Update 3/16: Hey everybody, the site has been purchased for an agreed upon amount (higher than the initial bid, closer to the BIN) so the auction is officially closed. Thank you for all the interest and support! I’m staying on to write a bit for the next 3 months plus the redesign is coming soon. Stay tuned :)
Since the inception of 9rules back a few SXSW festivals ago, my goal was to work on it full-time or nearly full-time as soon as it was possible. Over the past several months I’ve been slowly transitioning out of client work and doing more 9rules-related activities, and now I feel that selling Business Logs is the last piece of the puzzle that will allow me to do what I’ve always wanted.
To be honest, there’s another reason I’m selling the site and it’s that I’m burnt out with the Web 2.0 industry, or more specifically, writing about the Web 2.0 industry. For awhile I’ve felt that a lot of companies lack that “oomph” that will push them over the top, and instead of constantly being the devil’s advocate and harping on them, I want to spend more time putting my money where my mouth is and making sure that 9rules is a success. Talking through a new section of 9rules with Paul and Tyme is 100x more rewarding than writing a blog entry on venture capital, so that’s where my focus is going to go.
Traffic
As mentioned in the Sitepoint auction, this site gets more traffic when I write vs. when I don’t write (just like most blogs) and based on the last 12 months of pageview statistics, the average per month is 50k pageviews but will surpass 100k for this month easily. I’ve never been obsessed with traffic coming to this site, but considering I’ve only been writing a few times each month recently, I don’t think it’s too bad and could get a lot higher with some additional articles.
Free Redesign
Upon completion of the sale, I will be working with the new owner on a redesign that will most likely be more content-centric and less one-author-personal-portfolio style. I think it’ll be surreal to be redesigning this site for someone else, but I’m sure it’ll be fun :)
Most Popular Articles
- Mark Cuban Fined for Weblog Entry – One of my first tastes of viral linkage, this entry was written almost three years ago but continues to pull nice Google traffic (#3 for mark cuban weblog) and was linked from dozens of places including an ESPN.com article.
- Lean XHTML and Precise CSS – One of many CSS-related articles I’ve written over the years, this one happened to be the most popular. (Related: My 5 CSS Tips, another very popular entry.)
- iWeb-Generated Source Code is Awful – After iWeb was released by Apple, I stumbled upon the HTML it outputted and thought they could do a lot better. This entry was linked from a variety of Mac sites because I believe I was the first person to check out the source behind iWeb’s web wizardry and blog about it.
- Digg and YouTube Powering Atheism 2.0 – I had the idea for this entry kicking around for awhile, and once I wrote it, it was nice to see it got so much attention.
- Returning The Favor: The Toyota Mashup Challenge! – After learning that an ad agency that works for Toyota stole the 9rules logo I had some fun with their logo in return.
- Movable Type vs. WordPress, My Opinion – I’ve been an MT user for awhile, but because 9rules uses WP for parts of the backend I’ve recently had a nice mixture of both so I thought a comparison review would be helpful.
What’s Next
Lots of fun 9rules stuff. Oh yeah, and a wedding to pay for. Did I not mention that at the beginning? :)
About Mike Rundle
It’s real sad to see this blog being sold.. Hopefully whoever takes over will continually update it with good content.
You sure set the standards high!
I recently unsubscribed to Techcrunch, GigaOm, and a few other web 2.0 sites for the same reason. I woke up one day and decided I just don’t care anymore. Most of these web 2.0 startups are stiff and have no imagination.
I always thought your criticism and rants were humorous and right on.
Good luck with 9rules.
Ah, a wedding. Now the real truth comes out. You have too much planning to do.
Honey, how many layers in the cake? Should I go with the cummerbund or without? Hire a DJ or use my iPod playlist? So many decisions… :)
Thanks for the support guys!
Yeah, wedding planning is fun… almost as fun as paying for it lol.
It must be hard to let this site go. You have written a lot of good stuff here. Good luck on the sale.
I’m sure this is up to the new owner, but do you foresee the revised Business Logs as a blog/news site or is it going to be a consulting/design service provider? What’s your vision for the sale?
Hey congrats Mike! How about forwarding some of that business you turn down my way ;-)
good luck on the sale, it should get a buyer sometime soon. Its hard for someone to take over a design business, since you’re the main driver behind it and your style is unique. That is a big reason you get so much interest/leads.
It’s been great watching your site evolve. I’d be sad to see you go if I didn’t know you that you’ll have more time to spend on 9rules.
Good Luck!
Mike,
Sorry to see you go. good luck with moving on :) . .. wedding and more 9rules . . . if we can all be so lucky :)
The biggest thing that makes me sad about this is that fact that there will one less person actively talking about the “reality” of Web++ – Either way, I am looking forward to the redesign :)
Sorry to see that you’re selling, but I do hope that you get a pretty penny for the site. :)
It’s sad to see such a good entity to be sold off. Hope the next one that come along is just as good. I just wish I’m on the receiving end of this deal. :P
I’m curious about some factors involved in this decision:
1. Do you make a self-sustaining (ie. no parental help) on 9rules and Businesslogs alone?
2. If not, do you plan to after this decision?
3. Will you be doing any work outside of 9rules?
Good luck. I hope this doesn’t go the way of the Stylegala buyout.
Joe:
1- Yup, for the past 2 years.
2- 9rules is more important to me than client work, I’ll be working on 9rules full-time or almost full-time from now on.
3- Possibly, not sure yet :)
We’ll miss you Mike. Make sure you get your strong sensibility out somewhere on the net and make sure we know where that somewhere is.
Congratulations Mike!
Mr. Rundle,
What would be your answer if someone would tell you the followings:
“The golden age of the blogs is over. Selling a blog when it is still on the top [and letting it die in someone else's arms] it’s a clever business strategy.”
Congrats for the sell and best wishes!
Respiro
http://www.RespiroMedia.com
Hey Respiro, thanks for the comment. I don’t agree with that statement at all, however I do believe that blogs can be more than “just blogs” and be a better resource because of it. This blog talks about the design and technology industries, but it is a business that generates revenue through blog design and other consulting projects, so it’s not your average blog.
The golden age of blogs is not over, but it is in a transition. This site has oodles of potential that I just wasn’t harnessing, and the new owner is in a much better position to go big places with this site. I have no doubt this site’s popularity and reach will increase now that someone else is running it.
didn’t paul also sell the whitespace site to the same people? if I remember correctly…
anyways congrats…
Paul sold the site to a different company who then sold it to SplashPress, so it wasn’t a direct deal.