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So there I was sitting in the hotel “business center”. Oddly, I work from home and almost never leave my house. But today, of all days, I didn't have access to my own scanner.
I was about to spend $6 to scan and email a contract to buy a website. The $6 to scan and email hurt a lot more than the six figures I was about to spend. The timing just happened to work out that I needed to get this contract signed and returned while I was away at a conference.
So, I sent the signed contract, and then sent a large wire transfer the next day.
Well, there is no going back now.
I just bought a mom blog!
That's right, earlier this month, a partner and I just purchased a blog run by the same mom for over 10 years and we are pretty excited about it! No, we aren't moms, but we believe we can grow the business.Â
That is exactly what the site is, a profitable business…making over $10,000 a month. Â
Today I want to share how I found this off-market mom blog to buy, how the site makes money, and my plans to grow the site.
Buckle up, 2 dads just took over a mom blog!
How to Find an Off-Market Mom Blog
As you may recall, I recently sold my own Amazon FBA business. Â This put a little extra cash in my pocket and I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to buy and grow a website.
I could browse the brokerage listings that everyone else sees, or I could try something new and try to find an off-market deal. I decided to give it a shot.
I will first say that I have a couple of advantages because I own Niche Pursuits. If you are on my email list, you might remember that I emailed my list and simply asked if I could buy anyone's website. Not everyone can do that.
I got a ton of leads from that email. However, none of those leads panned out as expected (yet).
I kept at it and we ended up finding this Mom blog through a private Facebook group. I have to give props to Jake because he actually is the one that found the person interested in selling.
Jake essentially made a post in a private FB group that is dedicated to website owners and asked if anyone was interested in selling. Turns out that a few people were interested.
A couple of the sites I was not interested in, and a couple more people ended up changing their minds. So, it actually took A LOT of back and forth with different people to find someone that truly was ready to sell their site.
Finally, we found the mom blog that we ended up buying. Yes, it's a mom blog…but really it's just a crafting and food/recipe site for the most part. It's a great evergreen niche and has room for growth.
How the Site Gets Traffic
The site itself is a great site with 10 years of content. While there are a few “personal” type blog posts, the majority of the content is food and crafting.
Yes, the site gets some traffic organically from Google and has some PHENOMENAL links (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc). But a large portion of the traffic comes from Pinterest.
The site itself gets a ton of traffic…like over 15,000 sessions a day!
The site has a ton of great original pictures (of food and crafts mostly) and so Pinterest is an important part of the site. It's a bit of a learning curve for me to set up Pinterest to make sure we maintain and even grow that traffic source. The previous owner has been extremely helpful in getting us all the Pinterest training we need.
We now have a real mom that works for us pinning on Pinterest and Tailwind working to schedule out the pins we want. In addition, the plan is to create new images and graphics using the large amount of pictures the site already has to create new pins and drive even more traffic hopefully.
In addition, we are getting a content process set up that does 2 things. First, we will continue to produce the image heavy craft and food type posts that we can use to keep growing the Pinterest site of things. (This is all outsourced with other content creators…I have no intention of baking or crafting…that would be disastrous).
Turns out there are tons of people that regularly produce recipe and crafting type content that includes images for bloggers.
Second, the content process is going to start targeting more long tail keywords to increase the traffic coming from Google. Â My strength has always been keyword research and generating organic traffic, so that's what I plan to do.
I'm hopeful in the next 6 to 12 months that Google organic traffic can become a much larger share of the overall traffic than it is today.
How the Site Makes Money…Sponsored Content?
Most of the revenue on the site currently comes from display advertising. Â Because the site gets so many impressions every day, it makes a good chunk of change from the display ads.
The site also makes a little bit from Amazon Associates. Amazon only makes up roughly 10% of the income of the site though. (Food and crafting content don't always have a lot of relevant products on Amazon to link to).
A surprising source of revenue on the site is a bit unusual (at least for me)…sponsored content. Gasp!
My immediate thought when I heard that the site makes some money from Sponsored content, I was afraid I would have to turn down the deal. After all, I thought that sponsored content essentially meant people paying for links.
I thought sponsored content was “black hat”.
Turns out that not only is sponsored content super normal, but it's also Google friendly…if done right.
Don't believe me? Here's an article on everything you need to know about sponsored content.
Sponsored content is widely accepted and practiced among Food bloggers and MANY other publishers. In fact, “native advertising” is expected to grow significantly over the next several years.
