9 Things To Consider Before You Buy/Sell an Online Business
Websites are virtual estates, and buying and selling them is also a profitable business.
The business of trading websites is like engaging in a real estate business — the same way you may choose to invest in buying and selling houses.
Just like with every other type of business, you should have learned a lot about it before engaging in it and should be ready to take the risks associated with it.
A good website flipper knows an undervalued website when he sees one and knows that by dedicating some time and resources to it, he will turn things around and make a good profit from it.
You can create a good source of revenue for yourself by learning to buy and sell websites.
This post will show you how to transform your dying site into a virtual estate business.
1. You Need Time and Financial Resources to Buy a Website
If you buy a website, you will need to invest some time and money in refurbishment and make it more attractive before you sell it.
If you do not have enough resources to take care of it, buying it might just be like an unprofitable venture.
If it is a website that has already been generating some income, you will not have to make so many changes to it.
You will only need to check out areas that need improvement and work on them to make them attractive for sale.
2. The Niche is Important (But Not All the Time)
When you are investing in virtual estate, make sure the websites you buy are in profitable niches.
You should not buy a website because it is fanciful but it should have a lot of evergreen content and should have been adding value to people or helping them solve their problems.
It should have experienced good patronage in its niche.
Sites where you will find evergreen content include:
- Money and finance
- Health and wellness
- Food and Recipes
- Pet Care
- Sports and Hobbies
- Relationships and Personal Growth
- Online businesses
- Entertainment
- Current Events and Politics
- Education
- Ecommerce
3. How to Find the Right Website to Buy
You will need to know about a website before you buy it.
You need to know if the website has been generating much traffic and it generates revenue.
If it has not been generating much, you should be able to find out the reasons.
Did the income generated come from ads alone or does it have other sources of revenue?
If you get a good website, you will expect to value its revenue potential monthly or yearly, although this will depend on your negotiation power.
If it is a new website that has not had much development, then you may not have to pay much to acquire it. But this means you will have much work to do in order to make it attractive for new owners.
4. Carry Out a Proper Investigation of the Website
Who are the owners and why do they want to sell it?
Be sure it is not a scam site or a site that has got penalized by Google for whatever reason; perhaps an interest in the niche is slowly declining or the owners have found a new interest that they wish to pursue, and so they are selling off the website.
Get proof of traffic to the website and check out its analytics.
Also, check the links on the website; are they natural links, or have they been purchased?
And do the links have high authority?
You may need to directly interview the seller and ask any questions that may be on your mind.
You may also wish to ask a broker to assist you with valuing the site.
A lot of them are very good at investigating a site before listing it, to ascertain that it will not become a liability after it’s been bought.
5. Find Out the Current Value of the Site
After you have done your check and verified that the website does not have problems that may affect it in the future, you may then make the owners an offer.
Sometimes, the owners of virtual real estate may already have a price in mind, so the bargain may begin from there.
At the same time, the owners may not give a price, so you will have to make them an offer.
Don’t value it too low.
You may start at two-thirds of what you think of its value. Then the negotiation will go from there.
You will have to consider while negotiating, some facts you now know about the website like the type of content, amount of traffic, number and quality of backlinks, any issues it may have with Google, and things you will need to put in place to get the website set and active.
6. Refurbish the Website
After purchasing the website, you have to evaluate and analyze how you can make it better.
There may be a need to redesign the site to make it more attractive and load faster.
You may also have to update the content to make it more valuable to the users.
You should research having the right keywords and other SEO strategies that you can use to drive traffic to the site.
You may wish to lookup more affiliate opportunities, get better deals, and reach out to more audiences on social media.
Then you re-activate the email list and gradually increase your clients.
If you are able to get the site active and productive, it will be easy to get a good price for it. Try and make sure the site gets lots of traffic.
7. Find Out What Is The Net Worth of Your Website?
After putting the website in order and it’s started functioning well, you will need to re-evaluate its worth even as you search for a buyer.
This is similar to what you did before you purchased it.
But a lot of things have been added to make it better, so you need to look at it again and get a new and better value than you got it for.
You can consider factors like an increase in traffic, better income sources, better SEO, current and potential profitability to help you come up with a good price for it.
8. Scout for a Buyer
You can use the website marketplace to find a buyer for your website, or simply use a broker who has a lot of contacts and can market it to his clients.
If you hire a broker, you will have to pay a commission for his service.
9. Sell and Transfer
After a buyer has been found, you will both meet to discuss and agree on the price and terms of sale.
You may get a broker to help with the negotiations or a lawyer to help with the paperwork.
You should use an escrow service to receive the payment and avoid being scammed.
Then you transfer the account and all of the deeds to the new owner.
Transfer the access to the web hosting account, domain name, and any other accounts.
Conclusion
Buying and selling websites is an online business you can make a lot of profit from.
However, you will need to research a little on the sites and also invest your time and money to give it a good outlook.
You will have to be patient as you scout for buyers, so you can get good value for it.
