buyawebbiz.com

What I look for when evaluating new potential portfolio sites center around two main things: traffic and proof of income. This may seem logical and maybe too simplistic, but those are really the big two things that really matter. But, as with anything, there are caveats to these also. You are going to have to learn how to read traffic charts and also need to ask the right questions to determine if the income is truly consistent or if it is from separate project that the owner was working on (a pay per click campaign, for example.) Traffic is going to depend on the scope of the site you are dealing with. If you are looking for a simple Adsense site, then you are going to want a lot of traffic, in my humble opinion. If you are looking at a dropship site, you might not need an exorbitant amount of traffic as long as the conversion on the site works well. So they both are going to be a dynamic evaluation.

Other things that I would look at: backlinks, advertising paid for, current and/or pay per click campaigns,

Let’s take a look at each of these.

-Backlinks
Google ranks a site based on popularity. Also, they look at how popular sites are that link to your site. So knowing where inbound links are coming from is helpful. To find out how many links are coming to you site, you go to google and search for:

-Current traffic
Some site sales postings will talk about how much traffic is coming to the site. One of the questions that needs to be asked is if this traffic is paid for or organic (link to definition). Why might you ask is this important? The main reason is that a site could be making a ton of money on affiliate programs, but if the owner is paying out half of the profit in PPC traffic, the deal might not look so sweet. Plus, while PPC is a good game, there is definitely a process behind it. One of the best people to learn this from is Perry Marshall, whom I would call a PPC expert. One example that I once saw was a site for sale that claimed income of around $150k/month, but he was also spending around $45k/month in advertising. While this is a good thing, I am not quite at a point where I can afford spending $45k on advertising in a YEAR let alone the first month out of the gate. So there is just some planning that needs to be done.

-Current advertising strategy
Knowing this, as mentioned above, will help you determine the profitability of the site. I have seen some sale postings that offer up the advertising campaign as a bonus with the sale of the site (which I think should be a mandotory when buying a site). This includes the PPC campaigns, but also other types of promotion the current owner may be doing such as banner advertising, ezine ads, offline marketing (postcard mailings, classified ads, etc) and so on…. the point is, don’t assume…ask. If a site owner doesn’t want to fess up, then buy beware. They might be hiding things for a reason.

Another thing that I watch for is salesy copy when selling a site. I am not saying that when selling a site, you shouldn’t promote it…. but one of the things I see quite often is the claim that the site has “huge potential.” Okay, I don’t care what you are doing on the web, EVERY site has HUGE potential. Look at Alex Tex and the MillionDollar Homepage. Who knew that his model would be as wildly successful as it was. Alex did some ingenious things to get that site going, but no one thought he would make a cool million in just over a half a year. So when I see in a sales posting, that a site has a huge potential, I enter with caution. I have a ton of site ideas on my whiteboard in my office, and they all have potential too. It’s what you do with the site that counts. Just use discretion. You have to do your research to find the true gems.

Stay tuned: I am thinking about having a ’site for sale’ posting area. I will explain why in the next entry.

On one of the sites that I watch for sites for sales (www.sitebazaar.net), I just noticed some verbage that I must have glossed over before:

“It is not easy to buy a website, but on the other hand you can come across one of the best investments in the market. For example suppose you want to buy a website that generates an income of $500 per month. The value of the website is mostly calculated as monthly income multiplied by 12 to 18 which bring the total value of the website to around $7500. In compassion when you purchase a flat for $100,000 it will in average generate a rental value of $500.”

They are comparing buying a piece of rental real estate and the income gained from it and a website that generates income on a monthly basis. I see this as a very general, but good statement, but there is more to it.

Real estate investment is a hot money making topic. If you have seen any of the late-night informercials, you know that about 40% (maybe more) are about how you can by this product to show you how to flip properties and make a full-time income and then some. There are some things that aren’t that attractive to me about real estate though. Cost of entry, which could be argued based on all of the “No Money Down” techniques (think Carlton Sheets or Robert Allen) is one that I don’t really want to deal with. Tenant finding and tenant retention is another, although you can hire a management company to do this. But it seems there are more things that need to be done in order to make a decent living from that. Upside is that the properties generally appreciate handsomely and if you buy right, you can come out smelling like a rose.

Internet real estate can be a lower cost of entry, based on the quote from sitebazaar. But, again when purchased right, and maybe with a few little changes here and there, you can have a site that runs virtually free of management, and all you do is sit back and collect the checks.

Obviously, this could be a much broader argument (for both sides), but I think that buying websites can be just as lucrative, if not more, than real estate, with maybe a little less hassle.

I hope I really don’t have to answer this question since obviously my site is centered around it. But for further proof, here is a little post I stumbled onto: http://www.ensight.org/archives/2006/04/24/blogexplosioncom-sold/

This was post on Jeremy Wright’s blog. Jeremy runs b5media, a popular blog network that I need to look into a little more. He just helped broker the sale of blogexplosion.com, which ended up being in the 6-figure range (not too shabby!). It still blows my mind how web businesses start out and some just blow up into something like this one did.

Find this post was a two-fold gain for me, though. First, I re-confirmed my interest in buying and selling sites for a profit, plus, I found a cool (and free) way to market this very blog. I will let you know how it goes as I get more into it, but I am excited to say I joined blogexplosion to help with my promotion efforts. Should be fun to watch!

