Selling PR6 website - Online since 1999 - Original Content

I know you have heard it before - but just to weigh in again.

If you want to get a good dollar - try selling it on sitepoint, sedo or even ebay and announcing it here.

If you want to get top dollar - approach large IP firms and other players in the industry. Use your connections.

What you get on these web industry markets is quick sales. It is efficient if you have your hands in many baskets.

Good luck.

 

Foggy-

Your post is hardly worth of response, but I will endeavor once again answer the needless questions you are interjecting here. But seriously, how can anyone be taken seriously when they profess to be Internet savy and they use a DP thread as their home page, which is what you are doing in your profile. If you are so knowledgable and if you are so into the business of the Internet why are you trying to hide who you are?

As for my auction on Site Point, I have not posted it here because I did not think it appropriate to have DP traffic redirected to another forum site. But because you seem to think I have no interest in selling my site and that listing on Site Point some how makes it serious, see:

http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/12764

You also don't seem to realize that in addition to all of this I have been contacting potential buyers I am aware of directly. There are already several potential buyers considering detailed proposals.

In terms of being cranky, etc., what you perceive to be not sending the right message is actually just standing up for myself, a truly valuable quality in a lawyer. If a lawyer won't stand up for themselves then why would anyone believe they would stand up for a client? You have been trying to ruin this thread for me from the beginning. While you can perceive my actions as vindictive if you like, I can personally assure you that you have picked a fight with the wrong person.

I continue to be happy to answer via post or PM any and all questions from those who might be legitimately interested, or those who have an interest in discussing the finders fee. I remain happy to pay an appropriate finders fee for an introduction that leads to a sale.

-Gene

 

Thanks Advantage. I have come to realize that a direct sale through DP is unlikely, but given that IPWatchdog.com will appeal to only a certain niche market I have decided to pursue as many outlets as possible. I have listed on Site Point, and there have been some inquiries. I have also directly contacted a number of people in the Intellectual Property community as well, and this week I will be mentioning the sale in my own newsletter as well.

Thanks to all who have made suggestions.

-Gene

 

Zippo & Bitsy-

Thanks for the suggestion, which others have made as well. I have been in touch with several brokers, but nothing solid on that front yet.

I have also been in touch with marketing and PR firms that cater to law firms. I continue to pursue a multi-facet approach to trying to sell IPWatchdog.com.

-Gene

 

A press release announcing the auction of IPWatchdog.com was sent out this morning. Those interested can read it at:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/09/prweb553064.htm

Thanks.

-Gene

 

Gene, it's pretty unlikely you'll find someone on webmaster boards for that kind of site, nonetheless price. While many of them tend to have their own "rules" for valuing a website, they'll in general completely neglect the fact that it would cost them a small fortune to have that kind of content custom-written for them by a specialized attorney. Don't fall into any kind of 10-month or other standard "trap" in site valuation, when you have an asset very few webmasters could ever afford to get their hands on in the expertise backing the content alone. As others have said, go with a broker for something like this.

 

There's another good reason for going to brokers. Once you've gone past the ones who give you inflated prices to get your business but never actually achieve a sale for you - just glory in the fact that they have a lot of businesses on their books - you'll come to the brokers who'll burst your balloon and tell you how little it really is worth.

We are talking "business" brokers. They sell businesses. Not something that could be made into a business. But, I'm sure the seller doesn't share those opinions so we'll let time prove one of us wrong. We'll measure results not by the number of "potential buyers" but by a $350K sale. I don't have any animosity, though, and I do genuinely wish you all the very best with this. Good luck.

 

Thanks Jenn for the comments. Thanks Foggy for the well wishes.

The only thing I would point out Foggy is that the real value of IPWatchdog.com is not in that it "could" be made into a business. The best value would, in my opinion, be for those who already have a business that can use IPWatchdog.com.

Years ago in my home town there was a Dunkin Donuts. It was located in a very busy area, but hidden by an overpass. The owner moved the store across the parking lot so that the sign was not hidden by the overpass and his business exploded, qadrupling immediately. This is sort of how I see the value in IPWatchdog.com.

-Gene

 

Yeah, everyone on here is an idiot because they don't understand "high value websites."

Ask yourself, have you sold the site yet?

Better off taking this auction down (as you come up in google now http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...cial&hs=bGE&q=ipwatchdog+for+sale&btnG=Search ) and talking to the LEGAL community about the value; it has no where near the value you are asking for in THIS community.

Best of luck.

 

Whatever info. I know you have all the answers.

So let me get this straight. Because when you type in "ipwatchdog for sale" in Google that means I should take the auction down? How many people do you think find my site by typing in the name? LOL. Do you really think that matters to me? Obviously you have not checked the hundreds of keywords and phrases that would be far more important to the right buyer.

 

Here is the text of a press release that will be distributed across the Internet on Tuesday, October 2, 2007.

*************************

Since IPWatchdog.com was originally launched in October 1999, it has been owned and maintained by Gene Quinn, a patent attorney, law professor, author and inventor. Now Quinn is selling the site and domain name via auction, and the auction is nearing completion. The auction will wrap up on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 5:00pm Eastern Time. For information about the auction or to place a bid you can simply go to http://www.IPWatchdog.com and click on the “Bid Now” banner near the top right of the page.

