In this post, you’ll get all the details on how to sell a website on Flippa based on my firsthand experience!
On February 2, 2023, I sold a small lifestyle blog that I started in 2019 and spent only 155 hours on for $11,000 on Flippa. I was elated that a blog that took so little time and effort was so desirable to investors, and it was nice to get extra income during a tough month for me.
Below, I’ll share the answers to questions along the way that I had a hard time finding answers for. So if you’re looking to sell a website on Flippa, you’re in the right place!
Here’s a breakdown of my experience selling a blog on Flippa
Skip to the next section to learn how to sell yours!
The stats
- For sale: A 3-year-old lifestyle blog
- Earnings: $335/mo from affiliate income and ads
- Traffic: 15,771 page views/mo primarily from Pinterest
- Number of blog posts on site: 72
- Total hours spent on site before selling it: 155
- Asking price: $11,900
- Price I actually sold it for: $11,000
The timeline
January 30, 2023 at 1:49 p.m.: I complete a free valuation on Flippa just to see how much my blog is worth. I am shocked.
I knew I’d sell the site only if I could get an asking price of at least $10,000, and the valuation came in at as much as $11,770! After this, I decide to complete the listing and publish it. Again, I’m not totally convinced I’m going to sell…I’m just curious how much I could sell it for and if I could get a good buyer whom I trust.
January 31, 2023 at 12:48 p.m.: My listing goes live.
Pretty quickly, I start getting messages from lots of interested potential buyers. This really builds up excitement and boosts my confidence that my site is really valuable!
January 31, 2023 at — p.m.: I grant access to my Google Analytics.
It’s totally normal and legit for potential buyers to request access to your Google Analytics for your site. That’s because they must do their due diligence and ensure sellers are being honest about the site’s traffic. As long as you grant them “viewer” access, it’s totally safe! Be sure to remove their access once the sale is over or you’re no longer considering selling to that particular buyer.
January 31, 2023 at 4:50 p.m.: I receive my first offer! $9,000
Within hours of messaging me and viewing my Google Analytics, a buyer submits an offer of $9,000. This is lower than what I want, but I am still thrilled to get my first offer.
I immediately message her to thank her and keep her in the loop.
I’m really overwhelmed responding to all the messages, and I haven’t yet received an offer of at least $11,000, so I decide to go to bed.
February 1, 2023 at 2:10 p.m.: The same buyer counter-offers with $11,000
The next morning, the same buyer messages me to ask if I’ve received any other offers. When I tell her no, and that I’d like at least $11,000, she submits a new offer of $11,000! WIN!
Once she submits the new offer, it’s up to me to accept or reject it. I decide to sleep on it once again.
February 2, 2023 at 10:37 a.m.: I accept the counter-offer and sell my site for $11,000!
When the morning comes, I decide I absolutely want to sell to this buyer. She’s got the best profile of any buyer I’ve seen with 30+ transactions and a 100% review rating from other sellers. I click “accept” on her offer.
Within minutes, the buyer and I get a message from Flippa’s Deal Completion Team alerting me of the next steps.
Step 1: Get Escrow account verified so I can receive funds.
Because I already had an Escrow account from a previous blog sale, Flippa’s Deal Completion Team had to help me connect my existing account to my Flippa account. They said it would take up to 24 hours, but it ended up not taking that long.
Once my account was verified, I could see that Escrow had verified that the buyer had transferred the funds into Escrow. That meant the funds were there, being held in Escrow until the buyer could confirm that I had transferred all the assets. Then, and only then, would the funds be transferred from Escrow into my business bank account.
Step 2: Send contract to buyer for signature.
Before transferring my assets to the buyer, I made sure to send her the APA (contract) to review and electronically sign. I did this via DocuSign.
Step 3: Transfer domain, website, and Pinterest account to buyer.
After we both signed the APA, I began transfer of assets. This was SUPER simple because my buyer had done this so many times before. All I had to do was send her the login info for accounts. She took care of the website migration.
Step 4: Once assets are transferred, buyer confirms via Escrow and money gets deposited into my account.
My buyer was quick to transfer assets and review them. She then confirmed with Escrow, and the money was released to me on February 5. The funds were available in my business bank account the next day.
How much does it cost to sell a website on Flippa?
