Literature Website & Forum - 85,000 Page Views, 39,000 Posts

URL : http://www.historicalfiction.org

Age of Site : Almost 1 year

Monthly Page Views : ~84,300 last month

Monthly Uniques : ~10,600 last month

Stats : http://www.historicalfiction.org/stats.gif

Traffic Details : Much of the traffic has come from word of mouth referrals along with links in Blogs and other historical fiction websites. No heavy promotion has been done at all, all growth has been totally organic.

Links in Google : 10,800

Details :

This website was set up to cater for a lack of forums based upon Historical Fiction and has grown massively in the past year. This website was set up purely as a hobby site by my partner, however due to increasing work commitments she is no longer able to run the site as she would like to. There will be a huge potential in monetizing the site as there are about 40 book reviews (freely created by members), which could be linked to a US/UK amazon store. No attempt has been made at all to make money from the site so far, although I feel a combination of adsense and amazon aff schemes would work extremely well. The monthly book club means that many members buy at least that book per month (often more), which could generate significant revenue though amazon commission.

The site is based on static PHP files for the content pages and vBulletin as the forum software (license not included). The forum has a dedicated team of moderators in place that I think would remain, and book reviews are freely submitted by forum members. A system that allows members to automatically submit reviews to the site would greatly increase the submission rate I am sure (a fantastic way to gain free content on the latest books).

This is a very reluctant sale from my partner as she has spent a long time creating and designing the site and forums. Traffic has been increasing almost linearly for the time the site has been online.

Starting Price : $1000

Payment : (via Paypal / direct bank transfer)

 

Stats are now updated with the correct URL.

 

Hi,

about half the posts on this forum are made by only 6 or 7 people. So I would say the future of this forum largely depends on what these 6 or 7 people will do - will they stick around? Have you told the members the site is up for sale? Considering that half the forum's posts are made up by 6 or 7 people chances are it's a pretty tightly knit community and they will definately find out the site was sold for profit. How will they react to ads appearing on the site?

The other admin, Rebecca, seems to be the main person in charge of the site. Will she still continue doing what she has been doing or will the new owner need to replace her as well? What about other staff members?

Can I get the following:
- posts per day last 30 days
- posts per day monthly for all time
- user activity per day last 30 days
- registrations monthly for all time
All of this should be accessible under vBulletin's Admin CP's Statistics options.

Do you have a BIN in mind?

 

Please PM me this same info. Might be very interested.

 

Sending PM now

 

I am also interested...

 

PM for you too

 

A $500 bid has been placed at NamePros (although this is below the starting bid, so is unlikely to be accepted).

http://www.namepros.com/developed-sites-for-sale/238623-literature-website-forum-85-000-page.html

 

I am also interested, please PM me as well. Also details on what it takes to run it.

 

Edmunds posted some very valid questions, can you please reply to them in this thread.

Thanks

 

He sent out a very informative PM that answered all questions, just wait for him to PM you.

 

I'll post the replies here for all to see (I'd sent them before in a PM):

So I would say the future of this forum largely depends on what these 6 or 7 people will do - will they stick around?

Obviously I can't be sure, but if the transfer was handled in a sensible way then I don't see why there would be a problem. They are calling for an expansion of the site and I think they would like to see the site gain some additional features which I just don't have time to program. As long as the new owner didn't charge in and not introduce introduce them selfs, then I think it will carry on as it is at the moment.

Have you told the members the site is up for sale?

No, mainly because if the sale didn't happen then it would be an awkward situation.

How will they react to ads appearing on the site?

I don't see why they would have a problem, as they don't pay anything (although have offered to pay running costs before). No such thing as a free lunch, and I think they would understand it as it would lead to the sites growth.

The other admin, Rebecca, seems to be the main person in charge of the site. Will she still continue doing what she has been doing or will the new owner need to replace her as well? What about other staff members?

Rebecca is my partner that runs the site, and the reason of the sale is she just doesn't have time to administer things. She does want to remain part of the community but only as a regular user that posts when she has time.

Can I get the following:

I've taken screenshots of the requested stats below, but there are a couple of things I should point out. PhpBB was used for 2 months before upgrading to vBulletin, hence stats only starting from Dec even though the site existed before this.

- posts per day last 30 days
- posts per day monthly for all time
- user activity per day last 30 days
- registrations monthly for all time

 

Thank you for the reply. Sorry if my post seemed agressive Just reading it now, It was not meant to.

Thanks for the answers.
Can you tell us what features the community requested?

 

No problem

Can you tell us what features the community requested?

The main thing they have asked for is a chatroom - which I'm sure would be very easy to implement. Other things have been other forum categories and a gallery (the gallery has recently been added).

 

I'm very interested in this, can you show me your top posters table from vBulletin admin CP? Also for $1,000 any chance you can throw in the $160 vB license or is it leased?

 

It's a leased license, so I'm not able to transfer it unfortunately (it expires very soon anyway).

Top Posters link as requested

 

I can appreciate the need to block the e-mail and usernames, but why the last activity date? That's quite important for a buyer to see how active your top people are. What's the latest bid on this?

 

I've unfiltered that column for you now, as I suppose it doesn't reveal anything personal by doing so (the names and e-mail are filtered though). As you can see by the dates the users are extremely active.

The latest bid is still $500. I've got about 7 people all interested so far. I'd like to sell the site by tomorrow if bids are placed.

 

I'm adding a BIN price of $1500 if this site goes before tomorrow morning (GMT). Feel free to bid from the $1000 starting price, but the first one to go for the BIN price gets it

 

Today is the last day for the $1500 BIN, offers of $1000+ may also be accepted today.