I have a popular YouTube channel about classical music called "ClassicalMusicOnly", https://www.youtube.com/classicalmusiconly the channel is more than 10 years old and is probably the most popular classical music YouTube channel with more than 270,000 subscribers and around 190 million videos views as of today. Also I developed a social website around classical music (where one can create lists and listen to them, discuss works and composers, ask for recommendations, get recommendations according to his followed composers and starred works among other features) with the same branding name https://classicalmusiconly.com/ and launched it in December 2017 and it was featured in many top websites (please see my SHOW HN post in my user profile) and its traffic has been slowly but steadily growing in both Google search and direct traffic. Also I have social media accounts for the project (Facebook+Twitter+Google plus) with more than 70,000 combined followers. I've been maintaining and developing this project for the long term (there is no advertising on the website, no promotions whatsoever on my YouTube channel or my social profiles beside my own services links). The popularity of my project outlets is entirely built on organic traffic and I haven't spent a dollar on advertising or promoting my own services. How I can sell this project in the most fair and fastest way possible?
Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
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Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#2can you turn on advertising in youtube? they probably already run ads you should get your cut.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#3Approach classical music brands, maybe Linn?
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#4can you turn on advertising in youtube? they probably already run ads you should get your cut.
They dont allow it on copyrighted music.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#5can you turn on advertising in youtube? they probably already run ads you should get your cut.
They dont allow it on copyrighted music.
Then why would someone pay money for the channel if they can’t make money off it?
The social followers and steady traffic means nothing (unless we are talking about millions of visitors a month).
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
They dont allow it on copyrighted music.
Then why would someone pay money for the channel if they can’t make money off it? The social followers and steady traffic means nothing (unless we are talking about millions of visitors a month).
There are other ways you can monetize things. Sell merch, shoutouts built into the video. Other things like that.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#7Maybe a bit of a stretch, but what if you hit up avenues where actual classic concerts take place, or agencies that aggregate those (I have no clue about any of this), and display upcoming live events near the super rough user location (e.g. the nearest bigger town), with a referral link to buy tickets. If they buy tickets, you get a cut. I have no idea if this is feasible or if it would be profitable (versus the effort to get event data and all that), but in my mind, that's both ethical and useful.
Or hey, have you considered just adding an option somewhere to donate somehow, and seeing if something happens?
For what it's worth, your site looks great, I'm not affiliated at all but it's really worth a click: https://classicalmusiconly.com/
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then why would someone pay money for the channel if they can’t make money off it? The social followers and steady traffic means nothing (unless we are talking about millions of visitors a month).
There are other ways you can monetize things. Sell merch, shoutouts built into the video. Other things like that.
OK but has the OP done those things? If not he should start doing them, document the earnings and then he might have something to show potential buyers after a year.
Right now, its all a question mark and either a risk, or time waster for potential buyers.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#9I would say a revshare model. Someone puts their adsense account on your site for a month and you split what it makes.
Start small, be the reluctant buyer. You will be better off invoicing for services, like coding or writing.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Sell My Project?
#10First, I commend you for doing something that you really enjoyed. That is great and must have taken a lot of sweat and hard work.
Now, you want to sell this thing. This is where the issues start. You have not monetized it at all so technically it is not a business (no real revenue). Your best bet is to find someone who can use this to compliment something similar that they already do at a bigger scale and they are willing to provide an "emotional" price for it. To be blunt, if you try to sell it someone who purely is looking at it from a business perspective, the valuation is almost zero.
So here is what I suggest:
1. Setup a Patreon account and ask for people to contribute
2. Setup Affiliate Links for your social website and have a way for users to pay and when they convert, your affiliate partners get paid a commission.
3. Sell merchandise or other "related" items on the website.
4. Ask members of the website to subscribe and pay for some "premium" content if possible.
5. Find other bigger classical music folks/companies who may show some interest but do Steps 1-4 first.
I am not private equity type guy but buying/selling businesses excites me and when I see sellers like you who have put in so much hard work but never did it as a business, it breaks my heart a bit because you won't get a good valuation just because it was your baby. All the best.