How To Sell A Website or Blog: 10 Important Steps
Let’s talk about how to sell a website step by step. If you have been thinking that it’s time to sell your website or sell your blog, you will be glad to hear that the process of selling a blog or website is fairly straightforward.
I’ve sold hundreds of websites, both from my own portfolio, and as a broker for others, at Niche Investor. This article explains the steps involved in how to sell a website.
From the initial pre-planning stage, to the listing process, the legal contracts you need, managing the transfer of assets and post-sale tips.
In addition to this guide, take a look at our current listings of websites for sale.
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How To Sell A Website or Blog – 10 Important Steps
Consider this the ultimate guide on how to sell a website or blog.
1. Pre-Planning
The pre-planning stage of selling a website involves everything you do before it’s ready to be put up for sale.
This includes making sure that you have the site in good condition. Some things to consider:
- The website is live, with no broken pages
- Analytics are connected and have been tracking the traffic for some time (preferably since launch)
- The site is indexed in Google with no manual penalties
- It is self-hosted. Our recommended host is this one, where you can get hosting for just $2.95. Or, if you have a high-traffic website, go for this one which offers more premium features.
- It’s using WordPress.org (no Blogger, Tumblr, Wix, or Squarespace sites) If you need to get it on WordPress we can help, contact us.
- You are tracking the monthly profit and loss
2. Get a website valuation
Once you have decided you are ready to sell your website, read our ‘What Is My Website Worth?‘ guide ad then get a free website valuation to see how much you could potentially sell it for.
We will respond with a suggested listing price.
When you are using a marketplace or a broker to buy the blog, they will perform much of the logistical tasks for you, although they still may require you to help with your website’s financial and traffic reports.
If you are selling your website independently then you will have to do all of the logistical work yourself.
Provide Traffic and financial info
To sell a website you need to be upfront about the website’s financial history and traffic reports. No one is going to invest in your business unless they know exactly what they are investing in.
The more information you have on your website the more likely you are to find a buyer.
This is why you should wait at least six to twelve months of earning a steady revenue from your website before you try and sell it.
Make sure you have Google Analytics installed before you try and sell the website as the information it provides will be key information that the buyer needs to know.
There are two types of reports that you need to have before you try and sell your websites, you’ll need traffic reports and financial reports.
The financial reports that you must provide will start with a profit and loss statement. Your Niche Investor listing agent will provide this for you to fill out.
You will also need to have reports that are proof of sales, so the buyer knows exactly how you are making your money from the website.
As mentioned previously, most marketplaces and brokers will require proof of sales over a period of six to twelve months.
When we are looking at your site to give you a valuation, we will look at your Google Analytics to see how your website generates traffic. We will consider how much of your traffic comes from Google search, as more of it helps the SEO value of your website.
3. List your website
Your Niche Investor rep will build the listing for your website, and include it in our marketplace. Your rep will then promote the listing and engage with interested potential buyers.
You are encouraged to share your listing page and let your audience know your site is for sale as well.
4. Position Your Website To Run Without You (This WIll Attract More Buyers!)
While your listing is live at Niche Investor, you will want to ensure that you continue running the business as normal, to keep sales and traffic up.
But, if you are the main operator of the business it will be crucial to hire someone to cover your role, so that you aren’t the main operator.
If your website makes its money passively through advertising revenue or affiliate marketing, you won’t have to worry too much about this step.
However, if your revenue source runs on selling goods or services, say you run an eCommerce website, then you might want to stop fulfilling orders yourself and potentially outsource it to get yourself away from the website as much as possible.
During the selling period, you need to minimalize your involvement in the website as much as you can.
There is a good reason for this, when people are looking to buy a website they are usually looking for some passive income that can happen without much involvement, people will usually refrain from buying websites that act as a full-time job as their time may not be worth it.
Think about it from a buyer’s perspective. If you had thousands of dollars and wanted to make some money from a website, you would rather buy something that will make your income without any time commitment than a website that may make more money, but requires more time, right?
This process will look very different depending on the amount of money that you are making.
There are many ways you can automate a website to make it more attractive to buyers, such as training a virtual assistant to handle your day-to-day business tasks and handle order fulfillment through a third-party service.
5. Negotiate offers
Once your listing is live on Niche Investor, it will be publicly viewable. Interested buyers will be able to send offers for your review.
As offers come in, you will be able to accept, reject or counter until you reach a price and a deal that you are happy with.
Your Niche Investor rep will assist in facilitating this for you, and be available to answer any questions at any time.
6. Enter into the sale agreement
Once you have accepted an offer from a buyer, you will enter into a legally binding contract.
Niche Investor provides this legal contract that both you and the buyer agree to and sign. This contract contains details and clauses that outline the responsibilities of both parties, how payment will be arranged, and how and when the transfers will take place.
It also includes specific legalese that protects you from non-paying buyers and additional issues that could arise.
7. Receive The Payment
When all parties have signed the contract, we will then start the payment process. The buyer will send the payment in full to Escrow for holding.
9. Transfer the assets
When Escrow confirms that your buyer’s payment has been secured, it is time to send over the assets.
The assets include the website files, database, domain, social accounts, email subscribers, ad network account, and many other things that transfer in the sale of a website.
We provide you with a step-by-step white glove service every step of the way. We help in facilitating the website migration, domain transfer, and provide you with an easy-to-follow checklist for what items to send the buyer, when.
This process can take up to 7-10 business days.
10. Finalize The Sale Of Your Website
Once all assets have been received, the buyer will fulfill their responsibility in the contract and release the funds from Escrow. The sale of your website will be complete.
How To Sell A Website – Conclusion
As you can see, there are a few things to consider when it comes to how to sell a website.
If you are ready to sell your website, fill out the ‘What Is My Website Worth?‘ form to get a free website valuation.
