Selling PR6 website - Online since 1999 - Original Content

My site is http://www.ipwatchdog.com. I have had the site on the Internet since October 1999, and so far this year I have had 185,000 unique visitors. The "IP" in the name refers to intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets), which is a very competitive area for search engine ranking and pay per click placement. I have excellent search engine ranking ( i.e., top 10) for hundreds of quality key phrases. I am now interested in selling my domain name and website content.

My current asking price is $350,000.00. I suspect that will seem like a lot to those on this list, but I am getting 19,000 unique visitors a month for free from search engines and links to various of my pages. In the hands of the right buyer this will likely be considered a good deal given the desirability of key phrases, growth in traffic, age of site and original content. For those buying pay-per-click advertising through Yahoo and Google many of the terms I rank in the top 5 for on Yahoo and Google go for several dollars a click.

Any interest anyone? Does anyone have a lead for me or someone I should talk to? Information/introductions that lead to a sale will be monetarily rewarded.

Happy to provide additional information.

-Gene

 

what are the revenue stats? can you pm me?

 

How much NET revenue a month. At that price I would expect about 15k/month net revenues. If it is more than that, might be a good deal at the price.

 

I have not really monetized the possible revenue stream. Here is what I can tell you though.

I made about $750 in AdSense revenue in August 2007, and $1,200 in a LegalZoom affiliate program.

I am a patent attorney and when I was doing some patent searches and patent applications for some people who came to the site I would make about $3000 to $4000 a month. I didn't do as much work as I could have from the site, and in fact referred people to other patent lawyers when I couldn't take on more work. The money the site generated was always extra, not my primary source of revenue.

I get requests from individuals to do consulting work and patent work all the time, and I just cannot take the opportunities, even on a selective basis. I am developing a new business that will launch sometime later this month or in October 2007 - see http://www.inventandpatent.com. My other revenue comes from work I do for a particular client reviewing patent applications and working with inventors to mine inventions.

So here is my dilemma... the revenue that has been derived from the website is not what it could be in the right hands (i.e., someone who can offer diversified intellectual property services) and not what it could be if I were to work it for business full time. I have spent my time since going live in 1999 with IPWatchdog.com building a trustworthy reputation, original content, quality back links and search engine rankings.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

-Gene

 

even at 4k per mo your only looking at about 40k right? its 4k x 10 times = 40k when you sell a site you sell on what the revenue is right now not what it could be.

 

I gotta say the asking price is way high for an unmonetized website but to be honest the 10 times rule doesn't apply to all website especially the old and solid ones ..

 

You asking way too high lol, I rather buy a house buddy. And I don't know how many people here at DP would even consider dishing out that kind of money on an internet transaction. Thats like a bit over 1/3 of a million US Dollars.

 

If you people aren't interested in buying the site at its asking price or don't have the least bit interest there is no need to post here its just spam, the OP is asking for serious buyers not critique on the asking price.

 

I think this is a site for a lawyer, rather than a webmaster. I would imagine that to unlock the highest value from the site you'd have to sell it to a company that specialise in IP law. It's likely to add some prestige in the IP field to the law firm concerned AND they could monetise the site to generate more leads.

Good luck with the sale.

 

That's a web forum's approach to valuation which is well under what a valuation professional would give you as a business valuation. A rough rule of thumb would be asking yourself "what size bond would I need to own to generate the revenue of this business?".

In this case the seller is geting $750 per month or $1200 per year. If you could find a bond that paid 10% the bond value would need to be $12,000. If the seller hired someone to boost revenue first to $4000 per month or $48,000 per year than a valuation of $480,000 could be in order. Of course you'd want to check with valuation services and business brokers first but if it really does have the potential it could be worth more the the price mentioned above.

 

interesting thanks for your explanation.

 

ipwatchdog

I would suggest that you post your site in the sitepoint premium site sales board.

regards
patrick

 

Actually I would suggest hiring a broker for such a site.

Good luck.

 

u're price is WAY off dude.
19.000 uniques a month even if it's free, search engine traffic is a small number.
even with PR6, your site is only 255.000 in alexa.
I've seen sites in top 10K in alexa sold for a LOT less.
I also have many sites with 100.000 or more uniques a month, and my best site is around 50K....
Good PR, relatively good content, a nice visitor base, but you could sell it here for around $5000.
Again, for that money I could buy a much more profitable site in top 10K.... and I'd choose that site hands down.
Btw (top 10K is around 0.8M uniques/month)

 

Alexa is something you should always ignore. And laci, I am quite sure your web sites are relatively new, aren't they?

