How To Sell Your Website For More Money Than You Thought Possible
When most people set out to make money online they look at creating and selling their own products or selling other companies products through affiliate marketing. They buy the latest "guru" book about how to make money online and set about spending all their free time creating websites or web-based services make a profit from and hopefully even retire early.
Or they may go down the route of buying and selling stuff on Ebay. Or maybe even open their own fully fledged Ecommerce store and invest tens of thousands of dollars in stock and hope that their market research pays off and people will actually buy the stuff they're selling.
Every single day thousands of new domains are registered by hopeful online entrepreneurs who are hoping to set themselves free of the daily grind of working at their 9 - 5 soul destroying job. That plus they want to get rid of the commute to and work every single day.
Marketers are great at selling dreams. They're usually very poor at delivering those dreams though. This is doubly true of online marketing gurus. You can safely believe about 25% of what they tell you. The rest is just fluff or a way to get you into a "sales funnel" to make you buy a more expensive product or service from them.
There is more than one way to make money online and one of my favourites is selling websites for 12x - 36x as much as I invested in them. It's very difficult to find any investment that gives you that kinda return anywhere else.
This lens is here to help you profit from websites you already own and maybe even websites you're just tired of working on. Why not turn that virtual real estate into a pile of extra cash you can do something else with?
Or they may go down the route of buying and selling stuff on Ebay. Or maybe even open their own fully fledged Ecommerce store and invest tens of thousands of dollars in stock and hope that their market research pays off and people will actually buy the stuff they're selling.
Every single day thousands of new domains are registered by hopeful online entrepreneurs who are hoping to set themselves free of the daily grind of working at their 9 - 5 soul destroying job. That plus they want to get rid of the commute to and work every single day.
Marketers are great at selling dreams. They're usually very poor at delivering those dreams though. This is doubly true of online marketing gurus. You can safely believe about 25% of what they tell you. The rest is just fluff or a way to get you into a "sales funnel" to make you buy a more expensive product or service from them.
There is more than one way to make money online and one of my favourites is selling websites for 12x - 36x as much as I invested in them. It's very difficult to find any investment that gives you that kinda return anywhere else.
This lens is here to help you profit from websites you already own and maybe even websites you're just tired of working on. Why not turn that virtual real estate into a pile of extra cash you can do something else with?
What Type of Website Can You Sell?
The great thing about websites is that they don't actually exist like a bricks'n'mortar business does. Websites are simply a massive collection of of 1s and 0s stored online on a webserver somewhere around the globe.The cool thing is that it doesn't matter that you can't actually touch the website it still exists as an asset that you own.
Some people think that only the only websites that can be sold online are the mega sites like YouTube or Facebook. True these websites do sell for millions or even billions of dollars but that doesn't mean that you can't see your own website for a profit.
So what type of websites can you sell? The good news is that any form of website you can think of from a one page sales letter, to an online messageboard to a blog can be sold for a profit.
The only thing you need to make sure of is that your site is hosted on it's own TLD or Top Level Domain. This simply means that your site needs to have it's own .com, .net, .org etc domain name.
Do you need to own a massive site before you can make a profit from it? Size does not matter when it comes to selling websites. Personally I've sold 15 page websites for several thousands dollars.
So if you have a website, blog or message-board that you think may be valuable then you're probably right.
This lens will show you how to make the largest profit possible from your website.
What Types of Websites Sell Well?
What do I mean by "types" of websites? Well it really comes down to the income model that your website has. That will help the buyer decide how much of an investment or an ongoing expense your site might be. Let's have a look at the main types of websites here to see what I mean.
Adsense Sites
If you're building crappy MFA (Made for Adsense) sites you're going to make crappy money trying to sell them. If you can sell them. If you do manage to sell them you're going to take a big hit on the sales price because the site is probably using the same template as 10,000 other MFA sites and Google can filter and ban those in a heartbeat.
If, however, you've built a site with great content and monetized it with Adsense and have decent Google rankings then you're going to enjoy selling your website as much as the buyer is going to enjoy buying it. Why? Simplicity. Sites that have a couple of decent rankings in Google, have great content and are monetized with Adsense are no-brainers to run. All the buyer will need to do is add new content now and again and maybe add a few backlinks to keep it alive and earning money. It's a win-win for everyone here.
My own valuation on Adsense sites is 18x - 28x monthly income for your final sales price. You might get 36x if the site is exception but you'll usually get mid-20s.
