Why would you buy a site vs. developing it? I can see buying a larger, very established site (business) in the $xxx,xxx range, but why spend the extraordinary amount of time and effort to find and buy a $x,xxx site when you could be using that search time to build and establish your own site to that $x,xxx level?
Much can be said on this topic, especially by the more experienced members, but in my case it's all about what costs less. If I find a bargain I buy it (even if it only has happened to me once so far) if I think it would cost me more to build such a site. The time and effort to find buying opportunities in my case is not extraordinary, I actually enjoy it plus I also pick up some ideas for sites to develop at the same time.
Chabrenas (April 16th, 2012)
time v cost - cost less to buy then it would cost you to create
age of site - credibility / ranking / etc.
links into site - saving time / adding credibility / ranking etc.
awareness / customer base / market share
pragmatism v perfectionism - perfectionism says get the site you want / etc. - therefore building it yourself is better - but commercially (pragmatism) might say otherwise...
ultimately it comes down to maximising income and reducing input (esp. time)
Alasdair
This is an interesting question. I must admit I've often wondered about it myself.
I guess one of the most important factors is the temperament (and skills) of the purchaser. If you are an entrepreneurial type, good at negotiating, you're more likely to buy. A techie person - especially one with a creative flare - would probably prefer to develop. (Of course, there are many people who fall into both categories.)
Personally, I would develop. I like starting things from scratch, and having control over how the product develops. But that's just me.
Mike
For me it's the natural link profile that helps maintain good serps and other traffic sources, 10 years ago everyone linked freely, in fact we were told it helped our own rankings if we linked to other relative sites so to me those sites often tend to have better link profiles which gives a more stable income, starting new sites today (out-with of social linking) people are much more guarded about giving editorial links for free unless you really have a really good tool or something special to say.
Why are you assuming that it is trivial to build a site worth $x,xxx? I don't think that's the case at all.Originally Posted by Matteo
In my experience, it's less time consuming to buy a site in that range than it is to build one.
That is a difficult one to answer - because you need to address the question of what makes the site worth $x,xxx
If it is the site technology - then I would agree with you - once you have paid for development costs (whether your own time or a 3rd party) the site is not worth at that point what you have paid...
However if the value is in the content / traffic / etc. then it is possible to dev. the same site for less than site value - potentially...
generally though I believe that you get a site cheaper once done than the cost of doing it - but... the issue is rarely in such stark figures - but in addressing what changes might be needed - if site as bought is all you need, then buying is often the way forward - but if site purchase plus change time / costs are needed, then developing from scratch might be cheaper...
Alasdair
I intentionally ignored that part because it's a whole separate conversation. Let's just say that we are talking about a site with $xxx in sustainable, passive profit, or whatever you would want to see to value a site in that range, rather than getting bogged down discussing corner cases like some intriguing software, or very high quality content, or a high value contact list, etc.
My issue is that Matteo seems to be assuming that you can just put in a few days or weeks and you are guaranteed to have built a site worth $x,xxx. Maybe he can, but that hasn't been my personal experience, or one that seems to be common with others doing business online.
When you buy a site, you should be lowering your risk of failure, plus I have more spare money to invest than time, and I haven't had much success getting others to work for me. That's why I buy sites most of the time rather than building them.
I probably have a skewed view point (to others) since I have been building sites since 1996. I can build a quality site in a few days that would potentially become worth $x,xxx in a short time.
It seems to find one for $x,xxx these days takes quite a bit of work /time between sifting through the junk and scammers, finding a legit seller at that level, researching the history/stats etc., negotiating, transaction, etc.
I have actually sold much more than I have bought, so I am trying to find my own reasons why I would want to buy to build up my portfolio. I'm just having a tough time justifying that long hard search process that seems to be inevitable.
Chabrenas (April 16th, 2012)
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