The site I bought does not make promised revenue. Can I get my money back?

Recently I have bought a site that was promised to be making $250 / month. There were adsense stats to prove that.

Apparently those stats were either made or the owner somehow was generating that revenue. Now the site does make even a dollar a month.

What should I do? I made a really bad investment based on the false stats showed by the seller.

Can I return the site to the owner?

 

did he promise refund ?
ask him the tips he used to get the stats, or ask him to paste ur code in the location where he did , if he turns out to be false, ask him for a refund if he denies you can even proceed legally , as per ur country cyber laws

 

I paid $2000 for the site.. It would be quite expensive to hire a lawyer.. Not sure if it is worth it, unless I will make the guys pay legal fees

 

Did the seller of the site disclose to you what the source of the traffic was? Perhaps they were using some sort of PPC campaign to generate the traffic.

 

Could be.. though I did not ask him and he did not disclose that

 

You didn't ask where the traffic came from? Frankly, that seems negligent on your part. As a buyer, you have due diligence just as the seller has the responsibility to disclose anything that may affect the sale.

If you are really only making $1 per month, that means it has ZERO traffic. I've seen free blogspot blogs with not a single promotion and only one article make more then $1 per month. Like literally, not one person has ever been to the site.

Something is up. It might be worthwhile to peruse a legal option, but over $2000 may be a waste.

 

Depending on your locality...$2,000 should qualify for small claims court... you do not need a lawyer in that case. Simply google XX small claims court (where XX is your city, town) and follow the procedures you find. Most likely you will have to fill out a claim, possibly pay a very small filing fee...When the court date comes, be prepared with as much paperwork/evidence of the scam as possible to put forth an educated/informed case in front of the judge.

Good luck!

 

First of all read the contract that you had with the seller to see if there is any "promise" in there for the revenue the site - I suspect there isnt and that there was no "promise" but simply a statement in the sale proposal of current revenue (and revenue not profit).

Secondly, are the two of you in the same country? If you are then small claims court (or equiv) may be an option. It is a waste of time and effort if your not in the same country.

Thirdly, a basic way of valuing a business is 5x the current annual profit. On the basis of a sale price of $2000 and a monthly revenue of $250 would mean that they have monthly costs of $220 - if you were spending this on advertising etc do you think you could be getting the $250 in?

Forthly, did you just take over the hosting account? If so look at the server log files pre-purchase (though would have hoped you did this before buying the site) to see the traffic it is getting and to look for annomilies in the data to make sure they are genuine.

 

I think you got scrued and the truble you must do for geting back money is not worth the 200$

It's clear from the begining a site that makes 250$/m will not sell for 200 lol it will go for 2500 or more

Regards bether pay atention next time

 

The simple answer is no.

As a buyer, you should know, or have asked where the traffic was coming from. How he was doing it. Then you could replicate it.

I could tell you how I do my site(s) on an overview. You could copy them down to the last picture, and piece of html code. But without some knowledge, you may, or may not, replicate the same results.

Plenty of people on this board chase that fool's gold. Cloning a site, and have no ideas how to generate traffic, or have a home base of site(s) to work or launch from. That is their fault, and letting greed get in the way of logic.

There is a way to make money, and not in this business. In this case, I would ask the original seller for all the old traffic stats, and sources, so you can try and find out what he was doing. Since you paid him, he shouldn't have an issue handing this info over.

What does he care now?

Unless it was yet another one of these DP pump n dumps. Or not using legit methods.

 

you probably have not read the thread carefully.. it was $2000

 

you might have asked the seller for the sites he used to have to generate revenue, if by case it's an forum or anything similar try to ask the users they might disclose some information, if not then try googling your site to find out the ads previously used

if all fails - sorry no help

 

How did you pay?

if you paid by paypal you could raise a dispute and start a payment reversal, that way paypal would decide if the refund would be in order.

 

Paypal wouldnt do a reversal on this unless you bought it on ebay, which I doubt....

I dont think there is much legal recourse either mate, where DID you buy this?

 

I wish you lucky and be more careful next time !

 

its not necesarrily a case of being more careful, I am sure you were careful with $2k, its not chump change to anyone.... Just be more thorough, and unless you are 100% sure then seek advice from someone else (and not a 2 poster on ANY forum)

 

Not true!

I have bought online services via paypal (NOT ON EBAY) and on one occasion i paid for a service that was not provided and i raised a dispute and had the transaction reversed.

So there is a possibility there if you used paypal.

 

u really made a big mistake, creating fake income statments is too easy.

anyway, from where did u bought the site? was he someone living in ur town or u bought it from someone on the internet?

 

have you spoke to the owner?
I very much doubt it but he may be willing to take it back

 

So many people think that just because you buy a website that you automatically have revenue. Its like a house, you still have to maintain it and such.

You can make it happen, just need to apply yourself