Selling Site In The Dating Niche - Need Help

17 replies
I'm looking to sell my site which is in the dating niche, but I'm having a hard time.

It's an ebook complete with sales and affiliate page. Top notch copy, design and original content written by me. It's basically a business in a box, ready to go type of thing.

Currently the site isn't getting traffic, but that's due to me not spending time on it. (Recently became a Dad and all.)

Conversions on paid traffic are good. Ranging from 3-6%.

I've invested over 20k into the site, however despite listing it for less than half that on flippa and freemarket, I'm not getting any bites.

I would give the link, but don't want to be flagged as spam.

What's the best way to sell a site of this nature?

Thanks.
#dating #niche #selling #site
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    No one here can help you at all without knowing the site. I realize you can not tell us the site for spam reasons.

    you could try a site called empireflippers they could look at the site and give you some feedback

    al
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Not many people are going to spend $10,000 plus on a site that's making $0.. When there are plenty of sites making money in that price range.

    IMO, the best thing to do would be to ramp up paid advertising until it's making $1,000 plus a month consistently for 5-6 months and then sell it.

    That'd get you back $5-6,000 and the would probably sell in the $8,000-10,000.

    But, as mentioned, tough to say without knowing the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    If i understand correctly, the site is getting zero traffic and i assume zero income? Unfortunately you are not going to get anything near what you are asking for if that's correct...
    IMO if you don't have the time or inclination to work on the site you should be prepared to write off that $20K investment...
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Your site is getting 0 traffic from the search engines. Why would anyone want to buy it anyway? People will only buy a website that is getting traffic to it on a daily basis.
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    If the site's not making any money, it wouldn't be worth anything with us. (EmpireFlippers) All of our sales are based on a multiple of net monthly profit.

    Even if you spent $20K on the site that doesn't inherently put any value into it from the buyer's perspective.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by Mike Mendell View Post

    What's the best way to sell a site of this nature?

    Mike,

    Unfortunately, you have plowed a heck of a lot of resources ($) into a project that needs to be finished in order for it to have value.

    The fact that you put 20K into the site is irrelevant at this point. The question is not how much value you have put into the site . . . it's how much value does the potential buyer see in the site?

    The site gets no traffic. Where's the value in that?

    The site makes no revenue. Where's the value in that?

    It would be fairly easy and cost less than $100 for someone to put up a sales web site, buy a PLR ebook on dating, and have what you are offering ready to go in a few hours.

    So why would someone buy your site for big bucks when they can have a similar site for just a few bucks?

    As others have said, do it yourself or pay someone to do it for you, but get the site drawing steady traffic and making consistent sales . . . that's the way to give it value that others will pay money for.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Mendell
    Why on earth would someone sell a site that is making a decent income every month?

    The whole point of selling a site is to take the assets that someone else created and do something with it. People pay five and even six figures for domain names alone. There's no traffic there, just the name, so clearly there's value there and people ARE willing to pay for it.

    Same concept can be applied to the sales copy, the brand name, the design and the product itself.

    Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

    It would be fairly easy and cost less than $100 for someone to put up a sales web site, buy a PLR ebook on dating, and have what you are offering ready to go in a few hours.

    So why would someone buy your site for big bucks when they can have a similar site for just a few bucks?
    By your logic why should anyone hire a copywriter to write a salesletter for $10,000? A PLR salesletter would do the same thing, so why not do that and save yourself $9,900? Hell, why even create the product yourself? Just buy some PLR garbage that's written by someone who doesn't even know the niche and sell that.

    Starting with a finished product/salesletter is quite different than starting from scratch - especially from someone who is an expert in their niche. Saving all that time, money and hassle is worth something to someone who is thinking of getting into a niche but doesn't have the time or resources to start.

    What I'm offering is a top notch site/product that is ready to go. Obviously I don't expect to recoup my entire investment, but I have created assets that can be leveraged by someone with the right expertise. I can't see how a lack of traffic is the deciding factor when people pay insane amounts for individual pieces of an online business like the domain name or the sales letter - both of which don't come with any traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author kk075
    I think what everyone here is trying to say is that you need to drive traffic to your site, prove that it's a solid business model, make lots of money and then try to sell it for much more than 20k. That's your only chance of seeing your money back out of it.

