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SELLER GUIDE
Another Website Business
SOLD
Sale Assisted By: Alex Cardenas Broker Onboarding Manager, Default
Seller Location
United States
Buyer Location
United States
Looking to sell a similar business? Or, Browse Similar Businesses
Want to see more like this? I’ve found similar off-market businesses. Let’s take a look.
WEBSITE
Currency:
citystar.com
18 yr old PR4 directory site with 10,122 uniques/mo making $5,513/mo
Content Business Sponsored
Site Age
29 years
Monthly Profit
USD $3,643 /mo
Profit Margin
86%
Page Views
10,842 p/mo
Profit Multiple
0.3x
Revenue Multiple
0.2x
Show all
Sponsored
Expand All Collapse All
Performance Overview
Performance Overview
Revenue
USD $4,213
/mo
Page views
10,842
/mo
About the Business
About the Business

CityStar.com is a human-edited business directory founded in 1996 by Colorado based CityStar Group, Inc.  CityStar's pages have top positions in major search engines, ranking highly for more than 3000 keywords.  We started the site as a Colorado Springs directory, and expanded to 303 subdomain sites throughout the U.S. and 21 countries.  Traffic demographics are 91% U.S.

Revenue is from selling website listings to business owners, SEO firms and ad agencies.  We sell Flat Rate listings for a one time fee of $39.95, and higher status listings for monthly subscriptions from $19 to $299. 

You are free to keep the site as a website directory or use it for a brand new website.  The name is catchy and brandable.  If you decide to keep it as a directory, free support will be provided.

  • 18 year old domain
  • Also includes citystar.net, .org, .biz and .us
  • Dedicated server with automated backup, 100% uptime
  • 280 documented top 10 positions in SERPs
  • 12000 indexed pages
  • PR4, many PR3 pages
  • 1.9 million DNS lookups /mo
  • Registered Trademark (USPTO)
  • Proprietary search engine, maintenance scripts
  • 85% profit margin
  • Notebook PC with all maintenance scripts
  • 30 days training and support


This network of 303 city directory sites has made over $2.4 million.  As a "C" corporation, we utilize a CPA firm for our accounting, and we have a vast amount of certified documentation, see attached. 

Our snappy dedicated server is paid for as a trade for advertising on our sites (direct barter), and we utilize XpertDNS.com for our nameservers.  For traffic and income proof, please send us a PM. 

We ordered an Estibot appraisal, and will post here when it's completed.  Their quick appraisal was $56K, see attached.


Why we are selling
I am Artie Romero, CityStar's founder and sole stockholder.  From the proceeds of this business, I have put my children through school, bought a home and cars, launched other businesses and vacationed abroad.  I am 62, and I'm ready for retirement.  I've enjoyed working on this project, and I've learned a lot.  It's time for somebody new to jump in and take this to the next level. 

Read all (1 min)
Revenue & Expenses
Revenue & Expenses
Month Revenue Expenses Profit
Jul 2013 $3,096 $616 $2,480
Aug 2013 $2,830 $647 $2,183
Sep 2013 $1,942 $321 $1,621
Oct 2013 $3,761 $993 $2,768
Nov 2013 $2,136 $1,110 $1,026
Dec 2013 $3,819 $374 $3,445
Jan 2014 $4,775 $249 $4,526
Feb 2014 $5,194 $457 $4,737
Mar 2014 $6,465 $254 $6,211
Apr 2014 $6,169 $1,190 $4,979
May 2014 $5,556 $228 $5,328
Jun 2014 $4,815 $409 $4,406
Financial Statistics
Annual Revenue
USD $50,558
Annual Profit
USD $43,710
Monthly Revenue
USD $4,213 AVG
Monthly Profit
USD $3,642 AVG
Profit Margin
86%
Profit Multiple
0.3x
Revenue Multiple
0.2x
Total Revenue
USD $32,974
Total Profit
USD $30,187
Monthly Revenue
USD $5,495 AVG
Monthly Profit
USD $5,031 AVG
Profit Margin
92%
Profit Multiple
-
Revenue Multiple
-
Total Revenue
USD $16,540
Total Profit
USD $14,713
Monthly Revenue
USD $5,513 AVG
Monthly Profit
USD $4,904 AVG
Profit Margin
89%
Profit Multiple
-
Revenue Multiple
-
Total Revenue
USD $4,815
Total Profit
USD $4,406
Monthly Revenue
USD $4,815 AVG
Monthly Profit
USD $4,406 AVG
Profit Margin
92%
Profit Multiple
-
Revenue Multiple
-
Google Analytics Data
Google Analytics Data

