The Hoboken Journal: Hoboken 411 for Sale on Craigslist? If True the Price is a Sign of Sheer Megalomania

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Hoboken 411 for Sale on Craigslist? If True the Price is a Sign of Sheer Megalomania

Update 5/29/2011: The ad mentioned below is no longer on Craigslist. It was pulled after less than a day after this article was up.

Original Post 5/29/2011: A reader sent this email to me today. They spotted an ad on Craigslist for a leading local/community Hoboken website since 2006 . The price: A cool $1.25 million. I don't know if the ad is serious or not but it is likely making a reference to Hoboken 411. I too am leading local website but unlike Perry Klaussen I started in 2008 and I am not for sale.

The price mentioned on Craigslist is about as out there as Perr Klaussen's political reasoning skills. Maybe $25,000 if the brand was not so tarnished but $1.25 Million? Someone needs a real reality adjustment.

Link to ad: http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/bfs/2407416547.html

Share you thoughts below as to the possibility this is real and the appropriateness of the price below.....

Is this a prank or is Perry Klaussen tired of leftover pizza and dog food as well as being too
poor in his 40s not to live on his own and need roommates? Time will tell.

◦

Comments (26)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

+6 Vote up Vote down

Sam · 725 weeks ago

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... something about rats and a sinking ship...

+9 Vote up Vote down

Voice of Reason · 725 weeks ago

I think that street price will fall through the floor after the FBI is finished with it's current local investigation and hands down indictments and the lady of Hudson street cuts off funding. That site will be quite the white elephant then, maybe even a hot potato. Buying that smelly smear rag at any price is a sucker bet, and management know it. Good luck with that perry.

+4 Vote up Vote down

InfotainMe · 725 weeks ago

Why try to figure it out. Call the feds and let them look it over.

Selling the site would provide an excuse for scrubbing files.

Fact is, 411 were the first ones to report that the FBI were in town. Which puts them near the top of the list as recipients of city hall leaks: someone told them. In that article they all but admit to receiving leaked information from city hall and being aware of people breaking Zimmer's ban on communicating information on behalf of the city.

And now they're selling the site? How's that smell?

2 replies · active 725 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

InfotainMe · 725 weeks ago

The high price is to make sure no one buys. They just want to be able to say they were planning to sell...Bet the ranch there's less data now than there was a few days ago.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Willow Terrace Mom · 725 weeks ago

If that is their strategy, then let's hope that they outsourced and did not maintain their email and file servers. My guess is that, like most small operations, they outsourced. That means their data has been happily residing in a data center in the middle of nowhere, and is regularly backed up 10 times till Sunday. In short, it is easily recovered. Not too smart Beth.

+3 Vote up Vote down

BethTakeManhattan · 725 weeks ago

Beth Needs to make a return on her investment

+3 Vote up Vote down

TonyH · 725 weeks ago

That should cover any bail he might need...

+6 Vote up Vote down

Help hoboken · 725 weeks ago

Who wants to chip in and make a bid? We go into due diligence and have the books wide open -real owners,, cash flow, ghost writers. The whole thing! Then we withdraw with disgust when we find out lane Bajardi writes everything and signs on with 10000 names and IP addresses

+1 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 725 weeks ago

Posting deleted by author.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 725 weeks ago

The for sale sign can't be real. A site is valued by its revenue and then you add a unique visitor value and then you create a hi/low value. Low value is over 9 months and high value is over 12 months. 411 runs on what appears to be a 1/2 HP and IP system. 1/2 means 1 of 2 businesses flip flop per slot HP indicated home page and IP is an inside page. There are approx 12 local businesses on his site and has various national merchants that are google placements.

Based on what he is charging some of the people that have told me what they pay he is making around $4500 a month. Unique monthly visitor value is likely $900-$1200. The average of the UMV is $1050 making the site a value of around $5500-$5600 per month. The site is valued at around $50,000 - $70,000.

