Selling Website Checklist

I’ve been selling off some of the sites that no longer fit into my overall plans, and thought I’d share with you what steps to take before transferring the site to the new owner.

Of course, you need to make sure the funds you get are real. So far, I sold my sites to people I’ve known online for a while, but if you sell on Flippa.com or other similar site, you need to make sure you are not dealing with a fraudster (is that even a word?)

Once you have the funds in your hands, its time to start the transfer process.

1. Initiate domain transfer at your domain registrar. The steps you need to take depend on your registrar: my domains are registered with GoDaddy and I needed the buyer’s customer name or number, and the email associated with their account.

2. Go through the site’s files and delete irrelevant ones. I don’t know about you, but if you owned the site you are selling for any length of time, you’re bound to find things that are not intended for others to see/have: personal pictures, paid plugins or programs, specific landing pages for PPC campaigns you tried, keyword research, and more. I found all of the above on the site I sold today.

3. Download the site to your computer, zip it and send it to your buyer. If it’s a WordPress site, make sure to backup the database, as well as the files.

With the sale of a site, there are other opportunities. For example, if the buyer is a first time website owner, they’ll need a good host, possibly an auto-responder, and sometimes even help getting going.

Make sure to have a list of the services you use, with affiliate links when appropriate, and not only will you help your buyer, buyer you’ll also make a little more money in the process.

If you sold a site, did you do anything different?