Google Analytics
citystar.com

Engagement statistics
Users
39,553
Page Views
65,055
Pages / Session
1.00
Avg. Session Duration
00:00:28
Bounce Rate
78.67%
Top Channels Page views % of Total
Top Countries Page views
Monetization Methods
Monetization Methods

Ads

Services & Subscriptions

Products and Services used
Products and Services used

Google Analytics

Sale Includes
Sale Includes
Assets
Unique content
Unique design
Platform
-


Comments
jaykot new Jul 30, 2014 12:26 AM

I have some most likely very naive questions and it's direct to the seller as well as the other bidders who have a lot more experience at this then I do.

I'm confused by the issues, and the transfer of customers and Intellectual Property. I though City Search is a C-corp. Can all the shares be sold and a non-competed agreement signed by all the former owners/managers C-Corp?

The seller has posted a P&L. Can the post his current balance sheet? And the balance sheet for 1Q14?

Also a drop from $20,000/mo to $2,000/mo? This is like the restaurant in town that was going like gang-busters, but there is a radical decline and the owner now wants to sell. Something changed in what's been cooking? What's the secret ingredient?

I'm not clear on the active income vs the passive monthly income generated by the site. And people seem to have repeatedly ask this question but the only answer was it would take too much time to analyze the books to figure that out. So, I just want a ball park. A business owner should be able to have a good enough feel after doing it for so many years. Is it now 50 sales / 50 income or is 80 sales / 20 income. Just a good estimate will do.

What % of the day is spent on operating the business? What is the total time spent per week on average to earn $2000 - $4000. What % of this is allocated to new sales and marketing (including cold-calling)? What % is allocated to answering phone calls. What % spent dealing with technical hosting/IT issues. What % data entry? What % is spent on lead generation? I don't think this should be very hard to answer. How has this changed, if at all since the revenues went from $20,000/mo to $2,000/mo.

I'm very intrigued that you can get Radio Ads and TV ads for $50. It costs me more than $50 to produce a professional spot to be put on radio or TV. Please can get more details on how a radio ad is produced and broadcasted for $50?

I'm intrigued by this business. I would like to understand how it works better, before I make the winning bid.

Thanks,

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 11:14 PM

@SukenShah
The database schema is now attached as an Excel sheet with explanations of field formatting, etc. Thank you.

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 09:15 AM

@SukenShah
Yes, understood. I will post that as an attachment after my dinner engagement. Thanks again.

SukenShah Jul 29, 2014 08:54 AM

@citystar Can you provide field or column names for each file, as well as the number of records in each file?

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 08:34 AM

@SukenShah
Thanks for your question. The databases are just flat text files, so I apologize, as I don't know how to answer this. I guess I'm not much of a database guy, lol. Can you explain it to me, please?

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 08:25 AM

@whodis
Thank you for your comment. In those "big deal" references, which I cited in order to explain questioned spikes in revenue before 2009, the only services CityStar sold which we no longer offer were in the Dex purchase order for display advertising. I apologize for bringing the Dex deal up without giving you all a full explanation. Yes, Dex declared bankruptcy before we delivered more than a few grand in ads, but that is the nature of a PO, you only get paid for what you deliver and invoice for. You can't deposit a PO into the bank. Yes, we still sell services beyond our core function, and why wouldn't the buyer of the site want do that, as well? With a low cost of goods sold, the opportunity for additional profits is clear, and this is pretty well spelled out in the financial attachments under "products" and (especially) "services." Thanks again.

SukenShah Jul 29, 2014 08:05 AM

Can you provide schema for both data files that are used to run the site?

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 05:56 AM

@SukenShah
The winner will own all the data, including all rights, title and copyright (legally assigned to the winner as a "work made for hire" under U.S. copyright law), it's all stored in one convenient location, and it's structured as 2 flat file databases, AKA tab delimited text files. One is for the main site citystar.com, and the other is used by all the city sites.

