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Is owning a forum profitable?

by 101AnonymousGuy101
11 replies
I currently own a forum, the forum is mainly about making money online and general chitchat.

I am planning to collect 100k posts in my forum by 2014.

Do you think I will be able to sell the forum (with 100k posts) for $5,000-$10,000?
#forum #owning #profitable
  • Profile picture of the author Benjamin Ehinger
    Originally Posted by onlinemoneymakerguy View Post

    I currently own a forum, the forum is mainly about making money online and general chitchat.

    I am planning to collect 100k posts in my forum by 2014.

    Do you think I will be able to sell the forum (with 100k posts) for $5,000-$10,000?
    Depends on how you monetize it. Most buyers don't care as much about how many posts you have, but how much money you make. Anytime you're talking about selling a business, you need to value it based on the amount of money it's making, not how large it is.

    I could create a forum with a 100K posts and not make a dime or I could create one that has 10k posts and is making money. The one with less posts will sell for more money because it's making money.

    Benjamin Ehinger
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by onlinemoneymakerguy View Post

    Do you think I will be able to sell the forum (with 100k posts) for $5,000-$10,000?
    Just like almost any other website, what you can sell it for won't depend much on the number of posts it has, but mostly on its proven income record.
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Just like almost any other website, what you can sell it for won't depend much on the number of posts it has, but mostly on its proven income record.
      Usually forums will sell based on user base. Even an inactive user base is worth money. I sold my first forum when I was a teenager, bought it for $200 with 1500 members and grew it to 20k and sold it with no income record.
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    • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Just like almost any other website, what you can sell it for won't depend much on the number of posts it has, but mostly on its proven income record.
      Plus the number of verified users can add to the sale, but keep in mind there will be a lot of bots.

      If a forum is making $1000/month it doesn't matter if they have 100 posts or 1 million, they are still making $1000/month.
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  • Profile picture of the author anwiii
    i think any website's worth is more based on the potential and an idea of worth. not how much money it makes.

    what i would consider is a good brandable domain name, build it up to a mid range pr, 100k posts is good. make sure your posts are getting out to the social networks, you want an active user base of at least 100 people so it remains active after you sell it. you probably also want to show some income but when you show your income, you are now limiting the worth to how much money it is making rather than the potential of how much it can make.

    for instance, if i had a forum making around $500 a month through google adsense and other monitization methods, i could probably get about $5000 for it. the actual value though could be more if you had never monetized it at all and didn't show any income for it. with 100k posts and natural traffic of 20-50k unique visitor a month, a nice brandable domain with a pr of 5-6, an active member list with at least 100(active) and in upwards of 5-10k(inactive). the potential for this type of site is a lot more than 5k.

    in your post though you were focusing only on how many posts. if you are gonna do that, might as well just set up a niche blog that gets 100k posts. part of what makes a forum successful is the social interaction
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  • Profile picture of the author TheCLPro
    Is owning a forum profitable? Let's ask Warrior Forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author FirstSocialApps
    Originally Posted by onlinemoneymakerguy View Post

    I currently own a forum, the forum is mainly about making money online and general chitchat.

    I am planning to collect 100k posts in my forum by 2014.

    Do you think I will be able to sell the forum (with 100k posts) for $5,000-$10,000?
    The number of posts is not going to matter at all. Anyone can hire overseas and get fake posts made. What is going to matter is the amount of traffic that the forum gets as well as its bounce rate.

    Just a though, making a forum with the intent to sell it is likely not a very good way to get a good forum going.
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  • Profile picture of the author dhaniramkesari
    If monetized properly, I don't see why it wouldn't be. With a large enough audience, affiliates may contact you about banner ads and you can always consider opening a virtual store.
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  • Profile picture of the author eClicker
    I've heard its a lot of work, like tending a garden. Gotta keep the weeds out and fertilize the flowers to keep um going.
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