Website value - what's the latest on the topic?

[vampke]

Hi guys,

I own a website I am thinking of putting up for sale.
Some basic information on it:
- high quality unique content
- niche topic
- roughly 300 visitors/day - continuously on the rise since the site was launched in 2007. 85-90% through search engines.
- about $1000 /year through adsense - continuously rising since 2007
- no maintenance, site hasn't been updated much for over 2 years

What is a reasonable price I can expect for this site?

[brotherhood of LAN]

There's no cast-iron formula

>85-90% through search engines.

This would be perceived as risky. From what I've saw (which ain't too much but the thread pops up often on here), 3-5 times earnings is a rough ballpark, so $3-$5K.

That's not to say that someone could monetize it much better than what you are already doing with Adsense, and value it higher.

Somewhat related threads [google.com] might yield some useful info.

[Webwork]

I'd consider the strength of the cash flow in fixing a value.

Multiples of income work best where there is certainty about the inputs and income.

Certainty of income, when it comes to the WWW, is far more predictable when a website has a vast array on inbound links - especially from quality sites - as that tends to a) offset traffic loss due to finicky search engine love; and, b) tends to be an insurance policy against such finickly love since a search engine that doesn't get why your site is so loved is one that is not likely to last.

Look at what an annuity would cost that throws off $X. How much will that cost?

How close is your website and its income stream to an annuity? The closer it gets the better the analogy when it comes to setting a value.

IMHO, the "multiple of income" model is a lazy-easy model. Are humans lazy-easy? Sure, more than a few. Therefore the model is popular.

Website value - once you are speaking of truly valuable resources - is not such a simple matter. However, the VAST majority of websites are far simpler to evaluate.

Look at the "pinned" thread (up top [webmasterworld.com...] ) for a few lengthy discussions about valuing websites and domains.