Anyone a Flippa Expert? If So Come In Answer My Question.

5 replies
Hi Flippa Experts.

Need your sound advice with a site I am currently selling.

The site has over 100 recurring members all attached to my PayPal account as an automatic payment profile.

The question is how would the new owner acquire these allready paying customers to there PayPal account? I have had a lot of interest and this is the one question I have had put to me which I can't answer.

I have emailed PayPal asking them for advice and if they can handle some sort of transfer which I very much doubt will be the case.

My option for now was this.

Email all my customers after the sale has been confirmed and the moneys in the bank so to speak, and ask them all to cancel there automatic payments to me and in the same email have a link that offers them a further 30 days free access to the site plus a bonus download for rejoining and explain its due to the site being sold.

This way the new owner will retain as many all ready paying customers as they can. I know its not ideal but is there another way?

Also can you give me a good idea of the selling price of a site with the following stats.

600+ members (free & paid)
130+ paying members

$1400 profit per month (after advertising/hosting fees are taken away)

Page rank 2, 155,000 alexa rank,

2,000 unique visitors per month
41,000 page views per month
just over 6 months old.

Ive took a look at what sells and some similar sites and models sell for anywhere between $3,500 to $15,000 all depending on the niche.

For example a facebook site lower earner made more than an SEO out sourcing site even though the seo site made $1000+ profit and the facebook site was $400 profit.

So if there are some "real" Flippa experts out there I could sure do with some advice.

All the best,
Colin.
#answer #expert #flippa #question
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    The way you've described transferring the Paypal subscribers is about the only way that you can do it. Paypal won't help you with this. They will need to be unsubscribed and then provided with an incentive to resubscribe under the new owner.

    How much you can get for the site will depend more than just the monthly income for a membership site. How much work goes into maintaining the membership and providing new content? Flippa buyers tend to be lazy and want passive income. That's why Adsense sites sell so well.

    I would set the reserve on the listing for as low as you're willing to go and then let the bidders bid on it and see where it goes. It has traffic and revenue, so both of those are good points.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
    Hi Colin,

    This is quite a common problem, and one of the reasons you should plan well in advance when deciding to sell a site.

    You have 3 main options:

    1) As mentioned above, offer them an incentive to sign up again. This option is far from ideal as the number who will sign up is unknown and the buyer takes on all that risk.

    2) Transfer the Paypal account. If you have other payments coming into the account, this won't work, but assuming you have a business account it can be transferred to a new owner [relatively] easily.

    3) Take the risk of option 1 on yourself. Move all of the subscribers over to a payment processor where transferring an account is more easy (2checkout, for example). If a high % sign up again, you can use that as leverage with a potential buyer as you know the content is valuable. Once you've got them all transferred, put it back on the market.

    If 2 & 3 aren't an option, my advice would be do the following:

    Offer option 1 BUT take on the risk yourself. When you get an offer in from the buyer, figure out how much they are paying per subscriber as a multiple. After you've attempted to migrate the subscribers over to the buyer's Paypal account, rebate the buyer for every subscriber who didn't sign up again.

    Simple example:

    Sale agreed for $10,000. You have 200 subscribers. That's $50 per subscriber.

    After moving subscribers, 150 decide to sign up again. $50 x 150 = $7500.

    $10,000 - $7,500 = $2500 rebate for the buyer.

    This may sound complicated, but you'll get a far higher multiple if you're taking on all the risk. It shows you have confidence in your business and investors will respect that accordingly. If they have to take on the risk themselves, expect the price to be heavily discounted.

    I would also be upfront with all buyers who don't know that the Paypal subscribers will be hard to transfer. The last thing you want is a pi55ed off buyer who is complaining that the revenue isn't what you stated originally.

    It's not possible to value the site without knowing which option you are going to go with. If the buyer is taking on the risk the valuation would be substantially lower than you taking on the risk.

    Hope that helps.

