I've seen a lot of people do this...some people will develop forums for the sole purpose of selling them for profit...some people will buy established forums instead of starting from square one....some people will buy forums, make a few improvements, and then resell them for profit.

Have you ever done any of this and have you seen success doing it?

(No, I am not planning on selling AdminFusion, haha, I'm just interested in this subject)

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no i havent but i doubt i would sell mine unless idk lol

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
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I bought my current forum. Buying a forum is so much easier than starting 100% from scratch and generally the forum will already have members and backlinks.

You're probably right, but I really like to do this stuff because I enjoy it...buying a forum that somebody else has built takes all of the fun out of it...The buyer does probably get the better deal though, if you take into consideration how much time the seller has put into developing the forums...I'm sure it's more than what they are sold for

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yeah i like making mine

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
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I've built all of mine from scratch with the exception of FreelanceFans.com which I purchased but unfortunately turned into a huge mess...

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Admin - FreelanceFans.com ~ GatheredTreasure.com ~ LinkClinic.com ~ WealthCollege.com
Developer - Buffyverse-Forum.com

It was a shame to see FreelanceFans die down like that, I really felt like there was a lot of potential there...I guess it just goes to show that just because a site is successful before selling does not mean that it will be after selling also.

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what happend to it?

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
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My partner and I just bought our forum from it's previous owners. We were mods there for a long time first so it's not like we're strangers to the forum.

I think that selling/buying forums or building them for that purpose is a pretty shitty thing to do to members. You're sort of leading them on under false pretenses. Because really you don't care about their experience, you just want to make a buck. And then who knows what the new owner is going to do to them. Not much of a community here, IMO.

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Megan
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I agree that it is a pretty shady move...I'd never personally do it myself, but I do think that the type of community plays a major role in this. Take a tech support or a community like Sitepoint for example. I doubt that many of the members actually know the owners of those sites on a personal level, and I doubt many people would notice any major changes after an ownership transfer - this is of course unless the new owner slacks off and lets the forums die - which is always a possibility with this kind of stuff. If you run a...pet site, on the other hand - there can be some serious backlash if you try to sell the site, since, odds are, your members have grown attached to you. This can sometimes mean instant death regardless of how dedicated the new owner is to the community.

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