To sell my blog for $11,000 on Flippa, it cost me a total of $1,547, which means I netted $9,453 from the sale (NOT including the income tax I’ll need to pay to the IRS on the sale). This total includes:
- $49 listing fee
- $1,100 for Flippa’s 10% commission fee (paid to Flippa AFTER the site sold)
- $199 to keep the listing confidential (OPTIONAL)
- $199 for Flippa’s content asset purchase agreement and bill of sale (OPTIONAL)
To sell on Flippa, you can expect to pay, at minimum, two fees:
- A one-time listing fee
- A commission fee (percentage) once your site is sold
Both the listing fee and commission vary depending on the site’s sale price.
Flippa Listing Package Pricing
- $1-$9,999: Starts at $39
- $10,000-$49,999: Starts at $49
- $50,000-$99,999: Starts at $49
- $100,000-$999,999: Starts at $49
Flippa Commission Rate Tiers
- $1-$9,999: 10%
- $10,000-$49,999: 10%
- $50,000-$99,999: 8%
- $100,000-$999,999: 6%
View full Flippa pricing details.
What’s the difference between an auction and a classified listing?
Am I required to sell my site on Flippa if I list it?
Not if you use the classified listing! With a classified listing, you can change your mind and delete your listing and keep your site if you want to.
With an auction listing, if someone meets the minimum price (the “reserve”), you are obligated to sell the site to them. But if no one has yet hit the reserve, you can still delete the listing with no obligation to sell the site through Flippa.
If my site is listed on Flippa, can I still sell it somewhere else instead?
It depends!
Classified listing: Flippa allows you to list your site elsewhere, and you are under NO obligation to accept an offer submitted via Flippa.
Auction: Flippa prohibits you from listing your site elsewhere, and you are OBLIGATED to accept the highest bidder as long as they meet the reserve.
Full details about classified vs. auction listings.
Should I keep my Flippa listing confidential?
Yes, I highly recommend you keep the listing confidential for three reasons:
- You’ll attract higher-quality buyers because they must sign an NDA first.
When a Flippa listing is confidential, your site URL and every other detail will not be revealed until TWO conditions are met:
1) The buyer signs an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
2) You accept them.
The ONLY exception here is a buyer who is funds verified and pre-qualified. These buyers are the cream of the crop; it means Flippa has verified that they have the money in their bank account to buy your website and other information has been verified such as their phone number, ID, and credit card. Buyers who are funds verified and pre-qualified are automatically allowed to view confidential listings, - You can screen buyers before they ever see your URL. Because you can choose to accept or reject buyers, that means you can also weed out buyers who aren’t serious. For example, if a buyer did not have verified proof of funds and no former reviews or transaction history, I was unlikely to accept their NDA.
- You’ll prevent copycats.
If you don’t have a confidential listing, anyone on the internet can see your site URL, how much money it’s making, its traffic, etc. This is breeding ground for copycats who will see that your site is profitable and then go out and try to create the same site with the same blog post topics.
How do I know a buyer is legit?
Knowing how to weed out buyers who are only there to waste your time is crucial when selling a site on Flippa—because, let’s face it, there is the potential for scammers.
Here’s what I looked for personally when selling my blog on Flippa:
- Funds-verified.
- Previous transactions on Flippa.
- Reviews.
- Communication.
- Googling the buyer.
What happens after your Flippa listing goes live?
Once your Flippa listing goes live, you’ll receive an email from Flippa confirming so. You can then watch your dashboard, as you’ll get notifications any time an interested person messages you or signs an NDA.
From there, you’ll answer questions from potential buyers, grant them access to Google Analytics if they want, you might even do a phone or Zoom call with them (no one requested this from me).
If you have an auction listing, your site will automatically sell to the highest bidder as long as they meet the reserve (the preset lowest price you’re willing to accept).
If you have a classified listing, you get to choose who you sell your site to.
Once your buyer has been selected, you move to close the deal by completing the following steps:
- Create your Escrow account.
- Sign the Asset Purchase Agreement (OPTIONAL).
- Transfer the domain, website, social media accounts (if included in the sale), and any other asset you included in the sale.
- Give the buyer time to inspect the assets. Once the buyer accepts, they must confirm this with Escrow.
- Escrow then releases the funds to your bank account. Yay!
