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Beside my two startups I invest 99% of my time in, I have several side projects I started just for fun. Trying out new programming languages, those kind of things.

One of these side projects is a community (basically just a phpBB installation) geared towards a VERY specific niche, a specific type of equipment underground music producers use.

The website is mostly self-managing (we have some volunteering moderators) and I only check in every month or so to see if everything is still running smoothly.

The website has been running for a few years now and it's a really tight and friendly community. They love the site so much some members proposed to donate money to cover the hosting. (I turned it down, because in all fairness the webhosting costs are minimal.) The site has about 20k visits/100k views a month. No revenue, since we don't have any ads or user subscriptions.

I see tons of possibilities to improve the site and turn it into a business. Not because the traffic is that impressive, but because the target group is so specific and we could provide them with other related services they might want to pay for.

However, I really don't want to divide my time by 3 startups so I guess my question is if there's a way to leverage the potential without putting in a lot of time in it myself.

Perhaps I could try selling it to the manufacturer of the equipment (they already sponsored us once) or am I better of finding someone that can develop it for me? (in exchange for shares or money).

I have thought of just putting advertisements on it, because it's such a specific niche. This way I could develop the site based on its revenue, but the community seems very adversed to this idea. They are bit 'anti-commercial' if that makes sense. The advertisements would have to be highly targeted which again means I have to curate them which I currently don't have the time for.

Any ideas on this?

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Alrghth... yeah I found your site right after I posted the answer hehe. Cool site. Best of luck. – BhargavPatel Sep 8 '10 at 21:49

6 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

Wow, thats impressive. I gotta tell you first of all, 20K is an impressive number and you are lucky to get that many people. Can we have a link?

You can try co-founding the business with someone else who you trust. Keep most of the equity to yourself but give them more money because they'll be spending more time with it.

You can try selling the startup but thats easier if you get contacted, not the other way around.

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I like the co-founder idea as well. If you just get a site administrator friend or you can find one through you contacts that you feel comfortable with, I think that would be best. – Ryan Chatterton Sep 5 '10 at 3:42
Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into the co-founder idea. I would have to find someone with both technical knowledge and a passion for the community. I'll see if I can find someone on the forums. I won't share the link here, but if you really would like to know you can Google me and you should be able to find the site. – marckohlbrugge Sep 8 '10 at 15:42
up vote 2 down vote

For one thing 20k visitors is a small number for a site where the revenue is content related.

First, find out what's the earning potential of the site. I looked around a bit, and found http://www.talkarcades.com/revenue/11326-how-much-you-earn-per-visitor.html which is focused on online games, not forums but gives us the hint that the revenue is $.1 or under per visitor per month. With 20k visitors, you could get $200 per month.

Next, you need to calculate if it's worth your time. My take is that if you're busy with two other startups, it's not worth it, but you know the details better.

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That depends. A site where you have 20.000 published authors wold not be a small community. – NetTecture Sep 5 '10 at 9:41
I agree 20k is not a whole lot. However, since it's a VERY targeted group and our site is the only site dedicated to this specific niche, I still think there's some value and potential. – But yes, whether it's worth my time that's big question. I'll try out some of the suggestions mentioned here and go from there. – marckohlbrugge Sep 8 '10 at 15:49
up vote 4 down vote

Selling to one of the potential advertisers would tank the site, because blasting with ads is exactly what they'd do. So if you care about the integrity of the community, that's out.

Of course a co-founder is the obvious choice -- someone with enough equity that they're extremely motivated and devoted. Often great co-founders for sites like this come from the site itself -- one of those uber-moderators who have offered to pay for hosting. They've already proven they personally care about the site and understand the culture and content.

20k uniques is a start, and the target certainly increases the CPM, but even so you're probably still in the $6-$15CPM range, which means $150-$300/mo, which isn't close to enough to be a "business." So this co-founder also would need to grow the community.

I find it odd that the community is willing to send you money for hosting costs, yet is not willing to see a relevant ad in the sidebar to support hosting costs.

Maybe you should start with a tip jar -- a button that allows them to donate $5 to you via PayPal whenever they want.

The target posts thing sounds good, but you still won't be able to charge too much for it, and it's a ton more work on your end than running ads, and it would be hard to do it in a way that ad-wary people won't still be pissed. In fact they might be even more pissed because you're cloaking an ad as an article.

Maybe you could earn affiliate money when you do product reviews? Maybe you could encourage people to buy their online stuff through you (your affiliate links) as a way to passively support the site?

It's hard to make money in media.

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Thanks for your response. You're probably right about selling the site, it would be better if the site stays independent. I'll look into both the co-founder and tip jar idea. Doing product reviews is something I've been thinking about also, but that means I either have to buy the equipment or work out an arrangement with a shop so I can lend equipment. I'll look into it though! – marckohlbrugge Sep 8 '10 at 15:46
up vote 1 down vote

Since it seems to be a product related forum. Why not create a store and do drop shipping or some kind of affiliate program with amazon or another distributor. If you had a developer, you could even do a monthly/weekly groupon-like system for discounts on merchandise. Also educational materials, about how to use the equipment or tips and tricks, would sell well too. You wouldn't even have to produce them. Just have users submit them, audit for quality, and then give the content producers a cut of the profits

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I'm based in The Netherlands and the community is mostly based in the US, so doing drop shipping is probably not really feasible, although I DO like the idea. Perhaps something I could work on with a co-founder. I also really like the Groupon idea. Although people don't buy new equipment on a daily (or even monthly) basis, if I can mix in some educational material and related products that might still work. The only question is whether my user base is big enough for this to be interesting to retailers. I guess I could just try it out though. (I can build a quick prototype myself.) – marckohlbrugge Sep 8 '10 at 15:52
up vote 1 down vote

If it's already easy to manage, KEEP IT.

Try get some revenue from it. I have successfully used text-link-ads.com, linkworth.com and buysellads.com

I also have few forums I keep "afloat" (they have a similar traffic) and still get some money out of them. You don't need to put too much advertising, most of it can be pretty discreet. And it pays pretty well too

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up vote 0 down vote

I think you should develop it if you have some great ideas. Since you probably have a pretty specific vision for things that you would do (if you had the time) to make the site better and build it into a company, why not pay to do so?

In other words, I'm saying put a few ads on the site or get a sponsor for now. Use all the money that comes in to hire programmers and other experts to build the site up. I'm assuming you'll redesign the site, add banner ads, and add services/products, etc. This can all be done in time. Hire it out if you don't have the time. The project itself will pay for it, especially if you are willing to do it slowly. If you want to do it a bit quicker then you might have to invest a few dollars in it, but that's no different then any business. Either way, hire it out to people you know do good work and it will grow into teh business you know it should be. You are right, it sounds like this is a pretty good niche with plenty of people. It's worth a LOT more then the arcade visitors mentioned above. No comparison.

So go for it. You might not have a lot of time, but it can be built. Doesn't have to be built in a day.

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