IPWatchdog.com has managed to become one of the most popular intellectual property websites on the Interent. In addition to extraordinary search engine ranking for highly desirable terms in the competitive marketplace of intellectual property advertising via the Internet, the site has a Technorati ranking of 245,054 out of 107.7 million blogs tracked by the popular blog portal.

IPWatchdog.com also compares extremely favorably with other hot intellectual property websites, including IntelPropLaw.com, BitLaw.com, Patents.com and PatentCafe.com. For example, according to Compete.com, IPWatchdog.com has an average stay per visitor of 5 minutes and 53 seconds, which ranks first among this group, with IntelPropLaw.com at 4:01, BitLaw.com at 2:44, PatentCafe.com at 2:05 and Patents.com at :29. In terms of monthly rank IPWatchdog.com fares even better. According to Quantcast.com, IPWatchdog.com ranks first among this group with a ranking of 69,661 out of over 20 million websites on the Internet, while IntelPropLaw.com ranks 137,918, BitLaw.com ranks 250,241, Patents.com ranks 571,499 and PatentCafe.com ranks 294,480.

The starting bid for IPWatchdog.com was $10,000, and the present bid is $35,000. When asked about the bidding Quinn is excited and optimistic. “I have received a number of serious inquiries both online at the auction site and privately. Interest seems to be growing so I do believe the bidding will go higher, perhaps significantly higher,” Quinn said. When asked about whether a reserve has been set Quinn explained: “yes, I did set a reserve price, which is fairly common for these types of auctions. While I won’t say what the reserve price is I can tell you that the reserve price has not yet been met.”

When asked why he is now selling IPWatchdog.com Quinn explained that “it is time for me to move on. I am embarking on a new business related to the mentored writing of patent applications via an interactive software platform. With this new business I will not have the time to dedicate to keeping IPWatchdog.com fresh. I have taken it about as far as one person can. I will miss it no doubt, but it is time.”

 

Just wanted to let you know that there is one gentleman who has 1M dollars and wants to buy a site. But the problem is that he only wants to pay x 10 months of revenue... Hope you get some deal with him...

 

Thanks VirtualF. I saw that thread earlier today. My site at present is not really for those that are interested in that type of business model. I know I am limiting my selling audience because of that, but maximum value will be for those who would use IPWatchdog.com as a front door to a new or established law firm or other business that relates to intellectual property law.

If things don't work out on this auction (I have set a reserve) then I will attempt to build up the passive revenue and give it another shot during the winter of 2007/2008.

Thanks again for lead.

-Gene

 

I think the bid currently at sitepoint is quite fair. I dont go by 10 or 12x monthly revenue. But surly do not go by potential. I can buy a domain name and sure it has potential.. Doesnt it? I mean if I put a great website on it, unique content, spend 10k on advertising, wouldnt be very promising? Does that mean I should sell trustmypotential.com for what it could be wirth if I did all fo that?

35k is a good offer but regardless I wish you the best of luck for a nice site..

Stan

 

Thanks for your comments Stan. I do have to disagree with you though. You could put all kinds of advertising into a site regarding intellectual property law and never crack the top ten in search engine rankings. The maximum value would be to a firm or company that already spends huge amounts of money in advertising. By buying ipwatchdog.com they could save tremendously. Most intellectual property related sites only get 2,000 or fewer visitors a month, so IPWatchdog.com would multiply by a factor of 10 the number of visitors just from free search engine rankings and the various links around the Internet.

-Gene

 

I see the auction for this site attracted bids up to $50,000 before it was closed.

Are you planning on listing the site again, ipwatchdog?

 

To be honest, I can only see someone working in a similar line of profession as yourself being interested in this site considering its asking price. This is a great site and would be snapped up in an instant if it was priced in the realms of what a webmaster would normally pay. However, this site is obviously worth heck of a lot more than that, but maybe not quite as much as you are valuing it.

 

I ahve been reading the comments and am not interested in buying, but for reference purposes thought i might chip in.
As a rule stock market companies can be valued at a P/E ratio...thats Price/Earning of anything between 12x and upwards of 20x.
The valuation of the raio fluctuates due to the rating of a company and its revenue stream....the more stable the company and revenue stream the higher the multiple...
You should also account for the potential growth in revenue..
A new company with a new idea may have explosive earnings potential in the v. near future..its valuation maybe 35x its earnings at sale. Dont forget Youtube never made a penny profit...but had a 100 M audience. Google bought it for its advertising potential...not itsincome at sale
Most internet businesses are volatile as are their incom streams...markets come and go like fads and crazes.
Anyway, hopes that helps!
An ex Investment Fund manager

 

I'm curious what happened with the auction, and what the highest bid was. It's beyond my budget, but I think there is a lot of value there.

 

This could be comparative to an asking price for a plastic surgeon site which makes $2k/monthly in AS revenue and affiliates and is tops in kw's for some terms, so you pay $20k for it;
OR if you sell it to an actual plastic surgeon who will pay $100k+ as he/she may make $10k to $20k/month just from the site alone. This is the same concept used for real estate sites 2 years ago. You cannot rely on AS and affiliate income as a justifiable price indicator. Sell it to someone in that profession and it's gold. It's gold Jerry, gold !!! ( I couldn't resist that )