Hi, I'm new here and I did look over all the boards before posting this but I'm not sure where this topic would fit in exactly so I chose this board. I'm interested in either purchasing or creating a website in the near future. I have never owned or managed a website before, so this would be my first time. I'm leaning toward the option of buying an already established website as there is an immediate cash inflow. But I need more information on a few areas. When buying a website, is it recommended to buy in a field you are knowledgeable in (for example, technology) so to be able to update daily? I see many people selling and buying websites dealing with seemingly random subject matter to them. When purchasing a website do you need to have in depth knowledge to carry on the daily updates that its previous owner already established? Also, how secure is cash flow from a website? I realize there are ups and downs, but what extremes does it fluctuate between? Can, for example, a website making 2000 average the past 5 months go down to a thousand in a matter of a couple of months despite you updating it daily? I'm thinking of investing in a website that makes around 2000 a month. How much does a site in that ballpark cost, generally speaking? I'm interested in saving the income to purchase further websites to diversify and make my income base more steady and predictable. What kind of websites would you recommend for a beginner? One that I have knowledge in or one that is really general (appeals to a wide audience rather than to a niche market) even if I do not have much knowledge in the field? Thanks for the help!
First off, do your homework before you buy any site that says it makes 2000 a month. Take the url yoursite.com and search it in google. Check to see how many backlinks it has. If it doesnt have many you have to wonder where its getting its traffic from. Dont buy one off Ebay...all are fake....IMO... A site making 2g's a month you can expect to pay anywhere from 6 months to a years salary price. If you are buying one you should buy something that you know and like.....so its easier to do... good luck
Very broad question with many answers! Starting with the easy one: a website will cost approximately 8-12 months of revenue depending on where the revenue is coming from e.g. affiliate sales, advertising (adsense, etc), or direct sales. If you are making such a big investment make sure you understand every bit of the business i.e. what's the product, where leads/sales are coming from, if it's saturated, if this site is dominating, if it's a new niche etc. Make sure you get stats going back 12 months (traffic, sales etc). Ask the current owner to detail his strategy and tell you how he reached that revenue. Also make sure you know what's involved in making that revenue: what are the marketing costs, work that needs to be put in etc Right now, I'd say that affiliate sales is the best investment since adsense revenues are reportedly going down. However you need to research the niche you are going into Alternatively, if you have the spare time, start building up your business on your own I know my answer is not very structured or complete but I hope you found it useful.
Thanks for the reply, it was definitely useful. You say that if I have the spare time to start building up a business on my own. Since I don't know anything about website design, in that case I would have to hire a professional web designer to make the website for me. How much do web designers charge for a website? (in what range) However, I would assume setting up my own business would be much more difficult for a first timer, having to create traffic, affiliates, and marketing the site from nothing up. I don't know much about any of those things, though I could learn. Is there a good website that has in depth information on how to create traffic and how to market your websites as well as what kind of elements are necessary to make a successful business out of your site? I would consider learning how to create my own site, however I don't know anything of HTML and I want a clean looking, appealing website that would probably take me a year to learn -time which I don't have right now. Also, do banks provide business loans for buying or creating for profit websites? I don't know if purchasing or upstarting a website qualifies for a business loan. Thanks a lot for the help!