Forums over 10k users - How much to sell?

[KTBleeding]

Originally Posted by Blindchild02

NO FREAKIN WAY
i think you're probably crazy...

He's actually 100% correct.

Overall traffic, and content is what will sell for big. My company just purchased the rights to a community website that is so horribly designed and coded that it literally makes me sick. They paid over $5 million dollars for it.

Honestly, I think it was a huge waste of money.. cause there's no way to resurrect this website. But oh well.

[kau]

What is the address?

[Kihon Kata]

Originally Posted by kau

What is the address?

I have often wondered this also about my site. One of my sites has over 12,500 users and over 244,000 posts averaging about 1,600 posts/day with 100 registering daily(avg)

Site has 6.9 million page views also.

EDIT: 8 million this last month lol

[Tony G]

Don't underestimate the power of the look of your forum though. For many forums it is what attracts new members to look through the content. If you have good content but a crappy look, new members will simply think the forum is crap. The forums that are popular with the simplest of designs have the lure of a busy looking forum attracting new members. If you're a new forum with good (but a little amount) of content and a crappy look, you won't get very far.

[amykhar]

So many of the "cool designs" that you guys around here love so much actually stink when it comes to useability. Give me a lean and mean default style any day with colors that are easy on the eye for long reading periods and a creative logo, and I'm happy.

Back to the topic at hand - I'm not sure I could sell a forum that I built up to that level. It would have too much of my blood sweat and tears in it.

Amy

[Tony G]

A good design doesn't have to be full of images and that - it just has to look appealing to a member, something they haven't seen at another forum or that. The style individualises the forum from others upon first viewing - and that's a very powerful tool to have right there.

But pumping a style up with images and giant banners that are megabyte's big doesn't do the trick.

[MRGTB]

This was talked about before of vBulletin, and then more people seem to think that content matters more than a fancy style. All though, I would agree if you can work both together "a nice style and good content". That's got to be better than just having one or the other.

Just as long as the nice template you use doesn't slow the site down, otherwise it will work against you and not for you.

[MPDev]

Originally Posted by amykhar

Give me a lean and mean default style any day with colors that are easy on the eye for long reading periods and a creative logo, and I'm happy.

I agree - so many forums lose me on the first page - especially bright colored text on black backgrounds. I'm also not a big fan of sidebars, although I have tried them I can't seem to get a page simple enough that doesn't distract from the content being offered.

http://www.extremefitness.com - I actually took elements from a half dozen skins I purchased and mixed them together to come up with a very simple layout that shouldn't fry anyones eyeballs when they went to it. I do offer some other layouts, from very simple to a dark one for those who want it - but the vast majority of people seem to like the default layout.

Oh, I have about 105,000 members and about 1,000 signups a day. I turned down a $20k offer a couple months ago - no idea what its worth, but don't really care either.

[Carforumsnet]

Originally Posted by MPDev

I agree - so many forums lose me on the first page - especially bright colored text on black backgrounds. I'm also not a big fan of sidebars, although I have tried them I can't seem to get a page simple enough that doesn't distract from the content being offered.

http://www.extremefitness.com - I actually took elements from a half dozen skins I purchased and mixed them together to come up with a very simple layout that shouldn't fry anyones eyeballs when they went to it. I do offer some other layouts, from very simple to a dark one for those who want it - but the vast majority of people seem to like the default layout.

Oh, I have about 105,000 members and about 1,000 signups a day. I turned down a $20k offer a couple months ago - no idea what its worth, but don't really care either.

How is it you 100,000+ members and only 279,538 posts?? Also, why does your online list say there are 300+ registered members online and yet only 30 or so are displayed as being online?

And how is it you are getting 1000 members a day signing up? I know the owners of several large boards (steroid.com, automotiveforums.com) and they don't get near that ammount and their sites are bigger than yours.

Not calling BS on your stats, just wondering a few things. If you are really getting 1000 members a day, I want some tips lol

[Chris M]

Alot of his users may be on invisible mode

Chris