Flippa.com can be a little bit daunting when you first try to use the website. So many options, so many websites for sale. What is the best way to navigate Flippa.com in order to sell your blog for a great price? In order to reap solid profits from your hard work as the webmaster of your own website, you need to do your homework ahead of time.
In this first post (of two) we offer some top tips on how to successfully sell your website on the Flippa website marketplace:
1. Do not try to sell if you are not making good money with your website
Many Internet Marketers try putting together a website (or paying someone else by outsourcing the task) and then list the site on Flippa to make a quick killing. Usually, they claim the site is “not making much right now, but has the potential to earn $500 a month with not much work”. Get real!
Buyers are smart enough to understand that if the site was a diamond in the rough, you would not be selling it. You would hold it, polish it up, get it cut, and then sell it for a healthy mark-up. So it is with a website that can be easily turned around and sold for an increased price.
Look to be earning a minimum of $50 a month and ideally well into the three figures before putting a site up for sale. The higher the income and the older the site is, the more attractive it will be.
2. Add Google Analytics for tracking
Buyers want to see reliable analytics that they can trust, to verify true traffic levels. Now that Google Analytics processes in real-time, this is even better.
The further back the tracking goes, the more helpful the data will be. Only being able to show a couple of months really does not indicate whether the traffic is steady, increasing, or falling over time. This is crucial information for a prospective buyer.
3. Improve Your Flippa Trust Rating
The Flippa Trust rating has an impact on what auctions the buyers are willing to bid on. You can push up your trust rating by verifying your identity, your phone number, or your address.
4. Auction Length Less Than 10 Days
The great majority of sellers opt to list a site for 30-60 days. This may be a good practice with eBay, but with Flippa this drags out the auction and can turn people off. With most auctions, only ones that are set to expire soon will get a lot of attention, therefore keeping your listing short will generate more interest and activity.
5. Try a Low Reserve Price
If you set a low reserve price, but the minimum bid is set at a good but not excessive level, then this will create some attention. A notice will show on the listing to say that the reserve price has been met once at least one bid has been received. This can make for some excitement with the bidding.
6. Don’t Be Greedy with the BIN
Price multiples for sites vary from a few months of income for sites that are only a few months old to site owners looking for 36-60 months of income before they will sell.
Sometimes the Buy It Now price is astounding for what is on offer and only a fool would buy at that price.
Your BIN needs to be set at a premium to what you think you might get from an auction – so the buyer pays a modest premium to avoid the auction process & snatch up your website – but not so much more than it is off-putting. Striking a balance is important here.
7. Be Sensible With Your Description
A lot of the descriptions on Flippa are written like a sales letter for the latest medical miracle eBook product sold on Clickbank. Serious buyers are looking to buy a web property from someone they can trust, who owns a site that offers value to the website buyer and their site visitors too. Too much hype kills any trust you could have built up.
8. Respond to Comments
Regular site buyers will post comments to request more information for a site they are interested in. Take those comments seriously. They are not anonymous blog visitors posting a spammy comment, but instead are quite likely to be an interested potential buyer and should be treated as such.
9. Know Your Reason For Selling
One of the most common questions when buying anything second-hand is, “Why are you selling?”. You need to have a good answer ready for this question.
If you own too many sites, say so. If you have new commitments which reduced your available hours, mention them. Other site owners know the pressures of owning too many sites.
10. Find Likely Buyers
If you find other auctions offering similar sites or sites with the same kind of income or traffic levels, see if there are comments from active Flippa users who might also be interested in your own site.
Shoot them over a private message and ask if they might be interested in viewing your auction? Mention the specifics for why you thought they might be a good match for your listing, so your inquiry is well received.