Featured Listings

  • Website Vaulation Tools

    • Posted By: Mubashar
    • In: Advice
    • On: June 7th, 2008

    If you’re looking to sell a website, just how much can you expect to get for it? Or if you’re buying, how can you make sure you’re not paying too much.

    These tools can help you figure out just how much your website is worth:

    • WebSiteBroker : Website Valuation Tool
      http://www.websitebroker.com/valuation.php

      The Website Valuation Calculator can help with the process of determining the value of an existing website. The calculator will base it’s calculations on the information you provide it. Good, accurate information will naturally produce better results.

    • CyberWyre
      http://www.cwire.org/website-value-calculator/

      Provides estimates based only on criteria available to the domain name; It does not provide a value of the company behind the website

    As the disclaimers on the tools make clear, these valuation don’t really mean much, but they can give you a rough ballpark of the value.

    These articles provide some valuable tips on website valuation techniques:

  • Domain Name Background Check

    • Posted By: Mubashar
    • In: Advice
    • On: June 6th, 2008

    Useful post over at Search Engine Journal by Ann Smarty, covering some simple checks you can run on a domain name before buying to avoid potential problems.

    Read: Run a Domain Name Background Check Before Buying

  • 9 Lessons From Real Estate That Can Be Applied to Selling Websites

    • Posted By: steven
    • In: Advice
    • On: June 5th, 2008

    Home For SaleHome improvement and real estate investment shows are very popular on TV these days. I often enjoy watching the experts show every day people how they can make small changes to their home that will have a huge impact on the value of their home.

    Selling a website is like selling real estate in many ways. If you’re preparing to sell a website you may want to consider some of the lessons that can be learned from real estate experts.

    Curb Appeal Counts

    One of the most important factors in selling a house is creating an immediate reaction from the potential buyer. A house that has curb appeal will create a strong first impression from the street that will draw the potential buyer inside.

    Selling a website can also be much easier if the potential buyer has a positive first impression based upon the appearance of your website. You’ll need to take into consideration the curb appeal factor of your website. With real estate and with websites, curb appeal will rarely seal the deal, but it can have a huge impact on the potential buyer’s mentality throughout the process.

    Houses need to use curb appeal to stand out from others in the neighborhood that are for sale. Websites can benefit by doing the same thing.

    Be Prepared to Negotiate

    Selling a website is much like selling a house in that you will most likely need to negotiate with potential buyers. You may be fortunate enough to get your full asking price, but typically you’ll get some offers that you’ll have to consider. It’s a good idea to anticipate this and have in mind what you will be willing to accept and what you will not be willing to accept. If you get an offer that seems too low, don’t be afraid to make a counter offer somewhere between your asking price and the original offer.

    Think About the Buyer’s Interests, Not Your Own

    If you are doing some remodeling on a house in effort to get it ready to sell, you’ll typically want to keep things conservative, such as painting with neutral colors rather than something bright. Because everyone has different taste in what they like in a house, you need to keep your decisions suited to common opinions and avoid extremes. At this time you need to forget about the style that you would like for your own house, and think about what the potential buyer is most likely to appreciate.

    The same concept can be applied to selling a website. As the owner of the site you may have strong feelings about a particular aspect of the site, but the buyer’s opinion is more important. Try to take your own feelings out of the equation as much as possible to focus on what the buyer wants to see.

    Spend Wisely

    Real estate investing involves spending money to make money. You may invest in a remodeled kitchen or bathroom that can drastically improve the overall value of the home. On the other hand, you could also pour a lot of money into upgrades that are unlikely to bring a solid return on the investment.

    When you are preparing to sell your website you may want to consider what types of expenses could improve the value of your site. If you site is old and looks out-of-date, you may be able to get a good ROI by getting the site redesigned before selling. Before you invest much money into preparing for the sale, take some time to consider how it will affect the final selling price and determine if the expense is justified.

    DIY at Your Own Risk

    Many real estate investors make the mistake of having an overly aggressive Do-It-Yourself approach in attempt to save some money. Have you ever seen a TV show where the investor tries to do plumbing or electrical work without much knowledge in those areas? Sometimes they wind up doing more harm than good, and then they have to hire a professional anyway.

    If you’re trying to prepare your website for a sale, be sure that anything you take on yourself is something that you can do effectively. If you think your site needs a redesign before being put up for sale, don’t attempt to design the site yourself if it is not one of your strengths.

    Find the Right Agent

    When it comes to buying and selling houses, a quality real estate agent is critical. Most website owners sell their site themselves, but where you list the sale of the site can have a similar impact. There are a number of different places where you can list a website to be sold (Most-Listed, SitePoint Marketplace, BuySellWebsite, Website Broker).

    In addition to finding the right place to sell your site, there is also the option to use a broker, which is more common for high-priced sales. Of course, much like with real estate, you could always try the for-sale-by-owner route and see if you can make the sale by contacting people you know or those that may be interested rather than posting the sale somewhere like SitePoint.

    There is no right or wrong approach to selling your website. You’ll simply need to look at the pros and cons of your different options and base your decision accordingly.

    Staging Counts

    Furnished houses tend to sell much better than empty houses. Some real estate investors will even bring in furniture simply to stage the house even though no one will be living there. The staging helps potential buyers to see the house as a true home. Without the staging it can seem impersonal and they may have a harder time picturing themselves living in the house.

    Make an attempt to put the potential buyer of your website in ownership mentally. Show them the potential of your site and get them to feel like they are already there.

    Know Their Buying Triggers

    Most home buyers tend to buy on emotion. Something about a particular house causes them to fall in love, and they just don’t want to live anywhere else.

    Website buyers are less likely to buy on emotion and more likely to buy for financial or business reasons. Knowing what triggers the buying decision, give them what they want to see. If you think the buyer will be triggered by business factors, don’t focus on how long it took you to build the site or how much your visitors like the design. Rather, focus on numbers and the details of how much the site makes for its owner.

    Location, Location, Location

    We’ve all heard the three most important factors for determining the value of real estate. Unfortunately, there’s really nothing you can do to improve the location of real estate that you currently own.

    With websites location is still a critical factor, but it’s much different than with real estate. The website’s location is determined by factors like its domain name and the inbound links to the site. If your site has a strong, valuable domain name, it’s essentially the same thing as having a great location for real estate.

    Fortunately, with websites there are some things you can do to improve the location. Links are like roads that lead visitors to your website. If you can build quality and quantity of inbound links coming to your site, it’s essentially the same as building a new road that leads directly to a piece of real estate. Getting links from large, respected sites can have the same impact as building a major road that drops people off right at your store.

    What’s Your Opinion?

    What similarities do you see in selling a website and selling real estate?