Cardents.co.uk / uk - Sellable? Best Place to list?

[anna76]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and don't know anything about how to sell a website / domain!

Just wondering if anybody could give me some advice as to whether it would be possible to sell this domain & website and where would be the best place to list it?

My husband has used the domain for over 10 years and the site gets good traffic on Google. He gets a lot of work through the website but we are moving abroad soon so I thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas on if it would be sellable and if so the best way to do it.

Many thanks in advance for any replies

www.cardents.co.uk

 

[Edwin]

I don't see much value in the "pure" domain, but there could be value in the business it generates if you can document the leads and interest a company in the business into taking over the website.

Beyond that, it's hard to say since we've no idea what sort of amount "a lot of work" represents (nor, I think, should you feel it necessary to disclose the information on a public forum). Could be anywhere from hundreds of pounds to tens of thousands or more, there's no way of knowing from your initial post. And as I say, please don't interpret this as an attempt to pry into the financials! I've no need to know them. I am simply explaining on what basis value might be found.

Assuming all the traffic is organic i.e. based on SEO, and that you can show that both traffic and leads have remained consistent, your best bet will be to document everything then start talking to other companies in the business. Your husband's experience should give you some idea of the profit margin in the leads that it generates, and from there the potential annual value of the traffic. A possible metric for a sale would probably be anywhere from 6-24 months revenue, depending on how consistent the traffic is, how readily the leads convert, and how "portable" the work is.

Because that's your other issue to consider: the work is local in nature. So if you're generating leads in one part of the country, the traffic's going to be useless to a firm far away. You need to shop the site around to other companies doing the work your husband does (did?) in order to realise any real value from it. If none of the local companies, who could easily take over the jobs your husband was doing, are interested, then you're pretty much stuck.

But as a domain name? It's not really going to get anyone excited, I don't think... and certainly not on this forum. You might get a few pounds for it, no more than that, based purely on the domain itself.

 

[anna76]

Hi Edwin,

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply, it's really helpful, especially getting an opinion on the domain and a way of valuing the leads.

All the traffic is organic and we've never used any paid advertising, so I will definitely now look at how I could approach similar companies, as it gets enough leads, of which about 80% convert to make it a shame just to shut the site down.

The site used to generate a large number of inquiries from outside the local area we could cover so I tried to make it as specific to local search as possible to avoid getting leads we couldn't do, but i'm sure with a bit of time & SEO it would rank well for a wider area. So I might also try to approach a few companies outside our area as well just in-case.

Are there any posts you know of that deal with how to approach / cold call potential buyers?

Thanks again for your reply

 

[Edwin]

No, I’m afraid I can’t help on the cold call front. Hopefully somebody with more experience will chip in. Good luck getting everything documented so that it’s packaged ready for sale.