Website for Sale: How to Sell Your Site
Running a website is a ton of work. Not only do you have to develop the website and get it up and running, but you have to bring in visitors to make it successful. Once you’ve got a thriving website, it’s natural for the owner to want to profit from their hard work.
One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to place your website for sale. If you don’t know how to sell a website, don’t worry! Read on to learn everything there is to know about selling websites.
Prep Your Website for Sale
If you’re considering selling your website because you want to make money, then it’s important to take some steps beforehand to make your website more attractive to potential buyers. To be specific, you want to make your website more profitable.
The best way to accomplish this goal is to bring more organic traffic to your website. In general, organic traffic brings in more money, but it’s also more valuable to people looking to buy or invest in a website. A website that has a proven history of bringing in thousands of organic visitors each month is ideal if you want to maximize your return.
Why is this?
Websites that have regular organic traffic show buyers that they aren’t going to have to drop a ton of money on advertising for your website. It also gives them an idea of how much potential the website has to make them some money. For that reason, websites with loads of organic traffic and poor sales numbers often sell for more than a website with inconsistent organic traffic and high sales numbers.
If your website isn’t at this point yet, then it’s important to spend some time getting it there before putting it on the market.
Gather Information
When your website is ready for sale, you’ll want to spend some time constructing a portfolio of information about your website to give to potential buyers.
Buyers will want to know about everything from your domain name to its earnings. They’ll also want to have information about the traffic that comes to your website and where that traffic comes from. Anything that brings traffic or money to the website will be of interest to buyers.
This all sounds pretty intuitive, right? There are many other aspects of your website that have the potential to boost your asking price. Consider adding information about any training manuals, you have, along with processes and procedures you’ve created.
Customers are also interested in things like lists of subscribers, the people you have on staff, your social media accounts, and any customer databases you may have. Do you have a history of Adwords PPC campaigns? Include those, too!
These are all incredible assets that you’re bringing to the table!
Liabilities Versus Assets
Many sellers mistakenly highlight certain aspects of their website that send up red flags to buyers. These sellers see these things as assets, when in fact, they’re most likely to be viewed as a liability.
The biggest thing sellers do is discuss the amount of potential their website has. This tells buyers a couple of things about your website: you haven’t tapped into that potential and untapped potential is proof that your website won’t produce as much as you claim it will.
In that same vein, don’t highlight that you haven’t advertised in an attempt to prove that your website can be more profitable than it is. This tells buyers that they’re going to have to dump a ton of money into marketing your website, some of which won’t even yield profits. It’s better for you to detail any attempts at advertising you’ve done in the past and which forms of advertising have been most successful.
Develop Marketing Material
Now that you’ve gathered a ton of data about your website, it’s time to put it all together. This information should be compiled in an attractive packet that potential buyers can peruse and quickly get an idea about the profitability of your website. Having a concise guide to your website will help the selling process move quickly and get cash in your hands as soon as possible.
Find Buyers
Your next step is to find buyers for your website. Companies like Motion Invest regularly purchase websites, and they are a great place to start. You should also target buyers who are within your industry because they have the greatest need for websites like yours.
Want to boost the amount you get from the sale? Consider accepting seller financing. In this scenario, you accept a portion of the sale upfront, and then the buyer continues to pay out the rest of the purchase amount over time.
This helps net you more cash because you’ll be showing sellers the confidence you have in your website.
How Long Does Selling Websites Take?
There’s no hard and fast rule for timing when it comes to selling websites. The average listing period is anywhere from 30 to 180 days. Many people find that two months is a reasonable amount of time to sell a website.
Your case may vary from the average. This is especially true for websites that need to be spruced up before they go onto the market. If everything is ready to go now, however, you can expect your sale to fall within the typical timeframe.
Selling Your Website Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated!
Placing your website for sale is a great way to profit from the hard work you put into it. Maximize your profits by having solid stats for the buyer to read over and considering things like seller financing. By doing the simple things discussed in this article, you’ll be on your way to a pretty hefty payday!
The world of the Internet and website design is constantly changing. It’s important to stay on the cutting edge of things if you want to be competitive in this field. Check out the rest of our blog for articles that will help you do just that!