Webmasterworld was recently sold by Britt to Jim Boykin

[cpvr]

Well, I don't browse Webmasterworld's forums anymore, but Britt has recently sold it to Jim Boykin. Jim talks about the purchase on his blog here: http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/marketing/webmasterworld

And here, just a few days ago, Brett and I finalized and signed all the paperwork, and all the money was transferred, and now I have another piece of the puzzle together with the acquisition of WebmasterWorld. With everything that’s been happening over the past 3-4 months, all while running a ~100 person in house staff, my head is still spinning a little…can you blame me?….BUT….I have all the confidence in the world that with many, many people’s help, together we can take the forums and each community to the next level. A level that can benefit the community and the individual members even more. I believe in this.



I know that by my putting the community first, and not profit, that we can keep great communities alive and that they can thrive. I’m not worried about making a profit with these properties…that’s not my goal. I believe that if I treat the communities with respect, and I listen to them, and I give assistance as I can, then I believe that the communities will be happy, and they should continue to improve over time. When people are happy, then I believe in Karma….business will come my way with out having to intrude on the community with advertising. I’m not coming in to impose my ideas on anyone, I am coming in to listen and to say “What ideas do you have, how can I help, what resources do you need, and who else can help?”





I can’t thank Brett enough for this opportunity. I feel so honored…and so humbled, to have this chance to work with the WMW community. The price I paid for WMW was not cheap by any means….it’s the biggest investment I have ever made, But I know that Brett could have gotten more money if he had put in on the open market, or if he had approached bigger companies than mine. I’m sure some big company would have just loved to ****ize the site with advertising….and they might even make some good money…but they’d lose the community.




The fact that Brett offered the site to me, meant so much to me…..of course I’m scared….I know that I have to earn the trust of the community….there’s a lot of people who don’t like change, But I don’t plan on making changes without the approval of the admins and moderators. I want to give the community what it wants.

Anyone surprised by this sale?

@Brandon @Dan Hutter

 

[digitalpoint]

Definitely shocking news, but certainly not surprising. Brett has bigger things to focus on (his PubCon industry trade show). Will be interesting to see what Jim does with all these acquisitions (the Dev Shed network including SEO Chat, the Cre8asite forum, and now WMW).

 

[Brandon]

Thanks for the link @cpvr.
I've never been a fan of the way WMW was setup to be honest. It'll be interesting to see what the new owner does it with.

 

[Dan Hutter]

The only time I've hit WMW is when it shows up in Google results. Aren't they the guys who do cloaking and try to hide the content to regular visitors? I could be wrong on that though.

I've always thought the site looked really outdated even by 2005 standards. Best of luck to the new guy in bringing it up to date.

 

[cpvr]

Definitely shocking news, but certainly not surprising. Brett has bigger things to focus on (his PubCon industry trade show). Will be interesting to see what Jim does with all these acquisitions (the Dev Shed network including SEO Chat, the Cre8asite forum, and now WMW).

Wow, seems like he's on a run then. When did he purchase the Dev shed network though?

Thanks for the link @cpvr.
I've never been a fan of the way WMW was setup to be honest. It'll be interesting to see what the new owner does it with.

No problem, saw it being passed around on Twitter by my followers so I had to pass it on. It's interesting because Webmasterworld has been a big forum for a while. I guess they needed some fresh blood to run the place. I might have an account there but its been so long I can't remember,

 

[Brandon]

Wow, seems like he's on a run then. When did he purchase the Dev shed network though?

it was in the article

At the time, I wasn’t sure where the talks would end up with Brett and I about WebmasterWorld….but the day we spoke to Ziff Davis, I found out that the entire Developer Shed network of sites was 1 day away from being sold to another company. To make a long story short, I was able to pull out a last second deal that landed me the Developer Shed Network (including 7 forums, a few scripts sites, and tutorial/learning sites…and the SEO Chat forum). I also brought back Darrin Ward, the founder of SEO Chat to show that I wanted to return the site to its glory days once again.

I liked seo chat when it first came out, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how he develops these sites. I read through that article after posting and followed a few of the links this afternoon.

 

[cpvr]

it was in the article



I liked seo chat when it first came out, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how he develops these sites. I read through that article after posting and followed a few of the links this afternoon.

Sounds like he won there. SEO chat was nice before as well. How big is his blog network though? I'm quite curious on how much success Jim has had online.