Offers Dataplain.com, custom developed web stats site, consistant recurring profit

[bri]

Dataplain.com is for sale. The website is a very well-developed web stats service, including over 80 custom scripts.
- In business since July 2001
- Profited $2992 last month (verifiable)
- Consistently earned over $1200 per month since July 2004 (verifiable)
- All revenue is recurring
- The site is virtually automated, minimal upkeep required
- Minimal costs: 1 dedicated server and the domain name

Last three month’s profits:
October 2005 = $2992
September 2005 = $1769
August 2005 = $1467

I am selling the site for funding on unrelated projects.

Price: $XXX,XXX

PM me with questions and offers.

 

[DomainLord]

What is the foundation of you wanting at least 4 years revenue for this site??
Assuming that your numbers are correct then you are on average for the last 3 months of $2,076. If the site keeps that average then in order for someone to break even with the purchase of lets say 100,000 then they would have to wait a little over 4 years until they got their money back. The reason I ask is typically most people ask for around 7-10 months of revenue... not 4 years.

 

[bri]

Excellent question, PokerTournament.

Most sites sold on DNForum are sites that are only a few months old and that have no real content, mostly they're pre-made scripts that get a little traffic - the type of thing that anyone else could build in a few months. Therefore, it's only reasonable to ask for a few months revenue.

Dataplain, however, is built on custom tens-of-thousands of lines of proprietary software that rivals the multimillion dollar systems of competitors. It would take some one thousands of manhours to develop all the features of Dataplain, and substantial amount of cash to market it to the level that it is at.

Dataplain is also an established business that's almost 5 years old with consistent, recurring revenue, which obviously makes a positive ROI much more likely.

Plus, Dataplain has a huge growth potential. At this point it's basically a plug-n-play service that needs only marketing.

 

[i5networks]

Even brick and mortor business usually only value out at 24-36 months. I have never seen a non asset based business sell over 36 months of net revenues. Usually most site that are very well established like this one will sell in the 18-24 month range if they do not have much in the way of assets.

With that said you have a very nice site...good luck with your sale.

 

[syed]

Agreed! but in any case, its the sellers call

 

[dbdomains]

Actually, many "brick and mortar" companies sell for a multiple of profits. 10 - 20 X earnings is not unreasonable, especially it is an established business. However, a web business typically won't get those multiples unless in is very large and there is a significant barrier to entry for others to compete.

 

[i5networks]

I have been a business broker for a long time and I have never sold or seen any business sell for 10x-20x yearly revenues. I am not sure if you mean 10-20 x monthly or yearly.

A good place to get a business valuation is http://www.bizbuysell.com/valuation/. It is a little expensive but they get their pricing information from actual sales in the market place which gives you a true picture. If you are really interested in a true valuation just PM me and I can run one for you for free.

 

[dbdomains]

I didn't mean revenues -- I meant earnings. And I have sold companies for higher multiples than 20. In anycase, you are right. Web businesses don't get that kind of valuation typically.

 

[i5networks]

I can see that if your site or business is only making $100 a month or just a small amount but when you are talking about a business making say $300,000 per year in sales and a profit $100,000 then your selling price would be $6,000,000 if you base it on gross sales and so it would take you the rest of your life before you would see a return on your investment.

If you based it off of 20 years of net then it would still take you 20 years just to get your investment back. Not a very good return!

I think the lack of assets hurt the sale of web based business but that is not always a bad thing.

Consider this, if you are running a website which only has the hosting and other low cost fixed overheads that only run a few hundred dollars a month. If you have a bad month and you make no sales the worst thing that can happen is that you lose a few hundred dollars.

Now if you you own a restuarant that has a lot of employees and food cost your overhead can be much higher. I owned a bar once and our overhead was around $90,000 a month. If we had a bad month we could lose $20,000 in a big hurry.

My point is the lack of assets can hurt the asking price of a web based business but the risk of loses are sometimes much less which makes them very attractive to some buyers.

 

[dbdomains]

I agree. The fewer assets, the greater the risk, especially with profits that may be ephemeral.

 

[DomainLord]

I didn't mean to divert the post of the seller.... I am not saying this is not a wonderful site at all... but as a potential buyer or someone who might be interested in the site I just needed to know the basis for the large sell price.... good luck with the sale....

 

[i5networks]

I agree, this is a very nice site and not your average site that you see for sale on here. Bri, you might be better off trying to sell in a more traditional market place geared more toward the higher end buyer.

PM me and I will give a few good places to look for some high end buyers.