If you have any questions during the deal closing stage, you can reach out to your designated Flippa Deal Completion Team member. This person will reach out to your via Flippa messages AND email as soon as your listing is marked as sold.
5 tips for succeeding on Flippa as a seller
1. Be quick to respond.
When a listing is live, things move fast—especially if you’ve got a quality site for sale. You wanna strike while the iron is hot. That’s how you close deals faster. Don’t lose momentum. Answer those investors quickly!
2. If your listing is confidential, immediately message every buyer when they sign the NDA.
When you have a confidential listing, you’ll get an auto-message every time a buyer signs an NDA. You are NOT required to respond to these messages, but I liked adding the personal touch of saying something like, “Hi [Name]! Thanks for your interest. What questions do you have for me?”
3. Thank every buyer who submits an offer—even if you do not plan to accept their offer.
When a buyer submits an offer, acknowledge it with a message to them. Keep it friendly. If their offer is too low, let them know! They just might counter-offer.
**Hot tip** If you have a CLASSIFIED listing, buyers have NO way of knowing if/when other people have submitted offers on your listing. In that case, I recommend letting interested buyers know that other people have submitted offers. This can get a bidding war going that could work in your favor!
4. ONLY grant “viewer” access to your Google Analytics.
Again, it’s totally normal for buyers to ask to see your Google Analytics. Just make sure you give them “viewer” access, not anything higher like admin.
5. Everything is negotiable.
Flippa investors EXPECT negotiations. Whatever your listing price is, it’s never final. That’s why I chose to put a higher listing price than what I actually wanted, because I knew buyers would try to bring that price down. In the end, I got EXACTLY the price I actually wanted
How do you transfer the site to the buyer?
THIS is possibly the most complicated part of selling a website—regardless of if you use Flippa or not. Once someone has purchased your blog and signed the Asset Purchase Agreement, you need to then get the assets over to them. This can be complicated or it can be super simple.
In my case, the buyer I chose to sell to on Flippa made the process SUPER easy. She took over because she was an experienced niche site investor with 30+ Flippa transactions.
Here’s what I provided to her for her to transfer the website over to her own servers:
- The WordPress login for my blog she purchased.
- I added her as an administrator on my Google Analytics account.
- I gave her the Pinterest login credentials for my blog she purchased.
- For the domain, I had to log into Google Domains and add her to the domain.
All in all, it took about 30 minutes because she did all the site migration on her end. All I had to do was provide her the logins.
Do you need to have an asset purchase agreement (contract)?
Though not required by Flippa, I highly recommend you have an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA, which is a contract) between you and the buyer. Flippa provides one for a fee. I bought the APA from Flippa and customized it.
Should you sell your website on Flippa? Here’s my opinion
I think it’s totally worth it to sell a site on Flippa if the sale price is at least $2,000 and you get at least a 2.7x profit multiple on it (a profit multiple is the sale price divided by your annual profit from the site. And yes, 3x profit multiple is VERY standard in the blogging world). The reason for this is that, no matter what, you’ll be spending at least $49 for the listing fee + $199 to keep it confidential + a 10% commission on the sale price. Do the math and make sure it’s worth it monetarily to pay those fees to sell on Flippa.
For example, if you sell a site on Flippa for $2,000, you’ll end up with $1,552 in your bank account from the sale. To me, if I just want a little extra cash, that would be worth it—AS LONG AS your $2,000 site is averaging $62/mo or $744/year. Now, if you have a site that can sell for higher than that and still maintain a 2.7x multiple (or higher!), then Flippa is DEFINITELY worth it!
All in all, it took 6.25 hours for me to build the listing, publish it, field messages from buyers, and transfer the site—and it grossed me $11,000! I was thrilled.
On top of that, I LOVED that I had TOTAL control of Flippa. I’ve sold a blog through a broker before, and I had so little control. While it was nice to be pampered with a broker’s agent who fielded requests for me and spoke on my behalf…I’m a bit of a control freak, and I actually enjoyed being able to speak directly with buyers and do the negotiations myself.
I definitely plan on using Flippa again to sell future blogs.
If you’re curious about selling your site on Flippa, I recommend getting a free valuation. There’s no obligation to sell, and you just might be surprised at how much your site is worth!
