How To Buy And Sell Websites Profitably
You’ve probably seen plenty of stories of people that bought websites for a few hundred dollars and then sold them for five or even six figures after building some traffic and a loyal audience.
While this kind of success certainly doesn’t happen overnight, it is quite feasible to buy a website, improve it, and sell it for a profit.
Many businesses are happy to spend six figures purchasing blogs and websites rather than building their own simply because they prefer to trade money for time to win a larger market share quickly.
Therefore, if you can grow the blog to a sizable following of readers that trust the website, selling it is relatively easy.
Here is a step by step guide on how you can buy and sell websites profitably.
Where to Find Websites and Selecting Niches
Finding websites to buy is relatively easy. You can go to Flippa and browse thousands of websites for sale. However, you can also use Google to find blogs in an industry you’re passionate about and reach out to the site owner asking if they’d consider selling it.
When you’re browsing various niches, focus on evergreen niches, such as beauty, health, and travel. Some examples of blogs that aren’t evergreen might include a Christmas blog, a blog on the 2020 Olympics, etc.
Additionally, if you can find a niche that’s steadily trending upwards, you’ll be in a great position. For example, one case study showed how an SEO found a food blogging website when the niche was on the rise. He purchased it for roughly $42,000 and later sold it for about $225,000 in 410 days just by improving the SEO and leveraging affiliates.
How to Evaluate a Website
Once you’ve found a few blogs in your niche, evaluate how much they are worth. Here are a few things to consider when analyzing how much a website is worth:
- Design and technical work
- Blog content and backlink value
- Readership loyalty
- Monthly income
Design work is expensive, and if the previous owner invested a lot in quality design, expect to pay more for it. Additionally, if they’ve invested in some SEO, like link building, site speed optimization, quality content, and more, the price will be higher regardless of how much the website makes.
Neil Patel frequently the example of when he bought a blog that made zero dollars per month for $500,000 simply because of the content. That blog also had beautifully designed images and graphics that were also quite expensive, and the SEO quality was exceptional.
Finally, monthly income does play a role in how much a website is worth. Most websites with average SEO, design work, and content are priced at about 12 or 18 times their monthly income. For example, if the monthly income is $200, the average price would probably be between $24,000 and $36,000. You should also take into account how many of the sales are through paid ads versus organic traffic. If it’s mostly paid, realize that you’ll lose these sales as soon as the ads are turned off.
You can also reach out to a brokerage firm to appraise the website, though be sure that they have industry experience. Talking with other friends in the industry is also useful as they can help you compare to other privately sold websites in the industry.
Create a Plan to Improve The Website
After narrowing down your options, think about how you can improve the website. If your end goal is to resell the website for a profit, purchasing one that is already very strong could make it more difficult to grow. For example, you might need to employ more people and use additional resources just to maintain the current status.
Ideally, you should look for websites that have a decent amount of traffic yet few blog posts per month. If the design is poor and they have minimal SEO, those are also areas you can improve, though it will cost money.
Also, look at the total addressable market (TAM). If the website has significantly bigger competitors, that’s a good sign. It means it has a high demand with plenty of room to grow.
Sell The Website
Once you’ve purchased the website, implemented these changes, and given it time to grow, it might be worth considerably more. To sell it, you can reverse engineer the first steps by posting it on a website like Flippa or work directly with a brokerage company.
If you decide to sell it privately, be sure to have everything in writing and consider talking with a lawyer and other website sellers to ensure both parties are one hundred percent clear.
Start Your Journey
Buying and selling a website is very different from buying and selling a car. It requires a lot of dedication, and even after you fix design issues and begin a content marketing program, it will take some time for it to start making money. Consider joining Facebook groups and other communities of people that have experience with buying and selling websites. If you put in the effort and treat it like a business, you’ll be well on your way to selling websites profitably.
About the Author
Max Emelianov started HostForWeb in 2001. In his role as HostForWeb’s CEO, he focuses on teamwork and providing the best support for his customers while delivering cutting-edge web hosting services.