where are the sites f/s>>>??

thats what I have been trying to do and cant find anything.... my hyip site thats soon to come about is a directory not a monitor site so it will do well if I can find a good way to advertise

 

I guess the consensus is that most of the good sites (traffic, income etc) aren't sold often, and it is probably best to build and cultivate your own..

 

This is an interesting thread. I've searched for months and months for a good quality, unique content-rich website to buy, and found nothing worthy of mention. Most of what is available is less than 6 months old, has copied content or is one of the usual generic trash sites.

The answer is clear - build your own, write your own content, choose a niche that you are genuinely interested in and tortoise it. Eventually you will end up with a site that gets traffic and income. (I know this works, I've built 2)

...and stop wasting time looking for sites to buy!

 

If only that facebook site had been auctioned here, I may have made a bid. (yahoo offered a billion for facebook)

Seriously, if you are having problems finding sites why not go after the sites you want. Find your diamonds and then make the owner an offer they can't refuse. Maybe some of you are already doing that...

btw: interesting thread.

-Fractal

 

No, good sites are being sold all the time, but don't expect to get a great site for a few hundred bucks or so. That will usually get a decent, proxy, myspace, arcade, turn key etc.

Expect to pay thousands for sites that been around, have good traffic, potential, great content etc. Webmasters at these type of forums are extremely intelligent and know the value of domains and don't sell them for pennies.

 

I think that's what the OP was asking : where are these expensive/good sites? Everything is turnkey or basically parked domains with minimal content. I wish we could require a traffic or age limit to cut down on all of the cheapo sites.

 

Great thread

What also needs to be remembered it is also very easy to buy a site for
$XX XXX "If you have the money & can find one "
But do you know how to continue marketing
it like the previous owners or better ?

This statement by wasabiventures is true for the most part.
On a personal level I dont find it very easy to build a site its time
consuming & I hate to write & I sure dont see myself getting in to design

I am adding this to my Vocabulary "Thanks U9026a"
" tortoise it. "

What a great phrase this sums up the process of building a web site for me
apart from the writing & design you got a certain amount of time before a
site can be competitive ataining PR & Backlinks takes time & then their is the
Unofficial 2yr Status true or not I'm Sure time established/registered
counts for something. Add the Possibility of Sandboxing "if it exists" for
competitive terms all these things take time so a site thats built & is
established in my eyes is worth quite a lot.

I think what I'm trying to say is its possible & fairly easy to find a decent
site thats established with little or no income for a few dollars Probably
less than a $1000 With the rest of your budget a good few thousand by
the sounds of it you should have no problem marketing the site to a point
where its earning a decent amount.

A fair amount of established sites get sold for what i would call nothing
when you take in to account the tortoise effect & the hours spent
writing & designing a site. If you look around the their are plenty of
sites been given away that you can purchase dirt cheap
its just you will be spending your money on marketing
rather than the site itself good luck !

 

I think most webmasters that buy sites in the $XX,XXX range know how to market the site and they know what they are doing.
If not, it would be like buying a Ferrari without knowing how to drive a car

Didier

 

I dont think in most cases a webmaster with any experience
would buy a site for $XX XXX
Plenty of 16 year olds can buy a Ferrai If they have rich parents

 

why not?
I don't think those sitepoint people that buy sites in that range are amateurs.
If you got the cash why not
Besides it's not a website you are buying, it's a BUSINESS

Didier

 

Its possible that a webmaster would invest thousands but not logical if He/She is any good at SEO

 

I don't think "brand new" is the same as "developed", that's the problem. Developed sites mean developed traffic and income in my book. Registering a domain, lifting (or writing) small content, then selling isn't 'developing'. Perhaps we can have a developed forum where everything is at least 6 months old and has traffic and income? I'm tired of all these "launched this week but decided to sell" ... !

 

SitePoint occasionally has some good high profits good quality sites for sale.

 

Sitepoint in my opinion is no where near DP for site listings, and they charge (its cheap though !) for WTB and Sites f/s listings anyways.
And yes, I would pay 4 or 5 figs for a site that had traffic, and more $ for one that was related to my other sites and was aged.
It just goes to show you people hang on to well developed sites, flip the ones that have little or no value, and turn the ones that they dont know how to build traffic and market with...

I guess the indirect lesson here is: learn all you can about marketing sites, and building traffic (repeat etc), because thats where the value and opportunities are...

 

It's just that selling sites has become a business whereas it used to be all about coming to a forum to find a good deal on sites the owners no longer had time for just lost interest in. Now EVERYONE uses that line as the reason for sale. Most knowing damn well they built the site with the intention of selling it.

I'll admit I was one of the people who started out a long time ago buying and selling sites purely for profit. But the volume of people that jumped on the bandwagon caused major inflation to the point where it's almost not worth it looking on any forum for a site to buy.

But you can't blame them. For a lot of people from certain countires the price even some of the smaller sales bring in is more than their annual salary. So why not take a shot?

People saw a few big sales and now everyone thinks their site is worth a fortune. And when you break the news to them that it's not they get offended.


What's still fueling our little mini-economy is new comers that don't know any better paying big bucks for a site with 1 month's revenue history.

As long as there is a market for it the junk sites will continue to come.

 

Personally, I thought that successful websites are using the cashcows of their owners and they probably not put them for sale unless they are physically incapable of running it be it an illness or something that life changing. At least that's what I'll do. I guess if that is what others are thinking then extremely good websites for sale would be few and far between.

 

Eddy, this is true if you are talking about sites that are actual making money. If oyu have a site that is making you 10$ per month then you can safely sell it - you are not killing the golden goose. The truth is that a lot of people put a site in less than 1 week and after that they want to sell it and make some small profit. It does not happen - I mean sometimes they sell it but most of the time they don't.

Egomancer

 

One week or a few months is too short a time to confidently say that it is successful.

There are two measures of success, one would be cashflow and the other probably is viral traffic. For the latter, youtube and myspace would fall in that category. They are probably not making money but the original owners are passionate about what they are doing and it is viral and thus the value.

I am not overly ambitious when you are talking about a site which is a financial cashcow, if it is making $200 net profit a month, I would count that as successful enough to want to keep that.

 

People are selling these sites because it is so easy to base a site's value on "potential".

But this is a buyer's market. The sellers need to understand that.

You've gotta give real numbers like revenue, traffic, and membership stats. Which they don't have. So it falls back to "potential".

 

I believe there are a couple of factors at play. I own several sites and I can tell you I would never sell any of them in the last 3-4 months of the year unless I received an incredible offer because that's the best revenue part of the year, at least for the sites I run. I have no statistics to back this up but I expect that there are other site owners who think the same way.

This also works in reverse for smaller ($x,xxxx) sites because in the fourth quarter when advertising and consumer spending increases, it makes more sense to sell because they can list increasing revenues over the last few months which a lot (not all of course) buyers will look at as a solid investment on the path to great potential. Most mid-size ($xx,xxxx) and larger site sales are usually bought by more seasoned buyers who at minimum want a 12 month revenue and traffic break down to get a more realistic valuation and projected growth pattern.

Another thing to consider is what another poster just stated .. this is a buyer's market. That means, sellers know if they put their site(s) up for sale, they will get less value for them than if a buyer finds them and makes an offer.

The same is true for selling domains. Of course there are always exceptions but you are much better off focusing on generating revenue with your sites than trying to sell them. That way, the buyer's come to you. Either way, you come out ahead.

-Zeras