sonofsam;845183 wrote:I wasn't trying to be nosy or anything, I just wondered if you had ever looked up what it is worth. My friend that owns his site said its based on how many people log onto it daily... (I am assuming because advertisement would benefit) but just wondered.

Forums usually bring in a good bit of money because they get a bunch of hits. Didn't the puddle sell for a nice chunk of change?

Your friend is wrong. The domain name of the site plays a big part in the value,then you have to look at monthly net profit, forums are not a easy sell because you have a hard time proving monthly profits. Forums can go for about 20 x the monthly net profit. What ever happened to the Redskinchop site?

password;845260 wrote:Your friend is wrong. The domain name of the site plays a big part in the value,then you have to look at monthly net profit, forums are not a easy sell because you have a hard time proving monthly profits. Forums can go for about 20 x the monthly net profit. What ever happened to the Redskinchop site?

Actually, even the domain name is only as valuable as its monetization. That can, in reality, be boiled down to monthly searches for exact key phrases searched in Google that show up in the domain name.

For example, OhioChatter.com is a more valuable domain name if 12,000 people search the term "ohio chatter" on Google every month than it would be if only 7,000 people searched it every month. Domain name is only as important as its owner's SEO goals.

Traffic DOES play a role in profitability, because it can guarantee impressions on ads. However, it's tough to price because it focuses only on impressions, and not earnings, unless someone uses a "pay-per-impression" affiliate campaign -- and there are VERY few of those out there anymore. Still, it's valuable, because site visitors tend to be "targeted" in some sense.

For example, if I have an Ohio-focused sports site, then many of the people there are probably at least somewhat interested in Ohio-based sports. I could have banner ads or affiliate links for Ticket Master pitching Indians, Browns, Cavs, Blue Jackets, etc. tickets. I could pitch a company that makes high school sweatshirts. I could pitch high school sports equipment (yes, coaches and players DO frequent such a forum). I could place contextual ads that show certain ads depending on keywords or key phrases that show up in that topic (which AdSense has built-in, I believe).

So the traffic IS definitely able to drive the price higher.

In reality, pricing a site is a guessing game, but it's not guessing what you think. It's actually guessing how the site could best be monetized. If someone is making $2K a month off a site, the idea is that it would be worth $10K (five months worth of what he feels is the best monetization of the site). However, someone might have an idea on how to get $10K out of the site each MONTH. To him, the site is worth $50K, so he'll very likely buy it for $10K, since that is what the current owner would sell it at.

For kicks, you should check out Flippa, as I know a lot of people sell sites there.

password;845260 wrote:Your friend is wrong. The domain name of the site plays a big part in the value,then you have to look at monthly net profit, forums are not a easy sell because you have a hard time proving monthly profits. Forums can go for about 20 x the monthly net profit. What ever happened to the Redskinchop site?

It was a strange turn of events...

The chop still exists, but is in limbo. I am impressed that you knew what website I was speaking of. Pretty much the domain name expired, an email was sent to the owner's spam box instead of inbox (which he deleted without noticing) and his back up credit card on file for automatic renewal was cancelled because he switched banks. Needless to say, the domain name was purchased by a company wanting an absurd amount of money to get the name back. We are in talks as to which path we are going to go. The chop will survive, I have offered to pay the fee to get the site back, but other directions are being discussed.

sonofsam;845183 wrote: Didn't the puddle sell for a nice chunk of change?

Nowhere in the same galaxy as some of the baseless rumors.

queencitybuckeye;845405 wrote:Nowhere in the same galaxy as some of the baseless rumors.

JJ is a fraternity brother's uncle. The amount is pretty ridiculous and a lot closer to the rumors than you infer.

Part of the deal was the website and the other part was JJ's "services" and a non-compete contract

LJ;845407 wrote:JJ is a fraternity brother's uncle. The amount is pretty ridiculous and a lot closer to the rumors than you infer.

Part of the deal was the website and the other part was JJ's "services" and a non-compete contract

So you know what JJ told his nephew. Given his less than sterling reputation for honesty, I wouldn't take that to the bank. The man likes to brag. He also claims he was a minor part in a state championship football team (volunteer assistant). I know several of the former players, and no one had ever heard of him.


I know what the site was worth. That someone would pay more than an order of magnitude too much for it is a little hard to believe. If they overpaid (and continue to overpay) him for "consulting", that's a separate issue.

queencitybuckeye;845413 wrote:So you know what JJ told his nephew. Given his less than sterling reputation for honesty, I wouldn't take that to the bank. The man likes to brag. He also claims he was a minor part in a state championship football team (volunteer assistant). I know several of the former players, and no one had ever heard of him.


I know what the site was worth. That someone would pay more than an order of magnitude too much for it is a little hard to believe. If they overpaid (and continue to overpay) him for "consulting", that's a separate issue.

Well, I know what he told his nephew, I also know the amount of his college that JJ paid (which may even be more than what you think he got for the site). Knowing the owner of Bucknuts (don't KNOW him, just know his business style) overpaying for the site, it's content and JJ's services is not very hard to believe.