Side note. Perry would never sell the site even if he had a million dollar offer. For someone like Perry the site is his best friend and Perry has 3 friends, his dog, his brother and his girlfriend. Perry has associates in the large numbers but not real friends. His association to the site is comparable to one with hoarding issues or drug addictions. Without the site, he would be all alone and a mess. Same goes for all of you that need coffee in the morning.

And if Perry would sell the site he would make it public to create buzz so he can bask in his own glory, he wouldn't put a disclosure on it. Perry lives off attention. In my opinion the site is either a ploy on his end or by someone connected to him or someone did it to stir up some poop.

1 reply · active 725 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

OLDNEWCOMER2 · 725 weeks ago

Interesting post. Not to be snarky but could you translate the first paragraph into English for techno-dunces. And where does the value of a each separate visitor come from (the $1050) besides what the advertisers pay? (or again that might be connected to my fuzzy understanding of HP, IP etc). Thanks.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 725 weeks ago

411 charges around 250-400 per month for ads. He says he gets a million or so hits a month. Whatever he gets doesn't matter it's the unique visitors that matter. For a site like 411 you have to assume that each add gets clicks around 2000 times a month. This gives you .15 to .20 cents per click. Now you need to determine the unique visitors. If there are 50k people in Hoboken and let's say 5000 use the site on a regular basis. This includes the regular users that click on site 5000 times a day which there are many of. If the site has 5000 true users then you take $5000 and multiply it against 15 and 20 cents which gives you a unique user value of $750-$1000 a month.

Of the 5000 people that click site you have to remember that on average and this goes for all sites, not just 411, 4000 of the users are 1 a day viewers. In the site marketplace the click and view once a dayers is around 80% on average. The other 20% are repeat daily unique users. Then of that 20% you figure out the math. Keep in mind that users like mooshu, redrider, truth1, kaiser sosay all click on a likely average of over 100 times a day if not more so the numbers may not be right, they may be much lower.

I spoke with a few colleagues today and we determined the true value of 411 at $45,000. I like 411 and I hate it, same goes for this site and all the others. What is presented here is plain math and has nothing to do who likes what or hates what.

0 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 725 weeks ago

To make it fair I took about 10 local sites and did my math on them. I took what I believe to be revenue and future revenue based on ads both local and net placed and unique visitors. The figures given reflect what someone would pay. You may have a site or blog that gets readers and has no ads, to a buyer this is worthless

hobokeni $400
graffix avenger $600
hoboken journal $1600
hoboken horse $2200
thebokenonline $2500
eatdrinkhoboken $3500
hobokenbarz $4000
kannekt $8000
hobokennj.org $75,000
h-mag $125,000

1 reply · active 725 weeks ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

SmartyJones 103p · 725 weeks ago

Thanks for the mention guest but your numbers would be incorrect based on your data guesstimate. Mile Square View gets the uniques you state for Mason411 on a weekly basis so unless the descent of Beth Mason's favorite smear site are spiraling down with really nothing but robots spiking the traffic, he should be comparable, although for a different audience.

If you look at demographics of folks who spend money, it's no contest. Most professionals have long ago exiled from the likes of Hoboken411. He does have the "locked in" voters as his base and its reflected in the shrinking comments section among those he permits to write under different screen names and a certain vocal traffic guard who thinks what he trades in isn't hate.

Have a good one.
Da Horsey http://hobokenhorse.com

+1 Vote up Vote down

homeworld 45p · 725 weeks ago

Really, H-mag is worth that much?

3 replies · active 725 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

InfotainMe · 725 weeks ago

Now you know where he works.

+1 Vote up Vote down

homeworld 45p · 725 weeks ago

lol... Tisha I'm assuming.

0 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 725 weeks ago

according to word press I am under actually. Keep the guesses coming, you're getting warmer

+2 Vote up Vote down

Grafix Avenger · 725 weeks ago

Ha! I'm afraid you've overestimated the value of GA by $600. First, it's an ad-free blog. Next- it's a blog, and I think any value attached would have to do with the GA-created content, opinion, whatever. Which is nil if I'm no longer doing it.

