How much is my forum worth?

Why not give him a 75% share on the condition you do not play an active role in running the forum but get 25% of any profits made. Then if he makes money you get a few quid if not then who cares, not like £300 really is that much anyway. Last thing you want to do is give away something with potential for a few hundred quid when it could earn you than that if resold to a forum buyer in a few months or with a bit of successful advertising. :)
 
It strikes me that the value would vary a great deal depending on the content and the user base of the forum. For example, it's not enough to say that it has 3500 members. If those members are highly affluent and spend lots of money on stuff related to the subject material, then the forum is presumably worth much more in terms of advertising potential than if all the members are 14-year-olds with a weekly income of about £2. A Porsche forum with 3500 members is worth a lot more than a forum with 3500 teenagers talking about their love lives.

I suppose what I'm saying is that there's no simple formula for monetising online content, so you need to take advice from someone who knows the subject matter well. As you have no revenue figures to go on, people who don't know anything about the J-Pop industry are just going to be making guesses.
 
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_TubbZ_ said:
Damn hippies :rolleyes:
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Amen to that.


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seek said:
lol, but Your loss. :p

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?
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Laughably high, your website doesn't generate any profit. Hence, its worthless. However, you could see the value of selling on the user information to advertising companies and base the value of the company on that asset.
 
mdb08 said:
Laughably high, your website doesn't generate any profit. Hence, its worthless. However, you could see the value of selling on the user information to advertising companies and base the value of the company on that asset.
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So shops for let on the high street should be given away for free when they're empty, because they are obviously not generating profit, hence worthless?
 
seek said:
So shops for let on the high street should be given away for free when they're empty, because they are obviously not generating profit, hence worthless?
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The shops would not be given away because its a physical asset that has value. Hence its an asset. If you were to sell the shop with the actual business still operating in there, it would be worth more because its still got the physical asset and is generating profit.
 
A forum that has 200,000 posts and 3500 members is quite clearly not worthless is it, hence why someone wants to buy it. Also if he was to put it on flippa it would not go for free.
 
daman2k said:
A forum that has 200,000 posts and 3500 members is quite clearly not worthless is it, hence why someone wants to buy it. Also if he was to put it on flippa it would not go for free.
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Its not generating revenue, for something to have a realistic value it tends have to be already producing revenue let alone profit for it to have a realistic evaluation.
 
something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it

if he sees value in having a user base that he will build some advertising on, then to him it might well be worth £300-£500
 
Paul11 said:
something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it

if he sees value in having a user base that he will build some advertising on, then to him it might well be worth £300-£500
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exactly..to the OP I'm guessing you will have to bite the bullet and have a good discussion with the prospective owner. I reckon you'd like £300 and that I'm guessing means you might want to say £500 with a view to being bartered down..haggled, whatever you want to call it!
 
Presumably you have invested in the site (hosting etc). Make sure you get that back, at a minimum. Making money from forums is relatively easy. £1 per member/per year is a good starting point. £3500 per year.. based on a buy out of 3*turnover, i make that £10.5k. Cut it in half - £5.25k.

On the other hand, seeing as it's actually making no income, has no history of income....you're in a difficult place. I'd just ask him to make an offer, highlight the £ you've put in for hosting and domain costs since the site has been open, then judge whether you wish to accept.
 
He wants to buy you out, on a venture he's not planning on making his investment back from? If the two of you had no intention of ever making money from this, there'd be no expected pay out to you at all. Nobody was making money from it, so there's no loss to be recouped, by you no longer being involved, that he needs to pay you for. So why offer to pay you, unless... maybe as soon as he's bought you out he sticks ads on there.

If I'd spent time building up a thing of value (as it has potential value, at least to two people) I wouldn't walk away from it just because I was tired of the subject matter. I'd retain a stake. Let him do what he wants with it, but just in case those wants are financially driven, keep that 15/20/25%.
 
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