SEM Tycoon

#1 (permalink)

Hello all,
Thanks for the great information provided on the site. I'm looking forward to reading more.

I'm considering selling my site and am interested in your insight.

1.) How should I value the site? Simple calculations like 3yr income plus assets seems pretty, well, simple. Is there a better way?

2.) How do I go about selling it? Should I use a broker, simply post it on message boards, or some other method. If you recommend sites, or brokers, please tell me which ones, specifically, you recommend.

The site is in a very well-defined niche and has been active for more than 3 years. Someone with the motivation/know-how to develop it could really maximize the profits.

Thanks in advance for your input.
Ryan

#2 (permalink)

3 year income? lol i wish. but, somethings can take that away. There are plenty of sites that are NOT monitized that have sold for millions....

Going rate is about 9-18 months income for a "normal" site.

#3 (permalink)

To get 3 years revenue, it's gotta be a pretty awesome site. Assets are not worth much unless you've got a custom script running the site or some intellectual property that you can assign a monetary value to.

You should be prepared to show screenshots of where the traffic is coming from, both by referrer breakdowns and by locality/nationality. You should have screenshots of at least 3-6 months earnings from income all sources. Obviously you also need to be able to prove traffic.

Be prepared to give details about any PPC or other paid advertising you are currently using or have used in the past. Have industry-specific search figures ready, such as the cost of relevant keywords and the traffic they receive. Also be able to discuss the growth rate and future of the industry your website targets. A website about the Playstation 2 will become significantly less popular and less profitable once sony rolls out the PS3.

Have an explanation ready of what is required to maintain the site, number of hours per week/month requires, and to what degree page/content generation is automated.
Lastly, you can go with a broker or list it yourself on DNForum. How you go about selling it really depends on how much you think you'll be able to get for it.

Hope this helps

#4 (permalink)

1) Most sites are valued on 12 months of revenue.

2) SitePoint and other various webmaster marketplaces will usually get your site sold within a few days.

#5 (permalink)

Yes but people on sitepoint are usually buying proxy sites at $50/pop. I never sell anything on there because the prices are too low. I prefer DNForum, but if I was hoping to make $xx,xxx or more from the sale I'd probably go with a broker. And I've seldom seen sites (other than the huge sales you read about in the news) sell for more than 12-18mo's revenue.

#6 (permalink)

I would buy an established PR6+ 2+year old site with good stable serps and lots of inbound links for 2 years revenue. So if it makes $1,000 a month I would pay $20,000.