I earned $8 from a website that I've already sold
Hi WA,
This is a story about never stopping building, learning, and hustling. It's about learning that it's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to sell your website, and expect the unexpected.
A few months back, I sold a website in the MMO niche that was built with the wrong strategy. It primarily promotes WA, but I barely make anything from it.
I made around $350 from WA commissions + a lil over $200 in ads.
I spent about $1,000 on content.
The site generates traffic, but with very low conversion.
Here's why.
I targeted keywords in the MLM niche.
e.g. 'Is Liyelipmal a scam"
These keywords are easy to rank. And brings hundreds of visitors per month. Yet, getting people who are into MLM to take up affiliate marketing is tough.
I didn't have time to manage and grow this site. And there's a buyer who wanted it for $300.
I sold it.
I made a slight loss but gained great experience.
High traffic doesn't always result in high conversion.
The new owner must have left my affiliate links there. As I made another $8 in referral commission.
Will I build another MMO site in the future?
Probably yes.
But with a different approach.
P.S. I hope the new owner never removes my affiliate links :)
Cheers,
Kenny
Recent Comments
6
Thanks for sharing this Kenny. Mistakes are common, and all part of learning. It’s great you learnt from it and still able to make some money 🙂
Awesome share, Kenny, and congrats on your earnings.
I also believe you should go for it.
Appreciate the share; thank you.
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C'mon, Kenny, do the right thing. That money isn't yours. You should tell the new owner about it and how to swap out your links for theirs.
In truth, you should have transferred the account with that affiliate program in it over to the buyer as part of the site transfer.
Let this be a warning for anyone buying a site from someone else.
1. The owner is well-aware that it's a site with my affiliate links on it. He meant to repurpose it for other usage.
2. I don't think I'm responsible for baby sitting the new owner in swapping all the affiliate links.
3. The affiliate link is generated from WA. I doubt I can transfer my WA account to the owner. I've paid years of memberships to be on WA.
4. I don't agree that the money isn't mine. The deal only covers the transfer of ownership and clearly spelt in black and white. It doesn't specify any other earnings.
5. I create this post to encourage WA to keep trying and not all is lost even if a site is not profitable. I'm sorry that it paints me in a bad light.
No, you aren't responsible for babysitting him.
Honestly, that's the most unusual sales contract for a site that I've ever heard of in 23+ years in this industry, but if you both were satisfied, okay.
As news to anyone else who is planning to sell a site, just wanting to let you know about best practices within the industry.