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Question about selling my domain/WordPress site...

by ksmusselman
17 replies
Hi all -

When I bought my domain name last year, I registered it with hyphens in it because the non-hyphen domain name was taken.

My site is Cheap Hockey Sticks & More It's SEO optimized, has content, has a couple of affiliate links and advertisements and has AdSense in place. A new owner simply has to replace some affiliate IDs and AdSense codes with their own.

The competing site, CheapHockeySticks.com is allegedly a Premium site with a price tag of $1,549. The site has nothing. One page with a golf photo on it, Alexa rank of 19+ million compared to mine with an Alexa rank of 1.3 million (up from 3+ million in less than 3 months).

My site's main keyword is hitting at #11 on Google right now and is slowly creeping up in rank for other keyword phrases.

So, what are the chances of my domain/site becoming "premium" to where it would command a nice price point? And how do I go about selling it?

Thanks!
#domain or wordpress #question #selling #site
  • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
    Where did you get the figure of $1,549 from? If it's from one of the valuation sites all over the place, then it's probably just a made-up number.

    Site value usually has many more factors taken into account, such as domain age, backlinks, traffic, revenue etc. etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

      Where did you get the figure of $1,549 from? If it's from one of the valuation sites all over the place, then it's probably just a made-up number.

      Site value usually has many more factors taken into account, such as domain age, backlinks, traffic, revenue etc. etc.
      When you go to CheapHockeySticks.com, there's a block at the top right corner that says Buy This Domain Now for $1549 at FabulousDomains.com

      When I went to register that name at GoDaddy, I got this "This Premium Domain Name can be purchased for $1,549.00."

      So I went to that website and found a "nothing" site with the FabulousDomains notice at the top.

      So how are these people selling a domain name for that amount of money? Not that it's sold, mind you. It's been sitting there like that, doing nothing, for about a year.
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  • Profile picture of the author Elsoft
    Becoming Premium needs a lot of traffic and good reputation and possibly the age of the website.So,it may be sometime your site/domain becomes premium.If you looking for selling your website,then flippa is the best place.Warrior forum also has a place to domain,Im not sure how it fares though.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Elsoft View Post

      Becoming Premium needs a lot of traffic and good reputation and possibly the age of the website.So,it may be sometime your site/domain becomes premium.If you looking for selling your website,then flippa is the best place.Warrior forum also has a place to domain,Im not sure how it fares though.
      It's got to be the age of the domain name only because the site is nothing. It doesn't even relate to hockey; it's got golf club graphics on it, no traffic, no content, nothing, but at the top and bottom of the page, it says, "cheaphockeysticks.com is For Sale for $1,549"

      Cannot figure it out... :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
    Almost every link on that page is a sponsored link. And, if that particular domain gets lots of type-ins, then why should they be in a rush to sell it? It's only costing them $10 a year to maintain the name (or less).

    The price tag they put on it means nothing unless someone is prepared to pay that for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

      Almost every link on that page is a sponsored link. And, if that particular domain gets lots of type-ins, then why should they be in a rush to sell it? It's only costing them $10 a year to maintain the name (or less).

      The price tag they put on it means nothing unless someone is prepared to pay that for it.
      Got it - thanks for explaining that!
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    • Profile picture of the author JamieSEO
      Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

      Almost every link on that page is a sponsored link. And, if that particular domain gets lots of type-ins, then why should they be in a rush to sell it? It's only costing them $10 a year to maintain the name (or less).

      The price tag they put on it means nothing unless someone is prepared to pay that for it.
      Sometimes I go on domain buying sprees and only end up really focusing on a few of them. The others I put up for sale at whatever amount I feel like.

      My pricing is usually based on how likely I am to do something with the domain name later, or how much potential I think it has based on what I would do with it.

      For most domains that are listed for sale the owner is willing to accept a much, much lower price than they have listed.

      Really the value of absolutely anything is "what someone is willing to pay for it".

