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How to sell my lead generation website to my partner.

by joethegreat
12 replies
Hello,

I have a lead generation website that I have been running for 8yrs. For 7yrs I had an affiliate program banners on the site, now I am dealing with a big corporation directly. My lead generation is in a billion-dollar financial niche, my domain name is a category killer domain name. I have the plural version, their competitor has the singular version of my domain name. I signed up with this company in June, I sold a total of $20,000 to 4 people. Not counting this quarter. I made $80 per sell, I only get paid if the lead turns into a customer. My traffic comes from Google, and direct navigation.

I am tired of running the site. I want to sell the site to the company that's advertising on my site. My question to you guys is, how should I go about letting them know the site is for sale? Who should I talk to? Should I tell the manager of the partnership program, should I get a broker? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
#generation #lead #partner #sell #website
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by joethegreat View Post

    Hello,

    I have a lead generation website that I have been running for 8yrs. For 7yrs I had an affiliate program banners on the site, now I am dealing with a big corporation directly. My lead generation is in a billion-dollar financial niche, my domain name is a category killer domain name. I have the plural version, their competitor has the singular version of my domain name. I signed up with this company in June, I sold a total of $20,000 to 4 people. Not counting this quarter. I made $80 per sell, I only get paid if the lead turns into a customer. My traffic comes from Google, and direct navigation.

    I am tired of running the site. I want to sell the site to the company that's advertising on my site. My question to you guys is, how should I go about letting them know the site is for sale? Who should I talk to? Should I tell the manager of the partnership program, should I get a broker? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
    I am going to be the bearer of bad news... The site is not worth what you think it is... I am sure you are thinking in 6 months my leads have generated $20,000 in sales... so logically speaking you are thinking it will create $40,000 in sales in a year. run that up across 3 years and I will assume you are thinking the site is worth $120,000 give or take.

    To some extent, the math is correct. However there is a great flaw in your pipe dreams. the flaw being a word.. and that word is TradeMark. Basically at any point with or without the "S" the competitor can send you a cease and desist, and it all goes bye bye.

    No broker will sell it for you.. the company you are selling leads to currently wont buy it, and to anyone else ( the company you are currently selling to included ) the site is nothing but a liability. To be honest I am suprised the company you are dealing with currently is actually buying leads from you. Its really that shady.

    The best you can do is get it while the getting is good... crank up your SEO efforts and make as much as you can while you can. because the reality is it will be short lived.

    Sorry.. and best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
      I think you've taken a pretty harsh position in your judgement of it being a "shady" operation, without the necessary information to back up that position.

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      However there is a great flaw in your pipe dreams. the flaw being a word.. and that word is TradeMark. Basically at any point with or without the "S" the competitor can send you a cease and desist, and it all goes bye bye.
      The "great flaw" isn't a flaw at all, unless there is in fact, a TradeMark.

      Unlike a Copyright, a TradeMark must be registered. A TradeMark does not exist UNLESS it has been registered, and nothing in the OP indicates that there is an existing trademark, much less any trademark infringement.

      To the OP:

      I'm making an assumption here, but my guess is that your customer is buying leads from you specifically because their business is in selling to those leads - NOT in generating leads. If you are going to discontinue providing leads, they would probably look to other lead sources rather than buying your business and then having to run that business in addition to their existing business.
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      • Profile picture of the author joethegreat
        Hello and thanks for your reply. No trademarks on both of the domain name. No shady practices too, I don't conduct business that way. I only get paid if the lead turns into a client. They probably don't need the site. Maybe the can use the domain name, my name explains their business sector. Thanks for your feedback.



        Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

        I think you've taken a pretty harsh position in your judgement of it being a "shady" operation, without the necessary information to back up that position.



        The "great flaw" isn't a flaw at all, unless there is in fact, a TradeMark.

        Unlike a Copyright, a TradeMark must be registered. A TradeMark does not exist UNLESS it has been registered, and nothing in the OP indicates that there is an existing trademark, much less any trademark infringement.

        To the OP:

        I'm making an assumption here, but my guess is that your customer is buying leads from you specifically because their business is in selling to those leads - NOT in generating leads. If you are going to discontinue providing leads, they would probably look to other lead sources rather than buying your business and then having to run that business in addition to their existing business.
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      • Profile picture of the author dsimms
        Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

        I think you've taken a pretty harsh position in your judgement of it being a "shady" operation, without the necessary information to back up that position.



        The "great flaw" isn't a flaw at all, unless there is in fact, a TradeMark.

        Unlike a Copyright, a TradeMark must be registered. A TradeMark does not exist UNLESS it has been registered, and nothing in the OP indicates that there is an existing trademark, much less any trademark infringement.

        To the OP:

        I'm making an assumption here, but my guess is that your customer is buying leads from you specifically because their business is in selling to those leads - NOT in generating leads. If you are going to discontinue providing leads, they would probably look to other lead sources rather than buying your business and then having to run that business in addition to their existing business.
        and from which country do you get these facts?

