Pligg project "for sale"

[NullHypothesis]

I see the Pligg bookmarking/submission script is up for sale (aka "Digg clone" when Digg still did social bookmarking). I remember when these sites were all the rage: Digg, Mixx, and a bevy of "Digg of x" niche clones. We even had our own one called Muti. Now only Reddit stands. Even though Pligg is open source, the project "owner" is selling the main website as well as control of the github "page" (I assume he means the repo). Pligg used to power some of the popular clones. But these days is mainly ad filled crap sites promising "backlinks" that use the software.

 

[Toothless]

Not sure what the BIN on the auction is, but personally, I would not mind owning this software. There are quite a number of ideas I have that can be implemented. I do not think these sites are dead and there is potential for huge growth. If this project ends up between the R100,000 to R300,000 mark I will be gunning for it.

 

[NullHypothesis]

Not sure what the BIN on the auction is, but personally, I would not mind owning this software. There are quite a number of ideas I have that can be implemented. I do not think these sites are dead and there is potential for huge growth. If this project ends up between the R100,000 to R300,000 mark I will be gunning for it.

Flippa frowns on sellers mentioning reserve (if no buy now is set). While I think it has potential, I think the overall (Pligg social bookmarking) ecosystem needs a bit on an overhaul. The majority of sites running Pligg can be found here. As you can see ad infested and spammy. So if you can maybe launch a few human moderate premium versions focusing on smaller niche's maybe more people will buy your templates.

While there are still two weeks to go, the price is not too bad. I have been a bit reluctant to buy sites lately due to exchange rate (I’m really feeling it) as the majority of my income is currently in ZAR. So I have been looking for more and more local opportunities. At the moment R100 000 = less than $7000, you have to dig deep to get bargains these days.

 

[Toothless]

Flippa frowns on sellers mentioning reserve (if no buy now is set). While I think it has potential, I think the overall (Pligg social bookmarking) ecosystem needs a bit on an overhaul. The majority of sites running Pligg can be found here. As you can see ad infested and spammy. So if you can maybe launch a few human moderate premium versions focusing on smaller niche's maybe more people will buy your templates.

While there are still two weeks to go, the price is not too bad. I have been a bit reluctant to buy sites lately due to exchange rate (I’m really feeling it) as the majority of my income is currently in ZAR. So I have been looking for more and more local opportunities. At the moment R100 000 = less than $7000, you have to dig deep to get bargains these days.

Agreed, the system do need some changes to keep up with times. I am also for the human moderating part in this software.

Yep, Flippa deals are expensive these days, and even more so when you consider the exchange rate here in SA. Knowing them well, I suspect that this site may eventually end up in the $15k to $25k bidding range. But, I am not sure that even this will be the amount the seller has in mind. Will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[NullHypothesis]

I suspect that this site may eventually end up in the $15k to $25k bidding range. But, I am not sure that even this will be the amount the seller has in mind. Will be interesting to see what happens.

I don’t know how choosy he can be. The software is open source and can be forked into a new project. Although there is some value in the current name and “official” website that is for sale. The site is only making $690 per month in profit.

I’m not sure how to value it, on the one hand it’s a well know brand in certain corners of the web community, on the other the project in its current form is past its prime and will require a lot of time and effort. Based on that I would not go above 18x monthly revenue. Which is just under $14k. Yes the project is many years’ old (which can be a good or bad thing) but 7400 uniques a month to the official site is not a lot (and traffic has halved year-over-year), traffic is not even stagnating but on the decline. That being said I see guys all the time rather letting their sites die than accept less than what they think is “fair value”.

This project should evolve more into what Reddit is (discussion around the content being submitted) and not just hit and run submitting of links then there would be more value in it. Then it could become to link discussion boards what vBulletin is to forums. Either that or morph it into a Get Satisfaction type platform which will attract premium corporate clients. Companies can use it for customers to submit feedback or ideas. I can already seeing selling this to eTV and they asking people "Do you want to watch this movie {link to Anaconda’s imdb page}" and watch the downvotes rain down on them.

 

[Thor]

Sold for $50K °°° dammit

 

[NullHypothesis]

Sold for $50K °°° dammit

That's a heavy premium (73 months / 6 years profit) for a project that is essentially past its prime. One has to wonder what the new owners have in mind. And whatever they have in mind would spending $50k on where it currently is and how much more to take it further? Compared to just spending $50k to develop something from scratch knowing what they want from the beginning. But development can be expensive as well and factoring in things like debugging, scope creep etc.

Their main revenue is selling premium add-ons (templates and modules) but that is hardly a thriving industry compared to say WordPress.