22 Year Old Kid Sells WP Site for $15 Million..

by 80 replies
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This is an inspiring story for those of us toiling away building content-rich blog sites with Wordpress. $15 million...man, he is set for life.

Size Doesn't Always Matter, Authority Does. | WebProNews
#main internet marketing discussion forum #$15 #kid #million #sells #site #year
  • That's awesome. It's a great blog too.
    • [1] reply
    • Man really makes you think. Spend time and resources building the hell out of one site instead of putting up a lot of affiliate sites out there. I'm sure his affiliate commissions were huge even before selling it. Good for him.
  • I wonder if someone would pay $15 for mine, lol
  • I'm 22....
  • Wow - it's nice to see a fellow blogger achieve this kind of success!
  • Wow...22 years old and $15 Million dollars richer! That's amazing!!
  • Awesome! The origins of that theme look familiar though (you'd think it would be custom). Where have I seen it?
  • Wonder where they got that figure. I mean, wouldn't he have taken 14 Million?
  • Hmmmm...

    Maybe there is something to all the chatter about marketers going into the off line world... Selling their know-how to brick and mortar businesses.

    If the article was correct, the bank that bought the site was "Traffic Hungry" which means that they were ripe for being approached by an internet marketer that knows how to garner that type of traffic.

    Possibilities abound
    • [1] reply
    • His blog was bought by Bankrate.com they are not an offline bank. They're a portal of sorts that provide financial rate information. Actually similar to Bankholic I think. But yes the possibilities abound when a 22 year old who eats lunch at subway and goes drinking on the weekends can sell his blog for 15 million USD.
      • [2] replies
  • Wow, that is amazing! I love such stories like this - it's great.
    Thanks for sharing it.

    Asher
    • [1] reply
  • That's enough inspiration for me to work and work and work at it.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi,

      Interesting. I'm just reading it now, but as soon as I saw his site it made me chuckle.

      About an hour ago I was watching Channel 4 news (UK) and they were discussing the fact that this Icelandic owned internet bank -

      icesave - high interest savings accounts

      ..had stopped 300000 of it's UK customers from drawing any of their money out today.

      (see the message on the website) -


      Apparently, they are having a few difficulties, like many other banks. Luckily for some of the 300000, the UK government just upped the amount that they are 'covered' for from £35K to £50K (today).

      Read the story here -

      Panic sweeps 300,000 British customers of Icelandic internet bank after it stops withdrawals and deposits | Mail Online

      Anyway, the reason I mention it is because on the TV news they had the owner of this UK advice blog -

      Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more

      Although he put up a decent fight, he got toasted by the news presenter because he rates the banks and their services based on benefits and interest rates, and consequently he had frequently recommended that his readers bank with icesave.co.uk over the last year and more.

      I reckon it's a good time to take $15M for your banking advice blog if you get an offer like that. If you don't get an offer, just avoid going on the TV news for a while - particularly if you have been recommending the great rates offered by newer banks that are now about to go bust...

      Question - where do all of these really smart 22 year olds come from? At that age, I was only an authority on different types of beers and what effects you could expect to 'enjoy' by drinking them to excess. And not much else...

      I'm still a practising authority on this subject, but I also added some ftp skills to the mix as well.

      bankaholic....alcoholic...I'm off to buy a domain :-)
      • [1] reply
  • I have to say that a bank with a software development staff with any brains could have built a much better site in less than 6 months for less than 20% of the cost. Well, that's what happens when you have more money than brains. I hope the same thing happens to all of us someday

    TomG.
    • [1] reply

    • ....and you wonder why the finacial industry is in so much trouble. I wonder if he is friends with the person who wrote the check? It happens, you know.

      Dixie
  • Banned
    This is a super deal. I do not know how much he made before but seeing the keywords he ranks for I am guessing it's not peanuts. But this is sure the jackpot.
    He will be getting 2,5 million to stay a year and blog a bit more...what if he outsources the writing....
  • Wow, very inspiring story!

    15 million for 2 years of work, not bad at all! No seriously this guy is a true motivation!


    Regards,

    -Alex Kaplo
  • timing is everything

    he lucked out on a trend

    good for him

    Ed
    • [1] reply
    • exacty...he sold right at the right time.
  • has any one got a link to the one he sold, i want to see what 15 mill gets you trhese days lol
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  • Congratulations well earned there.

    Now that is a site to take some study of. He seems to really know his subject well and be involved enough in banking to visit banks he writes about. Of course there is a lot of news about banking these days, even though mostly bad news.

