Forum Moderators: martinibuster
We're interested in buying your site, but we dont know how much it is worth. So, how much do you make per month?
How do you respond to this? Do you flat out tell them what you're making? Do you get cold and tell them to buzz off?
If you do want to sell...what do you sell for? A year's worth? 5 years worth of adsense revenue?
I'm interested to hearing how the experienced webmaster has handled this.
Hubes
if someone wants to buy then they've gotta know how much they want to pay (even if they don't offer it)!
sounds to me like they are fishing to see the kind of money you make for other reasons.
>>If you do want to sell
if this is the case look for a buyer elsewhere,
>>I'm interested to hearing how the experienced webmaster has handled this.
i'll admit that i'm not that experienced in selling websites, but i have been in the buying/selling game all my life and the product doesn't much matter the process is always similiar.
Like the others I get, I ignored it. I don't reply to these things.
BTW, if you want to buy my site, the 3X annual rate would creep into the six digits range. If you have deep pockets, I'll definitely help you lose some of that weight in your wallet!
Edit: Apparently three Xs in a row is censored, had to edit the money figures.
for God's sake, don't sell before November 18th!)
Why?
and start a new site from scratch.
True, but it takes quite a while for a web site to get some Google love...
If the sale is big enough, get with a tax adviser, and see if it'd be better for you to sell this year, or next year. If this year, I would sell at the very end of December. If next year, then January 1st would be perfect. Be sure to explain your entire situation. For example, you're not employed elsewhere and your site is your entire earnings. You plan on taking a big break next year, for many months or even take the entire year off (i.e., you have no more sites, and don't plan on finding a job). I bet it'd be better to sell it next year. If you sell it this year, then the money from the sale AND the money you earned from ads is reported to the IRS in a single year, bumps you into a higher tax bracket, and you get a lot taken out. If you sell next year, then for this year the IRS only sees what your ads made, keeping you in a lower tax bracket. For next year, the IRS only sees the sale of the site, which may be a lot of money, but still less than the sale + earnings from ads, and may keep you in a lower tax bracket.
Sorry for rambling, but if you're seriously considering selling your site now, it may be something worth looking into.
If you enjoy working on it and it doesn't cut in to your life too much and it the revenue seems to be growing, then why sell, unless you are offered an insanely large sum of money?
(and as I mentioned before, I would NEVER give any kind of a sum first - if they're really interested, they already know how much they are willing to pay, even if it's only a ballpark)
Then, I would start up some new sites, and do the same in a year or two.
This could be a great way to make some fast money, but who would the buyers be?
On the one occasion that this has happened I did reply with an "as is" sale price. Any serious buyer already knows what the site (or domain) is worth to them.
If you are actively trying to sell a site that is entirely a different matter. You pretty much have to justify it's worth, and the only way to do that is by disclosing revenue.
Freq---
EG:
A site making $10 a month can not be bought or sold for $100, it's not fair price at all.
A site making $100 a month can however be sold $1000-1200
and similarly a site making $1000 a month can be sold for close to $10k
I hope you all agree to me, and know why.
If you do want to sell...what do you sell for?
I'm always on the lookout for quality sites and have paid upto six figure sums and 30x multiples for the right properties.
[edited by: oddsod at 11:02 am (utc) on Nov. 10, 2006]
It's just not the income that counts. I saw somewhere that registered users are valued 4$-10$ each (depends on type of site of course). On established sites like mine even projected income is a factor. There isn't a formulae that you can use to determine a site's value, there are too many factors to consider.
I've had many interesting offers and buyers, but still not selling. I'd sell for maybe 5 or 6 years income right now. Also could buy a house and start working on a new site. I have plenty of ideas but no time. :/
The significance of November 18th
I thought maybe you were suggesting Hubie hold out till this date to sell for enough to buy a new Mini which is launched on the 18th ;)
No one responded.
Maybe they're waiting the yuotube-like offer... and I'm too waiting to have the G pockets. Maybe in our next life.
[edited by: Lexur at 12:34 pm (utc) on Nov. 10, 2006]
how much times the last month income will be the price.
If you asked exactly so, I wouldn't reply too because I didn't understand what that means. :) Even if I extrapolate a meaning from this sentence, that can't be the value of a site or a method of calculation.
[edited by: Alioc at 1:04 pm (utc) on Nov. 10, 2006]
Cabo
10-12x monthly is pretty standard.
what standard? i'd never sell my site for this ridiculous amount.
moreover, there are some questions that need to be answered:
- how does the site monetize currently: adsense? affiliates? both? none?
- content structure: maintenance? cms or customized? evergreen content?
- what about the user base: visitors? subscribers? paying customers?
- quality of traffic, amount of fresh/repeat visitors, market share, growth rate?
- options and potentials how to further market the site: in the next months? in the next years?
and on and on it goes...
i also have reflected on what to tell a potential buyer. i came to the conclusion that it's perhaps more reasonable to link the price to the number of current unique visitors per month. what do you think of that?
i'd never sell my site for this ridiculous amount.
The operative word there is "my". The multiple itself is not ridiculous; in fact it's too much for some of the sites I see advertised.
it's perhaps more reasonable to link the price to the number of current unique visitors per month
The #1 reason people buy sites is to run them as businesses. Businesses have to make a profit. The price paid for a business is justified by what the buyer reasonably expects to make from it in the near future. Traffic is worthless, useless, a waste of time, bandwidth and money .... unless you can convert it to something you want.
Like converting it to money. Income. As stated previously. And if you don't have those earnings it's likely you have that worst kind of traffic - the type that eats up your resources but isn't capable of giving you much in return. Why should I invest money in a such site?
I thought maybe you were suggesting Hubie hold out till this date to sell for enough to buy a new Mini which is launched on the 18th ;)
Mini what?
I'm interested to hearing how the experienced webmaster has handled this.
Delete the email and report is as spam ;)
sell a site for what it earns in a year or less? that's way too low for quality content with natural traffic, because it's too difficult to replace... it could easily take you more than a year to build up a replacement site.
i can see selling a site like that if it's profitable from paid traffic and links, because that can be duplicated easily.
a) what's the monthly income from advertising ( web page )
b) what's the subscription value of the members
c) what's the income of the e-mail list
A = I look to price this at a 8% to 15% yield ( cash flow yield over 1 year )
b = do the members buy anything, are they repeat clients, do they purchase what refer on the site, what would it take to duplicate the trust of this list.
c = is the e-mail making any money? if so then I assign a value
just these basics will give you a simple idea of the possible value.
Speaking of buying sites...
I got an even wilder request this week, someone I know that runs a site that compliments mine and fits like a glove was interested in retiring, didn't want to sell out, just wanted me to take it over and split the loot.
Took about half a day to evaluate the situation before I jumped all over it.
The thing is this, the other site doesn't have AdSense on it, probably never will and doesn't need it! Probably the main reason I was so hopped up on the idea as it will even further diversify my income.
