The Average Sales Price of a Startup Website? $130

The other day I published my interview with Michelle Adams where we discussed the current state of startup websites among other things. I contend that the startup market is dead, or at least dying, but Michelle doesn’t agree. As far as she can tell, startups are doing just fine.

Mike Roosa of www.MikeRoosa.com left a comment after the interview asking if anyone has actually done any research on startups to say with authority what’s up with them. Good question, Mike! Why didn’t I think of that before I started spouting off my mouth! Since I am apparently talking out of my ass (and since I aim to please my readers), I spent some time today researching startup websites on Flippa.com. For you newbies to website flipping, Flippa.com is the largest and most popular marketplace to buy and sell websites so that’s why my research was conducted there. I was surprised at what I uncovered.

Before I divulge what I learned, let me define what I considered to be a startup website for my research and how far back I studied the data. I researched all websites that were 7 months old or newer (established in November 2009 or later), had zero traffic, and zero revenue. I examined the sales data going back to November 2009.

There have been 5,260 startup websites listed since November 2009. Surprisingly, 3,426 of those startups, or just a little over 65%, actually sold! I was honestly expecting something between 30-50%. At 65%, that beats Flippa’s current sales rate of 55% overall. “Only” 1,834 startups didn’t sell.

Now, to calculate the average and the median I had to fudge a little bit. Flippa doesn’t make it easy to study their data (HINT HINT Flippa). In fact, the only way to calculate the average and the median was to cut and paste the sales figures for all 3,426 solds! I don’t think so. What I did was I took a sample of that data. I was never good at statistics by I do recall my professor saying that a decent sample of a large data set will give you a fairly accurate statistic. I randomly selected 800 sales figures – about every third sales figure (give or take). Hopefully that was a big enough sample.

The net result? Drum roll, please…the average sale price of a startup website over the past seven months was $130! And the median price was $100.

These numbers didn’t surprise me. I was guessing they would be around $150 so I was close. Scanning through the list, the bulk of the solds were between $100-$200. That seemed to be the “sweet spot” price range for startups that sold over the past seven months.

There were also a few interesting top selling startups over the same period. Now for this, I actually did manually scan all 114 pages of results to find the top sellers! PhoenixForexCode.com, a Forex robot ecommerce website, sold for $2,900. The buyer got a bargain, however, because the seller said it was a cash machine, in a niche guaranteed to make money…lol. You have to love the hype some of these sellers put into their startup listings. See auction here.

An attorney directory, AttorneySiteGuide.com, was another startup that did pretty well selling for $1,997. See auction here.

Another notable was eMillionaireBluePrint.com, which was a ClickBank ready site that provided a video training course on how to make money online as an Internet Marketer. It sold for $1,800. The seller did pretty good on that deal but hasn’t done so well since as he now has a trust rating of -15! See auction here.

On the other end of the scale, there were many sites selling for less than $19 – what Flippa charges sellers to list their websites for sale. There were even some that sold for $1!

What did I take away from this research? I was wrong – and I was right. My wife won’t be surprised at that conclusion as I rarely admit I’m totally wrong;)

I was wrong saying that startups were dead. There have been over 3,400 startups sold over the past seven months and the sales rate among startups at 65% is actually better than Flippa’s overall sales rate of 55%. I wouldn’t call that dead. I was right, however, in saying that the prices aren’t as good as they used to be. With an average sales price of $130 and a median price of $100 (and most selling between $100-$200), it is much harder to make good money selling startups.

About Travis Van Slooten

Travis is an affiliate marketer and website flipper who ran FlipWebsites.com until the Fall of 2010.

View all posts by Travis | Visit Author's Website

This entry was posted in Selling Websites and tagged Marketplaces, Website Sales Analysis.

http://wpsyndicatorreviewsite.com/ Paul | WP Syndicator

Hi Travis,

Thanks for the research figures. Flipping sites has been something i have been keeping tabs on and want to get more involved in soon.

Can you just give a bit more information on a “start up site”. You said they have no traffic and no revenue, but how much content do they have on them. Are they autoblogs, or do they all have unique content on them?

Thanks again Travis, i’m just trying to absorb as much knowledge as i can on site flipping before i leave the ‘lurking’ ranks and actually get my feet wet.

Cheers,
Paul

Travis

Paul:

Welcome to the wacky world of website flipping:) A startup website is defined simply as a “newer” site that doesn’t have any traffic or revenue – period. The amount of content and the uniqueness of the content doesn’t really matter. If it’s a new site (say 1-9 months old but usually 1-3 months old) and doesn’t have any traffic or revenue, it’s a startup.

Startups themselves can be AdSense sites, affiliate sites, ecommerce sites, autoblogs, etc. etc. They can have 5 pages of content or 500 pages of content. It varies.

Let me know if you have any other questions. You can post them on my blog or contact me directly.

Thanks,

Travis

http://wpsyndicatorreviewsite.com/ Paul | WP Syndicator

Hi Travis,

Thank you for your comprhensive answer, i appreciate you taking the time to answer in such detail.

I am thinking of building a batch of sites, about 4 to 5 pages of unique contant on each and monetize them with adsense. I will let them age for 2 or 3 months, do some backlinking to them and start getting traffic to them.

