14 replies
I NEED TO VENT!

Okay, I feel like an idiot, I've been harvesting a site for four months, making it nice, getting its PR up, getting it to rank in GOOGLE, getting it to earn a bit of money........about $40/mo.

Finally I get it there...to that point with major backlinks and ranking ALL OVER GOOGLE and its earning $40 per month, I throw it up for sale in the WSO full website sale section and it seems like I get ripped on for asking too much!?

How much am I asking?

$40 per Month x 2yrs (24Months) = 960
Investment Money = $1,000
50 Articles at $5 per article = $250
Labor Costs over Four Months = $600
Site Value (Alexa Ranking, PR, Optimization, Design) = $690
___________________
Total = 3,500

Maybe 24months is stretching it but, thats my ASKING price. I'm taking offers, but it seems noone over there wants to give me an offer, they just want to chime in and tell me the site is worth about $300 and the way I translate that is into "GREAT! So this prized possession of mine is only worth $300.....thats great. just great." its a real bubble buster.....

I feel all sad now.... lol

I thought I had this all down, now its blowing up in my face *sigh*

[/end rant]
#site
  • Profile picture of the author Peter Adamson
    In your calculation, you have added up future profits and development costs. You can't do that. It's one or the other.

    Let me explain. Suppose you have a site that cost $2000 to build and it is well designed and could be promoted for profit, but there is no traffic yet and no profit. It is worth something to somebody because if they wanted it they would have to do all this work themselves. So you would factor in your development costs, because you would not say the site is worth $0 since there is no profit.

    Now suppose you keep this site and make it worth $100 a day. You would extrapolate the $100/day over a period of time (24 months is too long for web sites) and get a valuation based on future profit, but you would not add your development costs.

    I believe 10 to 18 months is about all you can use. Web sites are too volatile, here today gone tomorrow so you can't use 36 months or whatever times revenue as you would for a brick and mortar company.

    Try to get revenues up. I don't think there is a market for a $40 a month web site.
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    • Profile picture of the author sahi
      Well, you are asking WAY TOO MUCH for such a site because first of all
      "$40 per Month x 2yrs (24Months) = 960" is not accurate as usually site's revenue is multiplied with 5-6 months and not with 24 months, and as a result 960 figure will change to $40 per Month x 6=$240

      I would leave"$1000 investment" out as I don't count it unless your site was made using some sort of "exceptional" software or is using "Super" quality design for which you paid 1k.

      In my view the realistic price for your site is around

      $40 per Month x 6 months = 240
      50 Articles at $5 per article = $250( Only if the articles are of 500 words, and if not then this price per article will go down further)
      Site Value (Alexa Ranking, PR, Optimization, Design) = $100
      ___________________
      Total = 590



      Although you may disagree with my estimate but I think a person needs to be realistic when doing business.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Leader
    Return on investment is 3 years which hardly makes it worth it.
    You'd be better pushing up to another level and then seeing what you'd get for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Droopy Dawg
    Go over to Flippa.com and list it... WF isn't the only place to sell your site. Maybe someone over there would take you up on it.
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  • Profile picture of the author wisecrone333
    I do feel for you because all the time you have invested in this project you thought you were going to get a worthwhile return for it and to be blasted in a WSO would be brutal. It is honestly one of the reasons I have been so hesitant about posting one myself - the thing is though that a lot of the people on this forum really do know what they are doing and would have an idea of what things are worth - that is why this place has so many members.

    Personally if it was me I would work on it a bit longer and really bring the income figures up - I think your $40 a month is wonderful but it also suggests to me that it could be more and from the sounds of what you have already done it doesn't seem like it would take too long for you to build that revenue up to the point where you could set your price on the site and have people fighting over it.

    All the best
    Lisa
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    • Profile picture of the author oneplusone
      I think you need to build up a sites key assets before you can think about getting any sort of worthwhile money for it.

      I don't think how much a site is earning is that important, it can be earning zero.

      If you have an opt in page and have captured a few thousand e-mail addresses who have subscribed to the site for example this would be a huge plus point for any potential buyer.

      If a site had earnt zero but had a lot of traffic, or came with a big opt in list as part of the deal a lot of serious marketers would be interested.

      If you have a dog training site for example and have built up a list of 1,000-5,000 subscribers say, a lot of experienced marketers would pay a lot of money for it because they would know how to make the subscribers repeat offers and convert them into a lot of cash.

      They won't care how much traffic the site is getting, what it has earnt.

      I would consider paying $5,000 for a website with zero earnings but had 5,000 subscribers in an active market, as I have the marketing skills to convert subscribers into stacks of cash.

