终极网站评估指南

tech2024-03-30 70

Google claims an amazing 10 million pages for the search term how much is my web site worth. If this is the question you’re asking, you’re not alone! This article will let you in on some valuation secrets to help you judge with accuracy the value of your web business, be it a blog or site.

Google声称搜索词有1000万个惊人的页面，我的网站价值多少。如果这是您要问的问题，那么您并不孤单！本文将让您了解一些评估秘诀，以帮助您准确判断网络业务的价值，无论是博客还是网站。

We discuss the accountancy behind the figures, the math behind the valuations, what adds value to a site, how financial statements are reconstructed for sale valuations, and finally, the main business models and how they are valued by buyers. We’ll demystify the buying-and-selling terms beloved of accountants, but if you find yourself confused by any of the business usages encountered along the way, feel free to check out this glossary. If you’d like to skip straight to getting a rough idea of your site’s value, check out this website valuation tool.

我们讨论了数字背后的会计，估值背后的数学，为网站增加价值的内容，如何为销售估值重建财务报表，最后讨论了主要业务模型以及买方如何对其进行估值。我们将揭开会计师钟爱的买卖术语的神秘面纱，但是如果您发现自己对沿途遇到的任何业务用法感到困惑，请随时查看此词汇表。如果您想直接了解网站的价值，请查看此网站评估工具。

前往球场 (Heading for the Ball-park)

Maybe you’ve recently bought a site, or you’re an entrepreneur made good under your own steam – and now you want out. How much will you get for selling your web business?

也许您最近购买了一个网站，或者您是一个靠自己的力量发财的企业家-现在您想要退出。出售网络业务将获得多少收益？

There’s no single correct answer, as we’ll see. Valuing a site is a tricky business. Site prices aren’t set in stone; they vary based on buyer, market sentiment, how the sale is presented, and more. There’s no universal formula and there are no comprehensive and accepted standards for valuing sites – but we can make an educated guess.

我们将看到，没有一个正确的答案。评估站点是一项棘手的事情。地价不是一成不变的。它们会根据买方，市场情绪，销售方式等因素而变化。没有通用的公式，也没有全面且公认的评估地点价值的标准，但是我们可以做出有根据的猜测。

And it is vital to make that educated guess. It’ll come as no surprise that there is a time-and-money cost to the wholesale process. This ranges from the time spent collating data for interested buyers to listing fees at auction sites. Without at least a rough idea of what is likely to be achieved at auction, you’re not in a position to know whether it’s worth going down that road. You may also need a “ball-park figure” for these reasons:

而且至关重要的是要作出这样的猜测。批发过程会花费很多时间和金钱，这不足为奇。范围从为感兴趣的买家整理数据到在拍卖网站上列出费用所花费的时间。如果至少不对拍卖中可能实现的目标有一个粗略的了解，那么您就无法知道这条路是否值得走。由于以下原因，您可能还需要一个“棒球场人物”：

to determine a fair BIN (Buy It Now) price

确定公平的BIN(立即购买)价格 to set an auction starting price or reserve that won’t be perceived as unrealistic

设定不会被视为不现实的拍卖起拍价或底价 to decide whether the value is high enough to get a broker or lawyer involved

决定价值是否足够高，以使经纪人或律师参与其中 to decide where and how to promote the sale – some marketplaces are economical only for higher sale prices

决定在何处以及如何促进销售–一些市场仅对较高的销售价格才是经济的 to reach an agreement to buy out a partner

达成买断合作伙伴的协议 to ensure against underselling – and to help achieve the best price possible!

以确保不会出现销售不足的情况，并帮助实现可能的最佳价格！

NOTE: Formal Valuations

注意：正式评估

There are also formal reasons where a valuation may be required:

也有可能需要估值的正式原因：

for tax purposes: for example, in the US, the IRS requires annual valuation of assets held in pension plans

出于税收目的：例如，在美国，国税局要求对养老金计划中持有的资产进行年度评估 in divorce, probate, or other legal proceedings

在离婚，遗嘱认证或其他法律程序中 for accounting purposes: offering stock options, insurance valuations, economic damage valuations, and the like

出于会计目的：提供股票期权，保险估价，经济损失估价等

These valuations are conducted by accountants, but, of course, may not reflect the price achievable at auction.

这些估值是由会计师进行的，但是，当然，可能无法反映拍卖时可达到的价格。

People obtain this ball-park figure in a number of ways. Some go to professional valuers, some use self-proclaimed “experts,” some rely upon their local accountant, and some use a multiple they’ve seen mentioned somewhere. We’ll have a close look at the valuation options now. However, before we go any further, it’s worth emphasizing that for the purposes of selling a site, the appraisals that you should be most concerned with are those of your target buyers. Period.

人们可以通过多种方式获得这一成功的数字。一些人去找专业估值师，一些人使用自称的“专家”，一些人依靠他们的当地会计师，还有一些人使用他们在某处提到的倍数。现在，我们将仔细评估估值选项。但是，在进一步进行之前，值得强调的是，出于出售网站的目的，您应该最关注的评估对象是目标购买者。期。

评估选项 (Valuation Options)

First, let’s clear one thing up: there are a lot of myths about valuation out there. This situation is perpetuated by the proliferation of valuation tools on the Internet. Some of these tools are automated systems where you provide details and you are given a price on the spot, while others charge for a “professional” 32-page valuation by an expert. It’s worth taking one or two for a test drive, if only to see that you’ll gain nothing from the valuations.

首先，让我们澄清一件事：关于估值的说法有很多神话。互联网上估值工具的泛滥使这种情况永久存在。其中一些工具是自动化系统，您可以在其中提供详细信息，并在现场获得价格，而其他工具则由专家收取32页“专业”评估的费用。如果仅看一看您将不会从评估中获得任何收益，那么花一两个试驾是值得的。

If you try a few of these appraisal sites, you’ll likely find that each one puts a completely different value on your business. For example, see this valuation tool’s strange result: that http://www.google.com is worth $819 million dollars more than http://google.com. Now, would you trust that tool’s evaluation of your site?

如果您尝试其中一些评估网站，则可能会发现每个评估网站都给您的业务带来了完全不同的价值。例如，看到此评估工具的奇怪结果： http://www.google.com : http://www.google.com的价值比http://google.com多了8.19亿美元。现在，您相信该工具对您的网站的评估吗？

Some estimates may vary by a factor of 10,000% or more. Why such a disparity? Because, despite the hype, many of them operate in a way that isn’t much different to operating with tarot cards or astrology charts. But they’ll take your money, thank you very much.

一些估计值可能相差10,000％或更多。为什么如此悬殊？因为尽管进行了大肆宣传，但其中许多工具的操作方式与使用塔罗牌或占星术图表的操作没有太大不同。但是他们会花你的钱，非常感谢。

Ah! you argue. But some of them charge nothing at all. Like the ubiquitous Dane Carlson’s blog valuation tool. If it’s altruistic, it’s got to be accurate, right?

啊! 你争辩。但是其中一些根本不收取任何费用。就像无所不在的Dane Carlson的博客评估工具一样。如果是无私的，那就必须准确，对吗？

Well … dig a little deeper. The tool consistently offers simply astronomical valuations – so guess what? Webmasters and bloggers who love boasting about value give this tool a link back. At last count, that tool had a quarter of a million such linkbacks! The valuation tool’s game isn’t all about money earned via charging fees. If they don’t charge you, it’s probably all about linkbait.

好吧……再深入一点。该工具始终提供简单的天文数字评估-那么您猜怎么着？热爱吹嘘价值的网站管理员和博客作者提供了此工具的链接。最终，该工具有这样的linkback百万分之一！评估工具的游戏不仅仅涉及通过收取费用来赚钱。如果他们不向您收费，那可能全是关于linkbait的问题。

One of the best-known free valuation sites is dnScoop. dnScoop asks for no more information than your domain name. Yes, even your site’s earnings seem to be irrelevant to its calculation of worth. These charts show some sample dnSoop valuations for sites against the prices those same sites achieved at auction.

dnScoop是最著名的免费评估网站之一。 dnScoop要求提供的信息只不过是您的域名。是的，即使您网站的收入似乎也与其价值计算无关。这些图表显示了某些站点的dnSoop估值样本，与这些站点在拍卖中获得的价格相比。

There are also plenty of individual self-appointed experts around who are happy to give their opinions on value. They spend their days commenting in forum threads, contacting sellers to offer their services, and generally claiming to be gurus in the fine art of valuation. Yet, strangely, they won’t put their own money where their mouths are.