Everyone gets into business for different reasons. Some people want a little extra money, some like to just get out of the house, and some just have a passion that they need to fulfill. I would say I am a mixture of a couple of those (I don’t really need to get out of the house per se) but I think one of my main goals for my business is this: passive income. What exactly is passive income? It can be interpreted many ways. I saw a discussion forum topic once where a poster was blasting passive income because it was “non-existent”, to which I argue it really is how you view it. I work 40 hours a week for a living right now, trading my time for a dollar (or two). If I were to be able to cut that time down to, say, 5 hours a week and make the same amount of money, I would say that is passive for me. Some people consider rental real estate passive, which I would agree with except for all of the time maintaining the property (although you can hire that out and it could be more passive in that case).

What am I getting at here….. what I am working on is building a portfolio of website businesses that I don’t have to maintain *much* and that will bring in a consistent amount of income. You can break down the numbers multiple ways. 100 websites averaging $10/day in income (generated through Adsense, Clickbank, ebay, etc) would make you a tidy little $30,000/month. I think I could pay the taxes on that…. or maybe you pair it down and find 10 solid websites and you focus on each of them making $100/day, which would get you the same $30,000/month. I guarantee there are people out in the internet world that are doing just that, and MUCH more. Here is a perfect article that I like to re-read every once in a while to keep me focusing on what I need to be doing: http://www.all-in-one-business.com/imm/20040102/review.html (*note: this is from Kevin Bidwell’s Internet Marketer Monthly. Kevin is a great internet marketer and I actually went through a course with him and learned a TON about the internet marketing sales funnel. Good stuff…)

Coming up: Rating systems-what to look for and what to run away from.

Well, been a couple days since last post. Had a busy weekend. Got to watch Albert Pujols hit 3 home runs on Sunday at the new ballbark. What a day…. but I better get back to business!

I watched this listing on ebay the other day: 7609391117 It was for beerlistings.com site. Initially, I liked the site, but I didn’t pull the trigger and bid. The auction ended for just over $160, so I am glad I didn’t try that hard for it. My reason is that if you look at the site, it is fun information, but I don’t know how many people would really be searching for this kind of information. You could always get into an arbitrage system (more on that in a later post), but I still don’t know if it would pan out. I figure if I can average $10/month on Adense revenue, then it’s going to take me 16 months to break even on the purchase. Right now, that’s not worth it to me. But, if I had $160 just laying around, I might throw it up against the wall and see if it stuck.

Talking about ROI and time to recoup your money, here is another listing that looks interesting: 7609102728 Why I like this one: 1)the seller has proof of earnings, although, it seems a little up and down since he has changed affiliates a couple of times, but this last move looks like a good one 2) this is for a good, profitable niche, although it could be argued maybe it’s a little too competitive, but he seems to have done well enough 3) he states he will give you the $30 ad that brings him 85% of his sales. That’s a nice perk I’d say! Based on his numbers, you could have your investment back in 2 months…. then it’s pure profit. The downside to all of this: who’s got $3,000 laying around to buy it… not a whole lot of newbies starting out can take a chance like this, like me right now, BUT, as I start building my web biz portfolio, I will be able to take chances like this.

That’s all for now. Coming up: a rating system for sites for sale. I came up with the idea this morning when I couldn’t sleep, so it still needs a little perfecting, but stay tuned!

Here is a list of my favorite resources, some free, some not, but what I will use on a regular basis.

- 1&1 Internet Inc. My favorite way to register domain names. Cheap ($5.99) and a VERY clean interface to manage domains.

- Deasoft Software and Hosting Solutions - Allows me to host up to 50 domains on same reseller account. Also, cpanel access which is easy way to install Wordpress software, which is what I am using now for my blogs. I have been pleased with the customer service as well.

- Geektools - Free site that you can check WHOIS listings for domain names. I use it when I come up with that next great domain name (and then find out someone beat me to the punch! haha)

- Pixelfast Keyword and Bid tool (http://www.pixelfast.com/overture) This page combines the YPN keywords tool and bids tool so you can see them side by side. Great little free tool.

- Goodkeywords.com - I admit, I haven’t used this a ton, but the little I have, it looks like a great FREE keyword tool. There are plenty of expensive ones out there, but why not try this one and see if it works for you?

- HTMLKit - Free HTML editor that I have found to be a great way to hand-code sites. I know hand-coding is outdated for some, but the purist in me likes to go back the roots every once in a while.

- Clickbank - The resource for affiliate programs/products. This one has a lot of notoriety, so I don’t think I need to explain it.

- System Video Blog - Great blog tracking the progress of video on the web and how it will change the way we look at visual mediums.

- System Seminar - I’ll admit, this is a pricey conference, but it was WELL worth the price I paid and then some. I am going back again this year, and I can’t wait to get back and learn more. Ken McCarthy has a “no-pitch” philosophy. He wants you to learn, and not have to buy the speakers next great product. Although, after you hear some of the speakers, you will probably want to anyway. The content is *that* good.

-?? Okay, so I made a top 9 list. As I find more resources I will add them. In the mean time, do you have a good resource that I left out? Leave a comment and I will check into it.