SukenShah Jul 29, 2014 05:29 AM

@citystar Thanks! Will we own all the underlying data, is all the data in a central database, or is the data spread out all over the place? How is it all structured?

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 05:21 AM

@SukenShah
Of course it does, yes, plus citystar.net, .org, .biz and .us

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 05:17 AM

@Oddphile
First, in my opinion, ownership of this site is not for everybody. The ideal buyer will be one who has run an online business previously, or has previous business experience and is friendly with computers, or at least be one who is ready and willing to learn a few technical processes and is also comfortable with technology, as well as doing some light sales work (in calls and answering a few emails). One does not have to be a "Big Bang Theory" level geek, web designer or programmer, just one who is not intimidated by computers and has business experience.

That being said, the essential knowledge one needs to operate the directory on a routine basis is familiarity with Microsoft Excel or a comparable program such as Open Office Spreadsheet or Google Drive Spreadsheet (last resort).

Other than that, things like launching a program, working in a simple text editor (not MS Word), dragging and dropping a text file into the server can be assumed as common knowledge, or learned very quickly during the first few hours of the 30 day support period. I have taught others the latter things without much effort. I don't have time to teach spreadsheet use though. So...

For the average person, the database work *could* be done more easily by adding a form based front end on another Excel sheet or a private, secure login page on the server, so the admin never has to touch Excel, etc. However, as simple as that would be for our programming contractors to implement if desired, at this point it will constitute an extra cost for the new owner, since my company is not willing to pay to create it at this late date. I like Excel better anyway, because I can do more with it, and actually I prefer to edit the flat file database in a powerful text editor instead.

SukenShah Jul 29, 2014 05:09 AM

Does this deal include all the citystar.com subdomains as well as the main domain?

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 04:37 AM

@Kbanu
These questions have been answered publicly here, so I'll PM you the info, and thanks for your interest.

Oddphile new Jul 29, 2014 04:33 AM

Is there any specific knowledge needed to run this site or can a complete amateur do it?

Kausar Banu suspended Jul 29, 2014 03:58 AM

How do you market this site and what is the cost of marketing. Also, do you make any profit after all the expenses.

Tim Romero Jul 29, 2014 02:47 AM

@mcmii
I Just wanted to make sure I answered your question thoroughly... I've mentioned most of this before, but as it relates to your question:
(1) Right now I am performing all the maintenance myself to keep expenses down.
(2) We have easy to use scripts that create all 12000+ listing pages automatically using python to scrape CityStar's proprietary search engine. The scripts are installed on a notebook computer that will be shipped to the winner. For the most part, the only maintenance that's required right now is the addition, correction and deletion of listings from the listings database.
(3) This week I will produce a video to share with serious bidders, showing how to install and remove listings, and how the whole CityStar update system works.
Thanks again, and happy bidding!

Tim Romero Jul 28, 2014 09:26 PM

@whodis
Thanks for your question. The dedicated server is a Linux box running nothing but CityStar.com (and CityStar.net as an alias). It's leased month to month, is paid for through September at Digipark in Colorado Springs, and would not have to be moved, but certainly could be if desired. The advantages of this machine are that it has multiple hot swappable drives, plenty of RAM, is very fast, reasonably priced, well configured to host CityStar, and is currently being paid for with barter instead of cash. Digipark's owner has told me twice that he wants to be introduced to the new CityStar.com owner.

One can access and maintain the machine remotely just like most other leased or colocated servers. For added security, it requires that administrators (you and/or your outsourced support) have registered static IP address(es) from which maintain it remotely. CityStar Group Inc. pays an extra $5.99 per month to our internet access provider for the static IP, and of course Digipark can change and install more than one IP as authorized in case the winner needs to outsource maintenance.

My personal support is already included in the sale whether or not the winning bidder wants the site moved to a different host (see final bullet point in listing). I've moved it several times, and as long as you have a good fast Linux machine to host it, that would not be a problem. I recommend using a dedicated server for maximum speed, responsiveness and security. Google likes fast sites.

This week I will produce 2 videos. The first will show how to install and remove listings, and how the whole proprietary CityStar maintenance system operates. The second will show how to add a new city subdomain (to create a new city site). I'm looking forward to sharing this behind the scenes stuff with a few Flippa bidders who are serious about acquiring CityStar. Thanks again for your question and to everyone, thanks for reading all this!

