The quick formula
For a fast estimate, you only need two things: average monthly net profit and a market multiple. Multiply them and you have a ballpark. A site earning $1,500/month at a 36x multiple is worth roughly $54,000. This five-minute method won't replace real due diligence, but it's perfect for a first-pass gut check on whether a site or an asking price is in the right universe.
Get a rough monthly profit
Take the last few months of revenue, subtract the obvious costs (hosting, tools, content, ads), and get an approximate monthly net profit. For a quick estimate you don't need perfect books — just an honest ballpark. If income is seasonal, average across enough months to smooth it. This rough profit figure is the foundation, so make it realistic rather than optimistic.
Pick a multiple for the type
Apply a rough multiple based on site type: around 30–42x for content and affiliate, 28–38x for ecommerce, higher for SaaS with recurring revenue. Use the lower end if the site has obvious risks (declining traffic, single income source) and the higher end if it's growing and diversified. This isn't precise, but it lands you in the right range fast.
Know when to go deeper
The five-minute method is a screening tool — great for deciding whether something is worth a serious look, but not for setting a final price or making an offer. Once a site clears the quick check, do the real work: verify the numbers, assess risk properly, and cross-check comparable sales. Use the fast method to filter, and a proper valuation to decide.
A worked example
An affiliate site earned $1,850, $2,300 and $2,150 over the last three months, so the average is $2,100. At the 36x mid-point that is $75,600. Now put the range around it rather than trusting the point estimate: at 30x to 42x the same site spans $63,000 to $88,200. That spread isn't imprecision on your part, it's the genuine range in the market, and where a specific site falls inside it is decided by four things the formula can't see.
What the fast number can't see
Traffic concentration, revenue concentration, owner hours and verifiability. A site with one traffic source and one affiliate program sits at the bottom of the range no matter what the profit says, because the buyer is taking on a single point of failure. A site with diversified traffic, several income streams, documented processes and clean books sits at the top. Each of those four moves the multiple by several points, which on a $2,100-a-month site is tens of thousands of dollars of difference.
Four situations where the method doesn't apply at all
Declining traffic, because you'd be pricing a past that no longer exists and buyers price the trend rather than the trailing average. Under twelve months of history, because there's nothing stable to average. A seasonal business mid-season, since three summer months on a garden-furniture site isn't a monthly average. And revenue concentrated in one contract or one program that could end, because the honest valuation there depends on the odds of it ending, which no multiple captures. In all four cases the fast method doesn't just lose precision, it points the wrong way.
- Quick value = monthly profit × a market multiple.
- Get an honest rough profit; average out seasonality.
- Pick a multiple by type, adjusted for obvious risk.
- Use it to screen, not to set a final price.
The 5-minute method gives a ballpark; our free appraisal gives a data-backed number with a full factor breakdown in about the same time.
Value my site →Empire Flippers vets both sides and runs the migration for you. For established sites it consistently reaches the strongest end of the range.
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