Hello yasasha~
First of all, please let me give you a pat on the back for your
website. It's beautiful, informative, an important piece of history,
and very touching. It's obvious that you've put a lot of work (and
heart and soul) into it.
That said, I can perfectly understand how tired you *must* be. So let
me help you find a new home for your site and poster. : )
THE POSTER
There are several options here:
1. You could work with established poster retailers, like Amazon.com,
Barnesandnobel.com, and AllPosters.com (possibly the three most
recognized sellers of poster on the Internet). With this route, you
would still print your own posters, but instead of dealing directly
with customers, you'd only be sending stock to retailers. Since the
stock you send to these retailers would be your only order
fulfillments, you would be saving yourself an incredible amount of
time. For information on how to contact these three large Internet
retailers of posters, follow these links:
Barnes and Nobel:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/pub_wewant_tosell.asp?userid=55ZF6CFTP7
Contact info for Amazon.com:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/pub_wewant_tosell.asp?userid=55ZF6CFTP7
And contact info for AllPosters.com:
http://www.allposters.com/help/about.asp#products
The downside to this route will be that the retailers will probably
take a chunk out of sales to cover their costs. You'd sell the posters
to them at your cost, and they'd charge their customers shipping and
probably at least a small handling charge. However, how much they
take, or if they decide to take nothing, should be negotiable.
2. Another option is to try to find an art publisher to take on your
poster. To find such publishers, possibly the best source is "The 2003
Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market" by Mary Cox (Editor). Here's a
link to it's listing on Amazon, but you should be able to find it at
any good bookstore, and even some libraries (Caution, however; you
will want the 2003 edition--not an older one--since many address,
contact people, and desires change in the publishing world from year
to year):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582971226/qid=1041884457/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9049254-6143848?v=glance&s=books
In this instance, the publisher would almost certainly require that
they recoup their costs, but you should be able to ensure that all
other monies that come from your posters goes to charity.
For a few tips on getting prints or posters published, visit this
helpful site:
http://www.arletapech.com/page72.html
3. The other option is to find someone (or some organization) that
would be willing to take on both the website *and* the poster.
THE WEBSITE
You might first consider contacting some of the more obvious
organizations, to see if they are interested in acquiring your site:
* The September 11th Fund (although they say they are no longer
accepting donations, they may still be interested in what you and your
site have to offer) http://september11fund.org/contact.html
* The September 11 Digital Archive:
http://911digitalarchive.org/about/
* The Voices of September 11th: http://www.voicesofsept11.org/
* The September 11th Memorial Site: http://www.sept11thmemorial.com;
contact info at: http://www.onecheek.com/
* Children of September 11th:
http://www.childrenofseptember11.org/contactus.asp
* Families of September 11th:
http://www.familiesofseptember11.org/contactus.asp
* Peaceful Tomorrows: http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/contact.html
* Where Were You?: http://www.wherewereyou.org/
* Feed The Children:
http://www.christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID3425|CHID101898|CIID231842,00.html
For each of these organizations, I have included links that will take
you directly to their contact information. All that you would need to
do is compose an email or snail mail letter to the organization,
proposing that they take over your site (and, possibly, the sale of
your posters). Tell them (very briefly, in one shortish paragraph)
what your site is all about. Inform them about the traffic it has
experience, and how much money it has raised for charity. Be sure to
also let them know that you are offering the site to multiple places
(if, indeed, you send out emails to several sites at one time).
After a letter has been sent, wait for a good week to pass, then call
them, if a phone number is included in their contact info. During the
call, tell them who you are, and that you are following up on a letter
sent to them about finding new ownership for your September 11th site.
"I'm just calling to check your level of interest," is an appropriate
way to open up the conversation.
My list of possible organizations is by no means complete, as there
are probably hundreds of September 11th websites. But I think I've
given you some good places to start. To find more such sites, follow
the Google link given below for "September 11th."
Another way to find potential people/organizations interested in your
site are places like WebsAndDomains
http://www.websanddomains.com/sell_web.html
And Great Domains
http://www.greatdomainsforyou.com/steps.html
For a review of similar sites, which help you find buyers for
websites, visit:
http://www.igoldrush.com/links3.htm
Another, excellent, place to sell your domain/website name may be
eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=domain+name
Just be sure that you use a reserve, if you want to get a particular
price out of the sale.
As for how much the site should be sold for, here are some excellent
words of advice:
"The harsh reality is that if you are not already aware of a domain
name's worth, it is probably not worth as much as you would like. In
other words, if nobody has beaten a path to your door to buy it, you
probably won't be able to give up your job after a single sale.
