From the 5 Star Blog: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7523872754&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1 eBay Auction: Huge Profitable Clickbank Website. Sold for $379K. The auction headline states: Profits $55k/mo. Over $1 Million in Sales. Real Proof. Interesting that someone would sell a site making $1 million a year, in an auction for 379K. But the commission stats and Adsense stats look real. Looks like this guy had some type of unique angle to create this much revenue. May want to take a peak at the auction and stats while it's still up, to see if you can get any new ideas from the info. "This is your chance to own one of the most successful Clickbank websites in the world. The site is strictly an affiliate site, promoting many Clickbank products, earning revenue on commissions. Since the site's "inception" on 9/1/04, it has generated over $1,000,000 in sales of Clickbank products. And over $500,000 in profit... The beauty of the site is that all revenue is brought in from advertising via PPC (pay-per-click) ads on various search engines. While the site is extremely simple in design, the PPC ads and the site text are both very creative, and you have probably never seen anything like them before. I've left the PPC ads relatively the same throughout the life of the site. Its pretty much been on auto-pilot the whole time. The site also earns $3k/month from Google Adsense ads, and an additional $10k-$15k/month from Paypal orders..." What do you think? Got any ideas about this guys unique angle for generating this much income?
I also generated tens of grands in 'Amazon products'. Only got a couple percent commission out of it though. All depends on how you word it. Now I'll go to the actual auction and read it... Let's see whether he actually made 1m or whether he refered to sites resulting them in 1m sales.
Go to the auction you guys. All of his checks, bank statements, adsense reports, etc is all there. Now there is no way of knowing if they are all accurate and real at this point, but there is a lot of info in the auction.
Well it all seems legit. Question is, what are the 'techniques' he refers to he's using (or she). Sounds to me like it could be banned any moment. If it's just PPC 'tricks', it certainly has potential.
It didn't sound like it could be banned to me and I pretty much read the whole thing along with the questions he answered from people. PPC arbitrage is big business if you know what you are doing and have the sack to put up some $$. Maybe we should buy it TOPS
In the end you're only building other people's business, even if you own this site. You're handing sales over to others. We all know Google's manual index cleaning and about thin affiliates. Sounds like a lot of investment necessary to make the income future proof. With a 380 grand investment I can think of better ways to secure 55K profit a month.
It is a PPC play...no organic search so G's algo or any other SE's algo is irrelevant. You did read the auction right? Cash flow is cash flow, I don't mind if I am making someone else money...you can say that for just about any "business". Unless you grow/mine the materials, manufacture the product and retail it your self, you are "building someone else's business" to some degree aren't you? Last guy I heard that tried that one was Henry Ford, but they don't even do that anymore. So, it sounds like you don't want to buy it.
Yes, I read every word of the auction. Indeed, I don't want to buy it. It's not an interesting business model to me. The only positive in it is 'invest $1 in PPC, get $2 back'. That's a no-brainer. But it doesn't lead to anything you can float or sell for a lot of money.
It doesnt jive. if you make 55k in profits each month, then your annual revenue is about 600k. 3x that is 1.8million. If the site is only being sold for 380k, something is not kosher here. Not saying its not good. Just odd that the buy now price would be so low. He says he needs immediate capital. For the 380k, just wait 6 months, you'll get it. Based on those numbers, bank financing would be a piece of cake. Loan would be a no brainer. Maybe I'm not getting it.
I too had a similar question and it does make me skeptical. But, how would this seller produce snapshots like they have? I haven't seen them anywhere else....
A bank is not going to give him the money for an income stream that is so new. As the price goes up, the number of potential buyers probably goes down. I think this number is actually in a gray area. Bigger than the vast majority of small people can afford (cash to buy) and smaller than most of the companies that have cash to buy something would even consider looking at. Sometimes people need money fast, that is why there are "private money" lenders aka hard money lenders that make a lot of cash. Many times time is of the essence. Not trying to defend this person, I just don't think that it does not sound kosher. Plus, we all know even if this thing is 100% legit, there are a lot of things that can change quickly on this here internet thing.
It's pretty simple to me...he sells it for 380k but has another similar site already up and running...his income stays the same and he has 380k in his back pocket for another venture, probably unrelated to the internet. It's best to place your eggs in different baskets. Spread the risk, what works today may not work tomorrow and that applies to internet marketing more than any other area I can think of. I have income streams from four unrelated areas. My main business is sharetrading but again I diversify by trading shares in different sectors.
I noticed the other similar site...but he has it pulling up for only about 1/2 as much as the other. I wonder if the buyer knows this...