--- title: "A $1,000 website acquisition. What happened in 3 months" description: "VerifiedDR was a $1,000 website acquisition in June 2026. Three months later it earns about $1,000 a month. The numbers, the product changes and the lessons." url: https://verifieddr.com/blog/website-acquisition-verifieddr-3-months published: 2026-09-22 author: "Thijs Smudde" topic: "Founder" --- # A $1,000 website acquisition. What happened in 3 months In June 2026 I acquired VerifiedDR for $1,000. Here is what the website earns now, what changed in the product and what I learned. ## The short answer VerifiedDR was acquired for $1,000 at the start of June 2026. By 21 September 2026 it earned about $1,000 a month, with $3,447 in total revenue at a 95% margin and no ads. The index grew from 1,681 to over 4,600 websites and the website's own Domain Rating went from 46 to 68. All numbers come from the founder's video of that date. Three months ago I acquired VerifiedDR for exactly $1,000. Today the website makes about $1,000 a month. This is what a $1,000 website acquisition looks like after 90 days. I recorded a short video that walks through the numbers. This article covers the same ground with a bit more room for the why. ## In brief - The acquisition price was $1,000. Total revenue in the first three months was $3,447 at a margin of about 95%, with no ads. - The product went from a leaderboard to a full set of tools around Domain Rating. Sales moved from subscriptions to 90-day programs paid once, up front. - The index grew from 1,681 to over 4,600 websites. Verification did not exist before and 546 websites are verified now. - verifieddr.com went from DR 46 to DR 68 and from about 75 to 440 referring websites in the same three months. ## What I acquired VerifiedDR started as a launch by [Corey Chiu](https://verifieddr.com/website/coreychiu-com). It was a leaderboard of websites ranked by Domain Rating. A website with a higher DR sat higher on the board. The board also tracked DR changes every day. That made it a useful visibility tool for indie developers who wanted to show a growing score. It was also the whole product. One board and a daily refresh. I paid $1,000 for it at the start of June 2026. ## Revenue and return Total revenue since the acquisition is $3,447. The monthly run rate is around $1,000. Operating costs are low, so the margin is about 95%. The purchase paid for itself in the first month of sales. Everything after that is return. I ran no ads in those three months. ## What changed in the product The leaderboard showed a number. I decided to build a complete product around that number. If people come to see their Domain Rating, the product should also tell them what to do about it. The first version of that sold subscriptions. It was the wrong shape for this metric. Domain Rating moves over weeks and months, not days. A monthly subscription asks the customer to judge the work before the score can move. So I replaced it with a [90-day program](https://verifieddr.com/pricing). The customer pays once. The work runs for 90 days on a fixed schedule and ends with a day-90 report. That did two things. Customers see more of the outcome before they decide what to do next. And the cash arrives up front, which I invest back into the product. ## What the product does now [Link building](https://verifieddr.com/link-building) recommends other websites to work with. Every match is checked on topic, DR and traffic. Auto exchange sets up link exchanges without manual outreach. Completed exchanges are tracked, so you can see whether each link is still live. [AI visibility](https://verifieddr.com/ai-visibility) checks how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI and Claude name your website for the questions your buyers ask. It works out your share of voice and shows for which questions you're visible and where you're not yet. The homepage has a click-through demo of the dashboard. It runs on live product data, so what you click is what a customer sees. ## Platform growth At the start of June the index held 1,681 websites. On 21 September 2026 it held over 4,600. Verification did not exist before the acquisition. 546 websites are verified now and the platform has almost 1,500 users. New sign-ups run at 14 to 20 a day. ## The website's own Domain Rating verifieddr.com had a DR of 46 when I acquired it. It's 68 now. Referring websites went from about 75 to 440 in the same three months. Much of that comes from the badge. A verified website shows a badge that links back to VerifiedDR, so every verification adds a referring website. The current numbers are on [the public profile of verifieddr.com](https://verifieddr.com/website/verifieddr-com). ## Free tools and search traffic After the acquisition I added a set of public pages. Two of them are free tools. The [domain rating checker](https://verifieddr.com/domain-rating-checker) shows DR, TrueDR and validated traffic for any website. The [keyword difficulty checker](https://verifieddr.com/keyword-difficulty-checker) shows what DR the Google top 10 demands for a search term. Free tools exist to earn visitors from search. I track in Search Console whether they keep doing that. ## What comes next The AI visibility features are becoming a separate product called [PromptRadar](https://promptradar.nl/?utm_source=verifieddr.com&utm_medium=native&utm_campaign=blog_article). It's the same platform with a different focus and a different customer. VerifiedDR is for indie developers and small businesses that want a stronger Domain Rating and more visibility in search and AI answers. PromptRadar is for businesses that mainly want to be recommended by AI more often. It launched in the Netherlands first. ## Three lessons from the first 90 days Sell on the timescale of the outcome. A metric that moves in months should not be sold by the month. Build around the number people already come for. The leaderboard brought people who cared about DR. Everything I added answers what to do about it. Give users a reason to link to you. Verification gave website owners a reason to put a badge on their site. Each badge is a referring website. ## See where your website stands Check DR, TrueDR and validated traffic for any website. It's free and takes a few seconds. [Check a website](https://verifieddr.com/domain-rating-checker) [See the 90-day programs ](https://verifieddr.com/pricing) ## Related resources - [Watch the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv9ujp55z4): Six minutes on the acquisition, the revenue and the growth since, recorded by the founder. - [Free domain rating checker](https://verifieddr.com/domain-rating-checker): DR, TrueDR and validated traffic for any website. One of the free tools added after the acquisition. - [Link building](https://verifieddr.com/link-building): Partner websites matched on topic, DR and traffic, with auto exchange and live link tracking. - [AI visibility](https://verifieddr.com/ai-visibility): How often ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI and Claude name your website for the questions buyers ask. - [verifieddr.com on VerifiedDR](https://verifieddr.com/website/verifieddr-com): The public profile with the current DR, TrueDR and referring websites of this website. - [PromptRadar](https://promptradar.nl/?utm_source=verifieddr.com&utm_medium=native&utm_campaign=blog_article): The AI visibility side of the platform as its own product, launched in the Netherlands first. ## Questions this article answers ### How much did VerifiedDR cost to acquire? $1,000, at the start of June 2026. The original product was a leaderboard of websites ranked by Domain Rating, launched by Corey Chiu. It tracked DR changes every day and nothing else. ### How much does VerifiedDR earn after the acquisition? About $1,000 a month as of 21 September 2026. Total revenue in the first three months was $3,447 with a margin of about 95%. No ads were run in that period. ### Why does VerifiedDR sell 90-day programs instead of subscriptions? Domain Rating moves over weeks and months. A monthly subscription asks the customer to judge the work before the score can move. A 90-day program runs the work on a fixed schedule and ends with a day-90 report. The customer pays once and the cash arrives up front. ### How did the VerifiedDR index grow? From 1,681 websites in June 2026 to over 4,600 in September 2026. Verification was added after the acquisition and 546 websites are verified. The platform has almost 1,500 users and sign-ups run at 14 to 20 a day. ### What is the Domain Rating of verifieddr.com? DR 46 in June 2026 and DR 68 in September 2026, with referring websites up from about 75 to 440. The public profile of verifieddr.com on VerifiedDR shows the current numbers. ### What is PromptRadar? The AI visibility side of the platform as its own product. It is for businesses that want to be recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI more often. It launched in the Netherlands first, at promptradar.nl.