IncomeDiary.com

How Pros Make Money Online

Income Diary

How to Create a Killer Auction for Selling Your Website

By:     Topics: Make Money Online     More posts about:

What makes one website sell for more than others? Sure, it almost always has to do with the amount of revenue a web site makes and how popular it is, but it also comes down to how well you lay out your auction listing. The difference between creating a regular listing versus a killer listing could be thousands of dollars, or even 10 to 20 times your monthly earnings.

++++++++++++++++++++++

“Sell Your Website Business Would You Like Our Help To Sell Your Online Business? Selling a business is one of the most important financial decisions you will make. Don’t get it wrong! If you own an eCommerce, Amazon FBA, SaaS & Technology, Service Based, Adsense, Affiliate, digital products or content-based business and are considering selling or just want a valuation, our recommended website broker team can help: Claim Your Free Website Valuation & Exit Strategy Today

++++++++++++++++++++++

Selling Your Website – How to Create a Killer Auction

1.) Post Your Auction on Your Web Site

Who knows your web site more than your audience? Depending on the type of web site you are selling, it might be a great idea to make it aware to your visitors that your site is for sale. If you have an internet marketing blog, there is a good chance your readers might be interested in buying your site. However, if you ran a entertainment or celebrity web site, it would be less likely your audience would want to buy your site.

2.) Provide All Web Stats Reports and Google Analytics

I can not stress how important it is to make sure all of your web stats are up to date and in order. Google Analytics is the platform of choice when it comes to web stats, and Flippa can also verify the legitimacy of Google Analytics. If you are using a different tracking system, I advise you to include Google Analytics in your tracking as well. By providing Analytics, potential buyers of your web site can see where your traffic is coming from based on search engines and geographic location, along with how long they are staying on your web site in addition to other criteria.

3.) Breakdown All Revenue Methods

Just as important as your web site stats, the revenue and financial earnings of your web site will play a big part in the final sale price of your web site. Break down your monthly revenue by source and as far back as you can possibly go. Many web sites sell for 15-20 times their monthly earnings. This can vary depending on the niche and quality of your site, but providing as much financial information as possible will help you get the most for your web site.

Do You Buy Websites?

Join Our Website Buyers List

Whether you’re looking for a Blog, content-based business, eCommerce, Amazon FBA, Adsense or Affiliate website we have exclusive opportunities not found anywhere else!

4.) Reply to All Questions and Comments

Personal contact and correspondence goes a long way when it comes to buying and selling web sites. More than anything else, it’s a business transaction, but trust also comes in to play. Make sure you take the time answer all questions and comments in detail, and also quickly as possible. Web site auctions have a time limit and not everyone will have time to wait for your answers before placing a bid. Don’t miss out on a high bid because you were too busy to respond to questions and comments in your auction thread.

5.) Reach Out to Webmaster Forums

Just like I mentioned it’s sometimes a good idea to post on your web site that an auction is for sale, it’s also a good idea to visit popular web site and webmaster forums. Web site owners are always looking to expand their business and portfolio of web sites, and your site may be a perfect fit for someone else. If you are already active and have a good reputation in a forum, it can definitely go a long way with other members and users of the forum, helping in the potential sale of your web site.

Become a Web Site Flipping Master

Using these same principles and finding under monetized web sites, which I like to call “hidden gems”, I’ve been able to buy and sell over six figures worth of web sites over the years.

Are you considering selling your online business?

=> Claim Your Free Website Valuation & Exit Strategy Today

Save

Save

Read Next

"Do Not Write Another Blog Post Until You Watch This Free Video..."

Traffic Domination

Watch this free video to learn...

  • How I got over 10,000,000 people to visit my websites.
  • The types of blog post that got me all that traffic.
  • How to get someone else to do it for you!

Where should I send your video?

Your privacy is safe. We will never share your information.

How We Get Over 64.73% Of New Email Subscribers

We first added a popup opt-in box to IncomeSup back in 2010. Today, it gets us more subscribers than our homepage opt-in, footer opt-in, sidebar opt-in and squeeze pages combined.

After seeing how well it worked for us, we decided to develop it into a plugin our readers could use. It's been so popular that over 60,000 websites now use it!

Click Here To Get Instant Access

Comments

  1. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    July 6, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    Hi Zac,

    Thanks a lot for the awesome post.

    I really love your tips about giving as much details about the website as possible and I think that can make a huge difference in the amount you will get for your website – people like to know as much as they can about what they will be buying.

    I’m also happy you created an helpful guide on the subject of website flipping and I can say it is the best guide on the subject I have read so far.

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:33 PM

      Thanks so much for your comments, I appreciate it! Once people start to realize how much of a difference it makes to actually list all of your web stats and revenue broken down by month and with screenshots, a lot more money will be earned of selling web sites.

  2. Ian McConnell, InMyHomeOffice says:
    July 6, 2011 at 2:32 PM

    Great article and as someone who has done well by selling on Flippa in the past, all the points are spot on.