Anyway, traffic's been great, esp with the hijinks of late. My nephew in Arizona is hooked on the Hoboken meschugas. Who can blame him? We live in crazy-town.

I do think you've way over-estimated some of theses sites. And underestimated the Horsey's! I'd pay 40 truckloads of carrots for it.

-9 Vote up Vote down

Boink · 725 weeks ago

What has changed since we had this exact same conversation on Patch last year? Let's see Roman site has devolved quite a bit comment moderation is nill unless well it is anti administration and he has yet to post an article critical of the administration since he claimed to do in the patch article comments. Kurt seems even more frustrated his articles are now far and few in between, and more on Klausen than perhaps anyone cares to read, and Nancy's site? Well her opinion based hit pieces are driven by her desire to seek revenge so not much to glean from there other than a good laugh. Let's all remember Klaussen acts like you don't even exist and bans you at ever turn and apparently is still around after another year. Let's all come back and revisit who is still standing next year shall we?
http://hoboken.patch.com/articles/can-you-really-...

http://hoboken.patch.com/articles/can-you-really-...

4 replies · active 725 weeks ago

+9 Vote up Vote down

InfotainMe · 725 weeks ago

To clarify, Klaussen acts like other sites don't exist out of paranoia, not confidence. He's afraid to mention any of the other sites by name. Even the hit piece on the GA "Nazi graphic" did not have her URL or any available link to the site.

He's fundamentally a coward, and these tactics are totalitarian, even in tone. One catches a whiff of Pravda at it's best with his "don't be fooled by other little-read, low-traffic Zimmer-loving sites, victory is ours" blah, blah, blah. All that's missing is "we will dance on the grave of capitalism".

When he bans people or interacts with critics, he sounds like a petulant 10 year old who sucks at sports and is locking all the equipment in his house until everyone agrees to play his way.

Smarty makes a good point about demographics. 411 is down to pensioners moved over from NJ.com (that used to flat-out hate the site until it abandoned all ties to reform); people who are all but professional butt-boys and - girls of Ms Mason; and doppelgangers who create the illusion of a) traffic, b) concurrence with the editorial voice. But show me a young mother who is drawn to the "even too crazy for Glen Beck" stories Klaussen runs.

Speaking of who'll be standing this time next year, what's your take on the attempted sale on craigslist? The ad was pulled.

+3 Vote up Vote down

homeworld 45p · 725 weeks ago

He's got a long standing feud against NJ.com because he said they wanted him to do HobokenNow but then decided do it themselves.

+3 Vote up Vote down

EasyE · 725 weeks ago

Acting like someone doesn't exist is a lot different than being indifferent to whether they exist or not.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Gardiner4Hoboken 90p · 725 weeks ago

Nice Try Boinky- My articles are less frequent because I am a part tme blogger and have simply chosen to put more of my time else where. While it may be true I am frustrated by certain lawless developmnents at the BOE I am in fact quite satisfied with the City Council races in that good governance has 2 years on the City Council to get stuff done without the usless Beth Mason to get in the way.

Hey Boinky, on a side note: you tried to predict the value of condos in my building and I just wanted to let you a unit above me is cloing for $427K in a few weeks. So much for your expertise in real estate and you trying to gues the reason behind me slowing down the number of posts. I have a life. Lane and Perry do not. PImping for Beth Mason is not a quality of life anyone in their right mind can be happy about.

+4 Vote up Vote down

PerryMason411 · 725 weeks ago

It's official or so I heard through a Hoboken vine (someone overheard Perry at 3 A's drunk as a skunk), 411 is now DOOMED.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

deleted9879414 85p · 725 weeks ago

He's allowed in 3As? I guess since his brother & his brother's girlfriend (did he lose his wife, I thought he was married) live there they have to let Perry in. Ha ha.