John Doe new Jul 28, 2014 03:10 PM

You mention in the listing "dedicated server with backup". Does this mean it is included in your sale? And if so, where is that server located? I presume it would have to be moved. Or do you have a continuing contract to host the webpage for a specific amount of time. If the code has to be moved to another server, what is the guarantee that can be done easily?

Tim Romero Jul 28, 2014 01:27 PM

@mcmii
The site was redesigned in 2012 by former CityStar intern, designer, senior developer and, by the age of 18, CIO Ricky Romero, who was recruited in 2005 (at 19) to join Yahoo! and is now a senior designer at Intuit, the financial software giant. He just did it as a favor for his me, his dad (no charge). A lot of coding was needed to fully implement the designs, and I got all that done for a little over $1000. We got a lot of bang for our design dollar thanks to Ricky's generosity. Around the same time, we commissioned a search engine improvement that really increased the system's speed for just $150 or so (it was in euros, give me a break). Our patent application was based on that tweak. I've been told that there are some issues with navigation and intuitiveness on the site, and any new owner is likely to want to make changes, I'm sure. I will consult for 30 days.

Yes, the winner will get referrals to the people/companies who have worked on the site over the past few years. I can't quote anybody's rates, but we've gotten a lot of work done for relatively little money, and have been able to pay for a lot of it with barter.

mcmii new Jul 28, 2014 07:14 AM

@citystar Thank you for your responses. Follow up questioning... who currently performs your website coding development and maintenance? I don't see any expense for that on your TTM P&L. Unless this was done by yourself, I assume there were considerable expenses for this activity in prior years, and if yes, how much? Will that person/company be recommended and available to the new buyer, and at what cost per hour?

Tim Romero Jul 28, 2014 06:24 AM

@danske412
And to answer your question directly, imho the long term sustainability of this niche has been helped by G's insistence on quality and editorial discretion. They're forcing other directories to do what we've always done as a matter of taste. We have never been "hit" by any of the updates to G's algorithms and our clients appear to benefit by being in our "good neighborhood." Thanks for bringing this topic up; I'm grateful for the opportunity to clear the air.

Tim Romero Jul 28, 2014 04:30 AM

@danske412
That's actually a common misunderstanding. If you follow Google's head of webspam, Matt Cutts, and listen carefully to what he actually says about our industry, they are not being automatically penalized for being directories. He holds the Yahoo! directory up as one example of a "good" directory. His opinion of any directory is based on its lack of an automated submission script, its discretion, editorial quality, lack of hyperbole and other authoritative qualifications.

CityStar is not, and has never been, a free for all links site, it doesn't allow purchasers of listings to say whatever they want, and it's not spammy or abusive of Google's algorithms. We love Google, they have been our best friends in business, and they appear to be totally okay with what we are doing.

The reason we have never used an automated script to allow people to write, post and edit their own listings, and the reason we don't encourage businesses to write their own listings through us (and when they do, they must adhere to our style book - http://wiki.citystar.us/wiki/Style_Rules.html ) is that CityStar has been, and can certainly continue to be, an example of a useful directory that can help people find what they need. The first time I ever saw a free-for-all links page (1995) I hated it, and never wanted to operate anything resembling that.

Please take two minutes to watch Matt Cutts' recent talk related to your question here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKUlVquEImc

He's been saying the same thing for at least 5 years, but sometimes all that is heard is the bad side represented by fly-by-night, spammy directories. There are dozens of other directories besides Yahoo! that benefit from being on Google's good side.

You might also want to read the work of Gail Gardner of GrowMap.com, who has been advocating for quality, human edited directories for quite some time.

danske412 new Jul 28, 2014 03:26 AM

I am just going to post this question because I am sure it is in the back of everyone's mind. Google has signaled multiple times that directories are going to be in the past soon. Especially since Google is really pushing it's local results. Any thoughts on the long term sustainability of this niche? Have you seen any major change in how Google indexes you, in your traffic or in your rankings?

