Quiet Light Brokerage, a leading pre-qualified online business market, today announced its annual forecast of the top trends for selling a high-value online business in 2013, and the launch of the “Top Price Playbook for Selling an Online Business” valuation service.

“Internet entrepreneurs have more control over the value of their business than they think,” said Mark Daoust, CEO of Quiet Light Brokerage. “Website and online business owners that follow a proven success formula and adapt to evolving trends make the most money online, generate the highest returns, and offer the most attractive business opportunity for buyers.”

To maximize the value in your online business, or to identify which online businesses stand to offer a buyer the highest growth potential, Quiet Light Brokerage has identified the top 4 influencers of site valuation in 2013:

(1) Trending Business Categories: Businesses in industries that are experiencing more visibility due to trends can justify a higher price given their current intrigue and short-term growth potential. Top 2013 industries include:

■    Clean Eating Businesses: Gluten Free, Paelo, Organic, etc.

■    Mobile Applications, especially lifestyle applications that work across platforms and mobile devices.

■    Content-Driven Businesses: Blogs, Subscription services, etc.

■    Lifestyle Content Businesses: Cooking, Couponing, Home organization, Scrapbooking, etc.

■    Narrow Niche Specific E-Commerce: Stores in highly specialized industry specific niches, such as egress window covers or Stetson hats.

■    Tightly Themed E-Commerce: Stores that build a reputation around style and unique product selection, such as vintage women’s clothing, high end soccer gear, unusual cell phone protection cases, etc.

■    Vertical Industry Specific Lead Generation: Lead generation is always hot and continues to be hot in 2013, especially in previously unexplored vertical markets.

(2) Diversifying Traffic Sources: The more diverse a website’s traffic sources are, the more value is assigned to the overall traffic.

■    Websites that depend 100% on organic traffic from search engines are dropping in value given their vulnerability to be impacted by uncontrollable changes by a 3rd party.

■    Traffic sources that are generated from a solid mixture of the following command the highest value: PPC, social media, email marketing, organic, and strategic partnerships.

(3) Diversifying Sales Sources

■    Leveraging multiple sales channels across the internet to deepen sales traffic is key for maximizing business value.

■    E-commerce websites should look at adding sales on Amazon, EBay, Sears Marketplace, Buy.com, and others. The more revenue sources your website manages, the less vulnerable your company is to being hurt by changes outside of your control.

(4) Building Engagement with Social Media

■    Deepening the relationship between your customers and your online business through communication and social media creates more opportunities for short- and long-term revenue generation.

■    Maintaining an atmosphere of transparency also consumer trust and loyalty.

■    Online businesses with active, engaged consumer communities have a built-in communication channel that can translate to 6-figure annual advertising cost savings.

As the U.S. economy rebounds, 2013 is ushering in a new era of e-commerce where entrepreneurs are increasing the amount of new online businesses being started, and more business owners are purchasing online businesses to expand their earning potential with the least amount of capital outlay.

With the launch of the Quiet Light Brokerage “Trends in Selling Online Businesses” annual forecast, the company is now making its proprietary “Top Price Playbook for Selling an Online Business” valuation service available to all internet entrepreneurs at no cost.

“Online business owners need to know what they can do today to make their business more valuable to potential buyers so they can reliably exit the business at the best price in the shortest amount of time,” said Daoust. “Quiet Light Brokerage helps online businesses make the most of timely trends and marketing drivers. We are proud of the fact that 70% of the businesses sold on QuietLightBrokerage.com sell within 90 days – this far exceeds the slow motion exclusive contracts demanded by the rest of the industry.”

About Quiet Light Brokerage
Quiet Light Brokerage’s experts guide website owners through a proven screening process with Site-Specific Valuation Reports that establish fair and ethical negotiating prices, save time and take the guesswork out of buying and selling profitable online enterprises. Relying on the team’s personal experience operating and selling their own 6 and 7-figure websites, they do the hard work up front so deals close quickly with trust intact. As one of the first five companies in the industry, Quiet Light Brokerage has a large private network of repeat buyers with ready access to capital. The company is headquartered in Minnesota, USA. For more information visithttp://www.quietlightbrokerage.com.