Midascode | Buy & Sell Websites

I recently spoke to a web site owner who asked me this question:

There are a few points to address here… firstly, it is generally accepted that any list built directly from the site SHOULD be included in the sale of the site. If it is not, then you should make this clear and reduce the price.

Secondly, some sites have a double opt-in and a membership as well. So for example, a forum requires you to register and give your email address, but that same forum may have a weekly newsletter on aweber as well. This is rare, but it can cause problems. The biggest issue is the use of the brand name. For example, the new owner may decide to send a weekly email to the forum members via the forum software, he may start the email: “Hi, Jim here, the new owner of xxxx.com” - But the old owner may still be emailing the same people weekly and saying “Bob here from xxxx.com”

In my opinion, any brand or company related list SHOULD ALWAYS be included in the sale… ALWAYS!

So onto my final point… transferring the list via aweber.

Note: I have never done this, if anyone knows of any better techniques, please let me know.

Ok, the main issue with using aweber to do this, is the fact that they require the leads to re-validate their subscriptions. This means that a % are not going to do this. So straight away you are weakening the stregth of a list.

With that in mind, if you are going to buy a site with a list, and you wish to transfer the list to your aweber account, I would set the price based on the final list size.

e.g If the list is 1000 and the seller wants $10,000, I would say “I will pay you $10,000 if 950+ validate, but $9,000 if it is less than 850 and so forth…”

Here is what Aweber say about this issue:

Import Leads:
All imported leads must be verified before they will be added to your mailing list. Within minutes of being imported a notice will be sent to the lead asking them to verify that they did indeed request to be on the mailing list. Once verified they will immediately be added to your account and visible for email delivery. Learn about the many benefits of using verified opt-in, “Study: Verified Opt-in Reduces Unsubscribes & Complaints.”

* Only emails that have specifically requested information from you may be imported.
* Purchased emails or FFA link page email addresses may not be imported.

See the unsolicited email section of the service agreement. If you have questions about this policy, ask us. Violation of the service agreement will result in immediate account closure.

If you are not happy about asking them to re-validate, then you could import the leads to your own list software, but that is a whole new set of issues.

Site Sellers Summary: If your list is associated with your site in any way, then it SHOULD be included in the sale.

Site Buyers Summary: When using Aweber, be aware of the re-validation losses you WILL get.

I regularly get e-mails from people who are looking to sell their websites. But the vast majority of people tend to only focus on the earnings of the sites.
Today I am going to share with you a series of factors you need to know when selling your website, but these factors are all expense related.

Adverts - Do you buy text links? do you buy any online advertising?
Pay Per Click - Do you use PPC?
Print ads - Do you do any advertising in newspapers, magazines etc?
Other - Are there any other forms of advertising you use?
Hosting - This is an area many people forget to mention. This is very important on forums and media sites.
Merchant fees - What do you get charged per year on average?
Bank Fees - a rough estimate would be appreciated
Other expenses - Please include any other expenses

Many of the above are required before we can give an estimate of your sites value.

Thankyou.

Most website owners at some point will ask themselves “I wonder how much my site is worth”?

There is no easy answer, but to get a better understanding of site valuation, I will share with you the main set of factors we will look at when assigning a value to your site:

# Site Revenue - It is always a good sign if you are making money
# Site overhead - Hosting, designers, moderators, staff, ads etc….
# Search rankings - How much traffic do you get from Google and co?
# Stability of search rankings - How long have you had these rankings for?
# Legitimacy of search rankings - Do you do anything that could get your site penalised?
# Current and future revenue potential - Current is more important, but we don’t fully ignore future potential.
# Loyalty of user base - have you had many members for x years? etc
# Size of the site - in terms of brand and pages
# Unique Content - where does the content come from?
# Yahoo linkdomain: - How many backlinks do you have?
# .edu and .gov links - Do you have any genuine .edu and .gov links (comments do not count, as they use the nofollow)
# Affiliate relationships - Do you have any affiliate deals with related sites?
# Content relationships - Do you get links for content? do you use other peoples content in exchange for links?
# Site Profits - Making $100 is not good if you are spending $200 on ads
# Earnings per visitor - Unique visitors per month divided by monthly profit = earnings per visitor
# Costs per click - Do you use PPC? what is your average cost per click?

Feel free to use this as a checklist. If your site does well in the above areas then you probably have a high value site.

Midascode

Lead generation sites can be very profitable, but they are also tricky to asses the value of such sites.

However, there are certain factors that we will look at when valuing a lead generation website.

1) Will the lead commissions increase or decrease in future?

3) Will the existing commission structure remain after the sale?

If you have a lead generation site for sale then contact us today.

When you are selling a service based site it is best to follow the standard business valuation model:

How much your service site is worth?

Scalability - Will the service scale?

Customer retention - Will the customers stay onboard after the ownership has changed?

We also include the usual factors such as monthly profit, conversion rates, monthly traffic etc….

If you have a service site that you would consider selling, then please contact us today.

So you own a subscription website and are considering selling it. Below I have listed the main factors used to value a subscription based website.

Subscription base - ( With a subscription site the most important factor is the existing subscribers base. Unfortunately this is a complex process, and we would need to asses the quantity of subscribers, the loyalty they have, and the previous response rates etc… )

Also, if we are buying a subscription website then we will need to decided if we are capable of changing or continuing with your existing model. e.g if the users have subscriber to hear your expert advice on a subject, then we need to know if we are capable of delivering the same quality of advice. If not, then we may need to change the subscription, so in that case we would need to know how open your subscribers would be to the change.

If you have a subscription based site for sale then please contact us today.