Tim Romero Jul 28, 2014 01:22 AM

@nokkieny
Thanks for your question. When contacted by a prospective listing client, I ask them questions about their business, and often they go from stating their overall marketing objectives into discussing actual marketing challenges and shortcomings. I handle the delivery of services utilizing fast, easy to use, low cost software and vendor solutions which I will gladly reveal in detail to the auction winner.

Peter Boychuk Jul 28, 2014 12:31 AM

Do you outsource the service sale tasks? How are those sales made as they are not listed on the site?

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 03:14 PM

@mcmii
"Obviously the revenue generated has drastically decreased over the years from $20-50K per month to $2-5K per month... what would be the single most important reason for the drastic decrease in revenue? "
Thanks for this question. Sales are down, but profits are up. The site wasn't always 85% profitable, and we used to spend a large amount of money on all kinds of advertising, sales staff, mailings and other things to crank up those gross numbers. In 2005 I decided that a smaller company would probably be more profitable, and started seriously cutting costs. That worked out great, I got a raise and improved my quality of life as well. In business, making money is just part of our challenge, keeping it is important too.

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 02:51 PM

@rgeaton
Traffic goes up and down from day to day, but it's fairly consistent from week to week. Are you talking about the one-day drop from 800 to 685 sessions?

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 02:39 PM

@mototips
Transferring the subscriptions to the winning bidder won't be difficult for us, the new owner or our customers. I can't discuss the process here, but wrest assured that we have spent some time figuring out the best way to do it.

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 02:34 PM

@dallasdaniel
Thank you, sir, we appreciate your interest in acquiring CityStar.

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 02:28 PM

@nokkieny
"In the past year, how many one time fee customers have you had per month and how many of each recurring subscription customers have you had per month?"
Please see the attached PDF "Sales by item detail June 2013 - May 2014"

"If possible I would also be interested in the average length of subscription for monthly customers."
I'd love to know that too, but these kinds of reports are not easy to run, since a ton of data has to be manually parsed. The report above doesn't look like much, but it took about 8 hours work to prepare.

"Is it possible to list a business for free?"
We've never offered free listings. We've donated a lot of listings to large civic groups like BBB, convention bureaus and chambers of commerce, though.

"You said you work a little bit a day, but show multiple phone numbers for multiple cities? Please explain"
The numbers are all VOIP and they all ring into my Skype.

"How does local search work other than going to site map and picking my city?"
Click on "More Search Options" on any site's home page to expand your choices, or you can use this form to find all listings for a given city: http://www.citystar.com/select_different_city.html

"What is the reason for 4-10x random monthly sales increases in previous years?"
We like to make really big deals. In 2006 we got one sale of $42K and in 2008 we made another that was $40K. Dex once gave us an annual PO for $480K, which was quite a surprise. I've never seen a month that was more than quadruple the previous one, though.

"On the sales history, you list some customers as 1-2%, which would equate to $25-50K+, I don't see how that is possible with your sales model and even if it was, what are(were) they spending that much money on? "
Those tend to be the customers that stick with us for a long time. Monthly payments in the hundreds or thousands of dollars can add up to a lot in a few years. We got between $1000 - $2000 a month from Google ads for many years. In 2012 we redesigned the site and left all the paid advertising off it to create a cleaner, more authoritative look, but before that we sold skyscraper ads, tiles and various other banners. We like the new setup better.

"Do you have to manually create and remove each listing?"
Yes, but just into and out of the listing database. The HTML pages are created by automated scripts.

"What are product and service sales?"
Products include 'Net Profit$ DVD sets (a 10 hour internet marketing workshop we produced with the Better Business Bureau) and some clip art collections our former animation division created. Services are marketing related, such as video listing production, SEO, design and hosting.

"I am a little confused about your local advertising and sales efforts? What percentage of sales are phone orders and what percentage of total sales are in the colorado area?"
I can't give you any hard percentages, but the typical order comes in via email from Paypal, and big orders are usually phoned in. Currently, not much of our total business is from Colorado.

Tim Romero Jul 27, 2014 01:47 PM

@sm2007
Please see the attached "Sales by item detail June 2013 - May 2014" for information on how the listing revenue adds up, including subscription listings versus flat rate listings. Thanks for your patience.