You keep lumping the "services" in with the site. It may be part of the same deal, but when one speaks of how much the site itself sold for, it isn't reasonable to include it. I have no idea what one idiot managed to talk another idiot into for the "service" of continuing to be rude to posters. For the site itself, I know what it was worth, I've been in the business longer than the modern internet has existed.

When they bought it, there really was nothing being offered to increase the value ofthe site itself, it was just a message board with decent traffic, thus they only paid for the site and for the "services" of JJ himself.

I think it is safe to say they grossly overpaid on both parts of the deal, overvaluing the package equally on both sides.

There is no question that bucknuts overpaid, no matter what they paid.

ts1227;845437 wrote:When they bought it, there really was nothing being offered to increase the value ofthe site itself, it was just a message board, thus they only paid for the site and for the "services" of JJ himself.

I think it is safe to say they grossly overpaid on both parts of the deal, overvaluing the package equally on both sides.

Anything they paid for his services was likely too much. His presence on the board was never a compelling reason for anyone to join or participate. If anything, the site was successful in spite of his best efforts to screw it up. The new owners were just able to take screwing up to a new level.

justincredible;845439 wrote:There is no question that bucknuts overpaid, no matter what they paid.

Eh, I'd just say they suck at monetizing it.

O-Trap;845447 wrote:Eh, I'd just say they suck at monetizing it.

Well, they took something with a moderate amount of value and turned it into something virtually worthless, so yeah, probably so.

O-Trap;845275 wrote:Actually, even the domain name is only as valuable as its monetization. That can, in reality, be boiled down to monthly searches for exact key phrases searched in Google that show up in the domain name.

For example, OhioChatter.com is a more valuable domain name if 12,000 people search the term "ohio chatter" on Google every month than it would be if only 7,000 people searched it every month. Domain name is only as important as its owner's SEO goals.

Traffic DOES play a role in profitability, because it can guarantee impressions on ads. However, it's tough to price because it focuses only on impressions, and not earnings, unless someone uses a "pay-per-impression" affiliate campaign -- and there are VERY few of those out there anymore. Still, it's valuable, because site visitors tend to be "targeted" in some sense.

For example, if I have an Ohio-focused sports site, then many of the people there are probably at least somewhat interested in Ohio-based sports. I could have banner ads or affiliate links for Ticket Master pitching Indians, Browns, Cavs, Blue Jackets, etc. tickets. I could pitch a company that makes high school sweatshirts. I could pitch high school sports equipment (yes, coaches and players DO frequent such a forum). I could place contextual ads that show certain ads depending on keywords or key phrases that show up in that topic (which AdSense has built-in, I believe).

So the traffic IS definitely able to drive the price higher.

In reality, pricing a site is a guessing game, but it's not guessing what you think. It's actually guessing how the site could best be monetized. If someone is making $2K a month off a site, the idea is that it would be worth $10K (five months worth of what he feels is the best monetization of the site). However, someone might have an idea on how to get $10K out of the site each MONTH. To him, the site is worth $50K, so he'll very likely buy it for $10K, since that is what the current owner would sell it at.

For kicks, you should check out Flippa, as I know a lot of people sell sites there.

I am not saying traffic has no role in pricing, it is one of many things you need to look at when dealing with website value. Domain name is one of the main reasons for the site value. Chat forums are not that valuable when compared to other types of sites. Your example of a Ohio sports site is very well planned and would be a way to increase value for the owner trying to built the site and increase profits for himself, it doesn't guarantee that a buyer will see the same value. My point is that the domain name will play a major role in value. The amount of visitors to a site are important but can be manipulated to show false traffic that does not exist. You can have a site that shows 5000 hits a day but in reality it may only be visited by 50 different people that have numerous accounts they use to log on to the site, forums are well known for this false traffic. Everyone wants to say their site makes x amount of money but you need to look at net profit. Lets just say this site makes $5.00 a day on advertising revenue, that means that the monthly revenue is $600.00 a month and the value would be 5 months of revenue for a total of "$3000.00", I don't know anyone that would give you that kind of money for this site as it is today.

Justin had the best answer on the subject, when he said the site is only worth, what someone is willing to pay.

Flippa is a good site, I am a member on Flippa and have used it many times.

queencitybuckeye;845465 wrote:Well, they took something with a moderate amount of value and turned it into something virtually worthless, so yeah, probably so.

A site with as much targeted traffic as JJHuddle had when it was sold is a GOLDMINE from an IM standpoint. EASILY worth six to seven figures if you know how to monetize it properly.

However, it appears that Bucknuts just took someone who already worked there and put that person in charge of the marketing on the site. REALLY stupid move by the Bucknuts staff, and it has certainly come to bite them in the ass cheek.

But that's what happens ...

LJ;845407 wrote:Part of the deal was the website and the other part was JJ's "services" and a non-compete contract

The Bucknutz people wanted him around to suck dick? Or does "services" imply something else?

password;845506 wrote:I am not saying traffic has no role in pricing, it is one of many things you need to look at when dealing with website value. Domain name is one of the main reasons for the site value.