      Personally I do not even worry about if a domain is considered premium or not. Really your buyer is only going to care about how much money the site has coming in, and how much earning potential it has.
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  • Profile picture of the author omk
    As long as that other .com site exists, you'll never get the maximum. The .com is always potentially worth more, if you were to own it. The only thing you can do is continue kiccking azz with your hyphenated site and climb up the rankings. Then someday, maybe you'll have enough money to buy the .com version and bring everything together.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by omk View Post

      As long as that other .com site exists, you'll never get the maximum. The .com is always potentially worth more, if you were to own it. The only thing you can do is continue kiccking azz with your hyphenated site and climb up the rankings. Then someday, maybe you'll have enough money to buy the .com version and bring everything together.
      That's an idea. Mine's a .com also, it's just hyphenated. :rolleyes:

      This was actually supposed to be my son's site (About Cheap Hockey Sticks | Cheap Hockey Sticks & More) when he got laid off last year, but he got another job and didn't have time to work with it, so I took it over - knowing little to nothing about hockey except what I remember from him playing years ago.

      Once in a while I'll come across a solid keyword and do an article then send it to him to make sure it sounds right before publishing it.

      I just got curious as to how a simple web page with virtually nothing on it could have an asking price of over $1500.

      So, how does one go about getting sponsored listings? I mean, I could "say" that any one of my listings are sponsored too; doesn't mean that they are, right?

      Do you email people and ask, "Hey would you like to sponsor this website?" Or, "I see you have a sponsored listing on X site. Our site is maintained and getting traffic...."

      If it's that easy, I should be able to get some sponsored listings too, especially since I'm getting traffic and my site is continually updated and really DOES have something to do with hockey.

      Any opinions? Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author emdubl
        If you can show them solid traffic numbers and good positioning in Google, it can't hurt to email a few sites and ask if they would like to advertise on your site.

        Maybe play around with the placement of some of your adsense ads as well, to increase your click through rates.

        I also see ads for coffee and for business cars in the side bar. Those are probably just taking up space.
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by emdubl View Post

          If you can show them solid traffic numbers and good positioning in Google, it can't hurt to email a few sites and ask if they would like to advertise on your site.

          Maybe play around with the placement of some of your adsense ads as well, to increase your click through rates.

          I also see ads for coffee and for business cars in the side bar. Those are probably just taking up space.
          The current ads along the side are from Blogvertise.com I'm usually pretty picky about what I put on there but I thought the coffee was good, you know, caffeine kick between games? LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
    No, it's like Adsense, or similar. There are search engines who let you re-publish their listings for a percentage of their revenue. It's pennies, but with enough clicks you can earn a reaonsable income.

    An easy fix is to park your domain with Google Adsense and let them do it. Or another quick fix option is to auto blog the site and see what happens. Monetize it of course!

    Or, if you want to build a solid income, then write or acquire enough unique content and be consistent, then you should eventually see some rank increase. Then you can decide if you want to sell, or maintain it.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

      No, it's like Adsense, or similar. There are search engines who let you re-publish their listings for a percentage of their revenue. It's pennies, but with enough clicks you can earn a reaonsable income.

      An easy fix is to park your domain with Google Adsense and let them do it. Or another quick fix option is to auto blog the site and see what happens. Monetize it of course!

      Or, if you want to build a solid income, then write or acquire enough unique content and be consistent, then you should eventually see some rank increase. Then you can decide if you want to sell, or maintain it.
      I was actually thinking about auto-blogging but I was concerned with crappy content showing up. I'll do some research on parking the domain with Google because I've never heard of that before.

      Meanwhile, I just launched a Twitter account for the site to see if that helps too.

      Thanks for your help!
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  • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
    I think it all depends on your end goal. I mean, if you're going to sell it, how much time and money will you plough into it, and what return will you get? If you auto blog it, it might gain some exposure, then you can sell it and the new owner can decide how they take it forward.

