How much would you expect this site to sell for?

Shooter

Shooter

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I have a blog in the style of designtaxi.com designboom.com that I'm heavily considered selling because I want to devote myself to other projects but I haven't flipped any sites before.

Here's the stats:

Month: Oct '14 / Nov / Dec
================
Pageviews: 130,367 / 130,538 / 148,622
Organic: 17,088 / 17,483 / 16,813
Adsense: $346.58 / 340.83 / 422.24

Current Followers (all organically grown, real followers)
=================
Facebook: 732 (up from 354 on Nov. 6)
Pinterest: 3639 (up from 2482 on Oct. 1)
Google+: 1664
Twitter: 7846 (up from 4366 on Oct. 1)
Tumblr: 16654 (up from 10833 on Oct. 1)

1577 posts all unique of around 100-150 words.
Moz homepage: PA 35, mR 4.2, DA 30
Inner page links from huffington post, io9, bored panda

I read through Tavin's thread but this isn't even remotely in the same realm so I figured it warranted it's own.
 
I would definitely tag the people in Tavin's thread that have sold before :smile:
 
If it's legitly branded and you hand over the social accounts too, I'd expect about 30x monthly profit. That's what the going valuations were a few months ago when I was peeking around again.
 
All the social accounts are branded, not feeders, and would go with it. I actually have probably 10 or so other socials for the site as well so nobody tried to poach them (Instagram, Vimeo, flickr, etc.), they're not developed at all but would go too.
 
I think the reason you aren't really getting any guesses is because they would be more or less shooting in the dark with this info. Try taking a look on Flippa for similar sites, maybe try hitting up a few brokers?
 
flippa seems to be all over the place, but I'll dig a little deeper. Some go for like 5x, others like 30x.I didn't think a broker would handle a site of the size but I'll look into it.

I guess one thing someone might be able to answer is how long should you set the auction to run?
 
24 to $3500? I'm not a flipper, but from an investment standpoint, there isn't much rev to warrant a larger risk/workable reinvestment plan for growth.
 
It's worth what someone's willing to pay for it.

What do you want for it? Double that number list it somewhere reputable for 30 days and see what happens.

Your selling a dream not a website.
 
Shooter said:
flippa seems to be all over the place, but I'll dig a little deeper. Some go for like 5x, others like 30x.I didn't think a broker would handle a site of the size but I'll look into it.

I guess one thing someone might be able to answer is how long should you set the auction to run?
Click to expand...

The 5x ones are usually really low quality sites with spammy backlink profiles, poor auction copy, bad timing and only earning for a month or two.

How long has it been earning consistently for? That makes a huge difference in your multiple. The fact that you have real links + organic social signals should also help with your multiple - assuming you also have steady organic search traffic.

Also, what's the traffic split between search and social? How much sharing activity do you have on your top articles?

At that price range, you can run an auction for 7 days and you'll be fine. Start the auction Tuesday-Thursday. At a higher price range where there is a smaller buyer pool, I usually like to go for 14 days.
 
10 months. First 4 months didn't really make much but it's been building since.

Breakdown of traffic since launch is:
Direct 48.96%
Social 26.77%
Search 19.6%
Referral 4.67%

A large amount of traffic is driven through the (branded) tumblr and most of that shows up as direct traffic. It would go in the sale with the site.

My top articles have gotten around 1.5-2k shares Facebook shares. I have some Pinterest pins approaching 800 or so. Tumblr notes which drive back to the main site, I have multiple over 100,000 notes. An average article might get anywhere from just a couple to 30 FB shares.

I'm going to go ahead and get it put on flippa on Tuesday then. My one worry is that this month has been down on earnings (looking at ~$250) as the articles I've had that went viral had a really shitty CPM due to their subject. And I'm just worn out on the site so I haven't put out as many articles.

Thanks :smile:
 
Oh, one more thing I was curious about...should I set a reserve or does that scare off potential buyers? I was thinking about setting it at say $5k.
 
empireflippers gives a value of 20x avg net profit for the last 3 months so if you want to sell it the absolute last thing you should be doing is getting lazy with your marketing. Figure out your net first. Gross income isn't what you should be looking at and if you're income is trending downwards you'll have a hard time unloading it. People want to see potential so think about ways it could be expanded with the time and resources of a new owner- then write some kick-ass sales copy for the listing and cross your fingers.

At the end of the day any asset is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and no I would not put a reserve on. I would however make sure I wasn't legally obligated to accept the highest bid. That way you can test the market and get an idea of what people might pay and if you're happy with the final bid then great, but I wouldn't advise getting yourself locked in just in case the final bid is below what you'd be happy with.

just my .02
 
Only expenses are $25 per month, I had it on another post but forgot it wasn't here.
 
Shooter said:
Oh, one more thing I was curious about...should I set a reserve or does that scare off potential buyers? I was thinking about setting it at say $5k.
Click to expand...

At your price range I wouldn't worry about setting a reserve - start at $1, no reserve. I've done 25 auctions on Flippa with no reserve and I only got less than I was looking for one time, when I didn't know any better and listed during the holidays.

I think if you do it right, you should be able to get at least 25X revenue on Flippa, possibly more.

Just make sure you follow best practices for Flippa auctions - there's a lot of tips in the Tavin thread on WF. Headline matters, auction copy *really* matters, and the way you communicate with potential buyers matters. Make sure to buy a featured auction listing around the 24 hour mark to drive some extra eyeballs when your auction is hot.