Dallas Daniel Jul 27, 2014 11:48 AM

I would love to buy your website business, I think its going to go for much higher than my 10K cap.. to buy a biz. I've been outbid few times very fast on Citystar.. I just wanted to tell you I read your Wiki profile.. you seem like an amazing guy and I'm sure you gave a lot to the art/toon/animation industry. I wish you all the best and a great retirement.
Best,
dallasdaniel

mcmii new Jul 27, 2014 05:21 AM

Obviously the revenue generated has drastically decreased over the years from $20-50K per month to $2-5K per month. Other than the typical answer of "no longer time/interest" to work on the business... as if it were still making $20-50K you either wouldn't be selling or would hire someone who did have the time/interest... what would be the single most important reason for the drastic decrease in revenue? Google Panda, Penguin and Humingbird algorithm changes? Thank you.

Randall Eaton Jul 27, 2014 12:26 AM

According to GA (Jul 24) it shows a drop in traffic, can you explain?

james thompson Jul 26, 2014 03:24 PM

How are you going to transfer all your subscribing customers to the winning bidder?

Dallas Daniel Jul 26, 2014 01:27 PM

I just want to thank you for answering all the questions so well.. I'm interested and currently highest bidder and I'm glad these others are asking such good questions..
Thanks
Dallas

Peter Boychuk Jul 26, 2014 02:44 AM

In the past year, how many one time fee customers have you had per month and how many of each recurring subscription customers have you had per month?
If possible I would also be interested in the average length of subscription for monthly customers.

Is it possible to list a business for free?

You said you work a little bit a day, but show multiple phone numbers for multiple cities? Please explain

How does local search work other than going to site map and picking my city?

What is the reason for 4-10x random monthly sales increases in previous years?

On the sales history, you list some customers as 1-2%, which would equate to $25-50K+, I don't see how that is possible with your sales model and even if it was, what are(were) they spending that much money on?

Do you have to manually create and remove each listing?

What are product and service sales?

I am a little confused about your local advertising and sales efforts? What percentage of sales are phone orders and what percentage of total sales are in the colorado area?

Tim Romero Jul 25, 2014 02:21 PM

@ckaj
Thank you for your question. I have confidence in the marketplace to determine the right price for this property, whatever that may be. Like the opening bid price, the reserve can be either a positive or a negative factor in the eyes of potential bidders. We don't expect to sell this property for the reserve price.

We see a lot of listings on this site with no bids, and a lot with some bids, but the reserve has not yet been met. Looking at these listings as a buyer, both of these are a turn-off and poor salesmanship. That's just my opinion. As I said in the original listing, this project was fun, we made a lot of money, and we're ready to move on. So... happy bidding!

Tim Romero Jul 25, 2014 02:02 PM

@boylogik
Thank you for your interest in bidding on this listing.

"You did not respond to some important questions above?"
Please see my clarification question to sm2007 above, and my reply to your previous questions above. As I said, I have been afk because of visiting relatives, but now I will do my best to answer your other questions.

"1) "Recently we've aired radio spots in Memphis and Colorado Springs, and advertised on several web directories, spending no more than $50 per month on average."
How can any of the type of advertising quoted above only cost $50/month? Please provide where you are advertising?"
We never pay rate card, we only buy advertising at rock bottom prices. When we advertised on TV, for instance, we paid $5 (five dollars) per 30 second commercial to air our spot on a small network with over-the-air stations in seven major US cities (New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, Seattle and Sacramento). Those purchases were made through ITEX. We bought the Memphis radio spots from the program "The Memphis Bazaar" for the princely sum of $25, and the Colorado Springs NPR affiliate gave us a sponsorship flight to return a favor to me personally. We bought directory site ads on searchenginecolossus.com and dance-forums.com for $15 and $10.

"2) Same question as first commenter: (third ask)
- how many 1 time paid clients ?
- how many monthly clients?"
Please see my clarification question to sm2007 above. As soon as I understand the time frame people want to see, we'll get that info for you.

"3) Any warranties being ofered on the min. revenue (180 days out)?"
As per Flippa listing rules, no.

"4) Do you employ any paid staff to operate the site? How many hours? Your P&L indicates 0 employees staff, but I'm not sure how that is possible unless you alone are doing the work. You did mention "contract employees" but your P&L shows only $30 spent in last 6 months? Please confirm?"
What I stated was correct, and as I stated above, I am the only person currently working (very part time) on the site.