    As a former writer in the dating niche, however, I can tell you that I can write an eBook, get a site built and optimize it in about 2-3 weeks on a $500-800 budget. Then I can reach out to one of the bigger players and have them drive their traffic to me for 50% commissions....which effectively costs me zero. So for $800 max, I believe I can easily surpass your $20k site in terms of value within the next month. And honestly, so could anyone...because the content itself is not valuable. The traffic and the marketing is where that comes in at.

    Hopefully that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Mendell
      Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

      As a former writer in the dating niche, however, I can tell you that I can write an eBook, get a site built and optimize it in about 2-3 weeks on a $500-800 budget. Then I can reach out to one of the bigger players and have them drive their traffic to me for 50% commissions....which effectively costs me zero. So for $800 max, I believe I can easily surpass your $20k site in terms of value within the next month. And honestly, so could anyone...because the content itself is not valuable. The traffic and the marketing is where that comes in at.
      This is quite possibly the most ridiculously thing I've ever read. I can't believe you wrote this.
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      • Profile picture of the author kk075
        Originally Posted by Mike Mendell View Post

        This is quite possibly the most ridiculously thing I've ever read. I can't believe you wrote this.
        Ridiculous? I think most would say that the most ridiculous thing they read today is that a site with zero traffic and zero profit is somehow worth $20,000. And most experienced marketers here, especially with experience within the dating niche, can surpass that on a shoestring budget in no time at all. It's no secret....except maybe to you.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Mendell
          Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

          Ridiculous? I think most would say that the most ridiculous thing they read today is that a site with zero traffic and zero profit is somehow worth $20,000. And most experienced marketers here, especially with experience within the dating niche, can surpass that on a shoestring budget in no time at all. It's no secret....except maybe to you.
          Right, because the big players in the dating niche are just going to send their traffic to anyone that contacts them who's thrown a dating product together for $800 in a couple of weeks.

          I'm not even a major player in the niche and I got hammered with requests from people to mail my list with their product. The major players guard their reputation like a hawk and are extremely selective in who they mail for. And for good reason. They know that mailing a junk product does more harm than good.

          That isn't a secret to most people... except maybe to you.
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          • Profile picture of the author kk075
            Originally Posted by Mike Mendell View Post

            Right, because the big players in the dating niche are just going to send their traffic to anyone that contacts them who's thrown a dating product together for $800 in a couple of weeks.

            I'm not even a major player in the niche and I got hammered with requests from people to mail my list with their product. The major players guard their reputation like a hawk and are extremely selective in who they mail for. And for good reason. They know that mailing a junk product does more harm than good.
            Are you kidding? That's exactly how it works if you have a great product that unique enough to plug and play.

            Bottom line- you came here for advice. I told you that you'll need to drive traffic through paid ads to show a history of profits, or you can partner with the big boys if you have a great product. That's your only two plays here and insulting me isn't going to change that.

            Make no mistake though, you've failed because you quit...and attacking someone who could have given you an in with the biggest publisher in the industry is nothing short of ridiculous. So I'll wish you luck and leave it at that.
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  • Profile picture of the author ClickMonkey
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Mendell
      Originally Posted by ClickMonkey View Post

      This is the best path forward (see below). Not only will you generate income, but you'll also build up documented results that will likely result in a higher sale price. At this point, it sounds like your website is capable of generating a positive ROI if you send traffic to it. And who knows... maybe you'll decide to just keep the site as a consistent moneymaker if pushing paid traffic to the site doesn't gobble up too much of your time and attention. BTW, congratulations on being a new dad!
      Thank you for your solid advice and kind words. I needed that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
    Here is the truth... if you feel that you spent over 20k building this site... well that's how much you've put into it, and that's what it's worth to YOU.

    But guess what? Nobody cares what you put into a site.

    People only care of what it will do for them and how much money it will bring them right away.

    In any business, people won't pay you for your hourly rate previous worked budgeted into the sale of that business.

    People pay you on the tested potential of income that the business will bring in - without doing any "extra" work. This means that people don't want to gamble on something that might or might not pay off.

    Would you put 10K on a business that is not bringing any income?

    Good luck man.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
    By the way, I have a website in the same niche as you, and I know it hurts when you spent so much on something and not get what it's truly worth.

    This doesn't mean you can't monetize it and eventually sell it. It just take time and being patient. I'll get around it to someday but for now I'm focusing on other sites.

    All the best to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
    If it's converting at 3-6% then why aren't you driving tons of traffic to it tight now?
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  • Profile picture of the author n3o
    outreach to bloggers in the dating niches & give them the book for free in exchange for free review
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