    He sold to a hungry buyer too, a bank wanting more online presence. There has to be other similar companies in that and other markets.
    • [1] reply
    • I'm off to build a banking blog!

      It's O.K I said banking and did a spell check!

      Good Luck to him!

      That's the way to do it!

      Chris
      • [1] reply
  • There's one thing i know and it goes with anything, you stay in one place for a long time, doing what you know, talking about what you know, people will eventually follow because you will be a leader to them. Many people do this slow and steady, it takes time but it works.
  • I wonder how much his blog was taking in each year with ads, etc. It must be a lot for them to buy it for so much, or, he has a lot of followers that they wanted access to.
  • Amazing....Man I feel worthless lol
    • [1] reply
    • This kid kicked John Chow's a$$ all over the place....

  • This story is so inspiring! It's certainly things like this that motivate me to ramp up my blogs that are in big-money industries. It's just one more example of how someone can come in to a competitive industry and do well, and end up a total authority in their industry by just blogging about it. Amazing!

    Kathryn
  • Wow, that's insane.

    I wish I could have done something like this.
    • [1] reply
    • This really is an interesting case study. I just checked on google and they have only 500 some pages indexed. You could make an intellligent post in a blog every day for less than 2 years and have less than 600 posts.. That equals out to 7.5 million per year! Granted, every scenario is different, but imagine having 10,000 intelligent posts in a highly valued niche. keep blogging everyone!
      • [1] reply
  • Nothing short of amazing. The right niche, the right approach, and the right time. A winning formula I guess. Now if only my blog could get that kind of attention.
  • I'm 22... wondering if I could sell my website for 500$ hehehe
  • Great Inspiring story!

    Thanks for sharing...

    Mohsin
  • Good luck to him, he deserves it. After all anyone who can write about banking and bank rates for 2 years deserves that kind of money :-)

    I actually left a comment on that site a few months ago and just figured it was another run-of-the-mill financial site. I had no idea is was worth $15m.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree, unless you are really into banking, that would be a long haul to write good content about that topic for so long. And I'm sure he had no idea it would eventually be worth 15 million. Then again, the guys at youtube were probably not thinking a $1.65 billion pay day either.
  • I wonder what the banks are thinking if they can go a spend $15M on buying a blog? Reading the article it doesnt seem like "the kid" did anything extraordinary in his blog either.

    Hmm, wonder how many more blog millionaires we will see pop up?
    • [1] reply
    • Hi Nathan,

      If you click around on the site (the tabs at the top) you will find that it employs some high paying affiliate techniques (EG credit card comparison).

      As long as it has a large, loyal readership that has proven to use those resources and provide revenue, then I don't see it as being grossly overvalued (in comparison with say youtube, which had no monetisation and was costing $1m per month to run).

      BUT, I do agree that at first glance, the blog and the posts look quite basic and lacking in 'authority' and there are some interesting aspects to the site -

      EG - it has no visible home page link, except for a link that's hidden underneath the logo in the top left.

      It's an inspiring aquisition and good to see that these type of sales are still occurring.
  • Indeed ExRat, i was implying that given the apparent simplicity there would be a lot of Warriors in a position to setup similar blogs. Even if they were to sell for $15K rather than $15M im sure most would agree that is a good result.
  • Wow what a pro - what happened to the "credit crunch"?
    • [1] reply
    • Hi Nathan,
      Agreed Although I would focus on the word 'similar' in your post - personally, I'm not rushing to make a blog about banking. BUT I agree that this is a positive signal and that there are many lessons to be learned, particularly if being bought-out is one of your favoured retirement plans.
  • It just shows how much oppurtunity is out there if you are prepared to do some disciplined hard work.
  • The whole thing just does not make any sense to me. I see websites and blogs on high paying niches with similar Alexa rankings on sale for a tiny fraction all the time. I would really like to see some real revenue figures and the actual fineprint in the contract.

    Derek
    • [1] reply
    • bankoholic is huge , bro...just do some background research and you'll know why it's so valuable to any banking authorities
  • Ya, that is pretty amazing. 2 years of work for $15 million dollars.

    True motivation.

    Tal
  • I am just very skeptical about headline deals after the $2.6M pizza.com deal fell through. If you remember, there was pandamonium at the time but very few people are aware subsequently that the deal fell through and nobody knows how much it was sold for in the end.

