Midascode | Buy & Sell Websites

Here is a question we get asked often: How Successful Does a Website Need To Be Before You Can Flip It?

The answer is that you can sell your website at any level. In theory, you can even just sell the domain, but that is a whole different ballgame (domain flipping).

However

However, ideally you want to ensure that at the very least your website has to have:

*SOME subscribers,

*and some revenue.

These are the big three golden factors, and if your website doesn’t have these factors, you will struggle to get a decent amount for your site.

But if you DO have them all, then you can get some really good bids for your website.

Happy flipping.

Midascode

Buying and selling websites has become a huge industry in 2008, but it can often be a confusing and scary process, so today we are going to shed some light on the top 10 things you should do to ensure you are successful.

1 - Thou Shall Buy a Business NOT a Job

If a website requires the new owner to work on it on a regular basis, then you are buying a JOB not a business.

For it to be classed as a business, it needs to be self-sufficient, it needs to be able to run without the regular input of the owner, and it needs to make a PROFIT without your input.

In other words, could you go to the beach for 6 months, return, and have a nice chunk of profit in your bank account? If not, then you are buying a job.

Additional Reading: Buying a job vs a business

2 - Thou Shall Not Neglect a Website or Blog

Neglecting a website is the worst thing you can do to it. Traffic will drop, visitors will lose interest, and the value will suffer.

3 - Thou Shall Be Realistic With Your Valuation

We have spoken to so many website owners who would be lucky to get $50 for their site, yet demand hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Additional Reading: The Webmaster Delusion

4 - Thou Shall Check The Compatibility

You would be amazed at how many websites look great in one browser, and then look like dogs backsides in another. Always check that a website works on the major browsers before you make a bid.

Additional Reading: Browser Compatibility Tools

5 - Thou Shall Do a Financial Check-up For Large Purchases

If you are buying a large and expensive site, then you may wish to do some background research on the owner. Better safe than sorry.

Additional Reading: Background Research Tools

6 - Thou Shall Not Consult Friends or Family

We all know that making business decisions based on what friends and family think is dangerous. So avoid making this mistake when buying and selling websites.

Additional Reading: Myths of Starting a Business

7 - Thou Shall Not Focus On Pagerank

There was a time where all people were interested in was the Google Pagerank of a website. I have seen awful websites sell for huge sums of money, just because they had a pr7. Luckily it seems that this virus is slowing down, but make sure you don’t make the same mistake.

Additional Reading: How Much is My Website Worth?

8 - Thou Shall Not Buy Hosted Domains

We all know someone with a website like joeblogs.blogspot.com - but if someone cannot afford the $7 to buy a proper domain name, why are you doing business with them? Remember, you don’t legally own a hosted domain name.

Additional Reading: Buying Websites On Hosted Domains

9 - Thou Shall Beware of Scams and Fraud

Like any marketplace, buying and selling websites is filled with people who are looking to make a quick buck. Here are some tips to help you avoid them:

1) Use archive.org to see the history of the website. Avoid any adult or potentially unsafe material.

2) Go to Alexa.com to get a rough idea of the site’s traffic. Compare this to the stats the buyer has published.

3) If you are buying from a forum, look at the members previous posts or sales. Also be aware of any negative feedback he/she may have had.

4) Always use Escrow for larger payments and Paypal for all others.

5) For larger purchases, ask the MidasCode.co.uk to do the due diligence on the site for you.

10 - Thou Shall Have Fun

Buying and selling websites is a serious business, but it can also be a lot of fun. You can own websites based on your passions and hobby’s, you can turn your past time into a serious money maker. The options are endless, but remember, have fun.

There has never been a better time to sell a website, and yes, many of them sell for millions, and in some cases even billions of dollars. But how do you create a website that can sell for over a million dollars?

There are hundreds of factors involved, but there are three essential ones:

1) Traffic
2) Profits
3) Brand

Traffic

Traffic is the blood of any website, if you don’t have it flowing, your site will die.

For a website or blog to sell for over a million dollars, you are likely to need over 100,000 visitors per month. There are some exceptions, but as a general guide, this is what I would expect the absolute minimum to be.

