selling a website
first do a Memorandum of Sale. Collect all the info any reasonable buyer is likely to need and put it all together in the MoS. Examples:1. Domain/s and what's been sold with the domain (mailing list, Adwords lists, copyright to content and design, stock, additional domains in other TLDs, custom coding, merchant accounts, ongoing deals with advertisers, extent and length of old stats available.... )
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2. How long you've had the business and what the business is about (it's important you make this clear. Very often people are so familiar with their own businesses they assume everyone else understands exactly what it's about - they don't!). Also disclose any connected businesses/websites that are NOT part of the deal.
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3. Where the money comes from (if it's multiple income streams also mention the percentages: 15% ads in newsletter, 25% affiliate programs, 10% ads on site, 30% Adsense, 5% fastclick, 5% Cafepress sale of T-shirts etc)
4. Where the money goes (this is important. Cover not just hosting and advertising but allow for a fair salary for the time actually spent on it even if it's your own time)
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5. Breakdown of profit for the last few years but definitely at least the last few months and show it as Net profit
6. What's involved in maintaining the site and how much of time and skill it takes. Things like writing a weekly newsletter, answering emails, fulfilling orders, handling customer support, adding content etc should all be in there.
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7. Technical details: Stats (be honest - quote uniques rather than "hits", exclude bot figures... that sort of thing), # of PR8/7/6/5 pages, IBLs in Yahoo and MSN and URL mentions in Google. Number of pages indexed in various SEs, Alexa rank (with standard disclaimer),
8. Any known problems - 302s, www/non-www duplicate problems, Google/Yahoo bans, being on SPAM blacklists... that sort of thing
9. How much you want for the site and what support/training you're offering. Other terms, like willingness to sign a non-competition agreement.
10. How the transfer will take place. For example, via escrow on payment of 100% of agreed price into a pre-agreed escrow service the WHOIS, passwords, and site (in zip format) will be transfered to the new owner within 72 hours
Though all that takes time it saves the buyer having to do research and asking questions to which you have to find answers. With half a dozen or so potential buyers each raising 20-30 questions it could take up a lot more of your time that you expect and can really drag the sale out.
Get a non-disclosure agreement signed before any info is passed if confidentiality is important to you. Get other stuff ready like a copy of the final Contract of Sale to save time later.
posted by Don Marchand @ 10:05 AM
