If you have managed to put together a reasonably profitable website, you have probably considered the notion of selling the site in order to make a lump sum profit. This is a natural progression in the web design process, and many people start out building sites with this intention in mind. It may not, however, always be to your advantage to let go of a site, while at times it may be an unrealized necessity. We will explore some of the reasons why you should – and should not – consider selling your website.

Evaluate Value Versus Time

Building a website is well known to be a fruitless endeavor; that is to say that you understand the risks of the venture flopping and the reality that no one will pay you to build a profitable venture for yourself from the ground up. It takes time and dedication to build a site, and you want to make sure you are getting the maximum potential value for it. Prior to any sale, consider how much you have spent on the website – in terms of man hours – and see how this correlates with the amount you are being offered for the site in question. If I’ve spent 500 hours building a website and someone offers me $500 for it, I will probably just keep my site and continue to attempt to generate revenue for myself.

Evaluate Market Conditions

Looking at it from a long term perspective, you must ask yourself: how valuable do you consider your website to be? For example, does the site have an established traffic base that generates revenue regardless of season or search engine preference, or is it primarily reliant on factors like these?  I have seen websites that generate a large amount of income through one method and one method only; I often avoid buying these as the slightest market condition can drastically change the financial productivity of the website. If you are considering the sale of your website and it falls into one of the categories mentioned above, then you may want to proceed with the sale before anything happens to affect its value.

Evaluate Your Site’s Future

Many will say that the long term value of a website is less crucial to its sale or asking price than with traditional businesses, and this statement is generally true. Nevertheless, these factors are just as important to you as a seller because of the potential value (or loss of value) that you may experience by holding out for a better future. Is your niche being encroached upon at a deafening rate? What is your PageRank looking like in the face of adversity (You can verify your PageRank with potential buyers by using Pingler’s Fake Rank Checker Tool)? Is your site growing at an unsustainable pace, requiring too much time on your part? All of these factors – despite having very different outcomes – can spell disaster for you and your site. Selling a site now can be a good hedge against future failure – whether that be through too much success or a series of failures.