buyawebbiz.com

Been a while

Well, I am still alive, but I sure haven’t been keeping up with this site. Sheesh. It’s amazing how much harder it is to start a business on the side when you look at a computer all day long at a 9 to 5 job. I get home and I don’t want to do much with the computer. But, I need to suck it up! haha

So, I haven’t been watching sites for sale much lately. I did see College Startup sold recently. Plus, I saw who bought PC Gaming Guide (a Ben Bliekamp creation), and found out they bought it just for the Wordpress theme, which I can’t say was a bad idea.

Anyway, stay tuned. I will be back soon. Right now I have to get a couple projects finished up first.

What I learned at the System Seminar 2006

As mentioned in a previous post, I gained a lot of things from this year’s system seminar held in Chicago at the Eaglewood resort. I have to say, this is one of the best places to learn about internet marketing in general. I shouldn’t say in general, because a lot of the stuff I learned was drilled down the exact things needed to be done to make money on the web. One breakout session in particular gave me a step-by-step understanding of how to build a content website that generates income in multiple ways, including affiliate marketing and the hot topic of the web, Google Adsense.

The trip didn’t start off on a hot note unfortunately. I learned my lesson that just because you pay $130/night (and that was at a discount) that you shouldn’t expect to have free internet in the room. They didn’t offer wireless access, just ethernet, and it was $10 for 24 hours. So, I was there three nights, it would have run me $30 bucks, which is almost as much as I pay in a month for home connection. The reason this bothered me because I could have gone across the street and had a cheaper room and FREE wireless internet. Note to self: do research on the hotel…don’t just assume.

After that, things got better because of all the great stuff I picked up. I don’t know if I will post much on this blog about it like I thought I would because I don’t want to infringe on the seminar’s leader, Ken McCarthy. Ken puts on one hell of a show, and I feel it was the best money I have spent on internet training. If you are looking for a good way to get in the game, this is a good place to check it all out.

I will, however, be posting about some of the sites that I will purchase and what I am doing to improve them, which will come from the stuff I learned in the seminar.

One thing I did decide on was how I do and don’t want to run my business. A lot of talk was focused on bringing value to the web, and not just putting up pages that create “digital pollution” out there. Dave Taylor mentioned how much junk is out there and how he makes money the old fashioned way by giving information away for free. When I first started this site, I wanted to buy 100 sites that were income generating and I didn’t really care how. I mostly was thinking of Adsense sites. While there are still are a few out there that are doing well, I am going to be much more picky about what I buy. These sites that are built on these auto-generation techniques (i.e. Traffic Equalizer) may be good for now, but in the long hall, I think it’s just like building a house on sand. The income is bound to erode away, leaving nothing but a crappy web page, and not an actual business.

This post is getting long, so I will shorten by saying I know now what I will be focusing on and since we all know you can’t get rich overnight, I am pounding into my head that I am building for the future, not tomorrow.

System Seminar 2006…. WOW!

I just returned home from Ken McCarthy’s System Seminar in Chicago. All I can say is…..PHENOMENAL. There is so much I was able to get out of this year’s seminar, I literally had a headache. It was a 4 hour drive home, and I couldn’t stop thinking of ideas that I came away with from the weekend. I went last year, but I think I was overwhelmed. This year, I have so much that I can put into action, I don’t know where to start.

Since it’s late, I will have to go through my notes tomorrow. A lot of the stuff I learned I will be able to apply to purchasing websites. There will be more to come this week hopefully. Right now, my brain needs a rest!

The System Seminar

I leave tonight for the System Seminar in Chicago. I can’t explain how excited I am. It’s funny, every one I work with asks why I am going to Chicago… I reply “nerd convention”. (The inside joke is that everyone calls me nerd boy at work, so I play it off like that.)

I went to this last year and it was anything but a nerd convention. There are a lot of bright minds that show up here. I was able to have dinner with a couple guys last year who are doing quite well for themselves with their internet ventures, and I aspire to be in that category very soon (relatively).

I have a four hour drive up there, and I am sure I will have a lot of things running through my mind. I know coming back will be even worse because I am sure I will be teeming with new ideas. I just have to figure out what to focus on and just go get it rolling.

I will have a lot more to post when I get back. I might even be able to put a couple together when I am up there. If you happen to be going, drop me a comment. I would be happy to meet up while we are there.

Have a great weekend!

Timely sites

I am a big fan of Clicknewz. So when Lynn Terry posted about a new blog she started, I jumped on it pretty quick (and added it to my Google homepage with the rss feed). It’s called Midnight Marketing Snack, and it’s a really fun concept (in my humble opinion). She does quick little nuggets about internet marketing, and they post every day at midnight as you might have guessed from the name.

It reminded me of another site I stumbled upon recently, Woot.com. Woot posts one product a day for sale. Once it sells out, it’s done, there is no more. If it doesn’t sell out, you can’t get it the next day. What I find so interesting about the site, though, is that the first hour they post (midnight also) they sell a LOT of products. Sometimes more than 15% overall. They keep product stats and I have seen times where the first one to purchase something is 3 seconds! You might think, but they only sell one product? Yep, and I am guessing it is working pretty well for them, judging by some of the product sales stats I have seen.

What does this all have to do with buying a web biz? Not much really, except they are examples of sites that I would be inclined to purchase. The marketing snack blog is set up to auto post, so she loads it on the front end and then just lets it sit back and collect traffic. Work hard for an hour a month getting it set up, then go about your other sites. The only thing I wouldn’t like about Woot is the messing with the physical products. Otherwise, they have a great site that has entertainment value as well (check out the blog or the podcast).

Post your site for sale

One thing I have found in searching for sites to add to my portfolio is the tremendous span of crap out there. Now, you can define that any way you like, but what I am looking for is solid sites that have traffic, income, maybe a good Pagerank… but what I find a lot of times is sites that someone registered a domain name, popped up a template based site, and then try to sell the site for a ridiculous amount of money. This is good (well, could be argued either way actually) for the newbie that doesn’t know how to design a website, but to someone that has a little bit of experience in this, you know that having traffic and sales history is much more appealing.

So, in my searching, I have found there are certain things I am looking for. What I am going to set up (eventually) is a category on this site where you can post your site for sale. There will be certain factors that will have to be disclosed though. One of the first things is the site has to have at least a 3 month history. When Ben Bleikamp sold his poker blog, he had a solid three months of income proof (as well as daily content) and, likewise, his site sold fairly quickly and for a handsome price. Another factor is proof of income. If you are in the business, you should be able to take a screenshot of your income, minus any personal information of course. A simple paint program will be able to black that stuff out. Other little things will be required as well, but I will have a full template set up for submission.

I am going to wait on this portion of the site until I have a little more incoming traffic to be able to justify the listings. It should be fun to have a good site listing service. In the mean time, check out some of the places I search for sales listings:

V7N site listings
Sitepoint
DigitalPoint
ebay
Sitebazaar

Know any others? Post a comment!