The best way not to sell

I have been buying for some time now which cannot be sustained forever.
I also make a really crap seller as I am usually the one with ‘unrealistic asking prices’ 🙂

Selling is not something that comes naturally to me as I am building a present and a future, after spending hours finding gems and buying domains, developing mini sites and buying old sites that are zero maintenance how on earth are you meant to consider selling something that takes zero effort and brings in a few hundred a month for a fast buck?

The general consensus is to multiply the net monthly earnings by {x}

24 months? No way not from me, not worth it, if you selling then contact me and I may buy for that.
36 Months..possibly
48 months.. The buyers tend to baulk at these still and it’s about the least I would take to walk away.

At the start of this month I was looking to raise some cash, I had decided and priced up getting a swim spa in the garden, a swim spa seemed like a good solution, we don’t have the climate for outdoor pools so needs to be inside in a pool house, a swim spa is like an endless pool with jets so there is a current you swim again meaning that it can be smaller than a pool at around 4 metres and also has a jacuzzi in built, easier to heat and run.

5 metre by 5 metre pool house with veranda (£3445 delivered)
Electricity run to the shed on it’s own RCD ~ £300
Swim spa/Jacuzzi with cover, ladders & a few extras £5500 delivered

So pretty much a kick in the arse of off £10k ($20K) for all this, this prompted me to look at selling a couple of zero maintenance sites to raise funds, checked back stats for two sites that could be sold as a pair, they can earn a good £600 + per month, I spoke to a couple of people about a 48x multiple at around £25-£30k but things were moving slowly and not getting anywhere quickly, then after a visit from my mate who has already invested in a few domains with me as a bit of fun - he suggested that he buys in 50% on them. We already had a small site that was earning around $20 per day and we have a few domains as a well so already have a small partnership.

After a few games of snooker I agreed that I would sell to him on a 36 month basis and let him buy in @ 50%, so we agreed on a price of £9000 for his 50% share, an excellent outcome, this means I get my cash for my pool house and I still get to keep these sites and earn 50% of the revenue forever, much more attractive than selling out. Both sites cost under £200 to make initially so pure profit really. My mate gets a 50% share in a pair of sites that need zero maintenance and that takes our little partnership income up from around $20 per day to somewhere around $80 per day.

Partnerships are not for everyone but in this instance, for me, this was the best way not to sell and raise some cash.

About Scott Jones

Scott hails from the north east of Scotland and started earning online at the end of 2000 building websites for local businesses during which time he won an award from Lord Alan Sugar for Excellence in Enterprise. After having quite a bit of success with domaining Scott mainly runs educational evergreen websites which generate over 3 million visitors per month but is always on the lookout for a fresh thinking out of the box way to turn a buck. Follow on Twitter.

Comments

  1. Wow makes me wish i had a garden to fit one of them in! Had a try out in one of those few months ago and there great for getting fit in!

    Peter’s last blog post..To advertise or not to advertise

  2. A great deal for your partner, who gets his investment back within a year.

  3. Great post Scott, thx. I had a terrible week-start with people actually telling me that $2/domain is the best that they can offer (I’m trying to sell some low-value domains), with $10 BIN offered for PR4 domains, with linkbaiters telling me that they don’t give a s…t about keyword domains (i have over 30 linkbait related domains), etc. It makes me really wonder if it worth doing this … but then i read something like this and forget all the bad things.

    Anyway, I’ve learn two things this days:
    1. There are niches where keyword domains are not so important
    2. Domain forums are for buying not for selling (full of bargains hunters)

    …….also, buying domains that you can’t develop yourself it’s a little bit risky 🙁

  4. Hi Scott, yet another great post from you.

    Every time I read one of these post I can help thinking: “How does he do that?”

    Personally I’ve been struggling getting a single site close to $10 per day so I can’t even imagine what it takes to get it to $20. As I know you have done it over and over again, I am so interested in learning what it is that you do. Where do I look for the answer or how will I have to force you to write an ebook about it? 😀

    Thanks,
    Mikael

  5. I totally agree with Mikael - I think we all wish we were you, haha.

    Denni Pultz Gottfredsen’s last blog post..Håb for unge

  6. Well done Scott. You’re lucky that you have someone you can trust and work out a deal that is good for both of you.

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