Business idea and I'd like YOU to pick it apart!

I just joined DP today and have been reading through some of the threads wherein some folks post their business ideas. Some of the responses are arrogant, brutal and downright mean. Frankly, I welcome that, so here goes.
Background: I am the publisher of a small weekly newspaper in the Midwest that distributes about 7,000 copies and has about 18,000 readers. Needless to say, I'm pretty busy. One of the things I have been wanting to do is buy a website that might mesh well with my current media company. I've been trolling flippa looking around. There are some great options out there, but, of course, most of them require things like getting targeted traffic to convert sales in order to continue the site's current revenues.

I, for one, don't have time for the effort it would take. I also cannot do layout on the newspaper, but what I can do is hire someone to do it. I was wondering if there were a market for new blogs, websites, etc., to hire experts in getting traffic and converting sales. I see a ton of brand new websites out there just instantly making money without having anything particularly unique about them. For example, there are about 10 websites on flippa right now selling facebook "likes", all making money, and all just a couple months old. How the heck do they do that? I don't know, but apparently there are just a ton of people who do.

What if there were a simple business that acted as a middle-man between the site owner and a network of experts who know how to make money with sites? What if this were done for a percentage of sales so that everyone makes money. My initial thought is that this would appeal to newbies with money, the lazy and/or the busy who are just looking to make some extra cash.

Thoughts, bashing, laughter & other commentary are all welcome.

Thanks!

 

Your idea is great. Many people expect your idea becoming true. However, experts who know how to make money with sites often be busy in their business instead of making money for anothers. So, it's very hard to connect them.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to assume that a lot of earnings reported to Flipp are fake. Nonetheless; there are a lot of suckers out there that buy these sites. Then they are stuck in a situation where they don't know how to get traffic and are out of pocket $XX or $XXX.

Your idea isn't bad. It'd let noobs work with more experienced people to build income. Of course, I think each web-noob that bought these websites would be shit out of luck when the more experienced guy gets the small amount of money to buy the same exact site and leave the noob in the dust.

Furthermore; if you were experienced, you would probably know that those sites are just reselling Fiverr services and getting them from other dirt cheap sources. The lack of funds wouldn't stop an experienced webmaster or internet marketer. 50¢ at Web.com is all anyone would need to start.

 

So right @Neodism. On flippa 90% are junk. You need to filter those sites very good to know which are good and which worth to buy. Don't think that each frog worth a kiss. Think that spam and scams grew lately and to push up artificial sites over night its not hard but requires money. Also after you sell if the buyer doesn't know some basic SEO, SMO they will see that they bought a site that they have to work each day like they do on the employer.
The best would be to make this kind of sites auto pilot.

 

These are very good points, and I thank you for your response. I know that those sites are reselling Fiverr services. I myself used to do copy editing on Fiverr, and figured this was the case. I think the main thing is how to market these sites. Regarding your other point about the more experienced marketer buying the same site and leaving "the noob in the dust," if I were to start this business there would more than likely be some sort of non-compete agreement implemented to mitigate that temptation.

 

Thank you for your response, and I appreciate your input and advice. For the purposes of this thread, I'm not really concerned about Flippa's sites, because if the "expert network" were set up, a decent site could be tweaked by the network to make money. If this crazy idea of mine were viable, I could probably set up the framework within a month. The hard part would be finding the "experts" who would be willing to work for commission only. Not many people like that. It would be like (in my industry) hiring ad execs who, instead of knocking doors and making phone calls, would be using their skills to drive traffic to a site and generating sales. I'm probably not explaining this very well. It's press day here and my mind is trying to multi-task and failing miserably.

 

I think your looking at it wrong. You already have 18,000 readers? Hell, 75% of the hard work is done for you (granted you have an email list, which I would assume you do). Forget about the cookie cutter sites on Flippa or ones that you think would "fit well". It sounds like your serious with the idea, so there's no point in handicapping yourself out of the gate with a bloated site. There's zero reason to spend the money on a prebuilt site, when you can spend just the ~same on a site of your own.

Hire someone to build and design the site to your specifications, let your readers know the site exists, and monetize it. It sounds like you are overwhelming yourself w/ tedious things. Get started some where before you over think it. The thing about "digital stuff", it's easy to tweak. Be hands on with it, or you'll never learn.

 

Thank you so much for your response. I truly appreciate and welcome all opinions.

As far as building our own sites, that is exactly what I don't want to do. I'm not looking to build from scratch. Yes, I could do that and advertise it in my publications, however, my media company is in the business of acquiring running businesses and improving them. As I stated in my initial post, I do not have time to be more hands on, as you suggest. I would much rather stick with the business model that works for me which is acquiring an asset and hiring a team to run the day-to-day operations. That is why I initially mentioned looking for sites that are a good fit for us.

The main thrust of the thread, however, was the idea of setting up a business that acts as a middle-man between site owners and marketing/webmaster teams to effectively do what I do with newspapers, build and increase sales.

Thank you again!

 

The biggest flaw to your idea is that it will never attract the experts. An Expert is most likely defined by someone who has a proven successful track record on making money online. That kind of person is not going to sacrifice their valuable time for a small percentage of revenue generated by a business they have no control over.

You will attract people with experience who don't have a proven successful track record. Not that this is a bad idea... It can work. But will it be anything more than simple SEO suggestions and link building? Is it really worth a percentage of profits that can't be proved?

Your idea would be better if you took a slight spin on it and made a web site that allowed people to collaborate on projects and seek partners on the terms that they set (equity, flat fee etc.). You could generate revenue by charging a posting fee. But before you even get to that point you would need to have a site receiving relevant traffic.

 

@NetStar, Thank you so much for your input. I like what you're thinking, and this is exactly the reason that I wanted to post this idea here.

 

TangoMan, If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.
It's unrealistic to expect to buy a site for pennies that will make you a decent income with no further involvement or maintenance.

However I'd recommend you look into buying websites in your niche, which I understand are newspapers. E.,g. I recently saw a nice news site for sale - the type that would probably go well with your main business and can be cross promoted. You are a lot more likely to profit if you're buying a website in a niche you're familiar with and can easily maintain and update. It's also generally a good strategy to help grow your business - similar to the mergers and acquisitions you see big companies do.

 

Your idea seems good. I agree with DomainMagnate that if it looks too good to be true it is. But i'm not sure if it's a good idea for you to buy it before really understanding how everything works (you'll have the visits but then it'll crash because you don't have the required knowledge)

 

Very well said @NetStar

 

I think that a lot of issues have already been raised and I agree that getting true experts to participate in such a program will be a challenge. It will also be a challenge to get small business websites to pay for said expertise.

What I would worry about most, however, is that the website would be getting into an area where there is a lot of fraud and deceit. First, many so-called "experts" are absolutely clueless, unethical, and/or fraudulent in mindset. If you stick around long enough on DP, you will see exactly what I mean. There are an awful lot of hoaxsters out there who will be only too happy to take money from gullible newbies. Likewise, there are website owners who will try to get experts to help them and then never pay for the service. Again, stay on DP a little while and you will see many posts that revolve around such topics.

You presumably have an offline business with a brand that is making you money. Be careful not to tarnish that brand.

 

Or worse...the DP'ers who think they are experts when they need more help than those who are asking for it...

 

In the end, those are the ones who end up DP'd lol