A site netting $1,000/month typically sells for $24,000–$45,000 — but the exact number turns on how safe, diversified, and transferable the income is. Here's the full breakdown, with the math.
A website netting $1,000/month in real profit usually sells for $24,000 to $45,000 — roughly 24× to 45× monthly net profit (about a 2× to 3.75× annual multiple). That's a wide band because two sites with identical profit can be worth very different amounts depending on how durable that profit looks to a buyer.
The rest of this article is really about one question: where inside that range does your site land, and how do you move it up?
This is the mistake that sinks first-time sellers. A site doing $1,000/month in revenue but only $300 in profit is a $300/month business to a buyer, not a $1,000 one. Valuations are built on net profit, never top-line revenue.
So before anything else, separate the two: revenue is what comes in, profit is what's left after every cost — hosting, content, tools, ads, contractors. The valuation multiple gets applied to the profit number.
The precise figure buyers use is Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE): net profit plus "add-backs" — expenses that benefit you as the owner but a new owner wouldn't inherit. Your own salary or owner draw, one-off costs, personal software run through the business, and non-essential subscriptions all get added back.
Once SDE is set, the multiple is the whole game. Buyers pay more (a higher multiple) for income that looks safe and hands-off, and less for income that looks fragile. The big levers:
A buyer is really buying future traffic, so the quality of your traffic sets the ceiling on your multiple. A site that's 100% dependent on Google organic is one algorithm update away from zero — buyers know it and discount hard.
Sites that also pull direct visits, an email list, social, or referral traffic are far more resilient, and command the top of the range. If you can show a real email list you own, that alone can add meaningfully to the multiple because it's traffic no algorithm can take away.
Not all $1,000 is equal. One affiliate program that is 90% of income is a single point of failure — if they cut commissions or close, the business evaporates. A mix of display ads, two or three affiliate programs, and maybe a small product is worth more per dollar.
Buyers also prefer recurring or sticky income (subscriptions, long-cookie affiliates) over one-off or volatile income. The more predictable next month's $1,000 looks, the higher the multiple.
Valuers weight the trailing 3–6 months heavily. A site earning $1,000/month and growing can push past 45× because the buyer expects it to be worth more soon. A site earning $1,000 but declining from $1,500 gets punished — buyers price the trajectory, not just the snapshot.
This is why timing matters: sell into strength, not after a downturn. A clean, flat 12-month chart with a slight uptrend is often worth more than a jagged one that averages higher.
If running the site requires you — your writing voice, your relationships, your undocumented process — a buyer inherits a job, not an asset, and pays less. If it runs on documented systems, outsourced content, and standard tools, it transfers cleanly and earns a higher multiple.
Before selling, write down how everything works and move accounts into transferable form. "Anyone competent could run this from the docs" is a phrase that raises your price.
The same site sells for different amounts depending on the channel. A marketplace listing reaches many buyers but charges a fee and attracts bargain-hunters. A broker gets you a curated buyer pool and often a higher price for larger sites, for a 10–15% commission. A private sale saves fees but you do all the vetting and closing yourself.
For a $24k–$45k site, a marketplace or broker usually nets more than a cold private sale, simply because competition between buyers lifts the price.
A 3-year-old recipe site nets a defensible $1,000/month SDE. Traffic: 70% organic, 20% email list, 10% direct. Income: display ads plus two affiliate programs. Trend: flat with a slight rise over the last six months. Upkeep: ~2 hours a week, documented.
That profile — aged, diversified traffic and income, stable trend, low owner-dependence — lands around 38–42× monthly, roughly $38,000–$42,000. Strip out the email list and let the trend turn down, and the same $1,000/month site becomes a ~$26,000 asset. Same profit, $14k difference, entirely from durability.
Each of these nudges the multiple, and on a $1,000/month site a few points of multiple is thousands of dollars. A little prep is the highest-ROI work you'll do in the whole sale.
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