"5) In your P&L, I see a $912 payment for web hosting in Apr 2014 - please explain? And there are hosting payments throughout the year - I thought you said "Our snappy dedicated server is paid for as a trade for advertising on our sites" - so what is what?"
The $912 payment covered 8 months of dedicated hosting service, which was indeed paid for with barter. The smaller payments were to Dreamhost for all the other sites, like shop. and wiki.citystar.us. As far as the trade is concerned, in a barter, both sides of the transaction show up in bookkeeping as both vendors and customers, nothing is ever "off the books."

"6a) 25% of all traffic / sessions from Feb - Jul are referred from 1 website (semalt.com) as per your uploads- https://flippa.com/auctions/3130492/attachments/991174.pdf - please explain?"
I don't know what semalt.com is, sorry. I wish I could help you with that.

"6b) Your referral traffic in July is almost zero vs. almost 100 per day for the prior ~4 months as per your upload - https://flippa.com/auctions/3130492/attachments/991174.pdf - please explain?"
What Google Analytics outputs is a mystery to me. We've always been satisfied with our own server logs and XpertDNS' reports, and only installed GA because everybody seems to think that it's the only way to go.

Tim Romero Jul 25, 2014 01:12 PM

@boylogik
"1) Can you please upload Google Analytics for the last few years (annually is fine). "
As I stated above, we only installed Google Analytics in February.

"2) Same question as first commenter:
- how many 1 time paid clients ?
- how many monthly clients? "
Please see my request to sm2007 for clarification on the desired time frame above.

"3) Any warranties being offered on the min. revenue (180 days out)? "
Per Flippa listing rules, we are not offering any warranties.

"4) Do you employ any paid staff to operate the site? "
No, we don't, except for a part time bookkeeper (1 hour per week maximum)

"5) Please upload all expenses for the business (what's the burn rate)?"
I don't understand "burn rate" but I trust the P&L answers this request.

"This will help with evaluating the site for potential bidders like me. Thank you. "
Thank you for your interest!

Tim Romero Jul 25, 2014 01:06 PM

@sm2007
I apologize for the delay in replying, we have relatives visiting from out of state and my work routine has been interrupted. I was going to try to go to the office to get the answer tonight, but then I realized that I didn't quite understand. Can you clarify your question please? A breakout of the various types of listing clients... for all time? For the past year, or month or monthly average or ...?

J R Jul 25, 2014 08:10 AM

@sm2007
Hello, Please just answer these 2 questions.

how many 1 time paid clients ?
how many monthly clients?

Thank you

Hakob Kostanyan suspended Jul 25, 2014 07:28 AM

Nice website , GL

Jack Jul 25, 2014 05:47 AM

Just curious, if the site generates over $5k/mo in revenue @ 85% profit margins, why is the reserve bid so low?

Chirag suspended Jul 25, 2014 12:00 AM

You did not respond to some important questions above?

1) "Recently we've aired radio spots in Memphis and Colorado Springs, and advertised on several web directories, spending no more than $50 per month on average."
How can any of the type of advertising quoted above only cost $50/month? Please provide where you are advertising?

2) Same question as first commenter: (third ask)
- how many 1 time paid clients ?
- how many monthly clients?

3) Any warranties being offered on the min. revenue (180 days out)?

4) Do you employ any paid staff to operate the site? How many hours? Your P&L indicates 0 employees staff, but I'm not sure how that is possible unless you alone are doing the work. You did mention "contract employees" but your P&L shows only $30 spent in last 6 months? Please confirm?

5) In your P&L, I see a $912 payment for web hosting in Apr 2014 - please explain? And there are hosting payments throughout the year - I thought you said "Our snappy dedicated server is paid for as a trade for advertising on our sites" - so what is what?

6a) 25% of all traffic / sessions from Feb - Jul are referred from 1 website (semalt.com) as per your uploads- https://flippa.com/auctions/3130492/attachments/991174.pdf - please explain?

6b) Your referral traffic in July is almost zero vs. almost 100 per day for the prior ~4 months as per your upload - https://flippa.com/auctions/3130492/attachments/991174.pdf - please explain?

Thanks for explaining in detail so we can evaluate.

