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How to sell a site securely?

by kenomen
10 replies
Hello warriors,

I've received an email from someone interested in buying one of my sites.

I built this site some time ago, published some articles, monetized with adsense, built a few backlinks and let it go alone, but it's getting about 50 unique visitors per day and earning some money but really not much. Anyway I'm happy as it's all on autopilot.

Now the thing is.... The guy offered 1600$ for the site. Obviously it seems like a good deal to me, but it really worries me that he is willing to pay that much for this site, so it scares me that he is trying to scam me.

What would be the best way to sell the site and avoid being scammed? I'm worried just in case he does a paypal chargeback once I transfer him the site.

I've heard about chargebacks and want to be safe.
#securely #sell #site
  • Profile picture of the author gingerhead
    I wouldn't recommend using Paypal for selling high-value sites, Escrow is far better as it protects the seller against chargebacks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Starfusion
    Just a word of warning..... Make sure you do checks on the buyer first, as the above poster said use escrow.com to protect yourself. And don't transfer the site fully until the buyer accepts the merchandise.

    Hold the passwords and some of the crucial details until the transfer is complete.

    Be very wary of people emailing out of the blue for a site.

    Apart from that.. seems a great deal on your behalf, good luck on selling the site.
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    • Profile picture of the author kenomen
      Originally Posted by Innow View Post

      Just a word of warning..... Make sure you do checks on the buyer first, as the above poster said use escrow.com to protect yourself. And don't transfer the site fully until the buyer accepts the merchandise.

      Hold the passwords and some of the crucial details until the transfer is complete.

      Be very wary of people emailing out of the blue for a site.

      Apart from that.. seems a great deal on your behalf, good luck on selling the site.
      Can I really do that? How is he going to accept the merchandise if the site isn't fully transferred? I wouldn't accept if I was him.
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      • Profile picture of the author Starfusion
        Originally Posted by kenomen View Post

        Can I really do that? How is he going to accept the merchandise if the site isn't fully transferred? I wouldn't accept if I was him.
        I'm sorry... i think i didn't explain it that well.

        Using escrow goes like this :

        • Buyer makes payment to escrow.
        • Escrow confirm buyer has paid.
        • Escrow ask you to transfer the domain
        • Escrow confirm the domain is transferred
        • You then have a set inspection period "that you set" 1day/3day/5day etc... this is when the buyer has the chance to reject the offer or accept it.
        What i suggest to do to safeguard your actual website is :

        Explain to the buyer, "to protect myself, once you agree to the transaction i will then disclose the passwords to the accounts etc.."

        The buyers more then often agree, specially the ones that are "legit buyers".

        This is one way to do this.... and it's the way i usually do things, but i would explain to the buyer first what happens. If he doesn't agree, fair enough try to find another way around it.

        But to me, thats the safest way to protect my business/website from being stolen, especially in $1000+ transactions.


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  • Profile picture of the author kenomen
    Thank you,

    This is a wordpress site, so I'm not sure whether it would work for this particular site.

    Would you use standard or premium service?

    And also... usually escrow fee is on buyer or purchaser account?
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    • Profile picture of the author Starfusion
      Originally Posted by kenomen View Post

      Thank you,

      This is a wordpress site, so I'm not sure whether it would work for this particular site.

      Would you use standard or premium service?

      And also... usually escrow fee is on buyer or purchaser account?
      You can use it for any site, even wordpress sites, just make sure you change it to his hosting or hire someone to change it for you.

      Personally it depends on what kind of site that would make me choose between standard and premium.

      Have a look at escrows terms and weigh out which would be the better choice.

      You can choose either, because he's willing to buy your site out of the blue, i'd choose to make him pay the escrow fee. This will give you even more confidence in the buyer, if there willing to pay the escrow fee to get the site transferred to himself.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Use escrow. If he doesn't want to use escrow, you may be averting a disaster or at least an annoyance. Escrow.com protects seller and buyer by acting as the middle man in the transfer of money and the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author kenomen
    Thanks for your advice guys, I finally sold the sold the site by Escrow and all went smoothly.

    Really surprised to sell this site for $1600, seems that the guy was very interested in my rankings.

    Until now I've kept all my sites, but now I see the potential on site flipping.
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