Marketing & sales help needed

[Website Virgin]

Hi All,

Looking for some help if i can get it. I have just launched an oscommerce website and currently have appc campaign in place. I also have an seo company that do a monthly maintenace campaign on the site to increase natural listings etc.

I am now contemplating selling the business due to unforseen circumstances and have reviewed over various topics posted on this site. With this being a site that only launched maybe 2 weeks ago it will be extremely hard for me to value based on sales so i guess i will have to do up projections etc. I also want to give an idea to prospective buyers what sort of revenue can be generated from advertising so i am looking for some info on this.

Are there pricing guidelines in place for irish websites? I need to find out estimates based on traffic projections etc.

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[paul]

This is a tough one, people won't be really willing to buy your site if there isn't revenue. I mean, why should they ?

Projections are also a tough one, do you expect more than a linear growth ? With 2 weeks data all you can do is draw a straight line, and can't really do any trending (time of the year fluctuations, etc).

Also you say that you sell something via OsCommerce, so I guess the person buy the site would also need to buy your stock.

Maybe you can find someone interested in the area (a competitor who doesn't yet have an online store) and sell it to them.

Typically people are willing to pay up to 10 or 12 times the revenue of a site, but a buy would probably request info on the last few months at least.

g'luck with your sale !

 

[Wild Thing]

It may sound harsh but your website after 2 weeks is probably worth next to nothing, you have a few choices cut your losses and run, sell at cost or ride with it for a year or two and build it into a viable business that you can sell. Ecommerce is hard at the best of times, good luck

 

[mneylon]

Is the domain name any good?

 

[link8r]

With projections based on what ? Why wouldnt a potential buyer just go off and develop their own site based on those projections?

Projections from people on the forum with their own sites would have little bearing on your site, unless you had the same SEO work done, and two weeks in this isn't likely.

Two weeks is too soon. Your site might not even be worth the development money you spent as a new owner might want to make massive changes that mean starting afresh are easier (for example I wouldn't want OSCommerce)

 

[Leadz]

People buy website for one reason

Traffic!

It is traffic that generates profit.

In the brick and mortal business you buy shops because of their location.

On the web, they buy website because of the traffic or quality of content + plus followers.

Am afraid since yours is still new and you have not spent enough time to build it up and prove its worth to a prospective buyer, they might not just take your words or projections and run with it.

The only thing you might be able to sell if it is really good is the domain name.

In saying this you can still try and speak to people you know that sells the same products and see if they will be interested.

you will never know.

 

[hughdurkin]

It really is impossible to value a business - any business - if it doesn't have turnover.

Remember we're not in the crazy days of 2001 where it was all about VC money and projections and the online land grab. More of the traditional business values are now part of the online world, and unfortunately if your site isn't a going concern in the truest sense, it's probably worth nothing

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...