Value My Website
September 20, 2006 3:36 PM Subscribe
How do I put a monetary value on my website if someone's offered to buy it? Is there a formula?
Your site is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
posted by radioamy at 4:23 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by radioamy at 4:23 PM on September 20, 2006
not to derail, but wackybrit - how does one determine the value of a domain name?
posted by seawallrunner at 4:27 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by seawallrunner at 4:27 PM on September 20, 2006
Can you look at comparable domains or sites that have gone at auction?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:28 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:28 PM on September 20, 2006
seawallrunner: I'm not so experienced in that field, but Mr. Gunn's suggestion is good, but it does fall mostly down to radioamy's answer. My answer, however, was assuming that the site in question is a business in its own right.. and while sale value is generally 'what someone is willing to pay for it', a business also has an inherent value if it's producing revenue.. whereas a latent domain names does not.
posted by wackybrit at 6:05 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by wackybrit at 6:05 PM on September 20, 2006
By "website", do you mean an online business or just a domain name that someone else wants?
If it's an actual business that's being sold, the basis for intrinsic value would be the value of future cash flows discounted to the present date. This kind of exercise usually results in a range of estimated values which you can use to guage offers to buy your business. A shortcut to this, as wackybrit noted, is to apply an industry-standard range of multiples to current income or cash flow. Of course, any valuation you come up with should be compared with and tempered by comparisons to similar businesses that have been sold. Ultimately, the business is worth what someone is willing to pay for it--but that doesn't mean you shouldn't negotiate.
But I have a feeling this is just a domain name being sold rather than a business. That's a different matter, and I think it has been discussed here before.
posted by mullacc at 6:20 PM on September 20, 2006
If it's an actual business that's being sold, the basis for intrinsic value would be the value of future cash flows discounted to the present date. This kind of exercise usually results in a range of estimated values which you can use to guage offers to buy your business. A shortcut to this, as wackybrit noted, is to apply an industry-standard range of multiples to current income or cash flow. Of course, any valuation you come up with should be compared with and tempered by comparisons to similar businesses that have been sold. Ultimately, the business is worth what someone is willing to pay for it--but that doesn't mean you shouldn't negotiate.
But I have a feeling this is just a domain name being sold rather than a business. That's a different matter, and I think it has been discussed here before.
posted by mullacc at 6:20 PM on September 20, 2006
Leapfish.com does free appraisals, using an algorithm. Not necessarily real accurate, but an interesting approach to the question. The valuation method is not hidden, so it will give you some direction. You can pay for appraisals at sedo.com and other sites. But as far as I can tell, it's a crapshoot. There are a lot of interesting domain names out there, so it has to be either innately valuable, i.e., short name, .com top level domain, and obvious, like sex.com, or it has to be valuable because it has become well known, like google.com.
posted by theora55 at 6:53 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by theora55 at 6:53 PM on September 20, 2006
Response by poster: Oh it's not the domain name...I should've been more clear: it's my blog, with me continuing to write on it and getting paid for it. Just curious if there's precedent for selling blogs. Thanks!
posted by adrober at 7:05 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by adrober at 7:05 PM on September 20, 2006
So is the question how much you should ask to be paid for the continuing act of writing the blog? If the third party is interested in "buying" your blog because of the traffic it's generating -- do you know what they want to do with that traffic and/or what you would be expected to do to maintain or increase the traffic?
It seems like if they are "buying" a living, breathing blog the most important question in deciding salary will be what they expect you to produce in terms of content and in terms of traffic, and whether they are proving anyone to help you with any aspects of the traffic generation, writing, or other tasks.
Basically, we understand you don't want to be too specific, but the more you can tell us in generic terms, the more we can help...
posted by allterrainbrain at 8:48 PM on September 20, 2006
It seems like if they are "buying" a living, breathing blog the most important question in deciding salary will be what they expect you to produce in terms of content and in terms of traffic, and whether they are proving anyone to help you with any aspects of the traffic generation, writing, or other tasks.
Basically, we understand you don't want to be too specific, but the more you can tell us in generic terms, the more we can help...
posted by allterrainbrain at 8:48 PM on September 20, 2006
Look into what the scienceblogs.com folks have done, or what the Gawker Media empire pays its bloggers. Much of this depends on whether you'll be blogging full time or on the side, what kind of statistics you get, etc.
I think I've read that Scienceblogs folks get a cut of the advertising revenue. They all had blogs anyway, so it was like free money and traffic for them.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:50 PM on September 20, 2006
I think I've read that Scienceblogs folks get a cut of the advertising revenue. They all had blogs anyway, so it was like free money and traffic for them.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:50 PM on September 20, 2006
Yeah, this sounds like one of those situations where standard concepts of business valuation are difficult to apply. Does the buyer wish to pay you some sort of lump sum upfront payment, then take you on as a salaried employee? I think if I were in the buyer's shoes, I'd be more likely to offer you a modest guaranteed salary and a split of the profits. Of course, I'm assuming that the buyer brings something to the table--increased exposure, more marketing, administrative support, etc.
Perhaps you could track down a lawyer familiar with online/new media businesses?
posted by mullacc at 11:49 PM on September 20, 2006
Perhaps you could track down a lawyer familiar with online/new media businesses?
posted by mullacc at 11:49 PM on September 20, 2006
This thread is missing anildash. I think he wrote something about this a while back, too.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:57 AM on September 21, 2006
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:57 AM on September 21, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you're talking about just the domain name, that's a totally different matter :)
posted by wackybrit at 3:41 PM on September 20, 2006