Wanted: Domain Appraisal Domain / Website Appraisal

[bluemaian]

Hi There,

I'm looking to get an overall appraisal on minifridge/co/uk

A few key facts:

- The search term 'mini fridge' gets over 90k exact searches per month.
- The site is currently number 2 on the big G for 'mini fridge'
- currently number 7 for 'drinks fridge'
- We are receiving around 100-150 unique visitors per day
- We are running an affiliate scheme which is earning around £200+ per month
- We are also running adsense which is bringing in around £90 - £120 per month.
- A combined income total of over £300 per month.

In the future we are looking at turning this into a full e-commerce site or potentially selling to an end user.

Can anyone offer me a realistic value for this domain?

Cheers

 

[davedevelopment]

I'd say 10 months revenue + 50% because it's a nice site and domain, so £4500 bare minimum for me.

Have you tried testing your conversions without adsense?

 

[golddiggerguy]

Great site, although i'd like to see images of fridges higher up.

What advertising do you do or is it all organic?

To turn it into a shop maybe a plan but £300 no hassle or £xxx+ possible profit with hassle and comebacks.

I'd add a paypal link buy 5 mini fridges and sell them, then remove the link and see how that pans out with them.

Good Luck

 

[Tricky1]

To turn it into a shop maybe a plan but £300 no hassle or £xxx+ possible profit with hassle and comebacks.

As somebody who has sold online for the last ten years, couldn't agree more with the above, take £300+ a month without having to deal with the public, perfect....half a dozen similar sites and a nice passive income coming your way, without the hassle.

 

[RampageJackson]

But if you can become the merchant yourself, you can make more money, invest more in further content/seo, and cement a position at the top of the food chain. Right now the site looks a bit spammy with multiple affil links and adsense blocks.

Google might just decide it doesn't like that approach and now your £300/month becomes £30/month or less.

If you can make enough from it, you can remove yourself from the hassle, even as a merchant - hire staff, or drop ship the goods.

If this was my site, I would spend the rest of today going around comet, currys, costco etc. Note down all the model number of mini fridges, and their prices. I'd then turn the site into an ecommerce site selling all those models at the same price. Any orders you get, quickly run back to comet and buy them and ship them out, you'll lose a little on shipping though.

This way you get to test being a merchant, stocking a lot of different products, with no money up front and no risk. You are only spending your time, which I think is worth it to see if being a merchant is viable for you.


Also, anyone trying to value your site on your Adsense/traffic figures are just pulling numbers out of the air - the valuations are worthless at this point without knowing the history. If you have had that traffic/earnings for 2 years, its worth far more than if you've kept them at that level for a couple of months.

 

[FagEnd]

If this was my site, I would spend the rest of today going around comet, currys, costco etc. Note down all the model number of mini fridges, and their prices. I'd then turn the site into an ecommerce site selling all those models at the same price. Any orders you get, quickly run back to comet and buy them and ship them out, you'll lose a little on shipping though.

This way you get to test being a merchant, stocking a lot of different products, with no money up front and no risk. You are only spending your time, which I think is worth it to see if being a merchant is viable for you.

I've never thought of doing that before, sounds like a cheap and easy way to test becoming a merchant yourself. Worth consideration.
I'd up your rep but I've already downed it previously

 

[RampageJackson]

I believe I reciprocated it, so I wouldn't worry haha.

 

[namealot]

If this was my site, I would spend the rest of today going around comet, currys, costco etc. Note down all the model number of mini fridges, and their prices. I'd then turn the site into an ecommerce site selling all those models at the same price. Any orders you get, quickly run back to comet and buy them and ship them out, you'll lose a little on shipping though.

This way you get to test being a merchant, stocking a lot of different products, with no money up front and no risk. You are only spending your time, which I think is worth it to see if being a merchant is viable for you.

I ‘ve dealt in white and brown goods online can’t see that it would work…

How is the customer going to pay you ….? You could use papal that would be more money lost,
Many stores do not keep the items in stock but drop ship to your address and will not deliver out of there area, Are you proposing they ship to your address then you ship from there you would lose at least £25 , What if the customer was not there how would you then deal with the goods currys and alike will often drop item at nearest store and either have customer pick it up from there or re deliver it most towns will have a curry etc in them, But carrier firms tend to take it back to regional depot only normally one or two per county… and if not collected from there will ship back to you in seven days, They then cancel the order your left with a fridge …

How would you return damaged goods or the item broke down normally the warranty is with the original purchaser and is not transferable even if it were and the customer would call you tell you when they are available you would have to call the store and hope that they could do it at the time customer said
If the item could not be repaired on site and were taken away you would not know at all how would you deal with the customer that phones you up and says were is my item????

