It’s the simplest, simplest approach I use and you can get started for about $40 or less. There are a ton of ways to add extra value to these blogs and spend some more time and make more money but the quick-fire blog sales are a great way to start.

Truthfully, even after selling new blogs in the $1000.00 range I still use this method on occasion, especially if I need to pay for something I hadn’t budgeted for. Recently, for example… my girlfriend decided to get her licence and wants to take drivers ed. Well, to pay for the drivers ed I decided to do several quick sales over a couple days to take care of the $400 expense.

Before I start explaining what to do….one thing to keep in mind for the perfectionists (like me)…don’t sweat the small stuff, good enough is good enough with these blogs.

WordPress Themes

I always use premium themes for my blog sales for a couple of reasons. They look much better than the free ones usually. They are usually coded much better and are easier to work with if you get the right ones. Also, there are usually less of them around. So, although the design isn’t unique, it’s probably less used than a freebie. Plus, of course, it adds value.

I mostly use themes from Woo Themes. I like the way they are coded. The admin area makes it super easy to setup and add banners, new logo, etc. without having to look at any code. It’s a great selling point too because you can tell your potential customers that it will be very easy and quick to change the AdSense code and affiliate links to theirs. In fact, you can offer to do it for them because it will take all of 2 minutes, but the perceived value of that is greater than you may think.

Woo Themes do require a developers license in order to sell a blog with the theme attached (as well as use the theme more than once) so it can be more than you want to spend to start out with. There is a cheaper route than using Woo Themes…

Another site that offers some pretty nice themes is Elegant Themes. Not as nice as Woo Themes and not coded as well, but way less money. In fact, you can get the whole portfolio for just $20. You should contact the owner to work something out for a developers license so that you can resell the blogs with the themes attached.

So…once you have some cool themes at your disposal….you can get started.

Blog Topic?

I use Syndicate Kahuna to determine my blog topic and to get the free content. You can read more about Syndicate Kahuna in this post. You can sign up to Syndicate Kahuna for free here.

To find a topic for the blog, login to SK, click ‘My Sites’, then click the ‘Sites Needed’ link across the top.

The topics listed at the top of the list are ones that have lots of articles and are begging for blogs to be created around that topic so that the articles will have a place to be posted. Basically, there are more articles on that topic on SK waiting to be syndicated then there are “SK-enabled” blogs to host them. Let’s fill that gap. Really, we just want lots of content, and fast, in order to sell the blog so this is the route to go. And the bonus is, these are unique articles that will be auto-posted to your customers blog on an ongoing basis.

Do you see the value in this? Sign up here. Again, this service, the way we are going to use it for this purpose, is entirely free.

Web Hosting

A quick word about hosting. I use a hosting account that allows multiple sites to be hosted in one account. Cheap hosts for less than $100 per year are GoDaddy and LunarPages. In fact, LunarPages is only about $65 per year.

The way I do it is I setup the blog in my hosting account as if it were my own. When it gets sold I zip up the web site files and the DB and upload the zip files to a secure site. I then email the customer the URL and password to a secure page where I attempt to upsell them (for hosting, AWeber, traffic courses, etc.). Really though, you can just email them the zip files or send through IM.

At the end of the upsell page there are links for them to download their zip files. Also there is a form that they fill out with details for me to transfer the domain name to them. That form also acts as an optin form to an AWeber mailing list so that I have a DB of all past customers emails. I always send them a quick email before listing my sites to save on listing fees. 50% of the time I sell to my previous customers and don’t have to list publicly.

Domain Name

We’re not worried about SEO. We’re not worried about high search, low comp keywords for the domain. Don’t sweat it. Just buy a domain that makes sense to the topic your blog will be about. I always look for a .com first, then a .net or .org. I know someone that sells blogs all day long using .info’s. I never use them but they are OK to use. Currently, GoDaddy is selling .info’s for around $1.00. Just pay for one year for whatever domain you choose.

Create Gmail Account

I always create a gmail.com email address to use for the admin user of the blog. Also I use that same email address when signing up for SK for the blog. It’s best to do it this way, rather than using your own SK account, so that the new owner can configure their SK account as they wish. Of course, you need an SK account to look at the list of topics, unless you change the order of steps a bit which is fine.

Setup The Blog

I won’t get into how to setup a WP blog here but it’s pretty simple and there are instructions all over the web to do it. Most hosts have automated installs. I prefer to do it manually myself, but that’s just me.

Install the theme (hopefully a premium theme). Configure the theme. Add/configure some plugins. Change a few WP config settings like Permalinks, etc.

Here are the plugins I use:

• All-In-One SEO Pack
• Dagon Design Form Mailer (you may also want to use their on-page Sitemap plugin. If you use WooThemes, they have a Sitemap Page Template included so you won’t need to use the on-page Sitemap plugin).
• Google XML Sitemaps
• Simple Tags (only if you want to semi-automanually add tags after the posts are added, since SK posts don’t include them so far)
• Subscribe To Comments
• WordPress Database Backup

In one way or another, you can describe these plugins as benefits to the blog you are selling.

Setup Syndicate Kahuna

Setting up SK is pretty straight forward. I won’t get into the advanced features here but they are worth checking out if you use SK for your own purposes.

Add your site to SK: Download the sk-article.php file and unzip it and upload it to the root of your blog. Upload in “binary” mode. Click the categories that make sense to your blog topic. Even if there is only 1 category. Enter up to 10 keywords (or keyphrases) that you want SK to look for in the articles to be posted to your blog.

For the “Web Development” topic you may enter “web design”, “design web pages”, etc.

SK will automatically create categories on your blog matching the catgeory names from SK. You can rename SK’s cats to what you want them to be on your site.

I usually set it to post 10 a day. Once it hits 10 I will drop it to 1 or 2 a day and list the blogs for sale.

Some Extras

I didn’t get into everything here. It would just be too darn long. One important thing to do is to change out the logo. The logo can just be words matching the name of the blog. Also, put in some banners for a Clickbank product matching the niche. Add some AdSense code as well. It’s easy to add these using the Theme’s admin panel when using a premium theme (especially Woo).

List Your Blog Then Build Another

You are now ready to list your “auto-content” generating blog on SitePoint.com. Just use the cheapest $10 listing option initially to cut costs. List in the Start-Up sites section. List for 4 or 5 days. Aim for $50 profit after factoring in all your expenses. Don’t include themes in the expense because that will get paid back over time. Keep in mind an approximate $5 cut for PayPal.

I like to end the Buy It Now price with a 7 so… maybe $77, $87, etc. Set your reserve for $1 less. Set your min bid to whatever you want.

If there are no bids nearing the last day, add a niche specific ebook that the customer can sell…
Buy a $5 (or less) ebook from Resale Enterprises and make note of the suggested sale price. Upload the sales letter folder to your blog’s root. Put a picture of the ebook in the blogs sidebar linking to the sales page. Edit your auction and mention the ebook and the suggested sale price and link to the sales page from within your auction. Add another day or two to your auction. Consider this possible $5 expense when setting your Buy It Now price.

You should be able to build and list 2 within 4 hours. It generally takes me about an hour and a half for 2 at this point. It gets way easier with time.

Eventually setup an upsell/download/optin page to expand this business out even more.

If there is anything specific you’d like me to get into more detail about let me know. If I get enough requests for it I will put together a report.

Good luck!

More info: Make $100 With 4 Hours Work Selling Blogs With Free Unique Content