Buy Somersoft?! How much would you pay?

S

Strannik

it pretty much calculates based on what similar domains with similar number of visitors sell. might be a few other variables, like how popular is the word, etc...
 
S

softmonkey

Yes, that figure seems really low. It seems to me a site with X regular visitors and permanent content would be worth far more than for example a links site with X transient visitors and temporary content that becomes outdated.
 
vbplease

vbplease

newhigh said:
Would you pay this price to have access to a large number of potential investors?
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The value from a marketing perspective is zero, considering the current policy on spruiking.. do you want to be inundated with marketing for seminars, coaching, books, new developments, buyers agents.. what next? pop ups for McDonalds and Coke? :p
 
RumpledElf

RumpledElf

Heh. It says the photographic dictionary is worth $139, which is kinda cheap considering the hours it has taken to get the 2500 or so entries in that dictionary.

But then its only been indexed by Google for a month and only gets 1000 hits a day. Wonder what metrics it uses?
 
steveadl

steveadl

Don't know how accurate the values are. For example surely McDonalds.com would be worth more to the corporation than $260k? :confused:
 
Sim

Sim

Administrator
Sorry - the data on that site is complete inaccurate. All of their estimates are more like complete guesses based on other unrelated data.

I would pay no attention to it at all.

There are many methodologies for valuing websites - some are based on traffic, some are based on the quality of the backlinks (ie Google pagerank), some are based on more traditional business metrics of some multiplier times the annual revenue earned.

None of them are terribly accurate.
 
lizzie

lizzie

hmmmm - i wonder if the site went commercial, and we were suddenly mass spamed with advertising and marketing, how many of us would leave?

count me in on the leaving side if that ever happens. it is a real pleasure to share and care without the commercialisation aspect.
 
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Sim

Sim

Administrator
lizzie said:
hmmmm - i wonder if the site went commercial, and we were suddenly mass spamed with advertising and marketing, how many of us would leave?

could me in on the leaving side if that ever happens. it is a real pleasure to share and care without the commercialisation aspect.
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That is obviously a concern and would need to be considered before any plans for the future development of the site were made. Jan and Ian have always made it clear that they would prefer the site to remain as independent as possible and free from marketing.

However, the reality is that as the site continues to grow, the costs of running and managing it also grow. The site is vastly different (ie larger) now to what it was 7+ years ago when we first moved to this current format.

That is a challenge we will need to face at some point, and I know that Jan and Ian are well aware of the issues. I can assure you that Jan and Ian's intention is not to see the site "mass spammed with advertising and marketing" as you put it, nor will it become a closed paid subscription site. Jan and Ian value the community for what it is and are very keen to maintain that value for the benefit of the community.

There may be other commercial aspects of the site developed in the future to help offset the operational costs, but it is more likely to be supplementary to the operation of the community rather than a move to change how the community itself works. The community is the key to the success of this site - it would be silly to change what works so well.
 
H

Harris

lizzie said:
hmmmm - i wonder if the site went commercial, and we were suddenly mass spamed with advertising and marketing, how many of us would leave?

could me in on the leaving side if that ever happens. it is a real pleasure to share and care without the commercialisation aspect.
Click to expand...

Whilst I would want all content to be free of cost with someone else paying for it like ABC TV, there comes a point where the motivation or circumstances dont favour running a loss making enterprise.

I would support SS being sold to a commercial enterprise or for it to contain advertisement, if the other alternative is that it is not available at all due to lack of time or resource factor. How long can one expect the current owners/ managers "Somersofts" to keep providing this resource at no cost. It is commercially un-viable for all.

Another alternative is a donation based (voluntary) or subscription based (mandatory) system that provides for the up keep of the website as well as a small return on "time" investment for the owners/ moderators.

The management of the forum content and its integrity is not contingent on this resource either being free for all or paid one, so long as disclosures are made in advance and everyone made aware of it.

Infact if there was an option to buy this website, I will put my hand up.

Harris
 
H

Harris

We must have been thinking and typing on similar lines at the same time !!

Sim said:
That is obviously a concern and would need to be considered before any plans for the future development of the site were made. Jan and Ian have always made it clear that they would prefer the site to remain as independent as possible and free from marketing.

However, the reality is that as the site continues to grow, the costs of running and managing it also grow. The site is vastly different (ie larger) now to what it was 7+ years ago when we first moved to this current format.

That is a challenge we will need to face at some point, and I know that Jan and Ian are well aware of the issues. I can assure you that Jan and Ian's intention is not to see the site "mass spammed with advertising and marketing" as you put it, nor will it become a closed paid subscription site. Jan and Ian value the community for what it is and are very keen to maintain that value for the benefit of the community.

There may be other commercial aspects of the site developed in the future to help offset the operational costs, but it is more likely to be supplementary to the operation of the community rather than a move to change how the community itself works. The community is the key to the success of this site - it would be silly to change what works so well.
Click to expand...
 
geoffw

geoffw

As I understand, some years ago, at least one offer was made for the site. The offer was turned down, for reasons I guess that Sim' has explained.

Jan and Ian don't even promote their own books, lectures or website. As I understand, they've done well in residential property, and have used some of that to support this community.

Thank you so much to both of you.
 
shuggy

shuggy

I'm not sure that a board like this lends itself to much further growth in real terms mainly because it's such a relatively small audience.
However if the owners had a 3yr, 5yr and 10yr plan for the site, they would probably have similar goals as other boards in having more members sign up and contribute more threads/posts, thus generating more traffic and page views which leads to greater advertising revenue.

However if it did grow exponentially, i think i'd do the following:
1) migrate to http://www.invisionpower.com/ away from vBulletin because it seems much more functional.
2) start allowing advertising. After awhile you don't even notice it and people can opt out of viewing ads and support the board through subscribtion.
3) get a few more moderators on to mix it up a bit more (the current ones are good but i think some have been here too long).
4) create a level 2 for 'trusted members' where we can smirk about the plebs on level 1 (kidding).
5) create a sub forum for shares and managed funds.
6) allow greater freedom of speech in the coffee lounge -- this place should be virtually anything goes as long as it's not racist, threatening or libelous.
 
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