Profits

High traffic without profits is not worth a great deal. In fact, there are websites that get high traffic and actually lose money. At the end of the day, you are largely going to be judged on your profits, so to sell for over one million dollars, I would be looking for a minimum of $200,000 profit per year.

Remember, traffic is for vanity, profits are for sanity.

Brand

Sites like Facebook and Youtube are valued so high partly because of the global branding that they have. To sell your website for over one million dollars, I would expect your website to not only be seen as a leading brand name in your industry, but also a brand with a good track record and positive image.

Summary

If you have all of the above three factors, give us a call, we may just buy your site

Midascode

We have been getting a lot of visits from people looking to know more about buying and selling websites. So we thought it was about time we got interactive. If you own a website, then please answer the question below:

How much would you sell your main website for?

Give your realistic selling price, as it would be great to know more about our readers.

Midascode

Valuing websites can be a tricky business, there is no set formula, and there are many factors involved. Today I would like to share with you 7 reasons that I will pay more for your website.

Revenue

Ok, revenue is an obvious one, but the fact remains that it is the single most important factor in your sites valuation. if you want me to give you tons of cash, then I want to see a site that is making good profits each month.

Domain Name

If your domain is hosted at blogspot or another free host, then I will most likely shake my head violently and move on. But if your domain is sex.com - then I will have my credit card in hand before you can say “website transaction”.

Brand

Are you the talk of the industry? Or does the mention of your website generate blank stares? The branding of your site can have a huge effect on your site’s value.

Web Design

The design of your website is not a major factor, but it will certainly have an effect on how much I am willing to pay. After all, if your site design looks like a baby has been sick all over it, then it may cost me $2k to fix the mess.

Traffic

More traffic = more revenue = more value = …… ok, I ran out of more =’s, but you get the point.

Google Love

Does Google love your site? On the Internet this is like being best friends with the president, and remember, good Google rankings = Traffic = Revenue… ok, you get the picture.

Inventory & Scripts

Does your web business come with $10k worth of DVDs? Or perhaps you have a complex custom script that cost you $10k to make? I can’t guarantee that either will add $10k to your valuation, but it will certainly have an effect.

Despite all of the above, the actual value of a site is simple = what someone is willing to pay for it. But hopefully this list will show you areas you can improve upon.

You own a website or blog and would like to cash in and sell it for the best possible price. But how do you ensure that you get a good price?

There are two simple tricks I have used in the past to sell sites for more than the market average.

1 - Deal with the BIG players

Many people are scared of dealing with mega global companies. Images of scary lawyers and men in fancy suits is often enough to want to avoid them, but guess what? The biggest companies have the biggest pockets.

For example, $20,000 may seem like a lot of money to you, but to these guys it is a drop in the ocean. So they are less likely to haggle, or worry about getting a great deal. Also, they are less likely to waste your time and wimp out at the end vs some kid who is using his college fund to pay for your site.

So if you own a site on cell phones, contact Nokia, they won’t bite.

2 - Find a buyer who can squeeze extra value from the site

Ok, this kinda sounds obvious. But let’s look at an example:

Let’s say you own a Britney Spears fan forum, it makes $200 per month in adsense, and has 6,000 members.

On a standard website marketplace, you would be lucky to get $3,000 for such a site. Why? Because of the low revenue. But what if you could sell it to someone who could benefit in many other ways from the investment? For example, you could sell it to someone who already owns a network of Britney sites. Not only will the new buyer get the ad revnue, but he/she can use the new site to drive more traffic, links, and members to the other sites in the network.

Or, you could sell it to Britney’s management, she needs all the help she could get right now, and I am sure her management could find many uses with this database of loons, sorry, Britney Spears fans.

So remember, look for the people best suited to get extra value from your website, and contact those people first.

Midascode

Did you know that every day is about 55 billionths of a second longer than the day before it?

However, a website can go from slightly neglected to completely dead in a matter of weeks.

Do you own a website that you are not paying much attention to at the moment? Why not considering cashing in on it today?

All you have to do is contact us via our contact form and include the url, traffic and revenue.

If we are not interested, we will consider publishing it here at Midascode for you.

I recently spoke to a web site owner who asked me this question:

There are a few points to address here… firstly, it is generally accepted that any list built directly from the site SHOULD be included in the sale of the site. If it is not, then you should make this clear and reduce the price.