Affiliate/Amazon Sites
The same rules apply to affiliate sites as do to Adsense sites. If you've thrown together a website made from scraped content from the search engines or even worse copied and pasted the content from a ranked affiliate website you don't have very much worth selling. Buyers aren't blind and if you're asking them to part with $5,000 or $10,000 for a pile of junk....well....they're not stupid.
BUT if you have a great content site that's monetized really well (contextual links - not just a bunch of flashy banners) with one or more affiliate offers (and maybe even Adsense too) then you have a site worth selling and you're going to find a ready audience for your offer too.
Affiliate and Amazon websites are a tiny bit more risky than Adsense sites simply because sometimes affiliate programs end. And all of a sudden you have nothing to sell. It's happened to me a few times and I've always found another offer or program to replace the one that's closed but sometimes buyers are wary of this possibility and try to drive the price down.
You can expect to get 18x - 24x monthly income as a final sales price for this type of site. Again you can get more than this but it varies from site to site.
CPA Offers
These are the sites that have proven the hardest to sell hands down. Even buyers who would normally snap up an Adsense or affiliate sites of mine won't touch CPA offers with a barge pole. It's not that CPA offers are bad but they're SO prone to change and abuse that they get a bad name. Then you have some CPA offers that use forced continuity and this lands them in legal hot water in no time.
If your site is promoting a legitimate (squeaky clean legally) CPA offer than you'll be able to sell it. If your site is promoting a CPA offer that's going to expire in 6 months....well....how can you entice a potential client to buy something that won't exist soon?
BUT if CPA is just part of the monetization plan for your site then it's not as big a deal. As long as the buyer has other revenue sources to fall back on then it should be fine.
When it comes to selling a website that generates all of it's income from CPA offers you're looking at about 12x monthly income. Possibly even 10x.
Info Product Sites
Now here's an interesting one. InfoProduct sites are ones that sell ebooks and these can either be insanely profitable or only generate a few bucks per month. And this is going to be the issue when selling on a site like this. When an infoproduct launches first it's usually at the height of it's popularity and generating good income. But the copycats will arrive and the sales of the original product will drop off.
So by the time an infoproduct type site goes up for sale the best of its days are probably behind it. Or it's very close to that stage.
The only exception here would be an "evergreen" infoproduct - a topic that never goes out of fashion. They can sell consistently for years without any major alterations to the ebook.
Here's the one snag with infoproduct sites - customer support. Yes you can automate the entire sales process right down to the ebook being e-mailed to the customer but there's still a small amount of work involved with running an infoproduct site. You can outsource most of this but there's still an element of being hands-on with this type of website.
Based on that you can expect the 12x - 18x monthly income as your final sales price.
Adsense Sites
If you're building crappy MFA (Made for Adsense) sites you're going to make crappy money trying to sell them. If you can sell them. If you do manage to sell them you're going to take a big hit on the sales price because the site is probably using the same template as 10,000 other MFA sites and Google can filter and ban those in a heartbeat.
If, however, you've built a site with great content and monetized it with Adsense and have decent Google rankings then you're going to enjoy selling your website as much as the buyer is going to enjoy buying it. Why? Simplicity. Sites that have a couple of decent rankings in Google, have great content and are monetized with Adsense are no-brainers to run. All the buyer will need to do is add new content now and again and maybe add a few backlinks to keep it alive and earning money. It's a win-win for everyone here.
My own valuation on Adsense sites is 18x - 28x monthly income for your final sales price. You might get 36x if the site is exception but you'll usually get mid-20s.
Affiliate/Amazon Sites
The same rules apply to affiliate sites as do to Adsense sites. If you've thrown together a website made from scraped content from the search engines or even worse copied and pasted the content from a ranked affiliate website you don't have very much worth selling. Buyers aren't blind and if you're asking them to part with $5,000 or $10,000 for a pile of junk....well....they're not stupid.
BUT if you have a great content site that's monetized really well (contextual links - not just a bunch of flashy banners) with one or more affiliate offers (and maybe even Adsense too) then you have a site worth selling and you're going to find a ready audience for your offer too.
Affiliate and Amazon websites are a tiny bit more risky than Adsense sites simply because sometimes affiliate programs end. And all of a sudden you have nothing to sell. It's happened to me a few times and I've always found another offer or program to replace the one that's closed but sometimes buyers are wary of this possibility and try to drive the price down.
You can expect to get 18x - 24x monthly income as a final sales price for this type of site. Again you can get more than this but it varies from site to site.