Tim Romero Jul 24, 2014 11:47 PM

@13kilos
For the past year or more, I have essentially been the only person working on it, and I have spent 10 to 15 hours a week on average. I have written most of the recent listings, keeping costs down.

There is automation which converts the database of listings into the 12,000+ HTML pages automatically. I never have to hack HTML.
:D

13kilos new Jul 24, 2014 10:35 PM

How many hours per day does it take to operate this site? You mentioned it's human edited, so I guess there is no automation..

Tim Romero Jul 24, 2014 04:44 AM

@whodis
Thanks for your question. The quoted verbiage you found on our main site was out of date. We've corrected it to indicate that those campaigns ran in the past.

Recently we've aired radio spots in Memphis and Colorado Springs, and advertised on several web directories, spending no more than $50 per month on average. Please see the sales, expense and profit PDF that was attached today for the exact expense figures.

John Doe new Jul 24, 2014 04:01 AM

"The network is extensively promoted via TV, radio, print media, outdoor advertising, direct mail and on the Web."

How much is spent on advertising?

Tim Romero Jul 24, 2014 01:18 AM

@Artigohil
Thanks for your question. We'll export more pages from Google Analytics, but their scripts were just installed in late February, and in our humble opinion the program isn't working right yet. We are working with Google to correct this, but we have 3 other sources of traffic information, our server logfiles, which we have always processed into monthly reports at citystar.com/reports, our dedicated DNS provider's (XpertDNS.com) certified reporting which you can examine in this listing's attachments, and, to a lesser extent because of its self-selected user base, Alexa ( alexa.com/siteinfo/citystar.com ).

They way we see it, when people spend scant time on the site, they have either bounced back or they have found what they seek and clicked through to our clients' sites, so, mission accomplished.

To address your other questions, today we will continue to attach more documents from XpertDNS, Google Analytics and our QuickBooks Pro records. We would also like to schedule a Skype screen sharing session for up to 10 potential buyers rather than doing an endless series of one-on-one meetings, if that's okay. Please add Skype user ID citystar.com and include Flippa in your contact request. Thanks again for your interest, and happy bidding!

Mayur banned Jul 23, 2014 10:08 PM

Looking at the stats it seems people don't spend much time on the site and the bounce rate is quite high may I know where the traffic is from or perhaps attach organic traffic report so we know which keywords are bringing in the traffic.

Thanks

Chirag suspended Jul 23, 2014 01:45 PM

1) Can you please upload Google Analytics for the last few years (annually is fine).

2) Same question as first commenter:
- how many 1 time paid clients ?
- how many monthly clients?

3) Any warranties being offered on the min. revenue (180 days out)?

4) Do you employ any paid staff to operate the site?

5) Please upload all expenses for the business (what's the burn rate)?

This will help with evaluating the site for potential bidders like me. Thank you.

Tim Romero Jul 23, 2014 04:56 AM

@sm2007
Thanks for your interest. I am working from my son's business today, but the next time I go to the CityStar operations center I will gather that information for you.

Tim Romero Jul 23, 2014 04:53 AM

@mhs0
Thanks for your question. You caught us working on the listing, but the majority of what we mentioned is now attached. We also uploaded a Google Analytics export. More is coming, so please check back often, and happy bidding!

Tim Romero Jul 23, 2014 04:49 AM

@brendon
Thanks for your question. To clarify, we are not selling our corporation, just those intellectual property assets listed. The buyer will not be encumbered with any of our debts, obligations, contract employees or agreements. However, we will be happy to introduce you to any of our contractors that you wish to meet (such as the bartered server owner, programmers who created the software, etc.) . More to the point, you can take all of the offered IP or just the domains, it's up to you.

Brendon Jul 23, 2014 04:33 AM

To confirm, you are selling the software, domain name and trademark only, rather than the business in its entirety? Specifically, will the buyer have any liabilities (with respect to staff, existing customers, etc)?

mhs0 new Jul 23, 2014 01:36 AM

Hi,

You mention some attachments, but I don't see them:
* we have a vast amount of certified documentation, see attached.
* Their quick appraisal was $56K, see attached.

Will those be uploaded?

Thanks!

J R Jul 23, 2014 01:30 AM

Hello,
how many 1 time paid clients ?
how many monthly clients?
regards,
jr

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Tim Romero
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