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 4 times the profit on a website. Thus, if a websites is making $100/month or $1,200 a year a buyer may 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 buyers do not value?
Time or money spent on a website. Buyers are looking at how they can make money off a site so if you put 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 put some value into potential but 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 are 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. Domain brokers will also give you good feedback on the value of your website. It never hurts to talk with them.
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.