Ask HN: Rules of thumb for website valuation

[papasmrf]

The recent Ask HN post asking who has a side project for sale got me to thinking about rules of thumb for valuing websites. One commenter on that post stated a rule of thumb that a website would typically be worth 9-10 months of revenue. This seemed rather low to me. What are some other rules of thumb for website valuation you have heard of, and does the rule change depending on the revenue model, ie, advertising only versus paid subscribers?

[valarauca1]

You can't make a blanket statement for the value if a business's website due to how dynamic business is, and how dynamic the use for a website is.

A webapp's website will be more valuable then say a manufactur who's website acts as an over glorified billboard.

Attempting to develop blanket statements for website's value is as futile as making a blanket statement for the value of an executable file. The devil is in the details.

[papasmrf]

A rule of thumb is just a rule of thumb, I don't think anybody would say that a particular rule of thumb is exactly how you would value a website. Maybe we can generate a hierarchy website valuation by the type of site. I would guess (number of users/visitors being equal) that a website that simply serves as a manufacturer's billboard would be worth less than a blog generating ad revenue which would be worth less than a webapp generating revenue through ads which would be worth less than a webapp generating subscription income.