Selling a website

[happymamma]

Hello,

I have an online shop at the moment. To be honest due to a string of different circumstances i have never been able to put the work into this business to make it a success. It has only ever turned over a few hundered pounds. I was planning to run this website alongside my employment. I have now decided to purue a different career and can't see me ever having the time to give to the online shop. I was wondering whether it would be feasible for me to sell the website. I am not very clued up about websites (perhaps another flaw in my original plan :rolleyes:) so have no clue about how this would work, how i would value the site, advertise it and the technical aspects of hainding it over to someone else.

Any advice on this would be most gratefully received.

Many thanks.

[Ampheon]

It really depends on the quality of the site you are selling, the competitiveness of the market and your product, and of course if there are any buyers out there. Ultimately, if someone can set up a site as good as or better than yours, and get it to an equivalent place in the market as cheaply as you are selling then it wouldn't be worthwhile them buying your business.

What's the web address?

[zigojacko]

Are you able to sell anything else with the website? Existing stock, supplier contacts etc

There are many websites out there that allow you to submit your business website and people bid on your business.

[fisicx]

Also consider that potential customers will want to see traffic figures and revenue. A very rough rule of thumb is to mulitply the annual income by 3 and that's about the value of the site. On the other hand if its a very niche product you could increase the value based on potential sales but that's going to need a very smooth sales talk.

[Scootek]

What is the website? What are you selling on the website?

[martin001]

Websites can sell if they are worth buying. I can remember selling www.cheekyflirt.com (http://www.cheekyflirt.com) for £85,000 back in June 2007 - Happy days. It only took me 18 months from idea to selling it, and it made me £3k a month in that period!

Whats the site you're selling?

[martin001]

Could I also add though, that a lot of people will say,for instance, that you value a website by "10 times its month profit" or " this x this = this etc", to be honest, that's just not how it works.

Your business is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

For instance, you may have lots of traffic, but I may recoginse I can service your clients better., or you may have a great product that I know my customers would buy, etc etc,.

You'll need to open up a bit more and tell people about the site.

When I sold mine I hated revealing information. Non disclosure agreements mean nothing either, because the interested parties dont intend to 'disclose it' to anyone, but may just want to use it as a blueprint for themselves, it was still valuable information that I had to reveal in order to court buyers.

Your site, with the greatest respect, might not be on such a scale, but nonetheless, may have value to someone.

Hope that helps. - I've done it, and proved that great things can happen, all beit in the glory days of just 3 years ago when everyone had lots of money to spend on such things!

[dots and spots Jeff]

It might be worth having a look around Flippa (http://flippa.com/) to see what sites are selling for.

[happymamma]

Hi and thank-you for all of the replies. Ok here's the info.

I had another id on here under the business name but changed it because i wasn't sure whether i should 'reveal' myself if you like in discussing this but here goes!!

The website is the green dog company. I sell eco friendly, natural dog products. The products shown on the site at the moment are not all of the products that i have been selling but are what is currently in stock as i haven't replaced things that have gone out of stock while i have been deciding what to do. I do have a very small amount of stock i could sell with the site and some promotional stuff - flyers and a large banner.

The site was set up 2 years ago having done quite a lot or research and found people to be very interested. I went part time at work to set up the business. However, by the time i set up the site the credit crunch hit and it seemed to be too much of a luxury item. I did quite well selling at local dog shows and the like but the website was quite slow. I was then asked to go back to my full time hours at work on a temporary basis which i did but this meant i couldnt give the business the time and effort it needed. The website has been ticking over and taking a few hundred pounds a year but i really genuinely do think it could do better. I don't think i have enough knowledge about promoting websites etc to make this work well enough to continue with it when i have other plans that will take up alot of my time over the next few months. The other issue is that there is a limited number of suppliers of the things i sell in the uk. There are a huge amount of products in the states and importing from there is not something i have explored due to the 'greenness' of this but it may be something that someone else is willing to consider.

[martin001]

I had a quick look at your site, which looks nice.

I don't have a dog, but can I say like the dog-poo bags for the sense they aren't see-through! - I know it's off on a tangent, but hats off to those who pick the stuff up, but I dont really want to walk past someone swinging a see-thorugh bag of dog crap when I've just ate my breakfast!

[admagic]

Also consider that potential customers will want to see traffic figures and revenue. A very rough rule of thumb is to mulitply the annual income by 3 and that's about the value of the site. On the other hand if its a very niche product you could increase the value based on potential sales but that's going to need a very smooth sales talk.


