Midascode | Buy & Sell Websites

The time to sell has come for my beloved blog. Let me try and answer the first question that comes to mind, why?

Because I am entering an extremely busy period in my personal life. Moving from Europe to Australia soon, having to find a new place to stay for a couple of months first, before the big move, I am going to be spending most of my time moving house, filling out tons of paperwork, then shipping everything over to Aus and trying to get a new house there. With all this going on, I won’t have much time to attend to my online business, so I’m probably going to take a break from the Internet for a few months.

So my loss is your gain.

JohnCow.com is a widely known and popular MMO blog. Ever since the blog launched on the first of July 2007, it has hit the ground running and within just a few months its build up a very recognizable name within the make money online niche. It would be very easy for the new owner to continue the site, as its obviously being authored under a pseudonym. I’m not really a cow

The stats:

• PageRank 3
• Alexa 22,100
• Compete 41,020
• Technorati 1696, Authority 1457
• 382 Posts
• 13,417 Comments
• 47,412 Backlinks (Yahoo!)
• 2,830 indexed pages (Google)
• Average of 30K uniques per month (without social media)

I’m sure there’s more stats potential buyers would be interested in, and you can just shoot me a PM for further questions.

Now, besides the stats, there’s a lot of extras that will be added to the sale.

Looking at SEO, in a highly competitive niche like MMO, the blog currently ranks 5th place for “making money online” and 1st place for “John Chow” in Google’s SERPs.

For branding purposes, besides the .COM I’ve secured .BIZ .INFO .ORG and .US so the brand can be expanded to different business models. Think about blog consultancy via .BIZ, or a MMO forum on .ORG for example. .INFO right now has a facebook games app on it, which we will include. The .US is currently used to promote a unique wordpress theme I’m selling and has a Pagerank 5.

I’ve also got several unique creatives (header, mascot, banners and wallpapers) that were designed especially for the site. All files are available in PSD format so you can modify them as you see fit, and I will introduce the new owner to my designers to continue the relationship I have with them.

Speaking of relationships, because of the popularity and the nature of the blog, I’ve made a lot of influential friends in the business, obviously John Chow himself being one of them. I will introduce the new owner to my contacts. I get emails every day from people who are willing to setup a JV of some sort because of the blog’s status, I receive Beta invites and the occasional free stuff that companies sent me, looing to get promoted by John Cow. The new owner can obviously build on this.

We’ve currently got a massive quadcore dedicated server (details here) worth about $300 per month ($3,600 p/y), fully sponsored by our web hoster. Besides the free server, they also sponsor huge contests (XBOX Elite and a copy of GTA4 this month), and let us give away massive discounts to our readers and let us use our affiliate links for it too. This will all be included in the sale, the web hoster has agreed to leave the current agreement in tact for the new owner.

Besides all this, we are also including relevant site memberships like MyBlogLog (community of nearly 1,250 members) Feedburner account, twitter account. The non-free plugins we use like the advertising engine, WP affiliate pro and WP Auctions (with tailored design). Heck, I’ll even throw in the 30GB iPod video that’s currently listed in our WP auctions plugin

The blog is not banned anywhere (think Digg, Reddit, SU whatever) because we never really tried to play that field. So the new owner could focus on this market if they’d want increase traffic via social media.

I’m sure I’ve missed some stuff, so feel free to ask me whatever you’d like to know if you’re a serious buyer.

Revenue Details:

Private ad sales, some sponsored reviews, affiliate promotions etc. The site is currently not using adsense because I’ve been experimenting with different income streams. The new owner can obviously put up adsense or whatever. The site is not banned by Adsense.

The blog has a fully automated advertising script, so clients can buy a spot in seconds. Saves me a lot of time because I don’t have to chase up for sales.

Free sponsored dedicated server worth $300 per month. (I didn’t include this in the income).

Traffic Details:

The blog receives highly targeted traffic from other people in the MMO niche. This is one of the best niches to be in because people really do spend money on promoted items on the blog, like ebooks etc. 

Organic: 20-30%

Referring sites: 50% 

Direct traffic: 20% 

There has never been a better time to sell a website, and yes, many of them sell for millions, and in some cases even billions of dollars. But how do you create a website that can sell for over a million dollars?

There are hundreds of factors involved, but there are three essential ones:

1) Traffic
2) Profits
3) Brand

Traffic

Traffic is the blood of any website, if you don’t have it flowing, your site will die.

For a website or blog to sell for over a million dollars, you are likely to need over 100,000 visitors per month. There are some exceptions, but as a general guide, this is what I would expect the absolute minimum to be.

