Sold My First Projects
I recently went through with the first sale of one of my side projects. And in the middle of it ... I sold another one!
I have a few projects that have done well with SEO and traffic, and certainly had the potential to do better, but I have turned my focus to other things. They had been suffering from my lack of attention. I always liked the idea of having these projects in my back pocket. They could serve me well if a complementary project came up or if I decided to spend some more time on them.
On a whim I added one of them to indiemaker.com. The listing was highlighted in the service's newsletter that week, and I was contacted by several potential buyers. One immediately submitted an offer and we agreed to meet in the middle after some negotiating and sharing more details.
Indiemaker uses escrow.com, which went smoothly. I transferred hosting, domain name and files. The deal was done within a week.
Indiemaker has a nice chat function, and the buyer and I had a good dialogue going. We had a connection as side-project makers and shared some of the other projects we had going or had tried.
It was a fun experience, and I think a win for both of us. I look forward to seeing where the buyer takes it.
Coincidentally, I was contacted out of the blue for one of my other projects through a cold email. Again, we met in the middle on our negotiations and quickly closed a deal. The buyer was experienced. He submitted payment through PayPal, and I transferred the domain and files. Quick and easy!
I was making a small amount of revenue from ads on these sites, but the value was clearly in the domains and existing Google rankings and traffic. Both were low five-figure sales. Nothing crazy. But good value. And it gave me a taste for how this process works.