Facebook is a website. Just a collection of web pages on the Internet. And people look at those pages. That’s all really. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs estimated the value of Facebook at 50 billion U.S. dollars. Eh … What? That’s 50,000,000,000 U.S. dollars? Exactly. Looks like owning websites is nice business. But how does one estimate the value of a website? And what is my website worth?
Do a Google search for What is a website worth? and you will find hundreds of online calculators where you can simply enter a URL and push a button. Then you get, based on various indicators, the value of that particular website.
So I quickly checked my own site, www.hansnetten.com.
According to My Site Value www.hansnetten.com is good for, quote: $ 2,016,019 USD.
Huh? Is that 2 million dollar there? Meaning this little blog made me a millionaire by now? When I do the same check 10 seconds later, I suddenly lose 200 Grand. But $ 1,800,000 still is pretty cool news where I come from.
Before giving up my day job I might wanna do a second test.
What would ‘Hyves’ be worth?
Pardon? $ 1,400,000? So my blog is worth more than the largest social network in the Netherlands (11 million members, sold to a big Dutch publishing company for 65 million Euros)?
Let’s try another calculator. My Website Worth values all the hard work that has been put into www.hansnetten.com at … $ 15.
That rating is too absurd to be an insult. My site is visited monthly by thousands of interested people. Hundreds of visitors have commented on my articles. OK, the commercial performance and potential of my blog is surely not enough for a carefree retirement. But come on, $ 15?
Well then, a final attempt for an online estimate of the value of my site.
According to URL Appraisal www.hansnetten.com is worth a modest $ 7,595.85. With the current exchange rate between Dollar and Euro I end up at € 5,271.96. Given the number of hours I put into this site, I guess I would have been better off making money by flipping whoppers.
So what should I do with all these numbers? All these calculators claim their estimate is based upon objective indicators such as age, size, traffic and pagerank of a website. On the other hand the estimates are so far apart that the idea imposes itself that these calculators are completely worthless.
Actually, the value of many blogs can not be determined. Because the only one who can put use into it, is the blog-owner him- or herself.
If you have a successful blog about the latest additions to your oil lamp collection or about the growing up of your guinea twins, you are the only one who can add value to that blog. In the hands of someone else your blog would be completely useless. Based on that logic, $ 15 for www.hansnetten.com is a rather generous valuation. I guess I should start learn to live with that.