Selling something would be a difficult task and that will be more difficult if it needs to be sell online – but what I am going to talk about here is not the product (physical ones) that we see whole every other second in and around us but in actually I am talking about the property like website or URL. Selling or buying of website or URL is nothing smaller than that of like buying a house, it comes with complicated process, but if you know how to figure out the things then it would not be difficult anymore. Considering only one fact that whether you are selling or buying a site that costs $50 or $5 million, you should take precautions before entering a deal.
There is one thing that also comes in between and makes your mind to change, say suppose your site is making money for you – a lot more and big money on daily basis, does it intends you to sell it. The answer may be yes or no – depends on conditions. Thinking of why can’t I sell it? There comes a time when you say it’s time to move on to other projects and just after thinking of the idea of not having to look after the same site on which you work from past 5 or say 6 years. If you say no, then it is nothing else but to continue the same profession of life that you are working on and you do think of making it better, but how much better that’s the point.
Also See: 9 places to sell your website
Consider now that you make your mind that yes you want to sell out or does the auction. What common things come to your mind? Selling a website or domain name do involves listing that property will be either for public auction or for private sale. You may start thinking of what would be the starting price for bids or offers. If you’re selling it at auction, you will consider what will be the reserve price (the minimum amount that makes you happy while selling the property for). You can also put up a Buy It Now price. I strongly feel that at this point you do think more confidently that selling is what you are looking for. But how on earth do you sell a website or domain?
HOW MUCH YOUR SITE IS WORTH?
So now you make up your mind that you too want to sell your property, but what you don’t know is from where to start? The first point while considering while being selling or buying an internet property or business is that how much your e-business is worth it? It’s not like that you go an assumption and sells it out, in such case it would be your own loss as you will end up by selling your internet property. Now, back to the question, how you quote asking price for your website? In order to do the calculation thing, it’s simple; you require two things on note: the average revenue the site was making and the cost for running the site and the formula for doing the calculation is:
(Average Revenue – Cost of Running the Site) * 2.5 = Your site total worth
Some people will tell you that an internet business should be sold for ten times or even 5 times average revenues or 2 times the last year’s total revenue, on an whole one can grab a good amount of their business, but condition is it would be generating a good amount of revenue and will be making profit for you after cutting the cost of running the site. Then, whether it will be your proper internet site or your company site or you had started out only as a hobby, it still yields a good amount of money.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER
Website Traffic Statistics: If you go to the market and ask anyone that come and your website no one comes, as its simple, everyone wants to see the real numbers your website is making on, this time I am not talking about money, but I am talking about your website statistics like unique visitors (averages and totals), pageviews (averages and totals), growth rates over time, which countries they are from, how much traffic comes from search engines and direct bookmarks, which keywords your site is popular for and the PageRank of your site.
Also See: Fix your website: 4 common problems that your site is going through
This data will be available to you either going or accessing your account through Google Analytics or have a log files with a stats package like Awstats or Webalizer or even most web servers comes with a statistics package. If you do not know how to make this happen, simply ask your web host and askfor Awstats and Webalizer, although most of the time these both come preinstalled on many hosting package. Become familiar with these packages so you can accurately assess your site traffic.
Spiel Email Letter: Now, you know your website numbers more accurately and even know how much you will estimate for coming future, what all you need now is a spiel email letter or can say in simple words a good sales and marketing email letter, in which you will introduce your websites and will share your site’s history; (Also See: 5 Tips for writing emails that won’t get deleted) the reason that why you are making the sale, what your site will offer to the new owner mentioning the current financial figures as well as indicating the future prospects and any other important traffic that you feel need to be shared like traffic figures, site profitability as this will results in increasing the chance for you to increase even the final asking price of your website.
Social Media: Your site owes 100,000 of followers on Twitter, and say, 200,000 on Facebook and it often comes your mind that if you sell them too along with your site, it results in fetching more money for you. Mine dear friends stop thinking like that as because legally (as per the terms of service), one cannot sell or buy a Facebook Page or Twitter handle.
Also See: Choosing the best social media platform – common questions?
Don’t try to put a number on social media accounts when you plan to sell your website. Even, if you found so by doing something like this, your site will be banned permanently on many counts or having access permanently terminated or restricted. Remember, transfer the ownership of all social media accounts comes free of cost under the contract of the domain or selling the website.
FINDING BUYERS
You had done your homework properly in greater depth as of now; with understanding all the points in much wider aspects, but now the big question aroused here is that how will you get the buyer for your website? Tough question, right, but I feel it is important you don’t think as tough rather a challenge for you. The first thing you start looking out is searching from your own niche/industry. People in the same industry are considerably more interested in buying your website rather than going for outside one.
What you can do is in order to contact those “same industry” people is that emailed first all those companies (online or offline) that you think sell domain and website, as from there, you will be get the contact details whom you think would be the potential buyers for you. You can also email some of the largest overseas companies which deals in website or domain business. The time which starts fascinating you the most is that when you find and contact your first potential buyer and discuss the prospects of selling the website.
In order to make things happens for you both locally and internationally, what all you need is the number of companies details which are into the same kind of business for example eBay’s Business/Websites for sale section is a popular choice but do remember here eBay is an auction site. You can also go for forums like the SitePoint SiteSell area where you can list your website for sale. Others include SearchEngineForums, BusinessBroker, BuySellWebsite, WebmastersMarketplace.com and eBizBrokers.
THE SALE AND FINAL THINGS
You are on the step of life which you are waiting from quite longer time, what’s it? It is the time of life where you are going to make your site go to other i.e. you are going to sell your website, but remember this one is the major milestone in the whole of this process, reason as here you have to take care of money that you are getting in, changing all the account access for your buyers and final documentation.
Money Matters, Use Escrow: When it comes to money, the first and major step to consider is to choose a liable payment gateway who in between handle all the things with proper care. I recommend using an escrow service when transferring owners of a domain or website. Escrow is the safest and easiest way to protect both sellers and buyers. Further, if you don’t know Escrow.com is the most popular government-licensed and audited third-party site used to sell domains in the U.S. There are plenty of things that make your deal worsened like forged identities, fake credit cards, chargebacks, and insufficient funds and also not to forget the false claims about what they’re selling so in order to protect yourself from all such things use Escrow, no matter what the person on other side says.
Buying or Selling, but do not sell the company: Confused I guess after reading the heading “Buying or Selling, but do not sell the company,” start thinking now in more better way, whether you are buying or selling, make sure you get all the features the listing having in the past with the older buyer. Remember here once you bought up a site or domain, it does not means that the product lose its shine, it needs to generate the money for you in the same way as it was doing for the older owner. So, do ask yourself once more, is the purchase a right one for you or the person who is running the site is a success? The two are often not the one.
Dispute: This usually not happens but no one knows well that what’s written in store for you while completing the deal. Say, suppose you enter into dispute with the buyer, show respect to him or her and try to resolve the issue, this is also why escrow stands as one other major good reason to be used. Don’t start getting angry or throwing fire of words, even best part is to not to contact the buyer or seller outside the escrow system as this might increase your own chance of losing the dispute by making promises, commitment, verbal or written agreements. Best is to communicate through escrow as it does the things in legal ways than no matter wherever your buyer or seller based on worldwide scale.
