Handing over a website isn’t overly complicated. Once a price has been agreed upon and paid, it’s a simple matter of handing over access to all its related accounts. If your website is even moderately successful and you have a little patience, selling your affiliate website shouldn’t be a problem.
In this article, you’ll learn how selling a website works and how to decide if you should do it. Then we’ll talk about how to sell your affiliate website, including how to price it. Let’s get to it!
Do People Really Sell Their Affiliate Websites (And Should You)?
Yes, people absolutely sell their affiliate sites. Whether you should sell yours is a maybe. Websites are like any other property, in the sense you can hand them over to someone else in exchange for something you want.
Hundreds of websites exchange hands every day on dedicated website sales platforms. First, you put a site up for sale. Your listing explains its assets. Alternatively, you find a private buyer. Once you agree on a final sale price, and you have the option to use an escrow service to oversee the transaction itself. Platforms such as Empire Flippers and Flippa take care of the entire listing and handover process for you in exchange for a fee.
However, should you try to sell your own site? Here’s a quick list of questions to help you determine if it’s a good idea in your case:
- Do you have enough time to put in the necessary work for your website?
- Are you still enthusiastic about your niche or producing new content for it?
- Do you feel excited about maybe focusing on a new project instead?
- Do you feel like your earnings have plateaued?
If your answer was yes for most of those questions, it’s time consider selling your affiliate blog. Take your time deciding. Selling a website is a permanent move, and it may be that you just need a break from it before you launch back into growing it with renewed vigor.
Another alternative is to outsource some of your work to other freelance writers. This only works if your site is already making a decent income, though – since good freelance writers aren’t cheap. However, this approach enables you to retain the property without having to deal with the bulk of the work yourself.
Once you decide to sell your affiliate blog, it’s time to talk numbers!
How to Price Your Affiliate Blog
When selling a business, there’s a recurring formula that holds true for most fields. You take your earnings over a specific period, average them, and then use a multiplier. Something like this, for example:
[Average profit over 3-12 months] x (Your multiplier) = Your initial listing price.
If you think that’s a bit vague, you’re correct. Many factors go into a website’s valuation. For example, you might have a site that nets you $500 per month in earnings but has only been around for six months. Chances are no one will want to touch it despite its earnings, because it hasn’t been around long enough to establish itself.
The longer a website’s been around, the higher its multiplier should be. Empire Flippers, for example, only accept sites with at least six months of proven earnings. However, their multipliers start at 20, so even websites netting a few hundred per month can sell per thousands of dollars. Using their base formula, a website with a proven track record of earning $500 per month would start at about $10,000.
It’s often not worth selling an affiliate website that’s under a year old. Most affiliate projects take several months to get off the ground and those first few months without earnings will drag your average income down. Once you pick up some steam, stick with the project until it stabilizes and then you can start kicking tires to see if there’s any interest in buying it.
When you’re sure your website is ready to sell, you can see if there’s any interest in it among other people in your niche. After all, chances are some of them would be happy to take it off your hands so they can corner the niche. On the other hand, if you’d rather use a service to take care of finding clients for you and negotiating the best possible price, Empire Flippers seems like the best choice out there.
What to Do After Selling Your Affiliate Website
Ideally, you should have a plan in place for what you’ll do after selling your affiliate website. If everything goes smoothly, you should have a nice little nest egg on your hands and a lot more free time. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions on how to make the most out of your new circumstances:
- Put part of the sale’s earnings towards a safety net that can cover your expenses anywhere from three to six months.
- Get to work on a new affiliate website, preferably in a niche you feel passionate about, to avoid burnout.
- Find new freelance writing clients through the Paid to Blog Jobs board if you’re not ready to start a new project on your own.
In any case, if you were able to create an affiliate website and grow it from nothing successfully, then you have a precious skill set in your hands, so don’t let it go to waste.
Conclusion
Selling an affiliate website isn’t a decision to be made lightly. You need to be sure that you’re done with it before you hand it over, so you don’t regret your decision down the road. Price also plays an important factor since you don’t want to let it go for too cheap.
A good rule of thumb for pricing your website is to take your average earnings for at least the last three months and multiply them by twelve. The longer it’s been around for and the more money it makes, the more you can ask for it. For the best possible results, you’ll want to use a reputable broker, such as Empire Flippers.
Do you have any questions about how to sell your affiliate website? Ask away in the comments section below!
Image credit: Pixabay.