While there are places and avenues other than Flippa that you can use for buying and selling a website (for example using a web broker, another auction site, etc.), this post will deal with the best tips that you can use to sell a website through Flippa. Just as well really seeing as this site is flippasecrets.com, right?
I’m going to assume that you all know what Flippa is and what it does, or otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Anyway below are the best tips that I can give to a potential website seller who would like to make some money off of their website sale.
1) Sell a site that is making money
While it’s all well and good putting a site up either for the domain name or for the traffic, unless the site is making money you are not going to get much interest from buyers. Sure, it is possible that you could sell it un-monetized, but you could get a whole lot more if the site was bringing in a regular income.
As a seller you are looking for your site to be bringing in $200 a month minimum, before you should consider selling it. You should also only think about selling a site after it has made a regular income for at least 3 to 4 months. Remember keep all records of where your sites revenue has come from and how much it has earned.
2) Use Google Analytics
While there are other analytics programs out there, and you are welcome to use them, you should also make sure that your site has Goggle Analytics installed. While it doesn’t hurt to have analytics from other sources, because GA is the most commonly used, all buyers will know how to read the results as they are familiar with the layouts and the interface.
Like your financial records for the site, most buyers will want to see the GA for the last 4 months – if not longer.
3) Keep the auction to a week
A week is probably the best length that you can choose for running your auction, as you will guarantee that most Flippa buyers will see your auction within that time. By keeping the auction to a week you will also be able to create an element of urgency regarding the auction.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen auctions that have a month on them have the buyers lose interest or simply forget because there is so long before the auction is over (as many seasoned website flippers will tell you, the bidding only really starts to become serious within the last day of the auction).
4) Keep your Description professional and realistic
When writing your description, make sure that you include all of the information that you have and know about your site. It’s a good idea to have a look around at other listings before you think about writing your own description – have a look at some of the recently sold listings and see what information they included in their descriptions.
Try not to hide or lie about any of the aspects of the site (i.e. revenue, traffic, etc.) as this will reflect badly on you in any future Flippa dealings. You should also try to steer clear of talking to much about the potential of the site, as while this is of importance to a would be buyer, it’s not what you are selling.
You are selling the site in the condition it is currently, not on how much it could make. A buyer would definitely want to know why you haven’t made the most of the site if you are trying to say it has the potential to times the monthly revenue by “x”.
It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that you need to make sure that your description is checked for spelling, grammar, and typos.
5) Answer to ALL comments
No matter how detailed your description is, buyers will always have questions regarding the sale. Answer them all. Not only is this the professional way to go about it, it also helps encourage buyers to bid, as well as improve your auctions credibility. Always answer in a professional tone, and as with the description, make sure that your replies are checked for spelling, etc. before you post them.
You have the option to delete comments; however you should only do so if you have a genuine reason to do so. Buyers, while not being able to see the comment, can see that a comment was deleted and to many it can set alarm bells ringing that you may be trying to hide something.
To round up, the best way you can go about flipping a site on Flippa is to be as transparent as possible. Nothing sells better than trust.
Happy flipping.
