5.5 yr old Automotive site, $120/day from Adsense, 512,009 posts, 15,529 members

You can Google my username plus Motorcycles to find the URL of the site I'm talking about.

Members: 15,530
Threads: 35,825
Posts: 512,010

Monthly Registration Totals:

January 2007 547
February 2007 634
March 2007 (partially, through the 15th) 357

Monthly Post Totals:

January 2007 4569
February 2007 6032
March 2007 (partially, through the 15th) 3585

Since VBulletin doesn't have a method to combine user activity and display it by monthly totals, will display it for the last four days:

User Activity:

March 12, 2007 429
March 13, 2007 424
March 14, 2007 436
March 15, 2007 412

Traffic Details

Daily unique visitors according to Google Analytics is over 7,000, and page impressions according to Adsense data is over 15,000 daily. Access to view complete Analytics stats will be given to people upon request.

Revenue Details

As mentioned earlier, the site is currently avaraging $120/day. Here are the Adsense numbers from the last four days:

Monday, March 12, 2007 - $94.94
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - $131.13
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - $117.03
Thursday, March 15, 2007 - $90.98

Along with the above there have been 3 premium membership signups in the last four days, making it $120 per day.

Minimum Asking Price and BIN

$65,000 is the minimum asking price. Looking for firm 20 months revenue on this. Here are the reasons why this is realistic and why I wont entertain any offers below 20 months revenue:


1. The site is extremely old and established. The registration date on the domain is 20-Aug-2001

2. Automotive niche. Not gaming, myspace, icons, proxy... CPC is generally so much better, and of course this will not change overtime.

3. Vast majority of traffic is US based and of a mature age.


4. The attempt at selling this great site is coming AFTER the Google restriction on image alignment. Of course, as soon as the rule came into affect about 3 months back, and I recieved the non compliance warning, revenue dropped. It took much effort and thinking to arrive at a solution which is both in complete complience with Adsense TOS, and also maximizes revenue. This is extremely significant.

5. Apart from Adsense, the only other monetization method being employed is premium forum memberships. At $15 a piece, this brings in roughly $200-300 month. There are no CPM ads or other paid advertising on the site. This leaves open doors to increase earnings further.

6. The most important factor which justifies over 20 months revenue is the ZERO maintanence factor. I literally have 3 posts on the entire forum, and there is no need for me to get involved. The site has one additional volunteer admin and 2-3 moderators who do a great job of keping the forum clean.

A BIN price would be an offer above my minimum of about 10-20%, but before setting anything, woud like to see if there is any interest.

Reason for Selling

I'm not going to make up BS about how busy I am lol, I obviously was very lucky to fall upon this site for the price I paid, keeping it is definitely something I have no issues with.

On the other hand, being able to secure my asking price would justify my efforts in escalating the site to where it is currenly, which is without a doubt the highest level its ever been at, in terms of pure traffic, user activity and earnings.

Serious buyers can PM me for proof of anything or access to the Analytics stats after viewing the URL using the method I mentioned above..

btw, since there is nothing negative about this site, I chose to post this sales thread here at DP

 

Why dont you just post the URL of the site here?

 

I don't want this thread ranking in Google for the site's name. For some small xxx, or x,xxx site I would just paste the URL, but here it makes more sense to me to direct buyers to it using the method I used. It also weeds out some of the tirekicking crowd.

 

Very nice site. A very good investment for anyone who wishes to see their money earn solid revenue for them and do nothing in the process. The automotive niche is very compelling as well. It's nice to have an audience where every user actually has a credit card.

 

Have recieved a couple of PMs from ppl who have the budget and are interested. I'm going to need to head to bed for the next 6 or so hours, and wont be here to reply to PMs until later in the afternoon.

Being a buyer myself of quite a few large sites and knowing what I would like to see, I think I'll just add a BIN price now.. just in case someone wants to seal this for themselves.

The URL of the site can be found within a couple of seconds by searching Google for "spdude motorcycles" (without the quotes). So please don't PM solely to ask for the URL!
I've provided all relevant details above.. and for the more informed purchasers that can be sufficient, provided that everything is actually true.

