Firstly, I'm sorry if I offend anyone but I'm looking for answers and advice from mid to professional webmasters because I'm fairly established and its hard to take pie-in-the-sky advice from people who make $10 per month with adsense. My Problem: I own a forgotten Arcade script network. Basically its a site that sells an arcade script and other related stuff and with this site is a Support forum which is a full webmaster forum. Early last year I did some heavy promotion and its listed at over 300 script download sites so it has a lot of backlink power. A few months ago I started a Local Pet store and its taking everything I got to control it. Yes, it makes a lot of money, but there's no time for such a network. In order to make money the script needs to be updated, I need to advertise it at places like DP, and answer support questions. It does make money easy, but I'm out of idea's here. I've tried selling it several times for a price much lower than its worth And I'm been trying to hire someone to run the whole thing and take 50% which is an amazing deal too, but everytime I hire someone they just disappear days later. What should I do with it, considering that there was a $1,500 investment in this project?
You have to decide were your priorities are! If you can't do both - pick one and run with it. Why could you not sell eariler? Seems like it would be an easy sell as you describe it. Or, keep looking for the right person to run it. Not everyone will flake on you. You just need to vet people better.
No site should sell for a price lower than its worth. If it does then you haven't attracted the right kind of buyer or... your site is worth less than you think it is. $1,500 isn't a great deal of investment in a project especially when there are a lot of demands on the buyer including updating the script, providing support etc. Just trying to be realistic and give you the buyer's perspective. Unfortunately, you need to make it more attractive or realise that you may not ever sell.
50% profit sharing is not much. You should need to have a base salary for the guy that promote for you so that they can also earn if there is no sales.
I know where my priorities should be, but I still shouldn't just take it offline. Heck, there's loads of people at DP trying to make money but don't have an investment to make something that can make good money, and I offer it and the flakers don't last a minute. I probably will have to keep looking for someone else to run it. I'd say that $1,500 is a pretty high investment for online sites. Only the big guys throw large money into sites, but most people just get a domain, buy a template and away they go. Based on the past auctions of typical sites that are like this, there's never been one sold less than $1000 but the problem is there has been plenty of auctions that didn't get a buyer because it requires a little bit of wide variety of skills to keep your head above water when running it. Making this network from scratch could cost between $2,000 to $10,000 but this one is ready to go and already rolling. I was sure there would be plenty interested but its been tough to sell. I'll have to do something with it though.
What it would cost to make and what you've spent on it are irrelevant. Cost to make would only be of interest to someone who is at the starting point looking to create exactly what you're done. And it's almost impossible to find someone who's had the exact same idea as you and the same plans for development. What you've spent on it is irrelevant. If I make a site using a $5 template and a cheap developer and it costs me $200 and you've done exactly the same site but coded everything from scratch and spent $5000, your site doesn't have some extra value in there. All input is measured by only one metric: what can the buyer get out of it. And the buyer usually measures that in terms of profit ($$$) and in terms of ROI. If there is nobody biting either there's something wrong with the whole market and nobody is smart enough to see the opportunity ... or you haven't demonstrated sufficiently that there is an opportunity and it is worth someone's time to get involved.
Well, it seems that you have been approaching this correctly, at least in general terms. Trying to sell the script and network to recoup your investment is a good idea if you are simply unable to devote the time necessary to profit from its ownership. However, it is a "catch 22" as without a current and stable amount of sales to create a base for its perceived value, it will be difficult to sell without finding a targeted end user. Your second approach of finding a partner to run the entire business is probably your wisest choice for profitability. My advice would to be to continue marketing the script in this way. Eventually, you will find a webmaster that will be qualified to both run the forums and script, and also take care of the marketing and sales. If you are truly wanting to keep your hands free, so to speak, then you could definitely profit from this strategy; allowing your partner to take a fair percentage from the business in the beginning, and then by allowing them to buy out your ownership in the future- whichever your contract allows. As you said, I wouldn't let it sit and an collect virtual dust. It may be a hassle to find a competent partner, but once you do, it will certainly pay off.