Would you sell your forum to a well established company?

[Ravenfreak]

I recently found out that Atari Age, the largest Atari fansite was bought out by Atari themselves and now the owner and staff members work for Atari! That's got to be quite an achievement for those who own a fan community. So it got me thinking, to those who own fansites would you ever sell your site to the parent company of the niche your forum is based on?

 

[kensonplays]

My site isn't a fan site, but if someone came to me and offered to buy my community... I'd have a hard time saying yes, to be honest, no matter how much they were offering. Since the community is based on my channel, I'd have to do some major rebranding of my channels in addition to finding a new name, a new domain, changing some of my channel graphics, fixing all my link redirects, etc.

It'd be a ton of work, so I'd likely say "no" to my primary community. I'll accept sponsors that can suggest things, but not selling ownership. I've put so much work into it since 2016.

Now, if Elgato wanted to purchase my subreddit ownership . . . I'd consider that. lol. My subreddit has 9k readers atm.

 

[Tracy]

and then I'd spin another up.

 

[kensonplays]

and then I'd spin another up.

Not even a million would be enough for my primary community. For a secondary, if I ever start one, sure.

 

[SoluDome]

Depends on what they are really offering, if it's good i will, because i know I can start again from scratch in some other niche.

 

[Tracy]

Not even a million would be enough for my primary community. For a secondary, if I ever start one, sure.

For a cool million US buckaroos... I'd have no issues selling... as I can come up with another domain name without a lot of trouble and generating content is generating content as well as spin some of that money it a "live telescope" to run for the new site. I wouldn't be signing a non-compete, even if they wanted it.

 

[Reverie]

If I’m still able to have a say - I think so! I think that would be pretty cool actually. It depends on what the niche and how much they are offering! Plus side I can create another perhaps if I’m no longer happy with the route the other is going.

 

[kensonplays]

For a cool million US buckaroos... I'd have no issues selling... as I can come up with another domain name without a lot of trouble and generating content is generating content as well as spin some of that money it a "live telescope" to run for the new site. I wouldn't be signing a non-compete, even if they wanted it.

Still, it would be a very tough choice for me, since I have put a ton of effort into it for little return at the moment. I would not really consider it unless I could still have a say in how things are running, as @Reverie said.

 

[Tracy]

Still, it would be a very tough choice for me, since I have put a ton of effort into it for little return at the moment.

How much do you value your time? Let's say you've worked for 12 months at 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (which we ALL know is very unrealistic).
That's roughly 2080 hours... you value your time at more than $480 an hour.. you have a high opinion of your personal value. Most people are lucky to be pulling in $40 an hour. Even with my skill range, I do good to pull in $150 an hour when I do outside work.
Sometimes one needs to let pride fall to the side to deal with reality.

 

[otis booard]

i would not mind selling my share of otis booard

 

[Reverie]

If I had an offer for a lot of money I would probably be willing to lose owner ship and say in the future of the community if it was for a specific niche type thing.

 

[Empire]

It would never happen to me but I do know that some bigger companies might buy a site off you based on the domain that they want Xd sen that happens they bring it and then close the site just to get the domain.

 

[kensonplays]

How much do you value your time? Let's say you've worked for 12 months at 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (which we ALL know is very unrealistic).
That's roughly 2080 hours... you value your time at more than $480 an hour.. you have a high opinion of your personal value. Most people are lucky to be pulling in $40 an hour. Even with my skill range, I do good to pull in $150 an hour when I do outside work.
Sometimes one needs to let pride fall to the side to deal with reality.

Probably. I would, at the very least, still need a lead admin position of sorts so I can still lead the community in a similar direction.

 

[Shortie]

If I had a domain and a site that a well-established company came to me to purchase it would definitely be something I would consider for sure. Depending on the domain, the company that approached me and also how much work and dedication I had put into the site, I would definitely consider it but I believe there would be a lot of negotiations.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

Yeah if enough money to cover the costs of using run my forum, and potentially running a new forum in the future, and a lot more was offered. I say this because the forum you work so hard to build is like your baby.

@Reverie I was under the impression it’s @Cedric that owns this site, or am I mistsken?

 

[Uncrowned]

It is hard to say I never would as if someone was offering me a million dollars for my sites that probably are less than a thousand in value, that would be a tough no. But otherwise, I would have a tough time selling as my sites are much more about the passion than the profit.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

It is hard to say I never would as if someone was offering me a million dollars for my sites that probably are less than a thousand in value, that would be a tough no. But otherwise, I would have a tough time selling as my sites are much more about the passion than the profit.

Since your staff are paid employees, would you consider placing ads for revenue?

 

[Uncrowned]

Since your staff are paid employees, would you consider placing ads for revenue?

I run a few ads, but banner ads are really an outdated form of monetization and I do not want to push them to the point that annoys users.

 

[Reverie]

Yeah if enough money to cover the costs of using run my forum, and potentially running a new forum in the future, and a lot more was offered. I say this because the forum you work so hard to build is like your baby.

@Reverie I was under the impression it’s @Cedric that owns this site, or am I mistsken?

It’s a hypothetical question

 

[Tracy]

Since your staff are paid employees, would you consider placing ads for revenue?

Unluckily ads are extremely intrusive.. and a large number of people go out of their way to find ways to block them.
A better solution, if the niche is one that would support it, is having some vendors onboarded and give them a special support/sales area to work from as well as having a feature where they could list "special items" at "reduced" prices to the members. In my niche, the markup on most stuff is such that a regular 5% off if purchased from the site wouldn't not hurt them, and if the site got percentage of the sales through that process, it could be a steady income stream.