周围还有很多个人任命的专家，他们乐于就价值发表意见。他们整天都在论坛中发表评论，与卖家联系以提供服务，并且通常声称自己是估值专家。然而，奇怪的是，他们不会把自己的钱放在嘴边。

At the end of the day, for the site seller, the only valuations that matter are those done by people who have both the desire and liquid funds to buy the site.

归根结底，对于网站卖家而言，唯一重要的估值是那些既有购买网站意愿又有流动资金的人所做的估值。

The maximum price that the seller’s most optimistic potential buyer has in mind is the price you, as the seller, want to target. You may never know that exact figure … but that’s your target, nonetheless.

卖方最乐观的潜在买家所想到的最高价格是您作为卖方要定位的价格。您可能永远都不知道确切的数字……但是，那是您的目标。

And it’s with this target in mind that, with a little help from some friends, I developed EBizValuations, a tool that we believe to be insanely useful.

正是出于这个目标，在一些朋友的一点帮助下，我开发了EBizValuations ，这是我们认为非常有用的工具。

I know, I know. Another free site valuation tool, right? Wrong.

我知道我知道。另一个免费的网站评估工具，对吗？错误。

This tool values your site based on what hundreds of similar sites have actually sold for. As it’s a tool that is grounded in reality, it can offer an reliable estimation of your web business’s value. It can help a sellers decide whether to list their site for sale or not, and it can help buyers in their evaluation of a prospect.

该工具根据数百个类似网站实际售出的价格来评估您的网站。由于它是一个扎根于现实的工具，因此可以可靠地估算您的网络业务价值。它可以帮助卖家决定是否列出要出售的网站，还可以帮助买家评估潜在客户。

The tool delivers more than just a final number – it uses input from brokers, professional business valuers, buyers, sellers, accountants and other experts to generate an extensive report. It can therefore be used to gain a deep understanding of the listed site and provide considerable due diligence information and guidance on where value may lie outside of the quoted figures. The resulting report explains the caveats, the level of confidence in each price prediction (some sites are easier to value than others) and some background to the valuation.

该工具不仅提供最终数量，还使用经纪人，专业商业估值师，买方，卖方，会计师和其他专家的意见来生成详尽的报告。因此，它可以用于深入了解所列站点，并提供有价值的尽职调查信息和指导，以了解价值可能超出所引用数字的范围。生成的报告解释了警告，对每个价格预测的信心水平(某些站点比其他站点更容易估价)以及某些估值背景。

业务评估原则 (Principles of Business Valuation)

“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.” – Warren Buffett

“似乎有些人性化的特征喜欢使简单的事情变得困难。” - 沃伦·巴菲特

And perhaps no group of people likes to make things more difficult than accountants. It’s a commonly held opinion that they introduce a lot of complex-sounding terms to make themselves look clever and enhance their perceived value!

也许没有人会比会计师更难为难。人们普遍认为，他们引入了许多听起来很复杂的术语，以使自己看起来更聪明并提高他们的感知价值！

Here, we’ll walk through the terms you might meet in your site-valuation endeavors to demystify them and explain how they work. And if you’re keen to do any calculations for yourself, we’ve reduced it all to some very simple spreadsheets you can download. Whether you want a Discounted Cash Flow, Net Present Value, or a Balance Sheet, don’t miss these killer tools – all of which are free!

在这里，我们将逐步介绍您可能会在网站评估工作中遇到的术语，以使其神秘化并解释其工作原理。而且，如果您渴望自己进行任何计算，我们都将其简化为可以下载的一些非常简单的电子表格。无论您是想要现金流折现，净现值还是资产负债表，都不要错过这些杀手tools工具，所有这些工具都是免费的！

NOTE: Businesses and Web Businesses

注意：商业和Web商业

The oddity is that a lot of the web sites coming up for auction are not businesses. They are advertised as sites that can be made into businesses; this means that they don’t already make a profit, but have the potential to make a profit. These sites are 90% less likely to achieve a sale than proven businesses and their valuation is even more subject to the vagaries of the buyers’ mood on the day. Going by the number of these that come up for sale, it appears that there’s no shortage of overly optimistic sellers.

奇怪的是，即将拍卖的许多网站都不是企业。它们被宣传为可以进行商业活动的网站；这意味着他们尚未获利，但有潜力获利。与经过验证的企业相比，这些网站实现销售的可能性要低90％，而且它们的估值甚至更容易受到当天买家情绪变化的影响。按照要出售的商品数量来看，似乎不乏过于乐观的卖家。

Then there are vanity domains, the social make-more-friends widgets, tools, Squidoo lenses, and other assets not based on traditional web sites and not generating profit. The less easy it is to see future profits, the more a property’s valuation is at the whim of the buyer. As such, it’s difficult to provide rules to quantify their value.

然后是虚荣领域，社交交友小部件，工具，Squidoo镜头和其他资产，这些资产不基于传统网站，也无法产生利润。看到未来利润越容易，买家的心血来潮就意味着房地产的估价越高。因此，很难提供规则来量化其价值。

Anyway, that’s enough of them. For the purposes of this article, we’ll deal solely with those sites that are being sold as businesses, not those that merely “have a lot of promise.” That said, here’s a useful link to a page devoted to converting your non-profit-making web site to a web business that buyers drool over.

无论如何，这些就足够了。出于本文的目的，我们将仅处理那些作为企业出售的网站，而不是仅“具有很大前景”的网站。就是说，这是指向有用页面的有用链接，该页面致力于将您的非营利性网站转换为买家垂涎的网络业务。

Present Value of Future Earnings Let’s roll our sleeves up and dive into valuation methods. It’s all well worth knowing – knowledge is power, after all – but if it really isn’t your cup of tea, just download the spreadsheets here and they’ll work the magic for you.

未来收益的现值让我们袖手旁观，深入探讨估值方法。一切都是值得知道的-毕竟知识就是力量-但是，如果真的不是您喝杯茶，只需在这里下载电子表格，它们将为您效劳。

First, let’s have a look at some reliable business valuation facts:

首先，让我们看一些可靠的业务估值事实：

Valuation is a mix of objective and subjective tasks.

评估是客观和主观任务的结合。 It is very common for web site owners to value their sites far above real worth.

网站所有者对网站的估价远高于实际价值，这是很常见的。 The better the quality of the data (the earnings and traffic stats, for example), the better the quality of valuation.

数据的质量(例如收入和流量统计信息)越好，评估的质量就越好。 There are always external factors out of the control of the seller, such as interest rates, that affect the valuations buyers make.

总是有卖方无法控制的外部因素(例如利率)影响买方所做的估值。 There is no one exact valuation for any business; value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

没有一项业务的确切估值；价值就像美一样，在情人眼中。

The reason average buyers invest money on a business is because they expect to reap some profit from it. They use some level of guesswork or skill to estimate future profit, and the amount of expected profit determines how much they are willing to pay now.

普通买家在企业上投资的原因是他们希望从中获利。他们使用某种程度的猜测或技巧来估计未来利润，而预期利润的数量决定了他们现在愿意支付多少。

Let’s anticipate how these buyers might do this by unpacking this accounting problem. Here are two hypothetical businesses that are both selling for $10,000, and both will have the same residual value after four years.

让我们预料一下这些买家将如何解决这一会计问题。这是两个假设的业务，都以10,000美元的价格出售，并且四年后的剩余价值都相同。

Fast Movers Ltd: FML is expected to generate $5,000 of profit in the first year after takeover, and no profit for the three years following.

Fast Movers Ltd： FML预计在收购后的第一年产生5,000美元的利润，而在接下来的三年中没有利润。

Slow Movers Ltd: SML is expected to make nothing in the first three years, but $5,000 in the fourth year.

