FP - What Are The First Things You Check On An Auction

[Macdonjo]

When I look at a listing, I look at:

1. Domain name (English or not. Product or not.)
2. Traffic (Search Engish or not. USA/Canada or not)
3. Price
4. The site itself (Open it in browser, view ad placements and see where you can increase revenue)

Usually after that I can decide if I should put an offer in or not.

Let's hear everyone's opinions.

[Luka]

Same thing with me, and I also try to check if the seller is simply trying to fake stats, and why he is selling it.

[Bryan]

1. Revenue
2. Revenue
3. Revenue
4. Possibilities of increasing revenue
5. Historic revenue and trends
6. Sustainability of revenue
7. All the other stuff.

At the end of the day NOTHING else matters than how much money the site is making / will make. Obviously, domain name, traffic etc. are important in terms of increasing revenue (it's far easier to increase the revenue of a site that gets a lot of traffic) but it all translates into a set $ figure which is the only thing that defines whether a site is a good buy or not.

[iMontie]

I don't have the funds..yet..to buy sites but here's what I have in my notes to look for when buying sites when i get started:

1. revenue
2. proof of revenue
3. revenue trends
4. search engine rankings and pr
5. any improvements possible without outsourcing (in my case, design)
6. any outsource worthy improvements possible (long term flip)
7. domain name itself (brandable? short? easy to remember?)

[Macdonjo]

Well, I can't ague with an expert so.............................

meh, screw that lol.

You don't think traffic is more important to revenue. I guess the traffic might not matter if the earnings are not based around ads. Like I bought a site with 18k uniques and 2 million page loads today for $300. The site was not monetized so there were no proof of earnings. I see no problem making 4 digits monthly from it. I'm gonna get some revenue goings and flip it. It will be my first flip ever.

1. Revenue
2. Revenue
3. Revenue
4. Possibilities of increasing revenue
5. Historic revenue and trends
6. Sustainability of revenue
7. All the other stuff.

At the end of the day NOTHING else matters than how much money the site is making / will make. Obviously, domain name, traffic etc. are important in terms of increasing revenue (it's far easier to increase the revenue of a site that gets a lot of traffic) but it all translates into a set $ figure which is the only thing that defines whether a site is a good buy or not.

[Thomas]

I probably also value traffic a little higher than Bryan, especially if it's a niche I'm familiar with. The current revenue would only determine what I would pay for the site - if I feel I can do a better job increasing the revenue/traffic then it's a good buy. If I can't make any improvements then it's generally not worth taking on unless I can negotiate a really good price. We are both pretty good at not falling in love with sites and over-paying, which is important, as this is a business and not a hobby. If I had a job and wanted a site to run on the side for fun, then my opinion might be a little different, but we are all here to make correct business decisions and make $$

[Bryan]

I actually do agree with you, hence "4. Possibilities of increasing revenue".

The point of my post (which, I admit, was a bit over-illustrated) was actually that everything ultimately has a dollar figure linked to it. If there's a site that gets a lot of traffic but isn't monetised then obviously I will consider buying it. But even in such case, the decision is determined based solely on how much money is the traffic that the site is getting worth, not just how much traffic it is getting.

Same goes for things like the domain name. A short, nice-looking domain name is much more easy to brand than a long-domain-name-with-hyphens, hence the possibilities of increasing revenue are better, hence the value of the site is higher.

I guess the main thing I wanted to point out was that someone who does this as a business should definitely try and translate everything into revenue (including potential revenue!), rather than focusing on aspects, such as domain name, Pagerank, etc. without realising what they are or aren't worth.

EDIT: P.S. @Macdonjo: Over here we always welcome constructive criticism so it's quite alright to argue with us

[Macdonjo]

well I think if any given site has lots of organic USA/canada/UK traffic then it usually has lots of potential. I know this might not be the case all the time but as a general it does. am I wrong?

[J1218]

The first thing I look at is revenue, and then traffic. Then I do my due diligence to make sure everything checks out. For example, asking for Analytics access, checking the search engines to see if the site is really ranking where they say it is, checking the Google KW Tool to see how many searches the keywords are getting that the site is built around.

After that, I see how easy (or hard) it will be to increase the traffic and revenue. So if the site is ranking #8, I want to see if it's possible for me to get to #1-3 without a ton of work.

[Imminentdomains]

I filter by the seller's rep and due diligence. Then revenue, revenue, revenue (well said Bryan). I only look at who the seller is to determine if I am even looking at a credible seller and more than likely not a scammer. Once I have established that, then it is ok to consider the possibility of prchasing the site...pending the results of further research.

Don't forget to check out that SELLER first!!!

As an example I wouldn't buy a brand new car from a guy who looked like he lived on the street as opposed to one who was very neat and organized looking...why you ask? Well, if the street guy's appearance is any representation of how he treated the car...then you would be getting a bad deal! Better to know who you are buying from, THEN decide if you are going to buy based on critical elements.