Getting started with acquiring profitable websites - join the journey

As I said last week, once your radar starts working, sites can pop up just about anyplace. But where do you start?

One place I keep going back to is Flippa.com. While I have bid on a site or two, I really have no intention of buying a site there. Why? I prefer a negotiated price to an auction. While I've loved auctions all my life (When I started at auctions, people would snicker when this 10 year-old kid was bidding. The room got quieter when I won and promptly paid for my purchase), to me, buying a business requires a more studied approach. Auctions are too often fraught with emotion. So why look at Flippa at all?

First of all I like to see what's on the block. I like to see what is being offered and for how much. Plus, auction markets can tell you a lot about what's going on all around. If sales and prices are down at auction,then there may be bargains afoot. And there's another reason...

Looking at past auctions can reveal a lot of information that can help your search. You can find out what is valuable and why. You can even determine what monetization schemes work well for the type of business you're looking at.

What if you found a business you found but it seemed to be overpriced? You check the auction market and find similar businesses going for half the asking price and use this in your negotiations. Or you might find out this type of site is highly valued and the seller is offering a bona-fide bargain.

Clinton has already posted an excellent article on finding websites for sale here. So I will try not to duplicate his efforts.

In addition to these sites I've seen some on
Merger Network

Website Broker

Website Properties

Turner Butler This one is B&M broker in the UK - if you do a search on ecommerce listings you'll find quite a few high-grade listings.

I found the last company after someone pointed out in the forum that a listing I posted was quite old. Somehow that lead me to take some keywords from the old listing and search on them in Google.

Now I suggest you do that for every listing you are looking at. Just highlight and copy a phrase from the listing and search. You'll not only find where else it is listed (maybe) but you may also find other places to look for even more listings.

Another way to use search engines is to search for something that interests you.

For kicks I typed in "collectible napkin holders" something I've never - EVER been interested in. Down the line I found this site: http://napkinrings.mono.net/

The last post for this site was October 2009 - it's not terribly active.

Using Google's keyword tool, I found "napkin rings" gets searched for 246,000 times each month. I'm impressed.

After searching on the domain - (napkin rings is a subdomain - the domain here is mono.net) I came up empty so I just typed in "mono.net" and found out this is site offers "free websites". And napkin rings is one of them.

So here I struck a dead end. However you can see how you might find sites you might like using this method.

You could also try searching for a type of site you like - say forums - then type "site for sale" or "site4sale" to see what pops up - or narrow down your search to "napkin rings" or whatever interests you.

Of course you could also start with the "site for sale" search. When I type those words in I usually find one or more sites from digital point or flippa - so beware.

Clinton recently posted about searches - just read it myself - with some excellent information here.

You can also search for a particular domain name or owner name.

Hot Tip: Set up a Google alert for your favorite search terms and/or for a domain name or domain owner you are interested in. You never know what might pop up.

Speaking of forums - if you are involved in a forum in some area of interest you might keep an eye out there too. Chances are you already know people who run a site, maybe even one you would already like to own. Why not ask? It can't hurt. At the very least you might learn what to watch out for should you buy something similar.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways to find sites for sale but these, along with Clinton's, list should get you well on your way.

One more thing - one fellow on experienced-people.net - Justin - runs a search engine that collects listings from several sources - it's called flipfilter and it's very good. I get lost there for hours looking for stuff. Check it out.

Andy