Website Selling Strategies for Startup Sites

by Luke Moulton 25 Comments

When listing a website on Flippa, there are a lot of options to consider before you sell your website. Options that can have a significant impact on how well your site sells. If you’re a regular seller on Flippa, you’ve probably experimented with these variables and come to your own conclusions. But if you’re a newbie or have been a little shy about experimenting with different auction settings, this post might help you discover some new selling strategies.

This post details my experience listing a site for sale on Flippa. The first time I listed the site it didn’t sell, the second time round I had twice as many bidders and the site eventually reached its Buy It Now (BIN) price! Here’s the low down:

The Site

The subject of this experiment is a website I built using WordPress with a customized theme. At the time of writing it had 10 unique articles, a small amount of backlinks and PageRank 2. The site had little traffic, no revenue and was a couple of months old. In short, it was fairly typical of what we call a start-up site; a domain and website package selling at an entry level price, usually in the sub $500 price range. Here are the results from the two auctions:

Auction #1

The first time I listed the site the following options were used:

  • Public Auction: 20 Days
  • Starting Bid: $97
  • Reserve: $197
  • BIN: $497
  • Tags: clickbank, health, wordpress
  • Featured on home page: Yes
  • Success Fee: I paid all 5%
  • Title: PR2 Niche WordPress Blog, Unique Content, Affiliate Site

Results: By the close of the auction the site had not sold. Here are the results:

  • Bids: 5
  • Top Bid: $140

Auction #2

The second time round I listed the site, the following settings were used:

  • Public Auction: 5 Days
  • Starting Bid: $1
  • Reserve: $1
  • BIN: $297
  • Tags: affiliate, health, clickbank
  • Featured on home page: Yes
  • Success Fee: I paid all 5%
  • Title: PR2 Niche WordPress Blog, Unique Content – NO RESERVE

Results: The website sold for the BIN.

  • Bids: 10
  • Winning Bid: $297 (BIN)

Why Did It Sell in Auction #2?

You’ll notice some significant changes to the auction settings second time round. I went with a short term auction, low starting price, no reserve and a decreased BIN. Other subtle changes included “NO RESERVE” in the title and the inclusion of the affiliate tag.

Potentially there are a few too many variables between the two listings to draw concrete conclusions, however, the theory with the settings in round two are as follows:

  • Shorter auction times get more attention. There’s more of a sense of urgency with a shorter auction; an auction ending in 5 days as opposed to 20 or even 30 might insight people to act sooner.
  • Lower starting bid and no reserve encourages bids.
  • Listing gets pushed into the Most Active page. With the volume of bids received, the listing was pushed into the Most Active page which may have encouraged more bids.

If you’re building and selling start-up packages, listing your websites for sale with no reserve might be a hard pill to swallow. When you’ve put time and money into developing a site, not having the security blanket of a reserve price may be a little scary. However, experimenting with auction length, starting bid and BIN’s might help you increase your sell rate and average price over time.

Take Aways

So, what can the new Flippa website seller take away from this experiment? To me the results seem pretty intuitive and lead to the following tips:

  • Set a low starting bid to encourage bids
  • Set a realistic reserve – the cheapest price you can sell the site for and still make money
  • Set a realistic BIN

If you have any website selling tips you’d like to share with the Flippa community, we’d love to hear them – just drop a note in the comments below.

25 Responses to Website Selling Strategies for Startup Sites

  1. Ian and Amy Anderson says:

    Thanks for doing such a great experiment! I like the section you added “Monetization Strategies” – I think it’s a great way for potential buyers to “see” what’s possible.

    We’d love to see more selling experiments!

    Thanks,
    Ian and Amy Anderson

  2. Missy says:

    Many times, exposure will sell a site. I’ve re-listed a few sites, EXACTLY as before and they sell on the 2nd round.

    I think it could be due to the timing of the listing. Day, timezone, etc.

    But yes! experimenting with your salespage is key.

  3. Bluelambda says:

    Thanks for this! Looking forward to more “experiments” here. I’ve also found that setting a shorter auction duration and no reserve is a good way to encourage bids.

    Both auctions seem to have featured on the homepage. I’ve always wondered about the effectiveness of that. Maybe I’ll experiment too.

  4. Chris Clegg says:

    I think it’s critical to include details on the site itself. Don’t overlook the write-up. Details around what the site has done, what you believe it can do, and why you are selling all help.

    Providing a bonus (like 6 months free hosting, etc.) for a BIN purchase is helpful.

    Describing exactly what you see the steps being after a sale to spell out the transfer can also help a new buyer feel more comfortable with the process.

    • Luke Moulton says:

      As I mentioned in the post, this method is not for the fainthearted! The site I based this post around did have some good attributes such as a PR2, unique content and a pretty solid domain name.

  6. Romi says:

    Thanks for awesome tips,

    I’ll try it for my next listing and see how it works.
    Experiment!!, yeah, I like it.

    Thanks
    Romi

  7. Dave Jackson says:

    You’re right that there isn’t enough data to make a decision. There are sites in the Just Sold category right now that have been listed for a month and sold for thousands. I would love to see more data on which presentation sells best and I’m sure this is easy data to get. Thanks for the post.

    Dave

  9. Dontrell Lyons says:

    Yes, I’ve always tested those things and YES, they do help. I try to also add value wherever I can to help the buyer out.

    The more benefits you add the better your chances of making a success sale!

    • Luke Moulton says:

      With higher value sites, it’s best to go with a longer auction period as the buyer needs time to do the proper due diligence. As always though, a realistic BIN can ensure a quick sale.

  15. Website Flipping says:

    Luke:

    Great experiment you’ve posted here. Like others have said here, it would be great if you did more;) Although to get a better gauge of what makes the difference, I’d recommend only changing one or two variables at a time.

    Still, though, I think what put this auction over the top was the low starting bid with no reserve. I think those are the two key elements for QUALITY startup sites (i.e. sites with PR, traffic, etc.) – and really for any site for that matter.

    Travis

  16. Frank says:

    I’m a bit confused about the reserve price issue. The Flippa terms of service say (yes, I read them, I’m new here) “A reserve price must be set” and “The reserve price may not be made public by any means”. So, doesn’t saying “No Reserve” in the auction title violate TOS?

    • Luke Moulton says:

      The main exception to this rule is when sellers set a reserve of $1 – which in effect is no reserve. It becomes immediately apparent to bidders – when someone bids $1, what the reserve is.

      It’s a good point, we’ll look at clarifying this.