Selling websites is no different than selling any other product. You need the trust of your customer base, a stellar team behind you, and a great marketing strategy to keep yourself relevant in the marketplace.
It’s easy to make mistakes out there, so we’ve put together this short list of mistakes that you should avoid when selling your websites.
1. Pricing
This is an easy one to get wrong, especially if you’re new to the development world. You’ve developed a quality site, but you can’t decide how much it’s worth. It’s not hard to get lost in the numbers when you’ve spent hours developing a project.
When you’re calculating the price, it’s important to remember a few factors like your base rate, hours spent working on the project, any special instructions or processes, and whether or not you utilized an entire time to complete the project.
Once you’ve figured out your base rate, add up your hours, and be honest about it. If you spent a few hours total browsing Facebook on another tab, it’s completely unfair and quite frankly ethically unacceptable to charge your client for that time, even when it occurs during your “work hours”.
Be honest with yourself and the client about the price. If you designed what you think is a $600 website, don’t be afraid to charge what it’s worth, as long as the quality of the project reflects the price. A $600 website is not going to be a template-based WordPress site.
2. Poor Development Process = Poor Product
Your development process will reflect the quality of the final design, hands down. If you’re unorganized, late for deadlines, and not utilizing the right tools for the project, you’re going to end up with a site that’s sub-par, to say the least.
Nailing down your development process will make selling your site exponentially easier. You’ll have a quality product to stand behind, and you’ll also feel confident about what you’re selling. Let’s face it, when we do a sub-par job, we know it immediately, and the client will know as well.
Use the best tools available to you. The best wireframe tools are offered online, and there are hundreds of them available. A wireframe can mean the difference between an efficient design process and an unorganized one.
Organization and punctuality will keep your clients and your team happy, and when it comes to finally sell, a happy client is absolutely more likely to purchase the site if they’re happy with the design. The team will stand behind their work, and you’ll gain a reputation boost for providing quality services.
3. Choosing The Wrong Brokers
A website broker can be a great way to get your site listed in the right places and made available to the right people. In other words, you’re getting more exposure to potential buyers by utilizing a web broker, but choosing the wrong one can be detrimental rather than helpful.
You’ll need to look for a reliable, honest broker with a proven sales record. A broker whose reputation is irrefutable and whose results speak for themselves. When you pay for any service, you should be sure you’re getting the most out of the service for your dollar.
A website is much like a piece of real estate that’s hosted on the web. If you were using a real estate broker to sell a property, you wouldn’t use one that’s never sold a house before, or who has no experience in the commercial sector.
Pay attention to ratings and customer feedback. Like any other business, brokers are likely to have reviews somewhere, whether it be on their own site or social media page, or somewhere else on the internet such as Google Reviews. Do your research and choose the right broker for your site and budget.
4. Record Keeping
When you’re selling a site that’s been live for some time, you’ll want to be sure you provide the buyer with the stats for the site. This includes monthly site traffic, ad revenue, and any other insights on the site’s activity.
A buyer will likely want a lot of information on the site’s performance before making the decision to buy. Purchasing a website is an investment, and your buyer will want to be sure they’re getting a return on that investment.
You can use analytics tools to track web traffic and revenue, and even narrow down traffic by country. All of this information will be pertinent to the sale and should be kept where it’s easily accessible. Choosing the right analytics tool depends on your site’s host and several other factors, but the bottom line is you should be tracking your site’s activity each month.
5. Poor Communication
Communicating with potential buyers is half the battle of selling a site. If you’re getting plenty of offers, it can be hard to keep up with all of the emails and phone calls. This is another advantage that using a broker can offer; help with managing offers.
Keeping in touch with those potential buyers will ensure that you’re aware of all of your options, and the potential buyers will not become frustrated with the lack of response. If you need to take an hour two out of your day to simply return calls and emails, do so. A good offer could be just an email away, that you would otherwise miss without taking the time to look through your inbox.
Conclusion
Selling a website can be exciting and stressful all at once. You’ll likely get plenty of offers if your site gets a lot of traffic, and managing them can be a hassle. If you choose to use a website broker to help with the process, be sure to research their reputation and sales record.
Keep in frequent contact with potential buyers to avoid missing an important opportunity, and don’t change the price on a whim. Keeping things honest will only serve to benefit both you and the buyer.
