Stumped. How to sell my business/site.

by OhNoes
10 replies
I have a blog that has a premium membership site where people can subscribe through either paypal or 1shoppingcart.

My paypal has many subscriptions.

I want to sell this business.

Here's my problem:

I don't think there's a way to transfer subscriptions and I'd lose a lot of subscribers if I try to get them to resubscribe again on another paypal.

Half of my subscribers are on paypal, the other half are on 1shoppingcart.

I don't think it will be a problem at all to transfer my 1shoppingcart profile to a new owner, but with paypal I'm stumped.

Here's why. If I give up my paypal account, is there any way of changing my social security number? Name? All the money I made would have to be reported to the IRS and I'd be sent a 1099 or whatever the number is in the mail.. I wouldn't want to be paying for the income that comes in after I sell the site.

So I'm starting to think that too sell this site, I'd have to sell the actual business as well? But that seems like a lot of hassle and most people don't want the actual business.. just the site... and to transfer a business to a new owner would take a lot of time and some money as well.

How would you approach this problem? Is there any way to change the paypal ssn/ein? name? etc?

Thanks!
#business or site #sell #stumped
  • Profile picture of the author payment proof
    This could cause an issue with the PayPal Privacy Policy unfortunately.

    Your subscribers on PayPal agreed to deal with you. I don't think PayPal would be willing to provide their information to another party. But you may want to contact PayPal to verify.
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  • Profile picture of the author cheech1981
    I'm not sure which membership software you are using, but if it's compatible with authorize.net maybe you can move all of your customers over to that? sure it would be a pain and you might have to pay someone to help handle the transfer, but then you'd be able to sell the business.
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  • Profile picture of the author mollymarkiewicz
    You should be able to sell your business including all your subscribers as a whole package, including your list. If you don't want to sell on Flippa, try Bizquest or Bizbuysell.

    You will need to contact Paypal directly for your other issues you have with them to make sure it is all legal. Try one of these numbers for paypal: 1-888-221-1161 or 1-402-935-2050.
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  • Profile picture of the author CodeBlueMe
    Flippa seems to be your best bet.
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    http://www.codeblue.me <--- Make 5.00 over and over again freely just by offering other members your services.
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  • Profile picture of the author markjose413
    Start a new business its not really so easy. We have every knowledge. The more you prepare, the more successful, the outcome means understanding the business, the potential buyers and valuation methodology.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ryan Salim
      I strongly agree with the opinion from markjose413

      Originally Posted by markjose413 View Post

      Start a new business its not really so easy. We have every knowledge. The more you prepare, the more successful, the outcome means understanding the business, the potential buyers and valuation methodology.
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  • Profile picture of the author Invert Planet
    hold up ... what's the point of selling the site if the subscribers / members are not included?

    Why not just sell the theme / skin? and keep the domain?
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
    If it's making enough to be worth your time, then sell the business and they can take over the Paypal account.

    If not, then it's not really going to be worth much to anyone as you can't transfer subscribers from Paypal.

    Your other option would be move to a transferable payment processor (e.g. Clickbank, 2Checkout) and move the subscribers from Paypal over to there and hope they don't all cancel.
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    I specialize in selling websites over $10,000 in value. No obligation, confidential valuation here.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedark
    Hello. I was in a similar position few years ago and I proposed to versions to the buyer:

    1. Sign a paper to agree that I will give him every money that comes from the subscription to the site.
    2. Figure out which is the cancellation rate, figure out how many payments I will get into my account from the old subscribers and reduce the selling price based on the final result.The max period will be 3 years. He has to agree that he will continue to provide the service and support to your subscribers too.

    If you have a good business, and analyzing the data in your paypal account, you can easily estimate how much money you will make from the active subscriptions.

    The buyer agreed to the second version.
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    Automatically add affiliate links in your website content with Auto Affiliate Links

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  • Profile picture of the author vishwa
    You can sell it on flippa or you can sell it on sedo as well. I had used Sedo to sell some of my domains and website and it is very convenient and reliable.
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    Techbizmasters.com- Blogging, Technology, and Digital Marketing
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