The blog I purchased regularly gets contacted by brands like Wal-mart, Target, and many other well known products or brands to write up a blog post on their latest promotion. I can now charge $1,000 or more to write a blog post on the topic that Target wants me to for example. Do a few of these a month, and it starts to add up.
Here's a couple of things to know about sponsored content:
- You MUST disclose that the article is a paid promotion. You have to reveal that you are getting compensated to write the blog post and who is paying you.
- All links in the article must be “no-follow”. This is not a link scheme. Brands are paying for exposure to your audience, not links.
This is common practice, and in fact Google recently purchased FameBit.com, which is a marketplace for…sponsored content. So, your site will NOT get penalized in Google for accepting sponsored content as long as you follow the rules.
Again, this is pretty new to me…I've always just focused on Ad revenue, affiliate income, or selling my own products. But we are figuring out a process to find new sponsored opportunities…and of course how we can outsource all of it so we don't have to do it.
Growth Plans
Overall, we plan to continue adding more of what is already working and focusing a bit more on SEO.
There are tons of link building opportunities with all the original images we have including: reverse image searches to see who is using our images without giving link credit, posting to Flickr and making it easy to link back to us, and many others.
We are setting up standard operating procedures for adding new food and crafting content and keeping that Pinterest engine working. We have also done a ton of keyword research to find the topics we think the site can rank for.
As we get the right people in place and procedures set up, I believe we can have a great site that continues to grow over the next several years…without my day to day involvement.
I'm hopeful that this will be one of a few sites that I purchase this year. So, if you are looking to sell your site, let me know here.
I may not be a mom, but I'm now the proud owner of a mom blog. I am still a little upset about that $6 scan though…
Have questions? Leave a comment below.
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69 Comments
Conversation
Hi Spencer,
Your keen business acumen always amazes me. You have been an inspiration on how to be an entrepreneur. All the best for the new acquisition.
Thanks Zubair!
why you are posting it. What you say if someone said that he just climb a mountain? Ofcourse! every people who is listening him want to know the name of mountain…..I recommend not to post stories like this without concrete evidence. If you won’t be able to reveal the domain don’t publish the story…
Warning, buzzkill comment 🙂
Anil, go to menu, click the “start here” button and start giving the guy some credit!
Sure Spencer sells courses and tools (you don’t have to buy them!).
But he also given a lot more value back over the years, in the form of blog posts and case studies…
Out of curiosity Anil, assuming you had $100’000+ to spend on a website or even had a blog making $10’000 a month.
Would you tell Spencer and his readers about your new purchase or cash cow blog in the comments below?
I know I wouldn’t be too quick to disclose it!
Case closed I believed 🙂
Thanks David!
I’m not buying any of this either. You keep saying that you have so many successful websites but it feels like a scam if the urls are secret. There is absolutely no reason not to promote your other websites on this site.
If you really had so many websites earning as much per month as you are saying then you would not be wasting your time here writing blog posts about how to build sites.
Amazing as always Spencer.
Thanks Rachid
The new site sounds great…I look forward to seeing the progress over the next 6-12 months.
Also, I like the new design on NichePursuits, much cleaner and easier to navigate.
All the best
Thanks Darren, glad you like the new design as well.
Great job! You conveniently left out what you paid for the site though. 12 months, or less. 14 months less than 20 months more than 20 months but less than 25 etc. you don’t have to give exact figures. Just a ballpark.
You are correct, I did leave that out. That just wasn’t the focus. But I paid roughly 30 times monthly earnings.
Congratulations. The thought occurs though, that unless you’re in a hurry to make a deal, why pay broker rates for direct approach. Was the site neglected in any way?
The site is worth whatever you and the seller can agree on. I was comfortable with the valuation. Yes, SEO was neglected completely on the site.
Did you or did you not spend the $6? Anyway, if you’ve not heard about it, its called, Camscanner. Its pretty much like scanner but without spending $6.
Oh! btw, nice acquisition bro. Keep posting..
Well, now I know! :). Thanks…
It would hilarious if you did a cooking/crafting post. Probably turn out better than you think.
Maybe so…
Spencer,
Long time lurker. Thanks for all the advice. I’ve been able to build a few niche sites that have hit $500 a month with Adsense based almost solely on advice I’ve learned here. Hoping to hit 1k a month this year.
Thank you for everything.
Awesome, that’s great to hear! I hope the success continues!
