Selling PR6 website - Online since 1999 - Original Content

Well Foggy... you LIED! We had a few cordial PMs and you kept telling me I should call you to consult with you if I wanted. You also made clear you were not interested in the site though, so why call you?

I gave you absolutely NO reason to believe I would not sell and yet you come on this thread telling everyone that due to some PM you have reason to believe this sale attempt is disingenuous. Are you that stupid to not realize what that does to my attempts to sell?

I realize that folks here are not likely going to be buyers. That became apparent after the first day. I have also had PMs with others, however, who have said they know people who might be interested and that they would pitch the site for a finders fee. I have also had PMs with some who have been offering useful guidance about what I could do to make a sale more likely. I am more than happy to accept all serious input, and I am certainly more than happy to pay a finders fee, and despite what you say I am ready to sell IPWatchdog.com.

I believe I deserve some kind of apology from you and for you to explain to the list that you were wrong and that you LIED and never had any factual basis to claim that I am not interested in selling.

-Gene

 

I was born yesterday.

Sure, if you say you're serious you're serious. Why should anyone believe an idiot like me? Good luck.

You are absolutely right, again. I haven't seen the contract they signed to keep you at the top of SERPs so, no, I don't understand this at all.

 

Great idea.

 

Gene - Not to disparage your attempts to sell your site or confuse the issue any more...but I can at least vouch for Foggy. He bought a site from me last year and I know of several others he has purchased here. He's one of the few on this site I listen to when he talks about valuation and what is involved with buying sites.

Good luck with your site. It is a nice site and one way or another I'm sure you'll figure out how to best proceed.

Ryan

 

Surely this site means nothing to a law firm, why would they want ipwatchdog, no offence but there massive companies who have a business name and a brand in which they spend big time to get there message and services across. Your site doesn’t actually offer a service does it, like where is your phone number for when the visitor needs to enquire, its more informational and handy news.

Sorry if I got any of that wrong, I’m a little hung-over

Its like me having an informational site that does movie reviews, great positions in serps etc, fantastic movie release news etc, but Amazon aren’t going to think twice about buying it, why? Because there a major player and don’t need that. i.e. any law firm etc are the same, just because you have good position for keywords etc, ppc is nothing for these companies, they don’t care if its $1 - $100, as long as there converting.

Nice site and all but I wonder how serious you are about selling it when your first port of call is DP. Good luck anyway my friend, just my opinion

 

Gene - as a lawyer, the time you have already invested here is surely worth a couple of thousand, just typing up your responses.

I am not trying to be harsh, but I'll say it straight. Is your site nice? Yes. Is it helpful? Yes. Is anyone going to pay $350000? 99.999% probability - No. And you won't change anyone's mind on that here.

Many ppl in this thread are trying to be helpful (and I can't find a spot where Foggy said your site was only worth $35.00 btw) so I would gently and respectfully submit that a softening of your responses would be appropriate. You've received a lot of info in this thread and some reflection would be beneficial.

And, if you are still looking for that $350000, try a selling on a board with a reputation for "high rollers".

Take care,
tasty

 

Softening my response to someone who LIED on the Board that said I was not interested in selling my website? Ridiculous. And, by the way, Foggy said my site was only worth the price it would pay to register it.

You people must think I am a real jerk. Most law firms that cater to small business and independent inventors get less than 2000 visitors per month, and they spend many thousands of dollars a year on advertising, both between Internet advertising and with respect to print advertising, telephone books, radio and TV. If you all don't think that an established firm looking to gain clients would not pay $350,000 for my website you just don't get it at all. I can immediately for free send nearly 10 times the Internet traffic to a law firm that purchases IPWatchdog.com. They can stop spending tens of thousands a month in advertising and reach 10 times the number of potential clients.

The fact that it does not appear that I "have a business" is immaterial. What someone who knows what they are doing will do is acquire the site and then on the pages where I have superior search engine ranking they will put up co-branded pages and at the bottom of every page they will say "to speak with one of our attorneys..."

The fact that you don't think I can keep these search engine rankins is also rather interesting. I know things change over time, but the only thing that changes for IPWatchdog.com is more visitors and better search engine ranking. It is all about how many links you have, how many people visit your site and how many people click through based on the terms they search, not to mean on page SEO, include making sure the title of the pages are appropriate.

The trouble many here seem to have is that they just don't understand advertising and how much a firm pays for that advertising.

By the way, everyone who was only trying to be helpful should have sent me private messages rather than post things like "no way anyone is going to pay that." You people who did that should be ashamed of yourselves. I came here with honest motives to sell my site and all many of you have done is bad mouth me and treat me like I am crazy. If you don't think anyone is going to buy it for my price that is fine. Either communicate in private or shut up! How would you like it if I were to jump into your threads and treat you like that?

-Gene

 

By the way, for those who have not noticed there are law firms of all sizes, small to international, that have started using Blogging as a way to attract clients and market the firm. It is all the talk now in marketing circles and law cirles as well.

Also, everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that my site in August generated $8,000 in legal fees. It generated $2,000 for me and $6,000 for Legal Zoom.

Bacardirum-

I also don't understand how you can actually think that any business doesn't care how much they spend on advertising as long as they are converting. So you actually think any business person would not care that they could lower advertising cost and raise conversions?

 

Yes, there were folks who contributed nothing of substance to this thread. You'll find that in many threads. Perhaps you feel I have shared nothing of value either. You're entitled to that opinion.

