First off, sorry if this is in the wrong section I wasn't sure where to post it. I am curious to know about the general rule of thumb for valuing a website nowadays. I know there are other factors that influence the amount you could recieve. I would just like to know how you all get a rough estimate what your sites are worth. Thanks
Depends on how automated it is... Some prefer 10-20 monthly (net) profit value... but in the end it goes to "what buyer is willing to pay".
Yeh - it can take some time to get the ball rolling... but the potential growth gets easier as the time passes. Buy the way, "how much was spent" in the end doesn't matter to the buyer He cares about results, not time spent
Totally agree, I don't plan on selling my site to be honest, just wanted to know for my personal use to try and motivate me to get more sites out there aging I need to brush up on my link building skills because I only have the one site doing ok for itself (about $5 a day) and I left it for 5 months to sort itself out while I was doing my writing service It's hard to stop taking the 'upfront cash' and spend the time making sites for long term/constant cash.
This is very close, and one of the best answers I have seen on here. Most importantly the last part of the sentence.
Good answer. Allot of people usually say 12x. It all depends on the website and the online climate etc etc
Usualy is like this 10-24 x 1 month income But that's not the only thing sometime potential counts olso ...
This is low balling. Anyone with a quality site would laugh in your face. No offense. To be fair, it depends on the site. By that, I mean some of these cookie cutter, proxy, flash in the pan sites would be lucky to get 6 mo.'s based on the investment, or lifespan of said sites. But anything like a forum, membership site, or something with a proven track record (proof), back links, and such will get 12-24 months easily.
Here's a question... Why would someone want to sell a profitable, and growing site for only 6 times the monthly average? If I have a site that's basically automatic, and growing, and pulling in 20K a year, why would I sell it for 10? I'm not putting in major effort to make it run right? So unless I needed a wad of cash ASAP, then what's the point? And that would depend on how WELL it's monetized too? Let's say I'm doing a piss poor job at it. (personally, I am, but I'm making enough I don't bother), so someone else could then make that much more with it's potential. I think valuing a website is the hardest thing to do. It really does depend on the web site itself, how much work is involved in maintaining the cash flow, if there's room to grow, and the cash flow trends are VERY important. Is it going up, is it the same, or falling? What changed before it went up/down? Money in? Stopped advertising? Or is the product or site just passe? Thoughts to ponder on...
Good argument, I think that I would sell a site if I needed the cash for say a car/house/etc or to use the money to put into another project. As I said earlier I'm not planning on selling the site so I tend not to think to deep about it
I have struggled with this myself. If you actually believe in your project and are not desperate for cash, you will generally not agree to sell your site because in your mind you say the following: "my site has trippled its monthly profits over the past year, so selling it at current monthly profit x 12 is really like selling it at 3-4x forward estimated monthly profits" Problem with this is, no one is going to believe in your site more than you, and all they can look at for solid data is the past performance, not future performance.
While true.... There are many in this online biz.. adult and mainstream.. who are idiots. No offense.
These are tough questions and giving "general rule of thumb" can be tricky. for example, even if some site is automated and has provided 12 months solid income... will it continue to do that for the next 6 (or 12) months? The internet world is changing fast. Text links ad sellers are getting penalized. Microsoft almost bought Yahoo... things change rapidly - so in some niches, selling for 6 months profits could prove to be a good move. Or not. It depends.
Game producer hit the nail on the head in his first post. It all depends on what a buyer is willing to pay. I have seen people try to sell what I think is a great site with good earnings and get 3-4 times monthly earnings as an offer. I also have seen total crap sites sell for 30 times the monthly income or more. Website value means nothing if you can not find someone who is willing to pay the price. The factors vary by what buyers are looking for. They can include PR, income, unique visits, design, original content, age of domain, and the list goes on. There is no set in stone formula for appraising a site value.
This is actually a decent tool at judging some worth. Fairly realistic. http://www.cwire.org/website-value-calculator/
Yes, and I'd like to add also the factor "how the seller's site fits into the buyer's portfolio of sites. For example, if somebody already has established sports sites (soccer, ice hockey whatnot), then a new rugby site might be more valuable to him since he can link all these together. But then again - like mentioned earlier - "it depends"
According to that, my site is worth $100. I don't think thats very reliable saying my site earns $5 a day from adsense