Your Online Business: Selling Your Website

Explore Your Options Before You Exit

There could any number of different reasons that you’ve decided to exit your online business, or shut down your website.

Before taking your site down altogether, explore the options available to you with knowledgeable web professionals. Together, you might be able to determine how you can improve your website to attract the traffic or sales you had planned to achieve.

Selling Your Online Business

If you have explored all your options and still would like to exit your online business, then your current domain name and portions of your online business could be valuable to others.

For this reason, you may consider selling your online business, or the domain name by itself. You can advertise your online business for sale on any number of online marketplaces.

Be prepared to provide the following:

• Past performance, such as number of visits, page views, bounce rate, and other website metrics. Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics can easily generate this kind of information.
• Business costs
• Professional financial statements showing a minimum of 2-3 years of business history (if you are operating an ecommerce site)
• Growth potential

It also helps to inform your potential buyers about the reasons you're selling your online business. If you’re honest, you will have a better chance of establishing their trust and making the sale.

Selling your online business may involve non-compete agreements, due diligence disclosures, and multiple contracts. A successful sale could have tax implications as well. Consult a lawyer and an accountant for guidance.

Online Marketplaces

These online marketplaces specialize in selling websites and ecommerce sites. Please know that website brokers typically charge commissions for sales.   

• Flippa      
• Votan Web
• SiteBin (free listing)
• Buy Businesses
• Website Broker