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The value of a business is subjective. Essentially, its worth what someone will pay for it. Some people value certain aspects more than others.
Take the stock market for example. 24 hours a day, people are trying to figure out what businesses are worth to someone else. If you are certain a particular stock is undervalued, you may buy it in anticipation that sometime in the future more people will come to that realisation, and then you can sell it for a profit. On the other hand you may over value a particular company (which was obviously happening in 1999) and loose lots of money.
Don't rule out day trading either. Day traders are buying in anticipation that at a later period in time someone will value the stock even more. And perhaps that person to is buying it in hopes that someone will value it even more than they. Do either of these day traders take into account the potential future revenue of the company? Quite possibly not.
While this may not appear to be relavant to buying and selling online businesses, it is. The value of a company may actually be disconnected from its earnings, depending on your ultimate goal for that company/online business.
When buying or selling, take into account other things. How much risk are you taking on? Is it possible that some new law is going to be passed that will kill the profitability of the company?
Personally, I think if your dealing with something like a TGP, you don't want to value the site too far into the future. For example, what would you value the Hun at? 3 months earnings would obviously be a steal. I'm sure there would be tons of people who would buy it for a years worth of earning. How about 5 years or even 10?
So, this post was probably needlessly long. The point is: value is highly subjective. Know anyone who buys/sells lots of businesses? That would probably a good guy to make friends with.
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