Step 1: Acquire a Website
- at a reasonable price, the industry average is around 25-40x monthly net profit
- 3y+ history
- stable growth
- low volatility
- no PBNs, no spammy links, no messy 301s, no AI content
Step 2: Use debt to leverage your equity
- Â if you acquire a website at a 3x multiple, that’s a 33% yearly return rate when flatlining
- if you can use 50% debt from family&friends or investors at a 10% fixed interest rate, you’ll cut your invested capital in half, can repay the debt within 3 years and leverage your equity
Step 3: Grow the revenue & net profit of your content site
- optimize your traffic, but think beyond standard SEO tactics that everyone is using to grow your business
- create an audience
- boost social media
- start a newsletter
- optimize your content
- establish a sales routine
Step 4: Acquire more Websites within the vertical
- leverage management synergies
- cherry-pick your editors
- expand your industry connections
- exploit synergies in other areas like SEO, tech, advertising
Step 5: Become a company
- an isolated asset without management, dedicated tech, teams in place, diversified traffic and revenue streams has none to low value for an investor. It’s an asset, not a company. No institutional investor would touch this.
- fix this. Become a media company. Hire a team. Create dedicated tech. Be the thought leader in your vertical.
- use the resources to expand your audience, and internationalize your content to geo-diversify
- get to $1-3m+ in EBIT
Step 6: Exit the company at a 10x or more multiple
- why the higher multiple? Because now, you’re a company. From a buyers’ perspective, the traffic and revenue streams are diversified and internationalized. Lots of room to grow. A team in place, that will run the business even if you step down as CEO or founder. This leaves the buyer with a heavily risk-reduced scenario, hence the higher multiple.
Or keep the company and grow it even further.
Maybe you’ll like to stay a solopreneur.
Or partner up with a competitor.
There is no right or wrong.
You do you.