The buying and selling of websites is a good money making business. However, to get the maximum returns from a sale, a profitable website must be developed first. If you are into any sort of business, having a website related to your product or service is a must. Purchases and sales of goods and services on the net has become so easy that gradually the traditional system will become a thing of the past.

If you own a website and want some profit out of it, then some basic rules of web designing and navigation need to be followed. Offering a website for sale is profitable only when you are able to divert traffic to the site.

So, What Are The Characteristics Of A Profitable Website?

1. Be clear as to what you are selling – Before buying any product, the buyer will definitely want full information about the product being displayed. Selling things on the website will become difficult if the pages take a long time to load or if your order form is difficult to trace. Suggested options are to keep the size of each page limited, use thumbnail sized photos which can be enlarged for bigger versions, etc.
2. Make your website easily navigable – Time is money. If a buyer cannot easily find what he wants on a site, he will waste no time to move on to your competitor’s site. So, before you put up the advertisement of ‘selling my website,’ make sure that you also include a search function for the site on the home page.
3. Increase curiosity in the buyer so that he indulges in impulse buying - For example, you can run banner ads on the website content pages for the products that you are selling. Make the ads attractive so that they catch the fascination of the surfer. Remember, the more the number of click-throughs your site logs, the better chance you have of selling your website at a premium.  You may also include links to a few related products, for example a woman buying a hair conditioner from a site can be linked to a site on hair dryers.
4. Customer feedback is a great way to improve your site’s quality – A feedback form helps you to know the standing of your website and your products. Moreover, if you plan to sell your site, it also helps build a good database along with public relations. Make sure that you answer all queries by customers related to your product. Customer feedback also helps you improve the content, design, and layout of your site. These can be great ways to increase the value of your site before attempting a sale.
5. Increase traffic to your site by helping people find their way back to your site later on - Many visitors may have found your site through a link. Keep in mind that they might want to return to it at a later stage or even recommend it to someone else. Therefore, make sure that each page on the website includes the URL at the bottom as well as your site’s name.

If you have developed a website with the intention of selling it at a later stage, then take steps to bring in maximum traffic to the site from the get-go. Your buyer will definitely try to gauge the upside of the site’s future. Therefore, the value of a site upon its sale depends greatly on its performance and efficiency.