    Thomas
    Signature
    I specialize in selling websites over $10,000 in value. No obligation, confidential valuation here.
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    • Profile picture of the author CTonline09
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      The way you've described transferring the Paypal subscribers is about the only way that you can do it. Paypal won't help you with this. They will need to be unsubscribed and then provided with an incentive to resubscribe under the new owner.

      How much you can get for the site will depend more than just the monthly income for a membership site. How much work goes into maintaining the membership and providing new content? Flippa buyers tend to be lazy and want passive income. That's why Adsense sites sell so well.

      I would set the reserve on the listing for as low as you're willing to go and then let the bidders bid on it and see where it goes. It has traffic and revenue, so both of those are good points.
      Thanks great advice much appreciated!

      Originally Posted by Thomas Smale View Post

      Hi Colin,

      This is quite a common problem, and one of the reasons you should plan well in advance when deciding to sell a site.

      You have 3 main options:

      1) As mentioned above, offer them an incentive to sign up again. This option is far from ideal as the number who will sign up is unknown and the buyer takes on all that risk.

      2) Transfer the Paypal account. If you have other payments coming into the account, this won't work, but assuming you have a business account it can be transferred to a new owner [relatively] easily.

      3) Take the risk of option 1 on yourself. Move all of the subscribers over to a payment processor where transferring an account is more easy (2checkout, for example). If a high % sign up again, you can use that as leverage with a potential buyer as you know the content is valuable. Once you've got them all transferred, put it back on the market.

      If 2 & 3 aren't an option, my advice would be do the following:

      Offer option 1 BUT take on the risk yourself. When you get an offer in from the buyer, figure out how much they are paying per subscriber as a multiple. After you've attempted to migrate the subscribers over to the buyer's Paypal account, rebate the buyer for every subscriber who didn't sign up again.

      Simple example:

      Sale agreed for $10,000. You have 200 subscribers. That's $50 per subscriber.

      After moving subscribers, 150 decide to sign up again. $50 x 150 = $7500.

      $10,000 - $7,500 = $2500 rebate for the buyer.

      This may sound complicated, but you'll get a far higher multiple if you're taking on all the risk. It shows you have confidence in your business and investors will respect that accordingly. If they have to take on the risk themselves, expect the price to be heavily discounted.

      I would also be upfront with all buyers who don't know that the Paypal subscribers will be hard to transfer. The last thing you want is a pi55ed off buyer who is complaining that the revenue isn't what you stated originally.

      It's not possible to value the site without knowing which option you are going to go with. If the buyer is taking on the risk the valuation would be substantially lower than you taking on the risk.

      Hope that helps.

      Thomas
      Hi Thomas,

      Thanks am gonna send you a PM to see if you can give me some advice on option 2!

      This is the best option and yes I have a business account especially for the site.

      Al PM you thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author CTonline09
    Hi Thomas,

    Sent you a PM no reply yet.

    Could you talk me through the PayPal hand over? (option 2)

    Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
      Originally Posted by MarketingMonkey View Post

      Hi Thomas,

      Sent you a PM no reply yet.

      Could you talk me through the PayPal hand over? (option 2)

      Thanks.
      I don't have any PMs in my inbox and haven't seen any notifications either. Probably a server issue or something

      Paypal can be a bit of a nightmare on this front, but technically it is possible. Depending on the country your account is in, you'll get access to support in certain countries. Some are more helpful than others!

      The easiest way to do it is just change the email/password and let them have access that way. They can then change the details on the account themselves.

      Paypal can be quite erratic and unpredictable, though, so sometimes it will go through without issues and other times you'll have issues for weeks (not trying to scare you, just so you're aware of the possibilities with Paypal).

      I always advise my clients to move away from Paypal as soon as possible so in this situation I'd only have my buyer use it temporarily until they get another solution up and running.

      Either way, good luck. Hit me up if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help.
      Signature
      I specialize in selling websites over $10,000 in value. No obligation, confidential valuation here.
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