Even passive earning sites are changing hands between 6 months - 1 year of income - 3 years is way over the odds.

[happymamma]

Just to add i also have a couple of extras i could sell with the business such as postage scales, huge roll of biodegradable bubble wrap, professional light tent and lights for photographing products.

Could anyone suggest a reputable site for me to advertise the website on?
Also as i am concerned that my lack of knowledge in this area could see me getting ripped off! Is there anything i need to be aware of when selling? What would be the normal process once i have found a potential buyer??

Thanks again for all your help.

[martin001]

If you chose a reputable site to sell on, they should have systems like Escrow in place to ensure fairness and honesty, personally, the last bit I let go is the domain name, the rest I can live without, but until I am entirely satisfied I dont let it go.

In a shop, you take the money before you let the goods go, and I dont see it as any different when selling a website.

[JamieM]

Even passive earning sites are changing hands between 6 months - 1 year of income - 3 years is way over the odds.

I think (hope) fisicx means 3 years net profit so a passive income site would be slightly different from a regular ecommerce site.

[alanc]

@happymamma
I have passed this thread on to a friend who retails in the same sector and may be interested in your website. They should contact you directly.

[MASSEY]

I'm torn when I see this website, and the product. I think the fact you have made a couple hundred etc won't really add much to your value, when some one buys this they will be buying an ok site the stock and a pretty niche idea. That's my opinion anyway.

Mamma would you be interested in revealing your exact profit from the site in the time it's been going, also the unique visitors to the site, and how much you spent on the site?

This forum could be the best way to Market it :-)

[happymamma]

Thanks for all the really helpful comments so far.

I have had a couple of people contact me directly so far interested in the site but still don't have a price to give them - perhaps the way forward is to be open to offers and see what sort of offers i get??

alanc thank-you your friend did contact me.

I will try to bullet point the information i have been asked for and anything i think is relevant here.


I am selling;

The website
The logo supplied in various formats
Biodegradable postage materials - postage bags and bubble wrap (exact amount to be confirmed)
Remaining small amount of stock (value to be confirmed)
professional light tent and lights for photographing products
postage scales
promotional flyers (number to be confirmed but approx 1000)
promotional colour banner (10ftx2ft)

I will also provide contact details of current suppliers
I have stocked a range of dog coats, beds, grooming products, food, treats, collars and leads, herbal supplements and poobags.
On average i make 50-60% profit on all of the items i sell but i sell most things at less than rrp and don't but in large enough quantities to get the best price so there is certainly scope to improve on this.
I buy all of my products from uk suppliers to be as green as possible, there is a huge range of products avaliable in the states if someone was interested in doing this so further potential opportunities there.
The business as a whole has not made a profit. I however have put very litte effort into it and wasted money early on buying unneccessary things and to large quantities of stock that simply went out of date and was wasted, that along with trial and error of booking stands at some expensive shows and taking very little (beginning of credit crunch) meant my outgoings were far more than they should have been.
I sell at local dog shows etc and have had more success there but i'm sure that this is down to my lack of experience and knowledge about websites. I have had really positive feedback at these shows with people being very enthusiastic about the products and the concept.
The website has taken £1151 since Feb 08. This is with very minimal advertising.
The website currently has 87 unique customers
The website and logo design cost me £998 2 years ago.
I then pay;

£60 for one years shop license and support
£65 for one years hosting
£25 for SSL certificate
This was all paid in January
Plus domain registration of £6.94 for 2 years which was paid in November for next 2 years

Anything i've missed?? I've been totally honest here and genuinely think this is a great opportunity for someone with more time, commitment and experience than me!

[happymamma]

Updating my last post


Biodegradable postage materials - 370 eco postage bags and large roll of bubble wrap
Remaining small amount of stock (wholesale value £560, rrp value £1140, potential profit £580)
promotional flyers (approx 550)

[AberdeenNicky]

Happymamma you might want to consider trying to sell your site on Flippa dot com

It's amazing what people pay good money for on there, and the fact that you have a good looking site and a definite business means you could do well.

:)

[RFQPro]

HappyMamma you have a great looking site. I have found locating and contacting potential end users a good approach to selling a website. ie...If you have an finance site finding a bank or financial institution to buy it. In your case, drafting an e-mail and contacting other pet supply stores or related entities might result in achieving a better ROI ...they understand the business, may have other products to add and promote on the existing portal.

Flippa and other forums like Sitepoint, Namepros, DN forum, Digital Point, Warrior all have ways to sell websites....some charge for listing and some are free! Good luck!