I may have threw away the deal over that $6. Lol. Good story man. Hope you document the success. Gluck!
Thanks Sunny!
First of all best of luck with your new blog, Food & health blogs always get huge traffic from Pinterest , I would like if you can disclose the strategy how to get traffic from Pinterest
Awesome post Spencer very interested to see what you guys do with this website.
Great work as per usual. Where you mentioned you hired a mom for your Pinterest work how did you hire her?
Its someone I know.
Congratulation with the new site, mommy :P.
Can’t wait to see how this will end up, and how much you’ll be able to grow it!
Haha, thanks Simon!
Huh! I learned something from this post that I did not expect. The same thing you learned as part of this acquisition. I also was unaware that sponsored posts weren’t just for getting links for SEO purposes. Thanks for passing on this revelation… the mommy blog world is kind of a whole different ball game!
It seems to me that there would be opportunity to grow Amazon income to a higher percentage. Plenty of ‘think-outside-the-box’ ways to promote Amazon products on a site like that.
Yep, I agree. Its opened my eyes to TONS of other food/mom bloggers out there making a living with sponsored content.
As a new mom I am soooo curious to know which blog it is! shoot me an email if you are willing to share. Good luck on it!
My question: Any tips for learning how to leverage Pinterest for your business? I know it could definitely be a great traffic driver for my business but I’m just not really into Pinterest. I’ve tried, but cooking, decorating and wedding planning are not my forte.
I am still learning the ins and outs of pinterest. The previous was the pinterest guru, and she is training us.
I have exact match domain with over 2m+ searches every month. I already rank on 2nd page Google.
But now thinking to sell the site. Get confused whether to sell only the domain or entire site. Flippa will be my good choice to sell it. What do you think?
If the site makes any money, sell the site.
Thanks Spencer for the share.
Nice info here about how to maintain and grow this sort of niche website.
I’m not sure I get what is the main reason that you bought it. Portfolio?
It makes money, I bought cashflow. Yes, I have a portfolio of websites and plan to continue building that portfolio of cashflow generating websites.
Thanks Spencer for the info!
Hope you will post some updates about it 🙂
Congrats Spencer. I’m looking forward to future posts about things you wind up doing with the site and your progress on growing it even more.
Thanks Marc!
Spencer, can you share some Pinterest tips in your next post?
Congratulation with purchase 🙂
Thanks Vi! Maybe not my next post, but I’ll share what I learn. The previous owner was really the one that built the pinterest business.
Hello Spencer,
Thanks for writing this out. Could you go into more detail about the business processes you use.
For example, you say
“First, we will continue to produce the image heavy craft and food type posts that we can use to keep growing the Pinterest site of things. (This is all outsourced with other content creators”).
What do you mean by this? If you could go into more detail that would be great.
Many thanks,
Luke
I plan to hire people that will take pictures of food and write content for me.
This is something I would like to know more about. Are they actually making crafts/recipes? I have a website that could benefit from moving into the DIY space, but I have no idea how to go outsourcing something like that.
Great move Spencer!
I think many of us are looking forward to learning more about Pinterest and sponsored content.
Keep moving forward and thanks for sharing in the great way you do.
Yep, it sounds like it! Noted 🙂
Yay! I can’t wait to watch this grow. Recipe blogs, crafts, and DIY are HUGE on Pinterest and easy to rank for.
And, I can attest that there are bloggers that will sell recipe development, the photography, and even video. I have done this myself, and I am starting my own recipe blog again shortly. If you need recommendations for recipe development and all that, and the usual costs, I can help if she hasn’t filled you on. Just send me an e-mail.
Definitely, 200%, get on Pinterest and utilize it properly with a blog like that!
I wanted to add that my recipe blogger friend makes over $50k a month on her recipe blog just with an ad network alone. That does not include any affiliate sales, and she does not sell products.
On another note, I wanted to mention is to make sure the website is using a proper recipe plugin with JSON-LD structured data such as WP Tasty or WP Recipe Maker. Some of the older recipe plugins, like Easy Recipe, are not regularly updated or have the proper coding.
Hope that helps! Kate from Simple Pin Media is a great resource for Pinterest as well. She also has a course for freelancers that are looking to get certified in that area. Maybe something to look at in the future.
Very thoughtful and helpful comment Lisa!
Thanks, David!
