What types of websites do you buy? 2012 Edition

[Clinton]

Towards the latter part of 2011 I decided to spend $20K-$100K on a purchase or two

Over several months I spent about 200 - 300 hours reading Flippa listings, talking to sellers, doing basic DD etc. Bear in mind that I can usually smell a fish from a fair distance away so I was DDing only the more decent sites.

I signed several NDAs for confidential listings, I bid on several sites both in the open listings and in confidential listings.

The total time I spent was worth what - $20K at least (200 x $100)?

For all that effort this is what I ended up with: One single $5K purchase ...and he did a dirty on me and didn't keep his post sale promise which lost me about half that money (I only trusted him because he's a fairly well known name in the industry).

So, Michael, and this probably looks like an advert for your services , but this year I'm going to be looking at other places - other listing sites, brokers etc. In short, this year is going to be more about where and less about what.

[meathead1234]

How do you get a new forum high enough in the rankings for new people to find it?
I can understand how ecommerce sites do this but do people actively search for forums, I know I dont (I stumbled upon this one while looking for something else)

That's exactly how people find forums... when they are looking for answers to questions or like-minded peers. If they find the answer to their question and like the forum culture, they are likely to sign up and start a contributing - exactly like you are now. People also invite their friends - I found EP when a friend got in touch and said I would like the place.

[TrustButVerify]

Towards the latter part of 2011 I decided to spend $20K-$100K on a purchase or two

Over several months I spent about 200 - 300 hours reading Flippa listings, talking to sellers, doing basic DD etc. Bear in mind that I can usually smell a fish from a fair distance away so I was DDing only the more decent sites.

I signed several NDAs for confidential listings, I bid on several sites both in the open listings and in confidential listings.

The total time I spent was worth what - $20K at least (200 x $100)?

For all that effort this is what I ended up with: One single $5K purchase ...and he did a dirty on me and didn't keep his post sale promise which lost me about half that money (I only trusted him because he's a fairly well known name in the industry).

So, Michael, and this probably looks like an advert for your services , but this year I'm going to be looking at other places - other listing sites, brokers etc. In short, this year is going to be more about where and less about what.

Thanks for sharing Clinton. It's good to know I"m not the only one who spends hours and hours of research... which doesn't always pan out.

[WSYSBroker]

Clinton,

I wish you the best of luck searching this year. I too spend hours on end looking for quality sites and it is good to know what people here are looking for so I can target my searches better. (Note: the point of this thread was not for personal gain, but more of a conversation starter for the website buying and selling industry and seeing if people

What do people think about the couponing craze and all the sites related to that niche? There are some huge players in the industry, but it seem like all these little coupon blogs are popping up everywhere. A lot of them are actually making some good money (Over $50K profits) from affiliate offers and advertising. Do you think this industry has longevity?

[Clinton]

Hi Michael, I believe a part of your post above got deleted while you were editing it.

Anyway, as a conversation starter, this is a great topic!

I've never come across these coupon sites. So what do they do? Just give out coupons? What type of traffic volume etc., do they need to make that kind of money and where do they get their traffic from primarily?

[Kay]

I'm also seeing coupon sites all over the place, not so much as sites for sale but in other contexts. If you're into affiliate marketing, for example, these sites apparently are well-poised to steal your customers. I'm not an expert on this so I'll be glad if someone corrects me if I'm wrong.

Here's the scenario:

You are aff'd with a merchant and you want to promote their product(s).

You write (or outsource) a good piece of content to promote it.

You work hard to push it up the SERPs.

The pre-sold customer visits your site and wants to buy.

The customer clicks through and adds the item to his shopping cart.

The darned merchant invariably has a space for "discount code", even when no such thing exits.

Customer says, "Ooh, a discount code, I didn't know I could get one of these. I'll go and look for one on G."

Customer visits one of these coupon/discount websites and buys from there - they don't go back to buy from your site, which provided all the useful info. Even if there isn't a discount code, the customer will just buy from the coupon/discount site because they're already there.

You just lost your customer and your commission.

Is that not how it happens or did I get mixed up again? (It wouldn't be the first time.)

I don't know anything about coupon sites either but they must be "hot". Even some Internet "gurus" such as Holly Mann are into them these days. (She of "Honest Riches" fame.)

[WSYSBroker]

I've never come across these coupon sites. So what do they do? Just give out coupons? What type of traffic volume etc., do they need to make that kind of money and where do they get their traffic from primarily?

There a few different versions of coupon sites, but the theme of them all is the same. Offer discounts on products or free samples. Some of these sites make money off of affiliate income. E.G Using an affiliate network like LogicalMedia.com where you can go and pick the campaigns and offers you want to run on your site. You make money per click or per sign up or per impression depending on the campaign. These sites can also make money off of advertising if it has enough traffic (Adsense or any other method).

Most of the traffic for these sites comes through Google organic ,Google CPC, or referrals. A lot of them start out with a large CPC budget to get a user base and then grow organically after that. In terms of how much traffic you would need to make $50K, well, it depends. I have seen sites that have very similar amounts of monthly traffic and one makes $5K a year and the other makes $75K a year. It depends on how they are monetizing, what offers they are displaying, what advertising methods they are using, etc.

As an example though, I know a site that gets about 100,000 uniques a month (no CPC at all) and makes slightly over $65K per year in profit from affiliate income and advertising income. Money comes in from Adsense, Commission Junction, and about 7 other affiliate networks.

For a real life example, you can strive to become a site like Couponmom.com. It probably makes millions, but the concept of it is the same as the above example.

It is definitely a competitive and growing space, but there is certainly money to be made!

[DomainMagnate]

I actually ended up buying more sites last year than before, some were better deals than others, but overall it's all good. I'm also trying to step away from seo traffic, pandas scare me now. However I haven't been able to find any decent sites that looked reliable and got traffic from other sources.
Also investing much more recently into my older sites, in links and content.

Overall compared to a year ago or so when we first had this question thread I'd say the main difference is I'm much more cautious about smaller and newer seo traffic sites and I'm finding it much harder to find good deals.

[WSYSBroker]

DomainMagnate, What niches do you buy in? How do the sites generate revenue?

[delta4]

I didn't buy anything last year.

I kept checking auctions at flippa and got interest in a few but didn't go buy any mainly because of asking price being too high.

I don't have much time unfortunately so looking around for sites and doing direct contacts to sites owner isn't an option right now.

Regarding types of websites: ad-driven sites, content and digital products.