible, avoid being the “face” of the blog or content you provide, because being that face makes it much harder to sell to a potential buyer who knows that if you leave, the audience might also leave.

Get Your Documents in Order

This is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner and something many online business owners fail to keep track of. Having a detailed profit and loss (P&L) sheet for every expense and dollar made is important not only for you as the blog owner, but also for those seriously considering acquiring your business.

You should have clear details regarding the exact figures for all expenses, profits and losses by channel, and any other important business costs that were needed to get your blog to where it is today. These important metrics will be used in all your future negotiations and any deal structuring that may come into effect should a buyer present that type of offer. Your analytics information can be analyzed using account access, but your P&L takes a more manual approach to track correctly. Any other documentation, including asset purchase agreements and trademark details, should be collected and ready to present to buyers well before any negotiations begin.

Have these ready before you submit your blog:

• Screenshots of gross monthly revenue and net monthly profit for at least the last 12 months
• Verified monthly expenses: content, writers and VAs, hosting, tools and advertising
• Read-only Google Analytics access for qualified buyers (Clicky also works)
• Your affiliate, ad network and sponsor accounts with their payout history
• The site’s history: creation or purchase date and any link building

Have a Set of SOPs

If you haven’t yet created standard operating procedures (SOPs) for your blog, you’re holding yourself back from that six-figure exit down the road. Because of the nature of content sites in general, a set of SOPs is a huge value-add for those looking to acquire an established blog. Having detailed instructions and step-by-step guides for each process that can be used to further scale the business is worth far more money to you than your cloud-storage fees.

When you lay out the entire process you’ve performed for your blog from start to finish, you give a potential buyer a more turn-key solution than a new business venture they’d need to learn from scratch. Having the operational details in writing and easily accessible to outsourced virtual assistants (VAs) means that the buyer can focus on their core skill to scale the business, and their VAs can follow your procedures without needing to receive an in-depth demo from the blog’s new owner.

Your Preparation Timeline

• 12 months before listing: keep a clean monthly profit and loss statement and stop any short-term tactics that could look like manipulation.
• 6 months before: review traffic sources, revenue sources and expenses, and fix weak spots such as reliance on one affiliate program.
• 3 months before: finish your SOPs, hand routine tasks to writers or VAs and get a free valuation.
• Listing: submit your blog and set your list price with your advisor.

Where to Sell Your Blog: Private Sale, Marketplace or Broker

Before you start dreaming of walking away from your content business with a huge payout, we should cover some of the options for listing your business for sale.

Many startup builders say that finding a buyer on social media platforms like LinkedIn is a great option; however, be wary of potential scammers. When you perform a private sale, you’re putting at risk not only yourself but also the business you’ve spent the last few years growing.

A better option would be to find marketplaces or brokerages that present and market your content site to buyers actively looking to acquire a blog just like yours. The benefit of using one of these platforms is that all the marketing is done for you, and the potential reach in presenting your offer to a large pool of investors is all done in one place.

Empire Flippers has over $16 billion in verified buyer liquidity and 325K buyers and sellers in its network, with over 600 buyer NDAs and listing unlocks every week. Your blog is shown to them with its URL hidden, and only buyers who unlock the listing see the details.

To see what sells, compare live listings of affiliate websites, display advertising websites and WordPress websites for sale. If your site earns mainly from affiliate links, also read our guide to selling an affiliate site.

Not only will you be able to market your business for sale to hundreds of thousands of active buyers in one shot, but you’ll also rest easy knowing that our team will help you at every step along the process, from beginning to end.

How Empire Flippers Handles Vetting, Unlocks and Migration

Selling through Empire Flippers follows six steps. Our team handles buyer screening, deal paperwork and the transfer, so you can keep running the blog until it closes.

• Submit your blog. Answer a few questions about the business. It takes a few minutes.
• Vetting. Our vetting team checks your revenue, profit, traffic and expenses and may ask for more information.
• Listing and unlocks. Your listing goes live with the URL hidden. Verified buyers unlock it to see the details, and we screen out buyers who are not serious.
• Offers and negotiation. Buyers offer at or below list price, and you accept or counter. We help negotiate and structure the deal, and our standard asset purchase agreement covers most sales.
• Migration. Our done-for-you migration moves the domain, hosting, content and monetization accounts to the buyer. You do not need to buy software or contact your web host.
• Payment. Once all assets are transferred, we release the funds to you minus our commission. From sale to payment, expect three to eight weeks on average.