Slow Movers Ltd： SML预计在前三年不会有任何收益，但在第四年会产生5,000美元的收益。

If you encountered this scenario in the real world, you should immediately ask yourself why the two sites are being sold at the same price. Clearly FML’s new owner has the use of $5,000 (the first year’s profit) for three years, which is a perk that SML’s new owner won’t have. So either FML is priced too low, or SML is priced too high.

如果您在现实世界中遇到过这种情况，则应立即问自己为什么两个站点以相同的价格出售。显然，FML的新所有者在三年内使用了5,000美元(第一年的利润)，这是SML的新所有者所没有的津贴。因此，要么FML定价太低，要么SML定价太高。

This exercise demonstrates that it’s not just the amount of expected profit, but its location in the future timeline that determines current value. The more heavily weighted towards the current point in time, the more valuable those future cash flows will be to the business buyers and the more they’ll be willing to pay to own them.

此练习表明，决定当前价值的不仅是预期利润的金额，还在于其在未来时间轴中的位置。对当前时间点的权重越重，这些未来现金流将对商业购买者来说越有价值，他们愿意为拥有这些购买者付出的代价也就越大。

The calculation does become more complex, though. Consider FML’s and SML’s projected profits in a different situation:

但是，计算确实变得更加复杂。考虑FML和SML在不同情况下的预计利润：

FML ($)SML ($)Year 11,6724,538Year 23,8451,012Year 36,4276,201Year 42,3552,526Year 59791,001TOTAL15,27815,278 FML($) SML($) 1年级 1,672 4,538 2年级 3845 1,012 3年级 6,427 6,201 4年级 2,355 2,526 5年级 979 1,001 总 15,278 15,278

It’s not so easy to immediately spot the better buy now, is it? That’s where a handy accounting trick comes into play; it’s called Present Value (PV).

立即发现更好的购买并非易事，不是吗？那是一个方便的会计技巧起作用的地方；它称为现值 (PV)。

Because there’s a time value to money, future cash flows can be discounted to a current value. To get $1,000 next year you may need an investment of $910 today. But to get back $1,000 a whole two years from now, it may take an investment of only $800 today. That $910 and $800 are PVs for the future return of $1,000 (in 12 and 24 months respectively).

由于存在金钱的时间价值，因此可以将未来现金流量折现为当前价值。为了明年获得$ 1,000，您今天可能需要$ 910的投资。但是要从现在起两年内共收回$ 1,000，今天可能只需要$ 800的投资。 910美元和800美元是未来1000美元回报的PV(分别在12个月和24个月内)。

In other words, for a given rate of interest it is possible to work out how much would be required today to generate $1,672 in the next 12 months. Since that’s the figure FML is going to generate in the first year, we have effectively reduced FML’s first year’s profit to a PV.

换句话说，对于给定的利率，可以算出今天需要多少才能在未来12个月内产生$ 1,672。由于这是FML在第一年产生的数字，因此我们已经有效地将FML第一年的利润减少到了PV。

By applying that same PV calculation, it is possible to establish a sum required now in order to generate $3,845 in 24 months, or $6,427 in 36 months, and so on.

通过应用相同的PV计算，可以确定现在所需的总和，以便在24个月内生成$ 3,845，或在36个月内生成$ 6,427，依此类推。

We can therefore calculate a PV to all FML’s expected future profit. Adding them up then gives us a total of today’s value for all those future profits. That’s what we expect to flow in.

因此，我们可以计算所有FML的预期未来利润的现值。然后将它们加起来，就可以得出所有这些未来利润的今天总价值。这就是我们所期望的。

What is flowing out, don’t forget, is the initial investment of $10K. Subtracting the initial investment from the Present Value gives us Net Present Value (NPV). It’s a figure we can compare against similar computations applied to SML’s projected profits. Consequently, the business with the higher NPV is the better buy.

值得一提的是，最初的投资额为1万美元。减去现值初始投资为我们提供了净现值 (NPV)。我们可以将其与应用于SML的计划利润的类似计算进行比较。因此，NPV较高的业务是更好的选择。

Calculating Net Present Value

计算净现值

NPV can be derived using the following formula:

NPV可以使用以下公式得出：

NPV = CF₀ + CF₁/(1+r) + CF₂/(1+r)² + CF₃/(1+r)³

NPV = CF ₀ + CF ₁ /(1 + r)+ CF ₂ /(1 + r) ² + CF ₃ /(1 + r) ³

(where CF₁, CF₂ are the cash flows in year 1, year 2 and so on; R is the discount rate (the “interest rate”)

(其中CF ₁ ，CF ₂是第_1年，第_2年等的现金流量； R是折现率(“利率”))

That said, the FMLâ€“SML example provides a comparative situation that is very rarely the case in real life. Even so, the usefulness of the tool isn’t in any way compromised by the fact that the buyer is usually judging a business on its individual merits. Once the buyer has arrived at projected profit figures he or she is comfortable with, it’s a reasonably simple continuation to plug those figures into the formula to arrive at an NPV for that business’s future profits. The NPV goes up if a quantity of earnings is brought forward in time, and it goes down if earnings are postponed. Remember that all these earnings figures are projections, and reside in the buyer’s mind.

就是说，FML–SML示例提供了一种比较情况，在现实生活中很少出现这种情况。即使这样，该工具的实用性也不会因为购买者通常根据其个人优点来评判业务这一事实而受到任何损害。一旦买家获得了他或她满意的预计利润数字，就可以将这些数字插入公式中，以得出该企业未来利润的净现值，这是相当简单的延续。如果及时结转一定数量的收入，则净现值上升，如果推迟收入，则净现值下降。请记住，所有这些收入数据都是预测，并且存在于买方的头脑中。

The other key input in NPV arithmetic is the interest rate. The higher the interest rate the buyer wants to apply, the lower the NPV and vice versa. That’s because the profits are being discounted by the interest rate; the higher the rate of discount, the lower the value arrived at.

NPV算法中的另一个关键输入是利率。买方要申请的利率越高，NPV越低，反之亦然。那是因为利润被利率折让了。折扣率越高，得出的价值就越低。

NOTE: More on NPV

注意：有关NPV的更多信息

There’s a bit more to NPV than discussed here. For example, interest rates don’t always stay the same across several years; it’s not accounting profits that are used in the calculation but the cash flows; there’s a terminal value of the investment to be plugged in … but for the really keen, here are a few links:

NPV的内容比这里讨论的更多。例如，利率在几年内并不总是保持不变。计算中使用的不是会计利润，而是现金流量；有一笔最终的投资价值要插入……但是真正的热衷者，这里有一些链接：

Wikipedia’s Net Present Value page

维基百科的净现值页面

Sporkforge’s calculator

Sporkforge的计算器

Sugar Project’s Feasability Study

糖项目的可行性研究

TheStreet.com’s article on dicounted cash flows

TheStreet.com关于现金流量折算的文章

Fool.com’s article – pay particular attention to the critical mass argument

Fool.com的文章 –特别注意批判性论点

Discounted Cash Flow

现金流折现

In the calculation of NPV, the core inputs were the cash flows and the discount rate. The cash flows are a projection, but where does the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) come from?

在净现值的计算中，核心投入是现金流量和折现率。现金流量是一个预测，但是折现现金流量 (DCF)来自哪里？

This discount rate is provided by the buyer and reflects the risk perceived in the investment. When buying a rock-solid, well-established, blue-chip company, a buyer may be willing to use a rate of 12% per annum, whereas 80% per annum might be required for an internet business perceived as particularly risky.

该折现率由买方提供，反映了投资中感知的风险。当购买坚如磐石，信誉卓著的蓝筹公司时，买方可能愿意使用每年12％的利率，而对于被认为特别危险的互联网业务，可能需要每年80％的利率。

There is no right or wrong discount rate. Each buyer uses his or her own rate, and for a given web site, different buyers may use different rates to arrive at completely different figures for what that site is worth to them.

没有正确或错误的折扣率。每个购买者都使用自己的费率，并且对于给定的网站，不同的购买者可能会使用不同的费率来得出完全不同的数字，说明该网站对他们而言的价值。

Internal Rate of Return

内部收益率

We’ve seen the outline of how Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) works to give us NPV. There is one other way of discounting future cash flows; it’s called the Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The IRR is the rate of return/interest rate at which the NPV equals zero.

