How much would you pay?

[JMJ]

Lets say money isn't a concern. You have been offered a website which directly relates to your business with a user base of 11,000, a #1 ranking under several terms in google, yahoo, msn, etc but the main keywords it is #1 out of 65,200,000 results in google. Google PR is 5 with $0 spent on advertising. The site has been live for 9 years. It doesn't have any revenue because it is a free service provided by the current owner.

To put it on a domainers prospective "domain names" has 92,500,000 results and networksolutions.com is the obvious #1 spot. The industry in question is much more lucrative than domain names but could be a good comparison. Overture searches for the exact #1 position term w/o ext was 29,556 for october. Again there is a user base. The free service could be considered a bit like this forum is for domains.

Just based on these factors how much do you think you would spend? I may add more to the senario later just want to see what the comments are from here.

 

[petertdavis]

Hard to say without more specifics. I'd start by asking the guy what amount would make him happy.

 

[JMJ]

Hard to say without more specifics. I'd start by asking the guy what amount would make him happy.

Ok, I'll give you a bit more. Over the 9 years the owner has spent 100k+ on a custom interface which allows for those users to do what they do for free.

 

[Jonathan]

$30,000,000.


Money isn't a concern, right?

Hard to set a value without knowing more about the niche.

 

[JMJ]

$30,000,000.


Money isn't a concern, right?

Hard to set a value without knowing more about the niche.

I'm sure Adam would be glad to accept your offer. But lets be realistic. Use domains and this forum as an example if you wish. Lets say Adam was offering this forum up for sale and he says I have 100k+ invested into it. I don't make any money from it because it's an avenue to promote my real multi-million dollar money makers.

A couple of more things to consider. This forum has #1 position out of 40,500,000 using the search term "domain forum". The member total here is 21,000 and some peeps. The active member total on the site in question is near 11,000 but has actually had 64,000+ since it began.

If you want to make it simple think about how much money and time it would take to get a #1 result out of 63,700,000. How much do you think an SEO company would charge to just attempt this?

 

[Rarethings]

at least 30k- prob more like 40 or 50

 

[DryHeat]

A rough estimate given the above data: $200-300K

 

[JMJ]

at least 30k- prob more like 40 or 50

I'm sure the SEO company would be glad to take your money, put a few people from India to work on the optimization for a year or two all the while promising you will see that #1 soon. :wink:

A rough estimate given the above data: $200-300K

Now that were back to reality lets throw some more goodies into the package. Lets say this interface was a domain management tool. This tool allowed for all of us to manage our domains for free. It gave us all sorts of datails on our domains. It allowed us to redirect, manage DNS, buy, sell, trade. Not only are the little guys like us using this but the likes of BuyDomains.com NameAdmin.com Marchex etc. So in total this free service probably amounts to hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth of domain assets being managed through this free service you provide.

 

[hugegrowth]

I'd say 1 Million + based on what you've said
so far.
With that membership in this type of industry,
and the fact that they must have to continually
return to the site, means you can cross market
to them, email market to them, or even charge
for some upgrades to services. 'Community' type
sites seem to be all the rage now.

What we don't know is what is the competition.
If there is low chance for competition then all
the more valuable.

 

[JMJ]

Thanks for those who have played. This is a "real deal" but oddly enough the buyer whom I'm "working for" seems to think $250,000 isn't a good deal. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy for thinking it was. If the seller wants it to go public I'll offer it up here in the future.

What we don't know is what is the competition.
If there is low chance for competition then all
the more valuable.

It is a very competitive market but not so much in this niche. What makes it even more insane is the keywords od the domain and the #1 positions are "the keywords" of one of my clients main businesses/site. His site is no where on the map as far as google is concerned. It would seem to me that getting 1st position in all of the major SE's would be worth several hundred thousand alone.