<b>SOP 07: The Multiple Sanity Check</b>

<b>SOP 07: The Multiple Sanity Check</b>

Before you fall in love, test whether the asking price is even rational. Content sites trade on a monthly multiple of net profit (SDE).

— Compute base multiple: asking price ÷ trailing-12-month average monthly net. PASS = inside the niche's normal band (commonly 30–45x for content). FAIL = ask why it's priced above band.
— Adjust UP for: clean diversified traffic, owned email list, trademark/brand, recurring revenue.
— Adjust DOWN for: declining trend, single-source revenue, thin content, no SOPs, expired-domain history.
— Stress test: would this still cash-flow positive at 70% of current revenue? PASS = resilient. FAIL = fragile, lower your offer.

Never anchor to the asking price. Anchor to your independently-built valuation.

Save this — run it every deal.