Profits

High traffic without profits is not worth a great deal. In fact, there are websites that get high traffic and actually lose money. At the end of the day, you are largely going to be judged on your profits, so to sell for over one million dollars, I would be looking for a minimum of $200,000 profit per year.

Remember, traffic is for vanity, profits are for sanity.

Brand

Sites like Facebook and Youtube are valued so high partly because of the global branding that they have. To sell your website for over one million dollars, I would expect your website to not only be seen as a leading brand name in your industry, but also a brand with a good track record and positive image.

Summary

If you have all of the above three factors, give us a call, we may just buy your site

Midascode

We have been getting a lot of visits from people looking to know more about buying and selling websites. So we thought it was about time we got interactive. If you own a website, then please answer the question below:

How much would you sell your main website for?

Give your realistic selling price, as it would be great to know more about our readers.

Midascode

Valuing websites can be a tricky business, there is no set formula, and there are many factors involved. Today I would like to share with you 7 reasons that I will pay more for your website.

Revenue

Ok, revenue is an obvious one, but the fact remains that it is the single most important factor in your sites valuation. if you want me to give you tons of cash, then I want to see a site that is making good profits each month.

Domain Name

If your domain is hosted at blogspot or another free host, then I will most likely shake my head violently and move on. But if your domain is sex.com - then I will have my credit card in hand before you can say “website transaction”.

Brand

Are you the talk of the industry? Or does the mention of your website generate blank stares? The branding of your site can have a huge effect on your site’s value.

Web Design

The design of your website is not a major factor, but it will certainly have an effect on how much I am willing to pay. After all, if your site design looks like a baby has been sick all over it, then it may cost me $2k to fix the mess.

Traffic

More traffic = more revenue = more value = …… ok, I ran out of more =’s, but you get the point.

Google Love

Does Google love your site? On the Internet this is like being best friends with the president, and remember, good Google rankings = Traffic = Revenue… ok, you get the picture.

Inventory & Scripts

Does your web business come with $10k worth of DVDs? Or perhaps you have a complex custom script that cost you $10k to make? I can’t guarantee that either will add $10k to your valuation, but it will certainly have an effect.

Despite all of the above, the actual value of a site is simple = what someone is willing to pay for it. But hopefully this list will show you areas you can improve upon.

San Francisco based HotOrNot, founded by James Hong and Jim Young in October 2000, has been acquired.

The buyers are investors connected with Avid Life Media, and paid somewhere around $20 million for the site. Hong and and Young have been taking money out of the very profitable business all along the way - which we reported was another $20 million or in May 2007. HotOrNot never raised outside funding.

At a whopping $20 million it is clear that the web business was certainly a HOT property

That is the shamefully bad pun out of the way, so let us know your thoughts on this deal.

We have bought many websites in our time, but looking back, the sites that we got the best deals with has one thing in common… today we are going to share that magic factor with you, and perhaps you will be able to buy some great sites at low prices too.

We are not psychologists, but we are good at sales, online selling in particular, and there is one simple yet consistent formula we have noticed:

If the website owner contacts us then we often get a good (low) price, if we contact them, we often get high prices.

Like we said earlier, we are not psychological experts, but somehow we feel that the above swings the balance of power and control dramatically to one side. The fact that they contact you means that they need you, they want something from you… this is a powerful position to be in.

So this begs the question: how do you get people to contact you with websites for sale?

What we do is simply put the word out. Via our IM, by telling our friends, by telling our contacts etc… Perhaps write a blog post saying you are looking to buy a website. Once people know that you are looking for a site, they will remember you when they come to sell, even if it is years later. You are planting seeds in their head, and with time those seeds will grow.

Another reason we believe that this is the key to getting a good price on a website, is that often, if the seller has gone to the trouble of contacting you, they are most likely desperate to sell. Perhaps they need the money, perhaps they are bored of the site, perhaps they want funds for another project… so this eagerness to sell will mean they will sell cheaper just to get rid of it.

So if you have ever considered investing in a website, start sewing the seeds today, you never know what might grow.

Midascode

Today I am going to talk about the single biggest problem with the website buying and selling industry: The difference between buying a job and buying a business.

Let’s get straight to the point, if your website requires the new owner to work on it on a regular basis, then you are selling a JOB not a business.

For it to be classed as a business, it needs to be self-sufficient, it needs to be able to run without the regular input of the owner, and it needs to make a PROFIT without your input.

In other words, could you go to the beach for 6 months, return, and have a nice chunk of profit in your bank account? If not, then you are buying a job.

So what difference does this make to the value of a website?

Well, if you are buying a job, then you should deduct your time from the value of the site. e.g if your time is normally worth $20,000 per year (fulltime), and this JOB requires you to work 4 hours per day (part-time), then you should deduct $10,000 from the value of the site.

