Everyone seems to have one these days, but just how much is that website of yours really worth?
As the old saying goes — “it's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it” — while this remains true to this day, there’s still a general rule of thumb that people in this industry seem to follow, especially when it comes down to evaluating the worth of established adult sites and blogs.
So, what’s your website really worth, and how does one arrive at such a valuation?
The Valuation
Back to this general rule of thumb we alluded to earlier, there’s a very simple calculation many pros and market insiders will use when determining how much they should pay for an existing site.
The formula
Monthly revenue x 12 months = what you could get for you site.
In other words, the revenue your site is capable of earning in one year = the gold standard in what a potential buyer might be willing to pay in any given market.
The thought process behind this calculation… the adult landscape changes too fast to justify any other sale price. In some cases you’ll see sites selling for more — sometimes even 24 months earnings, but this is less common, and more wishful thinking for a lot of site owners.
Investors care about cold, hard numbers
The reality is, if someone is looking to purchase your site, it’s most likely being purchased as an investment.
Therefore, potential would-be investors would only think about pulling the trigger to purchase your site if you’re able to provide concrete data and stats to back up your claims of traffic and revenue.
- Is your website profitable?
- How long has it been receiving traffic?
- Does it have a great PageRank?
- How does it fair SEO-wise? (how many backlinks, age of domain, etc.)
- Do you have revenue screenshots from various affiliate networks and programs?
Most of the time, they don’t care about…
- Your site’s “potential”
- Things you didn't do that they could do
- Sites without revenue or traffic
Woulda Coulda Shoulda
The thought process behind many respective buyers in the industry—if you could have developed the site, or if the site has “as much” potential as you claim it has to make a lot of money— then why didn’t you do it?
Most of the time, these classic lines have a tendency of sounding like a sales pitch.
They’ve heard it before, and so have we.
Our advice: If you’re running a site or a blog and you know it can be a real money-maker, put a plan into action and make it work, regardless of how busy you are… even if the end plan is to exit.
Chances are, you’ll have more luck selling something with actual stats than a pipe dream.
Online valuation tools can be used for insight about web property value... but don't use'em
As far as tools go in determining your site’s value— there’s a lot of them out there, but the information you obtain from these tools should always be taken with a grain of salt.
These tools can be fun to use and can provide a ballpark estimate -- but as far as actual worth -- no site can accurately and definitively put a value on your website or your hard work.
The best “domain appraisal” / “valuation” tools
Estibot and Valuate
These two tools are based more on keyword metrics, the number of searches every month, type-in score, estimated traffic rank, etc.
Website Outlook
This one leans more towards performance-based indicators to assess the worth of your e-real estate, by taking into account your domain’s Alexa traffic rank, number of backlinks, and Google PageRank.
Don’t waste your money on “Professional” domain appraisals
They’re not worth it, and if someone ever expresses interest in your domain but says they want you to first get the site professionally appraised, it’s usually a scam. They’re likely not legit.
In our experience, we’ve never known anyone to need to “pay” for someone to assess their domain.
In the end, stick with a strategy that works
Whether you're just getting started with a new site and wanting to build up it’s value, or have one and disappointed in where you think it stands in worth— stick with what you know
Focus on quality, unique content that visitors will flock to and link to. Once you have the traffic, you have the monetization potential. And when you have that, you just need some time on your side to grow those earnings.
With all this together, you have the winning formula to entice a prospective buyer down the road.
Check out for Part 2 - Selling Your Website.
