It's been a long, hard road and we're pretty burned out. My partners and I all own other, more profitable businesses, so we've decided to let the whole thing go if we don't have a really spectacular holiday season. We're exploring all options at this point, and I'm trying to get a realistic assessment of the domain's value. We may sell inventory separately, or sell the whole business as a package deal (including the domain), but either way we need to nail down some realistic numbers for the domain.
Other trivia:
The domain name contains the name of the industry, and is incredibly easy to remember. Days after we first launched the site, people began telling us "Oh! I've heard of that"
Page rank (if that matters) seems to float between 4 and 5.
Happy to answer other questions-
Thanks
Alright, since it's now officially "Rules Breaking Friday", I'm greenlighting this. Let's call it a "one off". I don't propose to make this a habit, so let's flesh it out in some detail for future reference. (Be advised that IF this works, and we develop some decent analysis and intelligence, the domain name itself is likely to be removed once we're done.)
I'm off to a business meeting so I can't linger to chat, for now.
Anyone have any input? Let's keep it broadly educational, not just about "this domain". Thank you.
[edited by: Webwork at 5:59 pm (utc) on Aug. 10, 2007]
This thread might be useful to you:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Agreed, although the mitigating factor is that our best exit strategy may be selling to a competitor. A competitor would likely absorb the brand (and all of the organic search engine traffic) rather than run it as a separate business. Under those circumstances, it becomes less about how we're currently turning traffic into sales than how that traffic would impact their existing business. This is why we're trying to establish a value range (or a methodology for determining the value range) for the domain itself. They may say, "We don't want to buy $30k in inventory, but we'll buy your brand and your domain."
But it seems to me that all of the assets need to be taken into consideration. Whether or not they will use your advertising inventory, it still adds value to the website as a whole. I'm guessing that without the site and without the domain name, the advertising inventory would be worthless to you.
I'm getting the sense that either this wasn't the best place to ask these questions, or that maybe there just isn't an answer. I posed the question thinking that maybe there was a guideline or formula in common use. I suppose domain selling is still a nascent market,and ultimately it's just worth whatever the market will bear.
Valuation models may be nascent but that doesn't mean there aren't models that make sense, i.e., that can justify a certain asking price. The trick, for the moment, is perhaps finding some middle ground that respects the higher intelligence of each of the various models.
Physical inventory? That's tough. I have a client now who has a couple of warehouses of physical inventory and we are doing our best to get it out of there. It was a brick and mortar that went online and closed his doors at the traditional level.
The valuation process is sketchy at most. We've seen domain names sell for prices that are well beyond any revenue the site is capable of generating in its current state.
Lots of research to be done to determine "where you stand" in the space. Competitive anaylsis, historical trends, etc. Once all that has been completed, then you should have a solid foundation to determine the worth of the property.
And even then, if the buyer is motivated, you could receive more than what you were thinking about asking. ;)
