Browsing Category: "Internet Marketing"
How to Appraise a Website?
You might not know this but I actually used to own one of the most popular blog flipping and site flipping blogs on the internet. But I ended up selling it, which is sort of ironic if you think about it. I have also bought and sold several websites over the years and done some interviews on the subject, so a lot of people still come to me with questions about buying and selling websites. I guess I’m seen as an authority on the subject and that’s fine with me.
This morning I was asked by someone on an internet marketing forum I moderate how to appraise a website. They are wanting to buy a certain website that is up for sale right now on flippa but they aren’t sure how much it’s worth. I decided to answer the question in a video so other people can find the answer when they need to…
You can use this information to help you decide how much your own site is worth before putting it up for sale, or to help you get an idea of how much a site you are looking to buy might be worth. I’ll assume you are the buyer for the purposes of this information but it can be used either way.
Before I start, let me say this… There’s no way to ever say exactly how much any website is worth. It’s impossible to do because there are so many variables with each individual site. And it depends a lot on the potential buyers who see it… One person might pay a million dollars for a site and another person wouldn’t spend a penny on the same site.
Now, with that being said, there are some ways to get a general idea of how much a site might be worth, so you have a basic guideline to go by rather than just taking a wild guess and hoping you are close.
Here’s how I do it…
First I look at some basic things to see if it’s even worth digging any deeper. Such as how long the site has been around, how many backlinks it has, its page rank, how many pages/posts it has indexed, how many subscribers it has, if it has high Google rankings for the keywords it targets, search volume, average monthly traffic and earnings, where the majority of traffic and earnings come from, how difficult it would be to maintain, how much time and money needs to be put into the site on a monthly basis, the reputation of the owner, and so on.
Seriously get as much information as you can before going any further. If I am still interested after looking all of that stuff then I will move forward with my process. Most of the time after looking at all those things you will find that something just doesn’t seem right, or doesn’t add up. If that’s the case it’s probably better to simply walk away. It needs to have solid stats and a great history in order for me to stay interested.
You will have to make a judgment call and go with your gut feeling at times. If you find that you are trying to convince yourself to move forward then you are probably making a bad decision. Only continue if everything seems to be legit and you are still excited about it at this point.
Honestly most sites you will find for sale are NOT worth buying so don’t be surprised if a site you thought would be a steal ends up not being all you thought it was cracked up to be after digging a little deeper.
Next, I take 4 things into account:
1) Income Value – This differs based on how long the site has been around and how well established it is. A newer site will typically be 10 times the monthly earnings. But a more premium site with a longer history can easily go for 24 times the monthly earnings.
So let’s assume you are looking at a well established premium site that earns $2000 per month on average. The income value is $48,000
2) Traffic Value – Let’s say the site averages 10,000 unique visitors per month. If you started a brand new site and wanted to immediately match the traffic using PPC at just 10 cents per click. It would cost you $1,000 per month to do that.
I take this at a one year rate so the traffic value would be $12,000 in this case.
3) Subscriber Value – The rule of thumb here is that typically each email subscriber is worth $1 per month on average if the list has been built correctly and a good reputation with the subscribers has been formed.
So if it has a list of 1000 it is worth $1000 per month. This is another one I calculate per one year. So the subscriber value is $12,000
4) Content Value – Let’s say the site has 500 pages. If you wanted to start the site from scratch and paid someone just $5 per page it would cost you $2500 so that is the Content Value even at a very low estimate.
Total them up and you get $74,500
Now, that is not actually how much the site is worth because if it wasn’t for the content, traffic, subscribers, etc… There wouldn’t be any income. They all go hand in hand.
So you can’t really separate them all out and then add them together individually. Some can’t exist without another. Yes it can be quite confusing, but you want to be sure it has good numbers in all categories to make it worth buying.
I would say if we were talking about real website here then it would be valued at somewhere around $50,000 to $60,000. That is mainly based on the income value with some added value from all the other stats as well.
In reality, I would say that you should expect to pay at least $30,000 for a site like this on the very low end, and I would say not to go any higher than maybe $60,000 if you REALLY want it and everything has been triple checked to be sure it’s all legit.
Ultimately a site is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it so it’s a very difficult thing to judge. But hopefully you have a better understanding of how to get a decent estimate now.
Also, before I go, I want to give you a quick warning…
There are quite a few free site valuation tools out there and I see a lot of people getting excited at what those tools say their site is worth. Trust me, 99% of the time they are dead wrong. I’ve rarely seen them be anywhere close to correct.
What I have done in the past though is use maybe 10 of them in a row to see what they all come up with. Then I throw out the highest two and the lowest two, and average the rest.
Then I compare it to what I had already come up with as the sites value using the system I just told you about. If the numbers are somewhat close it does help to confirm the estimate, but that’s about all I would trust them for.
Ok that’s it for today. Now go to BeAlwaysMarketing.com and see how my team and I can help take your business to the next level! You might even be able to sell your own site for a huge profit. BAM!
Does it Make Sense to Crowdsource Marketing Tasks?
If you’re starting your first business, there’s a good chance that you won’t understand marketing as well as you should. Or even if you do, you simply don’t have the time to spend on it, nor the money to pay an agency to do it. Vincent Ha saw this problem and founded Gushcloud to offer businesses a solution. In this Future of Publishing episode, VigLink CEO Oliver Roup interviews Ha about Gushcloud and how it’s changing marketing:
Highlights
- Many business don’t understand marketing as well as they should…
- Even the ones who do can’t afford agencies…
- But they can afford crowdsourcing!
Future of Publishing is sponsored by VigLink. Please Like Future of Publishing on Facebook if you enjoyed the show!
