Forum for sale. 1 year old

URL: http://www.nfsmwforums.com

Age of site (months): 12

Monthly revenue: 0

Revenue details:
No revenue because i never tried to monetize from this forum. This was a project from which i was learning how to manage a forum, converting visitors to members and practicing my marketing skills. At one time i had a 1:15 sign up ratio where 9 users/day signed up on average. Good stuff, heh?

Monthly page views: 130,000

Traffic details:
90 uniques/day average on April.

Traffic is either from search engines or the official NFS Most Wanted web site. Here are some useful screenshots:
April daily traffic - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/april-traffic.gif
Monthly traffic, stats from october only - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/monthly-traffic.gif
April Referral Stats - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/referrals.gif
And April's demographics - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/countries.gif

Description:
The site is a forum and a community of people who play Need For Speed Most Wanted, the hottest action-racing game to date. The forum uses phpbb software which served me very well without any crashes or hacks.

Lots of sweat and tears went into this forum and i marketed this forum with some of the best ideas that you won't find in an ordinary forum. Here is a list of things that I did to this forum.

Graphics:
+ custom phpbb skin.
+ custom banners - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/images/banners/
+ custom buttons.
+ custom avatars (all 15 black list members from the game).
+ custom thread and forum icons.
+ custom user signatures.
+ custom rankings.
+ a few smilie packs. not custom.

Exclusive content:
+ videos - i ripped some clips from my black edition dvd and uploaded them.
+ racing guide - i had a permission from one of the nfsmw fans to use his racing guide.

Forum Modifications and Add-ons:
+ Global Announcement Mod
+ Able2Know SEO mod and mod_rewrite
+ Quick reply with custom hacks for better appearance
+ Referral Mod
+ Easy Picture Upload mod integrated with http://www.postimage.org/
+ Custom template modifications to improve usability.
+ eXtreme Styles mod
+ EasyMod for easy mod installation

Lots of thought went into usability and search engine "friendliness" and here are the results:
search keyphrases that generated traffic in April - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/search-keyphrases.gif
How frequently search engines visit these forums - http://www.nfsmwforums.com/nfsmw-sale/robots.gif

--------------------------------------

Appart from all the technical stuff, lots of strength was put into the community itself. A ran a few contests here and there, generated some interest and hype on other NFS forums, promoted some members, rewarded people with custom signatures and badges....

Here are the results:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Number of posts: 2869 +
+ Posts per day: 10.93 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Number of topics: 329 +
+ Topics per day: 1.25 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Number of users: 267 +
+ Users per day: 1.02 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Board started: 26 Jul 2005 04:20 pm
Avatar directory size: 102.52 KB
Database size: 2.25 MB

There are currently 4 staff members, all volunteering their time. 1 super moderator which is my right hand, and 3 others for 3 different forums (nfsmw, showroom and dyno) + the general chat section.

One important thing to notice, no body knows i am selling this. The staff will stay if you continue to treat their work like i do. All of the staff members are responsible for updating, prunning and populating the content in their assigned sections. You dont have to do a thing

And one last thing. Reason for selling is that i guess i grew out of games, although i do enjoy playing them sometime.

Type of site:
Established and functional website with traffic

Price (or starting bid): $300

BIN: $1500

Is an auction?: Yes

Indexed pages (Google): 65

Indexed pages (Yahoo): 460

Google page rank: 4, very strong pr4 for two updates in a row.

Domain: Domain is at GoDaddy and it expires a year from now. Free push.

PayPal only please!

Auction End: 48 hours from the time of this post

 

custom skin with all the graphics = $300
mod installations (8) - $10*8 = $80
forum users (268) - $0.5*286 = $143
forum posts (2877) - $0.10*2877 = $287
---------------------------------------
You add all of this up and we have $810

 

Just a quick question, from a non-gamer. If need for speed comes out with a new version in a few months wan't that make this forum obsolete. I'm thinking of something like windows95, windows98, windowsME, all of those forums (if they had forums) would become obsolete.

The question here is, does your forum have any longevity to it? If so, can you please post your reasoning behind that thinking.

Thanks

 

not realy. There are still people who play earlier versions of nfs, like underground and underground 2. there are even people who still enjoy playing the nfs legend nfs hot pursuit which was released 4 years ago. There are even people who still play them online.

You could always create a new section for a new game. This kind of audience doesn't realy care whats in the domain.

I hope i answered your question.

 

The NFS Most Wanted was number 9 in need for speed series and the black edition was number 10. Black edition was the same nfs most wanted but with bonuses like dvds and a few extra cars, it was sort of a 10 year aniversary present and it was also a 10th nfs game. As far as i know, EA doesnt plan on releasing the 11th one for the next year or so.

 

Ok, so it does have longevity...

Can you please explain this:
forum users (268) - $0.5*286 = $143
forum posts (2877) - $0.10*2877 = $287

I'm not sure what these figures mean?

 

You know how there are these forum posting services around, which boost your forum by making posts and stuff like that. Well, the bare minimum of what they charge is 10 cents per post, so looking at this forum, it has 2800 posts, so that would be $280 if you were to pay someone to make that much posts.

For the users, i remember i hired a person who recruited people to my other forum two years back, and he charged $1 per legit person that will actualy participate and not just register and leave, i simply cut that down to 50 cents per person and came up with $150 value.

 

I will also consider administrating the forum at no cost. And maybe even train the new owner how to market and run a forum

 

BIN $400.

need to sell fast.

 

A lot users still use windows 95, i am in contact with that dinosaur every day and xp will be used for next 10 years 100 %


good luck with the sale aspidov!

 

I'll kick off with a bid of $100. Hopefully this will encourage some higher offers for you as I know this is below your asking price.

 

Thanks guys, i dont know why but looks like everybody is scared of buying a forum or something.....

 

I put up adsense in posts about 12 hours ago, this is how it looks http://www.nfsmwforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=336 , and the results are 2.5% CTR with 51 cents and 111 impressions.

 

I am willing to sell this at $300. any takers?

 

BIN. $300. My time is late now. Please PM me or I'll contact you later.

 

pending sale.

 

Hot damn, I would've taken that.

 

prch requested some time to think about his decision. JRayers if you are willing to cover the PayPal fees, it is yours.

 

The site is sold. Payment went through smooth. Everyone is happy. Thanks prch. JRayers, better luck next time, you got to think quick

Thanks all for watching and have a nice day!

 

Nice buy, good deal for both parties.