Lab Forums / Furbabies for sale

_Lorna_ · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 8:34 am Post subject:

Have you know somewhat shot yourself in the foot? You asked why people were leaving and not rejoining a few weeks ago which started a huge debate and now you are trying to sell the site? Why would any member want to buy it after you telling us that it is losing members?

Lorna

Basil · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 8:41 am Post subject:

labadmin · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 9:18 am Post subject:

the number of new members hasn't dropped, its the number of subscribers that had started to slide. I believe in honesty on a site and hence asked you the members for help and had started on a chain of events to improve on the churn ratio, some of these are already in place and others can be added by the new owners Smile

btw i have had considerable interest in the sale with almost double figure members asking for information so yes I think it would be better to sell the sites on to existing members as they know its format and its strengths and weaknesses Smile

_Lorna_ · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 9:31 am Post subject:

Topseyt · Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:14 am Post subject:

Good luck with the sale! I will be sorry to see you go too!

I hope that whoever buys it keeps things ticking over much the same way as they do at present.

I am a mum of three children, and I do know that there just aren't enough hours in the day. Sad

Helen.

_Rach_ · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:27 am Post subject:

Any news on a new owner for LF yet? I know I was originally interested but couldn't make the numbers add up, sorry.

labadmin · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:34 am Post subject:

No news yet Rach, I did have a large number of interested parties, but quite a few wanted me to split furbabies from LF which would require considerable time and effort which is something i dont have and hence why considering selling lol

I still have a few interested parties but one has domestic issues and seems to have gone astray and the other has gone quiet so nothing definate at all yet Sad

Scubabe · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:00 am Post subject:

I don't understand why it would take "considerable time and effort" to split them up?

So the new owner of LF would need to remove a few links from LF to Furbabies for the payment of subscriptions - but it would be easy to make the subscriptions payable by other means - Paypal for starters...

labadmin · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:16 am Post subject:

the problem with paypal solely for subscriptions is that lots of people distrust paypal and wont use it. A few years back i used paypal subscriptions on LF and the take up was very slow but it was 20%+ higher when the option of standard credit /debit card transactions away from Paypal was introduced (I know that Paypal allows you to make a card transaction without being a paypal member btw)

So then you are left with real custom secure coding to accommodate credit card transactions integrated solely into the site.

Scubabe · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:31 am Post subject:

But surely that is up to the prospective new owner to work out the logistics? It is entirely possible that a new owner may not want to charge subscription fees at all, so they couldn't care less...