CPA Offers
These are the sites that have proven the hardest to sell hands down. Even buyers who would normally snap up an Adsense or affiliate sites of mine won't touch CPA offers with a barge pole. It's not that CPA offers are bad but they're SO prone to change and abuse that they get a bad name. Then you have some CPA offers that use forced continuity and this lands them in legal hot water in no time.
If your site is promoting a legitimate (squeaky clean legally) CPA offer than you'll be able to sell it. If your site is promoting a CPA offer that's going to expire in 6 months....well....how can you entice a potential client to buy something that won't exist soon?
BUT if CPA is just part of the monetization plan for your site then it's not as big a deal. As long as the buyer has other revenue sources to fall back on then it should be fine.
When it comes to selling a website that generates all of it's income from CPA offers you're looking at about 12x monthly income. Possibly even 10x.
Info Product Sites
Now here's an interesting one. InfoProduct sites are ones that sell ebooks and these can either be insanely profitable or only generate a few bucks per month. And this is going to be the issue when selling on a site like this. When an infoproduct launches first it's usually at the height of it's popularity and generating good income. But the copycats will arrive and the sales of the original product will drop off.
So by the time an infoproduct type site goes up for sale the best of its days are probably behind it. Or it's very close to that stage.
The only exception here would be an "evergreen" infoproduct - a topic that never goes out of fashion. They can sell consistently for years without any major alterations to the ebook.
Here's the one snag with infoproduct sites - customer support. Yes you can automate the entire sales process right down to the ebook being e-mailed to the customer but there's still a small amount of work involved with running an infoproduct site. You can outsource most of this but there's still an element of being hands-on with this type of website.
Based on that you can expect the 12x - 18x monthly income as your final sales price.
How Much Is Your Website Worth?
This is usually the biggest question facing most of you who are interested in selling your website or websites. The strange thing is that most people have no idea what their website is worth. I know of one guy who sold a site for $400 that was really worth at least (at the very least) $40,000. He was, of course, gutted to realize this after the website was sold. It was just a hobby website as far as he was concerned and not worth very much. DOH!
Never, ever underestimate the value of something you've created - especially if somebody else seems interested in it.
There are a few ways to estimate the value of your website:
Income
If you're selling any type of product online or offline via your website yo can take your annual net profits and multiply them by 3 to arrive at the sales figure for your target. Some people say 3.5x and some say 2.5x but I've found that 3x seems to be the figure that most buyers are willing to pay and a price that I'm willing to accept.
Visitors
If you only have visitors and no income from the site then it still has an inherent value. You can safely estimate that 500 - 1,000 unique visitors a day are worth about $20 - $50 per day. This will depend on what topic the site covers - the more competitive and valuable it is then the more your visitors are worth.
Brand
If you've developed a brand of any kind with a transferable value you're starting with a sales value of $1,000 - $10,000 at least for a small site and then you need to add your income/visitor value to that.
Domain
If you've managed to register a really catchy (Amazon.com) or a really short (Credit.com) domain name then you're looking at a high sales price regardless of whether or not you have visitors or traffic. Domains with hyphens in them (www.best-credit-debit-reports.com) are worth far less than a domain without a hyphen.
When estimating the value of your website start with a sales value higher than you expect to get. For example if I was selling a site that made $20 per day ($600 per month) I wouldn't just ask for $1,800. No no. I'd need to ask for about $2,200 because I know the buyer is going to:
1. Expect a discount for doing me a "favor" and buying the site from me.
2. Haggle with me if he/she doesn't get a discount.
When setting a sales price for your website always start high and give yourself room to move downwards. It's impossible to start low and then increase your selling price. It won't work!
Never, ever underestimate the value of something you've created - especially if somebody else seems interested in it.
There are a few ways to estimate the value of your website:
Income
If you're selling any type of product online or offline via your website yo can take your annual net profits and multiply them by 3 to arrive at the sales figure for your target. Some people say 3.5x and some say 2.5x but I've found that 3x seems to be the figure that most buyers are willing to pay and a price that I'm willing to accept.
Visitors
If you only have visitors and no income from the site then it still has an inherent value. You can safely estimate that 500 - 1,000 unique visitors a day are worth about $20 - $50 per day. This will depend on what topic the site covers - the more competitive and valuable it is then the more your visitors are worth.
Brand
If you've developed a brand of any kind with a transferable value you're starting with a sales value of $1,000 - $10,000 at least for a small site and then you need to add your income/visitor value to that.