Perhaps I shall use the old adage that something is worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. Here at DP "revenue rules", and your site generates little passive revenue. By passive, in the case of your site, I mean revenue that you don't have to be a Intellectual Property lawyer to cash in on. No one here can serve your clientele. But to a peer, your site could be priceless. Some research should yield who those people are, and you could market directly to them. Or offer a specific finder's fee, and some firms will happily market your site to prospects.

Being angry at everyone here because they are not lawyers is somewhat unfair. At any rate, I am finished trying to be helpful, and won't post further in this thread.

Wish you well,
tasty

P.S. If you are paying $35 a year to renew your domain, you are paying too much. Namecheap, Godaddy etc. renew at less than $10 a year.

 

Tasty-

I am not mad at folks because they are not lawyers, I am just upset that so many here have found it necessary to tell the world that my asking price is ridiculous. If that is what they felt fine, but why try and poison a thread like that? Why not send a PM?

I understand that folks here are not looking for sites that require work. That is fine also, but to suggest that is the only way to value a site is just plain wrong. If what you are looking for is passive revenue then what a site is worth to you is far different than someone who could purchase a site for the purpose of expanding their own business. As you say, something is worth what a buyer will pay.

I know my site is a niche site, and finding a buyer won't be easy unless I am willing to really give it away. I just posted here because someone on another thread was asking where all the good sites with potential were. I didn't get that DP folks only want passive income at the time.

Knowing that finding a buyer who will truly value what it is that IPWatchdog offers will be difficult I have been offering to anyone a finders fee for an introduction leading to a sale. Everyone knows someone, and given the focus of the forum I thought it possible a webmaster or designer might stumble across someone at some time. So I took offense to the talk that no one in their right mind would ever pay that much. If you are really looking at the law firm market and what I have to offer there is a match out there somewhere, and to suggest otherwise is naive. So why poison my efforts?

I really became upset when Foggy said that based on some inside knowledge he had I wasn't even serious. That was a lie and he knows it. I never gave anyone any impression of that. All I have said is that if I don't get my price I will continue on until I can get the price. Someday, somewhere my price and the price of another will overlap. What that price will be who knows?

Thanks to all who posted. I will continue to be available to answer any intellectual property questions you have, and will check the Legal Issues board from time to time to help where I can.

-Gene

 

Your asking price is ridiculous for someone who is not an IP lawyer and can monetize the traffic. Noone on DP can do that so you are wasting your time here. Go and market to law firms that can capitalize on the value on the site.

 

Broker-

Thanks for the information. That had not occurred to me! You really think a law firm might be interested?

Thanks to all who have told me I am wasting my time here. That has been very helpful, and unfortunately correct.

-Gene

 

Gene, for a quality site (which yours appears to be) and an interested buyer, 24-48x monthly is quite acceptable. However, you may have more luck in Digital Point premium sites section. Sitepoint also has a premium sites section.

For sites selling over $100,000, sellers typically get a broker to handle stuff, escrow, etc. I'm sorry, though, that I don't know any brokers. Brian Clark's (copyblogger.com) wife handles clients buying /selling high-end domain names (millions of $$). Not sure about sites, and I don't know her contact info. [Brian is a former lawyer, and his wife is a practicing one, as far as I understand.]

 

Blogspinner-

Thank you very much for the information. I will look into this this week.

-Gene

 

As I have been digesting and responding to information requests about IPWatchdog.com it occurred to me that the traffic to the site has been tested for law firm conversions, at least to some extent. I was Of-counsel with a firm in Central New York for a 9 month period, the site generated one litigation client who agreed to pay a $50,000 retainer to the firm with anticipated litigation costs over the first 6 months of $100,000. Another person who came to the site, a business owner, needed 4 patent applications and agreed to pay a retainer of $20,000 ($5K per application), with anticipated costs being a total of $40,000. Yet another person who came to the firm through the newsletter I wrote needed various and continuing trademark enforcement representation and agreed to pay the hourly rate for the lead trademark partner at the firm. This was in addition to other individuals who needed smaller portions of work (i.e., transactional work, a patent application here and there, trademark application here and there).

-Gene

 

would you buy my under valued stock portfolio

 

Gene, i spent some time in your website. My opinion ...there is too much work and reputation to can be evaluated "at first sight" If you really decided to sell it, take a prof. broker for this job!

Good luck!

 

For sites that are not totally dependant on the serps, 10X may not be the rule...
Maybe this site is not worth a 40 factor to most here, but someone with similar legal experience might pay it...it would definantly benefit a patent lawyer or similar.
I would suggest listing this on sitepoint...

 

I said I didn't believe you were serious about selling. You then claimed I was

I said that the domain was worth reg fee. You then claim

For a lawyer - and someone who claims to teach the subject - you show a dismal lack of finesse with the written word.

Let's play devil's er, advocate. Let's say you really wanted to sell your site. Earlier in the thread there is a link to places where you can sell. I'm sure you've listed in multiple locations. Give us all the links here (like to your SP thread) and we'll follow the auctions with interest.

What's interesting is that you'd like to convince buyers that SE traffic goes only one way: up. I don't believe you've ever put a sales memorandum together but here's a tip for you: Fail to mention in there the obvious risk of search engine traffic tanking and fellow lawyers specialising in fraud/fraudulent misrepresentation will have your ass when the traffic does dive, especially if the new owners throw away the SE status quo and start making changes you suggest, like co-branding and selling their services off the page.

What some may have learnt from this thread is that it's very important to project the right image of yourself when looking to sell. Being cranky, abusive, churlish, arrogant, vindictive or stubborn won't convey the right message to the target audience: people who have $350K and the desire to invest.

 

For that amount I would also suggest a broker.