Well, frankly to say people not really looks at that tools (buyers). Common myths plays the role in the sale.
LOL, I just ran a site that makes over 250,000 a year with over 100k uv's a month through your appraisal and it came back with: Appraised Value: $268.97 I bet you would by a site making that type of money for less then $300.00 directory.sootle.com says the same site is worth: $1,122,126.00 which is still less then half of what has been offered for the site...
10 month's revenue is NOT the standard. It's inaccurate. I wish people would stop saying this. There are a lot of factors that go into a site's value. There is no hard fast rule. If you have a membership site with recurring revenue, it's 18-24 months minimum. If the seller is willing to take less, that is their parogotive, but anyone who knows about internet real estate knows they are not going to get a site with recurring revenue and retention for less that two year's income. Assuming you have the proof to back it up. Same for aged domains, with traffic, and good keywords. I see it time and time again on the board people simply do not know the value of their property, and ask too much, or way way way too little. Then factor in those low ballers who offer insanely insulting offers to take advantage of noobs. I guess it's their loss, and the other's gain. But even the almighty Shoe goes off various factors to consider in buying internet property. Read up on it. Also, if you are going to be in this business, read more than one board. You will see that there is no 10 month rule, and it will vary from site to site. Also keep in mind the person who's selling might be desperate, and willing to take less than it's worth, while someone who doesn't need to sell will hold out for the right deal. For sites less that a year, it can be 6 months. Again, depends on the type of site, and revenue claims + proof. Adsense, and affiliate sites are tricky because you need to see referral logs, and need additional info. What kind of campaigns do they run, how much they spend, what ad networks they use, what times of day(s), key words, etc, etc. In those types of sites, if you do not mimic the same formula, sales will drop off. Same if you go on vacation for a few weeks, etc. They need more tweaking typically. Proxies can get banned fast, so their life spans are less. Same for some of the fads, or seasonal sites. Again, it depends on the site, type of revenue, and proof. But I can assure you that 10 month's revenue is NOT the model to base a site's worth. Also, most of those tools, domain, and site, are wrong as well. Look at one, you are off the charts and flying with the Donald. Another, you are still eating Ramen. This doesn't even get into costs in bandwidth, servers, time, and the rest. To reiterate, 10 months is not any "norm" for which you should be basing your buying and selling on. No real life business with solid revenue, and traffic, is going to sell to you for 10 months, and neither are most serious players in the online game. Keep that in mind next time you low ball, or sell yourself short. This morning, in this section alone I've read people quoting 6, 8, 10, 12 months revenue as 'norms'. That lone goes to show that there is nor standard. You approach it like a court case... "it doesn't matter what you believe,.. it only matters what you can prove" (i.e. screen shots). 2 cents
That cheap? Surely it's a seriously safe investment if it is almost guaranteed to make you break even in just 10 months. I would've thought a lot more than that, especially if there is potential with the site.
Exactly right. A site like this, although I just did a quick overview, would be more in the 12-24 month range. I would need to see more details if truly was a buyer (in this case I am not). But it appears solid, and worth a lot more than 10 month revenue. Hence another shining example of why 10 months is not any kind of "norm".
i get about 100$ from google and another 100$ from sponsor a month.. plus VIP subscriptions.. maybe 70 -100$ a month extra.. i use to get heaps more..
Just curious, but is it just about income and expensives when it comes to estamimating the value of the site? How about the content of the site? I mean there is a huge difference in work between a financial successful blog based on some freeware and a site like my own, see signature.
They are all fairly worthless. Any valuation tool that doesn't tell you HOW it is arriving at that value is a "tool" that's just plucking a figure out of thin air. Typically, these tend to be exaggerated figures and not a price you'd actually get if you put your site up for sale. No valuation tool is 100% accurate. However, a tool that can compare your site against all sites sold in various marketplaces, find the site/s closest to yours in category, size, age, PR, traffic earnings, expenses, upkeep, management time required etc., and extrapolate a value from there is the most accurate you're going to get. And there is one such tool linked to from Sitepoint (the place where most big websites are bought and sold). They do indeed have a good guide on valuation of websites. In fact, it's the most detailed, most professional, single most valuable resource on the internet for valuing websites. The article is here: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/web-site-valuation-guide/ . It's several pages long but if you're serious about a close-to-accurate valuation you'll take the time to read it, to see what contributes to value, how multiples differ across different categories of sites and how, in fact, you can better the price you get by taking a few simple steps.