RealSiteWorth
Field notes on website valuationSep 1, 2026
RealSiteWorth field notes

What sites are actually worth — and how to read a valuation.

Method writeups and field notes from the team building RealSiteWorth. We publish what we'd want to read if we were about to list, sell, or buy a website — and nothing we wouldn't stand behind.

Topic
Social
Creator economy

Latest social

YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram valuation notes in one lane.

Core method

Latest valuation

The evergreen valuation math, risk bands, and confidence logic.

Exit prep

Latest selling

Practical selling, marketplace, and value-gap playbooks.

All field notes

Every piece we've published.

243 posts
Glass conveyor belt splitting into a larger forward stream of parcels and a smaller looping return stream.
Ecommerce

Ecommerce returns: how return-rate exposure rewrites net revenue and valuation

Gross sales aren't the number a buyer should value — return rate turns real revenue into refunds, restocking cost, and fraud loss before SDE.

Aug 30, 2026·10 min read
A founder leads an evening customer call while a sales teammate shadows the conversation and takes notes.
SaaS Valuation

Founder-led sales and SaaS value: when the founder is still the revenue engine

Founder-led sales can prove demand early, but buyers must test whether relationships, positioning, and closing knowledge transfer without the founder.

Aug 29, 2026·11 min read
Two subscription payment paths compare one annual prepayment with a sequence of monthly payments.
SaaS Valuation

Annual subscription vs monthly billing: cash flow, churn visibility, and what it does to a SaaS valuation

Annual prepay moves cash forward and slows down how fast churn becomes visible. Buyers price the billing mix, not just the sticker discount.

Aug 29, 2026·11 min read
An engineer checks a working server rack while a finance lead reviews the cost of operating an AI product.
SaaS Valuation

AI SaaS business valuation: retention, model costs, margins, and platform risk

AI SaaS can grow unusually fast, but buyers must separate durable recurring revenue from experimental spend and variable model costs.

Aug 28, 2026·11 min read
A creator films a product demonstration on a phone while an assistant packs customer orders in the same apartment workspace.
Ecommerce

TikTok Shop Business Valuation: How Buyers Price a Platform You Don't Control

A TikTok Shop business can scale fast, but TikTok sets the fees, the algorithm, and account access. Here's how buyers price that dependency.

Aug 28, 2026·10 min read
Two equal revenue reservoirs showing retained revenue alone versus retained revenue plus expansion.
SaaS Valuation

Net revenue retention (NRR) vs GRR in SaaS valuation: expansion growth versus the retention floor

NRR shows expansion after losses; GRR shows the revenue a SaaS keeps before upsells. Buyers need both, calculated from the same cohort.

Aug 27, 2026·11 min read
A shop owner carries an online order from the storefront into the backroom while an employee processes inventory.
Ecommerce

Omnichannel ecommerce valuation: how buyers verify commerce channel mix without double-counting

More sales channels can diversify demand—or hide duplicated customers, inventory, attribution, and platform risk. Buyers need one reconciled model.

Aug 27, 2026·15 min read
Greenhouse of domain-key plants receiving renewal water while only some bear valuable fruit.
Domain Value

Domain Renewal Cost and Portfolio Value: Know What Your Domain Names Really Cost

How domain name renewal pricing, grace periods, redemption fees, holding time, and operating utility change the true value of a domain portfolio.

Aug 26, 2026·13 min read
Miniature workshop powered by a steady repeating waterwheel and separate one-time rain vessels.
Valuation

Recurring revenue vs one-time revenue in website valuation: what buyers should normalize

Recurring revenue can improve visibility, but contracts, churn, margins, obligations, and verified profit matter more than the label.

Aug 26, 2026·14 min read
Warehouse of unsold domain keys with recurring renewal drips and one key ready to ship.
Domain Value

Domain Flipping Economics: Renewal Cost, Sell-Through Risk, and Real Portfolio Value

A sober model for domain investing that separates appraisal stories from acquisition cost, annual carrying cost, liquidity, legal risk, and realized sales.

Aug 25, 2026·14 min read
Distinct harbor beacon attracting deliberate streams of visitors while other paths scatter among generic lights.
Valuation

Branded search demand and website value: what buyers can actually verify

Branded searches can reveal audience familiarity and demand, but buyers need clean Search Console evidence before treating them as an asset.

Aug 25, 2026·14 min read
Miniature glass domain key passing through a secure brass escrow vault between seller and buyer cradles.
Domain Value

How to Sell a Domain Name Safely: Valuation, Escrow, and Transfer

A step-by-step guide to sell your domain name safely — pricing it, qualifying buyers, using escrow, and transferring ownership.

Aug 24, 2026·12 min read
A brass telescope follows a quotation-shaped constellation to a miniature storefront where one lamp glows.
AI Search

Does ChatGPT Referral Traffic Increase Website Value?

ChatGPT referral traffic to websites is real but volatile — count it toward value only when evidence, not the screenshot, backs it up.

Aug 24, 2026·12 min read
Real Site Worth's public website and domain value calculator shows an empty URL field, a range example, and a confidence-first promise.
MethodValuation

Website value calculator comparison: Real Site Worth vs seven alternatives

Compare Real Site Worth with seven tools for domain, traffic, revenue, pageviews, public signals, and owner inputs—and learn each limitation.

Aug 23, 2026·13 min read
Three transparent tubes approach a website specimen in a forensic laboratory while a lens tests each route.
AI Search

How to Rank in ChatGPT Search: SEO Due Diligence for Website Buyers

Learn how to rank in ChatGPT Search by auditing AI visibility, OpenAI crawler access, citations, brand mentions, referral traffic, and transferable SEO assets.

Aug 22, 2026·13 min read
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