What happens to a blog when......

[Kamban]

the principal owner / author dies unexpectedly.

I thought about it when one of the threads started by drwisemoney here in WCI was unexpectedly bumped up to the top by a poster. I remembered that she had died unexpectedly a couple of months ago and curiosity made me look up the site to see if it was still there. Lo and behold, not only was it still on the net but there were new articles being posted, including one dated Feb 1st, 2017. Nowhere in the blog did it say that it was ghostwritten or the site was taken over by another blogger, nor were there any mention of her demise. So were all these articles written well before her death and these are being posted on a regular basis till there are none left?.

I am curious if the bloggers who frequent this site gave a thought what would happen to their site should they unexpectedly leave this world. What they have done to make sure the site puts out blogs on a regular basis till they are no more. Or will they sell the site to someone else who will take over and contribute. Will that be like buying an existing practice and hoping to keep it growing?

[Complete_newbie]

site are being sold left and right like businesses. Great question though, and I bet WCI has prepped wife or even young children as to what to do in that situation or has a broker ready.

Would be curious to know.

[The White Coat Investor]

Amanda was a few months ahead on her posts when she died. I agree that I find it a little disturbing to keep seeing her writing pop up on my Twitter feed!

But yes, the successful ones are businesses like a rental property or a franchise. One like mine is pretty illiquid and in order to get the highest possible price for it, I'd need to help with the transition for 1-2 years rather than fire-saling it on my death. But don't think I've never had an offer to buy it. Turned one down recently actually, which was very flattering, but just not where I wanted to go in my life right now.

Our current transition plan in the event of my untimely death involves my wife (who owns half of it) and business manager running it until it can be sold. I've got enough posts written right now that if they were spread out to one a week it would be most of a year before you stopped seeing my writing. Change it from 1 guest post to 2 a week and this thing would do just fine going forward. We certainly get plenty of solid guest posts.

I've got a daughter I could see taking over this thing too in a decade.

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

I know that DWM / Dr. Amanda Liu had posts written and manually scheduled for months, so it will continue "on autopilot."

What happens ultimately depends on what her family chooses to do. If they continue to pay for the domain and hosting fees, it will live on indefinitely. They could also choose to sell it or "hand over the keys", shut it down, or let it go when the prepaid hosting fees reach the expiration date.