How to value/acquire existing website business

[rover 623gsi]

hi - I am interested in acquiring/buying/owning/running an existing website.

The site is one I visit fairly regularly. It is a bit niche and there are not many others around that do what it does. From what I can gather it appears to be the most popular of those sites.

However, that position seems mainly based on the fact that it was the first to cover the topic that it does, and provide the associated service. It’s been around since 2006. But the usability and functionality is, quite frankly, rubbish. It looks cheap and tacky. There are constant gripes about it on the discussion forum but nothing has changed.

I think it is has a huge(ish) untapped potential for 1) just being ‘better’ and 2) increasing the commercial aspect. It is a free site, but has some classified Ads and banners Ads.

So, basically I’m in a position in my personal and professional life when I believe I could some devote time (and a little money) to running the site. It would mainly be a labour of love.

The site is owned by a company - lets call it XYZmedia. The company has one employee/director and also appears to own four other websites.

I’m perfectly happy to contact the owner but before doing so I want to work out a valuation on the business - a ball park figure would do.

I have found the following info via gov.uk - Balance sheet as at December 2016 (this is for all of XYZmedia, not just the site I am interested in)

Fixed assets 1,159
Current assets 10,030
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year (6,404)
Not current assets 3,626
Total assets less current liabilities 4,785
Accurals and deferred income (1,168)
Capital and reserves 3,617

Any thoughts / comments / suggestions welcome

P.S. the website has nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of ‘adult’ services!!!

Edited by rover 623gsi on Sunday 20th May 11:14

[Wilmslowboy]

I wouldn't worry too much about the underling business that owns the site.

What matters is the

the number of visitors
dwell time / pages viewed
demographics of the visitors
the likely revenue from ad words (largely driven by click rates and cost per click)


You can use some 3rd party tools to get to the first 2 answers, and being on the site you should have a view on the 3rd. The 4th depends on what products you plan to target, and again there are some tools to say what the average CPC rates are for them.


Next thing, is understand what it would take for you to re-create that level of engagement from scratch and with the higher engagement (that you plan for) what the likely revenue could be.

As its a non tractional site (not selling anything) you will need a lot of visitors interested in expensive stuff to generate any meaningful revenue.

[JulianPH]

The balance sheet figures you gave are for the company (which you would not be buying) and give no indication of the turnover, overheads and profit/loss of the company, let alone the specific website you are interested in buying.

There is no way anyone can give you a valuation ballpark without more details I am afraid.

Best bet is to call the owner and ask him if he is actually interested in selling (he may not be). If he is you can then request the detail you need to support the price he is asking.

Alternatively, what about just building a website as you think this one should be and launching it with some good SEO in place and trying to get relevant PR?

[rover 623gsi]

thanks both - kinda what I thought, but still helpful

I'm not daunted by starting a new from scratch from the technical aspect, but more worried about generating the traffic which is why the existing site appeals. I'm not in a mad rush, so shall give it some more thought (I've already been thinking about it for a couple of years!)