Many people, whether clients or just friends, ask me why do people sell websites anyway. They understand that a website that is not profitable (but is not making losses either) ought to be sold, but why would one sell a profitable website when it is generating a consistent revenue?
To explain this a little bit, I will talk about Bogmil's network of websites. As you probably know, we own many websites that we operate, and some of them are profitable while others are not. Now our policy is to not sell websites that have month-to-month marginal profit; put it simply, we do not sell websites that have their profit increasing from month to month. However, once we have reached a what we believe is the top of the mountain in terms of profits, we then consider a selling strategy for a website. Note that we do not always sell a website that has its profits maximized - we often simply keep them in our network and have them bring in constant revenue.
But, the question remains unanswered: why do people sell profitable websites? Well, there are several reasons for that and we'll look at a few:
1. Need for funds
Sometimes stuff happens and people are in an emergency need for funds. If you live in the US, a medical bill may present an unexpected expense. Perhaps your car broke down badly and you need money to fix it. Selling your website could be a good idea for getting the funds you need, rather than, for example, borrowing money and paying enormous interest rates. The majority of website owners do not strictly depend on the income of the website to stay alive, and those who do (like us) usually have a network of websites, so selling one or two websites from the network maybe wouldn't have critical consequences.
2. Cash Injection
Starting a new project, whether it is related to the "online world" or not, can require a tremendous amount of effort and money. Again, instead of borrowing money from a bank, perhaps selling a website would be a good idea. This way you will have both the funds to kick start your project and the time that you would have otherwise invested in maitaining the website you just sold.
3. That's my job!
There are many people (entreprenurs) out there who do that for a living - they flip websites. In other words, they buy "abandoned" websites for some small amount (often as little as $100), modify it, market it, wait a few months for the profits to start pouring in, and then sell it as an established website for 50+ times the original price. Bogmil has done this in the past and it has performed great! Unfortunately, far too often the sellers have no actualy interest in the website - they are just there to profit from it. This has resulted in a huge decrease in the quality of websites being "flipped" which has in turn greatly affected the demand and thus lowering the price of those websites to the point where it sometimes is no longer worth it.
4. That's all I can do for it
Many years ago a coach of the Red Star Footbal Club from Belgrade, Serbia took his team to win the European championship league and then to the World Cup. They won the first place there as well. The first thing he (the coach) did when they got back home was sign signing a resignation form. Why? He simply said "These good men are now #1 in the world. I cannot think of any higher goal than that; thus, I can only mess things up from now on". Things are similar with websites. Although there is virtually no revenue limit for a website, there is always a point when every website owner says "I don't know what else I can do to make it better". Deciding to sell the website at that point might also be a good idea. We advise you to consult with us and see if you should sell a website or not.
5. Not enough time / Lost Interest
This happens very often. Time is precious and limited. A website owner who has a standard job, a family, and hobbies may not have time to manage his website. Either that, or s/he has simply lost interest in the topic covered on the websites. While many online consultants would advise you to sell your website at this point, we urge you to talk to us - we have some of the best site management and maintenance people out there and we'd be glad to accept a profit share with your website. Please contact us.
