Would really appreciate help pricing my site

Business
1

Hello all,

I operate an online art community that I want to put on the market. I am ready to start a family and already have a full time career, so keeping my web site would occupy too much time that I want to spend elsewhere. Here are some details:

I net about $1200-$1500 per month. Potential earnings are much higher and I will explain. I offer various types of listings on my site as a way for art organizations to advertise their upcoming competitions or announcements. I charge considerably less for this service than my competitors of equal traffic and other stats. I charge considerable less for e-blasts than I could. I also charge no fees to artists for membership and no subscription fees for my calendar, which my competitors do ($20-$25 per year). I also charge no fees for my monthly contests, which I could also do as a yearly membership.

I have over 7,500 members and 6,000 opt-in email subscribers. I am comparably ranked to my competitors in Alexa and have many 1st page Google search results for very key, relevant searches.

However, I am not sure how to assign a value to my site based on email subscribers, traffic, current earnings, as well as potential earnings. I could use some advice.

all the best,
Joe

2

Best rule of thumb is to set your price between 6 - 12 months of actual revenue.

The only way to get more than that is to do a really good job of outlining exactly how much potential the site has.

Keep in mind that people buy websites so they can make money from the current revenue streams in place. Pricing it high because you have emotional attachment or because you “know” it can make more isn’t going to fly.

3

I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a rule of thumb on the matter. If the property is sufficiently attractive buyers could pay in excess of 60x.

However, “potential earnings” is a sore point and I’d urge caution in how you present that. Pretty much every seller uses this line and buyers are immune to it, annoyed by it even. I’ve written this article for Sitepoint on website valuation if you’re interested.