Teenager sells ZuneBoards.com for $62k

**walt25** · 10-13-2008, 06:33 PM

I don´t know if it´s been up here on the forum, but I will go ahead and post a link to the article:

http://jan.freedomblogging.com/2008/...ite-for-62000/

Zuneboards.com was forum with 60k members and was making $1k on adsense a month.

**Gerry** · 10-13-2008, 06:40 PM

What a fantastic story to read!

**DomainsInc** · 10-13-2008, 07:21 PM

Sold to who? Zune is a major TM.

**Hurley4540** · 10-13-2008, 07:31 PM

Very nice sale price , glad to see he's still an admin...

**thevirtual** · 10-13-2008, 07:38 PM

This is interesting.

The domain has below zero value. This doesn't seem to be the best subject for a forum. I wouldn't think a forum related to this mp3 player would attract many members.

That site seems spammy and hard to navigate.

**owntag** · 10-13-2008, 07:38 PM

Nice sale, very impressive.
I was considering to send him an offer slightly lower than the initial bid at the very beginning. But seems there were many interested parties and everyone can beat me

BTW: the teenager seller is also a "Gold Lifetime Member" of DNF since 2006, let's say congrats to him!

**Justin Hulsey** · 10-13-2008, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by owntag

BTW: the teenager seller is also a "Gold Lifetime Member" of DNF since 2006, let's say congrats to him!

Do you know his username?

**radioz** · 10-14-2008, 01:34 AM

Sold to who? Zune is a major TM.

True, but any smart company would want a site that supports them. You probably own a Zune and will likely buy accessories and likely new Zunes in the future or the site may convince you to get one. There are many sites that use the ebay name, for instance, that support helping to sell on ebay, etc. which should certainly be beneficial to ebay.

While they may have other ideas, if you put up a site called 'ToyotaLovers.com' that was a forum with everyone singing praises for Toyota, I'd buy ads on it if I were them rather than shut it down.

**allanh** · 10-14-2008, 05:24 AM

the value lies mostly within the site, its traffic and revenue made. The domain itself is not worth near that amount of money sold.

**rebirth** · 10-14-2008, 05:27 AM

Teenagers these days...

**Stian** · 10-14-2008, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by seminarist.com

Teenagers these days...

**replic8te** · 10-14-2008, 05:54 AM

forget the quality of the site name etc, what matters imo is that this guy did it so hats off to him. this is an awesome inspiration for our kids.

**jasdon11** · 10-14-2008, 05:58 AM

Nice story - well done to the seller!

I thought this line right at the end was funny;

“He’s a great kid and a valuable member of our church,” said Matthew Lee of Sarang Community Church in Anaheim."

I wonder if he meant to say "valued"?

**Carter** · 10-14-2008, 07:58 AM

Great sale!
I hope he don't spend all money in Condoms

**ZeRohiLL** · 10-14-2008, 09:22 AM

I agree, good for him, we're reading about him, not him reading about us.

He's still has a lot of work to do.

-Zh

**Dimva** · 10-14-2008, 09:35 AM

Nice sale! Been in contact with him in the past as im the owner of ZuneBoard.com

Congrats to this great sale

!!

**Admin** · 10-14-2008, 09:40 AM

Great story! I know as a teenager I never thought about making money only spending it.

**lpxxfaintxx** · 10-14-2008, 10:54 PM

Thanks everyone, but let me clarify some things:

Microsoft had no issues with the TM in the domain name. In fact, they even supported us at times. Truth is, 3rd party Zune communities are crucial for the growth of the Zune.

the value lies mostly within the site, its traffic and revenue made. The domain itself is not worth near that amount of money sold.

I agree, but you forgot one thing: content. ZuneBoards is so content-rich and goes so deep that even I sometimes forget some things on/about the site. Also, a great thing about forums and communities is that once it is established, it goes nowhere but up. Literally thousands of content are added every day, and I think that's beautiful.

The domain has below zero value. This doesn't seem to be the best subject for a forum. I wouldn't think a forum related to this mp3 player would attract many members.

I disagree. I think an mp3 player is a great niche for a forum. People come to the forum all the time for technical support, accessory and player reviews, wallpapers, podcasts, mods and hacks, zune discussion, rumors, and recently, Zune games (which we are DOMINATING).

I find users with split opinions on the sale price of the site, at $62,000. In my opinion, it could go either way, but I thought 62K was very reasonable.

$62,000 was too much:

At the time of the sale, ZuneBoards was raking in ~$1,000 a month. That means they paid 62 months of revenue. Zune's market share is unimpressive, and Apple totally dominates them.

$62,000 was too little:

The Zune is growing rapidly every single year. Microsoft will be throwing money at the Zune with their bottomless sack of money, and Microsoft confirmed that Zune is a long-term investment, and will take at least 5 years to make an impact of Apple's marketshare. Look at the Xbox, people ridiculed it when it first came out (admit it, who wanted that ugly big black box?). They ridiculed Microsoft for stepping up against Sony and Nintendo, but look at the Xbox now. It is a HUGE market! As the Zune grows, ZuneBoards will grow WITH it, and that $1,000 a month revenue will seem minuscule to what it will make in the future. Because of that, I can't say that it was sold for 62 months of revenue, because every year the monthly revenue will increase. ($1K a month for first year of sale, $1.5K for 2nd year, $2K for 3rd year, etc.)

For those who are interested in the content ZuneBoards had at the time of the sale in July, you can look here. Unsurprisingly, it has grown a lot even in that short period.

Feel free to visit my website as well.

**Shaggy** · 10-15-2008, 01:07 AM

Well Yoon, you did a great job on the sale. What is crazy about it is that you had 62,000 users but only 250,000 posts. Was there an insentive to signup? That seemed just what most users did was just to signup allowing to get something, like hacks? Just curious is all.

Once again, congrats on the great sale!! Remember to claim the $62k on your taxes

Makes me feel better about owning several forums with more posts/members then zuneboards.com and what I can get for them in the future. (not selling now :p )