When it comes to selling your websites, Flippa.com isn’t your only option to find buyers. What I’ll show you today is how to find highly motivated buyers for your websites. I implement this technique every time I list a website for sale. In fact, the last website I sold, the winning buyer was found using this technique.
Flippa.com is still going to play a role but instead of relying solely on the Flippa marketplace to find buyers, you’ll be able to drive your own list of motivated buyers to your auctions. This technique does take a little bit of leg work, but it pays off in dividends if you implement it.
1. Make a List of The Keywords Your Website Ranks For
The first thing you’re going to do is determine which keywords your website ranks for in the top 10 in the three major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo!). If you have Google Analytics installed (hint hint), this will be relatively easy to do. Even if you don’t, you should be tracking your keywords somehow so making this list shouldn’t take too long.
2. Conduct Searches For Those Keywords In The Major Search Engines
Now what you’ll want to do is conduct searches for those keywords in all three major search engines. Make a note of all the sites in the top 30 results. Disregard all authority sites like Amazon, eBay, and any other major “corporate” websites. You’re looking for “mom and pop” websites, affiliate websites, AdSense websites, and all other websites that appear to be run by individuals or small companies.
3. Visit The Websites You Find in the Top 30 Results
Next you’re going to visit each of those websites and quickly browse through them to get a general idea of what they’re about. Visit the “about us” pages to see what else you can dig up about the site and the owner.
4. Find The Contact Information For The Website Owners
You are now going to look for the Contact Us pages – or dig around the websites until you find the email addresses for the site owners. Sometimes you can find an email address buried in the Privacy Policy, Disclosures, or Terms of Conditions pages.
If you still can’t find an email address, do a WHOIS search. If the domain is publicly registered, you’ll have the technical and administrative contact information right at your fingertips. Even if most of the websites have Contact Us pages or email addresses listed to contact the owners, still do a WHOIS search and make a note of the technical and administrative contact information. You’ll need it for the next step.
5. Send An Email To The Website Owners That Your Website Is For Sale
You’re now going to send the web owners an email to let them know your website is for sale. Use the Contact Us pages if they are available but also send an email to any email addresses you dig up on the websites and Cc (copy) the technical and administrative email addresses you find during your WHOIS search. This may seem like overkill, but it’s necessary to ensure that the website owner gets your message! Here is a copy of an email I send:
SUBJECT: Your Website
Literally use that as your subject as the webmaster will feel compelled to open it out of curiosity.Hello! My name is Travis Van Slooten and I discovered your website doing a search for “effective acne treatment” You were ranked #1. Congrats;)
The reason I’m contacting you is because I’ve been managing a site in the same niche as you for the past year. My site, MyAcneTreatment.com, is ranked #2 for “effective acne treatment” and it’s been a great income earner for me.
Unfortunately, I’ve lost the time and interest for this particular niche so I’m selling it. I thought I’d give you a heads up about it since you may find it more useful than most. If you were to buy it, you’d have two websites in the top 10 ranking for the keyword, “effective acne treatment.” My site also ranks for a variety of other acne treatment keywords as well.
If you’re interested, I have it up for auction at Flippa.com and you can check it out here:
[insert link to Flippa auction]
I’m not going to insult you with a sales pitch, so I’ll just give you the highlights of the auction and you can decide if it’s the right investment for you:
Site Name: MyAcneTreatment.com
Average Monthly Unique Visitors: 3600 – all traffic is 100% free, organic traffic
Average Monthly NET Profits for the past 3 Months: $550
Rankings: The site ranks on the first page of Google for these keywords:
Effective acne treatment
Best acne cure
Getting rid of acneIn an effort to sell the site as quickly as possible, I’m running the auction for only 7 days and the bidding starts at $1.
At any rate, I just thought I’d let you know about it since you’d appreciate it more than most buyers.
Let me know if you have any questions about it. Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Travis Van Slooten
P.S. This is only going to be up for a few days, so if you have ANY interest at all, I encourage you to check it out before one of your competitors snaps it up:
[insert link to Flippa auction]
To make the email more effective, you’ll want to tweak it to fit each individual website owner that you’re contacting. This is not a cut and paste exercise. That’s why you want to spend a couple minutes at each site so that you can highlight something you like about their site in your email. This will appeal to the owner’s ego and will also show him that you’re a genuine person with a real proposal and not just a spammer.
By implementing this technique you’ll be able to send a list of highly targeted, highly motivated buyers to your auction listings!