As a ball park figure, how much do you think i could get for a site like that, that has traffic and is earning say $20 to $50 a month in adsense revenue?

Thanks again Travis,
Paul

Travis

Paul:

Just based strictly on the age, traffic, and revenue figured you’ve outlined – and not taking into account the quality of the domain and the website and content and the niche itself – you could be looking at $400 on the low end and up to $1,000 on the high end (and maybe more if you have a great domain, solid niche, good content, etc.).

Spend some time on the Past Website Sales section of this website:
http://www.flipwebsites.com/past-website-sales/

At a glance you’ll be able to see for yourself what your potential is. I don’t have July’s stats up yet but I will have them up no later than tomorrow.

Travis

http://www.expandmyincome.com Archer

Hi everyone, this article brings back memories of the day that I created a site for my employer and three months later he got a call which he answered on speakerphone, and the caller offered him $10k for the site…well he got $13K by holding out, but it showed me what I could have done if I had one like it in my name. Now I do, and don’t have to make $13k profit from one site.

Being the entrepreneur that I am, I am now once again active in “online investing” and I believe there is a profit to be made, short or long term. Your article is very interesting and I appreciate you posting it, thanks again!

Travis

Archer:

You’re such a tease…lol. What website was it? $13K – now that’s a great payday (for your employer anyway). Are you actively building and selling websites today?

Travis

http://salahstudios.com Salah – Virtual Real Estate with Curb Appeal

Thanks for the figures Travis, nice to see the numerical truth.
http://www.VredVoice.com Michelle Adams

Thanks for digging into the listings Travis and providing us with a rough idea of the sell through rate.

Just short of $2k for the attorney site/s is an interesting result.

Travis

Michelle:

Ya, I was surprised at the price for the attorney site. The domain wasn’t even that great.

Travis

http://www.southdakota.com Greg Nelson

Most of these start-up sites are not worth the reg-fee of the domain let alone the time someone wasted to build it, then market it, then transfer it. Often, to make it even worse, they market in some “feeder sites” i.e. more terrible annual domain reg fees and you have a nice sinkhole distraction.

I just hope people keep buying these and stay away from the few gems.

If you have data to the contrary on one of these “start-up” sinkholes share the upside so I can see the light.

Travis

Greg:

Tell us how you really feel…lol. I think there is a place for startups. For newbies who have no clue with the development and design aspects of this business, a startup may be just what they need. Instead of spending days or weeks learning how to create a website, they can buy a startup and get started immediately. Startups can also be good for feeder sites.

Travis
http://salahstudios.com Salah – Virtual Real Estate with Curb Appeal

Come on dude. If your buying a start-up with no visitors and no revenue expecting it to magically turn a profit then your a complete…you? Just kidding, I have no idea what turned you so sour but the point is to know what your buying and have a plan in hand before you make that bid.

If you’re a marketer or an investor looking to focus your attention on your core business strengths then these types of start-ups are exactly what you need. Why spend weeks fumbling around with Photoshop and CSS pretending your a web designer? A start-up with a good domain, good design, unique content, and sometimes even a unique product or online app is worth exactly what it took to create those assets.

Its no different then paying someone directly to create a website for you expect you don’t have to come up with the concept or manage contractors. You just look for a start-up that you like and use your discretion before purchasing.

If your a marketer you buy it, drive traffic, perhaps tweak the content with all your savvy marketing skills, and collect money.
If your an investor then you hire a marketer and move on to the next acquisition.

In either case you usually get your investment back and begin to profit in 3 – 12 months, unless you overpaid for your pre-made website (which makes you a bad marketer or investor).

I guess every entrepreneur that wants to move into the online market should never attempt to ESTABLISH an online business? Just buy one thats already a gold mine where the genius that created it all of a sudden turns into an idiot and gives it up (I guess these are the FEW gems your referring to?)

Just like “established” sites that are miraculously sold for three months revenue there are lemons, cons, and scams in every market. Its called do diligence…get with it or get played.

Travis

Salah:

Well stated, my friend. Greg is actually a good friend of mine who also happens to be a HIGHLY successful Internet Marketer, but he does have strong opinions about a lot of things and isn’t the type to sugar coat what’s on his mind…lol.

At any rate, everything you have stated is spot on. As I mentioned, there is definitely a place for quality startups!

Travis

http://www.g34media.com Missy

lol @Mike. He’s making you work HARD Travis. Weekly stats? Interesting research and one to keep in mind. In my opinion, the “start up market” is not dead either, one just needs to add value.

Add value and the buyers will come.

http://www.mikeroosa.com Mike Roosa

Didn’t I tell you, Travis was my secretary? Just kidding, sorry for assigning you all this work.
Travis

Missy:

Exactly. Adding value is the only way you’ll attract a constant stream of buyers for startups.

Travis

http://www.mikeroosa.com Mike Roosa

Thanks for taking the time to do this Travis. Now (hint, hint) you could analyze this same data on a weekly basis and let us know when the market completely tanks or takes off again.

Travis

Mike:

Hmmmm…weekly analysis? I like the idea of having some kind of ongoing analysis but I’m not so sure about a weekly analysis. I don’t think you’d see significant market shifts on a weekly basis anyway. I think what I will do, however, is keep an eye on this on a monthly basis.

Travis