The following guest post was written by Michelle Adams, an experienced seller who’s successfully sold many start-up websites on Flippa.

If you browse around the Flippa marketplace it doesn’t take long before you realise there’s a huge variety of start-up web sites for sale. Flippa defines start-up sites as sites that generate, at most, $10 a month in revenue and are established no more than two months prior to the auction listing date.

As a seller who has sold many start-up sites, you’d think I’m unlikely to agree that any of these sites don’t represent value, right? I’m willing to admit that some start-up sites are far from treasure chests, but that doesn’t mean all established sites are gold mines! Buyers, you need to do your due diligence no matter what age the site happens to be.

If you’re interested in selling start-up web sites, then building those sites on solid foundations is a great way to stand out in the marketplace; offering more treasure than trash.

What constitutes a solid website foundation? This can vary greatly depending on what each particular buyer is looking for. Some buyers are looking for certain types of domain names, others are after content in certain markets, some will be interested in the bonuses you’re offering and others will be keen to work the site exactly as you intended it.

There are many different types of buyers and the more of them your site appeals to, the better your chances will be of your site selling. Here are four factors that you should consider carefully when building your inventory:

1) Domain Name

Whether it be fact or not, the general consensus is that .info domains are somewhat low value. Of course they can still rank in the search engines but ‘maybe’ it will be a little tougher to? This is a question a buyer has to ask himself and it puts doubt into his mind. I would recommend you stick to .com, .org and .net domains.

2) Design

Try to use premium themes, with a legitimate re-seller license, and make an effort to spruce your sites up! Stretched images, archaic graphics and colour schemes that just should never see the light of day won’t build confidence in the minds of potential buyers. It may lead them to wonder if you’re cutting corners in other ways too?

3) Content

Here is another area where you can stand out: offer unique content or even a mixture of unique and PLR (private label rights). Adding a PLR (private label rights) article pack as a bonus for BIN (buy it now) buyers is also worth trying.

4) Market Research

When it comes to building niche sites, keyword research and market analysis is all-important. If you go to the effort of ensuring the domain name is keyword rich along with post and page titles then you’re off to a good start!

Putting in that little bit extra effort not only benefits buyers but also the seller. If the site doesn’t sell first time round you know that you’ve built a site with a solid foundation, not a thin site on a .info domain.

If you’re prepared to do even a little bit more work over a few weeks or months, your start-up sites will stand out for all the right reasons.

Taking sites beyond a few weeks old and developing them to a point where they are consistently receiving traffic and generating a profit will appeal to another group of buyers yet again.

There’s no time like now to jump into virtual real estate development!

About Michelle Adams

Michelle Adams, is an experienced seller who’s successfully sold many start-up websites on Flippa. Michelle teaches people how to setup and sell start-up sites.