That's a old domain that has been online for a long time now, I am quite sure if he hired a revenue booster, he would make so much more revenue.

Meti

 

Whilst I don't agree with the 10-20 times monthly earnings rule that some people swear by because some sites can be of far greater value, I think people could get themselves a tremendous site with the kind of money you are asking. What the heck! They could by a nice 3 bedroom property for that sum and rent it out. I doubt you will find a buyer here.

Great site though by the looks of it.

 

I appreciate what everyone is saying, but those who are saying that the price is way off don't seem to understand that site, and perhaps that is due to me not explaining things properly. Nevertheless, suggesting that the site be sold for $5,000 is not terribly helpful, nor is it terribly helpful to say that you would rather have a house. I understand this is a difficult valuation, and I am open to reasonable offers, but I have created something of value. I just need to find the right buyer.

There is a difference in traffic as everyone should appreciate. 19,000 uniques a month for people who are looking for Intellectual Property services makes my site one of the most popular Intellectual Property sites on the Internet. Also, we are not talking about a product or service that is sold for $10, and we are not talking about a site that people would want for AdSense revenue or affiliate revenue. One client for a patent would pay between $5,000 and $10,000 for even a simple patent application. See Cost of Obtaining a Patent, which is one of my most popular pages, receiving over 2,000 visitors a month. Getting one of those 2,000 a month to become a client would be easy for someone who can take the business. I just cannot personally.

The LegalZoom affiliate revenue is $1,200 per month, which primarily comes from people who wanted LegalZoom to create provisional patent applications. I put up the affiliate program (and AdSense) because due to other business development I could not take the business I was getting through the site. If I made $1,200 per month for the last couple months that means that LegalZoom took in at least $6,000, and they are a self-help place not a law firm.

Another thing to realize is that there are a lot of firms that heavily advertise using Google and Yahoo pay per click, and to get in top placement for pay per click for relevant search terms costs several dollars a click, and there are those who advertise in this space constantly and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on Internet advertising. My site would cut out most of the need to spend that money in advertising to get placement.

Another thing is that one of my more popular pages is:

http://www.ipwatchdog.com/patent_bar.html

Last month I had 1990 visits. This is highly targeted traffic (i.e., those who want to take the patent bar exam). I have great search engine placement (mostly position 1 in Yahoo and Google). I teach a patent bar review course for PLI right now and for that reason I have never tried to monetize this page for advertising purposes. This is because I teach the course about 8 or 9 times a year and get $6,000 per course, so I have just plugged the PLI course. If I were not restricted and could monetize this page I suspect there is meaningful ad revenue here for a competing bar course.

I wasn't even going to post to DP. I have been using the site to learn about SEO and other things, and to answer some legal questions for folks. I just saw a post asking where all the good domain names are, so I figured I would give it a shot.

If anyone has an thoughts on how I can proceed I would love to hear them. If anyone has any leads I am happy to pay a finders fee for anything that ultimately leads to a sale.

Thanks.

-Gene

 

Gene ignore all of these idiots saying it's worth 10x earnings. Every site with a high price tag gets the same comments and it's from people that don't know what they are talking about.

There are a couple of buyers on this site that will pay up to 48x monthly earnings for an aged, respectable site. But even then they are relying on adsense and CPM earnings on the whole.

You have an established business model, not just a site. Just like Google buying YouTube - they certainly didn't base the price on revenue.

I'm not saying you will be able to sell it for your asking price, but it's clearly worth more than $5k.

Good luck with your sale.

 

i have bought several big sites for around 30k and its 10*monthly earnings..

 

Chimaera-

Thanks for the information and help.

I don't know whether I will be able to sell it for the asking price or not, but I know it is worth a lot more than 10 times monthly earnings given the niche and what people pay per click to be anywhere near the top. What I am selling is not really a website with revenue, but one heck of a Internet billboard that will direct clients to the right organization.

I have never tried to sell the website in the past, but have had unsolicited offers from time to time. If I can't sell it I will do what I have always done, which is add more content, continue to work on search engine rankings, continue to grow reputation and benefit from the site.

While it has not been monetized in the way that many would recognize, as a result of IPWatchdog I have parlayed my celebrity in the IP area into becoming a columnist for Patent World, teaching a patent bar review course and becoming the chief contributor for the PLI Patent Practice Center, all of which are paying me nicely. IPWatchdog has brought me a lot of personal notoriety that has flowed through to me personally.

-Gene