Quick Updates..
Just wanted to post some quick updates to keep everyone informed..
First order of business. There is going to be somewhat of a delay on the radio show. Reasons for this is because:
- Allergy season just hit NYC by storm, and it’s really tough for me to talk, let alone not have sneezing fits (when you sneeze non-stop for about 2 mins straight) sporadically throughout the workday.
- Due to the allergies, my voice sounds like shit.
- I still need to find a production firm to make some intros for me.
Aside from that, I’ve got the material ready, have a bunch of awesome guests lined up that everyone will enjoy hearing from.
Some recent news, for me, I just closed the deal on my mortgage lead company. This is the network in which I was earning over $110k/mo on. It was bought by a very large national bank that will most probably use the leads for themselves. I’m under a strict confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement that bans me from starting another network like it up, but even so, I have no plans on getting back into the industry, at least not until the rates go back down again (every 10-20 years?). The company itself sold for an undisclosed amount* at almost 25 times the earnings, so that is amazing news for me and my future ventures as far as capital is concerned!! But even so, I’m still hard at work with my current large project, so the Ferarri will have to wait.. jk. When the agreement expires, I will most probably begin to discuss the project and how everything worked out, what I did, etc. All the juicy details a lot of you wanted to know.
Finally, I am looking to buy or barter something in exchange for 2 YPN invitations. I know.. even with the info above I have no real contacts at Yahoo, so I’m just another webmaster trying to score some YPN invites. If anyone has some extras lying around, or know of someone who does, please contact me asap.
Well, that’s all for now, I’ll try and make a good blog post this weekend for everyone to enjoy. Until then, keep pluggin away!
* I had to edit out the amount, as my lawyer pointed out it was in breach of the agreement. Even though I wrote it in X’s. Ah well, better safe than sorry.
~$30 million? Incredible.
Was this cash, stock, annuity/long-term debt, etc.? Also, did you initiate/negotiate yourself, or hire a firm?
That P/E ratio is probably too high, even considering future revenue growth; but since they’ll be able to squeeze higher profit margins due to owning the other side of the business, such a high P/E might make sense for them.
Unless that Ferrari is an Enzo, you better go with a Lambo!
congrats on the sale - makes those allergy more bearable.
Now off to those other projects!
Dan
When you say you ‘closed the deal’, what deal is this? You have sold a website/network that generated mortgage leads? For around $30m? Good work! You site must have been pretty well known in the industry to make that much.
Hope you’re feeling better soon - now I really want to listen to the radio show!
Awsome, congrats to you.
I agree with andrew,
Ferrari’s are for those that cant afford Lambo’s! It sounds to me like you should be riding in style right now:)
For me im stuck with this, 94 Special edition Jeep Cherokee sport for awhile.
Again congrats, I am looking forward to your future entries, I found K.I.S.S ver useful.
Great stuff!
I’m looking foward to the radio show but I just realised I’m not sure how to listen to it. Is it a podcast? Or is it streamed?
Anyway, keep up the good work and I’m looking foward to it etc. etc.
Thats not quite what I said, in fact, the market price of an F430 Spider right now will run you more than just about any brand new Lamborghini. The real difference between the two is how often do you want to be in the shop vs on the road driving
You and I will never touch an Enzo and as far as your F430 “$177.000″ you cant touch a used Lambo Murcielago for less than $200,000, a used Gallardo maybe $150,000.
Enzo’s were very limited and only for qualified applicants
but we are going off topic, if you want to talk cars give me a shout ill shoot you my E-mail
Jer
Jon. Forget cars. Buy a GulfStream.
Does it have to be a radio show Jon? Why not have the interviews in writing and post them up on the site for just this once for “allergy” reasons and by the time it’s time to make the next episode, the allergies will be over and done with (hopefully). Anyways i’m looking forward to the shows, keep up the hard work ;).
CONGRATULATIONS JON!!
But what I do not understand -
You mentioned:
“It was bought by a very large national bank that will most probably use the leads for themselves.”
How can they use your leads if all leads created from your sites went straight to mortgage advertisers of CJ?
Thanks!
Mike
Who said anything about $30m?! Jon said 25 times earnings, and I presume that means monthly earnings?
Still impressive stuff!
Jon, Congrats on the sale. I had no idea you were even selling your network.
Mike, I think the bank intend to use the sites to generate leads for themselves.
First off, thanks for all of the kudos, I always appreciate that stuff.
Second, I never revealed an exact amount, but if you guys want to think $30M, then go for it! Also, I have ZERO intentions of spending any of it on cars or any other type of luxury item. Same deal as when I sold my adult empire, all the cash goes into long term and safe investments and savings accounts. It bothers me when people come into a chunk of change and immediately splurge. Times may be going well for me now, but who knows how it will be in 10 or 20 years from now? Saving and investing is the smarter longterm approach when you come into some money, so remember that.
Just to clear up a few comments, the company that purchased the network was a CJ advertiser themself. They removed all of the CJ links, and are collecting the leads for themselves. I’m sure they will make 100x more than I did that way, because most mortgage loans net about $2500 as opposed to $40-$60 per lead. Granted they won’t be able to close every single one, but then again, now they won’t have to compete for the lead, instead it’s theirs immediately and exclusively, so more power to them!
