A Site Netting $500 a Month Lists at $10,200 to $30,000. What a Content Site Sells For, From the One Formula That Is Published

Why this pays

A content site sells for a multiple of what it earns, on a marketplace that will take it, minus a commission, after a wait. All four terms are published by someone, and the first one is the only formula in the industry that is printed: Empire Flippers' listing price is 12 months of total net profit multiplied by a multiple, typically 1.7 to 5 or higher.

The site that earned $6,000 last year can return two to five years of that in one wire, in under a month, if the profit sheet is ready and the accounts that cannot move are planned before the listing goes live. That plan is what a serious buyer asks for first.

The play, in three lines

1. Put twelve months of revenue, costs and net profit on one sheet, with the analytics account open in the next tab, and multiply the annual net by 1.7 and by 5.
2. Pick the door you clear: Empire Flippers at $2,000 a month or more, otherwise Motion Invest or Flippa.
3. Before the listing form, write the table of accounts that do not move with the site, AdSense, Amazon Associates, Mediavine, and how many days of revenue the buyer loses opening their own.

The path above walks every step. What follows is the reasoning behind each and the numbers you quote from.

Where the money comes from

• A buyer, through the marketplace. Paid by wire 3 to 6 business days after the transfer is confirmed on Motion Invest; a reasonable time after a 2 to 8 week migration on Empire Flippers; on documents you both sign on Flippa.
• Less the marketplace's cut. Flat $10,000 up to $66,666.66 at Empire Flippers; 20% under $20,000 at Motion Invest; 10% plus the listing fee at Flippa.
• Not the earning accounts. AdSense, Amazon Associates, Mediavine and Ezoic stay with you or die with the sale. The buyer pays for the domain, the content, the traffic and the history.

The pain you are selling the cure for

The buyer wants a property with a year of clean numbers they can grow, and their fear is the month after the handover, when the AdSense account they cannot inherit is still under review and the site earns nothing. A listing that shows twelve months of profit, live analytics, and a written plan for every account that has to be re-opened answers that fear before it is asked. That is why the 12 days at Motion Invest are twelve for some sellers and forty for others.

Step one: the profit sheet

• Empire Flippers requires 12 months of revenue history, with Google Analytics or Clicky tracking for at least 3 months before you apply.
• Flippa's broker track asks for a minimum 12 month trading history and 12 months of consistent monthly net profit, with no dollar figure attached.
• Motion Invest lists by approval after a 10-step due diligence review.
• So: twelve months, revenue by source, every cost, net profit by month, analytics open beside it. The website-cost page is the cost side of that sheet for a site not yet earning.

Step two: the price, from the one formula that is published

• Empire Flippers: 12 months of total net profit times a multiple, typically 1.7 to 5 or higher. It states the arithmetic only, not what moves the multiple.
• Flippa: assets are benchmarked against similar ones; its free valuation tool draws on 100k+ comparable sales across 100+ countries, without stating a multiple. Motion Invest offers a free valuation with the listing.
• Write both ends of the range on the sheet. The buyer is looking at the same range from the other side.

Step three: the door

• The chart above is the one published bar: Empire Flippers wants at least $2,000 a month in net profit averaged over 12 months.
• Motion Invest publishes no minimum income, traffic or age. Flippa's self-service side has no stated floor beyond the listing fee.
• Most content sites are under $2,000 a month, which is why the portfolio page sends small sites to the other two.

Step four: the listing, and what it costs to place

• Empire Flippers: no listing fee, nothing collected if the business does not sell, a minimum 2 month exclusivity period.
• Motion Invest: $0 to list, the listing built in 1 to 2 days after due diligence, paid only out of the sale price.
• Flippa: from $29 for a 60-day Entry listing under $10K, $49 Boosted for three months, $199 Premium per 6 months; $10K to $49.9K pays $49, $399 or $599; $50K and up $129, $399 or $699. Browsing is free; the Premium buyer membership is $49 a month or $490 a year.
• Whatever the marketplace, the listing is the profit sheet and the analytics access. A listing without them is the one buyers scroll past.

Step five: the commission, on a calculator

• Empire Flippers: a flat $10,000 up to $66,666.66, then a flat 15% up to $700,000.
• Motion Invest: 20% under $20,000, then 15%, 10%, 7%, down to 5% over $500,000.
• Flippa: 10% on top of the listing fee across all three self-service brackets, tapering only on broker-led tiers to 5% above $50M.
• On a $15,000 sale: $10,000, $3,000 or $1,529. On a $60,000 sale: $10,000, $9,000 or $6,029. Write the net under the price.

Step six: the accounts that stay behind

• AdSense: no transfers of account ownership, only name and address corrections.
• Amazon Associates: cannot be assigned or transferred without Amazon's prior written approval.
• Mediavine: the site sells, the account does not; the buyer applies from scratch and the seller's loyalty bonus does not carry over.
• Ezoic: cannot be sold or transferred without prior written consent, which may be withheld; an assignment without it is null and void. Substack: no assignment without prior written consent. Gumroad: handing the account to another party without consent is prohibited conduct.
• Ghost is the exception: rights may be assigned to any party that agrees to the terms in writing.
• The plan is a table in the listing: each earning account, whether it moves, and the days of revenue the buyer loses opening their own. The account-sale axis is the reference.

Step seven: the paper

• Flippa supplies embedded Letter of Intent and Asset Purchase Agreement templates; ownership moves on documents you both sign.
• Empire Flippers' terms take a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide licence over any content a user submits to its platform, and its listing binds you to one marketplace for at least two months. Both are in force from the click.

Step eight: the days to the wire

The second chart above is every median a marketplace publishes. Motion Invest: 12 days from listing to sale, due diligence 3 to 7, the transfer 3 to 7, the wire 3 to 6 business days after the transfer is confirmed. Flippa's median time to close for businesses sold in 2023: 15 days under $50K, 49 days for $50K to $250K, 73 days above. Empire Flippers publishes no median; its FAQ says businesses under $100K tend to go quickly and a $40K site has taken a month or more, with migration typically 2 to 8 weeks before payment. Motion Invest can also terminate or suspend an account immediately, without notice, for any reason, so the profit sheet and the content live on your disk, not only in the listing.

What to do today

1. Fill twelve months of revenue and costs in a spreadsheet, with the analytics account open beside it.
2. Multiply the annual net by 1.7 and by 5.
3. Look at the $2,000 bar and pick the door.
4. Before any listing form, write the table of accounts that do not move.