Earlier today DomainState.com’s owners placed their 7 year old domaining forum up for sale. Their reason given for selling; “It is with a sad heart that we have realized that it is no longer something we can commit the same level of energy as we once did.”
Stats:
Google Page Rank: 4
Google Search: Ranks third for “domain forum” “domaining forum” domainer forum”
Alexa: 67,726
Compete: 2846 Unique and 15042 Total Visits
If my math is correct then this forum has over 14,000 active and inactive members to go along with over 450,000 posts. The three owners do account for about 10% of those posts.
Sales price? Open to offers but would like to sell within the next couple of weeks. If you are interested in making an offer for the forum then submit to admin@domainstate.com.
You can read more, direct from the owners by visiting DomainState.com.
What do you think the forum will sell for?
My guess, if compete.com stats are anywhere near correct then $7,000-$12,000. I believe their member database is worth this price alone. Anyone looking to broker domain names could certainly benefit from a database like this. Now, if the site was already monetized and income stats could be provided then it would probably sell for a lot more. Whoever purchases this site should be able to easily make $1,000 per month starting off. Again, these numbers are purely speculative because compete.com is not the most accurate tool for traffic estimates.
***UPDATE – I just made an offer to purchase DomainState.com***
I’d guess around $20,000.
I just sold tutorialtube.net, 2 weeks ago and had a database of 300+ members. I was just outraged by the fact they were uploading junk to my dedicated server. I could guess that the member database had some value, but I don’t have a clue how to estimate. How can I get some help on that?
A rule of thumb that I’ve heard before is you should be able to make $1.00 per month from each email subscription you have.
Chef, best of luck with it. I think if a real domainer who knows many people in and out of the industry takes over a forum that’s already successful, you have a real recipe for success. Keep us updated and maybe, if legalities allow it, I’m sure we’d all love to hear your offer or the final sale price if you get it.
Thanks. I will be more than happy to share my purchase price if my offer is considered.
Value: $7,750
I would say its very hard to make money on a domain forum without paid membership, Ask RJ how hard and he has a much bigger forum.
I also think that forum is a distant third compared to DNF and NP.
Not sure how members who have not had to put up with advertising would respond to a new look filled with ads or a membership.
Much better properties to spend money on over a domain forum IMO.
Best of luck to you Patrick whichever way you go if you buy the site.
Yea, I know RJ has had his challenges. Believe me, my offer was based on those challenges.
I have no plans of plastering ads all of the forum. I think 1-3 solid advertisers should be good enough.
Best of luck with your bid!
Will be interesting to follow. Surely, there should be room for three major forums in the domaining world.
Yes, Domainstate.com is well known among long-time domainers for its admins’ and users’ helpful and constructive comments. They never make fun of anyone, and are always there to be a bright and delightful source of friendly answers to any new domainer with a new idea. They’re like the “Elliotsblog.com” of forums. Elliot, God Bless him, gives a lot of valuable info to his readers on his blog, and I think a close inspection of Domainstate will show you what they have offered to domainers as constructive advice in the last 7 years.
I hope anyone who buys this outstanding forum continues with the gregarious policies and well-policed comments that encourage amateur, novice and expert domainers into their fold.
One word sums up the basic focus that made this forum so popular:
AFFABLE
Chef, if you buy this forum, I suggest you do it only on the basis you get their FULL threads from Day One (of launch). The comments from their genial members should be saved and continued forward as long as possible.
Good Luck To All!
Thanks for the input Stephen, as always you are full of knowledge. I’ll be sure to keep any and all files with the forum.
Chef – I think $1 per email per month is dreaming, and wouldn’t model your bid for the site based off of that.
Good luck.
I think in our industry $1 per email address might be aggressive, but you never know. Either way, I did not take that into consideration when making my offer.
Forums are a tough one. Ads are a tough way to monetize them and donations are slim to none in most forums, yet they take the most work to manage and maintain. DomainState.com looks to be an older version of vbulletin without search engine friendly URLs so there’s a lot of things that could be done to update to software for 2010. Looking around though, many of the larger forms have let themselves become outdated.
Chef, best of luck to you in purchasing this forum. Looks like a decent community and there’s room for improvement because the other large forums are out of date. I’d recommend embracing the social marketing aspect of it and facebook login options etc etc because that’s the direction we’re heading.
Thanks for letting us know about the sale.
Great idea of merging social media with the forum. Thanks for the info and I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted if I get it or not.
Looks like a decent forum and lets hope a domainer like Patrick gets it.
dude why are you buying a typo (DomainSate.com) what kind of squatter are you ?!
lol…thanks, fixed the typo.
The real value is the user database over the forum posts. Forum posts get dated really quick. You can buy Domain State and have an instant user base of 9000 domainers that you could notify of the new services you offer.
Good luck Patrick. I really hope you end up with it!
EXACTLY!!!
Thanks for the support RJ. You could always sell me NamePros
doamin not idnexed in google…
i think the forum sold for 500 usd
Chef, always willing to help you out! And keep everyone on their toes!
I’ll definitely sign up to DomainState.com if you become its new owner. I’m a big fan of your blog and I know you would somehow turn the forum into a big success
How much do I owe you for saying that, lol. Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it.
I haven’t heard back about the offer yet, still waiting.