The Article Writer

I woke up this morning with a very strange feeling: I no longer own any other websites besides The Article Writer. Yesterday, I concluded the sale of a bundled package of three websites, reducing my portfolio to just The Article Writer. Yes, for the first time in five years I no longer have other sites to be concerned about — a strange feeling, but one that I think I will not only get used to, but ultimately embrace. Please keep reading and I’ll share with you how I arrived at the decision to pare down my business.

An Odd First Four Months Of 2007

Every month I go through my finances to see how the business is doing. Usually, I have a good idea how things are by taking a quick look at my business and personal checking accounts. When the personal checking account runs low, I make disbursements from my business account to replenish funds. Around May 10th I came to realize that the funds on the business side were extraordinarily low, not enough to beef up the personal checking account. Although April 2007 was a decent month, a good chunk of money coming in (about $1300) was to arrive in small amounts throughout the month from PayPerPost. Some $500-600 in Google revenue was also coming in, but those monies wouldn’t arrive until around the 25th.

A Decision To Sell

I waited more than one week to come up with a plan, knowing that whatever decision I put in place would be irrevocable. To the surprise of some, I decided to market my oldest site in a bid to find out what interest, if any, there was for it. On May 21st I placed an ad on Sitepoint, thinking that this venue would be the best place to market the site. Immediately, interest was shown by several parties, resulting in a sale that was finalized on June 1st.

Building Momentum

Once CFAC sold, I decided to market my credit card site. I launched Credit Card Venue in September 2006 as a way to bring in some money from credit card commissions and to build up a small repository of personal finance articles. Although I was satisfied with the site, I really didn’t have a need for it. So, CCV was put on the Sitepoint marketplace and it sold within four days.

Three’s A Crowd

Soon after CCV sold, I built a new financial site — DebtQuit — with the sole purpose of selling it off once it achieved PageRank. However, one week later I posted the site for sale on DigitalPoint, but ended up cancelling the sale when the top offer of $50 did not meet my expectations. At the same time, I had my JetEmployment site for sale on Sitepoint, but I ended up cancelling that auction too when the bids came in much lower than I had expected.

Try, Try Again

Undeterred, just days later I decided to take my three remaining sites — DebtQuit, TravelAccountants, and JetEmployment — and sell them as a bundled package on the Sitepoint marketplace. I came out with a low beginning price, deciding to wait to set the BIN once bids started coming in. Moreover, I set the auction for 2-days to show people that I wanted to sell these sites off as quickly as possible.

For nearly two full days there was very little interest in the package, with just a few people requesting information. I was fully prepared for the package not to sell, deciding that if the auction concluded without a buyer, then it wasn’t meant for the sites to sell. Thankfully, a buyer did step forward about two hours before the auction concluded and purchased the package at BIN.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Beginning on May 21st and ending on June 21st, five websites were sold off by me. In addition, all four of my Blogspot blogs were “darkened” — not deleted, but notice given that the blogs would no longer have information added to them. To maintain link love they’ll stay in place until January 2008 then deleted.

Greg Laurie, Then Back To Work

The timing of the sale of my sites is simply providential. As it turns out, this weekend is when Christian evangelist Greg Laurie will be holding his 3-day Harvest Crusade (see ad above) at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Tonight, I will be working as an usher with additional plans of involvement for the following two nights. So, if you are interested in spiritual matters and are within driving distance of Raleigh, why not stop by to hear a great message?

As for what I will be doing now that my sites have sold, not all of that has been determined but I can tell you:

• I am exploring developing other projects and examining some work options.
• My other blog, The Auto Writer, needs a new theme and some updated information. That will be one of my first projects to tackle.
• The main HTML pages of this website need an overhaul. Some of the information is dated and the theme should be changed.
• I expect to redouble my press release and article writing campaigns.

Lastly, I want to develop some fresh articles for this blog, articles I haven’t had the time to bring to fruition. Right off the bat I can think of five or six topics I would like to cover in depth, articles I wouldn’t have been able to develop just a few days ago.