FP - [Q's] An Investment?

[LyNHS]

I'm banging my head against the wall here and would love to hear from those whom are experienced how they go about tackling actually finding a decent website and what they define as a decent website.

As always with my research, I start as specific as possible then sprawn out to be as generic as possible to try and get the best results. At the moment, I've decided over the last few days that I'm not particularly looking to flip, but to buy a website to add to my portfolio.

So, I began searching for websites that are established, fairly large and has some revenue. I thought it would of been pretty easy - god was I wrong; is it me, or am I the only the that gets presented with complete and utter shit on Flippa and DP? I couldn't find hardly any decent sites to invest in that earned $500 a month. The ones that were earning $500, they were either asking for stupid amounts, ended, or were using it as a sales tactic.

At the moment, I'm not looking to invest into "potential" - that's all it seems to be these days!

But anyway, I'm interested in finding out your take on it; do you buy websites for it's potential for the long-term (i.e. no traffic or revenue and outsource all the SEO work) or do you buy websites with established website with existing revenue and add to it?

I honestly just cannot seem to find a decent website out their which is earning a good enough revenue - help! My expectations might need to be worked on - I've built up 16 websites from scratch to such a high level, so I think I'm expecting the same sort of level elsewhere. I mean, I can't understand why some people want to sell their websites for such low amount... I wouldn't ever dream of selling a single one of my websites for anything under a Trillion each! (O.K, I might accept a Billion lol :P)

Thanks guys!

[BrettM]

I don't have a lot of experience, but as with anything you'll probably go through a bunch to find one... then get better. Apparently the average newbie real estate investor (flipping or buy-and-hold) will review ~30 properties for every one they buy. Experts will get much lower.

I started with my budget per site and also my 'risk factor' -- that is, how many months I'd want my investment to return from the [i]profit[i] of the site. For me, it's all about how quickly I get my money back so I can go out and do it again. Obviously as I build a portfolio, it'll start to self-feed itself and pay for the next purchase all by itself .

So based on that, I looked for sites making a certain amount a month, but yes... looked at a lot and bought few. I'd rather have one or two doing well, then get messed with 10 duds.

That's my limited experience, and I'm sure others have better advice!

[elster]

Any updated thoughts? I'm similarly having a hard time finding quality.

[BrettM]

Found one seller at 2 - 4 times monthly profit, and bought a few from them. They did well in the beginning, and earned their money back, but slowed down.

Nothing new since then, and now spending a good bit of time on building some of my other sites so haven't been around Flippa for a month or so. The plan was to buy a handful and nurture them while building some at the same time.

[Moonfruit]

I've also spent a lot of time looking through the piles and piles of trash that is for sale on Flippa. I took the plunge a couple of times, and didn't come up smelling of roses either of those times.

Given the fact that I own a web design company, you would think that I would have a higher success rate, but so far it seems to be shown that I can build 'em fine, but im useless at buyin 'em!

My problem is that I look to buy revenue generating sites, because my own company is too damn busy working for other, outside contracts, and we don't have enough guys sitting around to work on my own projects, but i just cant seem to find quality either. Truth be told, the sites i've bought have been rather crap!

[spanisheye]

Yeah, I am struggling to find good stuff to buy too. Most of the listings are brand new sites which are pointless buying. I have a healthy budget to invest but finding the gems is taking a lot longer than I thought. I missed a really good one the other day on flippa. Someone snapped it up within minutes! I was gutted, it was a rare beauty.

I'm going to try a different tactic and start contacting websites directly in some niches that I know well and make them an offer. Ones where I know how to really make more money out of those sites in a short space of time.

At the moment this is looking like it might be a better use of my time!

[BrettM]

I'm going to try a different tactic and start contacting websites directly in some niches that I know well and make them an offer.

There was a post on this forum re: tips on doing that, but couldn't find it at a quick glance.

And depending on your SEO / team, you can either offer to buy or help them increase their site -- both pay money, but I too am focused on building assets as a priority.

[Thomas]

I'm going to try a different tactic and start contacting websites directly in some niches that I know well and make them an offer. Ones where I know how to really make more money out of those sites in a short space of time.

At the moment this is looking like it might be a better use of my time!

This works well. Approach them initially saying you are interested in buying a banner spot and asking how much traffic they get. Once you know this, you can make an offer based on that (if you have other sites in the niche, you should have a good idea how much they make from that traffic).

[spanisheye]

That's a great tip Thomas, I hadn't thought of doing that! Cheers mate.

[Thomas]

That's a great tip Thomas, I hadn't thought of doing that! Cheers mate.

Works every time!

Work smart, not hard