Value of a website?
Value of a website?
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Discussion

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
Just a hypothetical question with random numbers.

Say you had an e comm website that turned over 100k net sales and was running around 30% PM with good organic traffic plus some light CPC with very nice low CPC and high CTR what would be the formula for putting a value on that site if you wanted to sell it?

Would normal "business rules" apply i.e 3-4 times profits or roughly 1x turn over?

Or is it going to be much less as its only a digital entity so just has a nominal value?



anonymous-user

84 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
I suppose it depends - if it could be dressed up as a "disruptive distributor" then it could be worth a proper fortune.

If it's just a web shop with few barriers to entry then usual rules would apply.

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
Hm, ok.

Basically I was thinking about building a website that does everything the above does but with a generic name. ABC Trading or whatever.
Then the plan would be to build this up and sell it off in a few years time when we retire.

We cant really sell our current one as its very much brand specific so would not be of interest to other businesses. However a year or 2 before we retire I could migrate our site to this new site, IYSWIM... then offer it for sale with the inclusion of the old site which they could take also but would not want to use the name as it is of no use to them but the new one might be.

Not sure if that makes sense.

I don't really want to go to all that effort though if its not really going to be worth doing.

anonymous-user

84 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
Sounds very much like it would be valued like any other business then.

jammy-git

29,778 posts

242 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
Have a look on flippant.com or Empire Flippers to see if there are any similar sites.

NoIP

559 posts

114 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
red_slr said:
Hm, ok.

Basically I was thinking about building a website that does everything the above does but with a generic name. ABC Trading or whatever.
Then the plan would be to build this up and sell it off in a few years time when we retire.

We cant really sell our current one as its very much brand specific so would not be of interest to other businesses. However a year or 2 before we retire I could migrate our site to this new site, IYSWIM... then offer it for sale with the inclusion of the old site which they could take also but would not want to use the name as it is of no use to them but the new one might be.

Not sure if that makes sense.

I don't really want to go to all that effort though if its not really going to be worth doing.
confused

wobble

Why go to all that effort when you can just set up a mirror of your current site under a different, desirable, domain name?

DSLiverpool

16,532 posts

232 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
I would say the product, source and barrier to entry are more valuable than the site and marketing.
Empire flippers astound me and I can't believe people buy the sites for the amount asked.
I agree to mirror a site is low cost and set it up with light marketing simple enough but to get it trading will take far more effort these days than ever before - even bigger brands stop dead without constant marketing push.
If it's a product that can be sold via influencer strategy that could be a quick win.

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
NoIP said:
confused

wobble

Why go to all that effort when you can just set up a mirror of your current site under a different, desirable, domain name?
Google does not like that. I also don't want the association with the new site just yet.


red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
I would say the product, source and barrier to entry are more valuable than the site and marketing.
Empire flippers astound me and I can't believe people buy the sites for the amount asked.
I agree to mirror a site is low cost and set it up with light marketing simple enough but to get it trading will take far more effort these days than ever before - even bigger brands stop dead without constant marketing push.
If it's a product that can be sold via influencer strategy that could be a quick win.
Its tricky to explain what I am trying to do but basically I am pretty sure our competitors would want our website. I just don't think they would want it with the name. That's why I was thinking of unbranding so to speak.

anonymous-user

84 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
red_slr said:
Its tricky to explain what I am trying to do but basically I am pretty sure our competitors would want our website. I just don't think they would want it with the name. That's why I was thinking of unbranding so to speak.
Presumably they have their own web addresses so they could use their existing URLs with your site.

DSLiverpool

16,532 posts

232 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
quotequote all
Copying the content is a no no but the site design and ux etc no problem.
What platform are you on ? I'm guessing Magento

anonymous-user

84 months

Sunday 9th July 2017
quotequote all
By saying it's a no-no with Google, are you referring to double serving on Adwords? That may be an issue if you try to advertise both at the same time and the only difference is the branding.

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Sunday 9th July 2017
quotequote all
I was told by a web developer that if you have 2 almost identical sites then google will figure that out and rank both down, talking organic here.

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Sunday 9th July 2017
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
Copying the content is a no no but the site design and ux etc no problem.
What platform are you on ? I'm guessing Magento
Bespoke ish.

DSLiverpool

16,532 posts

232 months

Sunday 9th July 2017
quotequote all
Without knowing more it's hard to answer accurately but assuming you sell widgets, set up another site on say big commerce or my favourite Shopify and compete with yourself.
You can make it light on content to start and build it up with individual separate content as you go as your in no hurry for sales. You can also experiment with none obvious marketing and if shopify you can tune the Seo per page easily up yourself.

Frimley111R

19,337 posts

264 months

Monday 10th July 2017
quotequote all
Don't think of it as selling a website. You would be selling a business that happens to be an online business.

There are always lots of variables to consider whenever selling any business.

red_slr

Original Poster:

20,874 posts

219 months

Monday 10th July 2017
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
Without knowing more it's hard to answer accurately but assuming you sell widgets, set up another site on say big commerce or my favourite Shopify and compete with yourself.
You can make it light on content to start and build it up with individual separate content as you go as your in no hurry for sales. You can also experiment with none obvious marketing and if shopify you can tune the Seo per page easily up yourself.
That's exactly what I was thinking, will mull it over! Probably look to build something over Christmas.

DSLiverpool

16,532 posts

232 months

Monday 10th July 2017
quotequote all
red_slr said:
DSLiverpool said:
Without knowing more it's hard to answer accurately but assuming you sell widgets, set up another site on say big commerce or my favourite Shopify and compete with yourself.
You can make it light on content to start and build it up with individual separate content as you go as your in no hurry for sales. You can also experiment with none obvious marketing and if shopify you can tune the Seo per page easily up yourself.
That's exactly what I was thinking, will mull it over! Probably look to build something over Christmas.
I did it, I set up panasonicphones.co.uk alongside DST both sites sold Panny phones, it worked well for me and increased overall sales.