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I own a site that on which I "practiced" SEO. It isn't a real business. I only make money from it by putting Google AdSense and right now it makes just under $100 per month and growing, although I no longer practice my SEO on it.

Currently, there are 300 unique daily visitors. Right now it is just a content site. The site ranks in the top-10 for a bunch of competitive 1-word and 2-word queries in its niche.

It is in the medical/health niche. How much would such a site cost in theory? Potentially I'd sell it with the "secrets" for how to get it to rank for a bunch of other words and get way more traffic.

And is there another way to monetize it? Would healthcare professionals be interested in such a thing?

Thanks, Alex

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This question is not possible to answer based on you information. – Ross Apr 3 '11 at 7:05
What other information would help? – Genadinik Apr 4 '11 at 2:43
Just to comment here in response to some of the answers so far: if I have AdSense on the site, it means nothing to the true potential of the site. Since it is a health-related site, a doctor or a well-positioned partner could use the 300/day new people to sell their expensive services. – Genadinik Apr 4 '11 at 3:01

5 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

I'm from Flippa and would endorse most of the comments here. I'd expect it to sell for around the $2,000 mark but it would depend on a number of factors. This would include level of audience engagement (eg do they hit one page and leave or do they come back regularly for extended durations). The medical/health niche is furthermore quite broad - the specifics of this would heavily influence your valuation: mesothelioma being widely quoted as one of the more lucrative. You can compare your site to some of those currently for sale in the health niche at flippa.com/buy-health-websites

A few alternatives to Adwords that may work (again, depending on your niche) are affiliate programs, drop-shipping/e-commerce or other ad placement networks. Note that this will also depend upon the level of time investment you might be looking to put into the site.

I'd otherwise naturally agree with @tucson: list it on Flippa via auction with a reserve you'd be happy to run with and let the market dictate the rest. Don't hesitate to check out our help pages or contact our support team if you need any assistance.

Otherwise, good luck with your valuation/sale ...

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Andrew, I think the prices on Flippa are incorrect for the following reason: There is not a good balance of bidders to sellers to make it a realistic auction, and the result is a bunch of low-ball bids that do not reflect true worth or potential. – Genadinik Apr 4 '11 at 2:58
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Thanks Alex. I’m afraid I’m going to respectfully disagree with you on this one (did you expect anything else? ;-)). The laws of demand and supply would kick in on a marketplace like Flippa if sites were consistently undervalued. If your scenario were to hold true, we’d see a rush of buyers that would ultimately drive up the sale price. If someone was to purchase your website for double the price of what the same site would go for on Flippa, I’d argue they are paying more than the market rate. This would be great for you but wouldn’t define the market value of the site they’ve bought. – Andrew Knibbe Apr 4 '11 at 3:34
Maybe the issue is that there just isn't enough buyers in general for such sites to create a liquid market for such a product? I mean, how many people out there want to take over sites like SellShoeLaces.com ? :) Many of the sites on the site are either small-scale or very early-stage, and there just isn't a big buy-side demand for those. – Genadinik Apr 20 '11 at 21:56
up vote 3 down vote

The best (and I would argue the only) way to know what it's worth is to put it on the market.

For example you can list it on Flippa.com. Put a reserve price if you don't want to sell under $n. I believe it's the only way to get a real number.

By the way it seems to me (based on browsing flippa.com prices) the multiplictor number (market value / current earnings) is quite low on the Internet compared to other businesses. Maybe that is because there are so many opportunities, or maybe because buyers don't fully trust the reported earnings.

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The problem with putting it on the market is that there is no liquid market for this. I am not too excited about flippa.com – Genadinik Apr 4 '11 at 2:44
up vote 3 down vote

I'd agree that it's probably only worth $2,400 (24x multiple of your monthly revenue). But with that said, are you able to sell any products on the site? If you have 300 people hit the site can you can get a 1% conversion on a product and earn $10 commission you'd instantly 9x your revenue. Then you could sell it $21,900.

To get a premium price, instead of selling it on Flippa you could potentially sell to a competitor. Or if you try selling a product (on a affiliate commission), you may be able to sell it at a premium to the product vendor as they would instantly see the value and not want a competitor to buy the website.

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+1 I like your strategic thinking. This is the way to increase valuations. – Susan Jones Apr 4 '11 at 11:27
up vote 1 down vote

It's worth maybe $2400- 2 years of earnings at $100/month.

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That doesn't really make sense. The earnings are growing and someone in the niche could monetize it better. Plus why the 2 year horizon? – Genadinik Apr 3 '11 at 6:06
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Becasue at one point buying bonds is worth more. Site worth does not necesarily include putting work into it. I would also put it onto a 2 year horizon. Maybe 3. – NetTecture Apr 3 '11 at 8:06
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It's standard to value a business at 2 or maybe 3 years of earnings – user6492 Apr 3 '11 at 22:10
up vote 1 down vote

Site value... This site should only be valued based on the revenues it has demonstrated so far. Any other 'ideas' should be discounted for risk - i.e. any increased multiples reduced significantly because the ideas haven't yet been demonstrated.

The Flippa marketplace... is one way of putting your site in front of buyers, as other commentators have mentioned. If that is the only way you have of putting your site in front of buyers, then the price you can get on Flippa is the market price. If you can get your site in front of the people you think might pay more, then you might get a higher price.

Sustainability... is low for sites like this. The new buyer must continue to work on content to attract visitors or the daily rate will decline. Stop doing SEO and building links, building page and domain authority and the visitors will drop away. The kind of buyer you are thinking of that might pay more for this site doesn't sound like the sort of person that will spend time and money keeping the site upto date and relevant. So I'm afraid I would discount the value based on the lack of defensibility/sustainability.

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