Offers Golala.com – [PR6] well established site

[intersabre]

URL: http://www.golala.com

Age of site: 20 months old (originally started in November 2003)

TRAFFIC: 2500-3000 visits/day
http://img331.imageshack.us/my.php?image=webalizer5kj.gif

REVENUE::
HurricaneDigitalMedia [leaderboard and box] - $75+/mo

HDM is considered by many to be a second/third tier network. A lot of this is because they are new. I’m sure many of us can remember when CasaleMedia was like this and now their rates are superior to FastClick.

Revenue could easily be improved if the new owner was able to get the site in a network with higher rates.

Here are the month’s stats up to the 16th:
http://img331.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hurricanedigitalmedia4ve.gif

Textlinks –

So far this month: $86.76
June: $337.36
April: $166.93
March: $704.52
http://img331.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adfuel3rx.gif

My broker’s commission is 30% plus listing/payment fees. Revenue was much higher in March because the site was a PR7 until the update in late April. The broker has a script installed to update the links so no work is required. I’d say adspace is only about 40% utilized. I would highly recommend keeping the broker, but the buyer could potentially increase this revenue by taking sales in-house.

Description: As you can see, this is a quality site. The site is almost two years old, PR 6 (www.prchecker.info) and is listed in DMOZ (http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=golala).

The site offers free forum hosting. This is nice because of two reasons:

1) User-generated content. I spend a negligible amount of time on the site; just checking stats every week or so and cashing checks. I took off the support system awhile over a year ago because I did not have much time.
2) A nice “moat” against competition. In my opinion, image hosting sites are poor because there are no barriers. Visitors are smart. They will go to the site with no watermarks, barely any ads, etc. (like I have done for this auction!). Image hosting is a difficult genre to succeed in, as it’s a race to the bottom for publishers to attract and retain visitors.

Free forum hosting is not nearly as cutthroat because users must restart their forums if they switch providers. Not trying to sound evil here – just pointing out why the big forum providers haven’t been eaten alive by the newcomers, such as in image hosting.

The winner will get control of the server – LiquidWeb CPanel AMD Opteron 242, 2GB Memory, SCSI drive at $294/mo. The server is overkill as it was used to host other big MySQL sites. Golala was hosted fine in the past on a P4 with comparable traffic.

If the owner is looking to move the site, I think it would be a good idea to pay $50 or so for a server admin to move it. The DB is quite big (around 6 GB) and could prove to be a challenge for the novice/intermediate. The site itself is around 700 MB and has used about 10 gigs of bandwidth so far this month.

Possible improvements by the new owner include a new design, reimplementing some sort of support system and introducing phpBB hosting. Some MySQL optimization would also probably be beneficial.

Payment will be through escrow.com. We will split the fees. Please PM me with any questions.

Please start the bidding at $500 and with $100 increments.

 

[seoimage]

Was the forum removed?

Indexed pages show different content from the current forum which isn't really anyhting but a test forum.

 

[BoyWonder]

Do you have a BIN ?

 

[impulse]

1. What is your reason for selling the site?
2. So the total income right now is about $200/month, right (before the cost of the server)?

- Eric
Bored.com

 

[LeeD]

How many new signups daily? Why are the payments for the links all coming from 1 person?

 

[BoyWonder]

There seems like a huge number of sub forums created (maybe over 1000 ??) - are you sure the currently server is overkill ?

 

[intersabre]

One thing I forgot to mention - the site is blocked from Google Adsense. The previous owner had all his sites banned (he sold it to me over a year ago). I tried adding my code but it just shows up as blank. I do realize this might hurt the selling price, but I do want to be upfront and honest. Yahoo is developing its own Adsense product, which could preform well as many forums by their nature are targeted.

seoimage, I am not sure what sort of problem you are having. Some forums have been shut down by their previous users, but the site is working. Please PM if you are having any problems.

Payments are coming from one person because the person is my text link broker

Load on the server right now is at .08 (!). The server could easily handle more sites or the site could be moved to a lesser server .

The site has had 32 new signups this month. I think the rate could be increased by offering phpbb hosting and of course more active promotion.

BIN right now is $2000. The HDM revenue at $75+/mo is quite stable. Text links are by their nature more fluid. If you assumed no more sales this month (we are a little more than halfway through) and averaged it with last month, it would be $200/mo.

So BIN I'd say is 7-10x monthly rev. The rate everyone mentions is 6x revenue (even though no site seems to go for that cheap). I feel a premium is justified for my site because it is
A) well established - almost 2 yrs old! Not some cookiecutter "turnkey" BS site.
B) stable traffic - I always hesitate to bid on sites with tons of SE traffic as there is always the risk of being nuked during an update. This isn't the case with the site
C) little time commitment - though I think the site would benefit from active promotion and a support forum or ticket system
D) Heavy traffic, which I forgot to mention previously. This offers nice "synergy" possibilities as you can promote your other sites on it.

I don't think anyone is going to make a quick killing on the site or be able to "flip" it for 50% more in a month. This is a quality site that I strongly feel will be a good asset in the long run.

I will list this on SitePoint later today, so someone might want to grab it for it happens.

 

[Rico]

$500

 

[impulse]

I bid $500.
Sites usually sell for a multiple of the profit, not the revenue. Right now this site is losing money, although as you said, it could be on a cheaper server.

- Eric
Bored.com

$600.

- Eric
Bored.com

 

[Rico]

$1000

 

[impulse]

$1100

- Eric
Bored.com

 

[intersabre]

This will be listed on SP in about 4-5 hours. I do not want to because
a) they now charge for listings (!)
b) poor experience in the past. My last listing attracted half a dozen posters who were "very interested" in the sale, but infact just wanted to extract as much information as possible.

So until then, the BIN is $1500 for a qualified bidder. I'd like someone who is experienced, will take care of the site, and see this as a longterm investment rather than quick money. I also don't want members to lose their communities because the new buyer put the site on an unsecure server.

 

[Rico]

using BIN: $1500 - SOLD

 

[christopher_c]

BIN right now is $2000. The HDM revenue at $75+/mo is quite stable. Text links are by their nature more fluid. If you assumed no more sales this month (we are a little more than halfway through) and averaged it with last month, it would be $200/mo.

Hmm, not sure if I read this thread wrong (or if it was Rico) but SOLD at BIN of $2000.

*edit* Reread it again, my understanding of this is that Rico's bid trumps mine pending that SPF post. I don't have a membership there so I'll leave it up to the seller & mods to figure it out.

 

[Rico]

?