A reader recently emailed me to ask what his site was worth because he wanted to sell it. As I questioned him about its traffic and sales I spoted some redflags and wanted to share them.
I’ve sold many sites so I want to help you get an idea of what potential buyers look for.
Lets start with red flags.
1. Your site should not be too dependent on free SEO traffic. If it is that is a risk for potential buyers because Google’s algorithm is a fickle beast and there are NO guarantees that traffic will sustain itself.
2. Downward trending sales. If you want to sell your site because sales arent going well its just a fact that you wont get top dollar. A downward trending site is a reclamation project so expect to get offers from bottom feeders only. You might only get an offer of 6 months of revenue for example.
3. Newer sites are also red flags. The newer your site is the less valuable it becomes so you are better off holding off until it is at least 1 year old.
If you want to sell your job board you need to get it ready. Get all your traffic stats ready and sales figures and create a sell sheet. I’ve written many of them before and here’s a link to one. Your sell sheet should present your site in a positive light. Dont hide anything. Put it all down on paper.
Make an extra effort to get sales up in the 3 months before you plan on selling it, the better your sales, the more likely a chance at an offer. For small sites with less than 10k yearly revenue you should really only expect 1x-1.5x times sales as a legit offer. Thats about the most you could get for a site of that size. And of course it depends what niche/industry you serve, age of the site, etc.
When it comes to finding a buyer, start with your competitors. They might be willing to buy your site simply for the domain and customer base. Then start with other job board owners. Post it on jobboarders.com, or IAEWS and see who bites. If that fails try selling it on flippa.com. But beware flippa is filled with a lot of bottom feeders who dont like to pay much for used sites. I have seen some premium buys though. I remember that recruitingblogs.com sold for $95k a few years ago.
Good luck.
