My Thoughts
Where do we start? Firstly, this is a really interesting site in a niche not often seen on Sitepoint. It gets good traffic too. That's the good stuff. Now the bad stuff.
You have to be wary of sellers who make claims such as this:
"Any person with marketing skills could easily turn this site into a $30,000 per month cash cow."
They make it sound so easy, don't they? However, turning a $625 / month revenue site into a $30,000 / month "cash cow" would require a lot of skill and even more hard work. But the seller's price is based on potential revenue figures after that hard work has been put in. That is, you have to build up the site to that level, but you pay the seller a price as if it was already there!
Also, given the seller's repeated assertion that they have no marketing skills, how do they know what can be achieved? How do we know that the seller doesn't have those marketing skills and that they have actually already tried and failed to increase revenues to that level?
"All that is needed to make this site a household name is someone who has the skills to market this site and to revamp it with a modern appeal."
Is that all? Why not get those skills yourself? Then you wouldn't have to bail out on this and all future projects. The seller does mention that they have plans for other sites. Surely it makes more sense for the seller to develop those lacking marketing skills here and now, than to reach a point where they can't take the site any further and sell up.
"To see live web stats for the Kids IQ Test Center please email me at either xxx or yyy and request the logon and password for my web analytic page that tracks all the details for the Kids IQ Test Center."
This is very helpful for potential buyersto verify traffic claims and is also a good way to develop trust between seller and buyer.
"Here is what a sliding scale of tests sold per day looks like:
200 Tests = $700/Day which equals $21,000 per month income.
250 Tests = $875/Day which equals $26,250 per month income
300 Tests =$1050/Day which equals $31,500 per month income.
These figures are obtainable."
How does one with no marketing skills no what is obtainable and what is not? Why not 600 tests a day to make $63,000? Potential values like these have no value. Buyers will think "If it were possible, it would have been done already". If $31,500 was possible, why not hire a web marketing professional to achieve that target and once reached, go it alone? Or even keep the marketer as I'm sure they would cost less than $31,500 / month. The best way to prove what's possible with a site is to achieve it yourself and then sell. Only a fool will buy potential.
"This is a true niche site with one other competitor called Fun Education. They sell an IQ test for kids ages 6 – 16. I doubt that test out sells my tests for the simple reason that their test has 201 test questions and although kids like to take IQ tests, they prefer tests with less questions and parents prefer our tests because we cater to more age groups."
Doubting that the rival test outsells your own is one thing. Having evidence that shows this is quite another. Similarly, demonstrating knowledge of your customers' preferences is one thing and showing evidence is another. If you have sent out questionnaires or if customers have completed surveys supporting your claims, you should show them to lend weight to your argument.
Auction Details
Minimum bid: $50,000
- URL: http://www.kids-iq-tests.com/
- Established: Tue Sep 30 2003
- Uniques/Month: 120,000
- Page views/month: 235,498
- Monthly Revenue (USD): 625
- Google Pagerank: 4
- Listed: Yesterday 11:13
Description:
The Kids IQ Test Center has been online since 2003. Site traffic is currently at about 4,000 visitors per day and climbing. As of this post, the Kids IQ Test Center is ranked by Quantcast at about 19,000 and closing in on the top 10,000 ranked by Quantcast.
I do not have the time or the skills to develop this site any further. Any person with marketing skills could easily turn this site into a $30,000 per month cash cow.
I am making decent money with the site and every month's affiliate check is more than the previous months check.
This site has over 250 pages indexed in Google and about 10 of those pages pull in the majority of daily traffic. If the site was fully optimized and marketed by someone who knows how to promote a website, this website could easily and very quickly enter in to the top 2,500 sites ranked by Quantcast.
I hate to sell this site because I would like to be the one to make it sell 200 plus IQ tests per day. However, I just do not have what it takes to make it happen. But I assure you that 200 tests sold per day is very feasible.
I have sold as many as 40 tests in a day and that was an awesome feeling and I was on a roll. However, like a fool, I changed the design of the page in the middle of this selling frenzy and that knocked me back down to about 10 tests per day.
All that is needed to make this site a household name is someone who has the skills to market this site and to revamp it with a modern appeal.
The basic frame is there and there are some very interesting pages that rank in Google’s Top Ten search term results. Most of the top ten search results are ranked 1-5.
