Teenager snubs the BBC's £8.5 million offer

[QualityNames.com]

This guy probably doesn't need the money?

Nice read here.

 

[Damion]

And to see in the story that the site makes £2.500

It was a basic text-only programme but still managed to attract 100 users a month. Now the suite makes £2,500 per month from advertising. Sharpenews offers readers 1000 news stories a month.

and an offer of that magnitude being offered is just as interesting as the kid holding on to his dreams and vision to make and keep the site as he wants it to be.
Seeing that number being offered makes me believe that he has had tons of offers before and turned those down.

The site is down, perhaps a Digg effect or something?

 

[angisson]

"In the last 18 months the website has had 89 million hits,"


thats almost 5 million hits a month (4,944,444.4 hits a month) , I think it can stand upto digg.

 

[labrocca]

That's messed up all his writers are volunteers. He should sell...spread the money to the people that helped him get it and start another project. He is making a very BAD decision in my view. That's a tremendous offer.

 

[Zeeble]

That is an incredible offer.

I can't believe that he is only making £2,500 per month if he really is getting that much traffic.

With access to the most sought after consumers on a high profile site like this, you could charge large amounts.

 

[Jeffrey]

I hope he is paying his volunteers at least honorary compensations for helping him out.

 

[cdboard]

"an offer of £8.5 million pounds"


"He added: "If I sold it, I'd take away about £4 million personally,.....""


all due to taxes?

 

[thepurplecow]

Wow I can't think of anyone who would turn down an offer like that. BTW the site's not down but the link in that article was wrong. Its actually www.sharpenews.co.uk.

 

[-db-]

BTW the site's not down but the link in that article was wrong. Its actually www.sharpenews.co.uk.

Thanks for the clarification.

I knew something was wrong, because sharpe-news.co.uk is not even registered.

 

[angisson]

lol gold ol' -db- had to check :P

no offence, but the site sucks.. I really think he should of taken the offer, hell I could live on that for the rest of my life.

 

[matt_bodis]

His forum has 110 members yet he says he has millions of visitors per month? Hmm...something doesn't make sense here. Maybe they offered monopoly money. :lol:

 

[-db-]

Edit: Never mind. I should probably be doing something else...

 

[armstrong]

I smell "PR stunt", as well. Several things just don't add up. Besides, with just a fraction of that amount, BBC can setup their own and advertise in all the right youth channels to quickly gain eyeballs.

 

[vrwrys]

Free marketing all day and a dedicated staff! That's more than money! Very wise!Gimmick or no gimmick he's in the news and I wish i could do that.

 

[owntype]

To be honest, I don't believe this, something must be wrong.

At least, from the alexa stats and forum stats, the site doesn't like what the owner described.

If it is real, I do wish he could take the offer and start a more serious site.

 

[labrocca]

wow..after seeing this kids site..I 100% do not believe the story...I have sites way better than his...I smell some BS.

 

[Peter]

"an offer of £8.5 million pounds"


"He added: "If I sold it, I'd take away about £4 million personally,.....""


all due to taxes?

No after tax it would be £5.1 million (tax at that amount is 40%).

 

[mis_chiff]

Wow...big news like that you'd think it would be on the main page :D
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/dailymail/home.html?in_page_id=1766

 

[Morph]

Had a chat to the ex co owner, and he said many of the things said in the article are not true.

lets do the math
He supposedly makes 2.5k a month from this site, and works at comet 10 hours a week?


Ooooh :p

 

[vrwrys]

Had a chat to the ex co owner, and he said many of the things said in the article are not true.

Now that's funny! (ex co owner) What did the owner say?

and who smells great in this domain business? It's like a wild beast! The one who lies the most gets all the sales!