Domain
If you've managed to register a really catchy (Amazon.com) or a really short (Credit.com) domain name then you're looking at a high sales price regardless of whether or not you have visitors or traffic. Domains with hyphens in them (www.best-credit-debit-reports.com) are worth far less than a domain without a hyphen.
When estimating the value of your website start with a sales value higher than you expect to get. For example if I was selling a site that made $20 per day ($600 per month) I wouldn't just ask for $1,800. No no. I'd need to ask for about $2,200 because I know the buyer is going to:
1. Expect a discount for doing me a "favor" and buying the site from me.
2. Haggle with me if he/she doesn't get a discount.
When setting a sales price for your website always start high and give yourself room to move downwards. It's impossible to start low and then increase your selling price. It won't work!
What Makes Your Site More Valuable?
RevenueThis is the first and usually the simplest way of valuing your website and the value potential buyers will place on your website. Your site value is between 12x and 36x net monthly income. If there are any running expenses for the site you need to subtract these from the monthly income figure. Don't try and hide expenses - it won't do you any favours.
Traffic
This ties in with your revenue. It's very tough to earn money from a site if you don't have a good volume of traffic. Yes it is possible for some very small and very targetted sites to make sales with very little traffic but these aren't very common. Your buyer will expect to see a good amount of traffic to your site every single day and they'll also want detailed traffic stats for the site too. It will be very, very difficult to see a website without traffic - in effect you're really just selling the domain.
Monetization model
This is the way you make money with your site. The most common ways are Adsense, Affiliate programs, Amazon, CPA offers and infoproducts. Which ones are the easiest to sell?
1. Adsense
2. Affiliate
3. Amazon
4. Infoproduct
5. CPA (or any lead generation type site)
As I said earlier if you have a crappy site made with some awful "instant webpages" site generator or autoblog that's filled with other peoples content your site is going to be A LOT less valuable if it's worth selling at all.
Any site with a high quality (and original) content is going to be lot easier to sell and make you a lot more money. Bear that in mind before you go building dozens or hundreds of small worthless sites.
Domain Age and Authority
For some people this alone can be enough to warrant the price you're charging for your site. Why? Older domains will have more "trust" from the search engines. A domain that's been around for 5 - 10 years and has never been used for scraper sites or spamming of any kind will find it a lot easier to get new pages indexed and ranked than a brand new domain. The older your domain the more it's worth. For example a PR3 domain with absolutely no content on it and a handful of backlinks is worth between $150 and $500. Once you get to a PR6 or higher domain they're worth several thousand dollars just for the domain name - nevermind income statements or anything else.
Another thing which will greatly increase the value of your domain and your site is being listed in directories like Dmoz. This just gives your site more TrustRank in Googles eyes.
Domain Structure
There are two factors to take into account here.
Hyphens
If you domain uses hypehs it can affect the value of the site. One hyphen isn't so bad (hair-removal.com for example) but domains like best-way-for-hair-removal.com just aren't going to be as popular or profitable as hairremoval.com for example (even though I don't like the "rr" in that domain lol).
TLD
The next thing is what type of TLD (Top Level Domain) you have - .com, .org or .net. Now for people who understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization) this difference isn't really important. But it's easier to sell a .com than any other type of domain. It's just perceived value really but you're going to make more money with a .com domain than a .org or .net.
Where Can You Sell Your Website?
When you've decided to sell your website the next step is choosing where to actually put your website up for sale.
Searching around on the web can be a confusing business because there are dozens of websites out there that offer to help you with selling your website.
After a lot of research you'll find that the most popular sites out there is:
BuySellWebsites
BuySellWebsites
is my personal favourite and where I've had HUGE success selling one or more websites to satisfied customers. Why? Speed of sale and quality of customer. The clients browsing this site know exactly what they're looking for and how much they're willing to pay. I've sold websites there in less than 24 hours.
Searching around on the web can be a confusing business because there are dozens of websites out there that offer to help you with selling your website.
After a lot of research you'll find that the most popular sites out there is:
BuySellWebsites
BuySellWebsites
is my personal favourite and where I've had HUGE success selling one or more websites to satisfied customers. Why? Speed of sale and quality of customer. The clients browsing this site know exactly what they're looking for and how much they're willing to pay. I've sold websites there in less than 24 hours.
This UpMarket page written by
Scriobh
Hi there my name is Niall and welcome to lens on selling your website. I've been flipping websites for the last few years - got involved in it almost... more »
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