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I Sold My $13,000/year Evergreen Site for $29,000. Is It Worth It?

by nickchou
18 replies
Hi guys,

I recently sold my PR4 evergreen site on Flippa for $29,000. For the past 5 years, it has been consistently generating around $13,000 per year income with about $500 annual expenses. Now that my site is gone, I started to regret it.

Here is more information about the site:

• Google PageRank: 4/10

• Unique visitors per month: 135,198
Unique page views per month: 288,271 (See screen capture)

• Alexa Rank: 135,225 and growing
Compete Rank: 57,529

• Yahoo BackLinks: 11,115

• Website appears on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd page for highly popular keywords.

• Mailing list subscribers: 41,000 and growing (average 9,400/year), as of March 28, 2011, with avg. open rate of 28.82% (HIGH!)

• Revenue sources: Google AdSense and ebook sales

• Been in the market for 7 years and 5 months since October, 2003

Did I make the wrong decision to sell it? Did I get a good price?

Thanks,

Nick
#$13 #$29 #buying a website #buying selling websites #buying websites #evergreen #flip websites #flipping websites #or year #site #sold #worth
  • Profile picture of the author fmathd
    You have had a very good site.
    It would have been more profitable to keep that site.

    But you can build site with similar popularity within 7-8 months with the money you have got.

    But still I think you sold the site for Less.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nickolie0990
    Well if you are having doubts, then that really isn't a good start. From my experience you should always sell a site for 10x the gross revenue. I think the biggest loss was with the email list. 41,000 and growing, you could of easily made way more money with a list like that.
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    • Profile picture of the author nickchou
      Hi guys,

      Thank you for the reply. I knew it from the start that I should have sold it for more or shouldn't have sold it at all. Unfortunately I needed some money to promote my product. At the moment all my money is tied with other investment opportunities. So I guess I was forced to do so.

      The good thing is that I do have many sites like that one in my AdSense arsenal. So I don't feel like I've lost everything.

      My question is is it true that most sites sold on Flippa were sold at 1x or 2x the annual income? If yes, does it apply to evergreen sites as well?

      Thanks for join the conversation,

      Nick
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    • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
      Originally Posted by Nickolie0990 View Post

      you should always sell a site for 10x the gross revenue..
      I must say the number I have heard is 3x. Personally I would never pay 10 times the annual value of a site, because you don't know what lies ahead in the next 10 years online. Just my thoughts though.
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  • Profile picture of the author howinfo
    As far as the annual revenue and the final sales price ratio goes then it sounds about right. As it is sold now there is no point regretting it as if you where able to build a successful site before then concentrate how to use that money you got on some new project. I am sure you will do lot better now whit all your experience and knowledge.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Johnston
    WOW, you sold cheap. The rule of thumb is generally 10-12 times what it makes in monthly/yearly revenue. Of course, it would have probably taken a lot longer to sell it for $300 000, but still.

    Well, at least I bet you learned a valuable lesson here.
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    • Profile picture of the author Palusko
      Your math is "a bit" off. Also, it makes quite a difference to sell something for 10x monthly revenue or 10x yearly revenue.

      Originally Posted by Tom Johnston View Post

      WOW, you sold cheap. The rule of thumb is generally 10-12 times what it makes in monthly/yearly revenue. Of course, it would have probably taken a lot longer to sell it for $300 000, but still.

      Well, at least I bet you learned a valuable lesson here.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tom Johnston
        Originally Posted by Palusko View Post

        Your math is "a bit" off. Also, it makes quite a difference to sell something for 10x monthly revenue or 10x yearly revenue.
        Haha, you're right, nice catch. I think it's time for this overloaded brain to go to sleep!
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    • Profile picture of the author InTheMaking
      Originally Posted by Tom Johnston View Post

      WOW, you sold cheap. The rule of thumb is generally 10-12 times what it makes in monthly/yearly revenue. Of course, it would have probably taken a lot longer to sell it for $300 000, but still.

      Well, at least I bet you learned a valuable lesson here.
      I don't know where the hell you got your info from but you can't flip a site that makes 13k a year for 300k lol

      at most you could flip it for maybe 40k (3 years rev)
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Speaking strictly personal here I would say you made a good deal. If your numbers held for this year you would've made just $13,000 in 2011 with this site. But you sold it and banked $16,000 additional.

    Seems to me you could simply re-invest some of that profit and create yet another site in an ever green niche and build up your income to roughly the same amount and then sell it for roughly the same price.

    Better yet, why not make a larger capital investment and build five sites that are similar in nature and then sell those for the same price?
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    I think you sold it for a fair price, getting over two years' worth of earnings for it.

    It may have been wiser to keep it though, seeing that you've built a mailing list of 41,000 responsive subscribers over the years, which is worth a lot in anyone's book!

    Did you keep the subscribers, or were they passed on to the new owner?

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Nomar86
    I think the price is about fair! Too bad you regret it though. Start a new one
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    • Profile picture of the author Mar
      I think you now have to concentrate on the reason why you sold the site; you raised capital for your new venture and you have to make that pay. It would be a shame if you were to take your eye off the ball and let the new venture go slow or fail - you have to move forward.

      Mar
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  • Profile picture of the author Deepak Media
    It is a good decision - provided you have bigger dreams to be implemented waiting in the queue. Sometimes a $1000/mo site can hold you back from starting a project which can make $10,000/month!
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  • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
    I wouldn't have sold it. But if I would have suspicion that the site visits and earnings might go down in the future, I would have sold it for 3-5 times the yearly income.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Could have been a good move.

    Was it a time-sucker? or autopilot?

    Hey, you have over two years worth of income in your pocket now. You have the possibility of achieving anything in that time.

    You know what to do, make a plan to create 10 sites that will generate that money through outsourcing the work.

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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Well, I wouldn't have sold it but if you needed the money you needed the
      money.

      There is no point crying over spilled milk. It's done. So move on to whatever
      it is you're doing next.
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      • Profile picture of the author kennygoodman
        Nick

        you missed out the niche, you see this plays a big part on value. Cost per click for PPC in the niche plays a big part.
        Other than that it looks like a good package and someone will do very well from it


        Have no regrets, as this will just stop your progress, learn from your experience - use the money wisely and get back in the game again


        Good luck


        Kenny
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