我们已经看到了折现现金流 (DCF)如何为我们带来NPV的概述。还有另一种折现未来现金流量的方法。这就是内部收益率 (IRR)。 IRR是NPV等于零的回报率/利率。

The IRR is not the favored method of calculating value for several reasons – use an MIRR if you really have to. For one, it doesn’t suit some projects – think of government projects, where there is just cash outflow and no inflow. But we’ll cover it for reasons of thoroughness.

出于多种原因，IRR并不是计算价值的首选方法–如果确实需要，请使用MIRR 。首先，它不适合某些项目-想想政府项目，那里只有现金流出而没有流入。但是出于彻底的原因，我们将对其进行介绍。

Remember the discount rate applied to the NPV calculations from earlier? It’s a pre-decided rate that is applied to the calculation. When that rate is plugged into the NPV formula, we end up with either a negative or positive NPV. Under IRR, this rate is left to adjust to whatever level it needs to reach to ensure that the NPV equals $0. The level it reaches is the Internal Rate of Return.

还记得早先应用于NPV计算的折现率吗？这是应用于计算的预定速率。当将该比率插入NPV公式中时，我们得出的结果是负NPV或正NPV。在IRR下，此费率可以调整为达到NPV等于$ 0所需的水平。它达到的水平是内部收益率。

Of two competing investments, the one with the higher IRR is the better investment.

在两项相互竞争的投资中，IRR较高的一项是更好的投资。

Fair Market Value

公平市场价值

Web properties valued formally for accounting or legal purposes are usually valued at what’s called Fair Market Value (FMV). FMV is the price at which the property would sell at a hypothetical transaction between a buyer and seller who are aware of the facts and are both acting voluntarily.

为会计或法律目的而正式估价的Web属性通常按所谓的公平市场价值 (FMV)进行估价。 FMV是指在知道事实并均自愿行动的买卖双方之间进行的假设交易中，物业出售的价格。

Accountants can’t just put any value to a business’s assets. They are governed by a lot of rules on how they can value assets for purposes of use in the balance sheet, statements to a stock exchange, and so on. When you see a web site listed in a balance sheet, the figure quoted is likely to be the FMV as governed by international accounting rules that go into these matters in great and boring detail.

会计师不能仅仅为企业资产赋予任何价值。它们受许多规则约束，这些规则涉及如何对资产进行评估以用于资产负债表，对证券交易所的报表等。当您看到资产负债表中列出的网站时，所引用的数字很可能是FMV，受国际会计规则的约束，这些规则对这些问题进行了非常详尽的研究。

But while FMV is great for all these Balance Sheet reasons, it’s not what you’d really expect a site to achieve at a real sale. FMV does not take into account that:

但是，尽管FMV由于所有这些资产负债表原因而非常出色，但您并不是真正希望网站真正实现销售的目标。 FMV没有考虑以下因素：

a buyer may make due-diligence findings that affect the price

买方可能会做出影响价格的尽职调查结果 the projected earnings used in real sales situations could differ considerably from the historical earnings used for FMV calculations

实际销售情况下使用的预计收益可能与用于FMV计算的历史收益有很大不同 a seller’s proper positioning and clever marketing can push the price upwards

卖方正确的定位和明智的营销可以推高价格 sellers taking a longer view and deferring part of their payment contingent on the site’s continued success can get a higher price

卖家放宽视野，并根据网站的持续成功而推迟支付部分款项，可以获得更高的价格 a synergistic buyer would pay a premium for the efficiencies he or she recognizes in the merger

协同购买者将为他或她在合并中承认的效率支付溢价

Therefore, a valuation shown in a company’s books may bear no resemblance to the real value of a site. The Fair Market Value is not a fair market value.

因此，公司账簿中显示的估值可能与网站的实际价值没有相似之处。公平市场价值不是公平市场价值。

Do the complex calculations, spreadsheets, specialist accounting programs, and a PhD in Merger & Acquisition accounting underpin every valuation? Hardly. Many buyers wouldn’t be able to tell a Discounted Cash Flow from a Dyspeptic Chicken Fajita. However, a formal understanding of the principles is not a prerequisite for the experienced buyer. This buyer may reach competitive value conclusions based on no more than gut feeling, but that’s instinct backed by an intuitive understanding of what the competition is likely to pay. In value terms, it adds up to the same difference.

复杂的计算，电子表格，专业会计程序以及兼并与收购会计学的博士学位是否支撑每个估值？几乎不。许多购买者无法从消化不良的鸡肉Fajita得知折扣现金流。但是，对原理的正式理解并不是有经验的购买者的先决条件。买方可能仅凭直觉就能得出竞争价值结论，但这是凭直觉了解竞争可能付出的本能。就价值而言，其总和是相同的。

If your eyes glaze over at all these computations, take this one thought away: in most cases, the expectation of future profit – and the quantity and timing of that profit – is the sole driver of valuation.

如果您对所有这些计算都望而却步，则无需考虑这一点：在大多数情况下，对未来利润的期望以及该利润的数量和时间是评估的唯一动力。

为网站增值 (Adding Value to a Site)

Bear in mind that this whole article is intended to offer the buyer’s perspective. Knowing what factors influence a given buyer’s perception of value puts the seller in a stronger position to control the sale and improve the selling price.

请记住，整篇文章旨在提供买方的观点。知道哪些因素会影响给定的买方对价值的感知，这会使卖方处于更有利的位置来控制销售并提高售价。

So what are assets that buyers like? Here’s a list that contains some obvious examples, as well as some more obscure ones. Sadly, there’s a twist in the tale for sellers … but, first, let’s look at the motivators that help push a site’s valuation up:

那么买家喜欢什么资产呢？这是一个包含一些明显示例的列表，以及一些更晦涩的示例。令人遗憾的是，对于卖家而言，这是一个扭曲的故事……但是，首先，让我们看一下推动网站估值提高的动机：

prime real estate, which is a good domain name (preferably also registered in other TLDs as a precaution against misuse)

优质房地产，这是一个很好的域名(最好也已在其他TLD中注册，以防止滥用) a long, unbroken WHOIS history – an aged domain that has never been allowed to expire

悠久而完整的WHOIS历史-从未被允许过期的旧域名 aged links, particularly from the big directories like the ODP and “grandfathered” Yahoo (before it started charging)

老化的链接，特别是来自ODP和“祖父”雅虎等大型目录的链接(开始收费之前) an aged site – the longer the earnings history, the level of traffic, the inward links, and the statistics and data to prove it all, the better

老旧的网站-收入历史，流量水平，内部链接以及证明这一切的统计数据越长，越好 a large quantity of links from a wide range of domains – for example, some buyers tend to place extra value on links from .edu and .gov domains

来自广泛领域的大量链接-例如，某些购买者倾向于在.edu和.gov域的链接上赋予额外的价值 brand and goodwill – usually translates to a loyal visitor base and trust, both of which have value to advertisers

品牌和商誉–通常会转化为忠实的访问者基础和信任，这对广告客户都具有价值

first mover advantage

先发优势

the page rank of the top pages of the site and, to a lesser extent, the site’s ranking in traffic monitoring sites such as Alexa, Compete, and the like

网站首页的页面排名，以及程度较小的网站在Alexa，Compete等流量监控网站中的排名 low risk; for example, plenty of evergreen content in a subject that’s not fast changing

低风险; 例如，主题变化很快的常绿内容 high threshold to impede new competitors

高门槛阻碍新竞争对手 high flexibility – anything from content to technology, scripts, and relationships can be easily managed, migrated to a new owner, or moved to a different host if required

高度的灵活性–从内容到技术，脚本和关系的任何内容都可以轻松管理，迁移到新所有者或根据需要移动到其他主机 quality databases, such as a large database of double opt-in subscribers eager for every newsletter sent out

高质量的数据库，例如大型的双重订阅用户数据库，急于发送每个新闻通讯 a high cost to recreate the site, which acts as a high barrier to entry

