$600 for a forum without revenue?

There's a forum I rather like up for sale, asking price $600. I don't have the money right now, but if it's still available when I do I just might consider it. As of today it's got 72,310 posts in 4,264 topics by 1,670 members, but it doesn't currently have any revenue as there's been no attempt to monetize it. Should I still consider it?

 

Software licenses included and are those members active?

 

Software is SMF, and I don't think the forum is as active as it used to be (although I'm a relative newcomer to it, it looks like the older threads were much longer). Pros include a very dedicated mod, though.

 

Do you know the forum's traffic stats?

 

It's not a lot of money to risk. Are you buying it as an investment or because you like the topic? What is the topic, by the way? You might want to approach it with some caution, as introducing ads on a previously unmonetized forum can lead to disruption for a forum with a new owner, especially if the new owner is seen as an outsider.

 

Personally, I would because you have a head-start (no pain-in-the-arse community building and stuff), but that depends on if the members are friendly, there is plenty of activity and if there was a way to monetize it without disrupting how the forum currently functions.

I'd just stick AdSense and maybe a ad-free subscription/donate feature on there.

 

If you were looking to build a forum of your own in the genre the forum is then I would for sure get it. There is no need to set the boards up, get members to post etc. It's all been done for you, all you need to do is come in and make any changes that you want to do etc.

 

I'd consider it, but I'd be observing the forum for a little while before making the offer, because I'd need to know that it's active if I was considering buying the forum for $600.

Also, does the $600 include the forum license?

 

I would watch over it for a few days and see if at least a couple of posts/threads are made.
If these were real members you could even send out a Newsletter to state that there's a new owner and any updates or new features you plan to make with the forums, get people back interested in it again.

The price seems great, especially if it's a niche that you like already.

 

If it is a good investment then you can always find a partner or get a loan.

Currently not monetized is good.

What is the activity / Google analytics say?

If it is a topic you are interested in shoot me a pm and we can see about partnering up or I can help you out in financing.

 

He said it's SMF.

 

Pe

Peter... It is a she.

 

@Soliloquy Listen it's probably a scam. I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole especially if it doesn't have a valid license and it's not being used. If I were you I would look at keeping your money and buying your own license and make your own forum.

 

But at the exact same time, just because it isn't on a paid forum software it doesn't mean that the forum is a scam. I owned a forum once and it was completely run on SMF.

 

I ran SMF on my forum prior to moving to vBulletin 4. It all depends on the quality of the content on the forum.

 

I would say to make sure that you are properly valuing all of the assets. If your only goal is quick money and maybe flipping it, then revenue might be all you care about. My goal is never that, so I would look at factors like:

- Current activity.
- Content (quantity and quality).
- How well the community is managed. If it's managed poorly, it may not be worth the effort to get it on track because the members are used to a management style I don't want to utilize.
- Domain name(s).
- Assets on third party sites like Twitter, Facebook, email subscribers, etc.
- Design and branding (if it has a great design and branding, that is worth money).
- Traffic.
- How it ranks in Google or if it is blocked or blacklisted, etc.
- Revenue.
- How averse they might be to revenue efforts, as Peter eluded to.

For example, domain name. I've sold forums domain names for a substantial amount of money (many, many multiples more than $600) that did not have any website, let alone traffic or revenue.

I consider all of the other things as a whole, more so than I just consider revenue. Revenue is nice if they maximized it, but if all they did was throw some AdSense on the forums or, like this case, did nothing... then revenue multiples mean absolutely nothing. 12-24x whatever you get from just putting some AdSense code on your site is not a proper valuation of what your community is worth.

As far as this particular site, always hard to say without seeing, but I'd go with your gut. Best of luck.

Patrick

 

No revenue does not mean it is bad.

Ie... A site with $30 a month revenue was sold on for $5k. The new owner put in banner ads and makes $1k a month. Sells/flips site.

Meanwhile, going with a different ad revenue model, that site as it is, could be making $10k a month.

Trust me... I will take a site with No revenue with good traffic, over a site with some revenue and lower traffic ANY DAY.

 

Anyone can make a site with decent enough traffic attract revenue - $600 for a fully fledged site is quite good, in my opinion.

 

I don't think it would be a wise move to buy that forum, but $600 for a well established forum? The deal seems to be too good to be true.