What Do You Think Literotica.com Is Worth?

If Lit ever charges, it would need to be for additional features only. There such a huge user base that has been around for so long that it would be like YouTube deciding to suddenly charge everyone for watching videos, it would be site suicide, and inevitably someone with enough tech knowledge would just start a competing site that was cheaper/free.

If they wanted to make money and not make everyone mad they may want to consider an in house set up like Patreon, where people could choose to donate to certain authors who have enabled the feature and Lit would just take a cut.

Just a thought

NotWise said:

Getting back to the original question for just a moment, www.freevaluator.com places Lit's value at $951,058.56 -- right down to the penny.

Check again and it might be something else. I don't know how quickly the evaluation updates.

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Ah, yes, that's the Web site valuation site someone cited before. I'm sure the value given before was appreciably higher than that, but that's a lot of money right there for a site in this condition. Thanks for tracking it down; I tried googling, but didn't find it.

Please stop with "Lit needs to be updated". KISS is always better. Bells and whistles and fifty scripts needing to make a page run is not the way to go.

Lit works because it is simple. If it were sold you can be rest assured the buyer would turn and twist the site into something unrecognizable, thus driving people away.

Updating to something jazzier (no, I don't need that, although I think the establishment of category hubs a few years ago was great) and cleaning out the nonfunctioning features that require users to constantly explain what does/does not work anymore to new users are two different matters.

Asked Fern a question lately? Or did you know, from the newsfeed on the Story page, that Bill Cosby is going on trial sometime in the future--his first trial, not the one that got him?

KeithD said:

Ah, yes, that's the Web site valuation site someone cited before. I'm sure the value given before was appreciably higher than that, but that's a lot of money right there for a site in this condition. Thanks for tracking it down; I tried googling, but didn't find it.

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I don't know how they come up with the evaluation, and I suspect it's worth all I paid for it. If someone is serious about buying a web site then a lot more investigation would be called for.

However, I doubt that the problems you see in the current state of the software have anything at all to do with the actual value of the site, which is likely to be based more on name recognition, traffic, market, market share. and income.

Someone negotiating to buy a site might use software development needs as an bargaining point to lower the settled price, just as you might use the age of the HVAC system in a commercial building to argue down the purchase price of the building.

The biggest problem I see for someone buying the site is that the vast majority of the work supporting a fairly big, well-known site has been done by two people. Anyone who buys it is probably going to have to increase staffing levels in order to run the site, and the economics will change.

NotWise said:

I doubt that the problems you see in the current state of the software have anything at all to do with the actual value of the site,

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Point out where I have ever posted about the software of the site. My objections have been to what could be but hasn't been cleaned up by just cleaning up what's written to the existing pages.

As I see it a site like this is a lot of work. They thrive only with dedication. No one wants to pay to use it and to charge money would probably cause it's demise. I know of two other large , seemingly secure sites to have collapsed and would be surprised if there weren't more.. I don't see anyone wanting to buy a site like this, it would be impossible to take on its responsibilities without a lot of training. Laurel is probably the only person to have read every story. That she is principled is reflected by the fact there are no pop ups or advertising on the site. Every day of the week there are new stories. If the site employs people where do they get the money to pay them with? As I understand, this site is devoted to free speech, as much as the law permits. I think this site is a labour of love and I feel very privilaged to use it. I also think the premise of this thread is rude.

weftandwarp said:

Laurel is probably the only person to have read every story.

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Scanned perhaps, but not even Laurel has time to read every story.

KeithD said:

Scanned perhaps, but not even Laurel has time to read every story.

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OOOOOOOOO

Yes, may be, but it is still a super human effort. I wonder which would have the most words, the bible or the average day's submissions to Literotica? I'd guess the bible. But , over a week, which would it be?

weftandwarp said:

As I see it a site like this is a lot of work. They thrive only with dedication. No one wants to pay to use it and to charge money would probably cause it's demise. I know of two other large , seemingly secure sites to have collapsed and would be surprised if there weren't more.. I don't see anyone wanting to buy a site like this, it would be impossible to take on its responsibilities without a lot of training. Laurel is probably the only person to have read every story. That she is principled is reflected by the fact there are no pop ups or advertising on the site. Every day of the week there are new stories. If the site employs people where do they get the money to pay them with? As I understand, this site is devoted to free speech, as much as the law permits. I think this site is a labour of love and I feel very privilaged to use it. I also think the premise of this thread is rude.

