General Community > Chit Chat

How do you calculate the value of a forum for sale?

(1/3) > >>

ChalkCat:
Not my forum, of course, but I have been asked by a friend to seek advice.

If someone is looking to buy or sell a forum, what is the correct or best way to calculate its value?  Assume a paid forum software with domain and hosting, which displays some banner ads.  Is there some kind of formula to use?

How do you then factor in the size and activity of the membership, reputation, etc.?

Thank you  :)

nightbre:
I use this for a general idea but specific forums can be worth more or less depending on what its niche is.

www.urlappraisal.net

ChalkCat:
Thanks for the reply :)  That website doesn't seem to be very accurate - it estimated my blog with its average 20 visitors a day at only $300 less than my friend's blog which averages 2,000 visitors a day. That can't be right....

Using my own common sense, I have added the price of the forum software licence to one year's worth of hosting and doubled it.  I haven't taken into account the advertising banners because I don't believe there's any revenue from them in this case - nor do I believe the existing member base is worth anything commercially. My approach makes perfect sense to me but I would like to know whether my approach and my estimate have any substance in the real world :)

ARG:
Online domain estimators are more or less useless. Not one of them are accurate and Your forums value depends solely on the domain name and the traffic and/or members that you currently have, and valuable only to a very small market. Unless you have an extremely active forum, your domain name is all that you have to work with. Most of the time buyers will be more interested in the domain rather than the site itself.
Some potential buyers will be more interested if the domain is being used for a website and, you already have current advertisers.
In short, it really comes down to a straight forward domain name, traffic and current adverts. If advertisers are willing to stay on board with the new owners then you may be able to cash in fairly well. If no advertisers, you must have a decent, well desired domain to get a good offer.

I buy-sell-trade more than 30 domains per month. If you are willing to post the domain, I may make an offer myself.  ;)

ChalkCat:
Thanks ARG, you clearly know what you're talking about!  I knew my estimate was generous and it was deliberately so, but now I'm rethinking it to a fraction of that.  If all the value is on the domain name, then a domain name that was chosen to deliberately mimic a more successful website really can't be worth all that much, can it? ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page