Buyers usually ask for at least 30 days of email support after the sale. Offering clear SOPs and a little extra support can push offers higher. See the full process on how it works.

Fees, Timeline and Deal Structures

There is no listing fee to sell your blog on Empire Flippers. You pay a commission only when it sells:

On a $150,000 sale, the commission is $22,500 and you keep $127,500. Estimate yours with the commission calculator.

Timeline: businesses on our marketplace sell in 129 days on average, for 86% of list price on average. You give us 2 months of exclusivity. After that, you can stay listed or de-list.

Deal structures: most sellers want all cash, and many deals close that way. Larger deals can include an earnout or staged payments, for example 85% upfront and 15% over four months. These structures can raise the total price you receive, so weigh them against a lower all-cash offer.

Not sure which offer is right for you? Book a call with our team before you accept.

Sell Your Blog: Frequently Asked Questions

How much is my blog worth?

Most blogs are worth 1.7x to 5x+ their trailing 12-month net profit. On our marketplace, typical businesses sold at an average of 2.2X and premium businesses at 2.4X, so a blog netting $60,000 a year would be worth about $132,000 at 2.2x. Get your own estimate with the free valuation tool.

How do I sell my blog?

You sell a blog by getting it valued, listing it with a vetted marketplace or broker and letting verified buyers make offers. With Empire Flippers you submit your blog, pass vetting, go live with your URL hidden, negotiate offers, and we migrate the blog to the buyer before your funds are released. You can start the selling process here.

Is my blog big enough to sell with Empire Flippers?

Your blog qualifies if it makes at least $24,000 a year in net profit (about $2,000 a month) with 12 months of consistent revenue. If it makes less today, grow profit and keep clean monthly records first, then check your valuation.

How many months of traffic and revenue history do buyers want?

Buyers want at least 12 months of history, and 12 months of consistent revenue is our minimum to list. Blogs that earn from AdSense, Amazon Associates, affiliate links or ads must also have been on the same domain for the past 12 months. Prices are normally based on the last 12 months of net profit.

Can I sell a blog that earns from affiliate links, ads and sponsorships?

Yes. Mixed income is common, and several revenue streams usually help your price because the blog does not depend on one program. Show each source in your monthly profit and loss statement with screenshots so buyers can verify it.

Should I wait for traffic to recover before selling?

Often, yes, if you expect the recovery within a few months. A blog in sudden decline may be priced on its last 6 months instead of 12, and distressed businesses on our marketplace sold at an average of 1.1x profit, against 2.2X for typical businesses. If you would rather sell now, book a call and an advisor will talk through the price you can expect.

What documents do I need to show buyers?

You need a monthly profit and loss statement for at least 12 months, backed by screenshots of gross revenue and net profit and your verified expenses. You also give qualified buyers read-only Google Analytics access (Clicky also works) and share the site’s history and link building.

How much does it cost to sell a blog with Empire Flippers?

There is no listing fee, and you pay a commission only if your blog sells. The commission is a flat $10,000 on sales up to $70,000 and 15% up to $700,000, with lower rates on larger sales. Use the commission calculator to see your number.

How long does it take to sell a blog?

Businesses on our marketplace sell in 129 days on average. Well-prepared sites can sell much faster: we sold a $1.8M affiliate business in 46 days. After the sale, expect three to eight weeks until you are paid.

Can I sell a blog that isn’t profitable?

Not on Empire Flippers. We only list businesses that already make a profit, with at least $24,000 in annual net profit and 12 months of consistent revenue. If your blog earns little today, build profit and clean records first, then apply.

Will buyers see my blog’s URL?

Not at first. Most listings hide the URL to protect you from copycats, and buyers see the details only after they unlock the listing. The URL is shown only if you and our vetting team both agree, for example for an open case study.

Do I have to help the buyer after the sale?

Yes, for a short time. Our team handles the migration, and buyers usually ask for at least 30 days of email support. Clear SOPs and some extra support after the sale can raise the offers you receive.