Where do people sell their sites?

[Bemmu]

Count this as a "business issue", but I've been long looking for sites to buy and I check sitepoint marketplace daily. There must be a gazillion sites out there, yet in the marketplace here there are only a few new sites per day that are sold. Are people simply not selling their sites, or are they selling them elsewhere?

I would expect that perhaps even thousands of sites would be sold daily in a lively marketplace, or do people simply not know that their sites might we worth something to someone? Sitepoint is very good, but are there other sites I should be checking as well?

[Shyflower]

This question was recently discussed here:

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=438502

[CJJR]

I think a lot of people never even think that selling their site is a possibility (although probably less now than a couple years, with all the talks of big sites in the news).

A couple of times in the past, I've emailed owners of sites I would fall upon to see if they would consider selling. You can get good deals like that, since a lot of people do start sites for the fun of it without the financial considerations.

[Corey Bryant]

It probably depends on the content of the site. We advertised on SitePoint for our website but not that much interest. Most of the interests stemmed from WebHostingTalk or WebHostAutomation forums actually.

You can also check out www.dnforum.com for some more information as well. Good luck with it!

[lionhart321]

There must be a gazillion sites out there, yet in the marketplace here there are only a few new sites per day that are sold. Are people simply not selling their sites, or are they selling them elsewhere?

I would expect that perhaps even thousands of sites would be sold daily in a lively marketplace, or do people simply not know that their sites might we worth something to someone?

I agree with you. I've been watching the SP marketplace for some time now (as well as those on other sites), and it is definitely a seller's market. Just look through the older listings; you will see that nearly every site or idea that is even halfway legitimate is selling for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Hardly any auctions end without a sale being completed. There is an obscene amount of money being thrown around by the bidders and probably most of these sites end up going for more than they are worth.

You are right, many people simply do not know that their sites might be worth something. I can use myself as an example. I own an old school gaming site that pulls in a consistent 2000 uniques per month (mostly from search engines), even though I have not updated it in years. I only ever thought of it as a hobby, and I never promoted it at all, or attempted to monetize it. But based on what I have seen in the SP marketplace, I could probably get at least $500 for it right now. Up until a few months ago I was never aware that this was a possibility. Not that I would sell it anyway. It costs hardly anything to maintain, and I like having a web presence, however modest it might be.

The market being what it is, the best course of action for you or anyone else is to build your own site from scratch, get it established for a few months with some steady traffic, and then sell it. That is almost a sure bet to earn some money, considering how many prospective buyers there are, anxious to get their hands on an established site.