10.03.07
How to Sell a Web Site
How to Sell Your Website
Selling a website is something that is always on the mind of Internet entrepreneurs (and is what causes some to launch websites). This post will go into a few of the easier ways to sell a website, above and beyond letting your users know that the site is for sale. It is primarily intended for websites whose estimated value is under $100,000. (to check the value of our website try out our website value calculator).
There are several strategies to buying websites (and domain names), for this post we will just be focusing on selling websites; future posts will discuss what to look for when buying websites.
Here is a simple grid that provides a high level overview of some of the services that we are aware of, feel free to contact us if we left any great sites off or if you would like assistance with selling your site:
eBay
Summary: You can find anything on eBay, why not websites? Ebay has a category for Internet Business and Websites for sale.
Description of Users: Everyone! eBay is one of the top 20 websites on the Internet.
Pros: Essentially open up your website listing to Ebay’s traffic base. Established feedback system that could add confidence that you will receive payment. Good buyer seller question opportunity.
Cons: Lots of junk websites, targeting the unsophisticated buyer. Real value may be missed as the business/technology crowd may not be checking eBay for listings.
Fees: 1.50% of any transaction over $1,000.
Where web sites are listed: eBay Web Business Listings
Sedo
Summary: One of the original places to park domains (a way to make money off of programs like Adsense), Sedo has become a hub for domain resales and sale of websites.
Description of Users: Good crowd, domain buyers, domain parkers etc.
Pros: Sedo requires that sellers put a piece of code on to their site that acts as third party verification for traffic statistics. Offers negotiation services for buyers.
Cons: Poor communication system between bidders and sellers that require bidders to make a bid before asking buyer questions. Web 1.0 look / feel. The 10% fee can also be quite steep!
Fees: 10% of sales price.
SitePoint
Summary: Originally designed as a web developer resource, has seen growth in the amount of listings. Simple forum style listings, easy to navigate.
Description of Users: Hard Core Technologists. SitePoint is focused around a Web Developer community.
Pros: Inexpensive option for selling your website. Sophisticated audience that has most likely had experience with websites or web development. Easy listing process, comment system, and auction set up.
Cons: None, let us know your thoughts.
Fees: $20 per listing ($40 for premium listings) with several add-ons like colored listings for additional fees.
DNForum
Summary: A giant forum with 45,000 members who list domains and sites for sale constantly. Some parts of the site are only accessible to paying members.
Description of Users: Similar to SitePoint, DNForum has experienced domainers, web entrepreneurs, developers, traffickers, etc.
Pros: Once you become a member, there are no other fees for listing or posting. You can learn a lot from this site and even get help just valuing your web properties.
Cons: No formal auction set up. Must be a member to post in sales areas of the site. This is necessary to offer a web site for sale or post comments of interest.
Fees: One time membership fee of $51.
|
SITE |
Fee |
Community |
Pros |
Cons |
|
1.5% |
Everyone |
Feedback and questions system |
Lots of junk websites, targeting the unsophisticated buyer |
|
|
10% |
Domainers |
Third party verification of site traffic |
Poor communication system between bidders and sellers |
|
|
$20-$40 |
Web Entrepreneurs |
Inexpensive; formal auction process, the right crowd |
None |
|
|
$51 |
Web Entrepreneurs |
Very large, knowledgeable, community |
Informal listing mechanisms |
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Good stuff to know… thanks!
That’s pretty good stuff. What about how to determine a site’s value? For example, when you purchased cwire.org, how did you determine it’s value and how much you were willing to pay?
This topic is insightful. Nearly all web entrepreneurs think about this topic and this thread gave some useful information. Thanks!
Thanks for information. Man you are like a gold mine of information. I remember me leaving this blog back when I was bored and autosurfing was the way to earn. After that I came across the sale on sitepoint.com and I was like damn, will be good to catch up. Love what you have done so far.
Hey guys did anybody have success in buying sites? I bought a photo site in early 2005. But my traffic went down to zero.
Thanks for the info, I’ve bought tons of stuff from eBay and had good success - I now need to sell a few sites so it looks like sitepoint may be the one to go for.
Thanks for the info. I might use it as a future reference.
This is a great write-up. You broke the whole process down so nicely. Thank you very much.
Thanks for this great plugin! Works fine - only my old PDA doesn’t understand UTF-8 - most blogs are coded like this - so special characters aren’t displayed correctly.
There is a dude selling a whole video series about selling websites. As i suspected, it ca be broken down in one good blog post. Thanks foe the info!
Good information dude!!! i remember when i wanted to buy a website, it took me 3 months to find a good one, and one of the reasons was that all the buy/sell/trade website forums or not, don’t have the proper categories, and that’s make it hard for website owners to find the right buyer, and it’s hard for the buyers, to find what they need!
So i decided to finish this problem, i started a website, that helps owners and buyers, to find what they need exactly, i don’t know if you allow links in here, but i want to help people too, so if you do not allow links, i’m sorry, but if you want to help your readers, leave this link here, and they will thank you for that:
Established Websites For Sale