重建网站的成本很高，这对进入网站构成了很大的障碍 a quality customer base that places regular orders

定期下订单的优质客户群 low expenses relative to gross profit – a proxy site with a bandwidth bill of 80% of revenue represents a high risk, as a small increase in costs could make the whole enterprise unviable

相对于毛利而言，费用较低–带宽成本占收入的80％的代理站点表示高风险，因为成本的小幅增长可能会使整个企业无法生存 large amounts of stock in good resale condition

大量库存处于良好转售状态 large numbers of visitors and page views – larger sites are seen as more stable

大量的访问者和页面浏览量–较大的网站被认为更稳定 a demographic valuable to advertisers – 50,000 lawyers a month looking to subscribe to a trade monthly beats 200,000 teenagers looking for the latest news on a pop diva

一个对广告商有价值的人口统计资料-每月有50,000名律师订阅每月交易，击败了200,000名青少年，他们正在寻找流行歌坛的最新消息 quality content, well-developed functionality, a carefully built up community with a large participation

优质的内容，完善的功能，精心打造的社区和广泛的参与 well-established partnerships and joint ventures

完善的伙伴关系和合资企业 a secure source of earnings that doesn’t require much regular work – Adsense would be seen as a lot less onerous than the blogging, pay-per-post model

一种安全的收入来源，不需要太多的日常工作–与博客，按帖子付费模式相比，Adsense的负担要小得多 multiple sources of such earnings to give further security

此类收入的多种来源可提供进一步的保障 opportunities for buyers to further monetize the site

买家有机会进一步通过该网站获利 an honest, professional presentation by the seller – exaggeration, boasting, or quoting server hits as unique visitors puts buyers on guard and raises their risk perception

卖方提供的诚实，专业的演示文稿–夸大，夸大或引用服务器命中率，因为唯一的访问者使买方警惕并提高了他们的风险意识 guaranteed continued seller involvement post-sale

保证卖家继续参与售后

There are many more – from stickiness to SEO – but lest we forget, what’s probably the most important is how the seller presents the sale. A professional sales pitch is vital – a good description of the business and what it does, where the money comes from and the breakdown of earnings, traffic and referrer stats, reasons for sale, and all the other core information (there are more tips here). Otherwise, buyers may not even bother to stop and consider the business for sale.

还有更多的内容-从粘性到SEO-唯恐我们忘记了，最重要的可能是卖家如何进行销售。一个专业的推销是至关重要的-商业和这样做，这些钱的来源和收入，交通和引用统计数据，原因出售的故障，和所有其他核心信息(有更多的技巧是什么的一个很好的说明在这里 )。否则，买家甚至可能不愿意停下来考虑将其出售。

The Bad News

坏消息

Consider a large content site with thousands of pages of unique and high-quality content. It’s long established and has lots of “natural” inward links because it’s a genuinely good resource. The site’s sole revenue stream is Adsense and it makes $5,000 a month. Now, if current market sentiment is paying in the range of 24 months’ net earnings for similar sites, this site is likely to fetch:

考虑一个大型的内容站点，其中包含数千页的独特而高质量的内容。它源远流长，因为它是一种真正的好资源，所以具有许多“自然”的内向链接。该网站的唯一收入来源是Adsense，每月收入5,000美元。现在，如果当前的市场人气是在类似网站的24个月净收入范围内支付的，则该网站可能会获取：

Earnings x Multiple = Price

收益x倍数=价格

24 x $5,000 = $120,000

24 x $ 5,000 = $ 120,000

Yet the seller is aware that this huge amount of quality content doesn’t come cheap. If the buyer were to commission similar content, it would cost over $100,000.

但是卖家知道，如此大量的优质内容并不便宜。如果买方委托类似内容，则将花费超过100,000美元。

There is also the strength of the tens of thousands of inward links, the high page rank, the large number of unique visitors, and the single-word memorable domain name that also attracts its own type-in traffic! How is all of this valued in any appraisal?

数以万计的内部链接的优势，高页面排名，大量唯一身份访问者以及令人难忘的单字难忘域名也吸引了自己的输入流量！所有这些在评估中如何看待？

Here is the bad news for sellers: it isn’t. Those assets contribute no more than what’s already been added up.

这对卖家来说是个坏消息：不是。这些资产的贡献不超过已累加的总和。

The assets form the infrastructure of the business. Without them, there would be no earnings. Without the quality content, there wouldn’t be so many inward links, there would be no PR, and there would be no large traffic from search engines. Without the type-in domain name, further traffic would be lost. With all that traffic gone, there would be nobody to click the Adsense ads and there would be no earnings. The value of all those assets was reflected in the earnings. It’s already been counted.

资产构成了企业的基础架构。没有他们，就不会有收入。没有高质量的内容，就不会有太多的内向链接，也不会有PR，也就不会有来自搜索引擎的大量流量。如果没有输入域名，将会丢失更多流量。随着所有流量的流逝，将没有人可以点击Adsense广告，也就不会有收入。所有这些资产的价值都反映在收益中。已经算过了

What then of age of domain, length and consistency of earnings, and other assets that arguably don’t contribute directly to traffic and earnings? The value for these assets is reflected in the multiple. Again, it’s already been counted.

那么领域的年龄，收入的长度和一致性以及可以说不直接影响流量和收入的其他资产是什么？这些资产的价值反映在倍数中。同样，它已经被计算在内。

The longer the history, the more secure the investment is seen to be, and the higher the multiple it subsequently commands.

历史越久，投资就越安全，随后的倍数也越高。

Since the Price is a product of the Earnings and Multiple, and all assets underpin either Earnings or Multiple, there is no further value to the assets.

由于价格是收益和收益的乘积，并且所有资产都是收益或收益的基础，因此资产没有进一步的价值。

So, contrary to sellers’ claims, the assets responsible for earnings don’t add any further value to the business than what’s been counted. More site-selling myths are debunked here.

因此，与卖方的主张相反，负责收益的资产没有为企业增加任何价值。在这里揭露了更多关于现场销售的神话。

It is in the nature of the seller to overprice their own site. Their next argument may well be that the earnings don’t reflect the full value of the assets. And that’s entirely possible. However, it’s a claim that any seller can make, that most sellers do make, and it’s rare for a buyer to accept the seller’s prejudiced opinion. It is in the buyer’s interest to suspect that any further earnings to be extracted out of the business can come only at a huge cost in time or money that would make it uneconomical to pursue.

卖方自然会高估自己的网站的价格。他们的下一个论点很可能是收益不能反映资产的全部价值。那完全有可能。但是，这是任何卖方都可以做出的主张，大多数卖方都可以做出，而且对于买方来说，很少接受卖方的偏见。怀疑购买者要从企业中提取的任何进一步的收益只能花费大量时间或金钱，而这将使其不经济地追求，这符合买方的利益。

Where the seller believes there’s substantial additional profit to be generated easily from the existing assets, it would be less of a task to actually ramp up earnings and demonstrate the figures than to convince skeptical buyers to believe a figure plucked out of thin air.

如果卖方认为现有资产很容易产生大量额外利润，那么要真正地增加收入和证明这些数据，与其说服怀疑的购买者相信该数字是凭空赚来的，不如说是一项任务。

So what are some ways the seller can add value?

那么，什么是一些方法，卖方可以增加价值？

Sharing risk – if the seller shares the risk with the buyer by taking part of the payment contingent on the site achieving some predefined goals, there are grounds to negotiate a higher multiple.

共同承担风险 –如果卖方通过在实现某些预定目标的站点上承担部分付款而与买方共同承担风险，则有理由商定更高的倍数。

Providing finance – where the seller is willing to take payment in stages or instalments, the buyer benefits from the time value of that cash; that’s a good basis for arguing a higher price.

提供资金 –如果卖方愿意分阶段或分期付款，则买方将从现金的时间价值中受益；这是争辩更高价格的良好基础。

Providing expertise – if the seller undertakes to provide ongoing consultancy services, or contribute via some other skill, it’s reassuring to the buyer. Having that first-hand experience of the business on hand is worth a premium.

