At some point, WordPress bloggers can find themselves pondering questions such “I wonder how much my blog worth?” or “How can I find out the value of my blog?” Of course what you can get for a blog all depends on how much someone else is willing to pay, but there are some things that you can do to make your blog as attractive as possible to any potential buyer.
Steven Endrizzi MBA, CEO of BizBroker24, (the largest e-business mergers and acquisition company listing over $50 million in online businesses) says “for a buyer or seller, determining the value of his or her website is probably one of the most difficult and complicated tasks.”
Selling a WordPress blog can be difficult these days because of all of the competition. Your blog must stand out. This is more difficult to achieve today with SEO, but it is not impossible. Having a WordPress blog that is higher quality and more original than others on the market can help.
In order to calculate the value of your blog, the first thing you need to look at is the revenue your blog earns every year. You’ll then have to subtract from that revenue all the expenses of running the business to figure out the net profit of your blog. Expenses for blogs include things such as banners, marketing fees, and hosting affiliation systems. You should have at least 12 months of data on which to base the valuation of your site.
After you find the net profit, the seller has to determine a multiplier number. In other words, if your blog has a high status and good SEO traffic, the value could be 1.5x to 3.0x times the amount of yearly net profit. For example, if your blog generates a net profit of $50,000, a potential buyer could multiply that by 2.0x and offer you $100,000.
There are many other considerations that a buyer could take into account, such as if there are any risks with the site. They need to find out the hazards that the blog may be subject to. These can include any external automated systems, the volatility of revenues, the quality and growth of traffic streams, and whether there are diversified revenue streams.
And as mentioned before, there are many different ways a WordPress blog can be valued. For some buyers, the most important thing that adds value to your site is the client list or database.
How to Appraise a Blog Correctly?
Sales and Profit Trends and Numbers
If your blog makes $1,000 a month from Google AdSense earnings, you should be able to sell it for around 6-18 months of revenue, which equals $6,000-$18,000. Why so much? The value increases if you have proof of earnings for a minimum of least one year as well as verified Google Analytics. This way a buyer can be confident that these numbers will continue.
Is the Blog Unique?
No one wants to buy a blog from you if it just going to be like thousands of others out there. If your blog is about travel, devices, diet or anything similar, it is probably not very original. It is going to be less valuable than a custom built, unique blog that has no other competition.
The Quality
If your blog is full of rephrased articles that are low quality then it will lower the value of the blog. The same is true if you’ve paid someone to write for your blog for $3 an article. Your blog will not sell for a high amount because these are not examples of high quality.
Domain Name
Many people who might buy your site know a lot about domain names. Usually when selling a site, buyers do not really care about the domain very much; making revenue from your blog is the main thing that will help you to sell it. A domain name won’t influence the price of the blog unless it is a fantastic keyword. Hyphens in a domain name do decrease the value of a blog as compared to domain names without hyphens. This is because they are usually overlooked when people type in the site name and they then end up on the wrong site. It is also very easy to take two words and just put a hyphen between them to make a new domain name from whatever words you want. So be aware that a hyphen will cause your site to lose value.
Numbers in domain names are also less valuable. Just like for a hyphen, adding numbers to a domain name is an easy and inexpensive version of the original domain. Numbers also make it difficult to tell what the domain name actually is. Are the numbers spelled out or are they numerical? For example is, it “six” or “6.” There are times, however, where the numbers enhance the meaning of a domain, such as a significant year. In that case, they’re less likely to lower the domain’s value.
Design
A design will not make you a great amount of money, but if you do not have a good design it could affect the value of your blog.
Traffic
If you have a lot of visitors to your blog or site, then the traffic could work as another good selling point for your blog. But you should know to not expect much more than $100 for your site. If you have more than a minimum of 10,000 visitors per month than you might see more value. The more visitors you have, the higher the value.
Age of Your Blog
Search engines like older domains more than younger ones. Most people think the older a domain name is the more trustworthy it is. Longevity is equal to lower risk. If you had two businesses that were the same and one had been open for 10 years and the other for 5, the older one would be worth more to a buyer.
Potential Business Growth
If you are able to understand and identify the main motivators of growth for your blog, that is a good starting point for outlining which responsibilities and activities the new owners may want to tackle first. Growing into areas that are not a good fit for the blog and its main strengths may place a lot of pressure on the company and the workforce, and may translate to a swing away from your business’ core value proposition.
Reason for Selling
It can be hard to understand why a seller is selling their business. So it is important for a buyer to ask a lot of questions about this because it is important that they know the motive. The top reasons for buyers are retirement, sickness and fatigue. All valid justifications which should have no impact on valuation.
Length of Training and Support
After selling the business it is normal for a seller to stay on for some time to help with the transition. How long they stay will depend on how involved the seller was before they sold the business. This period is usually a month or two and the terms are set out in writing. It is important to remember that some buyers do not want the sellers to stay at all and will want the seller out of the picture as soon as possible so that they can fully assert themselves in their new role.
If you want to know how much money you can get for your blog and get a free personalized valuation or acquisition proposal, contact BizBroker24 at www.bizbroker24.com.