So you have a content website and you want to know how much it is worth?

The problem is that there are potentially thousands of factors that are used to value a content based website. So this makes it a time consuming and tricky process. However, there are some main factors that we use to value content websites.

HOW TO VALUE A CONTENT SITE

For content sites we will look at the following:

Domain name value ( Please don’t pay attention to domain appraisal tools. They are rarely anywhere near accurate. However, we will use your domain name as a factor )

Content value ( How many articles etc do you have? are they all original? what is the quality of the content? these are all factors we will look at )

Backlinks ( This is one of the most important factors for content sites. We will look at the quality and quantity of your links as a major factor )

Search Engine Rankings ( This is another major factor. If you are getting lots of traffic from Google then your site will be worth more. )

If you have a content site for sale then use the contact form and contact us today.

Dean

How much is my website worth? & How do I value my website? are two of the most common questions we get asked. Unfortunately the answer to these questions is a bit cryptical……

A website is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it

There is simply no easier way of answering the questions than this.

However, if you are not actively looking to sell your site but you are curious to know how much it costs, then this answer doesn’t really help. Also, it helps to have a rough idea how much your site is worth BEFORE you list it for sale.

If you are looking for a rough guide to your sites value, then monthly revenue x 12 is used as a basic guide. Many site sellers will claim this figure is only used on very cheap sites, but they are mainly saying this to get more than x 12.

There are exceptions to the above, here are factors that may change the figure.

FACTORS THAT INCREASE A SITES VALUE ABOVE X12 MONTHLY REVENUE FIGURE

*being highly established
*Large pagerank (pr7 or above)
*Authority site (dominating your niche)
*Large member base (10,000+ members)
*large opt-in list
*Very high rankings in the search engines
*consistent growth over a number of years
*Expensive custom work (e.g expensive site design, custom coding, custom scripts not found anywhere else)
*Huge room for potential (be careful with this one, in theory every site on the planet has room for improvement)

FACTORS THAT COULD LOWER THE X12 MONTHLY REVENUE FIGURE

*Banned from the search engines
*Not been promoted
*Bad reputation in the industry
*Huge amount of competition
*Little or no room for growth
*is turnkey
*is a site with a low expected life span (e.g a site for a new computer game)
*is a site that can be easily replicated (e.g arcade sites, proxy sites, myspace sites)
*is hosted on Blogspot or related sites
*has a potent copyright infringements in the domain
*is very expensive to maintain
*requires a lot of work to maintain (e.g a blog where the seller is the only author)

The above is just a rough guide, there are potentially hundreds more factors. The above should be enough to give you a rough estimate of your sites value, simply start at x12 and add one month for each of the factors your site has in the positive factors section, then deduct one month for each factor your site has from the negative section.

e.g my blog makes an average of $1000 per month, so x12 = $12,000 site value.

However, my blog is pr7 and has high search engine rankings. These two factors are from the positive factors section, so I add two months to my valuation = $14,000

But my site requires a lot of work to maintain and is hosted on blogspot, so I remove two months value. Therefore leaving me back with a valuation of $12,000

I hope this helps, and remember, if you want a team of professionals to help value or sell your website, then contact Midascode today!

Written by Dean Hunt

Selling your website via forums is by far the most popular method of selling sites. But there are tips and tricks to get the most out of your forum listings. There are also potential dangers to be wary of, we have written our full guide to buying websites from site selling forums.

1. Research your forums

- Each forum tends to have its own style, this will attract a certain type of site. Have a look and see what fits you the best.
- Some forums have specific rules that say that you cannot list your site elsewhere. Make a note of these forums to avoid any problems.
- Make sure you read the rules for each forum before you list your site. Some forums have special rules for site listings.

2. Consider a new username

- Remember that your username may have an existing reputation. So I recommend that you create a new account for selling your sites. This will help avoid any future potential problems.
- We recommend that you get your post rate up to double figures on the new account before listing any sites.

3. Title is Vital (it ryhmes and is very true)

- Some people claim this is the most important aspect of your listing. Many site buyers only read a few of the threads, so you need to ensure that yours is seen.
- We have a technique that can help you create the perfect title. Simply find the 3 main unique selling points for your site and try and put them in your title. e.g “pr4 automated education blog”

Here are some titles to avoid:

“Amazing site” “check this out” “great price” “mydomain.com” “site for sale $5000″

4. Prepare your post with care

- Try and cover all the details, without overloading the info.
- If you are using a forum with a specific format then use it!
-Provide as much information as you can without overloading potential buyers.

Also ensure that your post includes all of the following info:

- A brief intro
- Brief intro to your site/business
- also include any other info that the forum requested

Also ensure that you use titles, sub-titles, bold & italics, images and graphs.

And never forget the most important rule….. SPELLCHECK

5. Describe the finer details:

Here is our checklist:

-What is the site or business?
-How does it work?
-What kind of time commitment or skills are required?
-What kind of traffic does it receive?
-Is it listed in search engines?
-Does it utilize any popular programs or scripts that someone already familiar with them could easily use on your site?
-How much money does it make? Is this through advertising, product sales?

6. Be prepared for negative comments

- Any interested buyers may try and find faults in your site. They do this to lower the value of your site and therefore save them some money. Be wary of the common techniques such as exaggerating problems, inventing problems, suggesting that you violate TOS etc.
If you have anything to hide then it is best to admit it before they find out.

7. Respond to questions

- Don’t post your listing and then go to bed. Don’t post and then go away for the weekend. Plan your posting time and date so that you will have time to answer the enquiries. The first 24 hours are very important.

Posted by Dean Hunt