I need to sell this site to pay off debt and return to school for web design. I am frustrated with my current vocation in the health field and unless I sell this site, I'm stuck like Chuck.
Besides selling IQ tests, this site also makes a bit of money by placing banner and text ads from Commission Junction.
Furthermore this site has a Yahoo Groups companion site called The Free IQ Test Club. This site was designed to keep visitors returning back to the Kids IQ Test Center without running an email campaign which I feel is tasteless. Most people who join this club do not bail out and cancel their membership and the Kids IQ Test Center is so closely intertwined with this group that visitors usually come back to the Kids IQ Test Center to take other tests that we offer as well.
If you are serious about buying this site, I will stay on as an adviser for as long as needed without pay to help you maximize profits and to help to develop content that would continue to serve as popular doorways that would serve to maximize visibility in the Google Index.
This is a diamond in the rough.
To see live web stats for the Kids IQ Test Center please email me at either kidsiqtests@yahoo.com or medullaoblongatta@yahoo.com and request the logon and password for my web analytic page that tracks all the details for the Kids IQ Test Center.
I was about to post logon information. However, I soon realized that there are people out there who are curious and have no intention on buying this site and I want to keep my business as private as possible.
Just posting this information for potential buyers is a risk but I want to be totally up front with my business and help you to make a decision that you would not later regret.
If you would like to view the site from the Way Back Time Machine follow this link:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.kids-iq-tests.com
Most people are familiar with this site but for those of you who are not, it is simply an archive of cached web pages (the home page only) since that site went online with the month and the year and gives snapshots of those pages throughout the years until the present time.
If there are any other questions you may have feel free to email me at kidsiqtests@yahoo.com.
Once I know that you are truly interested in purchasing this site, I give you my phone number and we can talk business.
As stated on the description of the website, if you purchase this site, I will stay on and assist you with site ideas and clue you in on what I ultimately wanted to do with this site that would have possibly drew in 25,000 visitors per day and what it would take to feasibly sell 250 tests per day.
Potential Daily and Monthly Earnings
Here is what a sliding scale of tests sold per day looks like:
200 Tests = $700/Day which equals $21,000 per month income.
250 Tests = $875/Day which equals $26,250 per month income
300 Tests =$1050/Day which equals $31,500 per month income.
These figures are obtainable. However, to reach sales of this magnitude requires a skilled web entrepreneur. This is a true niche site with one other competitor called Fun Education. They sell an IQ test for kids ages 6 – 16. I doubt that test out sells my tests for the simple reason that their test has 201 test questions and although kids like to take IQ tests, they prefer tests with less questions and parents prefer our tests because we cater to more age groups.
Like any professional IQ test, it has to accurately test an individual on the things that he should know for his age. We sell quite a few tests for toddlers age 3. There is no way possible that a toddler could sit through a test that is designed for kids 6 – 16 years of age. Nor could a 3 year sit still for 201 questions.
This site has a huge potential for a mega windfall should it go global.
Every year more kids and parents become computer literate and as a result after every New Year I have noticed a spike in sales of the tests. This is mostly due to the fact that English speaking countries celebrate Christmas and every Christmas new and use computers are given as gifts.
There are many things that a newbie who has a PC and internet access will do and one of them is taking an IQ test. People are curious about the unknown figure of their IQ and so naturally, people from all countries will search for an IQ site that they feel comfortable with and go on to purchase an IQ test.
There are over 100 sites that offer IQ tests. Most of the tests do not reflect true IQ scores and there are only two sites that offer IQ tests for kids. I have already talked about the other site but it is my site that is poised for greatness.
I have so many ideas and so little time and my page designs are not that pleasing to the eye. However, I can write effectively and most of the articles that I have come up with in the last year have been indexed in Google within a week and usually premier in Google Top 10 Search Results.
Moreover, very few people have that ability and very few people know how to get a freshly created page indexed by Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask within a week.
I can do that and have a few other SEO secrets that I use that will not get a page banned from any search engine.
Like I’ve stated before, if you make the commitment to purchase this site, I will make a commitment to be available for any advice whatsoever. Furthermore, I will divulge everything that I know about this site and every plan that I had for this website that would have enabled it to grow.
Current Revenue Details:
The site earns money primarily by selling tests through my affiliate partner.
Each test sells for $9.95 and I receive $3.50 of that sale. Since being online in 2003, I have made about $30,000 with this site.
