If you are looking for information on how to sell a website, let me start off by saying congratulations. You are not the norm (but in a good way).

For some reason, most online entrepreneurs fail to consider the eventual sale of their business, and the fact that you’re even researching this topic shows that you’re thinking with the right mindset. Mindset is important, and it is also one of the hardest things to teach. You’re off to a good start.

If you own a website and it’s not for your own personal enjoyment, take some notes.

Like most everything, when it comes to selling a website there is a right way to do it and a wrong way. Unfortunately, 95% of website sellers do it the wrong way, and my goal is to make sure you don’t make these same mistakes (Of course, this can be to your advantage when buying websites. Keep that in mind).

It can be the difference between selling your website for 10x earnings or 40x earnings, so it’s critically important that you learn the right way to sell a website. To learn the process behind selling websites for the highest price, I want to do things a little different. I want to teach you…

How NOT To Sell A Website

Site after site will talk about the “window dressing” things you can do to prepare your site for sale, but what they don’t teach you are the costly mistakes most website sellers make during this process. We’re going to cover the more common mistakes here, and hopefully this will keep you from doing the same. You ready? Pen and paper in hand? Let’s begin.

Don’t Sell When The Business Is Declining

The word that comes to mind here is panic. If you start to see some unflattering numbers related to your traffic, sales levels, or income, selling the website should be the last thing you do, but regretfully it’s what most sellers think of first.

You have to think about it from the buyer’s point of view.

If you were looking to buy your own site, would the decrease in business make you excited and willing to pay a decent multiple? Probably not. Would it place questions of doubt about the longevity of the site and its future potential? Absolutely.

If your online business is going through a dry spell, don’t give in to the thought in your head that says, “Time to exit” because the price you might get (and might is the important word) will pale in comparison to the multiple you could fetch if the business was on a more stable ground, or…gasp…actually increasing in traffic and income.

Take real estate for example. If a house is in foreclosure, what is the first thought a prospective buyer has? They expect to get a good deal because of the circumstances that caused the house to enter foreclosure: the owner is being forced out.

Selling a website when your business is declining is like telling the buyer that you’re in trouble. While I would never say to lie or exaggerate anything, it’s important to be mindful of the perception you create by doing this.

Don’t Sell With Short Income History

When looking at buying a website, nothing turns me off more than when the seller says the site is making $4000/month, but it’s only been online for one month! What?? How can you expect any legitimate buyer to give that a second thought.

You all but guarantee the site will sell for a fraction of what it could sell for if you had at least 8 – 12 months of data.

While it might seem like an opportune time to unload a site after it’s first month (that happens to be a good month), keep in mind that the potential buyer will have nothing to base the sustainability of the “business” with only 30 days of data.

TIP: Also consider tax advantages/dis-advantages to selling within the first year especially if you are not the original owner. With higher priced deals, the tax savings or tax cost alone can be tens of thousands of dollars. Talk with your accountant or attorney about each specific case, but capital gains (at least now) are much lower then your personal or business tax rate.

Don’t Sell To Poor Markets (some websites won’t sell)

If you’ve taken the time to build a site around basket weaving, poured your heart and soul into it, then go to sell and wonder why you can not find a buyer, you’ve most likely committed this common seller mistake. This is more of a cautionary tale to those building websites, but if you build a site in a niche where there is little demand or no way to monetize it, don’t expect a big payday when the time comes to sell.

The Bottom Line: Don’t expect to get top dollar for some obscure niche that has no growth potential, and if you are buying a website to resell later, make sure you pick a good, healthy market.

Don’t Sell Websites That Are Illegal

Before you think this is obvious, I’ve got two words for you: celebrity and lyrics.

If you don’t own the copyright to celebrity pictures or music lyrics, you can’t put them on a website. If you then go and try to sell that website, well then you’re just asking for all sorts of trouble.

If you do sell a website with illegal content, you are still legally responsible for that material since you put it there in the first place. And don’t think for a second that your buyer won’t point the finger right back to you if they get sued (by suing you as well).

Make sure whatever you put on your website is 100% your own or within your rights to publish and ultimately sell. This is yet another reason why using proper legal agreements is critical when buying and selling websites.

Don’t Follow “Conventional Wisdom”

When it comes to selling a website, this is one time you want to fight the urge to follow the typical website selling crowd, and without giving away all the secrets, the best method to sell is not using an auction format or a classified ad. I talk a good bit more about selling websites the right way in the training class.

Don’t Sell A Website Without Using Legal Agreements

Make sure that no matter what you always use legal agreements when selling a website. You want to clearly spell out what is being sold, what the buyer is receiving, what your obligation is to them (if any), and any potential gray area of problem that may arise. The more detail the better.

As part of our training program, we give you 3 sample contracts and legal agreements that were custom created for buying and selling websites.

Whatever you do, don’t be afraid to use legal agreements and non-disclosures. They are there to protect both you and the buyer (and this will also signify to a buyer your seriousness and professionalism regarding your business – a seller who has dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s is a reassurance to any buyer).

Don’t Sell Websites With Paypal

As the website seller, you want to make sure and accept the right type of payment for your website, and that means NO PAYPAL. PayPal is fine for deposits, or a small down payment (less than $2,000), but you should never accept PayPal as payment for your website.

If the site you are selling is a few hundred dollars this is not as big a deal, but if you are selling a website for $5,000 or more and you accept PayPal as the payment, you better be prepared to get ripped off.

The reason for that is that if someone pays you with PayPal or a credit card, once you transfer the domain and content to them, all they have to do is file a chargeback on their card and they can get their money back. You, on the other hand, are in the unfortunate position of being out the website and the money!

This is why you always want to use a wire service, escrow.com, or certified cashier checks for handling the transaction.

Don’t Transfer Domain Before Receipt Of Funds

Finally, you should never transfer the domain or ownership to the site before full receipt of funds. Once you transfer the domain, there is no way to get it back. So if someone wants to give you 50% of the purchase price up front, then they want you to transfer the domain name, don’t do it. There is a chance you will never see the other half of the money.

But We’re Just Getting Started. Discover What Else You Will Learn About Selling Websites With BASW

I hope you have learned something with the 8 seller mistakes listed above. This should save you both time and money when it comes time to selling your website. If you’re interested in learning even more about selling websites like a pro, there is still a lot more to learn. Things like…

What types of sites do buyers want to buy?

Ways to fix up websites that you bought.

Where to sell your websites.

When to use a broker.

How to collect money from buyers.

How to transfer ownership to new owners.

How long it takes to sell a website.

What kind of buyer should you be looking for?

Should you consider owner financing/taking payments?

How long to hold a site before selling it and why.

Explain the various taxes associated with selling websites.

When it comes to selling websites, there will always be demand for quality. There is never a shortage of website buyers, they’re just looking for good websites to buy. Any good investor understands that the majority of the web is filled with junk, and to find quality, they’ll have to search for it.

Since we know the quality websites sell, that leads us to the million dollar question – or perhaps the multi-million dollar question: How does one build a quality website?

I’m so glad you asked! NEXT: How To Build (Profitable) Websites

Like what you’ve seen so far? Join BASW today! Here are 10 Good Reasons.