How Much Would You Sell Your Site For?

This is a question I often ask myself. What the hell is my site(s) worth? It is not such an easy question to answer. From a simplistic point of view, one might look at the net income of a site, and use a multiplier of say 24-36 months depending on how stable your site is.

But then you have some folks who want to know how much time they need to spend on the site maintaining it, and apply an hourly rate to that.. and subtract it from the price. A site making 10k/month that requires 10 hours of maintenance/day isn't as attractive as a site making 8k/month but only needs 1 hour of maintenance/day.

So how would you value a site that only requires minimal maintenance? Sure you can always find new features/work to do, but during down times, if the site can support itself, how much is that really worth?

To me, I have a very hard time putting a price on such a thing. Let's say I have a site pulling in 15k/month that pretty much is on auto-pilot. If it was an aged (old) stable site, one buyer might offer say 24 months net revenue. So let's say $360k. At first that sounds like a crapload of money! But let's take a closer look at what one might walk away with. At $360k, the buyer may most likely want to pay a large chunk up front, and then finance the rest payed out over the next few years. It is a reasonable request. So say they give you 50k up front and payout the remainder over 3 years at 7% or something. That is probably less than 10k/month payments to you.

So now you have 50k in the bank... but you are making LESS a month than you were before. Sure you have dumped all the risk that goes with the high-stakes game of online advertising, but looking at the trends, companies are dumping more and more cash into online ads every year. Where do you think that money is going? Sites like yours! Meanwhile, your site is growing in content, visitors, revenue... Suddenly it is making 20k/month... yet you are now only getting 10k/month... and after the 3 years... it is gone!

Even if your site revenues remain the same, that initial $50k you banked is quickly erased in 10 months by you only getting 10k instead of 15k a month.

Let's not even get started on the taxes and the hit you'll take there.

My point is... you hear a lot of folks often complaining about not being able to find any "good" sites for sale... and I really think the reason is simple... Most folks who own a good site can't see any benefit of getting rid of it. Perhaps a few will need some money for a house or something, but 95% of the "good" site owners are raking in the cash and growing their sites more and more every year. Sure if you offer me some 7-figure amount, I'll sell... but no one is going to do that... so the website marketplace continues being flooded with your typical get rich quick schemes, proxy-junk sites, recipe clones, wiki-this and that and YouTube ripoffs... most with no chance whatsoever of making a dime for their new owners. Pipe dreams being sold to folks who just don't know any better.

So instead of looking for that great deal on a site that'll earn you to retirement, why not build your own empire. Let your passions fly and just run with it... find a need and fill it...

Great sites don't come cheap... they take years of hard work... and until folks start to realize how much they are really worth... no one is ever going to have the motivation to want to sell.