      On the other hand if a site was earning $1,000/month and no list I would probably never pay $5,000 for it, a lot can happen in 5 months and the sites earnings could easily disappear in no time.

      Too many parameters need to stay fixed for a site to be earning $1,000/month consistently with free traffic, can easily change at any time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
      I've sold hundreds of sites and I can tell you a site that's only 4 months old and making $40 per month isn't worth much more than about $300 - $500 if it's affiliate income.

      However a site making $40 per month adsense should sell for alot more (athough not as much as you're asking). You should get 12 - 24 months x monthly income at Flippa.com (that's what I would normally get for an adsense site) however when you're selling a site you don't add in labor or investment costs. 24 x monthly income would be the absolute best you'll get - especially when the site is so new.

      Just imagine what a potential buyer is going to think when they see that it will take 87 months for the site to pay for itself (at its current rate). The last site I sold for $3500 was 4 months old as well, but was earning $500+ per month.
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      • Profile picture of the author oneplusone
        Originally Posted by Hamida Harland View Post

        I've sold hundreds of sites and I can tell you a site that's only 4 months old and making $40 per month isn't worth much more than about $300 - $500 if it's affiliate income.

        However a site making $40 per month adsense should sell for alot more (athough not as much as you're asking). You should get 12 - 24 months x monthly income at Flippa.com (that's what I would normally get for an adsense site) however when you're selling a site you don't add in labor or investment costs. 24 x monthly income would be the absolute best you'll get - especially when the site is so new.
        I am surprised that people pay 12-24 times monthly income.

        Adsense monthly income is very risky in my opinion, especially if it is based on free traffic which could easily be cut off or dramatically reduced at any time.
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        • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
          Originally Posted by oneplusone View Post

          I am surprised that people pay 12-24 times monthly income.

          Adsense monthly income is very risky in my opinion, especially if it is based on free traffic which could easily be cut off or dramatically reduced at any time.
          Buyers just seem to like adsense income better than affiliate income. The last adsense site I sold was for $800 and was only making about $30 per month (although it was nearly a year old).
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          • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
            Jaysmyne, I agree with you 100% ...

            It's your site and you decide what it will sell for, otherwise keep it.

            Basically, everybody will have an "opinion" as to what something is worth, and it's just that - an opinion.

            These sorts have no business ripping you on your thread, and I would report them ASAP. People like this need to keep their opinions to themselves till asked - otherwise just move along.

            If you paid for the listing, it's no different than a WSO or classified, there are rules in place.

            I don't care what experience they "think" they have, what they "think" they know - or who they think they are - don't listen to them.

            They have no right to stomp on your sale, and tell them as much.

            Good luck with your sale
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  • Profile picture of the author acedalright
    I'm sure nobody here wants to burst your bubble Jaysmyne and I mean that sincerely, but when you have seen a few sites up for sale, you start to know the value of things.

    Unfortunately your site is probably worth around the $600 mark, otherwise by your calculation, one of my sites that makes $400 a month with 10,000 backlinks, 3 yr old domain and alexa 37,000 would be worth around the $35000 mark.

    But it isn't

    Earnings are what people know a site can make, all other factors are presumptuous.


    Good luck and I'm truly sorry that your site is not living up to your expected value, I'm sure many have been there before and done that.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    Your site is worth:

    A. What you feel it is worth
    B. What someone else is willing to pay for it

    Just because someone is only willing to pay $300 does not mean you have to take that. I have been building and selling websites for over 15 years. The sites I build of course are custom built and not pre-made from a open source script but still the same concept applies.

    I have about 20 PM's on here a month asking about my highly advanced freebie incentive script and when I tell them the script itself cost $1,800, I normally never hear from them again. Well, that is fine by me go buy those cheap unsecure solutions for $50 that offer nothing and when you get ripped off and come back to me my price will be double... I guess those that have sent me a PM would die if they knew I would take no less than $25,000 for the actual source code of the script...

    I have sold sites from just a few hundred dollars upto $30,000+ and every one of these sites was custom built from the ground up but none of them had any traffic, no sales, no members, nothing.. It is not my job to build the business but only to build the site. My clients paid what I felt my time and efforts was worth or I did not work for them at all, it's really that simple.

    If someone is not willing to give you what you feel your site is worth then keep it and build it up even more for yourself. If it is making $40 a month then you should be able to easily have it make $100 a month.

    The bottom line is your site is worth the fee you put on it... Stand firm on what you believe in and do not let anyone tell you different.

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I have seen sites sell and have sold sites with $40/mnth income that were fairly new sites for $500. I'd list it on Flippa for that. List all the other assets ... backlinks, traffic, etc. and have screenshots to prove it. Hopefully, the design is nice also. Makes a difference.
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