Have you bought or sold domains or websites or businesses?

[MichaelCorfman]

Over the years I've been involved in buying some domains and selling some domains. And I've also bought some websites and some businesses and am in the midst (fingers crossed) of selling a business right now.

So, I wonder how many others have been involved in buying and selling domains. Or websites, or businesses? And if you have, whether you have collected more money selling assets or spent more money buying them.

Besides just answering the poll question, I would encourage folks to share their perspectives. If you have bought or sold assets like these, what have you learned in the process that you would like to share with others? Are there rules of thumb you follow when deciding whether to buy or sell? Did it happen quickly, or did it take a long time?

Michael

[TravG]

I have sold a few websites over the last year. The biggest advice I can give when trying to sell a website is be patient, it takes some time to close the deal. I have been lucky in that all but one site I sold was to the same person and other than the first one we do not even require using a service like escrow.

Also do not sell to quickly, entertain some offers for at least a week. If you do a auction you will find the last day of the auction is when you will see people getting involved. Also forget using sites like Flippa. Most do not understand our business and it is a waste of time (in my experienvce anyway). I only list sales on here and PAL.

[baldidiot]

I've bought a few cheap domains and recently purchased a site, but it was mainly for the domain more than anything else. Wasn't quite sure how to vote though...

[GFPC]

I keep buying sites and domains but have never sold any. I generally try and pick up a site a month to add on to the portfolio sites which I feel our team has potential to turn a profit at a later date

[justbookies]

I have bought a few domains, mainly one-word domains, some of which got hammered in penguin anyway (maybe not because they were one word domains). I feel I have picked up some bargains. I sold one domain a few years back for £7k and it was one that nobody would think would be worth anything. If I had actually advertised it for £7k then I would have been laughed at, quite rightly. Just happened to be what they wanted and they were prepared to pay for it. I have too many websites to manage (though not planning to sell any) and I don't think number of sites is a measure of success. Get too many and you'll probably end up doing a bad job on them all. Now I am concentrating on just three sites properly. I sold a betting business in 2000 and certainly, as stated above, patience is the key. Very frustrating and you think it is never going to happen as it drags on for months with lawyers insisting on 90-page contracts.

[Doolally]

I've bought a few websites and domains in the past and continue to do so. I've been lucky and not run into any problems although there are plenty of con artists out there that will happily take your money for nothing in return. Most people, I believe, are normal honest Webmasters trying to scrape a living and won't give any problems.

Try to deal with people you know and trust, if not, make sure you use an escrow service like Sedo, etc.

[casinoplanet]

I own about a 100 domainnames which are for sale and every once in a while I get a sale on Sedo. No big business, but a nice buck earned

[MichaelCorfman]

And I've also bought some websites and some businesses and am in the midst (fingers crossed) of selling a business right now.

I've been fortunate to be on the money-making side of a number of transactions buying and selling, but wanted to wait until today to respond to my own poll question.

Today I was able to formally conclude the sale of a division of our business associated with a product we first developed around 20 years ago (www.softspy.com). It was a sale that made sense because it is a line of business that has no synergy with the other things we do. With that sale I can finally say that I have been involved in the receipt of more money selling business than I've been involved in spending buying them. That is because before I had just been involved in buying businesses and growing them, but had never actually sold one.

On the domain front, I was fortunate to buy some domains early that became valuable over time. So we sold casinoguide.com and bestcasino.com each for a very good chunk of change after just paying the registration fees to obtain them in the first place. My best domain selling story is that my brother had the domain name blueleaf.com that he used in his graphic design business. There was a company using that name that wanted to buy it perhaps a decade ago, and I negotiated a selling price a little over 10K for him. Not bad since at the time he had decided he was finished with the domain, and was not going to even pay the annual registration fee to keep it for another year.

Michael

[lots0]

never sold a site before, until now.

I am trying to sell a site.. but just getting frustrated at every turn.
It seems like I can't even give away a money making site...

[universal4]

Well if you're giving it away.....lol

Rick
Universal4

[GFPC]

never sold a site before, until now.

I am trying to sell a site.. but just getting frustrated at every turn.
It seems like I can't even give away a money making site...

The market seems very fragile right now and I notice the market for buying has been tight lately. Its nothing like it was before Panda. Maybe its better to hold off a bit - I mean till the new year and see if things change. I know allot of webmasters lost large % of income with Google marginalizing many in a big swoop. I know I had a significant offer several months back which in hindsight I should of taken - but I have this gut feeling things will return to normal soon - I say hold off!

[lowrisk]

I sold one site a few months back that I simply didn't have the time for, and did OK on it, well I made more than it cost me to setup lets say. However, in terms of buying, I haven't done a lot yet, but I have noticed that there's a lot of good domains that are just being "sat" on by fools. They've just got a page of rubbish content, probably to preserve PR or whatever. Shame, because in the hands of a good affiliate they would have good potential.

[universal4]

Well I am one of those idiots that sits on domains.

You say you sold some domains you didn't have time for but by the way you said it you didn't really make a whole lot either.

Well, for that I might as well "sit" on the domains and let em age. I may end up selling a few of them, but who knows.

A number of the names I sit on I have put up a one-page-wonder, and some I just put up a banner or two. You would be surprised that a few of these actually produce a player here or there throughout the year by doing so.

I have actually considered selling a few of my sports related domains since I have a number of them that I will likely not get to for quite a while, but since I have had some of them for 5 years or more, if I didn't get 200-500 for them I would rather let em sit with a single banner on them then to given em away.

Rick
Universal4

[lowrisk]

Nah when I say a one pager, I mean absolute TRASH. I didn't mean idiot as a generalisation of everybody who has a domain and sits on it, just a few real bad ones I have found. I should have been clearer

[universal4]

I understand, but I can sorta see the point of some who sit on names since they may see the value of the name.

One name I have, I had a single banner on it, 300 to 400 pixels by about 300 to 400.

Well I had totally forgot about it for a long time, and the banner image link had expired and gone bad.

Funny thing, last month that sucker with the dead image got me a sportsbook signup....with a bad image...once that happened the price went from about $100-$200 to $350 -$500 that day.

I have since launched a site on it so it is no longer under consideration for a domain only sale.

Rick
Universal4

[lowrisk]

Well, maybe I'm missing something, perhaps I need to start doing this with a few of my dormant domains.

[universal4]

Yea, I would consider one-page-wonders if you got the time to slap a few up.

I was kinda shocked a dead banner would do what it did but eh...no one thought they would take a game winning interception away from Green Bay either....lol

Rick
Universal4

[Smoking]

Never tried a one page wonder in the Gambling niche ,sounds like a nice idea.Will pick up a few domains on the next 99 cent sale

[ocreditor]

I see the value in buying domains for their domain name, or locale (country they are based in). In the long run, unless buying real expensive websites, this could be profitable, I don't see why not.

[brucegreenwood]

I used to try different things and so I end up buying 23 different domains and 5 web-hosting servers. Now most of them are of no use, I don't have much time to update them.