Believe it or not, the domain name has considerably less value of the person buying it doesn't know how to optimize the site properly. Obviously, it also does depend on what the domain name actually is. "JJHuddle.com" doesn't have a whole lot of search engine sex appeal, so the domain name really wasn't the key selling point.

However, in terms of chat sites, you'd be surprised. Google does actually place additional value in topics on forums that use the vBulletin platform (which I believe both JJ and this place do). It's not the BEST platform (WordPress, YouTube, and a few social media sites are weighted even better), but it's still better than your average article site or just conventionally coded site.

The truth is that with enough traffic (even untargeted, but your volume needs increase exponentially), earning potential is virtually limitless. Traffic is the silver tuna in IM. The crucial part, then, is to know how to monetize it. Bucknuts has proven itself to be, quite plainly, terrible at monetizing targeted traffic. That doesn't negate the value of the traffic, though.

If there was a site up with the domain asldhalsbgskdjhdrghkh.com, but it had 100,000 uniques and was targeted in content, it would be obscenely valuable, domain name be damned.

password;845506 wrote:Your example of a Ohio sports site is very well planned and would be a way to increase value for the owner trying to built the site and increase profits for himself, it doesn't guarantee that a buyer will see the same value.

Naturally, but you have to play the odds. That's why the traffic is so important. The domain name doesn't mean squat without traffic. Targeted traffic can, conversely, still be intensely valuable without a sexy domain name. In fact, the entire point to having a sexy domain name is to drive traffic through search engines. Nothing can guarantee value to a potential buyer/clicker/form-filler/etc., but with traffic, it just becomes an odds game. If enough targeted visitors view an ad that is tailored to their interest, then odds dictate some will click. Of those, odds again dictate that some will act on the page they've been directed to through the ad.

password;845506 wrote:My point is that the domain name will play a major role in value.

Only as it pertains to its enhancement to drive traffic, but as long as it's an SEO-friendly domain, then yes.

password;845506 wrote:The amount of visitors to a site are important but can be manipulated to show false traffic that does not exist.

Ah! I see what you're referring to. Yeah, you can have dummy traffic, which is why it is important to ensure that it's not just traffic, but targeted traffic. Neither bots nor incentivized (PTC) traffic would be considered targeted, and are the two most common forms of "fake" traffic.

An easy way to ensure the value of the traffic is to see the average time spent on the site per unique visitor through the analytics. If we're talking traffic that stays for under a second on average, then it's likely bot traffic. If it's under 3 seconds, it's either an accidental visit or PTC (paid-to-click) traffic.

If ever wanting to evaluate the quality of the traffic, that's a necessary metric to go over.

password;845506 wrote:You can have a site that shows 5000 hits a day but in reality it may only be visited by 50 different people that have numerous accounts they use to log on to the site, forums are well known for this false traffic. Everyone wants to say their site makes x amount of money but you need to look at net profit. Lets just say this site makes $5.00 a day on advertising revenue, that means that the monthly revenue is $600.00 a month and the value would be 5 months of revenue for a total of "$3000.00", I don't know anyone that would give you that kind of money for this site as it is today.

Well I don't "know" anyone who would, either, but if someone came along who thought they could monetize it enough to make it profitable, then they'd be stupid not to.

password;845506 wrote:Justin had the best answer on the subject, when he said the site is only worth, what someone is willing to pay.

Ultimately, this is true with anything. I saw a news piece on a diamond encrusted skull earlier today that is estimated to be worth $100,000,000. However, there is nobody currently willing to buy it.

password;845506 wrote:Flippa is a good site, I am a member on Flippa and have used it many times.

I've sold a few sites on there. It seems dead anymore, though.

I guess it all comes down to what type of site you are dealing with, chat sites like the former Redskin chop, I believe that is the site sonofsam was referring to in the thread are more valuable for the domain name alone than they are for the actual site. The site was lucky to get 10 visitors a month and sometimes their would be no traffic except for the site administrator but the domain could be used for many other things than a school forum site and become valuable because of the wide array of sites that could be started with the name. The site could have been more valuable as a information or e-commerce site.

Flippa has its slow weeks like the rest of them but I still like it, depends what you are selling. I have sold some sites and domains on Sedo, they are a little stricter on the quality when listing.

Just crunched the numbers. I'm looking at a cool $29.53 if I sold now.

justincredible;846246 wrote:Just crunched the numbers. I'm looking at a cool $29.53 if I sold now.

Will you take a check for $35?

justincredible;846246 wrote:Just crunched the numbers. I'm looking at a cool $29.53 if I sold now.

You serious Clark?

ernest_t_bass;846292 wrote:You serious Clark?

Dead serious.

THE4RINGZ;846252 wrote:Will you take a check for $35?

vCash?

GoPens;846308 wrote:vCash?

I thought Jerry Meals screwed everyone out of their vcash?

Or maybe just Heretic

ernest_t_bass;846292 wrote:You serious Clark?

Serious business serious.