        The moment you start promoting your brand does establish a trademark, by actually filing a trademark, then you are granted more rights, and makes your trademark stronger in the event you end up in a courtroom.

        and trademark litigation can reach $20k very quickly, and get easily reach $100k+ depending on how complex the case can get.

        and we really do not know the facts of the case. the other company may not be interested in pursuing trademark litigation, and if they are actually doing business with the other person, then it would not be a very strong case to begin with, not only that, we do not know the financials of the company, however, if they are doing business with the other person, then why would they go into trademark litigation which can easily run both paries into the negative, then no profits for either side, not only that, the financials of the other company maybe no better then the party they are doing business with....

        I am not an attorney, and I don't care.

        Have a great day.

        good luck

        IMO, a company also has 5 years to bring a trademark case against the trademark infringer, so if the OP has been running his site for 7-8 years, then any trademark rights the other party may have had has expired. Even if they brought a case, then it would not be very strong, and the op could make the argument, they had their chance. I am sorry to say, trademark rights do have a time limit, and if you fail to exercise those rights, then you lose those rights.

        not all cases would fall under trademark either, let's say one party uses student loan, and the other party uses student loans, both names/terms are generic in nature, since his story is very vague, we just don't know.
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    • Profile picture of the author joethegreat
      Hello and thanks for your reply. Last time I checked which was today there is no trademark on the singular and plural domain name. My domain name is a category killer domain name. There's nothing shady about my lead gen site. Why would I or anyone else run a shady business with a category killer domain name? I am not in the business to scam people. The company that has the singular domain name is just forwarding it to their main website. Again, thanks for your reply.




      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      I am going to be the bearer of bad news... The site is not worth what you think it is... I am sure you are thinking in 6 months my leads have generated $20,000 in sales... so logically speaking you are thinking it will create $40,000 in sales in a year. run that up across 3 years and I will assume you are thinking the site is worth $120,000 give or take.

      To some extent, the math is correct. However there is a great flaw in your pipe dreams. the flaw being a word.. and that word is TradeMark. Basically at any point with or without the "S" the competitor can send you a cease and desist, and it all goes bye bye.

      No broker will sell it for you.. the company you are selling leads to currently wont buy it, and to anyone else ( the company you are currently selling to included ) the site is nothing but a liability. To be honest I am suprised the company you are dealing with currently is actually buying leads from you. Its really that shady.

      The best you can do is get it while the getting is good... crank up your SEO efforts and make as much as you can while you can. because the reality is it will be short lived.

      Sorry.. and best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author cherrybowl
    On side note, $80 per sell sounds super low ball, when they're not paying upfront and it's 100% commission. Not sure if it's business or personal financing but either way, those products tend to be bigger tickets. I know with short term business funding, avg is 25- -25K per deal/sale. SBA is avg 150K fro deal. Unless its small personal loans. Student debt should also pay you much more as the debt is also usually above 20K. Insurance should be higher as well.

    When you say you did 20,000 in sales, what was the revenue on those sales?





    Originally Posted by joethegreat View Post

    Hello,

    I have a lead generation website that I have been running for 8yrs. For 7yrs I had an affiliate program banners on the site, now I am dealing with a big corporation directly. My lead generation is in a billion-dollar financial niche, my domain name is a category killer domain name. I have the plural version, their competitor has the singular version of my domain name. I signed up with this company in June, I sold a total of $20,000 to 4 people. Not counting this quarter. I made $80 per sell, I only get paid if the lead turns into a customer. My traffic comes from Google, and direct navigation.

    I am tired of running the site. I want to sell the site to the company that's advertising on my site. My question to you guys is, how should I go about letting them know the site is for sale? Who should I talk to? Should I tell the manager of the partnership program, should I get a broker? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
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    • Profile picture of the author joethegreat
      $20K in sales. Thanks for your feedback.


      Originally Posted by cherrybowl View Post

      On side note, $80 per sell sounds super low ball, when they're not paying upfront and it's 100% commission. Not sure if it's business or personal financing but either way, those products tend to be bigger tickets. I know with short term business funding, avg is 25- -25K per deal/sale. SBA is avg 150K fro deal. Unless its small personal loans. Student debt should also pay you much more as the debt is also usually above 20K. Insurance should be higher as well.

      When you say you did 20,000 in sales, what was the revenue on those sales?
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Lets clarify a few things....

    #1 A trademark is NOT generally the site name ( but could be ), but would be closer tied to the business name itself.

    #2 Contrary to apparent popular belief.. NO a trademark DOES NOT in fact need to be registered. there are infact 2 to 3 levels of " TradeMark " TM ( the one most of us see most indicates UNREGISTERED. an R says yes we have gone through the process and there is a lessor used. SM which indicates again an unregistered " Service Mark " Which in truth given what I know about this situation would be a more accurate term to use.

