My biggest issue is that some selling their sites do not give a true picture of the situation and when you buy it, you suddenly get caught. I noticed that people selling sites do not mentioned what cost is involved each month to retain that level of income. Then most cost mentioned are based on gross income rather than net profit (after taking note of the cost of monthly maintenance and all that). I know that sites can get viral traffic and heavy one as such but it does not usually happened overnight and if it does, it may not be self-sustaining without having to advertise or buy advertisement somewhere. Sometimes, site owners hide the actual net profit of the site and thus sell at 8 to 10x the revenue which would be inflated. In the end, if monthly cost are factored in, the site may be actually bleeding losses each month. I mean it is no point getting a site which brings in $1000/mth income from Adsense when you have to spend $3000/mth on Adwords to get that amount. Like I say, most selling sites only tell you how much they bring in but not how much they need to put in each month. When I see quick sale or big dollar value sites, I get very suspicious.
Awhile back I did see a site offering proof of income, and guaranteed profits for the first 3 months. What made it fishy was the asking price being lower than the earnings of the 1st month.
one reason would be, suppose i m making 100$ per month(i wish i could), but i am puttin in lots effort towards it, after a while the income becomes stable, now i think that i can get more than 100$ if i put in the same amount of effort for around 10 to 12 months to my other website . So i sell my website for x10 or x12 of my monthly income, i got the money which i was sure i would get of the stable income and i started something which would give me more money, and if that happens before 10 or 12 months, i think it would be a very profitable thing to do. People do not sell site making lots of money.
I wouldn't say that that were true either. Sites of all sizes get sold very frequently, for many different reasons. Often people need to get the cash upfront right away, could be for a personal reason, to put the money into a different project, or many different reasons.
They are various reasons , it depends on the seller. Most sell their sites because they might be in need of quick cash or even because they cannot maintain the site on regular basis. Or even they can't afford to maintain the site. Then their only option is to get rid of it and pull out of as much cash as they could out of it.
I'd sell my site to move on to another finacially project.... People get bored and deside to move to something eles!
I usually see sites for sale for cheap that have 0 traffic or sites that are through the roof that get tons of traffic. Usually peopl keep the middle of road sites for potential......
I buy websites because I have plenty of cash, but at the moment looking for more income. So far, most of the websites I have bought I have been reasonably happy with, some more than others. If a website has decent page rank, organic traffic and good non paid incoming links its worth considering buying in my situation.
sometimes you sell just because things have happened offline and you don't have time to manage everything. Yet you don't make enough to hire someone to run them (or find someone who won't screw you). I have a large website that I have been mulling over selling as things have happened offline that are more important (new child) and my actual job is very well paying. It makes over 1200/mth profit for two years now. Problem is, I have become attached to the site and not sure I would want to part! Plus the extra money every month is nice So do you keep the site even though you don't have time to run it properly and maybe watch it decline. Or do you sell and take the money and maybe get back online when things are settled more offline?
I purchased PHPGator.com. I think it was sold only for the reason that the PHP scripts needed to be maintained. The guy who originally had it I suspect had no experience with HTML/PHP, therefore when customers came to him with questions on how to change something simple he had no way of giving them an answer. I guess he figured rather than getting a bad reputation he would sell the website. He had a good reputation, and i've been fairly pleased with how accurately his reports of profit have been for the month that I have owned it.