Why do People Sell Profitable Websites?
One of our colleagues over at SitePoint recently asked “Why would anyone sell a profitable website, wouldn’t you just hang on to it and keep collecting the funds?” Admittedly, I asked myself the same question when I first started at Flippa, and indeed, many buyers are suspicious as to why someone would sell a profitable website.
There are a range of genuine reasons why people sell profitable websites. In fact, the best time to sell a website is when it’s profitable. Buyers love to see a history of profit and will reward a seller accordingly. Of course, there may also be some less genuine reasons for selling, but for the purposes of this post we’ll focus on the positives!
The reason for selling usually boils down to one of the following:
1. I’m broke and I need the money
Sometimes in life, stuff happens, and people need money to get them out of a sticky situation. We operate in a global marketplace and reasons for needing money can be many and varied. It can be as simple as putting food on the table to paying for your kid’s dental work. Not everyone likes to admit they’re going through tough times, but sometimes, people just need the money.
2. I’m raising funds for a new project
Starting a new project often requires start-up funds. Programmers, designers, servers, it all costs money. And when you get the itch to start a new project, you’ve got to do it now, before anyone else comes up with the idea and steals your thunder. Raising funds in the short term by selling a profitable website is usually a more appealing prospect than waiting, going into debt or calling in angel investors.
3. I’ve fallen out of love
Some owners just lose interest. In the beginning they spend hours building an online business; adding content and backlinks, all the while encouraging and nurturing the site. Then one day they turn around and realize it’s been weeks since they even looked at the site, even though it’s ticking over a tidy little profit each month. Instead of letting the site die a slow lonely death, they decide to sell.
We see a lot of this on Flippa and it’s a great reason to sell a website. If you don’t continue to maintain a site, eventually profits will decline and the site won’t be worth anywhere near as much.
4. I just don’t have the time
Often there are other priorities in life besides making money online… yes, I know, it’s a difficult concept to grasp, but it does happen. A friend of mine recently inquired about how she could sell her website. As a work from home mum, she’d managed to build up a successful online business from home while raising two kids, but she’d just fallen pregnant with her third. Realizing there was no way she could put in the time required to run her online business, look after a new born and two young children, she decided it was time to sell.
There were regular customers to think of too. If she’d decided to shut up shop, she’d put a lot of people out. Why not make some money out of the sale, keep customers happy and hand the business over to someone who has the time. Everybody’s happy!
5. It’s what we do
Serial entrepreneurs often start with the end in sight (or site 
). They build up online businesses with the express purpose of selling them. Truth be known, they’d prefer to be bought out by Google, but in the event that Larry and Sergey don’t come to the party, other buy-out opportunities need to be sought. Some people just love building businesses, not running them, so this is a great opportunity for buyers who love running businesses, not building them.
6. I’ve taken it as far as I can
Many individuals don’t have the full set of complementary skills to take their website to the next level. If you’re a solo website owner, and for whatever reason unwilling to outsource, you need a wide range of skills (not to mention time) to run a successful online business. SEO, copywriting, design, programming, marketing … it’s difficult to do it all.
Realizing they’ve taken a website as far as it can go, some owners decide to hand their baby over to someone who’s better equipped to take it to the next level.
Why are you selling?
Have an interesting reason to add to the list? Tell us why you’re selling your website on Flippa in the comments below.
My reason to sell is totally different. This site is the one I made first, the one on which I tried out all the tips and tricks,and was “married to”. Two things happened. A new interpretation of a law by the top court in my country made the service I was selling unlawful(though I really can’t understnad the logic of the interpretation.) The other reason was that this site was occupying too much of my mindspace and I was losing out (stupidly) on work I could complete on other sites.
I have 2 reasons I’m selling my site:
Primary reason is, I need the money for a vehicle and second, I’d rather build sites than grow a business. I like to build sites!
Ginger
It’s very true, running your own business is extremely hard task you truly need to be an expert at everything i can see how this site is great for those of us who have gotten lazy with certain projects
I wish I could build sites, I wish I could buy a site but I dont even know what to do once ive bought it! (Total Newb!)
