Selling A Website – A Quick Guide

Selling a website can be a bit of a maze to try and figure out for those who haven’t been there and done that. Considering that 2010 is shaping up to be the year to start selling websites again, there is no better time to jump on board. The questions are all the same everywhere I read. Where can I sell a website? How can I sell a website? How much should I ask for? Truth of the matter is that there are no real secrets to selling websites apart from the blatantly obvious (permitting that you have some face to face sales experience of course), which in most cases is giving nothing more than the right level of information about what it is that you are selling.

Sell For Your Buyers

Before I go too much into some of the places that will allow you to sell a web site, lets look at the information that your potential buyers will be looking for. Take a minute to put yourself in their shoes for a moment, and think about what would inspire you to spend a few thousand dollars on a website. Does the website have potential for monetization? Is the website chock full of duplicate content? What kind of traffic does the website attract? How old is the domain? What is the Google page rank of that domain? Even if some of these points are not exactly what you look for, you can guarantee that your potential buyers will be looking for this kind of information.

When presenting information, do not be afraid to go a little beyond the others that are selling in the same market place. Use video to promote your website that is selling. Include as much information as you can in a clear and concise manner in that video. Use proof of traffic, earnings, and anything else that your potential buyer may find interesting. Personally, I only upload sales videos to YouTube, however there are plenty of video streaming websites out there that you can upload to. Just be aware to adhere to their guidelines and you will be fine.

Where Can I Sell A Website?

Now, to the juicy part! Truth be told, there are literally thousands of website market places on the internet. Too many to quote here, however there are two of interest that I will make note of for you today. One that is expected, and the other not so much.

Digital Point forms used to be the most reputable place to sell websites on the internet, and with the amount of traffic that the forums receive every day, there is absolutely no reason to doubt the potential of this forum when it comes to selling websites. The forum is full of some of the best in the game, and a lot of those will spend money if it is a good investment. Best of all, to list a website for sale is completely free. I do recommend to use a secure method of payment such as Escrow for website and domain name sales, as the rate of fraud on this forum can be quite questionable, but as a means of playing it safe, Escrow will show that you are serious to your potential buyers. Along with all of the above, become active in the forum with a link in your signature, and you will be surprised how many buyers you may attract.

The other place that deserves a lot of mention at the moment is Flippa. This market place is really starting to prove itself in 2010. Weekly sales have often reached the half a million dollar mark, with a large amount of websites fetching upwards of thirty thousand dollars. This is a competitive market place, however the scams are generally kept away by the fairly steep listing prices and commission earned by Flippa per sale. Never the less, if you market your website properly, and are actually selling prime real estate that presents value to a potential buyer, you will be pleasantly surprised at what your website could sell for on Flippa.

With all website sales, something that works great for me is to include some social media marketing in order to promote your sale. Use video to speak about the website and its potential, social bookmark the sales page, and something that is a bit out of the ordinary but seems to work great for me is to create a custom bit.ly link for your sales page, and use that link to promote the sale. This allows you to track clicks, which is great in assessing where interest is coming from.

How Much Is A Website Worth?

Last and certainly not least is the question that I am sure is bugging you all. How much should you sell your website for? There are plenty of ways to get a good dollar for your website, you can set a price, or even start bidding at zero dollars and watch it climb. Each method will depend on your website of course. Generally, I will start bidding at about fifty dollars with a reasonable “buy it now” price, however there really is no right and wrong method here. There are ways of estimating what your website is worth as well. The only thing that I do recommend that all people do is never to list for a quick sale. This makes you seem desperate and only after quick money. I generally never list for under 14 days, preferably 21 days or more. This gives people room to make reasonable offers for the site, and gives ample time for bids to build up. More than anything, the main think to remember here is that people will only ever pay what your website is worth to them, and this value generally rises with the monetization potential of that website, page rank, and traffic flow.

As I mentioned at the start of this piece, there are no set methods to selling a website apart from giving the right information to the potential buyer. Don’t scam your way be honest and transparent. Don’t be afraid to promote, and more than anything, if you have a website to sell, remember that 2010 is shaping up to be the year to start selling websites.