I would definitely borrow auction copy from the Tavin thread over on WF - it definitely works. Don't copy it word for word - use it as a framework and add benefits specific to your site.

In this case I would really emphasize the fact that you have robust, consistent traffic coming from multiple channels, content that users love, and lots of potential for growth. Don't just tell them there's potential for growth, show them. Show them how fast your social properties are growing, show them how your articles are getting more shares over time, show them the potential to capitalize on your existing domain authority to grow search traffic, and make sure they know that you've barely been putting any time into the project lately due to other commitments.

I also like to list a few specific, actionable ideas for growing the site in the auction copy - that gives buyers something to think about - especially newbies who might not have any of their own ideas for growth.
 
Shooter said:
I'm going to go ahead and get it put on flippa on Tuesday then. My one worry is that this month has been down on earnings (looking at ~$250) as the articles I've had that went viral had a really shitty CPM due to their subject. And I'm just worn out on the site so I haven't put out as many articles.

Thanks :smile:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's just the downside of selling in Q1 after advertisers just shot their load during the holidays. You can always emphasize that point, maybe link to articles talking about the downturn in advertiser spending in Q1. E.g. http://problogschool.com/ad-revenue-dropped-january/

You can find similar articles from more reputable sources I'm sure, that was just the first article I dug up.
 
I've sold 2 sites with Flippa (2k and 8k) and 1 site with EmpireFlippers (35k).

I recommend you AVOID FLIPPA at all cost. They once *froze* my auction with 8 hours left to go and asked me for a copy of my passport. Talk about nerve wrenching. I was basically pressing F5 for hours on end seeing how high the price would go and then *THAT*. FUCK FLIPPA.

Besides, unless you have a legit account with several sales and positive reviews, it'll be unlikely that the market will give you anything more than 10x. There's too many burn and runs on Flippa. Especially at the few hundreds a month price point.

Benefits of EF:
-You know how much its gonna sell for (20x)
-No need to answer dumb comments from people who didn't fully read your listing
-No need to press F5 for 24 hours straight during the last day
-No need to press F5 for the next several days if it goes into overtime

Flippa's commission is 10% whereas EF is 15%, for what they do, the extra 5% is worth it. Plus, they'll act as escrow for you and wire transfer it to your bank for free. Flippa uses escrow.com which takes a cut as well.

Once again, I highly recommend EF.

[edit]
TIP: if you are going with EF, market to your social accounts heavily for 1-3 months as they'll take your past 3 month's average revenue for pricing. If you've gotten 0 revenue from social, you're basically selling those properties for free (or you can refuse to sell them if you wish).
 
I'm considering using EF but I was confused by your last point. What does social have to do with the price at all? As you mentioned they do 20X avg 3 mo net profit. I don't get what social would have to do with it at all, I mean sure its a *thing* but....????
 
You can still get a good price on Flippa if you have good auction copy that shows that you and your property are legit. If anything, a high quality description + legit property stands out amongst the thousands of obvious scams.

There is a bit more of a crapshoot with Flippa though. I do think there's a potential to get a slightly higher price on Flippa, but there's a potential to get less as well. There are also the negatives Philip talks about - babysitting the auction (you get lots of tire kickers who waste your time) - and you basically have to be available around the clock during the last 24 hours of the auction.

If you're unsure about the process and you're not confident you can get at least 19X+ on Flippa, empire flippers is a great way to go.

Philip J. Fry said:
Besides, unless you have a legit account with several sales and positive reviews, it'll be unlikely that the market will give you anything more than 10x. There's too many burn and runs on Flippa. Especially at the few hundreds a month price point.

Benefits of EF:
-You know how much its gonna sell for (20x)
-No need to answer dumb comments from people who didn't fully read your listing
-No need to press F5 for 24 hours straight during the last day
-No need to press F5 for the next several days if it goes into overtime
Click to expand...
 
He's saying w/ EF you're going to get 20X regardless, so you might as well try to squeeze out some revenue from the social properties before you flip, otherwise you're basically giving them away for free - because someone who built the same site with no social properties would be getting the same price as you.

RiverStyx said:
I'm considering using EF but I was confused by your last point. What does social have to do with the price at all? As you mentioned they do 20X avg 3 mo net profit. I don't get what social would have to do with it at all, I mean sure its a *thing* but....????
Click to expand...
 
Philip J. Fry said:
I recommend you AVOID FLIPPA at all cost. They once *froze* my auction with 8 hours left to go and asked me for a copy of my passport. Talk about nerve wrenching. I was basically pressing F5 for hours on end seeing how high the price would go and then *THAT*. FUCK FLIPPA.
Click to expand...
I'll take that into consideration. Are you a non-U.S. seller?
 
I'll have to put some thought into it, I'm planning on spending the majority of today working on my auction copy and from what I've seen it will be easy to make mine blow most of the garbage on flippa out of the water with that. But the seeming guarantees with EF would be nice.
 
For those of you have sold on EF, how long did it take? I see they say it can be up to 3 months.
 
Nate said:
He's saying w/ EF you're going to get 20X regardless, so you might as well try to squeeze out some revenue from the social properties before you flip, otherwise you're basically giving them away for free - because someone who built the same site with no social properties would be getting the same price as you.
Click to expand...

Ah ok, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification :smile:
 
Are you obligated to sell through flippa? I see lots of sites that say they've been relisted, is this a factor of not accepting bids, buyer backing out, or receiving no bids? Some of all 3?
 
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