It’s a combination of falling out of love with the site, technical abilities, and having a real job that pays very well.
I just want some quick cash!
I belief a REAL reason for selling sites should be because it is a ‘Legitimate BUSINESS model’ and HUGE profits are waiting to be made – IF you know how to ‘run-your-business’ right for MAXIMUM ROI!
Cornelius
http://www.sellsites123.com [not launch yet]
I think people don’t like to promote their site because website promotion is not an easy task as compare to website building.
I often wondered why someone would sell a profitable. Most often, that is usually the first question i would ask the seller. Not just with websites but even other purchases offline including house, car etc
Hi, my reasons for selling websites are sometimes 2, sometimes 5.
But always a mixture of the two.
I’m lucky because I’m good in creating blogs from zero, and bring them in a good search engine position, so why keep them if I don’t have more time to care about them ?
For this reason, I officially becamed a Flippaholic
I hope to deliver again good blogs.
Thanks for building this page, I think that the selected 6 rules cover all the selling cases.
Goodbye,
Alessandro Zamboni
Good points, I guess the reason for the website being sold could also effect the sale price.
I’m sure there are heaps of people like you mention in option 5, that just enjoy the building side of things, more so than the management side, so set them up then flick them on when they reach a certain point.
Superb article!
That’s are the reasons that one website owner sell his business.
I sold a social networking site, because it was taken to much of my time, to improve and monetize it and also I wanted to work on other projects.
maybe they need money as soon as.. if you need buy link, i have PR 4 @blogspot
I understand most people’s reasons and they make sense. The ones I question are the ones that say they are make $5,000 per “MONTH” and they sell the site for $2500. That makes NO SENSE to me and it worries me that it is a scam.
They write that they don’t have the time or some other excuse… but if you are making $5,000 per month… then hire someone and pay them to run it for you instead of selling the site for half a month’s earnings.
Can someone explain why someone would sell a website that is making good money for less than it is earning them per month?
If they sell a 5k site for 2 k it means they are probably starting to see a decline and are desperate to sell it, not unethically but because THEY may not be able to properly run it, but YOU may have the resources at your disposal to breathe life back into it.
Realistically you should sell your site for 8x or more of your actual income for the site. This makes much more sense as if your site will perform with attention there is no reason to sell it for less. 8x is basically like saying you have 8 months to build another one, as your income for the next 8 months will be all at once.
This is the philosophy we follow at Super Apprentice, I wouldn’t let a site go for less than 8x it’s CURRENT income average over 3 months
On flippa you just have to (the hard way) learn all the potential pitfalls (scams) and what to look for, what questions to ask the seller to elicite if they are full of it… in the end you will lose some and win some but every time you will learn some too.
We build 10 page sites (simple) and nurture them for 5 months then unload them on flippa, at the time we sell it it’s making at least 8x what I sell it for over 3 months.
Good Luck Out There… Don’t forget to wear your hard hat in the construction zone (newbie mode)
Jerrico
Well.. I’m selling one of my sites because I just don’t have time. I would like to work with it because it’s stats are growing fast and site is successful. I have my own business and my hobby just takes too much time from me so I decided to sell it.
Hi I was just checking If someone could help me out with this , I read this blog a bit but the background stuffs up and I cant read the text. PLease help me
for profit
People sell profitable websites for only two reasons. One is business and the other one is personal. Sometimes, it is inevitable that personal reasons enable us to make perfect business decisions. If you personally feel that you no longer have the time or no longer interested in running your profitable site and wants to focus more on your personal or family life, then selling the site for profit is a good business decision out of personal reasons. This may apply in most circumstances.
well i have a website and i dont know how to make profit out of it.. I am looking for a seo partner.
Building, promoting and flipping websites is a great way to earn a living. I myself started this was and I did so because I loved creating and building something up. Then I sold the website to make time for me to start a new project, keeping websites successful takes time and effort, for me I wanted to use that time creating something new.