提供专业知识 –如果卖方承诺提供持续的咨询服务，或通过其他技能做出贡献，则可以使买方放心。拥有手头上的业务经验很值得。

Offering part ownership – sellers often take a share in a new, merged business. They may lay down conditions or take out warrants (stock options) to avoid dilution of their share through further financing, but the fact that they still have a monetary interest in the business is reassuring enough to nudge the achievable price higher.

提供部分所有权 –卖方通常会分享新合并的业务中的份额。他们可能会放下条件或购买认股权证(股票期权)，以避免通过进一步融资而稀释其股份，但是他们仍然拥有该业务的金钱利益这一事实使人们放心，足以将可实现的价格推高。

Agreeing not to compete – in some cases, a no-compete clause in the Sale Agreement can make a big difference.

同意不竞争 –在某些情况下，销售协议中的不竞争条款可能会产生很大的不同。

重组财务报表 (Reconstructing Financial Statements)

Balance Sheets (BS), Profit and Loss Statements (P&L, also sometimes called Income Statements), Cash Flow Statements, and so on, are some of the statements that help run a business and comply with the law. You can create your own balance sheet or P&L account using these easy spreadsheets.

资产负债表 (BS)，损益表 (P＆L，有时也称为损益表)，现金流量表等，是一些有助于开展业务并遵守法律的声明。您可以使用这些简单的电子表格创建自己的资产负债表或损益表。

We’ll discuss here what these financial statements are, where they are useful, and why the standard statements need to be reconstructed for the purposes of valuing a business.

我们将在这里讨论这些财务报表是什么，它们在哪里有用，以及为什么出于评估业务的目的需要重建标准报表。

NOTE: Beware the Terminology Trap

注意：当心术语陷阱

Remember that terminology can differ between countries, between cultures and between professions. For example, in North America the term “revenue” is often used interchangeably with “turnover”, whereas in the UK it means “profit”.

请记住，国家之间，文化之间和专业之间的术语可能会有所不同。例如，在北美，“收入”一词通常与“营业额”互换使用，而在英国，其含义是“利润”。

Why redo the financial statements? Earlier, we’ve covered why the Fair Market Value (FMV) of a site differs from its fair market value. To recap, FMV calculated by accountants is done to meet legal formalities and it rarely reflects real fair market value of the type a buyer would pay. Usually – but not always – the FMV is less than the realizable price, as accountants are incentivized to value conservatively.

为什么要重做财务报表？之前，我们已经介绍了网站的公平市场价值(FMV)为什么不同于其公平市场价值。回顾一下，会计师计算的FMV是为了满足法律程序而完成的，它很少反映出买方愿意支付的真实公平市场价值。通常(但并非总是如此)，FMF低于可实现的价格，因为激励了会计师保守地估值。

Other statements that a business prepares, notably the BS and P&L, are prepared to minimize its tax bills while complying with strict legal curbs on how these statements should be prepared. The P&L is meant to show a fair summary of the business’s trading over the year, and the BS is meant to be an accurate reflection of the state of the business’s finances on a specific day.

企业准备的其他声明，尤其是BS和P＆L，都准备在遵守如何对这些声明进行严格的法律限制的同时，将其税单降至最低。损益表旨在显示该年度业务的公平摘要，而BS则是准确反映特定日期的企业财务状况。

These statements impact considerably on a business. The figures that appear in them end up contributing to credit score and determining the interest rate the business pays on its overdraft. These statements are submitted to the tax authorities and are core documents in the calculation of tax liability. Governments also use these final accounts to compile national statistics that affect the formation of further policies and taxes. And the other business influences they exert are too numerous to mention.

这些声明对企业影响很大。其中出现的数字最终有助于信用评分并确定企业为透支支付的利率。这些报表已提交给税务机关，是纳税义务计算中的核心文件。各国政府还使用这些最终决算来汇编影响进一步政策和税收形成的国家统计数据。他们所施加的其他业务影响力也无数。

Businesses are motivated, therefore, to tailor these statements to their convenience. They may look for ways to show higher expenses (therefore lower taxable profits) or to boost the values of fixed assets on the BS (thus improving their credit scores). They’ve got to keep any such doctoring within strict rules governing these matters, but a good accountant can save a business millions in tax just by controlling how this information is presented.

因此，企业有动机根据自己的方便调整这些声明。他们可能会寻找方法来显示更高的支出(因此应税利润更低)或提高BS上固定资产的价值(从而提高信用评分)。他们必须在管理这些问题的严格规则范围内进行任何此类篡改，但是仅通过控制此信息的呈现方式，一个好的会计师就可以为企业节省数百万的税款。

Not all financial statements come from a business’s annual accounts. Sometimes they’ve been put together for other reasons, such as:

并非所有财务报表都来自企业的年度账目。有时，由于其他原因，它们被放在一起，例如：

probate

遗嘱认证 insurance valuations or claims

保险估价或索赔 asset protection (pre-empting a threat such as divorce)

资产保护(先于离婚等威胁)

Whatever the original purpose behind the statements, the business buyer has to see through those adjustments made purely for tax or other purposes and come to his or her own conclusions as to what the state of the business is (BS) and how it fared over the year (P&L). To do that, it’s necessary to reconstruct those financial statements upon which to base a decision.

无论陈述的最初目的是什么，商业购买者都必须仔细查看纯粹出于税收或其他目的而做出的调整，并就经营状况(BS)及其在经营中的表现如何得出自己的结论。年(损益表)。为此，必须重新构建决策所依据的财务报表。

Governments may also offer various tax breaks, such as tax incentives for investment in IT, deferred tax for infrastructure costs, or reduced tax for research and development expenditure.

各国政府还可能提供各种税收优惠，例如对IT投资的税收优惠，对基础设施成本的递延税或对研究与开发支出的减税。

Let’s take as an example a company with $20,000 in sales, and the following Profit and Loss statement:

让我们以一个销售额为$ 20,000的公司为例，并给出以下损益表：

Sales$20,000Cost of Sales$400Gross Profit $19,600Expenses Rent500Electricity$300Travel$2,000Employee’s Salary$6,800Net Profit$10,000 营业额 $ 20,000 销售成本 $ 400 毛利 $ 19,600 花费出租 500 电力 $ 300 旅行 $ 2,000 员工工资 $ 6,800 净利 $ 10,000

Let’s say the business is based in a country with a 20% corporation tax rate. Based on the information so far, its tax liability is, of course, $2,000.

假设该业务位于公司税率为20％的国家/地区。根据到目前为止的信息，它的应纳税额当然是2,000美元。

The business’s accountant points out that it can save some tax if its IT equipment is depreciated by the full allowed 25% (the current value of the equipment is $8,000). She also points out that the government is giving small businesses a tax break if based in an area of high unemployment, so this company is eligible for a flat allowance of $4,000. The company also invested in some research and development over the year, and is eligible to reduce taxable profits by a further amount of $4,000.

该公司的会计指出，如果其IT设备折旧允许的25％(设备的当前价值为8,000美元)，则可以节省一些税款。她还指出，如果在高失业率地区，政府将给予小企业减税优惠，因此这家公司有资格获得4,000美元的固定津贴。该公司还在这一年进行了一些研发投资，并且有资格将应税利润进一步减少4000美元。

25% of $8,000$2,000Area Allowance$4,000R&D Allowance$4,000Total allowed deductions$10,000 $ 8,000的25％ $ 2,000 区域津贴 $ 4,000 研发补贴 $ 4,000 允许扣除总额 $ 10,000

That takes the company’s taxable income to $0 – and makes the owner of the company very happy.

这使公司的应税收入为$ 0，并使公司所有者感到非常高兴。

During the course of the subsequent year, however, he decides to sell. The prospective buyers’ first impressions are of a company that makes no profit at all. But, on delving into the figures, they realize that they need to add back those deductions that were made for tax reasons, and they need to add back some of those original expenses to arrive at the true profit the business made last year.

然而，在接下来的一年中，他决定出售。潜在买家的第一印象是一家完全没有利润的公司。 But, on delving into the figures, they realize that they need to add back those deductions that were made for tax reasons, and they need to add back some of those original expenses to arrive at the true profit the business made last year.

But it’s not always that the reconstructed figure shows a higher profit. The prospective buyer may apply his or her own valuations to the assets and apply a larger depreciation for depleted assets that need to be replaced, or deduct a notional salary for the owner’s time that wasn’t accounted for earlier … and so on.

