Value Me Please

[BenWalker]

I hope I posted this in the right section!

I have a website which I want valued.
It’s not for sale, more for an ego boost and preparing nice and early for the day when Fairfax knocks on my door! (Wouldn’t that be the day haha!)

If you guys can share your valuation, it will be greatly appreciated!

Background
Domain – one word, generic, .com.au
Domain Value – I would say $4-5k for an end user.
Industry – Entertainment/Music
Site Age – 3 Years
Google Rank for term – 1
Average Unique Visitors per Month – 16,000 (91% Aus)

Revenue
Adsense Revenue for the last 12 months - $1800
Affiliate Programs Revenue for the last 12 months - $1800
Private Advertiser Revenue for the last 12 months - $29,000
Total: $32k+


Thanks for your help!

 

[neddy]

Oh you make me jealous Ben!

Just one thing - your revenue is impressive, but what are your "cost of sales"? Do you buy any traffic etc?

That always come into the equation.
.

 

[ScottNugent]

Sorry, I can't value this, but that is some AWESOME statistics and revenue there! Especially the private advertiser revenue. Wow!

 

[BenWalker]

Thanks for the feedback Ned and Scott.

Outgoings are -
So far spent close to $10k on developing costs.
Don't anticipate on any further costs for about 8-12 more months.

$150per month for a DVS

I don't buy any online traffic.
But I have spent roughly $3000 on advertising at events, flyers, banners etc (in the last 12 months).
But Mostly in exchange for free advertising or partnership deals.

 

[Chris.C]

Hard to value - but I'd guess anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000.

For me I think the biggest thing is just increasing the number of visitors to the site because at the end of the day bigger businesses can only justify investing in bigger assets as they can't afford to micromanage unless they have in house web development expertise.

Short of this you'd be forced to sell via something like Flippa, and without being an expert in current market prices for websites (I'm not a big buyer of established websites) I'd suspect that getting much more than 24 months revenue as a sale price might be hard when your main source of income is advertising.

 

[DavidL]

Impressive stats. two risks that i can see are (might be)

1) Are you reliant on that one search term for most traffic?
2) How locked in is the private advertiser - if they disappeared would it be easy to find a replacement?

Also need to know the domain and whether it's in a growing/limited life niche etc.

But you'd have to say well into 6-figures if those risks are mitigated and there's minimal work

 

[James]

Any more information about what kind of music niche it is..

Ringtones?
Events?
Touring?
Festivals?
Artists?

I also agree 100% about Davids comment, how locked in is the specific private advertiser. I know some times private advertising can be hard to lock in. So once you have a good deal you really need to work with it.

Fairfax may be interested but from my experience working in the Advertising Agency industry the type of people who would more be interested in music properties in the AU market would be companies like: Sound Alliance.

 

[Data Glasses]

sorry but to ask for values of something undisclosed seems a bit odd

all points above seem quite valid

 

[Lorenzo]

I think someone wants to buy a domain name.

 

[courier]

I take my hat off to you Ben Walker ! nice for 3 years

 

[patrickshi]

I have a website less than 2 years old with a similar traffic per month. I don't think my domain name is as value as yours because it has three words.

It generated about $23K in past 12 months with the only cost of web hosting ($50 per year) plus the domain name.

I developed the website myself and 85% of the traffic came from search engines organic searches.

The only problem is that only 80% of traffic is from Australia.

I would say less than 100K I am not going to sell the website.

 

[snoopy]

I think the value of the site is going to depend on how much time is involved in running the site, what sort of skills that needs etc, because all of that is really a "cost", the other big factor is the stability of the private advertising, ie how many advertisers are there, is it reliant on one or two?

If running the site involves leg work like going to events, handing out flyers etc my gut feeling is under 12 months revenue. Having said all that without not knowing what the site is it is not really possible to say a lot about value.

 

[snoopy]

I would say less than 100K I am not going to sell the website.

Nobody is likely to pay 4 years revenue for a two year old site reliant on search traffic though, so it is all a bit of a moot point.

 

[paz]

Nobody is likely to pay 4 years revenue for a two year old site reliant on search traffic though, so it is all a bit of a moot point.

+1

 

[patrickshi]

I am not saying I am going to sell it for $100K - I can earn more than that money in 4 years time as the traffic will grow. With more products or services, I can potentially earn more, why would I want to sell? Nobody is willing to pay - that's might be true. However, I am not willing to sell even if someone wants to pay.

Nobody is likely to pay 4 years revenue for a two year old site reliant on search traffic though, so it is all a bit of a moot point.

 

[whiterabit]

Work out your EBIT then factor in your multiple. Then minus the perceived risk and boom there's your domain value. Now factor a swing of plus / minus 15% and that should give you a value range that you can start negotiations on.

 

[snoopy]

Work out your EBIT then factor in your multiple. Then minus the perceived risk and boom there's your domain value. Now factor a swing of plus / minus 15% and that should give you a value range that you can start negotiations on.

....ok

 

[DamianLondon]

EBIT x 3 is pretty much standard.

You'd need some solid contracts in place with current direct sales.

But really the value of a website comes down to what someone wants to pay for it.

Unfortunately I really cannot value a site properly unless it can be seen.

So all I'd give you is a EBIT x 3 multiple if I was purchasing it.

Ben, if you are looking at a future sale to one of the big boys, have a look at the following tips/goals:

- improve traffic levels
- balance revenue, maybe try some CPA as well alongside google. The sponsorship direct numbers are impressive
- ensure member base is in place and solid
- monthly communication with your users
- get the organic traffic balance vs the search traffic balance in place

Buzzwords investors are listening to today are SOCIAL, Daily Deals and $$ Revenue $$.

Good luck

 

[restaurantdeals.com.au]

It depends on finding the right buyer in the end... if you are a good sale person you could find the right buyer or even investors to support you business...

 

[findtim]

i found this 1yr old thread by accident, just giving it a bump as the comments are all really valid and i think deserve another viewing.

tim