    A very interesting point to be made here is: " The law considers a trademark to be a form of property. Proprietary rights in relation to a trademark may be established through actual use in the marketplace, or through registration of the mark with the trademarks office (or "trademarks registry") of a particular jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, trademark rights can be established through either or both means.


    So basically I stand with my initial statement... using the exact or so damn close it hurts " business name " in the same sector of business, and actually competing against said business... You are more than treading on Service or Trade Mark infringement.. - are you aware that Trademarks are seperated by classes. there happen to be 45 of them. This allows for say a clothing maker to use a name, and say a print shop to use the same name. But 2 business' in the same category doing the same thing... so yeah, SHADY is a word I would use.

    Please note I am not an attorney. Please also note I do have a few Registered names.. I also use a few unregistered names using both the TM and SM monickers. Not that they are actually needed within the juristiction that I operate in. What i lack in a degree ( Law Degree ), I make up for it in real world experience and education on the subject.

    That being said.... You might want to conuslt a local attorney that specializes in TradeMark law and see exactly where you stand.

    Best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
    As pointed out by both savidge4 and dsimms there is, in fact, a form of "trademark" available without registration. The US Patent and Trademark Office identifies an unregistered trademark as a "common law" trademark - but it is very limited in scope and enforceability.

    There is also state registration, which provides more rights than the "common law" trademark, but only within the borders of that one state.

    Common law trademark (no registration whatsoever) rights exist only for the specific area where the mark is used (i.e. city/county rights).

    ref: Basic Facts About Trademarks (see pp. 10-11)

    However, owning a federal trademark registration on the Principal Register provides a number of significant advantages over common law rights alone, including:
    • A legal presumption of your ownership of the mark and your exclusive right to use the mark
      nationwide on or in connection with the goods/services listed in the registration (whereas a
      state registration only provides rights within the borders of that one state, and common law
      rights exist only for the specific area where the mark is used);
    • Public notice of your claim of ownership of the mark;
    • Listing in the USPTO's online databases;
    • The ability to record the U.S. registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent
      importation of infringing foreign goods;
    • The right to use the federal registration symbol "®";
    • The ability to bring an action concerning the mark in federal court; and
    • The use of the U.S. registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries.
    Given the limited use and enforceability, "common law" and state registration just don't seem applicable when considering the global nature of the internet.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by Sid Hale View Post

      Common law trademark (no registration whatsoever) rights exist only for the specific area where the mark is used (i.e. city/county rights).
      This is a half truth at best.. look at: https://www.lexology.com/library/det...1-2c2013be7e92 and more specifically the section below:

      How are rights in unregistered marks established?
      The owner of a distinctive and non-functional mark can establish common law rights by using the mark in commerce. Common law trademark rights are enforceable in state and federal courts based on the Lanham Act. The owner of an unregistered trademark can use the mark with the designation 'TM' (trademark) or 'SM' (service mark), which serves as notice to the public of the trademark owner's claim of rights.


      And one sees if the use of the TM or SM is in place... The legal rights goto state AND Federal levels. IF the OP is talking about a company name - just with an "S" added to the end... and the Logo of the business name they are ripping off does indeed have the TM or SM moniker we again fall right back onto SHADY.

      But forget law for a moment... there is company A and company B... you are using the name of company A in your URL and selling leads to company B... Its just wrong There really is no ands ifs or buts.

      Regardless of our legal prowess here... back to what the OP wants to know... the site basically has no value overall... it just doesn't matter how much was earned from the lead that was provided.. it only matters what the sites income was.. and we are talking $80 here... even at $800 for the year, the site does not hold much traction in terms of value.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        This is a half truth at best.. look at: https://www.lexology.com/library/det...1-2c2013be7e92 and more specifically the section below:

        How are rights in unregistered marks established?
        The owner of a distinctive and non-functional mark can establish common law rights by using the mark in commerce. Common law trademark rights are enforceable in state and federal courts based on the Lanham Act. The owner of an unregistered trademark can use the mark with the designation 'TM' (trademark) or 'SM' (service mark), which serves as notice to the public of the trademark owner's claim of rights.
        Apparently your article was easier to read than the ebook I posted from the US Patent and Trademark Office, but (given its brevity) you should have read the whole article.

        The paragraph just above the one in the lexology article you quoted reads:

        What legal protections are available to unregistered trademarks?

        An unregistered trademark (also known as a common law trademark) is protectable under Section 43 of the Trademark (Lanham) Act (15 USC §1125). However, except in certain circumstances, unregistered trademark rights are limited in scope and enforceable only within the geographic region in which the trademark is used or is known by consumers. A significant difference between a registered trademark and an unregistered trademark is that the latter is not presumptively valid. Therefore, to sue for infringement of an unregistered trademark, the rights holder must prove that it owns a valid trademark.


        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        But forget law for a moment...
        ????
        but you called the OP "shady"?
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Richards
    Are you operating in the alternative lending industry?
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