How would you deal with people that wish extended warranties or would you not offer them? You could be dealing with a customer for years getting no money. None of these are unachievable but could be a lot of work....

Personally think you would be way better contacting either a distributor or a manufacture taking customer order details and give it to them if you offer it for a few pounds to start sure they would bite your hand off then if there are enough sales become an agent for them...

Or this item would go well with students contact the Purchasing Manager,s at university, college procurement office see if there interested in one of your makes and set up something with them
I’ll give you one to start the ball rolling http://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/Bursar/Purchasing/white-brown.html

 

[RampageJackson]

You're not going to do it for years though, you're going to do it for long enough to work out whether being a merchant suits you, then you get a proper system in place - either buying stock or drop shipping or whatever.

Yes if you use Paypal you will lose a small amount - a couple of pounds per fridge.

Fridges are small, many stores keep them in stock so you won't have those delivery issues. Get them in person and send them via Royal Mail or a courier. Places like Costco stock everything they sell, you can take it away immediately.

You wouldn't need to transfer warranty - retain the original receipt yourself, and send them an invoice showing it was bought from your website. If they have any problems with it, they can return it to you. You can use the original receipt to have it refunded - Costco will refund absolutely anything, no matter how it broke or pretty much how long you've had it either.

I wouldn't offer extended warranties, no.

I'm not saying its a perfect solution, or a long term one. But if your site already has traffic, you can tell within 2 weeks if you function as a legitimate merchant or if you should go back to Adsense.

 

[namealot]

You're not going to do it for years though, you're going to do it for long enough to work out whether being a merchant suits you, You wouldn't need to transfer warranty - retain the original receipt yourself, and send them an invoice showing it was bought from your website. If they have any problems with it, they can return it to you. You can use the original receipt to have it refunded - Costco will refund absolutely anything, no matter how it broke or pretty much how long you've had it either.

I wouldn't offer extended warranties, no.

But you would be responsible for the item you sold for 12 mths and all the shipping charges etc and the paper work involved e.g you have given out invoices for xxxx yes you can take away xxxx purchase price of goods butwhat about tax implications, Also with payment you could lots of potential headaches, Could you tell in less than a few months weather the business was viable throughout the year and your way could cost a few thousands in that time…

I have done the way you mentioned with smaller items that were cheaper to buy and to ship and agree its a viable but just can't see it with fridges ? But contacting distributors manufactures etc would cost next to nothing but I suppose each to his own…

 

[RampageJackson]

Any merchant faces credit fraud risks - ship to the Paypal address etc and you are almost certainly going to be fine. You're right that you are responsible for the item, but in turn the place you bought it from are too - if you get it returned, take it back where it came from.

Your cost estimate of thousands of pounds is way off, we trialed a site this way and it cost us about £300 over 2 weeks - and that site is now a legit merchant site, making money.

There are no real tax implications if you buy £1000 of fridges over two weeks, and sell them for the same price as you bought them.

How could you possibly not be able to tell in a couple of months if the business is viable? Unless you're selling Christmas decorations or pumpkins a couple of weeks will give you the info you need - provided you have enough traffic already to make it statistically relevant.

Contacting distributers/manufacturers is worthless to start with. They don't want to talk to you when you have 150 hits a day. If you want to sell various brands, are you going to try and get agreements with half a dozen different companies?

 

[namealot]

Finding a potential market buy just pay pal customers? Not very accurate.

For a thousand pound as some of the fridges cost around the £250 mark you could be setting up a business based around 4 sales then?

Business's insure against loss, credit fraud, damage, broken or that the customer simply changes there mind…

Each item your way would make a loss…

“There are no real tax implications if you buy £1000 of fridges over two weeks,”
Yes you would still have to file a return… as your giving out invoices

”How could you possibly not be able to tell in a couple of months if the business is viable? Unless you're selling Christmas decorations or pumpkins a couple of weeks will give you the info you need”

That exactly what I said it would take a few months …?

