Valuing a website

[TimW]

I have been a moderator on a website that the owner wishes to sell. Without going into details, can anyone give me some advice to pass along to him on how to calculate how much it might be worth? What factors come into play?

[sub8hr]

Here are a couple considerations about buying/selling a website. Doesn't go so far as to give a calculator though.

http://www.writingforyourwealth.com/empire-building/buying-websites-how-much-should-you-pay/

[webgal]

Check digitalpoint. They flip a lot of websites and forums there. Also, Nathan on the board recently sold a site (padma). He might be willing to offer guidance through PM.

[camdengirl]

I guess it depends on a few things - membership, permissions held (e.g. can you send them info? or pass their details onto third parties?), numbers of visitors, search engine ranking, how many sales go thru each month etc.

Without being specific what kind of a website is it? Online sales? Or just a domain? Or membership site? Active niche forum?

In normal business terms you would usually assess the actual stock/premises etc. and then the goodwill could be anything from 50%-800% of turnover depending on the industry.

[padma]

Well, one of the general rules is 12x what it makes per month, but I don't think that is enough information...especially these days when the market is kind of oversaturated.

You can add value if you have members, digital products to include, or an email list that you have permission to sell.

You can subtract value if you rely heavily on paid advertising or your model is unstable.

The best thing to do is spend some time at the Sitepoint marketplace and see what has been selling well. I can tell you that a lot of times the price you'll get is more related to the hype and value you can create in your pitch vs what the site actually does.

Unless you are dealing with a million dollar site, it really can be a crapshoot.

[jetpacklife]

The 12x per month figure is way below what it's worth. A normal business is 10x annual profit. Web businesses are easier to run, so if you think you can grow it, it should be worth more.

http://www.cubestat.com will also help you.

I've bought and sold a few smaller sites, but I've held on to all my larger sites. Page rank can be priceless when you need to build and create a new service.