Pro Plugin Directory, which I noted was for sale a few weeks ago, has sold to Charlie Livingston, owner of aThemes. Neither Charlie or Steven would disclose the sale price, but Charlie did answer a couple of my questions via email about his motivation to buy existing products versus start from scratch, as well as the value he sees in Pro Plugin Directory:
I saw value in the following:
- the site is all setup and works well. There’s quite a bit of custom work on the backend that’s gone into it
- nearly 200 plugins have already been submitted
- the site has had good coverage in the major WP news outlets and blogs
- steadily growing search traffic
- a small Twitter and email list.
My motivation for buying sites is that, when you a buy a site versus create something from scratch, you’re working with a proven concept. I’m better at taking something that is already working and improving it than starting from nothing. I’m more of an optimiser than a creator, maybe. Of course, you pay a premium for the privilege, but it can potentially save you a lot of wasted effort. Having said that, I am working on a new project that I mentioned in the blog post about taking over PPD that is essentially from scratch. So it’s not that I’m against the idea or anything. Just that I’ve had success with buying websites in the past and I enjoy it.
See more about the sale in the announcement, and I expect Charlie will continue to iterate on the project.