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Yes, agreed. It's not so much 'what you see' with Literotica, but what you don't see - pop ups, broken links, inconsistencies in font size etc. There is already regular IT work being undertaken. Maybe not to everyone's liking, but it's definitely being done, and it's being done amongst all of the other work that goes into this site.


As a sidenote, when considering how to make 'more' money, you need to consider how Literotica currently produces an income (advertising). Reduce site traffic and you reduce advertising income. Plus, if you charge a monthly fee, you'll likely see a drop off in female participants. Women, as a whole, just aren't that interested in paying for porn.

NotWise said:

Getting back to the original question for just a moment, www.freevaluator.com places Lit's value at $951,058.56 -- right down to the penny.

Check again and it might be something else. I don't know how quickly the evaluation updates.

Click to expand...

But that is only the 'domain name' value. I suggest it is worth a good deal more when all revenue streams, goodwill and intangibles are taken into account.

someoneyouknow said:

Please stop with "Lit needs to be updated". KISS is always better. Bells and whistles and fifty scripts needing to make a page run is not the way to go.

Lit works because it is simple. If it were sold you can be rest assured the buyer would turn and twist the site into something unrecognisable, thus driving people away.

Click to expand...

Amen to that.

weftandwarp said:

I wonder which would have the most words, the bible or the average day's submissions to Literotica? I'd guess the bible. But , over a week, which would it be?

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The "new stories" view currently shows 704 stories for the last week, and I think that's about typical. A Literotica page is very close to 3750 words. I'd estimate an average story is approximately 2-3 Literotica pages (this is the shakiest part of my numbers). Multiply those out and you get roughly five to eight million words a week, or 750k-1m per day.

By comparison, the King James Bible is reportedly 783,137 words. (If you're Catholic, there's more.)

So, Literotica is roughly a Bible's worth a day.

Bramblethorn said:

So, Literotica is roughly a Bible's worth a day.

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I wonder which one uses the name "God" most frequently.

rj

rjordan said:

I wonder which one uses the name "God" most frequently.

rj

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Oh God! Who in God's name could answer that?

Okay. Probably the Lit stories.

ausfet said:

Yes, agreed. It's not so much 'what you see' with Literotica, but what you don't see - pop ups, broken links, inconsistencies in font size etc. There is already regular IT work being undertaken. Maybe not to everyone's liking, but it's definitely being done, and it's being done amongst all of the other work that goes into this site.


As a sidenote, when considering how to make 'more' money, you need to consider how Literotica currently produces an income (advertising). Reduce site traffic and you reduce advertising income. Plus, if you charge a monthly fee, you'll likely see a drop off in female participants. Women, as a whole, just aren't that interested in paying for porn.

Click to expand...

OOOOOOOOO

Yes. I think you're correct. I don't think it is only women who don't like paying for porn. I think there are sites where women dominate and they pay to be on them. My perception is they like to be able to show off a little and control things as they happen. Start paying people to contribute to the site and it is likely to be changed considerably, women will dominate then. I'm guessing and lack the experience needed to make such assessments but I do have that feeling. I choose to believe it is the result of conditioning.

Bramblethorn said:

The "new stories" view currently shows 704 stories for the last week, and I think that's about typical. A Literotica page is very close to 3750 words. I'd estimate an average story is approximately 2-3 Literotica pages (this is the shakiest part of my numbers). Multiply those out and you get roughly five to eight million words a week, or 750k-1m per day.

By comparison, the King James Bible is reportedly 783,137 words. (If you're Catholic, there's more.)

So, Literotica is roughly a Bible's worth a day.

Click to expand...

OOOOOOOOOO

Thank you. I once told you you amazed me with your information. Another round of generous applause for you. So you don't become embarrassed I submit that Shakespeare's 43 works had 884,421 words in total. (He knew 66,534 words, 31,534 of which he used and 422 he invented.) It helps providde a context to the sheer volume of submissions to Literotica and to my knowledge it is all done by two people.

