Someone interested in buying one of my websites

1. 87

   Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

   Just yesterday I had my very first Stumbleupon spike of traffic to one of my websites - over 1,000 visitors on a day.  No sales, but I had one person enquiring about buying the website. 
   
   The question is, how much information do I give this guy?  What questions do I ask him to know whether he's a genuine enquiry, or just trying to get enough information to steal my niche? 
   
   I sent him the traffic graph showing the number of visits in a month, and the traffic overview showing the traffic sources - but I blocked out the information on keywords.  He's replied asking why I did that.

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   1. 59

      RogerADposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I am always very wary in situations like this, because there is a good chance that they are not actual buyers and are simply wanting some free information.
      
      One of the first things I do is research the persons name/email. Often, if they are a scammer, you will see their email popup in a lot of places. However, just because there isn't any results for their email, doesn't really mean anything.
      
      It is also a good idea to talk to them on the phone. This alone will often weed out a number of scammers.
      
      With that said, requesting the keyword information isn't all that unusual, especially if you grayed it out. It probably would have been better to create a custom report that only had the fields you wanted to show them...

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   2. 60

      TerryGlposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marisa, I would treat this as a genuine inquiry. I would ask what his price range is for the purchase.
      
      The information on your site is freely available on Alexa as well as Adwords Keyword tool, so him hunting for keywords etc. sounds obscure as it is readily sourced.
      
      I would sell the site to him, but I would put a good price on it.

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2. 73

   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   I really would not bother with this guy. Sounds like he just wants you to give him all your stats so he can use it for himself.
   
   Plus I'm sure you can make more off your website than what he wants to give you for it. There is too much to lose and very little to gain by giving him all your info.

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3. 74

   Kangaroo_Jaseposted 14 years ago

   ....and there are places on the net dedicated to buy/sell websites.

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4. 77

   Shadesbreathposted 14 years ago

   If you're going to give someone all your good information, give it to me.  I'm much nicer and I would never scam you.

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   1. 59

      RNMSNposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      shadesbreath I am looking forward daily to your replies you make such right on remarks!!!

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5. 72

   ilmdamailyposted 14 years ago

   I think your caution is justified Marisa. There's an awful lot of scams alive in the whole "buy & sell" websites niche.
   
   Ultimately, it's your site, your stats. He should ask which stats he needs to see, and if those requests don't erode your own competitive advantage, then you could provide them. It's not up to you to have to justify which information you retain.
   
   So don't feel bad about being secretive;-)

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6. 69

   W. Christopherposted 14 years ago

   If these sites are any indication, you might sell based on this and other similar sites (I've included hubpages.com, to show what they think it is worth):
   
   http://websiteoutlook.com/www.hubpages.com
   http://www.cubestat.com/www.hubpages.com
   
   Anyway, think about how much you'd like to make on your site and how much time you've invested into it. How long would it take for you to build an equal or better site?
   
   I don't know that asking him questions would be the right way to go. He's the potential buyer.
   
   Maybe the only question that I'd ask would be based on "This is my price, want to buy it or not?" or something similar (and in a nice way, of course).
   
   Best wishes, Marisa.

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   1. 69

      psycheskinnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I ran my own doamins through http://websiteoutlook.com/ and it seem to me that their data is waaay off.

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      1. 84

         Pcunixposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I just gave it mine.  They said $62,000 and change.  That would be a fair price based on Adsense income, but it neglects the real value, which is what someone doing computer consulting would get in yearly opportunities.

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7. 0

   WizardOfOzposted 14 years ago

   take a look at flippa.com to get an idea of prices, or sedo.

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8. 63

   brettbposted 14 years ago

   Yes if you want to sell your site head to flippa or have a look on warriorforum, some people there make a living out of selling websites.
   
   There's also an increasingly domain name scam going around - they almost fooled me the first time...
   
   <snipped link>

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9. 84

   Pcunixposted 14 years ago

   I've been through this a few times.   The offers aren't even a tenth of what I'd want and sometimes aren't even half a years Adsense income!
   
   People really think other people are very stupid, I guess.

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