Need technical help with transferring website

I have a website for sale in the BST forum. It is my first time selling a site so I don't know the best way to transfer a website to the buyer once the purchase is made. Is there an easy way to do this? The buyer will also have to gain access to the domain name. Can someone please guide me on the steps or show me a website that makes it easy for non-technical folks ? Thanks!

 

First make sure you actually get the money and withdraw it, so they don't paypal scam you. I'd tell them to wire me the money or pay in bitcoins not paypal as it can be reversed up to 6 mos later if it's fraud paypal. You can also use escrow to make sure you get paid but costs fees: https://www.escrow.com/solutions/domain_name/index.asp

Even if it's a highly trusted user, how do you know somebody else hasn't logged into their account and is impersonating them with fraud paypal. So get the money first and verify it

Your registrar for the domain probably has a "push" option, so you can freely transfer the domain to them:
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/822/moving-a-domain-name-out-of-your-account

The website you can just give them the SSH, sFTP, or Cpanel login passwords for it, or you can use Cpanel to backup the entire site and send them the archive. Can also tell your host you transferred the site to them and change the email and information over to their information.

If you send them passwords, make sure they aren't the same as your email and other passwords. They should all be unique so they can't break into your email account later.

 

Great, thanks! I have not heard of those other pay sites. I like the sending the files archive since I rather not give out my cPanel info. Although I guess I can change it to a temporary one until they get the site. I imagine my host provider could walk me through this as well. I appreciate the response.

 

http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/11_30/CpanelDocs/BackupWizard

I usually compress the entire site to .tar archive format, then FTP it back to myself or I create a password protected page on my host with the .tar file and send them a link so they can download it. If it's a huge archive I also sometimes upload to a mediafire account and password protect it.
http://www.mediafire.com/faq.php#faq13

If the website is really sensitive, full of proprietary info then I would encrypt the .tar file using Truecrypt (free, http://www.truecrypt.org/) then upload the encrypted file to mediafire and email them the encryption password and link to d/l the encrypted .tar ball. Make sure you always use https:// (SSL) when logging into Cpanel and use sFTP (secure FTP) http://filezilla-project.org/ reasons being, if you're just using plain text FTP or HTTP:// (no SSL) then anybody can snoop and steal passwords in the clear.

 

Thank you for all this! When I find a buyer (hopefully) I will def use this info!

 

It would be the same as migrating it to a new hosting account. If you need details still about this feel free to msg me.

But it would go similar to this:
1. Buyer wins pays escrow
2. Wait for confirmation, and change the "dns 1,2 name" to their hosting then handle the files to send for the user to upload with visual instructions.

 

Thanks!! I have never moved hosting accounts. I will try that.

 

Julie:
Are you selling the domain too or just the website? If you are selling both together and that account has their own cPanel account there should be no issue on transferring the account into their name. As they stated before best would do a "full" backup in your cPanel and send that off to them. Make sure you are grabbing the databases too. As the others have stated if you need assistance just ask. It is a very simple process. Best of luck on your sale.

 

Yep, selling the whole package. Makes the site more valuable since the domain is a little aged. Hoping for a buyer still!!! ;-)