How much is my forum worth?

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 02:06

4 years ago I started a J-pop fan forum. These days I don't have much interest in J-pop, so I agreed to sell it to a guy who co-admins the place. He said he'd be happy to pay me 50% of the sites value for it. But I'm not sure what that would be.

The forum has no advertising/revenue as of yet, but plenty of potential for it. Particularly as the target userbase is mainly weeaboo's, so plenty of potential for advertising both merchandise that is directly related, as well as other random weeaboo stuff, like anime/games etc.

As of right now:

- Currently Active Users: ~350
- Most users ever online was ~2000
- Threads: ~6000
- Posts: ~200'000
- Members: ~3500
- Users active in the past 24 hours: ~1200

Google pagerank is only : 2

The number of visitors/users (per 24 hours) has been steadily growing, and this trend is continuing.

I know it's not much info to go on, but based purely on that information, aprox how much do you think I should ask?

whitecrook · 17 Nov 2010 at 02:19

why only 50% of the sites value?

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 02:28

I believe that would be fair. There are only two admins (including myself), and over the last three years this other guy has done as much work on the place as I ever did. He's even been hosting it for me the last 6 months.

I basically consider him a co-owner. So selling it to him for half of it's overall value seems like the fair thing to do.

topbanana · 17 Nov 2010 at 06:46

These people own a lot of forums. http://www.internetbrands.com/

You could see what they offered?

triggerthat · 17 Nov 2010 at 07:46

I wouldn't sell it!

daz · 17 Nov 2010 at 09:09

12-24 months revenue would be a guideline figure, depending on the stability and growth of the forum.

Does it make any money at the moment?

Paul11 · 17 Nov 2010 at 09:11

by the sounds of it, you are saying the site does not generate any income ?

daman2k · 17 Nov 2010 at 09:16

But it doesnt generate income due to them having no advertising is what I gather, the potential is there.

Paul11 · 17 Nov 2010 at 09:19

so how do you value, potential income?

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 09:20

daman2k said:
But it doesnt generate income due to them having no advertising is what I gather, the potential is there.

Yeah this is it. No revenue as of yet, but someone could easily turn the place into a money maker.

I just don't have the patience as I no longer have any interest in the subject matter.

daman2k · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:14

Personally if I were you, I would put adsense or something up on the forums for a few months to see what sort of income it could bring in before I made any decision.

Zefan · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:15

58 Euros.

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:23

daman2k said:
Personally if I were you, I would put adsense or something up on the forums for a few months to see what sort of income it could bring in before I made any decision.

The other admin wants to keep it ad-free I think. And besides, a few google ads doesn't really indicate anything, since the potential revenue is from cdJapan or yesasia (or independant sponsors).

Google would earn me 2p and the site would sell for nothing. Whereas setting up some 'proper' ads would take more time/effort than it's worth. Considering that I don't really want to have anything more to do with the place by xmas this year.

daman2k · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:27

Well why dont you two contact those companies and get the ads up. How would you feel if you sold it for a price and a few months down the line he was making a ton of cash and easily covered the purchase price?
They say 2x annual income is a fair price but at the moment you dont know what that is, I guess you two will just have to come to a fair valuation between you.
You need to factor in future growth and expansion (website) etc into it.

topbanana · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:27

seek said:
Yeah this is it. No revenue as of yet, but someone could easily turn the place into a money maker.

I'm out.

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:46

lol, but Your loss.

Originally he wanted to offer me in the region of £100 based on a friends sale of his domain (which sold for $80), but I told him that A: That's just for the URL, and B: that site got like 20 visitors a week.

I can't really ask for a huge amount, since there's no point of reference regarding revenue.

So lets say I asked for what I'd consider a low estimate, of £300.

Laughably high? Pathetically low?

What do you think?

Snooble · 17 Nov 2010 at 10:47

If you search "what's my site worth" on google. You'll get a rough domain price based on hits.

As for the forum, it's based on the work you HAVE done. You can say you've left the room for potential nuclear production. But implement it before you leave if you want to see cash in exchange.

Anyway, tell him the sites worth 2 million to you.. stupid deal anyway :S

"I THINK MY SITE; MICROSOFT WILL WANT TO ADVERTISE, I'LL NEGOTIATE THEM TO 4.3 MILLION OVER 2 YEARS, I'LL DO THAT IN 22 DAYS. THEN J-POP SHOP WILL WANT ADVERTISING AT 500POUND PER PIXEL FOR A SKYSCRAPER BANNER. SO THIS POINT YOU'LL BE A MILLIONAIRE RIGHT!? SO £500,000 PLEASE"

Hope you get the point from my sarcasm

topbanana · 17 Nov 2010 at 11:16

seek said:
So lets say I asked for what I'd consider a low estimate, of £300.

Laughably high? Pathetically low?

What do you think?

Depends how badly he wants it and how much spare cash he has.

daman2k · 17 Nov 2010 at 11:23

I think £300 is to cheap, I have a forum that has 172,000+ posts and I would never consider selling it for £300.

Van Hellseek · 17 Nov 2010 at 11:42

daman2k said:
I think £300 is to cheap, I have a forum that has 172,000+ posts and I would never consider selling it for £300.

Well I agree. £300 for 4 years worth of forum building frankly seems a bit insulting. But on the other hand, I want a quick sale and nobody seems to have the foggiest clue as to it's actual value.