I also make about $50 per month by placing ads from commission junction on my site.
Just last week I was offered $165 to place text ads on a popular page. That has never happened before. I am still working on the details with the firm that made the offer.
Bottom Line: This web site has an enormous amount of potential. In its present state, it is amateurish in appearance. The theme of the site is based on human intelligence with a focus on children’s IQ. However, there is another side of the site that attracts a lot of visitors. That part of the site focuses on celebrity IQ scores and there are two pages that focus on the IQ of the presidential candidates. The pages created for Obama and McCain have been driving traffic in at a steady rate of 100 visitors every 20 minutes. I’m positive that after tonight’s last debate, I will see yet another record breaking day for my website, because the entire world will be searching for the IQ of Obama and McCain. This surge will last well after the presidential election and that will drive an enormous amount of traffic to this site.
Key Ingredients for Huge Profits:
1.A template makeover
2.A custom logo design
3.Keep the majority of content but reformat the pages for seamless ease of viewing
4.A skilled entrepreneur with web design experience at the helm overseeing the makeover process
5.A marketing campaign to make the site a house hold name that can be trusted
Reason for selling Kids IQ Test Center:
1.I am currently unemployed. I have spent the last 10 years as a nurse and nursing has stressed me out to the point that I want no more of it and I would be the happiest as a professional web designer.
2.While creating this site, I realized that I enjoy making web pages and designing web sites and I really want to go back to school for a degree in web design.
3.I have other projects that I want to do but there is no way that I can tackle two or three sites simultaneously. I’ve attempted to do this already and wasted time and money in the process.
4.With my limited skills, I have taken this project about as far as I can take it. I could keep on tweaking it but doing so without the education and in depth knowledge of a professional web design degree would only stress me out. I would have ultimately like to have kept this site while attending school and after graduation revamp this site to perfection but I don’t have the money or a job to pay for school.
One Last Thing
I have removed a couple of comments that were posted shortly after I put this site up for sale. There were a couple of good questions but there were also some stupid questions as well.
I’ve also removed a sharp criticism about the price I’m asking. If you think the price is unreasonable then keep your opinion to yourself. I did not pay $50 to have some punk come and flame my work.
I have seen hundreds of the same old websites for sale in here and on EBay. Preformatted sites that are no different than anything else that is on the market such as a ringtone site for $65. Hey, if that’s what people want to buy and sell at that price, that’s fine with me.
But do not knock my site because of the steep price and the lack of seamless continuity of the web design. I’m not a professional web designer. Everything that I did, I did by teaching myself.
I have put thousands of hours into this website and I am 100% certain that it is worth every penny that I am asking for.
My site is unique and it’s in a class with only one other competitor and that competitor is FunEducation and they can be found by following this link: http://www.funeducation.com/Tests/KidsIQTest/TakeTest.aspx.
Aside from that, there is no other competition.
No competition equates to higher revenues and this site makes more money every year than the year before.
When it comes down to purchasing a website that has a proven track record, what are your choices in the selection of sites available?
There really are no choices anymore. The Internet is saturated with so many clone sites that it is unbelievable.
Most of the websites that I notice being sold are designed to turn a profit on Google Adsense.
And what are the chances that you will have the opportunity to make $20,000 - $30,000 per month with a Google Adsense site?
I would think that the chances are slim to none.
Kids IQ Test Center is like a prized Plymouth Barracuda setting in parked garage tucked away for the last 35 years. It needs work done on it but once the work is finished and the ‘Cuda is restored, she is faster than hell and worth a pretty penny.
Revenue Details:
The site earns money primarily by selling tests through my affiliate partner.
Each test sells for $9.95 and I receive $3.50 of that sale. Since being online in 2003, I have made about $30,000 with this site.
I also make about $50 per month by placing ads from commission junction on my site.
Just last week I was offered $165 to place text ads on a popular page. That has never happened before. I am still working on the details with the firm that made the offer.
Bottom Line: A template makeover complete with a custom logo and have every page reformatted for aesthetic purposes as well as an investor with connections and marketing skills, this site could very easily turn $30,000 per month.
Traffic Details:
My primary traffic comes from Google. For the demographics of visitors please visit my Quantcast profile. Or request a login and password for my Web-Stat Analytic Tracker for complete real time stats. I'm currently receiving 100 hits every 20 minutes and the time of this quote is at 2:32 PM CST 10-15-08.