No outcome. I had a few people offer to host the forum, I had a few offer to host it in return for putting up their own ads, but not want to buy it from me. I had an offer or two to take over the forum entirely, but when I mentioned that I'd want some money to transfer ownership of the software licenses and domain name, they never came back.
As I see it, everyone wants to use this resource, that's cool. Some people are even willing to donate to the forum, that's also cool, but at the end of the day, no one seems to want to take over ownership of the forum at any cost to themselves. As I've spent A LOT of my own money, time and effort getting it to the point it is at (especially considering I don't even make biodiesel and get no personal benefit from running this site whatsoever), I want it to go to a good home, but whoever that may be will need to compensate me for the time and money I've spent so far (or at least a "goodwill" contribution towards it).
If no one is willing to do that, which is where it currently stands, I'll roll my eyes, sigh and spend the money on another 6 months co-location hosting (which I've just done a few weeks ago) while I sort something else out. The "something else" will be:
- Downgrade the hosting from a dedicated server to a shared host which will be a lot cheaper and I'll move the site over once it is setup and tested.
- Put ads on the forum. This would be in the form of google ad-words and whatever else I can find interspersed through the forum posts and/or at the top/bottom & sides. These ads would be shown to non-registered users the most, registered users less and donating members even less or not at all. I may also work out a subscription model in return for no ads.
- Possibly offer financial rewards to the people who contribute to the forum (like all the hard work that the moderators do keeping all the spam away from the public's eye) and anyone who may want to write any formal FAQs etc.
- Maybe make some more modifications to the forum in terms of nagging unregistered users to register and some slight marketing to get the numbers up.
- Once the forum is running "like a business", I could then offer it for sale and see if anyone can see value in it this time. (There are a few good marketplaces to sell profitable sites in. I have not sought the wider market at all, as money was not the motivator for me, rather finding a good home in the biodiesel space, which didn't work out.)
Otherwise, I don't want to go on holding the can any longer, but the only think more distasteful than that would be just handing over all the hard work I've done to someone else for free. I had never intended to profit from this forum when I started it and I was quite passionate about it in the first couple of years. However, I've had it and I'm not seeking to profit anyway, just to obtain some fair compensation for what I've built.
I've just got to get the time and motivation now to make these next steps, as it will take away most of my free time for a while once I start.
21st October 2008, 02:47 PM
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