To sell aged sites or not

Kalina · Share | #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2006, 03:25 AM

I have a dilemma which has been nagging at me for awhile now.

I have several sites, many of which I either have no time to update or no interest. None of these sites are making a lot of money or anything.

I am thinking of selling the ones I don't bother with so they're not always there in the back of my mind yelling "update me!!!"

On the other hand, I've been told to never sell my sites, older domains have value, blah blah, and that I can also have a network of sites and link them, as in a hub or pyramid, all link back to a main site, but not to each other, kind of confusing but I do get it, because Google values one way's more and also I have them all spread out on different ip c-blocks for this interlinking reason.

My concern is, should I sell them and just focus on the sites I do enjoy updating/maintaining or do I really need to keep them for the whole networking and aged domain value idea?

John Scott · #2 (**permalink**) 03-06-2006, 04:27 AM

I have the same problem. And the "never sell" is a valid approach, but the simple fact is that sometimes you make more money selling than you do maintaining a site.

Like, I recently (yesterday?) sold a Las Vegas site. It was a good site, IMO, but I hadn't updated it in two years, and I don't have time to dedicate to it. I want to focus on the projects that I'm serious about, so selling was the right choice for me.

etech-peter · #3 (**permalink**) 03-06-2006, 04:33 AM

Since you have no time and no interest in updating those sites and they aren't making any money either, so I guess selling them off would be a good idea.

James Trotta · #4 (**permalink**) 03-07-2006, 06:52 AM

I would figure out how much putting your own links on those sites would be worth and then see if you can sell them for more than that.

For example, I ahve an SEO blog and a text link blog but I really want to (and do) focus on my sports and travel sites. Even my education ones a little bit.

Anyway, I figure the links and the small income coming from those sites makes them worth $1,500 to me. If someone offered me more than that I'd probably sell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I have the same problem. And the "never sell" is a valid approach, but the simple fact is that sometimes you make more money selling than you do maintaining a site.

Like, I recently (yesterday?) sold a Las Vegas site. It was a good site, IMO, but I hadn't updated it in two years, and I don't have time to dedicate to it. I want to focus on the projects that I'm serious about, so selling was the right choice for me.

That's strange, I bought a Vegas site two days ago...

Kalina · #5 (**permalink**) 03-07-2006, 08:19 AM

Mainly I am thinking of getting rid of a joke site and template site. The template site has made some sales through template monster's reseller program, it also makes money on the adsense and links. I guess I have to think about it.

James Trotta · #6 (**permalink**) 03-07-2006, 09:06 AM

Exactly, think about it and put a price on it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colleen

Mainly I am thinking of getting rid of a joke site and template site. The template site has made some sales through template monster's reseller program, it also makes money on the adsense and links. I guess I have to think about it.

Nick · #7 (**permalink**) 03-07-2006, 09:23 PM

What sites Colleen?

Brad Gosse · #8 (**permalink**) 03-14-2006, 12:43 PM

It's always a tough call. I never want to let go of old sites for fear the buyer will make a huge success out of it and make me kick myself for not doing it myself lol

I am usually the guy buying sites.

My oldest sites have the best PR and traffic

Here is one I am embarrased to post because it's so old

http://www.vegancooking.com/

Haven't updated it in 5 or 6 years

James Trotta · #9 (**permalink**) 03-14-2006, 10:28 PM

What did you decide to do then? Or are you still thinking? The reason I'm not selling my old sites is because I think they're worth more to me than anyone else. However I might put them up for sale with a certain reserve to see if I'm right or not...

Manish Pandey · #10 (**permalink**) 03-19-2006, 02:44 PM

Well colleen... it solely depends on you... you know the advantages and also the disadvantages of having and selling them.... and i recon to keep them and give a little bit of time so that it may well give you some wonders... who knows... 'you dont know what you dont know'.... so you have to work on them...

Manish

sarahk · #11 (**permalink**) 03-19-2006, 10:17 PM

There's an opportunity cost to holding them - hosting fees mostly

There's an opportunity cost to selling them - time to organise the sale etc, won't be able to act in the future. Personally I'd have no qualms about ditching a joke site. But the templates are related to your skills and professional expertise so it would make sense to hold onto it.

sitetutor · #12 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 02:03 AM

I'd keep them and keep on building links.

JoJo · #13 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 12:48 PM

I recently had an offer of £1000 for one of my sites

Kalina · #14 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 12:54 PM

Thanks for the advice one and all. I was thinking about getting rid of my joke site, but I think I will work on it awhile longer, I just purchased 1,000 jokes for it so maybe once I get them in there I will be motivated to figure out how to promote it.

sim · #15 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 01:57 PM

if anyone remembers my po2forums.com I sold it. Now I regret it. the guy said he was going to keep it the same and just replace the google ads. well he ended up deleting everything somehow then asked me for a backup so I contacted the host and they had no valid backup. just a crap backup. that site was my life. i spent countless hours adding MODS to the forum and other content such as comic list and 6000 games of cheat codes. other people even told me they visit the forum everyday and loved the forum and it was there life so now i ruined people's lifes so now I have to recreate a new forum and try to track down people. =)

but I have sold other sites like www.animemidis.net and www.videogamemidis.net which I don't regret. Im just gonna merge the 2 sites into 1 big site =)

Kalina · #16 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 02:17 PM

Sorry to hear that sim.

What made you sell it to begin with?

Chris1974 · #17 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 03:35 PM

Brad, I really like your vegancooking.com site. What are your plans with it?

Brad Gosse · #18 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris1974

Brad, I really like your vegancooking.com site. What are your plans with it?

My wife and I are in the process of re shooting all the images. We have a restaraunt guide and more coming. It's a hobby site tho so it's a long process

John Scott · #19 (**permalink**) 03-20-2006, 05:23 PM

Sim, is it my imagination or were you MIA for quite a while? Anyway, WB

sim · #20 (**permalink**) 05-21-2006, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Sim, is it my imagination or were you MIA for quite a while? Anyway, WB

im still MIA sorted. Im working on my new forums which have yet to get started and im putting a lot of work into it. www.po2mob.com. you can check all the mod's im adding. Jokes, Recipes, Cheat Codes, Midis, Comics and im working on more to add. I got a database of 110,000 articles and 200,000 lyrics which I plan on adding. When im done completely, should have a 1,000,000 page site without forum pages. If anybody could give me some marketing advice, that would be helpfull.