The due diligence checklist for publishing assets

Ask for platform payout statements covering at least twelve months, and twenty four where they exist. Statements from the source beat any spreadsheet the seller assembled. For a Facebook asset that means the payout history inside the monetization tools. For a website it means the advertising network dashboard, whether that is Raptive, Mediavine, Ezoic, or AdSense.

Reconcile the statements against bank deposits. Amounts and dates should line up. Where they do not, ask why before you assume the worst, because refunds, currency conversion, and platform payment holds all produce legitimate gaps.

Then ask for the cost side. Contractor invoices, software subscriptions, hosting bills, and any paid traffic spend. A seller who can produce costs as readily as revenue has been running the asset as a business.

Ask for read access to the analytics rather than exports. A live view of Google Analytics, Search Console, or the native platform insights shows you what an export cannot, including traffic sources, the shape of the trend, and whether a spike came from one viral post or from sustained distribution.

Look at the last twenty four months if the data exists. You are checking for direction, seasonality, and dependency. A site that gets 70 percent of its sessions from one referral source has a different risk profile than one with the same total spread across search, social, and direct.

Advertising rates vary widely by country, so the same follower count produces very different revenue depending on where the audience sits. Ask for the geographic breakdown and check that it explains the revenue you were shown. An audience that is 15 percent US earning US-level rates is a contradiction worth resolving.

Check the age of the audience and the engagement rate alongside it. Reach that does not convert into comments, shares, or clicks is a sign the audience was assembled rather than earned.

Request the account status and violation history directly from the platform tools, with the seller sharing their screen if needed. You want to see any strike, restriction, monetization pause, or reduced distribution notice inside the last twenty four months.

One resolved violation two years ago is normal operating history. A pattern of repeated content flags, or a recent monetization suspension, changes both the price and the risk of the asset going dark after you own it. Ask what caused each one and what changed afterward.

Publishing assets carry more rights risk than most online businesses because they publish constantly and often at speed. Establish who wrote the content, who shot or licensed the images, and whether the freelancers assigned their rights to the entity rather than keeping them.

For an aggregation or curation asset, check how much of the published output is original and how much is excerpted. Excerpting under fair use is a normal practice with real limits, and an asset that lives at the edge of those limits carries a liability the buyer inherits.

Since a marketplace transaction transfers the operating entity, the entity itself is part of the diligence. Confirm it is in good standing in its state of formation, that filings and franchise taxes are current, and that its books reflect the asset you were shown.

Ask for the full liability picture. Outstanding debts, open contracts, contractor agreements, advertising commitments, and any pending claim all travel with the entity unless they are settled or excluded before close.

The last question is the one that decides how much the rest is worth. How much of the income depends on decisions made by a company that is not party to your transaction.

Score it honestly. An asset earning entirely from one platform's content monetization program is exposed to one policy change. An asset earning from display advertising on an owned domain, plus a newsletter list, plus social distribution, spreads that exposure. Neither is disqualifying. They deserve different prices.