How to Sell Your Website: How Much is Your Website or Blog Worth

It has taken lots of hard work and dedication to build your website or blog. The blog may have been created out of passion or a need to pass on specialized knowledge.

However, times change and different demands on time and career could mitigate a need to sell your website.  A Website is only worth what someone else is ready to pay to own the property.

There are two parameters used by some auction sites to value a web property. The first are websites referred to as starter sites and the other established websites.

Obviously established websites attract larger bids and sales because of their age and earnings. Starter websites are valued on domain name and earning potential.

Most successful websites are built through hard work, financial involvement and passion. When you decide to sell your site you have lots of pertinent questions.

Such as how to sell the site and gain maximum value and how much is the site actually worth. These are valid questions because you need to sell to the highest bidder to make a sale.

The bitter truth is that most websites are either over or under valued. And the major concern is that only 10% of websites put up for sale actually get sold.

The reason is because buyers only spend their cash if there is a clear opportunity to make money. Although the age of the website matters its earning power is the greatest selling point.

Reasons Why Webmaster Sell Their Websites

There are many reasons why a webmaster decides to sell his property. Successful websites need lots of maintenance and new ideas because of lots of competition.

The owner could be exhausted by the daily toil and hard work. Fatigue and lack of ideas is a good reason. Other reasons are financial issues, effective web administration, many web property or new interests.

Some are interested in starting a website flipping business as a new source of income. Website flipping is a highly lucrative venture steadily becoming a verified business.

A website that earns lots of money monthly is a good asset however a webmaster has to sell for the right price. Some top website flippers develop different websites with the sole aim of selling them for profit.

Once you have decided to sell your website there are a few things to consider. The first and most important consideration is how much is your website worth.

How Much Is Your Website Worth

Webmasters are faced with the difficult decision based on personal conviction and interests. Considerations based on loyal, community, subscribers or branding and reputation.

Will the new owner develop the site or change its focus. These are all thoughts based on passion however hardened entrepreneurs know that new administrator will do whatever he likes after the sale.

The only thing you can do is try to get a passionate buyer and earn the most cash possible.

It is rather difficult to calculate and make a precise estimate of a website value and price. However the website owner can make certain comparison between estimated website prices including data and analytical information.

The information you gather includes domain name value, web traffic and other statistical data. Another important parameter is what the site is currently making.

The money source could be advertisements, affiliate earnings, subscriptions, referrals and product sales. The monetization of a website is also important in the final analysis.

Getting a reasonable estimate for your web property is import to both seller and buyer. The more statistical data available to both parties determine good estimate and quicker sales.

Other important parameter is technical skill to manage the site, content industry, hosting, staff to run site and marketing cost.

How to Get Your Blog or Website True Value

There are lots of parameters to use in appraising your website and getting a proper value. Listed below are a few things you need to know to start the process.

Search Engine Index Status

There are thousands of search engines that index websites daily. Getting your site properly indexed increases the traffic to your site which impacts on popularity and earnings.

The major search engines you should bother with are Google search, Yahoo and Bing search engines. The three search engines dominate 90% percent of indexed pages online.  The more search engine indexed pages your website has the more web authority and profitability.

The major way search engine index pages are through crawlers which gather website data. The more unique and informative your content the faster it gets indexed.

Indexing provides search engine visibility which aids calculations when estimating site value.  Many indexed pages equates to lots of potential visitors to your website. Therefore the number of pages indexed in search engines is very important to your final estimate and web value.

Website Traffic Statistics

Website traffic estimates the unique daily view, and time spent on your site. The major sources of traffic are high indexed pages, bookmark sites and popularity. Others are Keywords, page rank and other parameters.

Unique users are a verified method web value calculator’s use in estimating popularity of a site including advertisers or investors. To sell your website you can provide statistical through resources like Webalizer and Awstats.

Potential buyers need to know the traffic estimates and unique views to your site in order to determine the earnings and advertisement potential.

How Much Does Your Site Make?

Statistical data on unique visitors is good but how much does your website actually make. If your site is not making any money forget selling your property until it earns steady income.

Provide your potential buyers profit and loss accounting which include advertisement and affiliate earnings. Expenses revolve around staff wages, hosting fees and marketing.

Advertisement Income

A proper estimate of advertisement income will help an investor see how much your site earns. Daily advertisement income is estimated on advertisement network such as Google Adsense or Chitika. There are many advertisement networks however Google adsense is best choice.

Alexa Rank

Alexa is a website tracker that measures traffic information of users based on three months data. The statistic aids advertisers and webmasters appraise traffic sources and unique viewers.

Google Page Rank

Page Rank is an analysis algorithm used to determine a web pages importance in search engines. It is a determining factor in high PR value, quality and site price.

The lower your page rank the higher the site worth and number of pages indexed. PageRank is used by many sales sites in domain appraisal and pricing.

Back link Count

Back links are indicative parameters to the popularity of a site. Back links are links that point to your domain name.

Top websites like Bing, Google, and Yahoo use external back links to appraise the popularity of a website. It also impacts on the ranking and index of the site.

Add your back links to your statistics when preparing a report for buyers.

Domain Name, Age and Extension

Top domain names attract considerable value and price.  The length of domain names is considered for SEO purposes and the shorter the more valuable.

A top domain name can be sold for thousands of dollars if pointed to a high PR website is cash money. Domain age is important to page ranking and search engines based on websites authority and trustworthiness.

Old domain names stand a better chance in getting indexed and higher web authority. How old is your domain name and how many indexed pages affects the price of the property.

Social Media

Social media visibility is very important because it shows the authority and quality of your web content. Social media lovers will only post articles of interest on their media pages.

Gather data on users that have recommended your posts and are active followers. The top social media to consider are Google plus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Twitter.

Buyers for Your Website

Once all statistics are gathered and your price set the next step is finding buyers. Some webmasters settle for for2-3 time’s yearly revenue as the price value.

Top websites are known to sell for $30,000 – $100, 000 and even higher. Fat chance you earn such income unless your site bags lots of revenue yearly.

Your website might be local despite its international appeal. A good place to start is your local market to find interested buyers. If your website or blog is popular in your country you might get top dollar from interested investors.

Another way to find buyers is sending email to advertiser on your website and online stores.

Places to Sell Website

There are many places dedicated to selling websites and domain names. The top website is flippa with millions of dollars in website sales is a good place to start.

The website is easy to navigate and they are very transparent during transactions. They also have a huge number of eager buyers ready to spend hard cash.

They use analytical statistics and other parameters to estimate and verify websites for sale. Other notable places are Ebay and Sedo. Some forums have places where you can list your website for sale.

Making a Sale

I will strongly recommend flippa because of transparency and quicker sales. The good thing about listing your website is they allow the webmaster place a reserve price that should be matched or no sales.

They have a listing fee and bidding process that runs from one week to one month. The contractual agreement is necessary and payment is via PayPal, direct transfer or escrow account.

There are a few technical issues during transfer and addition support for new buyers. The transfer includes subscribers, auto-responders, and new web host. Others are mailing list, domain name transfer and directory listing.

Selling websites is a highly lucrative business venture if you get it right the first time. 
Related reading-How to Buy and Sell Domain Names