Why Daan Tol, new owner of WPLift, invested in a WordPress blog

WPLift, a popular WordPress blog/review site, was recently acquired for $205k USD through a sale on Flippa.

It’s one of the few WordPress blog sites that was able to “stick around” and survive the noise of this crowded publishing market. One reason being Oli, the creator of WPLift, put in the effort and dedication to publishing content. That dedication and consistency is what drove up the value of the sale — something that could be quickly overlooked.

I’ve tried a handful of times to book Oli on the show to no avail, but excited to meet the new owner, Daan Tol.

Interview with Dan Tool owner of WPLift

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/269490305″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Subscribe on iTunes

Common sense business building

Imagine a world where we could buy a single blueprint that lays out the plans for growing a business. It might include important areas like:

  • Defining the audience
  • Planning the workflow
  • Automation
  • Growth hacking
  • Sales

Without a doubt, there are plenty of  “entrepreneurs” trying to sell us on this fantasy, but missing one important fact that isn’t as sexy: hard work.

There was some astonishment swirling around Twitter when news broke that WPLift had surpassed $100k during the original sale auction. That is to say, people could not believe a “WordPress blog” could reach that price-point, let alone sell for twice that milestone number.

But put this into perspective (Daan also expands on this in the episode): Oli wrote every single day about WordPress themes, plugins, and services.

Between paid reviews and other secondary income streams, he had to show up every_day to build the business. Creating content isn’t easy, and achieving what Oli did is quite a feat. Congratulations to Oli on the sale and Daan for picking up a quality property.

The next challenge for WPLift: Can Daan maintain and exceed content quality to continue to grow? Tune into today’s episode to find out!

The links

 

My new podcast is livepluggedin-radio-400x400

My new podcast, PluggedIn Radio, is live! You can subscribe here: http://plugintut.com/subscribe and do read about why I started PluginTut.com.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/268909605″ params=”color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]


Comments

4 responses to “Why Daan Tol, new owner of WPLift, invested in a WordPress blog”

  1. Congrats on the purchase Daan. It was nice to hear a bit about the why and how of what you’re doing.

    I wondered if you had any changes in mind for the paid content model of WPLift. My sense as an outsider is that it does a few listicles (best X plugins) and news roundups, but the bulk of the content is from paid reviews and spots on the theme/plugin listings. Do you see the paid reviews/listings remaining as a core part of the business model?

    I admit I was a little distracted while listening, so I apologize if this question was answered already. Thanks!

    1. Hi Nate,

      sorry for my late reply.

      To answer your question – Yes, I do see that as a core part of the business model. That is a substantial income for WPLift. That will be something that I won’t change in the near future.

      What I do find important is that WPLift won’t place any pre-written reviews. Yes – we are getting paid for the review. But it will be written by us, always.

      1. Thanks for the reply, Daan. Good luck with WP Lift!

  2. As of now WPlift is not updated like Oli did in the past.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *