When Can I Buy And Sell Adult Websites?

Adult Websites For Sale With the popularity of website flipping and an online porn industry worth billions of dollars, you would think it would be easy to find places to buy and sell adult websites.

Unfortunately for webmasters of adult websites, it’s not that easy at all. And despite how lucrative the porn industry may be, flipping adult websites isn’t nearly as lucrative. In fact, it isn’t that lucrative at all these days.

For a number of reasons, adult websites aren’t easy to sell and they don’t command the kind of multiples non-adult websites enjoy. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, there isn’t a lot of demand for these types of websites so they just don’t sell that well.

Now that doesn’t mean the trade doesn’t exist – because it does. It’s just harder to find where you can buy and sell adult websites. Flippa, the largest and most popular public marketplace for buyers and sellers of websites, doesn’t allow adult sites. When I set out to write this post I assumed there would be a “Flippa” of adult websites, but to my surprise I discovered there really wasn’t one.

There are, however, a handful of places where you can buy and sell adult websites. Here is a list of them…

1. Digital Point forum – they have a dedicated section within their forum just for adult websites for sale.

2. GFY.com – this is an active forum for those in the adult website industry, and while they have a section dedicated for adult websites for sale, there aren’t a whole lot of sites for sale

3. Experienced-People.net – this is relatively newer forum dedicated to “experienced” online marketers and business people. The administrator, Clinton, has a section in the forum where you can buy and sell websites. He’ll allow adult websites for sale under certain conditions.

4. eBay – eBay always has an odd assortment of adult websites for sale but they are mostly “junk” startups that fetch less than $100. Occasionally, you’ll see more valuable adult sites for sale but it’s not the norm.

5. Craigslist – you can post your adult site for sale on this popular classifieds site IF you are careful how you word your ad.

6. eBay Classifieds – another popular classifieds site (formerly called Kijiji) where you can list your adult website for sale – again IF you word your ad appropriately.

7. DNForum.com – this forum is primarily for domainers but you can list websites for sale – including adult websites for sale – if you word your listing discreetly.

8. Daniweb.com – a forum primarily for the IT industry but has a section dedicated to websites for sale where adult websites are accepted.

For any of these resources above, you’ll want to read their rules thoroughly before posting your adult websites for sale. For example, technically you can’t list adult sites for sale on Craigslist or eBay Classifieds IF you list your site like you would on say, Flippa or eBay. Instead, you’ll need to be more discrete, avoid using any pictures, and you’ll need to be careful overall how you describe the site for sale or it will be flagged and removed.

Other Ways To Buy and Sell Adult Websites

Google Search
You may uncover some opportunities doing a Google search for the following types of keywords:

adult webmaster forum(s)
adult webmasters
adult website directory (or directories)

The forums you may find may not have dedicated sections to buy and sell adult websites, but you might be able to advertise your site for sale in your signature or just make a general post about it if the administrator allows it.

Advertise On Your Site
If your adult website has traffic, let your visitors know that it’s for sale! You can be as obvious or discreet about it as you want – be it a large banner or a simple link in your navigation. Either way, direct your visitors to a page where they can learn more about the site on how to buy it.

Industry Contacts
Remember the age-old saying, “it’s who you know.” Well, if you are an adult webmaster, chances are you have at least *some* contacts in the business. Think of the websites you drive traffic to or generate revenue from. These are all industry contacts that you can start with.

Pounding The Pavement
Sometimes you just have to get out there and find your own buyers and sellers. If your adult website is generating decent traffic for its given niche, then I’m sure there are other webmasters in that niche that would be interested in owning your website.

For example, if you have a website for “adult amateurs” then you could do a search for keywords in that niche (i.e. adult amateur websites). There is a webmaster behind every one of the sites you dig up. Start emailing them and see what kind of responses you get. Granted, while this strategy works great for non-adult websites, it’s a long shot for adult websites but if all other options fail, what do you have to lose?

Until a popular website flipping marketplace like Flippa allows adult websites for sale (or until a new marketplace emerges that does), you’ll need to concentrate your efforts across multiple resources when you’re looking to buy and sell adult websites.

About Travis Van Slooten

Travis is an affiliate marketer and website flipper who ran FlipWebsites.com until the Fall of 2010.

