Buying an Existing Web Site

The old cliche that nothing is free in this world pretty much holds true when it comes to making money from web sites. As such, you can assume that any web site that is successful got that way because of a lot of hard work. However, some people think that they can skip a lot of the initial work by buying a pre-existing web site. And there are plenty of people will to sell such sites. This tactic is fraught with danger.

The first thing you have to worry about is outright scams. That is, someone tries to sell you something that isn't worth what it appears to be worth. The good news is that avoiding scams is avoidable by being careful where you buy web properties as well as how you pay for them.

Harder to deal with than scams is trying to truly assess the value of a web site. After all, you want to buy a web site that you can later sell for more than you paid for it. At the same time, the seller wants to receive payment that covers the costs of the initial set up while also paying for some percentage of the web site's potential value. If you can find the magic number, you'll be golden.

One other thing you should watch out for are web sites with content that is not original or exclusive to the web site. If you're the 50th person to buy the same content, it is unlikely you'll end up with anything that you'll be able to monetize. Of course, original content is going to cost more.

I've never purchased an existing web site, but many people who's work I follow have. They freely admit that some of their purchases are duds, but they have also succeeded enough times to continue the practice. One tactic you might want to try is buying a relatively inexpensive web site to see if your assessment of it's true value is accurate. A complete write-off, in such a case, won't be so devastating.

A couple of good resources for buying and selling web sites include Jim Boykin's blog in general, and this posting from him in particular which lists some recommendations of where to look for deals. I have to admit that the idea is intriguing to me and I'm almost certain that at some point I'll dive in and give it a try. Especially when I've run out of ideas of my own!