Help buying an established website?

[tonygore]

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Originally posted by Mogga
"oo why am I being offered that much and how much more can I get"

Could you live with the domain not being changed if you bought it?

2 very good points. My mate believes that its top of the pile because unlike the others, this website is 'authentic' 'pure' and has no 'monetary' purpose. It's all about the content. It has been written by someone who LOVES the subject, something I don't feel so strongly about.

If I did buy it then I wouldn't change too much. I would add a small amount of code for revenue, mainly AdSense. I would try to improve the menu system. There is no Meta data or H1 Tags within the pages, and the page names/descriptions themselves are poor (e.g. keyword.com/hl5f.html). Then again, while I was number one I would be too scared to change too much, even the terrible-looking homepage (we are talking year 1999/2000 here).

I would spend most of my time trying to create new links with other similar-area websites and thinking of new subtle ways to create revenue.

[Green2K]

You may want to check this statement by GoogleGuy yesterday, on this very topic (and my furious reply!).

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/8299.htm

Because it's reg only here is a quote:

"No, guoqi, it's a lot more work. Personally, I wouldn't buy a domain hoping to preserve the backlinks and PR. "

(and he's not just talking about expired domains)

(I'm not sured I'd take it 100% literally though; GoogleGuy's recent main "job" appears to be to spread FUD)

Green2K

[stevey]

Originally posted by Green2K
(I'm not sured I'd take it 100% literally though; GoogleGuy's recent main "job" appears to be to spread FUD)

Green2K

Exactly. And that's if it is the original GG posting, etc. It could be anyone from Googleplex logging in under his name. His posts don't seem to have the same consistency or content/flow anymore as if it is a different person, etc.

Well that's my conspiracy theory for the day anyway.

stevey

[NeoSeo]

> anyone from Googleplex logging in under his name

No they can't. No one has ever logged in under his name that I know of and he confirms that.

> main "job" appears to be to spread FUD

Dunno where that comes from, but his main job is the qc on the adult filter.

Anyway, back to the real topic here:

> How much should I offer this guy?

There are some really good suggestions in this thread. I know everyone has an opinion on it, but here is my working mo:

1) never let them know you are a competitor or have a vested interest in the property to begin with.
eg: use a freebie email domain for all the contacts and don't let out your name until it doesn't matter.
If you don't do those 2 things - the price often goes up.

2) value of the site is a relative thing.
Start by figuring out how much it is worth to you in revenue. How much is it really going to produce?
After you own it, how much can you increase the traffice?
Is it really going to benifit your site?
What if you started from scratch and built another similar site? How long would it take to build it up?
What if you through that much more time into your own sites right now and generated mass content? Would that traffic increase equal the increase you expect from buying that other site?

My bottom line on this stuff is:

If you can't recoup your investment in a minor site in 6months to a year - it is not worth buying. You can not garantee the traffic will continue on past 6 months. The se's hold all the cards on that account and No One can tell what is going to happen there.

-bt

[stevey]

Greetings Brett if that is you.

OK, I'll accept that my conspiracy theory is wrong but I don't agree about the fud bit though.

But we can agree to differ on that.

Cheers,

stevey

ps just shows you. No comments are safe in cyberspace LOL!