Developed Websites and Sale Prices

[chris.m]

Is there a general rule of thumb for sites that have been developed, are for the most part self-operating, i.e. require little maintenance or attention, and generate consistent monthly revenue.

For example, if a site makes $12,000/year and requires little attention, what would be a reasonable sale price. Is there a common multiplier, like 3x the yearly income.

Thanks in advance.

 

[whitebark]

A lot of buyers will try to nail it down to a multiple of revenue earned. But this totally disregards the value of the domain name, marketing investment, cost of scripts etc, time to establish website and future revenue earning potential.

Be sure to factor those in as well and don't always settle for a multiple unless you are in the need of money!

 

[ComputerClub]

buyer should try to give the lowest as well
one method
in financial markets ile what is the riskless earning on interest?
let's say 10% then no one would pay 12000/0.1 = 120000 to the site

another method
script costs are huge lets say 200,000$
site wants to amortise this amount in 4 years and 200000/4= 50000$ + [Maintenance] cost per year
to make 12000 site made 62000$ + [Maintenance] revenue
so site will be more profitable after the 4th year so value increases for a long term
buyer.(if no need to upgrade the script after 4 year!)

one more method
site is opensource and easy to make similar one. there are many rivals
around so no need to buy this just make a new one with your desire and
advertise new one with the funds to buy.

Here the last method
site is opensource ie but has a very niche users. Easy to make new one
but niche users do not see any difference between new one and old one.
So old one is preferable by users . Then buy old one instead of making a
new site. How much? in most cases niche sites values depend on the buyers
aim to use. ie a company really wants to have data of these niche people
it will pay amount near to the cost of obtaining that data out.

So i mean it really depends on the case, aim and power of the buyer
and position of the seller.

 

[dcristo]

Depends on the site, but generally 10-24 months revenue.

Type-in traffic domains can get a higher multiple because the traffic is more stable.

 

[chris.m]

Hey - Thanks very much for the responses! It has been very helpful!