    It is just the Alexa ranking that worries me, it just does not appear to be a very high traffic site. However, I have heard in the past that getting first place for "credit card" in Google is worth several hundred thousand dollars in extra revenue per month.

    Therefore I would prefer to reserve judgement until at least a year later.

    -Derek
    • [5] replies

    • Only people with the Alexa Toolbar are counted when determining Alexa rankings. I'm guessing most visitors to that site don't have it installed.
    • Banned
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    • If you didn't know, there is a bunch of controversy over how he got so many backlinks, using blackhat techniques... do some research on it, it's very interesting...

      Whadya think about this?

      http://www.jaankanellis.com/bankahol...-link-building

      1 Man Blog Sells for 15 Million Dollars | John Chow dot Com

      Blogger Hits Jackpot with Sweet Deal from Bankrate | WebProNews

      Inspiration is the first thing that comes to mind... Not on the blackhat shady link building part, but selling a blog that has good organic traffic for 15mil is quite inspiring.

      Your thoughts?

      - Jared
    • He used to use the same affiliate program that I use for credit cards and my affiliate manager had told me to look to the bankaholic.com site for tips when constructing a blog I built.

      He told me that in credit card commissions alone this guy was making around $600,000 per month - not to mention any Adsense revenue.

      Truly an inspirational story
      • [2] replies
    • inspirational. I can't believe I am the same age with that guy, I hope to get there one day very soon.
    • inspirational. I can't believe I am the same age with that guy, I hope to get there one day very soon.
  • Lance, I am aware of that but I have seen lots of non-webmaster related sites with the same sort of Alexa rankings that receives less than 10,000 visitors. If you look further back, the supposedly "rich jerk" website that was sold for $385,000 had an Alexa of less than 10,000. That site promoted paid surveys, mystery shopping, government grants, and paid to drive cars. These niches are unlikely to be ones where the users are likely to have Alexa Toolbars installed.

    This is the sort of price that would be expected of sites like plentyoffish.com that has an Alexa ranking of 496, again in a non-webmaster related niche. Even Shoemoney and Patrick Gavin agrees that the site is not that large. Besides, the old owner is supposed to stay on "for a unspecified period of time" and also more than 2M are reserved for performance related targets.
  • Here's a news article with an interesting critique on Bankaholic...
    $15m blog sale shows importance of content
  • I hope its true because its stories like these that keep me going and going
  • What a story. Makes me feel sorry for myself. Haha. Thanks for sharing!
  • Banned
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  • Banned
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  • That's an incredible amount of money for that site...

    Anyone know what kind of traffic he was getting I noticed his site was a pr5.

    Sean
  • guess I gotta get off of the forum and go make a blog
  • Banned
    Anyone read about his backlinks trick?
  • Yeah this is a good motivation. Get in a niche that is crowded and has crazy values and big companies, build a site with a tonne of traffic from organic sources, then sell it off at 30 yrs revenue to a tycoon looking to dominate and monetize your traffic as only they can
  • wow that's pretty amazing, I think his blog looks pretty good.

    interesting about the backlinks...
  • Yeah I read this story a while back on a different site, truly an amazing profit he made o.O Anyone want to guess how many % back on all his investements?
  • Take a look at the footer of this site and you'll see the link. pretty ingenious actually. do a search for that phrase in the footer and you'll see ALOT of results.

    http://deviate.ctrlsave.com/
    • [1] reply
    • I didn't realize that there was controversy surrounding his tactics - it sort of makes me feel cheesy for actually finding this inspiring.
  • This is a great story. Thanks for putting it together. This may sound like a throw-back to the old dot.com days of irrational investment, but I think this will prove to be a sound financial move for Bankrate, not just a huge pay day for Wu.
  • Such an inspiration to start blogging.
  • It's only that valuable if there are people around prepared to pay that price. If those people lost interest tomorrow then the blog loses it's value. I'd be taking the money while it was still on the table, unless I had concrete evidence that the blog was worth that much to many people and gaining every day. Otherwise you're just waiting for the site to become more valuable (I think $15 million would be quite sufficient for me!), when it could very easily go the other way.

    I can't think why anyone would want to hang on to it if that kind of money was on offer. 'No thanks - keep your $15 million. I'll just stick to spending my days finding content and building backlinks for the joy of owning something valuable!'. It might be someone else's approach, but it sure wouldn't be mine
  • Internet Marketing Dymistyfied.
    As a domainer and site flipper, I am happy and proud of this... Nice motivation to press more... There are a lot of possibilities online
  • That is unbeliavable. Really amazing story.
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