Need Assistance Valuing a Website

[Mattloaf]

Can anyone give me some tips on determining the value of a website?

I'm looking to buy a website that is already built and then just brand it to my existing company but the person selling it refuses to put a price on it and is asking that I make an offer.

I'd lowball and see what happens but, from what I've seen so far, the sight is exactly what my company needs and was created by the designer of the site for my largest competitor in China. There are also other aspects to this relationship that I don't want to damage with an insulting lowball situation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I have next to no experience with this type of thing. Thanks!

[Grogador]

Do you want the website, or just the domain name? Domain names are worth $10/year but desirable ones can sell for thousands, or scraps for $1. I'm pretty sure that Internic rules stipulate you can't technically "sell"/set a price for a domain name, which is why people have to put in offers.

Websites otoh are trickier to value: if it's just a graphical "skin" for a Wordpress blog or something, a designer can slap that together for <$500. If it's a fully custom site, you may be looking at thousands. If you just want to copy the site, that can generally be done without purchasing anything, just a good ole site rip, at least for the front-end visible stuff. Generally this is referred to as a "dick move", not sure how that works into your website re-branding strategy. Just make sure that whatever you buy, you get the full sourcecode with ownership or full license.

[Mattloaf]

We're not looking for a domain. We bought one for $7.

The site itself isn't the most beautiful thing to look which is why we would be rebranding it to our own company branding. We have designers ready to do that. The thing we're interested in is the performance and features behind the site. It's the guts and the coding I'm looking for.

The site we will get is completely original and is not open to the public at this point and I'm pretty confident it's not a ripoff of another site.

[npham]

Why don't you go out and get quotes from Web Designer/Coders and then offer the guy 50% of what it would cost to do it from scratch?

[ExtraSlow]

If you do need a coder, I know the guys at Pump Interactive, and they've got some solid coders for back-end stuff.

[Kloubek]

I don't think anyone can provide you with a value without knowing the functionality first. The worth would largely depend on how complicated the site is you're looking to purchase.

What kinds of databases are being used? Back-end CMS or information management systems? Has the site been integrated into other products or websites?

There are just far too many questions and nobody can give you a list of what things might be "worth".

I think the better question is - what is it worth to *you*? Instead of being concerned with how low you can go without insulting him, offer a bit below what you would consider a fair price for your requirements. That leaves a bit of negotiating room, and at the end should result with you having what you want at the price you want.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Shouldn't a site be built and tailored to your business, not the other way around?