Fliptactics – Auction Day – Achieving Maximum Profit!

Written By Ben Johnson on 22 March 2010 2 People Commented

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Well this is the final post in the Fliptatics series and I really hope you've beenable to take something away from it, I know I've certainly enjoyed writing it. Inthis last post I would like to cover some of the things you should and should not bedoing on auction day in order for you to achieve maximum profit from your websitesale. The first thing which needs to be said and probably the most obvious is that if you don't have a fairly decent site to sell then no amount of sales copy orjargon is going to get you a good price and I'm sure you wouldn't expect it toeither.

The first thing you absolutely must do before you even begin to construct yourlisting for Flippa is familiarise yourself with all of the selling fees which you can potentially incur. A full list of the auction fees can be seen here:http://flippa.com/pricing. For a standard basic listing it's going to cost you $19 which is payable immediately when the auction is created, in addition there is a 5% success fee which must be paid after the auction completes. The success fee is capped at $498 and can be split between the seller and the buyer or paid in full byeither party.

There are several listing upgrades available which, if you purchased all of them,would cost you over $100, but if you are selling a high priced site then many ofthose upgrades may certainly be worth the investment, particularly the front page listing.

So what things can you do to help you achieve maximum profit?

Choose Your Listing Options & Upgrades
As I've said above you need to be very mindful of what your listing is actuallygoing to end up costing you, if your listing costs you $25 then what sale price toyou NEED in order to make a profit, taking into account your time, the cost of thedomain and hosting. Personally, I would say most sites are going to need to make at least $100 in order to achieve any profit, especially considering that building and selling the site is going to cost you:

A Basic Example For A Site Which Sells At $100

$19 for a basic listing (Without any upgrades)
$5 success fee, providing you pay 100% of the fee
$10 for the cost of the domain- $20 for hosting, $5 a month for 4 months
Your time; this is however long you've spent working on the site
Any promotional packages you have paid for such as link building, content etc

Total Cost: At Least $50 without your time and promotional packages.

Now I'm not suggesting you’re going to sell a site for $100, I would hope for the effort it takes to build a decent site which products a monthly income you would achieve A LOT more than that from the sale but it does show how important it is that you consider this before selling.

When listing a site on Flippa, if I think the site has enough profit in it then Iwill purchase the highlighted listing and bolded upgrades, if you can only afford one I would choose the highlighted option.

Choosing A Powerful Title

The title you choose for your listing needs to stand out to visitors, it's no goodusing a crappy title which gains you no interest whatsoever. I saw one looking through Flippa which said "VATIF.com is for sale", now for me that tells meabsolutely nothing at all; it doesn't tell me what the site is, how much it'searning or why I should even click through and spend any time even looking at the listing. Your title needs to GRAB the attention of the reader and where possible include the following:

What the site is, what type of site?
If it's high PR i.e. 3 or above then mention it
If it's got high revenue per month, mention it
Where does the revenue come from?
Try and be catchy e.g. MASSIVE POTENTIAL, FANTASTIC EARNER etc etc

A Thorough Description

When you are creating your product description for your sale be as thorough as youpossibly can, this is your number 1 chance to sell your website so 'BIG IT UP' and don't hold back. That being said it's really important you are also completely honest about the site, its traffic, its earnings and its revenue. Tell the potential buyers:

What platform is the site built on?
What the site is and what its primary revenue stream is?
Why the site is so FANTASTIC?
How easy the site is to maintain?
Where is the site hosted and how can it be transferred, will this cost them anything? You can also provide an up sell here for your own hosting if you want to
Be honest about why you are selling it, if it's a good site with good earnings people will be suss about why you want to sell it
Tell them where the traffic comes from, if it's SE traffic then tell them that!
Where possible be as transparent as possible by providing revenue and trafficscreen shots, remember with Adsense you should NOT be revealing anything but the campaign name and the earnings otherwise you will be in direct violation of yourGoogle T & C's and stand to loose your account.

Choosing Your Payment Method

I personally like using Paypal but if I think the site is going to achieve anything above $500 then I will tend to ask for Escrow as a method of payment.

Paying The Success Fee

As mentioned above there is a success fee which is calculated as 5% of your finalsale price up to a maximum of $498, Flippa gives you the option of asking the buyer to pay it, splitting it 50/50 or paying the full amount. My recommendation would beto ALWAYS pay the full amount, don't expect your buyer to pay it!

Using Tags

As discussed in a previous post, tags are a fantastic way of getting traffic so iftags already exist in the Flippa database related to your website then use them. Creating your own new tags is okay but remember that you aren't going to get the extra traffic from the users who are notified via the tag/email system on Flippa. For example, if your site makes a good deal of revenue from Adsense then use the Adsense tag, if the site is built on WordPress then use the WordPress tag.

Setting A Price And A Reserve

You have to be reasonable when setting your starting price, personally I have found the most effective way of achieving the most profit is by using a $1 starting priceand a $2 reserve. This enables you to attract interest and more bids, the more attention and bids you get then you will appear in the 'Most Active' list which getsa good deal of traffic and will further promote your listing for no extra cost. Of course you need to be careful using this method, if your site is worth A LOT ofmoney and you have A LOT of time, effort and money invested in it yourself then youwouldn't want to use this method.

Answering Questions

Always try to answer your questions as friendly and as accurately as possible, evenif your listing clearly states something they have asked don't be rude about it,your listing isn't the place for the RTFM attitude!

Essentially that's all there is to it. Selling a site is not rocket science and itcan be fun, especially if you achieve more than you expected.

Have you sold your first site yet? If so, care to share your listing tactics?