Is ChildFun for Sale???

So, you've heard the rumors that ChildFun.com is for sale. Is it true? I am sad to say, yes. ChildFun started not as a website, but as a discussion list. One small list, hosted at a free server, with about 20 other women. Somehow, out of that bloomed another seven discussion lists, five newsletters, and a website with thousands of pages of crafts, activities, art ideas, recipes, and parenting advice.

How it ever made that jump, to be honest, I am not really sure. Since starting back in 1996, we went from a small newsletter list of about 30 people to well over 400,000 unique visitors and 3.5 million page views per month. There are now thousands of people using our chat rooms, sending our e-cards, connecting with others on our bulletin boards and surfing the site each day. We've been featured in Woman's Own Magazine, ZDTV News, Kare 11 News, KMSP News, WCCO Radio, and People Magazine, as well as several other radio stations, tv stations, newspapers and magazines.

Unlike so many recent dot.com dismal failures, ChildFun isn't run differently. It doesn't have venture capital, It doesn't have a staff. It doesn't even have office space. My desk is in my living room! Everything you see on the site - it was put there by me. When you write to ChildFun with a question, it gets answered by me. When someone writes and asks to talk to the ad rep or the marketing manager or the content developer, again, that would be me.

With a site of this magnitude, as can be expected, it's taking it's toll on me and my family. I have put my entire heart and soul into ChildFun. I have watched it grow and shape itself into something I never imagined it to be. I have watched it with love, the way a mother watches her child grow, until that one day when she knows, although it pains her and makes her sad, that her baby is all grown up and that it's time to let go.

ChildFun has become so large and so popular, that I can no longer continue to run it the way it has been run, which is from my living room in my spare time. It is time for me to step down and let someone with the time, office staff and capital to step in and make this site everything it should be.

I am now accepting bids on the site. The site will be sold to the highest bidder. Please send your brief proposals to: jenny@childfun.com. Serious inquiries only, please. All prospective buyers will be sent an inventory including content, site statistics, profit projections, etc.

I will continue to run the site as I have up until the site is sold to another party. All discussion lists and newsletters and other activities will continue as normal until then. Thank you all for making this site one of the most popular parenting destinations on the internet. Although I will miss being involved in the day to day business of running a website, I will never be further than an email away.

Sincerely,
Jennifer M. Wanderscheid