SitePoint Market Watch

Introduction

Pricing at best is an inexact science. Today I'd like to focus on a few small tips, and one big one, for sellers of web sites. This can also apply to buyers, in that it will help you to understand the psychology of sellers, but it's primarily for sellers as they have the most to lose here. It's about how to avoid burning bridges, and how you should always treat everyone with the same regard and respect that you'd like to be treated with in return.

Peter T. Davis
Editor
SitePoint Market Watch

Summary

• Introduction
• Give Thanks for Miracles
• Tips for Buyers and Sellers
• Featured Listings

Give Thanks for Miracles

Have you ever pulled a miracle out of a hat for a person, but made to feel it's still not good enough?

I'm routinely asked by people to help them sell their web site, and most of these sites are hard sells. When I have the time, I do try to look for value in the sites owned by these people who've sought my help. I've written before -- in this newsletter and on SitePoint's forum -- about what creates value in your web site, so I'll leave off repeating myself. Suffice to say, if there's a lack of revenues, traffic, unique products, or valuable content, then a web site will be a difficult sell at any price.

Today, I pulled a miracle out of a hat. A member I'd known from the online communities and who I've transacted with before asked me to sell one of those proverbial "no value" sites for him. Now, I'm never surprised when a person places an extraordinary value on a site they own. It's easy for an owner to do so when they've owned it for a while and invested their time into building and running the site, and so have become emotionally attached to it. But buyers are unconcerned about that stuff. They don't care if you've put 300 hours into tweaking the design. And why should they? When a buyer can register a new domain for ten bucks, why would he accept your opinion that your domain is worth thousands?

But this site I was dealing with was a spam site. Plain and simple. It was auto-generated content, made from an eBay RSS feed. It's easy as pie to make those sites. The site did have a trickle of traffic, and some revenue, but it was a spam site. I doubted whether the traffic or the revenue was sustainable.

Well, I bet you're asking now, what was the miracle I pulled out of the hat? Well, I gained him a solid offer. $3,500 in fact. About two year's worth of current revenues. I was surprised to receive an offer on it at all, and frankly, I was a little embarrassed to even be showing this site to some of the high-end buyers I work with; I usually work with larger transaction amounts.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you receive a solid offer for your web site, even if it's a genuinely valuable web site, you should at least thank the potential buyer for the offer and make a counter. Never insult the messenger, nor make the buyer feel foolish about offering a certain price. The magical price you had in mind is probably going to seem unrealistic to buyers, anyway.

The number of times I've seen sellers burn bridges and let any chance of a deal slip through their fingers -- either because of unrealistic expectations or their inability to respond in a civil manner to what they consider a low-ball offer -- are too numerous to count. Be courteous to all your prospects, and you're sure to reap the benefits.

Tips for Buyers and Sellers

• Use language that avoids alienating the other party.
• When asking for more details about an auction listing, it helps to do so in a non-accusatory manner.  And, as your parents taught you, saying please and thank-you can work wonders when seeking information.
• When presenting your offer, explain it without trashing the site. The seller may have emotional attachments that need to be considered as well. Your offer should demonstrate that you hold some value in the site.
• When receiving an offer, try to remember that the buyer is without the same emotional attachments to the site that you may hold. Rather than trying to insult you, in most cases an initial offer is simply that, an initial offer. It's far better to reply with a counter offer than take offense.  

That's all for this issue -- thanks for reading! I'll see you in a few weeks.

Peter T. Davis
peter.davis@sitepoint.com
Editor, SitePoint Market Watch

 Featured Listings

• Established High Paying Dental Insurance Content Site - 1770 Backlinks - US100-US190 Per Month Average (Autopilot) in Established Web Sites for Sale
• Unique ERP Software System (Worth over $150,000) in Premium Web Sites for Sale
• Huge high traffic Free Host Website in Established Web Sites for Sale
• Fabulous Minisite | Two Unique Ebooks | $570 Sales In 10 Days | $10 - $110 Daily in Established Web Sites for Sale

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