Social Media Marketing Strategies for Regular Folks
Having a strong social media marketing presence is becoming more vital every day for any business wanting a strong online presence. Social media sites like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many others are powerful sites to use for marketing purposes. Millions upon millions of people use these sites every day to share and discuss anything and everything. You and your internet business need to be in on those conversations.
But how do you, as a regular small business person, compete with the marketing teams and budgets of the huge corporations? Here are a few strategies to help you become a social media marketing rockstar without needing any money or the help of a team…
1) Be Friendly
First and foremost you need to be friendly and social. That’s the original reason why these sites were established in the first place. It is important to establish a rapport with other social media users in your target market and related niches. If you are going to be successful with social media marketing then you need to build relationships and network with other users.
If someone asks you a question, answer it. If someone sends you a message, take the time to reply. Interact with other people and they will be far more receptive to information you share about your business on occasion. Always remember to be social!
2) Entertain People
If you come across an entertaining picture or video, or a useful article on the internet, share it with all your friends and followers on social media sites. If all you do is post information about your business, products, services, or life, you won’t get much traction with social media marketing.
It’s important to liven things up as much as you can. That way people will learn to watch for your posts and expect to find something worth sharing. Once they are paying attention to you, it’s far more likely that they will click on any links you post.
3) Market Your Business in Moderation
I know we are discussing the strategy of social media marketing but you do need to market in moderation. It’s ok to advertise your internet business or your individual products and services, but it doesn’t take much to overdo it. You should spend most of your time interacting with others, networking, and sharing a variety of things. Every now and then you can slip in a link to your website when the situation fits. That way, other people will be more likely to click your links when you post them. To put it another way, you are going for quality over quantity.
If you stick to these rules and adapt with the times, you will be on your way to a solid online presence and social media marketing stardom. On the other hand, if you insist on using social sites to just blast link after link to your own website, you will probably do more harm than good. People will label you as a spammer and lose respect for you and your business. It can be very hard to recover from any sort of negative branding. So keep the above tips in mind from now on and you shouldn’t have any problems.
3 Rockin’ Online Video Marketing Strategies
It’s well known that online video marketing is incredibly popular these days. Almost every internet marketer is either already doing it or planning to jump on the bandwagon soon. If you don’t believe me just go look at a few product sales pages right now, or some popular internet business blogs, or discussions on your favorite online marketing forum. You could also check out a little site you might have heard of called YouTube. Okay, I think you get the point!
There are marketing videos all over YouTube and all the other major video sharing sites. And just as with guest blogging, social networking, article marketing, and other popular traffic generation strategies; video marketing can make you a lot of money if you do it correctly. This post is going to provide you with three online video marketing tips that you can use to become a rockstar of the industry.
One of the most important things to remember is… You need to be outrageous! People aren’t interested in watching (or sharing) a boring video of you sitting at your desk talking about the hottest new internet marketing trend. You need to catch and keep their attention, and give them a reason to share it with their social network. So you want to do something that’s original and off the wall to be different from everyone else creating marketing videos.
The next tip is to not be super cheap. Yes, I know there are some decent free solutions out there for making videos. But your videos are going to seem amateurish and not look as good if you use them. You don’t have to spend a fortune on equipment or software but if you’re going to be a video marketer, you might as well do it right. At the very least you should get a high quality camera, a good microphone, proper lighting, and great editing software.
Last but not least, you should script your videos. Chances are you aren’t a professional actor, or even a very good one. Maybe you are but the vast majority of internet marketers are not, so this online video marketing tip is for them. Therefore, you can’t just step in front of the camera and totally wing it. If you do that you will make tons of mistakes and your video will suck. So, script out what you want to say/do and rehearse it until you have it just right. Don’t hit record until you know what you’re going to say and are ready to go. But also remember not to simply read your script or your video will be super boring.
Alright, that pretty much covers it. If you want to become an online video marketing rockstar you need to concentrate on being original, entertaining, finding the right equipment, and scripting out your videos beforehand. Doing this will ensure they turn out much more professional and end up getting you a lot more traffic, which will make you tons more money from your internet home business.
Stop Making Business Decisions Based On How Nice Someone Is!
This post was inspired by a thread on one of the internet marketing forums I moderate. People are arguing about the legitimacy of a certain program and the owner of it. There are some people calling it a scam and others defending it. However, one thing that stood out to me is that some of the people defending it are doing so based on the argument of how “nice” the owner apparently is even though they haven’t actually joined or have any real inside knowledge about it. If you ask me that’s about the worst way you could possibly make a business decision.
If you really think about it for a minute you will see that it is in the best interest of any scammer or shady business person to be nice and come off as a great person. That’s how they get you to trust them and ultimately give them your money or time, or whatever they are after. If they walked up to you and said, “Hi my name is John Doe, I am a total asshole and nothing but a scammer” — you wouldn’t be stupid enough to join their program or send them your money.
Instead they come off as very nice, helpful, legitimate and having your best interests in mind. Therefore, you trust them and defend them when someone calls them out for doing something shady or for flat out being a scam artist. That’s how they lure people in and give them a sense of security. They want you to think they are the greatest person in the world.
I’m not saying the particular internet marketer and program being discussed in the forum thread that inspired me to write this is a scam. I don’t know because I haven’t looked into it other than what is being said there. My point is simply that overall you should never get into a business, program, opportunity, or anything else just because the owner or someone else high up in the organization is a nice person.
Do plenty of research and get real information from people who have nothing to gain by giving it to you. Always make a truly informed decision before spending any money or time on any sort of internet marketing product or business opportunity. And don’t defend something unless you have actually joined and know firsthand what you are talking about. A nice owner doesn’t make something legit.