Domain names have sold for anything between $200 and $150,000+. The
price you can get depends on how quickly you want to sell, as well as
how much interest you can generate in the name. Current domain names
are priced at anything up to $7,000,000! It is inconceivable to
imagine any company spending that kind of money on a single domain
name.
Better to go for realism rather than madness. I suggest that you price
your domain name between $500 and $10,000 unless there is an
exceptional case for pricing it higher. Don't waste your time selling
a domain name for much less than $500, as the effort will not justify
the reward." (Internet Goldrush, Archive FAQ,
http://www.igoldrush.com/faq4.htm#q1 )
There are also some places that offer to "appraise" your website; I do
*not* recommend using them, unless their services are free. Generally,
these appraisals are inflated. If you wish to go this route, however,
here's a possible resource:
http://www.swiftappraisal.com
In any case, it is very important to remember that domain names are
generally selling for less now than they were a few years ago. Dot.com
business is down. Many websites or domain names are worth absolutely
nothing.
Since your goal is not so much to turn a profit, but to turn a
charitable website into another person's hands, pricing your domain
name on the lower end is advisable. Between $100-500, would be my
suggestion. You won't be able to recoup all the money you've already
put into the website--not by a long shot. So my best advice is to not
even try. Finding a "happy home" for your website is a more realistic
approach. You may even want to offer the site for free (or nearly so)
to an interested party.
But whatever price you decide to sell at, it's important to allow
plenty of time to find the right buyer (or "acquirer"). It may take
several months to complete the transaction.
For more tips on selling your domain name, visit:
http://www.igoldrush.com/sell.htm
Good luck, and if you need any clarification, please don't hesitate to
ask for it.
Kriswrite
Keywords Used:
sell painting prints publisher
://www.google.com/search?q=sell+painting+prints+publisher&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
"September 11th"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22September+11th%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=60&sa=N
"how to" "sell website"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+to%22+%22sell+website%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N
"how to" sell domain
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22how+to%22+sell+domain |
Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
07 Jan 2003 10:52 PST
Hi again yasasha~
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify. :)
The Amazon link works for me. Just follow the links on the resulting
page in order to learn how to get your stuff on Amazon.
Should you decide to sell your website on eBay, it would be a great
idea to check out completed auctions for the search "domain name."
(Even if you want to sell everything lock, stock, and barrel, "domain
name" should be one of the search terms you use for your auction).
Here is a link to the page you'll need to go to in order to find
already closed auctions:
http://pages.ebay.com/search/items/search_completed.html
This will be a valuable tool to help you see what sells and what
doesn't. As an experiment, I sorted the eBay results by "Highest
Prices First." Doing this, you can quickly see that *many* domain
names do not sell for the high prices some folks expect to get.
Using this search, you can also quickly learn what works in a website
auction and what doesn't. Here are some of the things that appear to
help a domain sell well on eBay:
* Using the term "domain name" in the auction title. Also use phrases
that relate to your website and might get frequently searched. In your
case, this might be "September 11th"
* Note the hit count on your website, and how often the term
"September 11th" (and possibly related terms) are used on search
engines
* Be clear, but friendly, in your "terms of sale." Let buyers know
you'll expect payment in X amount of days. Tell them what forms of
payment you'll accept. Reserve the right to reject bids from bidders
with no or little eBay feedback, or negative feedback. I suggest you
also make a statement in your terms of sale about the value of the
website. Let them know that you make no warrantees or guarantees,
express or implied, about the value of the domain name (or website).
Nor about it's potential value, nor it's marketability.
* You may want to get a free appraisal, and show that appraisal in
your eBay listing.
* List any hard business facts or statistics that make your site more
tempting to buyers. (For example, how many of your posters have sold,
and in how long a period of time. How much money has the site raised
for charity?)
Here is one eBay auction that was also selling a business--not just a
domain name:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3101625885
You will not be selling a profitable business, but the way this
auction lays out exactly what the buyer is getting is a good template.
(Please Note: eBay only keeps closed auctions available for viewing
for a limited time, so study the auction now, before it disappears!)
Do not put a direct link to your website on eBay, since this may be a
violation of their Terms. Instead, just tell them what domain name or
website you're selling, and if folks want to see what you've got,
they'll cut and paste the address into their browser.
As for selling the site for $10 per hit per day, that may hold true
(yet the market for domains fluculates so much...what may sell for $10
a hit per day today will sell for more or less tomorrow), but you must
remember that you aren't selling what would normally be termed a
"profitable" website. In other words, whoever buys the site will not
be making money off of it. Therefore, it may sell for much, much less.
Hope this answers your questions!
Kriswrite
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