But it's not always that the reconstructed figure shows a higher profit. The prospective buyer may apply his or her own valuations to the assets and apply a larger depreciation for depleted assets that need to be replaced, or deduct a notional salary for the owner's time that wasn't accounted for earlier … and so on.

In conclusion, for low-value businesses, it’s hardly worth anybody’s time to redo the statements; however, no large business is sold without this recalculation done by the buyers’ due diligence team. No smart buyer would completely trust the seller’s accountant’s figures. And if there is a bank loan involved in the purchase, such reconstruction would be a prerequisite, a sine qua non.

In conclusion, for low-value businesses, it's hardly worth anybody's time to redo the statements; however, no large business is sold without this recalculation done by the buyers' due diligence team. No smart buyer would completely trust the seller's accountant's figures. And if there is a bank loan involved in the purchase, such reconstruction would be a prerequisite, a sine qua non .

Most web sites sold in the popular site-selling forums fall below the level where it’s economic to appoint expensive advisors to reconstruct financial statements. In fact, many of these sites for sale don’t have formal financial statements.

Most web sites sold in the popular site-selling forums fall below the level where it's economic to appoint expensive advisors to reconstruct financial statements. In fact, many of these sites for sale don't have formal financial statements.

Where there is a statement of sorts, it tends to be more along the lines of a proft and loss statement, which demonstrates cash inflows (earnings) and outflows (expenses) over the course of the year. There is hardly ever a formal Balance Sheet unless the business had been preparing formal accounts.

The Income Statement presented is usually of a less than professional standard and almost never matches national and international accountancy conventions. Buyers, nevertheless, either plug the figures into their own spreadsheets to do a quick-and-dirty reconstruction … or do the reconstruction mentally if it’s a fairly simple business model without too many elements to consider. The most common deduction prospective buyers make from stated income is probably a nominal (notional) salary – an expense often overlooked by site sellers.

The Income Statement presented is usually of a less than professional standard and almost never matches national and international accountancy conventions. Buyers, nevertheless, either plug the figures into their own spreadsheets to do a quick-and-dirty reconstruction … or do the reconstruction mentally if it's a fairly simple business model without too many elements to consider. The most common deduction prospective buyers make from stated income is probably a nominal (notional) salary – an expense often overlooked by site sellers.

Valuing Your Own Site (Valuing Your Own Site)

Now that we know all the complex theories behind valuations, we’re going to return to the basics: the best indication of a price a site is likely to fetch can be gained from recent sales of similar sites.

Now that we know all the complex theories behind valuations, we're going to return to the basics: the best indication of a price a site is likely to fetch can be gained from recent sales of similar sites.

So we’ve taken data from several sales in various marketplaces and compiled some charts to indicate the type of multiples they go for.

So we've taken data from several sales in various marketplaces and compiled some charts to indicate the type of multiples they go for.

Caveats

Though this study’s results mirror a larger analysis, it needs to be remembered that the sample size here is small and samples are sales that happened in public.

Though this study's results mirror a larger analysis, it needs to be remembered that the sample size here is small and samples are sales that happened in public. There is some subjective judgment involved in categorizing web businesses. Some content sites have blogs and forums; some forums have product sales or services.

There is some subjective judgment involved in categorizing web businesses. Some content sites have blogs and forums; some forums have product sales or services. Some sites that apparently sold have been left out of the charts where deemed appropriate. This is particularly so when the seller complained that the buyer disappeared without payment, or where the earnings or price were too insignificant and the site was deemed to have been bought for the value of its domain or design rather the earnings.

Some sites that apparently sold have been left out of the charts where deemed appropriate. This is particularly so when the seller complained that the buyer disappeared without payment, or where the earnings or price were too insignificant and the site was deemed to have been bought for the value of its domain or design rather the earnings. There is no standard way of calculating earnings; earnings figures underpinning the multiples here were taken directly from sellers’ claims, and were not verified by us.

There is no standard way of calculating earnings; earnings figures underpinning the multiples here were taken directly from sellers' claims, and were not verified by us. Only English-language sites were included in the study.

Only English-language sites were included in the study. All sale prices were under $100,000. Above that figure, the market may work slightly differently.

All sale prices were under $100,000. Above that figure, the market may work slightly differently. Where prices are quoted as multiples, these are multiples of monthly earnings.

Where prices are quoted as multiples, these are multiples of monthly earnings. Where the site has sold for a buy-it-now price, it may not reflect the maximum price open bidding would have reached.

Where the site has sold for a buy-it-now price, it may not reflect the maximum price open bidding would have reached.

Content Sites:

Content Sites :

Content sites range in subject from technology and games to health, antiques and weddings. The “content” ranges from text and articles to video and images.

The average multiple of just under two years’ worth of income is, in reality, probably skewed by the fact that sellers often quote gross revenue as net profit. If we remove the top and bottom two sales in the above chart, we find an average of just 16.35 months of claimed earnings. This is lower than it was a year ago, in the middle of 2007, and may reflect the credit crunch and increased caution in the marketplace.

The average multiple of just under two years' worth of income is, in reality, probably skewed by the fact that sellers often quote gross revenue as net profit. If we remove the top and bottom two sales in the above chart, we find an average of just 16.35 months of claimed earnings. This is lower than it was a year ago, in the middle of 2007, and may reflect the credit crunch and increased caution in the marketplace.

Blogs

The subjects of blogs range from health and celebrities to relationships and technology.

The lower average for blogs (around 11.25 if we remove the two extremes) reflects that the earnings figures sellers quote are usually gross rather than net, and that buyers appreciate the extra work that blogs entail and discount the price to reflect that.

Blogs are selling for about two-thirds of what they would realize if they were “pure” content sites. That said, the volume of blog sales has risen appreciably since 2007.

Forums and Communities

Forums and community-based sites focus on topic areas as far apart as automobiles, pregnancy, and gaming.

The much higher multiples that forums go for is surprising, until you realize that forums are difficult to monetize, and many sellers have zero or very little proof of earnings.

Also, most forum buyers are site flippers or otherwise experienced at managing and monetizing communities, and are therefore willing to pay a higher multiple of the unoptimized earnings. Removing the extremes in the above chart give us a much more realistic average of 23.5.

Proxies

Proxies tend to be seasonal and less used during school and college holidays. It’s also typical of proxy sites to be heavy on use of bandwidth. The low quality of traffic to proxies, the fact that by its very nature its visitors are actively looking to leave the site, the difficulty in monetizing proxy traffic in general, and the large volumes of traffic from countries not favored by advertisers leaves proxies low down the list of multiples. At under 5 months’ worth of earnings, the multiples are similar to what they were a year before.

Proxies tend to be seasonal and less used during school and college holidays. It's also typical of proxy sites to be heavy on use of bandwidth. The low quality of traffic to proxies, the fact that by its very nature its visitors are actively looking to leave the site, the difficulty in monetizing proxy traffic in general, and the large volumes of traffic from countries not favored by advertisers leaves proxies low down the list of multiples. At under 5 months' worth of earnings, the multiples are similar to what they were a year before.

Service Sites

Service sites provide free image sharing, site hosting, and freebie services.

The much lower average of 9.86, compared with content sites and blogs, reflects that buyers are aware of the higher overheads (such as bandwidth), often not deducted from the claimed earnings.

Incentivized Sites

Paid to Click (PTC), survey, and toolbar installation sites perform even more poorly than proxy sites. At just 3.5 x monthly income it’s almost not worth selling for many sellers, as just shelving the site for a few months could see them earn more than an outright sale. And many owners do just that – running the site down rather than risk listing at auction and spooking the member base.

Paid to Click (PTC), survey, and toolbar installation sites perform even more poorly than proxy sites. At just 3.5 x monthly income it's almost not worth selling for many sellers, as just shelving the site for a few months could see them earn more than an outright sale. And many owners do just that – running the site down rather than risk listing at auction and spooking the member base.