Do you know that many of the brands pay thousands per Store just so they will stock there items Dixon etc make millions before they even buy or stock an item

For someone with no communication business or people skills it would be a waste of time contacting maker’s distributors etc….

No reason why not half a dozen... Personally just the best seller, offering best profit margin to you

Its the conversion rate they would be interested 150 hits at 0.5% they would be interested at a 2% they would bite of your hand... But it’s down to the individual in the end....

 

[RampageJackson]

Yes and if it works by using Paypal, your conversions can only go up as you add more payment options. Almost everyone has Paypal - its by far the easiest/cheapest way to test if something works.

I've already said several times you will make a loss trying this - thats the price you pay to get some data on whether it works or not. If you're worried about costs, why not try this method, I've not done it yet but it will work.


Set up your site as a merchant, then start taking orders by credit card, paypal, over the phone, whatever. Add as many products you can and price them realistically. Then the day after you get each order, just refund it (or don't even process it if you took their credit card). Now you can test conversion rates and everything else at zero cost.


What exactly are these tax implications? It looks pretty straightforward to me - you take on £1000 in inventory costs, then you bring back in £1000 in sales. Where is the tax problem, other than creating a few invoices? I'm neither a UK resident or a UK tax payer any more so maybe you know something about it I don't.

 

[namealot]

Yes and if it works by using Paypal, your conversions can only go up as you add more payment options. Almost everyone has Paypal - its by far the easiest/cheapest way to test if something works.

I've already said several times you will make a loss trying this - thats the price you pay to get some data on whether it works or not. If you're worried about costs, why not try this method, I've not done it yet but it will work.


Set up your site as a merchant, then start taking orders by credit card, paypal, over the phone, whatever. Add as many products you can and price them realistically. Then the day after you get each order, just refund it (or don't even process it if you took their credit card). Now you can test conversion rates and everything else at zero cost.


What exactly are these tax implications? It looks pretty straightforward to me - you take on £1000 in inventory costs, then you bring back in £1000 in sales. Where is the tax problem, other than creating a few invoices? I'm neither a UK resident or a UK tax payer any more so maybe you know something about it I don't.

As I said before I have done this in the way you mentioned which is why I know many of the pitfalls

You have to be very careful selling branded goods without manufactures permission, using there trademarked goods on your website, (reconditioned etc is different) ,displaying it they argue users of your website are likely to believe erroneously that your website is sponsored by, associated with, or related to or approved by the trademark holder when it is not…. And seek to have it removed

If you take orders and not send the goods weather you charge or not for them they could augue that you have defame or discredit there company, few will take any action against someone, some most definatly will.. Sometimes terms and conditions will cover this area with a disclaimer but not always, As for the tax you start trading where are you doing it from councils love to charge if you run a business from your home etc etc ) it makes a thousand in 2 weeks but makes no profit it just a headache explaining it to them does not matter were you are if your trading in the uk you have to abide by the laws of the country ?

 

[RampageJackson]

Yeah but back in the real world, nobody is going to take action if you take an order for a fridge, refund it and don't deliver it.

You can't use peoples logos without permission, but you can resell anything you like. Nike etc couldn't stop Tesco/Asda sourcing football shirts on the grey market and putting them in their stores. A manufacturer can't stop you taking pics of their item for your website, regardless of whether they have any trademarks on it or not.

I comply with the laws of the country I live in, not the laws of the UK. But I just can't see how anyone doing any of the above would be breaking the law in UK anyway.

 

[namealot]

Its not that they can stop you using the pics you take thats not the route they go down its the implied, associated with, or related to or approved route they hit you with ...

You should comply with the laws of the country your trading in ... grey imports are those from outside the eu in this instance so not really relevant but as you bring that up "The ruling, which confirmed a decision in November by the European Court of Justice, marked a victory for Levi Strauss & Co. in its four- year battle with the Tesco grocery chain. The judge, Sir Nicholas Pumfrey, said Tesco and another retail chain, Costco, have been selling Levi's jeans illegally.

The European Court of Justice had upheld an EU law requiring that trademark holders must give clear consent before their goods can be and sold within the 18-member European Economic states...