[storagewoman]

Its a good website. If you wanted to carry it on then we could help you. We help small businesses expand by taking care of their stock. We store the goods, process the orders for you and pick pack and dispatch them. It means you can concentrate on whatever else you want to do and still earn money and not have to worry about stock in your house, going to post office taking orders. We take care of it.
Its just a thought!

Lucy

[cantfindanythingleft]

Hi,

I think your best bet will be listing it at auction, as it should fetch a fair price and be sold in days, especially if you can show some revenue.

For quality, (e.g. a decent ratio of sites with revenue in excess of $50 pcm and .com, .net or .co.uk domains) the following sites rank in the following order:

1) Flippa.com

2) Digital Point (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=52) - (can be intimidating for beginners)

3) www.warriorforum.com - (can be intimidating for beginners)

4) FlipFilter.com (http://www.flipfilter.com) (they have an app to 'push' your site listing to all the various marketplaces but I think you need a Beta login to use it at the moment)

You could also try smaller newer sites

1) Webmasters Market Place

2) Website Broker (valuations can be a little on the ridiculous side though!)

3) Sitedeal.org


For statistical commentary and figures to help you research before you sell, you can also try

1) Flipwebsites.com

2) Flippa's Tags Report Page (find a link through their blog)

3) http://www.Flippingawesome.com

4) http://www.FlipFilter.com/blog

We've sold sites in the past and realised there is a lot of crap to wade through, so I hope this info helps!!

[Clinton]

The business as a whole has not made a profit.
Then you've given people a good reason to not buy it. It's not a business if it hasn't made a profit. I'm sorry if this comes across as harsh - and it seems to differ from the advice that most people here are offering you - but my take is that it's worthless. Drop the dead donkey.

You had a concept, you tried to make it profitable. You failed. Now you want to convince somebody else that they can make a profit from it. Why should they believe you? It doesn't matter how pretty the site is, if it's not viable it's not viable.

The website has taken £1151 since Feb 08. This is with very minimal advertising.
Sellers often think that lack of advertising is a plus. "See how much I made without advertising and imagine how much more you can make if you advertised". It doesn't work like that. If you haven't advertised you have no proof that advertising is profitable, that it actually costs less than the profit it generates.

I track what sells and what doesn't sell and have written this article (http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/web-site-valuation-guide) on valuing websites. You could get lucky and get a few quid for your site but you'll likely just be throwing good money after bad (it costs money to list at Flippa).

[MASSEY]

Worse case mamma, I'll gi ya £400 for the site ;)

[Clinton]

That's a very good offer, I suggest you grab it.

And if you have a guaranteed fallback price of £400 I would suggest it's worth spending $19 to see how much your site will fetch at competitive auction in somewhere like Flippa.

[steviemac]

stick it on flippa. However be prepared to get offered only a smallish amount. Website buyers are savvy, all that ' great potential' stuff doesn't really wash. There are numerous sites end up unsold there everyday.

[jim_gold]

Hi happymamma, you can list the business or website for sale for free at www.bizsale.co.uk

[happymamma]

Sorry for disappearing there for a while - i was struck down by some horrible lurgy! All better now though and i am thinking about everything that has been said here and the best way forward with this.

MASSEY if i do decide to sell are you seriously interested??

[Batra Ventures UK Limited]

I still cant locate the website in question.

[propertybillionaire]

http://www.thegreendogcompany.co.uk/

[14A]

@propertybillionaire
Could you remove the website address please, I think the OP didnt want to give it due to search engines picking this topic up.

[MASSEY]

@propertybillionaire
Could you remove the website address please, I think the OP didnt want to give it due to search engines picking this topic up.

She didnt insert it because she only has 8 posts so can not place the link,..

[14A]

Ah, my mistake then, sorry

[happymamma]

Thanks for all of the interest and messages. Just to put it out there i am looking for £1500 to include everything detailed in this thread. If anyone is interested or would like more details about anything please let me know. I will now look at advertising this.

Thanks very much for all of the very helpful information and advise.

[sirearl]

Even passive earning sites are changing hands between 6 months - 1 year of income - 3 years is way over the odds.

I suspect this very much depends on the type of site and the way it is earning its money in terms of how much work is involved , how long the site has been producing its income and its potential.

I would not dream of selling a site for 3 x its yearly income owing to the nature of the business's e.t.c.:eek:

Earl

[guscat]

Whoever buys it, tell them to list it on thewoofbook.co.uk! We can get a banner on our homepage etc...:)