In the real business world, it is possible to get valuations of x5 years, but if you are offering a job, then don’t expect to get more than x12 months.

Remember, next time you are buying or selling a website, ask yourself, is it a job or a business?

You own a website or blog and would like to cash in and sell it for the best possible price. But how do you ensure that you get a good price?

There are two simple tricks I have used in the past to sell sites for more than the market average.

1 - Deal with the BIG players

Many people are scared of dealing with mega global companies. Images of scary lawyers and men in fancy suits is often enough to want to avoid them, but guess what? The biggest companies have the biggest pockets.

For example, $20,000 may seem like a lot of money to you, but to these guys it is a drop in the ocean. So they are less likely to haggle, or worry about getting a great deal. Also, they are less likely to waste your time and wimp out at the end vs some kid who is using his college fund to pay for your site.

So if you own a site on cell phones, contact Nokia, they won’t bite.

2 - Find a buyer who can squeeze extra value from the site

Ok, this kinda sounds obvious. But let’s look at an example:

Let’s say you own a Britney Spears fan forum, it makes $200 per month in adsense, and has 6,000 members.

On a standard website marketplace, you would be lucky to get $3,000 for such a site. Why? Because of the low revenue. But what if you could sell it to someone who could benefit in many other ways from the investment? For example, you could sell it to someone who already owns a network of Britney sites. Not only will the new buyer get the ad revnue, but he/she can use the new site to drive more traffic, links, and members to the other sites in the network.

Or, you could sell it to Britney’s management, she needs all the help she could get right now, and I am sure her management could find many uses with this database of loons, sorry, Britney Spears fans.

So remember, look for the people best suited to get extra value from your website, and contact those people first.

Midascode

Website For Sale - Online shop for organic skin, body and hair care For Sale

A stylish online retailer for fabulously pure skin, body and hair care that is organic, cruelty free and kind to the environment.

Purely-Natural.net - Website For Sale

What’s It All About: Purely-Natural.net - Purely-Natural.net is an Online shop for organic skin, body and hair care. The site can be fully adapted to sell any kind of product. Categories can be named and assigned to suit, all done through the CMS.

How Long Established: Since September 2006.

Traffic: Monthly visitors over 2500

No Of Members: 300+ customer accounts

Current Revenue: £1200 to £1500

Expenses: Hosting £12.50 - Google AdWords £100

Price: In excess of £2500

Some further information:

The website and management system is run by osCommerce, an Open Source based e-commerce solution.

It features a rich set of online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved. The shop can easily be adjusted through the CMS (content management system) to sell any kind of products.

CMS features:
- User-friendly stylish design
- Permission-based access system
- Easy to catalogue products/services
- HTML E-mail feature: Each message, order confirmation email, order status change notification, newsletter etc. is in HTML
- Gift Voucher/Discount Coupons feature
- Easy to manage page contents
- SaleMaker
- Multiple images per product
- Wish List
- Attribute management
- Download Controller
- Easy import/export feature
- Create new/edit orders feature
- Meta Tag Controller/Generator
- Print order/invoice branded with store logo
- Who’s Online feature
- WYSIWYG HTML Editor for product, category, and text editing
- FAQ Desk
- News Desk (for magazine part of the website)
- Banner-ad-in-a-box
- Shop by Price filter
- Links feature
- Accept offline payment processing (cheque, money orders, offline credit care processing, ..)
- Accept online payment processing (2CheckOut, PayPal, Authorize.net, iPayment, WorldPay etc.)
- Disable certain payment services based on a zone basis
- Weight, price, and destination based shipping modules
- Free shipping based on amount and destination
- Disable certain shipping services based on a zone basis
- SSL Certificate feature - gives a website the ability to communicate securely with its web customers
- Affiliate scheme/registration. Allows for managing affiliates in the Admin panel, and setting default commission % per affiliate. Allows for managing linking materials (banners) in the Admin panel. Runs a number of sales and turnover reports per affiliate account and supports multi-tier affiliate programme

Even if you are not interested, feel free to leave a comment - I am sure the owner would welcome Feedback either way

We have been contacted by the owner of a popular free bets site. (BetBonus.co.uk)

We are sure that not all of our readers will have an interest in gambling related sites, but for those of you who do, this may well be worth looking into.

Bet Bonus.co.uk

Domain: betbonus.co.uk

Google Pagerank: 5

Traffic:

Refferers

Keywords

The website appears #’1 on Yahoo for “free bets”.

Revenue Details
The website has not been touched since the summer but has still earned the following amounts over the last three months from bookmaker commissions:

December - £1,272.12

November - £1,187.99

October - £768.75

If you are interested in knowing more, contact us