    If you're going to run it yourself, then unique well-written content is the way to go, as this will stand you in good stead for the future of the site.

    Only park it if you intend to ditch everything you've done already. Unless you have vast amounts of visitors, you'll unlikely see a good return. I only park domains that are not being used for anything else.
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    • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
      Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

      I think it all depends on your end goal. I mean, if you're going to sell it, how much time and money will you plough into it, and what return will you get? If you auto blog it, it might gain some exposure, then you can sell it and the new owner can decide how they take it forward.

      If you're going to run it yourself, then unique well-written content is the way to go, as this will stand you in good stead for the future of the site.

      Only park it if you intend to ditch everything you've done already. Unless you have vast amounts of visitors, you'll unlikely see a good return. I only park domains that are not being used for anything else.
      Okay, I won't park it then. I don't want what I've done to just get tossed in the trash. I would like to get some return on it, even if it's just a couple hundred bucks. So I guess maybe a combination of auto-blogging and my own content to get the traffic up to where it'll bring me something whenever I sell it. I can't see writing about hockey forever since it's not really my thing. LOL

      I did just today set up Twitter and twAitter accounts for it so that might help a little bit; every little bit helps, right? But I've got 4 other sites/blogs that I need to keep working on too. I wasn't expecting to have this site but since I paid for the domain I wasn't going to waste it. :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
        Originally Posted by ksmusselman View Post

        Okay, I won't park it then. I don't want what I've done to just get tossed in the trash. I would like to get some return on it, even if it's just a couple hundred bucks. So I guess maybe a combination of auto-blogging and my own content to get the traffic up to where it'll bring me something whenever I sell it. I can't see writing about hockey forever since it's not really my thing. LOL

        I did just today set up Twitter and twAitter accounts for it so that might help a little bit; every little bit helps, right? But I've got 4 other sites/blogs that I need to keep working on too. I wasn't expecting to have this site but since I paid for the domain I wasn't going to waste it. :rolleyes:
        Exactly, don't waste it. I usually setup a Twitter account for sites I'm going to sell, and sometimes I setup Stumbleupon and Digg accounts too. Get following people on each platform, re-bookmark, re-tweet links, and hopefully some of your links will get distributed too.

        I use the Twitter Tools Wordpress plugin to auto tweet every post, plus some content plugins to generate the posts. I don't fully automate because I want to moderate the posts the get published.

        I find on Flippa that if the name is good and reasonable traffic, the site gets between $100 - $200, but if you can show some income, it will improve the value.

        Maybe try some article marketing to boost the SERP ranking before selling it.
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        • Profile picture of the author ksmusselman
          Originally Posted by Roger Mayne View Post

          Exactly, don't waste it. I usually setup a Twitter account for sites I'm going to sell, and sometimes I setup Stumbleupon and Digg accounts too. Get following people on each platform, re-bookmark, re-tweet links, and hopefully some of your links will get distributed too.

          I use the Twitter Tools Wordpress plugin to auto tweet every post, plus some content plugins to generate the posts. I don't fully automate because I want to moderate the posts the get published.

          I find on Flippa that if the name is good and reasonable traffic, the site gets between $100 - $200, but if you can show some income, it will improve the value.

          Maybe try some article marketing to boost the SERP ranking before selling it.
          Yup - I've been doing most of that. I also registered the blog, along with two of my other blogs, with FreeTrafficSystem. I'll be monitoring all the posts that come in through any type of auto blogging I do with them.

          It's funny; we were just down to see my son and the family last night and I told them about the blog progress and stuff. I told him, "Hey, feel free anytime to pop over there and post something, or email me something to post about." He says, "Yeah right, mom. I'm working overtime, have the kid, the wife and another one on the way. I'm lucky if I can even get ON a computer!" LOL

          So the blog's mine now. ROFL

          Thanks for all your help!!
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