Selling an established domain
I wanted to see what the conventional wisdom is on the issue of selling an established domain. There are many things to consider when you decide that you may want to part with an established domain. I don't think that I have the answers that I need, but I am sure that somebody here will fill in some of the unknowns. Also, there are some out there who have actually gone through the process of selling one of their old sites.
If the revenue for a site increases every month, than isn't the value much more than any value in today's dollars? Doesn't this remind you of the question in grade school that asks you if you'd rather get $5 a day for a month, or a doubling amount of pennies every day (1st day=1¢, 2nd day=2¢, 3rd day=4¢, ... 30th day=536,870,912¢). Wouldn't it be nice if the revenue actually doubled every month!
Why would you want to sell it if it makes money?
I guess that the potential buyer would have valid questions as they should when purchasing something big - basically asking "why do you want to get rid of it anyway - if it makes so much money?" The answer to this question is fairly straightforward - I simply can't afford to wait for the day when revenue from the site is the size of a decent paycheck.
Domain value appraisal - what's the value of an appraisal, literally?
Getting a domain value appraisal is a good idea, but I have to admit that I feel that the calculated values returned for various websites can not estimate a website's value - especially if the site has a large portion of revenue from e-commerce.
To give an example, I appraised two sites with a widely accepted appraisal service. The appraisal service returned values for SiteA: $7500, and SiteB: $5200. I know for a fact how much money SiteA and SiteB makes every month. Site A is a huge multi-million page site that has only been online for about 18 months, but it is completely free and has a pretty good number of indexed pages with the SE's and a PR of only 4. Site B is a bit smaller of a site, with many more backlinks and almost as many indexed pages, but has been online for over 5 years - most of the revenue is from affiliate commissions and standard membership dues.
Given these disparate estimates, I really should perhaps trust the results more. Do the metrics used reflect a value over a much longer time period - and I just haven't seen the end result of any of the criterion yet?
For the sake of the doubling pennies example, SiteA has grown to the a little more than $5 a day - (not doubling, but still growing each month). During SiteA's first six months, each month's earnings were close to $5.
We all agree that established domains are much more valuable than a turnkey website that has all of the same features. Appraisals are a good reference because they really do measure the value on whatever metrics it can, but there should be a way to reflect the alternate revenue sources that may be established at any given site.
Other ideas
Where there is money to be made, there are venture capitalists, right? The problem that I see with the current internet world is the increasing amount of turnkey sites and site cloning going on.
I think that the amount of competition and competing ideas is great for the end user, but cloning usually offers nothing new. In the end, this will work itself out; sites with genuine content and good services will be more successful than their clones or turnkey sites.
Would the giants of the web ever want to buy my site? That really depends on how unique and intuitive the services or ideas are at my site. The news has stories about this happening on at least a monthly basis.
I am no expert on this matter! Please feel free to comment, correct or clarify anything that I wrote above.
I wanted to see what the conventional wisdom is on the issue of selling an established domain. There are many things to consider when you decide that you may want to part with an established domain. I don't think that I have the answers that I need, but I am sure that somebody here will fill in some of the unknowns. Also, there are some out there who have actually gone through the process of selling one of their old sites.
If the revenue for a site increases every month, than isn't the value much more than any value in today's dollars? Doesn't this remind you of the question in grade school that asks you if you'd rather get $5 a day for a month, or a doubling amount of pennies every day (1st day=1¢, 2nd day=2¢, 3rd day=4¢, ... 30th day=536,870,912¢). Wouldn't it be nice if the revenue actually doubled every month!
Why would you want to sell it if it makes money?
I guess that the potential buyer would have valid questions as they should when purchasing something big - basically asking "why do you want to get rid of it anyway - if it makes so much money?" The answer to this question is fairly straightforward - I simply can't afford to wait for the day when revenue from the site is the size of a decent paycheck.
Domain value appraisal - what's the value of an appraisal, literally?
Getting a domain value appraisal is a good idea, but I have to admit that I feel that the calculated values returned for various websites can not estimate a website's value - especially if the site has a large portion of revenue from e-commerce.
To give an example, I appraised two sites with a widely accepted appraisal service. The appraisal service returned values for SiteA: $7500, and SiteB: $5200. I know for a fact how much money SiteA and SiteB makes every month. Site A is a huge multi-million page site that has only been online for about 18 months, but it is completely free and has a pretty good number of indexed pages with the SE's and a PR of only 4. Site B is a bit smaller of a site, with many more backlinks and almost as many indexed pages, but has been online for over 5 years - most of the revenue is from affiliate commissions and standard membership dues.
Given these disparate estimates, I really should perhaps trust the results more. Do the metrics used reflect a value over a much longer time period - and I just haven't seen the end result of any of the criterion yet?
For the sake of the doubling pennies example, SiteA has grown to the a little more than $5 a day - (not doubling, but still growing each month). During SiteA's first six months, each month's earnings were close to $5.
We all agree that established domains are much more valuable than a turnkey website that has all of the same features. Appraisals are a good reference because they really do measure the value on whatever metrics it can, but there should be a way to reflect the alternate revenue sources that may be established at any given site.
Other ideas
Where there is money to be made, there are venture capitalists, right? The problem that I see with the current internet world is the increasing amount of turnkey sites and site cloning going on.
I think that the amount of competition and competing ideas is great for the end user, but cloning usually offers nothing new. In the end, this will work itself out; sites with genuine content and good services will be more successful than their clones or turnkey sites.
Would the giants of the web ever want to buy my site? That really depends on how unique and intuitive the services or ideas are at my site. The news has stories about this happening on at least a monthly basis.
I am no expert on this matter! Please feel free to comment, correct or clarify anything that I wrote above.