Not so long ago I was listening to RN and I heard that Shakespeare established his reputation by writing things now considered as risque but in their day were porn. .

weftandwarp said:

OOOOOOOOO

Yes. I think you're correct. I don't think it is only women who don't like paying for porn. I think there are sites where women dominate and they pay to be on them. My perception is they like to be able to show off a little and control things as they happen. Start paying people to contribute to the site and it is likely to be changed considerably, women will dominate then. I'm guessing and lack the experience needed to make such assessments but I do have that feeling. I choose to believe it is the result of conditioning.

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I think you have a very odd perception of women.

Women simply don't consume porn at the rate men do. In it's most simplistic form, it probably has something to do with the fact that it's one of the few areas where women hold the advantage - if we want sex, we can get it. I can wake my husband up at 3am in the morning by taking off my pants and sitting on his face and he thinks all his Christmases have come at once. If he tried that shit with me, I'd probably bite his dick off. So, if he wakes up at 3am and wants to get himself off, he's going to have to find porn. He's already one step closer than I am to paying for it.

ausfet said:

I think you have a very odd perception of women.

Women simply don't consume porn at the rate men do. In it's most simplistic form, it probably has something to do with the fact that it's one of the few areas where women hold the advantage - if we want sex, we can get it. I can wake my husband up at 3am in the morning by taking off my pants and sitting on his face and he thinks all his Christmases have come at once. If he tried that shit with me, I'd probably bite his dick off. So, if he wakes up at 3am and wants to get himself off, he's going to have to find porn. He's already one step closer than I am to paying for it.

Click to expand...

OOOOOOO

Yes, this falls within what I said. No one likes paying for porn but men are more likely to than women. When it comes to being paid for porn women are more likely to be the recipients. Control is a big part of it.

weftandwarp said:

OOOOOOO

Yes, this falls within what I said. No one likes paying for porn but men are more likely to than women. When it comes to being paid for porn women are more likely to be the recipients. Control is a big part of it.

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Ah, gotcha. I thought you were saying women would pay for membership and thus control the direction of Literotica.

ausfet said:

Ah, gotcha. I thought you were saying women would pay for membership and thus control the direction of Literotica.

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Sorry for being obscure. My experience is a little unusual and I have to be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush. I also think that if I say nothing I'll learn nothing. There's nothing worse than inflexible ignorance and I don't want to be guilty of that. I think in that we are of like minds.

NotWise said:

I don't know how they come up with the evaluation, and I suspect it's worth all I paid for it. If someone is serious about buying a web site then a lot more investigation would be called for.

However, I doubt that the problems you see in the current state of the software have anything at all to do with the actual value of the site, which is likely to be based more on name recognition, traffic, market, market share. and income.

Someone negotiating to buy a site might use software development needs as an bargaining point to lower the settled price, just as you might use the age of the HVAC system in a commercial building to argue down the purchase price of the building.

The biggest problem I see for someone buying the site is that the vast majority of the work supporting a fairly big, well-known site has been done by two people. Anyone who buys it is probably going to have to increase staffing levels in order to run the site, and the economics will change.

Click to expand...

This seems right to me.

According to Wikipedia, Alexa ranked literotica.com as the 1749th website in the world by traffic in 2013. I believe it's the most visited erotic story website in the world, with the largest archive of stories. If it's not the biggest it's close, and it probably has the most famous brand name. These numbers alone make it potentially worth much more than the figure reported at the top of the thread. My guess is its actual value, based on revenue or income generated, is much, much less than that, because the owners maintain it as a labor of love and don't maximize advertising revenue.

Anyone taking over the site probably would need, at a minimum, to increase the use of advertising to generate more revenue. I think imposing fees would be a disaster. It would dramatically decrease the amount of traffic and number of stories contributed, and Literotica would lose its greatest unique feature. The keys to increasing the monetary value of the site are (a) enhancing features to increase the attractiveness of the site and (b) increasing advertising revenue. I would think there would be ways to do (b) without disturbing the reader experience too much. Another way (c) to increase revenue would be to let third parties mine the site for data.