View all posts by Travis | Visit Author's Website

This entry was posted in Selling Websites and tagged Buying Tips, Marketplaces, Selling Tips.

http://www.adult-single-sites.com Adult Site

I never knew this.. I thought it would be alot easier.
http://bow.to Buy Adult Sites

Your forgot to mention http://bow.to – they are the first of it’s kind and only auction marketplace I know to focus exclusively on adult websites and domain names.
FlipAdult

Those choices you have listed are good ones for buying and selling sites of any flavor. I think an all adult buying and selling site like http://www.flipadult.net would be one of the beter ways to go
http://www.bow.to Matt

I’m in the process of creating the only adult market place with the domain name http://www.bow.to . Let me know what you guys think.
secondwindmp

This was a very good article.

I don’t like to self promote, but we are allowing established adult websites to be bought and sold on SecondWindMarketplace.com, domains are also allowed. There are a few restrictions however, and they can be found here: http://www.secondwindmarketplace.com/help/topics/buying-websites/can-adult-sites-by-sold/

The main reason why we choose to allow adult sites is because like the Internet, we didn’t feel there should be a restriction on content. Like a house, you can’t just choose not to sell a it because its ugly or has the wrong color paint. Does anyone disagree/agree?
James

Interesting post! It’s amazing that adult websites make so much money and yet you hear so little about the business behind it.

What kind of multiples are usually associated with buying adult sites? What other considerations are there? Might be worth a follow-up post talking about buying adult sites rather than selling them.

Travis

James:

These are all great questions – and I wish I had some answers. I personally don’t buy or sell adult websites so I don’t know much about the business. I’ll see if I can dig up some experts in the field and get some follow up information. Thanks for the feedback!

Travis

http://experienced-people.net/ Clinton

Hi Travis,

Thanks for the mention. I did recently post a list of top 10 places to sell adult websites: http://experienced-people.net/forums/showthread.php/1321-Where-to-sell-an-Adult-Site

We allow the listing of adult websites based purely on its merits as a business – if it’s well established and has a strong history of profits, I’m happy to publish its availability to my forum members. If it’s a new site, not making a profit or its strongest selling point is that it has “potential”, I’m not interested.

I recently posted a $1.2 million adult website (http://experienced-people.net/forums/showthread.php/1171) and it looks like the owner has found a buyer.

Travis

Clinton:

Thanks for stopping by and clarifying exactly what your criteria is for allowing people to post their adult websites for sale.

$1.2 million??? That’s crazy!! So when are you going to launch a marketplace, Clinton;)

Travis

http://www.nomuzi.com Muzi Mohale

Hi Travis, it’s interesting to note that your blog post hasn’t generated much retweets/comments. Why is talking about sex such a taboo as though it’s criminal?

I’m taking this as a challenge to explore this niche, since I have an idling domain flippinghub.com which could be put to better use.

I’m investigating a suitable template…

Travis

Muzi:

I knew when I made this post some people might be freaked out about it but it’s a legitimate niche (and market) that isn’t being met. To that end, creating a marketplace strictly for adult websites might be a good idea since one doesn’t really exist – at least not on the level of a Flippa.

Good luck if you decide to pursue it!

Travis

Todd

Hello Travis great article and thank you for having the guts to actually speak about it. I am in the adult business and have made three acquisitions in the space. I agree that it is a legitimate market that is not being served well by a reasonable service. I am currently looking at another purchase at the moment and because of the tough resale market I need to offer a very low multiple if I expect a profitable exit myself. It is odd though as the numbers just don’t add up from the buyer or sellers point of view.

To provide some insight for you and your readers.

The current multiple being used is 12-24 months of net revenue, 24 only if you have a well branded site with a history of profitability. I find the amount to be low as an alternative to selling is to set your content to auto rotate and check in 5 minutes per day to collect what will be a slowly shrinking check, however it won’t shrink fast enough to make the running the site into the ground option better then the selling option.

The risk factors stated by purchasers of sites that keep the multiple low are;

Political climate, for example in 2001 before 9/11 GW had his sites set on the online adult biz, Obama does not but obviously his term/s will end.

Content piracy, torrents and the current scourge tube sites

Credit card processing uncertainty

SEO uncertainty

Personally I do not believe that any of those pose anymore or less threat to a legally and well run adult program.

My sites have done very well for me and while I have no intention of selling now, it does make me sad that simply because of the widget I chose to sell in my early twenties, that my business savviness, ethical standards(yes you can be an ethical pornographer), SEO skillz, etc etc aren’t worth as much as someone who starts a 5th tier social network that will be a blip on the radar.

Thanks again to Travis and all the realistic and thoughtful poster above. Good article, nice blog.

Todd