valuing a directory?

Hi all,

I own a directory, and am just playing around with the idea of selling. Don't know whether I want to yet or not.

How does one go about putting a selling price on a niche directory?

Mine is PR5, and the category pages are mostly PR2, PR3 & PR4. The detail link pages with PR have PR2 & PR3.

I've been running it as a free directory for the past year and just a few days ago added a paid option, so I haven't had any revenue yet. But the listed sites are high-quality.

Is there some formula for figuring an asking price when selling?

all best,
Denise

 

It could be interesting if someone can develop a tool for it. And I would like to call it, "Directory Strength" or something

The similar concept, I'm using in my directory of budget directories. Prices are basically determined by domain PR and inner page PR.

To me, this simple concept is enough to determine the price. Other than that, I would look into unique domain backlinks to evaluate a directory.

 

without any real earnings it is tough to say, what kind of traffic does it get? What is the URL?

 

Firstly make the directory completely paid, then promote, record the revenue for 2 months, then multiply it by 8. That may give an idea for the right price. It is a long process but if you don't need to be in a hurry, this method may work.

 

You can sell it as a free directory if you are clear about the potential. I doubt you would make that much in the first two months anyways so it might be better to either hang on to it for 6-months (2 more PR updates) as paid (you will earn money in the meantime) or putting it up for sale and seeing what type of interest there is. It will also really depend on whether it has a nice custom template, what mods are added and how much traffic it gets once you close down free submissions.

 

I always wonder why people start any site just to sell it off...
I think they should have a virtual Viagra for webmasters

 

If you want to PM me the url of your directory I could take a look and give you my opinion on it.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your opinions & advice, it's much appreciated.

I didn't create the site just to sell it off. It's just time constraints that make me consider it. Though the directory is great fun & quite satisfying, I'm not sure whether I want to keep it long term. I've never actually sold one of my websites before.

It is a niche directory covering an area dear to my heart (indie music & arts) & money hasn't been my primary concern with it, thus the free links up til now. I do hope now that I've added a paid option that some folks will want to buy links.

It does have a custom design based on the default phpld template; I've been planning on updating the look somewhat, probably in August. I'm a webdesigner so am doing it all myself.

I really do think the site has great potential for income, as there are many indie bands & artists looking to promote themselves & their websites. I haven't spent as much time on it as I'd like, since I am also running 2 businesses.

The homepage is PR5 (internal 3-4), and Google has indexed 765 pages. Yahoo lists 1,194 external backlinks to the homepage and Google Webmaster Tools lists 952 external backlinks to the homepage. We have not purchased any links, all those are from other directories and indie music / arts sites linking to us.

The url is http://www.indiecoffeehouse.com

Thanks again! I really value your opinions.

cheers ~
Denise

 

Without any earnings, the value is calculated from the investments you made on custom template, linkbuilding etc...
Would worth a lot more if you could provide with some earning stats.

 

It has very nice PR distribution...
I think you could get a nice price for it if someone had a desire for that niche

 

Well
- looks good
- good internal PR
- But very hard niche to monetize IMHO

 

The niche combined with the fact you say you've not paid for backlinks is what will make value for this directory not the script or the outlay you paid out, they count for little. The buyer would more than likely need or want to add deep link mods and that so either adding to the phpld you have or buying a new script with deep links built in would be the way they'd go.

You did a fantastic job with the niche name, if I were buying I'd clean it all out and put in purely indie related sites as that's where the site could really be a winner. Best of luck with it whether you sell or keep it.

 

Thanks everyone for your good words about indiecoffeehouse.com - very much appreciated.

Pheonix, I am actually in the midst of paring down some of the categories which are less strictly indie-related. Have been doing it on & off for the past few days.

Thanks for suggesting deep links mod, I'll check into that.

cheers & gracias!

 

Since you've built that on the basis of a large number of free links, it could be worth more than if you'd simply bought a few high-PR featured links (which often expire after a year). The main problem with selling this could be the niche, in terms of it not being one of the most profitable ones.

If you make it fully paid, you may find that you'll have more time due to fewer submissions. It's probably worthwhile doing this just to find out how it goes.