I’m trying some new allergy meds, so hopefully one of them will work well enough so I can start the show already. I’m really psyched for it too, because I’ve got a shitload of good info to share with everyone. Including Part II of my cloaking post that I made on SPF.
Pretty smart move I would think by the buyer. The industry is now moving back into a more realistic envioronment. The good old days of easy conversions are coming to an end as mortgage rates rise. The purchase of your traffic and leads should turn out well for both of you, congrats.
-Dan
If I had 1-2 mill. I would retire (and share my knowledge ofcourse
thx jon), like i’d buy a house on the beach around 500k, get a new car around 50k and put the rest into a bank and make a living off the interest. With 7-8 pct interest and 1.5 mill you get 100k+ a year, sure it’s not as good as earning it in 1 month but it’s a secure income that you don’t have to work for (btw 100k+ is what CEO’s get in australia). So if you’ve broken the 6 digit mark and not interested in luxury items why are you working??? do you enjoy working that much? Does anyone else think the same way?
“Including Part II of my cloaking post that I made on SPF.”
Excellent. Do you have any idea of when the show will be starting? I can’t wait!
“Jon said 25 times earnings, and I presume that means monthly earnings?”
There’s no way in hell anyone would sell a network making $100K/month for 25 times monthly earnings
Vahsi-
I am a workaholic. Been that way since the 90’s when I was working in consulting for Casino and Adult. I love working at my computer, it’s my hobby too. Even if I had $100M, I would still work my ass off every single day of the week. It’s such a challenge to come up with new and exciting ways to use the internet to my benefit, both personal and business related. I don’t know where I’d be, or what I would do without it.
Creative & Chromate -
You’re both wrong. It was 25 times the avg annual income. My network was only live for 1 year before I was made a pretty fuckin spectacular offer that I couldn’t shy away from. That and also the mortgage industry’s rates are finally going up, so conversion rates aren’t at what they once were, but granted they are still there, just too much work for me with all of these other projects on my plate. Even so, that challenge is over for me, I came out ahead of my competition (at least I think I did), so it’s time to move onto something more challenging and fun for me to do.
I am not someone who likes to sell out any of my networks. But so far my two largest networks were Adult and Mortgage, and I’ve sold both of them at just the right time, and I regret nothing. Sure I’ll miss the days of it, but I am having a great time on my new 1000+ entertainment sites project now. And I have a whole roster of even bigger and better projects on my list, so I will never stop doing this.
I am truly content doing what I do and hope to never retire. I also consider myself lucky as hell to have figured it out so much earlier than most people, but I’m staying with this business until the end.
Eh, so say $15 million or whatever it may be. The word ‘Incredible’ still fully applies in any case
Would you be allowed to disclose whether the purchasing bank initiated the contact directly, through CJ, some broker, etc.?
“better safe than sorry”
thats what my friends always told me
Creative-
I was approached by them and another bank. Both made similar offers based on what they thought I was earning, and then after I gave them the approval to look through earnings and cost data, the first one made me the 25 times avg annual earnings offer, so I jumped on it and that was that.
When the agreement terms expire I’ll be able to give a lot more detials about how everything went, but that won’t be for quite some time.
“There’s no way in hell anyone would sell a network making $100K/month for 25 times monthly earnings”
Yeah, but that’s not $100k *profit*, is it?
I dunno, I just assumed it wasn’t. Anyway, 25 times AVG annual earnings… Still reckon sub $10m. I hate myself for even bothering to try and guess these things, but just for a laugh when we do eventually find out 
Whatever, it’s pretty damn amazing and a huge achievement!
Jon, are you still intending to make posts on the WP blog? Seems like it’s gone stale.
Many thanks for all the info and insights Jon
Real respectable of you to take the time to do this, most wouldn’t, and it is appreciated.
No problem.. Creativename. I refuse to let success and money change me. I’m still just a regular guy, and I still want to give back to the community, because without it, I’d be nothing.
Chromate- I keep meaning to post a blog on WP, but I haven’t had much time for it. I’ll get around to it sooner or later.
25x annual earnings for a 1yr old website?! Good work! I think most blue-chip type companies with tangible assets and solid track records might only trade at around 10 to 15x earnings, so thats an awesome deal!
Can’t wait for the radio show, as I want to get in on this level of action
“No problem.. Creativename. I refuse to let success and money change me. I’m still just a regular guy, and I still want to give back to the community, because without it, I’d be nothing.”
Boy I hope I can speek these same words some day.
Dont want to go overboard here, but thanks for the effort to help those of us that have just begun their ventures. It helps to see that someone has become very successful in this field. Looking forward to your show
Jer
hey jon, i’ve been thinking. Since everyone is so interested in how much you sold your network for, why don’t you make a guessing competitiong where everyone gets 1 guess on how much you got from the deal and when the agreement terms expire we can find out who came closest to the figure and that person can get 1 day of 1 on 1 advice from you
(I’m gona win, yes, YES, Mahahaa) ehrm, sorry about that but seriously this could be interesting.
Psst.. Wanna know what my theory on what jon sold his network for? Then you’ll have to wait for my next post
Vahsi-
Interesting approach, but I’d rather not turn this into a circus of people trying to figure out what the network sold for. It’s bad enough I have a group of publisher stalkers who are always trying to find out who I am, and which sites I own.
I’m actually going to make a quick post that will benefit everyone, but a competition too.