HN Explorer

Ask HN: Purchase small site as launchpad?

9 points by JeremyChase ↗ HN
Hey HN,

I'm considering the purchase of a small community website (~150k pv/month, ~200 active users) in a sub-niche space. The site is established, but significantly smaller than the players in the main-niche.

My ultimate goal would be to broaden the site from the sub-niche to the main-niche, and bring a better experience to the users. Is this a bad idea?

To really offer users something good, I would eventually need to move the site away from the current software, and into a custom web app. Do you think this is: A) a bad idea? B) something that would tick off the users?

Thanks

(When thinking about this, consider the financial cost of the site to be nominal. I'm more concerned about my time/effort; also consider me to be a pretty good web developer)

5 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 24.5 ms ] thread
brianlash
AFAIK there are 2 reasons to acquire a company:

a) when there's an operational deficiency (and you have the wherewithal to solve it), and

b) when there's a management deficiency (and you have the wherewithal to solve it)

I imagine that's every bit as true on the web as it is offline. So from where you're standing, do you see an opportunity the current owner is missing? Do you have the skill and resources to install that value? If after a good hard consult with your gut you can answer Yes to both questions it may be a good idea to move forward.

spoiledtechie
Everything he said!! I did the same thing, but for free with only time...

Except my site has 13k users. The only problem so far is the users are still using the old site because my new site isn't up to 'their' standards yet. I currently have about 400 users on my site out of the 13k promised. I only expect my site to flourish tho... Do you expect your site to flourish and grow?

jwesley
Another factor to consider would be the domain name of the site. Would you want to build your company on top of the domain name? Is it suitable for the broader niche that you want to apply it to.

If the site is a good fit, buying an established but underdeveloped site can be a great way to gain a foothold in an vertical without toiling for months in obscurity.

axod
It's a good strategy. Do it if you can get it for a good price.
Mz
In some sense, good forums become "communities". And communities aren't really for sale. You can buy the domain name and administrative rights, but you can't buy the community, if that makes sense. If you don't have a fairly good idea of how you will win over the members of the community, you may be just wasting your time and money. Simply replacing whoever runs the place now is likely to fundamentally change the character of the community and may lose a lot of members in the process. I would encourage you to spend time there as a member and try to understand what the community is all about.

Communities often largely revolve around a few key personalities. Losing one of them can seriously damage traffic (as well as other aspects of the experience). It may be necessary if they are a huge fly in the ointment, but then the question becomes "what are you going to replace them with?"

Building community is more than just a numbers a game.

Good luck with this.