Selling your own domain and property

[mrzeve]

Hey guys,

Take a look at my site first: http://www.staylazy.net

Now, I am thinking its time for me to sell the website, especially considering its at its peak in popularity.

I will sell the software with the website, but I do not want to supply the buyer with the source code to the software (Canto Pod and Weather for Me). They can release the software in its current state to whoever they want (no charging for it though) and will obviously have the right to all the websites source and such.

Has anyone ever done something like this? What kind of money can I expect? Any insight would be amazing.

 

[dornoforpyros]

So your going to sell some software, but not include the source code, and the person buying it can not make any profit from it.

What is the incentive to buy your website/software? If I'm going to buy the rights to your software it is so I can sell it for a profit. Or better yet I want to develop it further and sell it based on new features.

I'm not trying to be negative, but I'm not sure you've thought this out fully just yet. Just because your visitors have peaked doesn't necessarily mean it's time to sell.

Might I suggest keeping your software/domain and start selling the software to end users?

 

[mrzeve]

Might I suggest keeping your software/domain and start selling the software to end users?

Can't do so. Its lyrical content. Even though it could be legal in some terms, the RIAA will eventually be up my ass, and thats not something an entering freshman in college can afford to happen.

I understand what your saying. I think the biggest incentive to buying the site would be to reach out to the target audience it has gathered.

 

[CanadaRAM]

RIAA or not, I believe it is not legal in any terms to serve or reproduce copyrighted lyrics without a license. So unless you are only featuring the collected works of Gilbert & Sullivan, Stephen Foster and John Philip Sousa, then...

The other thing is you are trying to sell something that the buyer has no way to support without the source code -- as soon as an upgrade to the iPod comes along that b0rks the software, the buyer cannot upgrade it. Really all you are offering is a limited term license to use the site with the hopes that the Google adwords will pay back... Limited term because the value of it goes to zero as soon as you are sued or the software breaks.

An unlicensed photo of Bob Dylan on the site may also be a problem.

"looking for erroneouses and making sure that there are no duplicates. There is no point in a lot of numbers if the quality isnt worthwhile."

Of course, the reason you want to sell now is that Yahoo has just put together a deal with song publishers to offer Licensed song lyrics from the original sources (*no erroneouses).

They are not going to sit on their @$$es while free and unlicensed sites take their business away...

What you should be doing, my friend, is forgetting the website. It's done, over, past its best before date. You need to get in Yahoo's face and sell your software to them before they build their own...

 

[mrzeve]

RIAA or not, I believe it is not legal in any terms to serve or reproduce copyrighted lyrics without a license. So unless you are only featuring the collected works of Gilbert & Sullivan, Stephen Foster and John Philip Sousa, then...

The other thing is you are trying to sell something that the buyer has no way to support without the source code -- as soon as an upgrade to the iPod comes along that b0rks the software, the buyer cannot upgrade it. Really all you are offering is a limited term license to use the site with the hopes that the Google adwords will pay back... Limited term because the value of it goes to zero as soon as you are sued or the software breaks.

An unlicensed photo of Bob Dylan on the site may also be a problem.

"looking for erroneouses and making sure that there are no duplicates. There is no point in a lot of numbers if the quality isnt worthwhile."

Of course, the reason you want to sell now is that Yahoo has just put together a deal with song publishers to offer Licensed song lyrics from the original sources (*no erroneouses).

They are not going to sit on their @$$es while free and unlicensed sites take their business away...

What you should be doing, my friend, is forgetting the website. It's done, over, past its best before date. You need to get in Yahoo's face and sell your software to them before they build their own...

You have to understand that I built this program for fun. I had no intention of making money off of it. Its a project that has been fun to me, so I'm not going to forget about it because its something that I enjoy, and others do to. The mac version of my software has been out for 15 days and has already been the #8 download on apples site and has been downloaded 25,000 times.

How does a 17 year old kid go about selling his software to Yahoo!? And why would they even give me the time of day?

I appreciate your help.

 

[mrzeve]

Oh, and for the record, I am simply acting as the search engine, the middle man. I do not own the lyrics website, I simply use their content, with their permission.

 

[dornoforpyros]

If this is true:

The mac version of my software has been out for 15 days and has already been the #8 download on apples site and has been downloaded 25,000 times

Then yes, yahoo will give you the time of day. Yahoo may be a large company, but it is still run by people. I'm not sure whom you would try to contact with them, but don't let your age be a factor if you have a successful piece of software on your hands.

 

[RojoLeo]

How does a 17 year old kid go about selling his software to Yahoo!? And why would they even give me the time of day?

Don't forget that the computer industry as we know it was founded by "kids".

 

[CanadaRAM]

How does a 17 year old kid go about selling his software to Yahoo!? And why would they even give me the time of day?

Ask Ray Lau (who wrote Stuffit when he was, I dunno, 15 or 16 or something)

Seriously, yours is a micro-killer-app in the right hands, but it is zero without the backend database. You need to get moving on this before Yahoo passes you by. If you don't know how, you need to look for some professional assistance, which probably means selling a share of your eventual profit if any, to some venture capitalists, even if they are on a small scale.

You also gotta:
#1 do a legal name search on Canto
-- you'll find that there is already a software company named that -- and trademark the nearest legal variation, and
#2 buy up Canto Pod related domain names. Sorry, but from a marketing point of view staylazy sucks.