Would this be a good start

[rogsmith]

Hello,
Hopefully im not going to put my foot in it again and im ok asking this question.I will eventually get the gist of this forum so please bear with me im not all daft.So im learning and doing lots of reading but i feel probably for me the best way is to buy a website.Earlier today i upgraded my flipfilter account and this seems very interesting and this now leads me to my question.Im not sure how much help/advise i can get but anything about this site,is it appropriate,am i missing something if so why/what.If thats to much then just a straight yes/no.
Many thanks and hopefully that question isnt over stepping the mark,the link to the site,

http://www.flipfilter.com/site-overv...or-sale-Flippa

[Clinton]

It looks like a zombie domain.

I haven't investigated in great detail but it appears someone called Doug Engh started an archery related project in 2006/2007 but it flopped so he didn't bother renewing the domain when it came up from renewal in Sept 2011. An opportunist then picked it up and, since it's an archery domain, has put some related content on there and is trying to pass it off as an aged archery site.

This is effectively a new site and a non-earning one albeit one with some old PR (which may or may not continue past the next PR update). As ready made sites go, it's okay-ish and you can use it to test out various traffic building and monetising techniques. I wouldn't see the site itself as an investment as it has no immediate revenue flow. Given that the seller is trying to "pass off" I'd be suspicious about traffic and other claims.

His content may be original. Try copyscape.

[crabfoot]

The PR appears to be "fake" - toolbar PR is 3, but elsewhere comes up 0 on http://www.pagerankchart.com/pagerank-checker.php .

Mozrank is only 3.5 according to backlinks.in, which also suggests it has significant low-grade links coming in. The site has useful Alexa rank.

I don't want to open an old sore, so I won't explain this - but if I bought that site, I'd want a guarantee written into the purchase agreement that it wouldn't lose the PR within 24h of installing Adsense and Google Webmasters tracking.

[TrustButVerify]

I don't want to open an old sore, so I won't explain this - but if I bought that site, I'd want a guarantee written into the purchase agreement that it wouldn't lose the PR within 24h of installing Adsense and Google Webmasters tracking.

This sounds somewhat intriguing and something that I'd ask for in a similar situation. Not to open an old sore, but care to inform the rest of us?

[crabfoot]

Y get the answer that is causing rogsmith to be so cautious - READ THE FREKIN SITE!

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm talking to a tree - but at this time of year, it is sleeping and all the leaves have dropped off as well ...

[Slowdive]

Hey Rog
Are you passionate about Archery do you have access to a lot of interesting content on the subject? Do you have a plan to monetize the site with Adwords or with products sales? If the answer to any of this is yes, then.....

Go and register

Archery-Central.com for $9.99, in fact find a better domain name even but you get the idea. Take the remaining $991 and buy some advertising space on high ranking archery sites, take the change and buy a listing with yahoo

directories and buy some google ads or to be honest with that sort of site you could spend $40 on Xrumer or similar system.

The reason I maintain you can replicate that sites performance with such a simple plan, is that if you look at the content there is basically none. Sure its set up to look like there are many articles, but there just is not. Cut and paste reviews and a handful or articles.

Simply put I would not shell out over $200 for that site and that maybe pushing it, haven't spent enough time to truly do DD on it.

[benitez17]

I agree with Clinton's opinion regarding the history of the domain and SlowDive's suggestion regarding a better investment choice.

The PR is left over from the site before the domain was dropped, and you might not be able to keep it. The 100 visitors have some value, but considering that there is already an ad on the site and there is no revenue, they might not be very targeted visitors. The content appears to be unique, but might not be very effective at generating sales.

You can pick up dropped PR3 domains all day long for less than $50 if you really want one, put a free Wordpress template on the site in a couple hours, and have someone write a few articles for a couple dollars per article. If you love archery, I'd suggest you either start from scratch or buy a different site.

Either way, I'd pass on this one. The easy money's going to be made by the seller, not the buyer.

[crabfoot]

You can pick up dropped PR3 domains all day long for less than $50 if you really want one,

You could say that up to march last year - since then the PR on dropped domains has been panda chomped. Most domains drop without PR, some domains that had genuine good sites drop with PR0 or PR1 - and it is getting hard to find those. Occasionally a site with higher PR passes by, but it usually has copyright issues, or the PR is fake because the domain's been 301-ed to another site.

Benitez, you once told me that Mozrank is a good measure of a dropped domain - nowadays it is about the only reliable thing to go on.

The world of Gargyl is changing ...

[Clinton]

Tell me some more about this Mozrank. I had a look at their page and it doesn't seem to do anything particularly clever. (In fact, it's still using Open Site Explorer). It doesn't seem to take into account breaks in domain reg. Why would it be a more reliable indicator of zombies?

[benitez17]

You could say that up to march last year - since then the PR on dropped domains has been panda chomped. Most domains drop without PR, some domains that had genuine good sites drop with PR0 or PR1 - and it is getting hard to find those. Occasionally a site with higher PR passes by, but it usually has copyright issues, or the PR is fake because the domain's been 301-ed to another site.

Benitez, you once told me that Mozrank is a good measure of a dropped domain - nowadays it is about the only reliable thing to go on.

The world of Gargyl is changing ...

I don't use Mozrank, so I think you have me confused with someone else.

I've been able to pick up a couple drops that kept their PR over the last few months, and a couple that didn't.