Secondly, some sites have a double opt-in and a membership as well. So for example, a forum requires you to register and give your email address, but that same forum may have a weekly newsletter on aweber as well. This is rare, but it can cause problems. The biggest issue is the use of the brand name. For example, the new owner may decide to send a weekly email to the forum members via the forum software, he may start the email: “Hi, Jim here, the new owner of xxxx.com” - But the old owner may still be emailing the same people weekly and saying “Bob here from xxxx.com”

In my opinion, any brand or company related list SHOULD ALWAYS be included in the sale… ALWAYS!

So onto my final point… transferring the list via aweber.

Note: I have never done this, if anyone knows of any better techniques, please let me know.

Ok, the main issue with using aweber to do this, is the fact that they require the leads to re-validate their subscriptions. This means that a % are not going to do this. So straight away you are weakening the stregth of a list.

With that in mind, if you are going to buy a site with a list, and you wish to transfer the list to your aweber account, I would set the price based on the final list size.

e.g If the list is 1000 and the seller wants $10,000, I would say “I will pay you $10,000 if 950+ validate, but $9,000 if it is less than 850 and so forth…”

Here is what Aweber say about this issue:

Import Leads:
All imported leads must be verified before they will be added to your mailing list. Within minutes of being imported a notice will be sent to the lead asking them to verify that they did indeed request to be on the mailing list. Once verified they will immediately be added to your account and visible for email delivery. Learn about the many benefits of using verified opt-in, “Study: Verified Opt-in Reduces Unsubscribes & Complaints.”

* Only emails that have specifically requested information from you may be imported.
* Purchased emails or FFA link page email addresses may not be imported.

See the unsolicited email section of the service agreement. If you have questions about this policy, ask us. Violation of the service agreement will result in immediate account closure.

If you are not happy about asking them to re-validate, then you could import the leads to your own list software, but that is a whole new set of issues.

Site Sellers Summary: If your list is associated with your site in any way, then it SHOULD be included in the sale.

Site Buyers Summary: When using Aweber, be aware of the re-validation losses you WILL get.

I regularly get e-mails from people who are looking to sell their websites. But the vast majority of people tend to only focus on the earnings of the sites.
Today I am going to share with you a series of factors you need to know when selling your website, but these factors are all expense related.

Adverts - Do you buy text links? do you buy any online advertising?
Pay Per Click - Do you use PPC?
Print ads - Do you do any advertising in newspapers, magazines etc?
Other - Are there any other forms of advertising you use?
Hosting - This is an area many people forget to mention. This is very important on forums and media sites.
Merchant fees - What do you get charged per year on average?
Bank Fees - a rough estimate would be appreciated
Other expenses - Please include any other expenses

Many of the above are required before we can give an estimate of your sites value.

Thankyou.

Most website owners at some point will ask themselves “I wonder how much my site is worth”?

There is no easy answer, but to get a better understanding of site valuation, I will share with you the main set of factors we will look at when assigning a value to your site:

# Site Revenue - It is always a good sign if you are making money
# Site overhead - Hosting, designers, moderators, staff, ads etc….
# Search rankings - How much traffic do you get from Google and co?
# Stability of search rankings - How long have you had these rankings for?
# Legitimacy of search rankings - Do you do anything that could get your site penalised?
# Current and future revenue potential - Current is more important, but we don’t fully ignore future potential.
# Loyalty of user base - have you had many members for x years? etc
# Size of the site - in terms of brand and pages
# Unique Content - where does the content come from?
# Yahoo linkdomain: - How many backlinks do you have?
# .edu and .gov links - Do you have any genuine .edu and .gov links (comments do not count, as they use the nofollow)
# Affiliate relationships - Do you have any affiliate deals with related sites?
# Content relationships - Do you get links for content? do you use other peoples content in exchange for links?
# Site Profits - Making $100 is not good if you are spending $200 on ads
# Earnings per visitor - Unique visitors per month divided by monthly profit = earnings per visitor
# Costs per click - Do you use PPC? what is your average cost per click?

Feel free to use this as a checklist. If your site does well in the above areas then you probably have a high value site.

Midascode