Would like to buy a small forum - cost estimate?

[djgill]

Hey WebmasterWorld - I have worked for a little over a year creating a platform to evolve beyond classic product discussion forums (like howard forums, AVS, etc.). We have launched a few communities ourselves and now would be interested in buying a small-ish existing discussion forum to try a full site conversion to our software platform.

I would like a product focused forum (any niche tech market, for example) that has a small, but active core and a decent base of content. My question is how you all would put a value on the community - any thoughts on how much to value each registered user? Traffic? Any experiences buying or selling forums that you'd be willing to disclose pricing?

Anyway, I've started emailing sites one off that I would be interested in acquiring, but suggestions would be great too. Thanks!

[rogerd]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, djgill!

Pricing a forum is difficult, but certainly one way to value it is like any other website: use historical revenue numbers to build a projection of forward earnings, and apply the multiple you feel is appropriate. Years established, traffic trends, Google PR, good/bad domain name, etc. may all be factored in.

In general, forums will run lower ad CPM rates for a variety of reasons. Some forums bludgeon their members with big, intrusive ads, but that's not a great long-term strategy.

You could look for some niche forums by searching for "footprints," e.g., "powered by ExampleBB," or unique filenames along with a keyword relevant to your topic of interest.

[djgill]

Thanks a lot Roger...also, not sure how I didn't see this before (duh), but this Vbulletin directory should really help in terms of finding candidates as well: [vbulletin.com...]