Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

First, thank you to all who made Startup Nation possible. Many great ideas have been bounced off these forums, several have been implemented on my website.  I really appreciate all your help.

I`ve been asked by 2 large companies to come up with a spec sheet for a website that I plan on selling soon (www.moontowncafe.com).  I know this is not an elevator pitch, but I think it is very close as it must be clear, concise, and brief.  Here`s what I`ve come up with so far.  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

History

• Created in 2000 to give poets and writers a place to showcase their writing.  A fairly large, tight-knit social network has evolved.

Owners

• Owned and operated by Kyle Olechnowicz and Jonathon Neihart.
• Kyle has a BS in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a MS in Applied Physics.  He is a self taught programmer who maintains the functionality of the site on a day to day basis.
• Jonathon has a BA from the University of New Hampshire and has been published in numerous literary magazines and books.  He is responsible for the artistic content and editorial support for the members.

Technology

• Designed with the end in mind.  Website was designed to run itself, but boasts several advanced admin functions not visible to the average user.  This helps maintaining the website an easy task.
• Dozens of free poetry and writing forums for all styles of writing.
• Free blog area for all members.
• Users can read, critique, and rank poems and stories on a 5-Star basis.
• Poetry chat room.
• Members can create poetry groups with other members to make communicating and sharing poetry easier.
• One of a kind point system, allows users to gain points for reading and critiquing poetry; while losing points for posting their own poetry. This forces users to read other people`s poetry on the site while eliminating over-posting.
• Premium Membership Area allows users to read and write poetry that may not be suitable for all audiences
• Members can sell points for Premium Memberships and other services.
• When someone comments on work, writer can elect to get an email alert.
• Many free poetry contests
• Yearly book published from work on the site.
• Free monthly poetry newsletter.
• Online messaging system allows members to keep in touch with each other.
• Users can build a "Friends" list with members who share similar interests.
• “Featured Poet”, “Top Poems”, and “Latest Poems” areas on main page.

Network

• Over 8,000 registered users.
• Average of 15 new members sign-up per day.
• 500,000+ page-views per month.
• Over 3,000 newsletter subscribers.
• Over 75 premium member (paying members).
• Hundreds of members use our free blog service.

Database

• Nearly 50,000 poems & stories online in our complex SQL database.
• Thousands of blog entries in separate database for reliability.

Search Engine Optimization

• Over 40,000 pages indexed by Google.
• Google Page Rank of 5
• Over 1,500 back-links with Yahoo!
• Top 10 listings on Google for many highly competitive keyword phrases.  For example:
  • “free poetry contest” #6 out of 2,200,000
  • “nice poem” #5 out of 2,460,000
  • “teen poetry contests” #8 out of 1,990,000
  • “poetry chat” #5 out of 2,630,000

and many more.

• Search engine standings on other search engines are even better.

• Dynamically Created Google Gadget Unique for our site at:
  
  http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.moontow ncafe.com/gadget.xml 

 

-------------------------

Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com

I can`t comment on the copy except I would clarify this sentence:

"This helps maintaining the website an easy task."

The thing most purchasers are looking for is revenue information and I don`t see any.  One could guess that the premium memberships bring in roughly 1200 a year but what about the YPN?

I would also try a site like dnf.com as they will give you a realistic view of what the site is actually worth.

Good luck!

The revenue info was intentionally left out.  We are profitable, I`ll leave it at that.  Recently many websites have sold for a lot of money.  YouTube.com sold for 1.65 billion, dispite losing between 3-4 million dollars per month.  Google stated that to reproduce YouTube`s technology would cost between 50-60 million.  So why did it sell for so much? Answer: their network

I broke the spec sheet into 4 main areas: technology, database, network, and SEO. 

I believe the network is what most buyers will be most interested in.

-------------------------

Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com

I think you`ve done a decent job but revenue would definately be at the top of my list.  I saw you`re earlier post (a couple weeks back) and the thing that differentiates moontown from youtube is users.  8K users for your niche might be good but I`m sure when youtube sold the sheer volume of "eyeballs" influenced it`s perceived value.   As for placing a value on 8K users I would again point you at DNF as they always have been informative for me.

Thanks for the feedback.  For the record, less than 10% of the people who use our site are registered members.  Just like YouTube users, most people don`t open an account, they just browse what`s out there. 

When YouTube was sold, they were serving 70,000,000 videos per month.  We`re serving 500,000+ poems per month.  Or a little less than 1% of what YouTube served.

Our strength, unlike YouTube, is that our audience is a fine niche that advertisers can target.  With YouTube, ads are mostly what are considered "run of the network" since the website attracts all types of demographics. These pay out much less (about 90% less) than targeted ads.

 

Thanks for the feedback! 

 

-------------------------

Visit our poetry website today at:

www.moontowncafe.com