    Just one question, when would you use a broker rather than Flippa?

    Cheers
    Ian

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:22 PM

      Thanks, I actually cover a few different places outside of Flippa for buying and selling web sites. I also have a few friends that use brokers directly for their high end sites. Shoot me an email if you want their info and I’ll see what I can do.

      • margaret says:
        July 25, 2011 at 10:48 AM

        Hell Zac,
        I’m interested in the info about good brokers with selling skill on Flippa like auctions
        Thank you so much

  3. Haru says:
    July 6, 2011 at 2:58 PM

    im now just starting to do some research and learning in how to flip a website..thanks for this zac

    im sure i will grab it

  4. Kent Mauresmo says:
    July 6, 2011 at 3:28 PM

    I bet you could flip your Zac Johnson website for 2 million if it wasn’t called Zacjohnson.com. You have a fancy website.

    All jokes aside, I know people who have bought some really profitable websites off flippa. That’s definitely the place to auction off your website …plenty of buyers flock there.

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:34 PM

      Haha yea exactly. Once you create a site and use your domain name as your real name, you know it’s one that you will probably never sell

  5. foreclosure says:
    July 6, 2011 at 3:35 PM

    Great info. about selling sites.
    Regarding “Flip This Web Site” – I wonder if it covers the mechanics of transferring websites (files, etc.) once they’re sold.

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:36 PM

      I cover the basics of “After the Sale”, but this can always vary depending on the complexities of a web site and how they are hosted or transferred. If you are not that experienced at transferring sites, you can usually have the transferring can be done by the previous owner or your web host.

  6. Michael Chibuzor says:
    July 6, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    You’ve awesome tips on website flipping zac. This business model is truly a big one, we all need to learn well and master selling psychology, this way, we not only persuade people to bid, but also, they feel happy about relinquishing their hard earned cash. This is priceless knowledge for me. Take care.

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:39 PM

      Thanks. I’m a big fan of site flipping, simply because I can buy an established site and not have to deal with the time consuming tasks of building the site, creating content and building it up to an authority site.

  7. Is Herpes Curable says:
    July 6, 2011 at 5:22 PM

    Hi Michael,

    Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing information about flipping websites.

    I also always wondered how do you manage to avoid getting paypal chargebacks once you release all your site logins and information?

    Thanks!

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 6, 2011 at 6:40 PM

      I haven’t run into any of these problems, but if it did happen, I’m sure Paypal and Flippa would not allow this to happen, as they have documentation and proof of your sale. Also, you can setup payments through Escrow.com, which will hold all of your money until both parties are happy with the completed sale and transaction.

  8. Online Business says:
    July 6, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    It seems website flipping is the rave of the moment now. But I dont see reason why I should sell a website that is making me money, except I can no longer manage it.

  9. Zac Johnson says:
    July 6, 2011 at 9:21 PM

    It’s great to have a portfolio of sites that are earning you money. Some profitable sites are selling for 40-60 times monthly earnings. If you are ever tired of running your site or want a nig pay day, flipping your site could pay off nicely.

    • Andrew @ Blogging Guide says:
      July 11, 2011 at 5:34 AM

      With this kind of scenario I am sure the government is very thankful in the internet world for all the jobs being created out of it.

  10. gill says:
    July 7, 2011 at 1:04 AM

    I am getting your flipping course.

  11. Bogati says:
    July 7, 2011 at 6:11 AM

    Really Great Idea, Thanks Zac!

  12. Eduardo Santana says:
    July 7, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    This story was perfect! It helped me a lot. I have a blog and always look for relevant information like this to apply and succeed as well. hugs

  13. John Burnside says:
    July 7, 2011 at 3:11 PM

    Thanks for the great post. I have been thinking about selling my site recently so that I can move on with other projects but I am finding it hard to sell my first blog, I’ve put so much work into it.

  14. Warren Shaw says:
    July 7, 2011 at 5:30 PM

    Hi Zak,

    Great post big props. Just wanted to ask have you ever had bidders wait till the very last minute to bid. Reason I ask I recently listed a website on Flippa and the site was seeing over 1million hits a month and $14k in revenue but it only got to 36k it was listed as private as I wanted to keep the URL confidential.

    Thanks

    Warren

    • Zac Johnson says:
      July 11, 2011 at 4:21 PM

      The most activity happens on an auction during the last few hours. When someone bids within the last 4 hours, the auction clock resets back to 4 hours to allow for more bidding.

      If you didn’t sell your site, I would relist again and do some “premium listing” advertising, or try running without the private auction setting.

  15. Boris Chu says:
    July 11, 2011 at 11:25 PM

    This an interesting read. Selling your website would mean that you don’t have the website anymore. I would personally prefer to keep them all for a longer time.

  16. Warren Shaw says:
    July 12, 2011 at 8:45 AM

    Thanks Zak for the info