Site Sale: Established Free Hosting Website with Revenue and Huge Potential (Re-Post)

Site:www.8xhost.com

Disclaimer
This site was posted for sale by kinkarso last week. The previous auction can be found here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=413622&highlight=8xhost

The reason I am re-listing is the sale did not go through as the buyer backed out due to being unaware of the sites age according to the contracted broker. I'd like to publically thank kinkarso for his honourable effort trying to sell the site. I highly recommend his services due to both his professionalism and knowledge. I believe the site did not sell because I gave him an extremely short timeframe to sell the site which did not enable him to effectively relay all the necessary information to potential bidders.

Why am I selling?

I purchased this site a few weeks ago with the intention of developing it further. I have quickly become aware I lack both the time and technical skills to truly maintain and improve the site.

Members
The site currently has 2525 user accounts. According to the MYSQL database over 1500 of those users have logged in since July 29. The site is growing rapidly as can be seen by the signup information detailed below:

Jul-1 : 28 sign ups
Jul-2 : 47 sign ups
Jul-3 : 34 sign ups
Jul-4 : 38 sign ups
Jul-5 : 37 sign ups
Jul-6 : 44 sign ups
Jul-7 : 40 sign ups
Jul-8 : 48 sign ups
Jul-9 : 35 sign ups
Jul-10 : 30 sign ups
Jul-11 : 35 sign ups
Jul-12 : 36 sign ups
Jul-13 : 41 sign ups
Jul-14 : 37 sign ups
Jul-15 : 49 sign ups
Jul-16 : 36 sign ups
Jul-17 : 39 sign ups
Jul-18 : 46 sign ups
Jul-19 : 15 sign ups
Jul-20 : 22 sign ups
Jul-21 : 58 sign ups
Jul-22 : 47 sign ups
Jul-23 : 41 sign ups
Jul-24 : 48 sign ups
Jul-25 : 38 sign ups
Jul-26 : 53 sign ups
Jul-27 : 38 sign ups
Jul-28 : 31 sign ups
Jul-29 : 31 sign ups
Jul-30 : 48 sign ups
Jul-31 : 35 sign ups

This has been copied directly from the PHPMyPanel Script that is currently running the website. A screenshot of this can be provided upon request. Below is a link to the screenshot showing our current users:

http://www.8xhost.com/sale/users.JPG

Script
As mentioned above the site runs off of PHPMyPanel. Since aquiring the site I have gotten my friend to develop a homemade hand written script that acts as a modifier to the PHPMyPanel script and enables the admin to better monitor users. This modified script enables the administrator to sort users by bandwidth, hits, last login etc. You are given the option to click on a user, from there you are provided with their signup details as well as a list showing each file in their directory. If you want to see a file you can click on the file and it will show beneath the directory. This user panel also enables the administrator to suspend an account from within. A screenshot of PHPMyPanel and our modifier can be seen below, other screenshots of this script are available upon request.


PHPMYPANEL
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/adminpanel.png

Modifer
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/controlpanel.JPG


Hosting
As has been mentioned before the site runs off of a Hostgator "Swamp" plan which currently costs $14.99 monthly. There has been a big fuss regarding the ability of this hosting plan to support a site with so many members. I believe this has been possible to this point because of a few reasons:
1) users are recreational webmasters,
2) the sites are relatively young (8x has been in existence for only a few months)
and 3) the majority of sites that require high levels of bandwidth or space are prohibited by our TOS.
The site currently takes up around 3 GB's of space but is growing at a rate of about 150 to 250 MB's per day of late.


Traffic
Traffic stats prior to aquisition can be seen by clicking the following links:
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/july-web.png
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/june-web.png
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/july-ref.png
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/june-refer.png

Traffic post aquisition can be seen by clicking the following links:
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/julyendtraffic.JPG
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/julyendref.JPG
http://www.8xhost.com/sale/julyendrobots.JPG


Revenue
Revenue is currently generated by two streams: 1) Link Sales, and 2) Adsense.

Link Sales
I sold two text links yesturday for $15 each for 4 months these are currently under links on the main page. Both are for webmaster related directories.

Adsense
The site was on pace to earn in excess of $210 halfway through the month prior to switching hosts. Below are the July stats up to the 19th. It should be noted these stats are under the former owners Adsense account. I began trying to manually switch over the Adsense codes on the 16th so some earnings showed up on my Adsense account which is shown later on. Here are the earnings of the former owner:

http://www.8xhost.com/sale/july-updated.png

Here are the sites stats for June (former owner):

http://www.8xhost.com/sale/june.png

Below are the Adsense stats under my ownership. As noted above some earnings were missed as I began to switch over the Adsense codes on the 16th. Therefore, the earnings from the beginning of July, specifically the 16th to 19th should be added to the earnings above for those dates. I don't believe the complete Adsense conversion took place until later on, probably 21 or 22 of July. Nevertheless, here is the screenshot from the 16th on under my Adsense account:

http://www.8xhost.com/sale/julyend.JPG

I also had one Google Referral signup which netted me a profit of $2. Proof of this is available on request.

Potential Revenue
Obviously, with a site growing so rapidly their is enormous potential to increase revenues. Some ideas that do exist include a hostgator affiliate plan, a newsletter (over 2500 email addresses are included with the sale), developing the resource page to sell webmaster related links, create a clickbank store to sell webmaster related e-books and creating a forum and placing ads on there.

What is included with sale?
Domain, email list, users, accounts, access to both scripts. As well as $200 worth of pre-paid SEO optimization services from DP member wildstone. His profile is shown here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/private.php?do=showpm&pmid=5346150

I have also recently paid for these:
PR8 Backlink: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=411336
Blog Links: 144 blog links from DP member beautyinmd. His profile is here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/member.php?u=63272

Sale Options
I will consider 2 options:

1. Outright Purchase: Someone purchases the domain and entire site.

2. Partnership Agreement: Because I recognize the great potential of the site if handed over to the right individual. I would allow someone to purchase 50% of the site. This person must have both excellent technical skills in both PHP and SEO and be willing to actively improve the site. This person will most likely handle the day to day operations of the site and I would provide assistance in whichever fashion it is needed.

Please stipulate if you are bidding for option1 or 2. I will select either option 1 or 2 after considering the bids for both sale types. If you are interested in option 2 please PM me the offer.

I am available to answer any questions via PM.

I will start the bidding at $800 for Option #1. As stated above please send all offers related to Option 2 via PM. I am looking to complete this auction quickly.

Thanks,
Billy

 

Thanks Billy. Hope you do better this time around .

 

Donny,

Good luck with your new auction.

Billy

 

first offer 800 via PM

 

The first offer of 800 was for option #1. I also have some PM interest for Option #2.

Send offers soon as I would like to complete this sale quickly.

Billy

 

These sites have earned over $150 in each of the past two months. The current high bid of $800 is an absolute steal for a site growing so rapidly.

Billy

 

Ok, I need money for another project and I don't have the time for this auction to finish. Therefore, I am extending the following offer:

The first person to offer $1300 takes the entire site. Yes, I said $1300 for a site that has earned 165 + for two consecutive months and is growing at an exponential rate.

This is a great site and offers a great opportunity at a great discount.

 

This Auction Is Closed