Another blogger in the same niche makes nearly $2 million a year. He sells e-books and makes affiliate income mostly through Amazon. And he does not use an ad network like Ad Thrive. So it’s a big difference when compared to my other friend in the same niche, to say the least. And it’s just providing original recipes with original photos.
Hey Spencer,
Nice post and congrats on the newly acquired website! I do have a question about sponsored content. What agency are you using or plan to use and if your not using a dedicated agency per say how are you getting the sponsored content onto the site at the highest payout lowest cost manageable? Basically what are your plans for using sponsored content in a nutshell? 🙂
Thanks Spencer!
David Robinson
Good luck on your new venture
Can you give me the name of the facebook group ? Or is it a secret ?
Hi Spencer,
Sorry to post this here but comments are closed on the related post.
When you do some try with private label product from Aliexpress on Amazon, in which way it is a private label product? Aliexpress put your brand on the packaging and it is enough to private label it under a brand new listing on Amazon? Because since the seller on Aliexpress are not directly the manufacturer it is not possible to put your brand directly on the product. Is it not an issue with Amazon to have exactly the same product than another seller under a different listing with another brand name (registered or not)?
I have another unrelated request. At the of niche site project 3 you said you will probably do an income reports after 6 months. I never saw it, do you plan to post it? Did they reach the target of 500$/month with their niches?
Thanks
Another great insight from you spencer ! Genious!
Congratulations Spencer and thank you for sharing this. I am looking forward to more motivational shares!
Hi there Spencer,
First of all congratulations on the new blog you just purchased. I hope you and your friend will be great moms to your audience, lol.
Actually, this post holds a lot of value, just because you told me a great method how to find and purchase blogs that are off the market like EmpireFlippers and Flippa.
The best to you and your new blog
Cheers,
Melos
Spencer, thanks for the awesome post. Buying sites is always a mystery to me but I will try a few ones.
Another great Story from you Spencer! Keep It Up! looking forward to learning more about Pinterest and sponsored content in niche site…
Spencer,
That’s really inspiring what you do!
I would like to congratulate you on the new blog you’ve just acquired. Blogging for me is coming down to be like conquering the world!
This blog post – as usual – has many thing to say and teach us. I’ve tried to use Flippa on buying/selling domain names and websites but things didn’t went through. I remember you’ve mentioned about EmpireFlippers which I’m going for pretty soon.
Thanks again for sharing.
This has been very very inspiring for me!
Spencer,
Congrats on the purchase, I recently bought a website as well. My site’s target is more geared toward males, but I am also going to look closely at sponsored content as an additional revenue generation source. I, like you, am pretty unfamiliar with this type of content so I’m excited to hear about your results going forward.
Nick
This is totally mind-blowing Spencer,
I’m sure you must have spent a fortune on that investment. A site that has lasted for 10 years and is still profitable is really built on a solid ground, and I’m sure the investment will certainly pay off.
Honestly, it’s not always that easy to find someone who’s willing to sell his website making such amount. And even if you’ll find one, It’ll be damn expensive.
Buying of an already established website is something I’ve been considering doing for sometime now, however, I’m yet to find a good one with a great deal. I will have to keep looking around though.
Coming to the traffic sources, I’ve actually heard a lot about Pinterest, I’ve seen so many websites who’s traffic is coming from that platform alone, and they’re making it big. It’s good that you already have someone that will be taking care of that part for you, please don’t play with it.
I also have a website I’ve been working on for over a year now, the site is already doing well in search traffic, but I’m going to hire someone immediately who will start working on the Pinterest side. Let’s see what it brings.
Thanks for sharing Spencer, and good luck with your new site.
Spencer,
I always inspired to read your blog. I learned more related SEO from your blog.
Thanks mate.
First of all congratulation for this. I always be your fan just because of your skills that you shown on blog. Thanks for making us so comfort as if we always get something new from your article.
I’m amazed how people think that Spencer is lying about sites.
One of the reasons he might be apprehensive about sharing URLs of his site is because of a niche site experiment he successfully conducted (including sharing the URL of the actual site).
But some idiots/haters weren’t too pleased to see him succeed and spammed the hell out of his site which eventually had a negative impact on his experiment site.
Hey Spencer, keep going man. I have been your blog subscriber since quite a long time and love the content and updates you publish.
Thanks Umair!
If the blog already gets 400,000+ visits per month – why is it a secret to tell those who are following you? Apparently many people are already visiting…
I had a really bad experience revealing a site about 5 years ago…so I’m hesitant.