Darren Hoyt and I would like to sell WPQuestions.com, but only if we can find the right person (or company) to take over this site. The buyer would have be as respectful of the community as we have been.
Ironically, we were pulled away from the world of WordPress almost as soon as we launched WP Questions. Darren now works full time on Readability. And I got busy with some Symfony projects (the framework we used to build WP Questions).
I would like to be working full time on the software that powers WP Questions, and all of the other Codewi.se sites. We started offering this software to everyone, in a limited beta, however, there is much work to be done. The money raised from the sale of WP Questions will go towards improving the software.
Right now, WP Quesitons has about 3,000 members. Ideally, the buyer will be someone who is deeply embedded in the WordPress community – someone who can grow the site to 30,000 members and more.
To be clear: we are talking about converting WP Questions to a standard Codewi.se site, that you would own and control, but it would be hosted on our servers, and our relationship (yours and ours) would be subject to the same terms as any other Codewi.se site. We would keep 2% of the prize money that goes through the site, so for every $1,000 in prizes, we would get $20. You can charge whatever fee you want on top of
that (we currently charge 12% plus .90 cents on top of whatever the prize is offered, so when an asker puts up a $10 prize for a question, we charge them $12.10).
WP Questions is currently getting around 1,000 visits a day:
The site’s traffic is at an all time high:
We have posted charts showing how much money moves through the site, and how many people are signing up.
If you think you might be the right person (or company), to take over WPQuestions.com, please contact me at lawrence @ krubner . com
[UPDATE]
I have never figured out the profits on this site. I did write a very primitive estimate which gives me a rough idea, and which is on the admin page. You can see this screenshot from last November:
http://tailormadeanswers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Screen-shot-2010-12-05-at-10.05.40-PM.png
The total payments are actual numbers, but the PayPal figure is an estimate that could be off by 2% or 3%. The basic math is (from last November):
$13,175 – $11,390 – $623 = $1,162
Very roughly, I think we make about 10% of the prize money, so roughly $30 to $60 a week:
http://tailormadeanswers.com/charts/money_per_week.php
$45 a week implies $2,340 a year. The site keeps growing, so I assume if Darren Hoyt and I do nothing, the site will bring us between $3,000 to $4,000 this next year. We’ve also thought about adding advertisements, which I guess would give us a total near to $5,000.
The site requires about 1 hour of work each week, mostly to handle requests for refunds. The refund rate has been steady at about 9% for most of the site’s history.
If you took over the site, you’d go through the same setup as anyone else:
http://tailormadeanswers.com/2010/12/08/set-site/
[UPDATE]
I’m uploading 2 PDFs with exports of data from Google Analytics. One is about the last month and one is about the last 15 months.
Analytics_www.wpquestions.com_20091130-20110222_(DashboardReport)
Analytics_www.wpquestions.com_20110123-20110222_(DashboardReport)
Please email
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I’d love to buy it. How can we get in touch?
@Abhishek
“If you think you might be the right person (or company), to take over WPQuestions.com, please contact me at lawrence @ krubner . com “
Contact back us.
i am interesting to install a french wpquestions ๐ is it possible ?
@sebastien – You should sign up for a regular Codewi.se site. We hope to make the templates completely editable by next month, at which point you could edit out the English and replace with French.
You said that i could sign up : http://blog.tailormadeanswers.com/signup_for_beta.php
that’s it ?
Yes i could, and i would ๐
and if you want, i can help you to translate the theme in french
no problem.
I was planning to launch a few projects within these few months including a site like this (with some differences ofcourse which I had planned though)
Would love to continue this project and make it the only wp outsource site infact ๐ (or else my own project will be soon ๐ )
Intresting idea… I will think about it ๐
Can Join to split ownership with some-one. I’ve WP knowledges.
Huh
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I was just thinking how much I freakin’ love wpquestions.com. I just used the site twice today!
Since it sounds like you’re mainly trying to raise funds for further software development, maybe you could keep ownership and raise funds through kickstarter.com?
#justathough
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There were interesting comments about this over at WP Candy:
http://wpcandy.com/reports/wpquestions-dot-com-is-for-sale
I just posted this comment there, and I re-post it here:
Just to clarify a few things:
1.) The site currently charges 12% and .90 cents. The site has made, after all PayPal fees are subtracted, something like $1,500 so far. Roughly the site makes, after PayPal fees, something like 10% of the prize money. It makes something between $30 and $60 a week. The new owner would be free to raise prices, of course, if they felt doing so would be wise. (We started off charging 6% and .60 cents, so weโve already doubled prices from when we started.)
2.) Donnacha WordSkill is possibly mis-reading what โownershipโ means. Iโm sure that is my fault. I should have written the initial post more clearly. What exactly do you own if you buy the site? Please read our informal agreement:
โโฆIt is understood that you own 100% of the data that is collected through your website. Codewi.se makes no claims regarding the text that you write, the images you create, the CSS that you create, or any other element that you might contribute to the design. You own 100% of the copyright of all the elements that you create.
You also own all of the data that you collect from your own users. The text that they post, as both questions and answers, does not belong to Codewi.se. Whether or not such material belongs to you depends on whatever agreement you wish to enforce between yourself and your own users. Nothing in this agreement precludes you from fashioning your own copyright agreement to govern relations between yourself and your own users. So long as no one infringes on those elements where Codewi.se has claimed a copyright, you are free to negotiate your own terms with your own users.
It is understood that the data that your users contribute will be stored in databases controlled by Codewi.se. However, this data does not belong to Codewi.se. Codewi.se holds this data in its databases as part of its service to you. Codewi.se agrees to never mine this data for its own commercial ends, save through whatever exceptions are made in this agreement, and in other agreements that you may reach with Codewi.se. โ
http://blog.tailormadeanswers.com/2010/10/23/agreement-govern-codewise-beta-program/
The content of the database is yours, which means you could always export the data, write your own software to work with it, and set up your own site, free of Codewi.se.
I realize my original post is poorly written, and I will amend it. What I was trying to say is that we are not selling the software that powers the Codewi.se sites. We are, however, selling the data, so if you wanted to take that data and start your own site with it, at WPQuestions.com, you could. But if youโd like to use the software that we have created, then it would be on the terms of any other Codewi.se site.
@Rodney – thanks. I’m also considering raising funds by changing my lifestyle – that is, cutting expenses. I have a friend in Florida who wants me to visit, so potentially I could leave New York City and spend a month on the beach in Florida, doing almost nothing except coding. That is certainly a possibility. If the perfect person comes along for WPQuestions.com, then we could see selling it, otherwise, I think it is best if we continue to grow it ourselves.
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Is it possible to deploy it to other services or consulting business?
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