So basicly the BIN price is $75,000, and buyers are free to use it, while making it subject to verification of all stats claimed in the opening post, including access to view the complete Google analytics stats, and screenshots of whatever is needed. This will secure the right of purchasing the site and suspend the auction temporarily.

 

Please pm me the url

 

Just so that there is no mis-understanding about the purchase, please PM me the URL. Google returned a number of listings. I would like to know for sure. Thanks.

 

Yes, I believe that's reasonable. There could still be some misunderstanding. PMing URL now. Will do the same for others who have some doubt.

Edit: upon further thought, just click here to visit the site. Not sure why I never did that earlier.

 

Funny, I just read this article yesterday

http://www.vbseo.com/f55/fastest-way-20k-vbseo-fireblades-story-11660/

You did get a good deal on it!

Looks like you've inproved the revenue quite a bit as well

 

Could I see some adsense screenshots via PM, thanks.

 

Wasn't aware of that article. Nice read nevertheless... The difference between both prices is of course my "reason for selling", and there's nothing to hide there.

Sending PM shortly with two screenshots. One from November when the site was avaraging $75-80/day.. and one from March, the last five days of which are avaraging $120/day, when factoring in the premium memberships. The reason for these two time periods is that they are at both ends of the Adsense policy change regarding image alignment, so you'll see one from before that period and one from after.

Screenshots have been included at the end of this post....

One other thing which is definitely an advantage and I think is very significant is the fact that both my Adsense accounts (personal and corporate) seem to be heavily smartpriced because of too much gaming traffic. I own three massive gaming boards, one with 2,000,000 posts, and two with over a million each. The traffic from these sites has caused my cpc to go down to under five cents, whereas for over two years it was always 13-20 cents regardless of the quality of the traffic.

A drop from 13-20 cents to under five cents is clearly smartpricing.. so I'm not just saying this to promote the FBo sale. Point being that the last five days income is DESPITE this obvious penalty to my Adsense account. The motorcycle clicks are currently paying only 13 cents (based on yesterday), and 18 cents (based on the $130 day)... I used to make this much from gaming clicks, do you see where I'm going with this.

My personal opinion here, which you can take if you like, is that these clicks should be worth at least 50% more than what I'm currently recieving. It is not unfair to believe that a new owner will see even more earnings (possibly even 50% more) after changing over the Adsense code to an un-smartpriced account.

Edit:

Adsense November 2006

Adsense March 2007

Google Analytics March 2007

Just noticed that clicking the links directly will result in an image leeching warning. The way to get around this is right click the link, copy shortcut, and then paste in the address bar and hit enter. The image should open up that way.

 

Img is not working for me...nice site

 

seearchfordeal.. try right clicking the link, and copying shortcut and pasting in the address bar. Let me know, if it works that way and you're able to view the screenshots.

 

Yes, it works fine for me using copy / paste.

 

In order to give the buyer some added peace of mind, I'm willing to allow a six day verification period at Escrow.com. What that means is the funds will sit there in Escrow while you watch the revenue roll in through Adsense.. if you're not happy with it, just cancell the transaction, and refund me the Adsense earnings through Paypal. Most sellers wouldn't agree to something of this nature, but since I have no problem keeping this site, I'm willing to do this. In the event of cancellation the buyer will need to pay the full Escrow fee. Otherwise fee will be split 50/50.

 

If only this were still for sale about 3 months from now.

I doubt it will be

Good luck with this one. I just wish I would have caught Brian back when he was on crack and sold it for what he did.

 

It was bought from Keith, the original owner who still remains an admin at the forum, and not Brian.

My next step now would be to create a sales thread at SitePoint (3 day auction) and see if the right buyer can be found there. I'll be doing that sometime during the weekend. If anyone wants to deal before that happens you have until tomorrow.

If the three day SitePoint thread doesn't lead to a sale, I'll be keeping the site.

 

Well, back then income level was close to $700 per month if I remember correctly. Spdude did lot of work...

 

I am interested. Please PM me url. Also futher elaborate on what "Google restriction on image alignment" means.

 

Click here for URL.

It's referring to a certain policy Google Adsense introduced 2-3 months ago. You can read about it here.