Answers to website seller’s frequently asked questions when trying to sell your website.
What is my website worth?
Everybody values a website differently but generally websites are sold at 1 to 3 three times the profit on a website. Thus, if a websites is making $100/month or $1,200 a year a buyer will be willing to pay $1,200 to $3,600 for the website. Factors such as level of effort to maintain a website, length of consistent earnings history, diversification of traffic and revenue streams, unique value propositions and any branding value are strong considerations.
What are factors that many website sellers like to include but holds little value with buyers?
Time or money spent on a website. Buyers are looking how they can make money off a site so if you put a 2,000 hours into a website that makes $100 year unfortunately the effort will have little value to buyers.
Potential – Yes, if somebody invests time and money into a website by publishing more articles, re-designing the site or adding more revenue streams it will most likely be more profitable. However, there is a cost and time for this to happen. If you want to be paid on potential a seller must make these changes themselves which will take time and then the earnings consistency needs to be demonstrated. This is why buyers generally don’t put too much value into potential as potential is still a lot of work for the buyer.
Should I trust online valuation tools?
They’re fun tools to use but rarely accurate. These tools generally can only look at domain, age, page rank, backlinks etc. but don’t account for many other factors e.g. a social media following, mailing lists, traffic and revenue diversification, barrier to entry, site maintenance level and much more.
How can I value my website?
Flippa and other auction sites is a great source to compare similar sites and value. Be sure to look at the completed auctions and not the asking prices that are never met. Many auctions will be for $10,000 but it doesn’t mean that anybody will pay that amount.
Is there a way to sell my website without paying broker or marketplace fees?
Yes, typically the best way is through private buyer but finding a buyer can be difficult. The best way is to typically put the word out through the contacts within your niche or reaching out to competitors can also attract interest.
How are we different?
We value websites differently. We understand not all websites are focused or structured on earning money. We’ll look at other considerations such as great content, the history, the community that’s been built, the traffic quality and yes potential. You can also avoid the broker or online auction site fees which range from 10% to 20%. Transactions are also conducted through an escrow service at our cost ensuring peace of mind, security, payment verification and risk of fraud.