Suggest me a price....URGENT

by IM Ace
9 replies
Hello warriors!

I am considering buying a 7-8 year old forum but cannot make up my mind as to what is the maximum that I should consider paying. I need suggestions for evaluation from you... kindly help. I have only about 4-5 hours of time to decide.

1. Over 90,000 registered members
2. Over 4.5 mn posts
3. The traffic is on decline, but that is primarily due to owners not taking interest in its development ---> current owner's version, as well as somewhat obvious from the site.
Quantcast reports:
Monthly US traffic is around 4000 uniques with over 55000 visits. Max reported is 8000 uniques just a few months back.
Of these, 8% are addicts, 27% are regulars and rest as passers-by, with share of visits as 84%, 7% and 9% respectively.
4. Current owner reports that over 90,000 pages are indexed in google, and over 4.5 mn in Yahoo.
5. Google decided not to allow adsense ads on this site - owner says this is on account of some content in the posts made.
6. Alexa reports that 25% of the totla traffic is from US, and shows a pretty consistant traffic over 6 months.

The forum is in an attractive IM related niche.

Your views and opinions will be of great help.
Thanks for your ineterst.
#priceurgent #suggest
  • Profile picture of the author lexilexi
    Hi Ashish,

    Are you sure that the decline in traffic has been due to a lack of owner interest? I think this is the most important stat here. With 90,000 members, the forum was obviously once buzzing.

    In all honesty I wouldn't know how to price a web site like this, but do you know how eager they are to offload?

    Do they have any monthly revenue stats? Any estimates as to immediate income that you could derive from Adsense, Kontera etc?

    Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Ace
    Lexi,
    1. It is obvious that the forum is neglected by the owner...the admin is a hired one, and there is a post from one of the previous admins that he is quitting because of the owners disinterest... plus you can actually feel it on the visit.
    2. The owners has put it on the block...and it will have a new owner in about 4 hours from now!
    3. the current returns are in the range of $25,000 to $30,000 per annum, mostly from the sale of ad space in the forum - owner's claim.
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  • Profile picture of the author blokh
    Is it an auction?

    What is the forum about - niche, industry?

    With 90K members it looks awesome but was their last visit to the forum 9 years ago ?

    When you talk big numbers and buy sites, the current year and the previous year's income is taken into account. Based on that you can make your offer ... since the traffic is on decline, you might find yourself a bargain too ... but make very sure you need to buy this ... If you get any vibes that this could be a sinking ship ... let it go !
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    Raakesh (Blokh)
    Raakesh.com - My Web Presence. All about me and my products.
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Ace
    Harlan,
    "Quantcast reports:
    Monthly US traffic is around 4000 uniques with over 55000 visits. Max reported is 8000 uniques just a few months back. "

    Alexa shows 0.0023% (of the internet traffic) reach figures (traffic ranking under 40,000).

    The seller also shows the webilizer stats as follows:
    Daily average visits : from 18k -20k in Dec 2007 to 7-10k in Nov 08 with July-August recording the lowest.

    this is pretty high compared to quantcast figures.
    How else do we know how many members are active? (Of course I can ask the owner..but any other way to get to know this?)
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Ace
    Raakesh,
    It is in IM related inche.
    LOL! I need to check that out, but sure all the members are not that old! member base normally gets built over time...
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Ashish,

    Only spend what you can afford to lose.

    Don't buy anything but revenue figures - traffic levels are meaningless, forum membership numbers are meaningless.

    Who'd buying - how much are they buying and how often?

    If you can't get enough details on where the revenue comes from and whether you can maintain/grow it - walk away.

    If you can't make the numbers add up because they're not clear enough - it's an easy decision.

    Andy

    p.s. I like the quote in your sig - I see it on the ATMs in Singapore a lot.
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author IM Ace
    Andy
    I guess I should spend the time remaining on: "Who'd buying - how much are they buying and how often?"
    Thanks for the suggestions!
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Just don't jump into something just because it 'seems' like a good idea, but get lumbered with something that makes much less and requires much more time than you're after.
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    nothing to see here.

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