Product Selling Sites

These are strange beasts. Sites selling both physical and digital products keep appearing regularly in various marketplaces, but buyers seem reluctant to dive in. With shipping of physical products, there’s obvious geographical issues when pitching sites to a global audience, but even though that limitation doesn’t apply in drop shipping and e-product delivery, buyers seem wary about taking on a business involving dealing face to face with customers. Apart from the customer services adding to the overheads, there’s an element of fraud (chargebacks), management, PPC or other required skills, and an appreciation of how easy these businesses are to duplicate, all of which affect buyer enthusiasm.

These are strange beasts. Sites selling both physical and digital products keep appearing regularly in various marketplaces, but buyers seem reluctant to dive in. With shipping of physical products, there's obvious geographical issues when pitching sites to a global audience, but even though that limitation doesn't apply in drop shipping and e-product delivery, buyers seem wary about taking on a business involving dealing face to face with customers. Apart from the customer services adding to the overheads, there's an element of fraud (chargebacks), management, PPC or other required skills, and an appreciation of how easy these businesses are to duplicate, all of which affect buyer enthusiasm.

Prices range from 1.8 x monthly revenue (for an ebook product) to 200 x monthly revenue for a physical product that comes with its own trademark and other IP rights.

There are some web businesses not included in any of the above categories:

Directories – while the number of directory sites seems to be rising, they seem to be used more for SEO purposes by the owners (think three-way and four-way linking) rather than the pay-per-listing model. As such, not many of them seem to come up for sale. The few that we have seen come up have all gone for a little over 10x.

Widgets – an interesting area to watch maybe the market for widgets and apps. Many of the widgets sell based more on the number of daily users rather than a multiple of earnings – many of them follow a model of no initial profit until they’re way past achieving critical mass.

UGC pages – User Generated Content site pages – such as Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, and the like – have an active market and are bought and sold freely. Others require a transfer of the whole account, either within or without the hosting site’s terms of service. Control of the UGC sometimes generates direct profit; in other cases it’s the traffic or the links that may have value. More and more of UGC pages will come up for sale in the next year or two, which will provide a better idea of what kind of multiples are entertained by buyers.

UGC pages – User Generated Content site pages – such as Squidoo lenses , Hubpages , and the like – have an active market and are bought and sold freely. Others require a transfer of the whole account, either within or without the hosting site's terms of service. Control of the UGC sometimes generates direct profit; in other cases it's the traffic or the links that may have value. More and more of UGC pages will come up for sale in the next year or two, which will provide a better idea of what kind of multiples are entertained by buyers.

Domains – parked domains and domain portfolios haven’t been included in this calculation. While type-in domains, typos, drop-catches, and the like can provide a steady and huge source of revenue, that’s worth a whole study on its own. There are several good guides to valuing domains, like the NamePros guide. Marketplaces like Sedo and Afternic see a large numbers of domain sales and use that reputation to sell valuation services. However, Rick Schwartz, a recognized domain expert, says this of the valuation services: “I give no credence to any domain appraisal service. They are all worthless …”

Domains – parked domains and domain portfolios haven't been included in this calculation. While type-in domains, typos, drop-catches, and the like can provide a steady and huge source of revenue, that's worth a whole study on its own. There are several good guides to valuing domains, like the NamePros guide . Marketplaces like Sedo and Afternic see a large numbers of domain sales and use that reputation to sell valuation services. However, Rick Schwartz, a recognized domain expert, says this of the valuation services: “I give no credence to any domain appraisal service. They are all worthless …”

Notes on Calculations

These value calculations are not set in stone. Multiples vary based on market sentiment, supply of sites coming up for sale, number of buyers in the market, the synergies that buyers may recognize, timing, location of listing, credit offered by seller, form of payment, or the buyer’s mood on the day!

The calculations are quoted as a multiple of earnings, since earnings are what buyers tend to be looking for. The main value buyers see in historical earnings is that they are often a guide to future earnings. It’s the expected future earnings that are of the most interest to buyers.

The main value buyers see in historical earnings is that they are often a guide to future earnings. It's the expected future earnings that are of the most interest to buyers. Those future earnings can come directly from the site, from changes the new owner makes, or even from closing that site down (for example, if that site is the only competitor in a niche, you could expect increased business at your old site as a result of closing the newly acquired one) or transferring its assets!

Those future earnings can come directly from the site, from changes the new owner makes, or even from closing that site down (for example, if that site is the only competitor in a niche, you could expect increased business at your old site as a result of closing the newly acquired one) or transferring its assets!

摘要 (Summary)

Good luck with weighing up what your site is worth, and deciding upon its future! The considerations we’ve discovered should go a long way towards helping you decide whether to launch into selling your web business. If your assessment suggests that such a sale would be feasible and advantageous, the advice here will ensure that you gain the best possible price, and support you as you do so.

Good luck with weighing up what your site is worth, and deciding upon its future! The considerations we've discovered should go a long way towards helping you decide whether to launch into selling your web business. If your assessment suggests that such a sale would be feasible and advantageous, the advice here will ensure that you gain the best possible price, and support you as you do so.

If you’d like to value your own site before selling it, or value a site you are looking to buy, don’t forget to try this valuation tool, which values sites based on the logic in this article. The business documents are a highly useful tool to adopt in your business practices, too. Some more terms associated with buying and selling web sites can be found in this glossary.

If you'd like to value your own site before selling it, or value a site you are looking to buy, don't forget to try this valuation tool , which values sites based on the logic in this article. The business documents are a highly useful tool to adopt in your business practices, too. Some more terms associated with buying and selling web sites can be found in this glossary .

致谢 (Acknowledgments)

Many thanks to Macro at SitePoint, who is probably the most active buyer at the world’s most used site-for-sale forums (SitePoint interviewed him here). And to oddsod at Webmasterworld, who has advised hundreds of people on selling their sites (some threads he has provided public expert advice can be found here and here). Then there’s Mark, whose advice is the official guide on one of the world’s oldest site-for-sale forums. Thanks also to Merkersarl and Foggy at DigitalPoint, Edman, hooperman, 3Six, and others at SitePoint; Peter T. Davis, long-time moderator of SitePoint’s Site-For-Sale forums and writer on site-flipping and domaining; Barry Dunlop at site brokerage firm MidasCode Ltd; sellmeurdomain and friends at Namepros; the three anonymous donors from DNF; Mike from iMarket Ventures, author of The Business End of Websites: Advertising Arbitrage and Website Valuation; and others too numerous to mention without whom this article wouldn’t have been possible.

Many thanks to Macro at SitePoint, who is probably the most active buyer at the world's most used site-for-sale forums (SitePoint interviewed him here ). And to oddsod at Webmasterworld, who has advised hundreds of people on selling their sites (some threads he has provided public expert advice can be found here and here ). Then there's Mark, whose advice is the official guide on one of the world's oldest site-for-sale forums. Thanks also to Merkersarl and Foggy at DigitalPoint, Edman, hooperman, 3Six, and others at SitePoint; Peter T. Davis , long-time moderator of SitePoint's Site-For-Sale forums and writer on site-flipping and domaining ; Barry Dunlop at site brokerage firm MidasCode Ltd ; sellmeurdomain and friends at Namepros; the three anonymous donors from DNF; Mike from iMarket Ventures, author of The Business End of Websites: Advertising Arbitrage and Website Valuation ; and others too numerous to mention without whom this article wouldn't have been possible.

Disclaimer: The valuations in this article and produced by the EBizValuations tool are not meant to be legally binding valuations that comply with guidance from the International Valuation Standards Committee, National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts Standards, Government Accounting Standards Board, Financial Accounting Standards Board, International Accounting Standards Committee/Board, Revenue Rulings 59-60 & 68-609, or any other national or international standard or recommendation. Should you require a valuation for any formal purpose, please consult the appropriate professionals.

Disclaimer: The valuations in this article and produced by the EBizValuations tool are not meant to be legally binding valuations that comply with guidance from the International Valuation Standards Committee , National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts Standards , Government Accounting Standards Board , Financial Accounting Standards Board , International Accounting Standards Committee/Board , Revenue Rulings 59-60 & 68-609, or any other national or international standard or recommendation. Should you require a valuation for any formal purpose, please consult the appropriate professionals.

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/web-site-valuation-guide/

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