These blogs were started by a small team of people and were later sold for millions. I wanted to share some smaller blogs that really started from nothing in this list, but the sales tend to be private. In any case, these examples prove it’s possible to earn millions for a humble blog!
Engadget
Engadget was founded in 2004 and sold to AOL just one year later in 2005 for a reported $25 million. That’s certainly a lesson in picking the right team to get a blog off the ground and running fast!
PerezHilton.com
PerezHilton.com, a celebrity gossip blog, was founded in 2005 by Mario Lavandeira and sold to Avid Life Media company for $20 million in 2011.
Mashable
Mashable, a technology and culture blog, was founded in 2005 and sold to Ziff Davis for $50 million in 2017 which was apparently a “fire sale” price.
AllRecipes
AllRecipes was one of the earliest recipe blogs on the internet. It started out with cookierecipe.com and cakerecipe.com, along with several other food-related URLs, before they were combined into AllRecipes.com! The site did well, and in 2006, Reader’s Digest bought it for approximately $66 million.
Ars Technica
Conde Nast Publications acquired Ars Technica for $25 million back in 2008. The 8-person blogging team joined the WIRED magazine media team.
Tech Crunch
Silicon Valley industry blog Tech Crunch was bought up by AOL for a reported $25 million in 2010, continuing the wave of acquisitions.
The Huffington Post
One of the first big blog acquisitions was The Huffington Post, a blog that grew by paying writers to write about numerous topics for cheap, and later sold for millions. Founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington and sold to AOL in 2011 for $315 million, Huffington had connections and serious financing backing her blogging venture before she sold. The result is nevertheless impressive!
Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report, a popular sports blog started by 4 high school friends, was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in August 2012 for ~$175 million. It’s now part of Forbes. One of the founders Bryan Goldberg, went on to found Bustle in 2013, which became part of the larger BDG Media Group he owns today.
The Penny Hoarder
The Penny Hoarder is a personal finance blog that provides advice on saving money, earning extra income, and managing finances. In 2020, this website sold for $102.5 million to Sykes Enterprises.
PestStrategies
PestStrategies.com, a blog about exterminating pests from the home, sold for $1 million, according to an interview with Niche Pursuits.
FreshHome
Romanian home and architecture blog Freshome was sold to Soda.com in 2014, which was later acquired, for an undisclosed sum, rumored to be in the millions to Red Ventures. The site had around 3-4 million visitors per month when it was sold.
Bankrate
Bankrate was a leading personal finance media company that operated a network of consumer finance websites, including Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com, Caring.com, and others. It employed over 400 people in several offices across the US and generated over $300 million in annual revenue.
Bankrate was acquired by Red Ventures in 2017 for approximately $1.4 billion, expanding Red Ventures’ reach as a digital media and marketing provider. It was one of the biggest deals in digital media that year.
Only In Your State
Founded by Scott DeLong of 2010s clickbait-era Viral Nova fame, Only In Your State sold to Leaf Group for $2,000,000 in 2019. The travel site publishes things to do in every American state.