FP - Greetings from a new member, and a due diligence question

[Subprime]

First off, hello everyone. I'm stoked to have found this forum. I've invested a few hours of searching and reading posts and the information here is awesome. Thank you.

I'm about to pull the trigger on my first purchase and just want to bounce what is probably a stupid question off of the experts here to make sure I'm not missing anything.

I have read many of the "buying a website" posts for us newbs, and even searched for the question I'm about to ask, but didn't find the answer.

Background:
The site I'm considering sells an information product. The product and the site content is unique. The site ranks very well, first page, for a few very desirable keywords in its niche. It's in a niche that I'm very familiar with in the offline world and I see a lot of room for improvement for both the product and the site itself. Price is $x,xxx. The revenue claims seem realistic, meaning the GA verified traffic would need to convert at a rate of less than 0.02% achieve the revenue based on the price of the product. The asking price is less than 12x "net." We will have a written contract that my attorney will review.

I've built a few sites, but I've never purchased a website and I've never pursued backlinks as an SEO stategy/tactic. So with that in mind, here's my concern.

Primary Concern:
The site seems to have a lot of backlinks from sites that aren't exactly relevant, and the content doesn't "seem" strong enough to warrant such great positions for the keywords on Google search results. This leads me to believe that the traffic and keyword ranking could vanish if the backlinks are removed, or if Google whacks the site for using linkfarms (or whatever this seller did to get backlinks). I would feel much more comfortable if there were no backlinks and the SEO was based primarily on great content. But don't get me wrong though, the content isn't horrible. It's just that I have no experience with using backlinks for SEO.

Bottomline Questions:
Should I be concerned if the traffic is from organic search results, but the results have been achieved by backlink building? If my concern is valid are there any suggestions on how I can mitigate the risk? Is it possible to determine with any degree of accuracy how much of the SEO juice is from backlinks vs content? Am I over analyzing this?

Sorry it took me so many words to get around to the flippin question(s). I'll STFU now.

Thanks!

[flipcrowd]

Good to have you with us Subprime

I'm not an expert on buying sites but a few thoughts:
1 - SEO as I understand it is an ongoing practice. I wouldnt expect to take what you have now and rely on that to maintain the current ranking. have a strategy in place to add/build on whats there, as ultimately a better google ranking will translate into better sales. Especially if you have a good niche it should be easier to build and mainatin your position. Its worthwhile ensuring your not looking at a 'google sandbox' waiting to happen...perhaps someone with more SEO skills can chime in here?

A few other thoughts when doing your due diligence:
- do a cursory check to see if theres any competition that may influence sales in the immediate future
- look at what value you can add to the sales/marketing process...it may be better copy, better distribution, increased SEO etc. ie do you think you can increase sales and therefore help ensure a better/faster ROI
- Is the product SO niche that the niche it serves may have been saturated, and you're looking at buying a product that the niche already has, or is it soemthing with ongoing appeal (or soemthing that could be targeted at other markets)...in other words, try to ensure your comfortbale demand wont dry up once/if you buy

Anyone else?

Keep us posted on how it goes

[Subprime]

Flipcrowd, thank you. Your answer has helped me. And you're absolutely right about not relying on the existing SEO efforts. I just read a great post and thread by BassTrackerBoats that has me fired up about taking the site to the next level.

[Thomas]

The way I look at it is always to price the risk in to your offer. There will always be risks in any deal. It's different from due diligence where you decide not to buy completely due to fake stats etc.

Personally, SEO isn't really my thing, so if the site is already well SEO'ed with few other traffic sources then it's perfect for me as I would look to generate traffic in other areas. Others might be great at SEO and not see the value in a site that's already ranking. So in that case, I might pay more than the SEO expert.

If it's an information product (like in this case) the way to go will be recruiting affiliates. SEO is okay, but it's not going to make you rich and requires constant maintenance. Where is the site listed right now? Is it just taking Paypal? On ClickBank? There could be huge potential if the site has no affiliates right now.

[Subprime]

If it's an information product (like in this case) the way to go will be recruiting affiliates. SEO is okay, but it's not going to make you rich and requires constant maintenance. Where is the site listed right now? Is it just taking Paypal? On ClickBank? There could be huge potential if the site has no affiliates right now.

Thomas, thank you. I have been focusing on not losing cashflow/traffic and hadn't given any thought to increasing the income with alternative monetization schemes, like recruiting affiliates. Not that I know anything about starting an affiliate program. The site is only taking PayPal. Is ClickBank the way to go for affiliates?

[Thomas]

Thomas, thank you. I have been focusing on not losing cashflow/traffic and hadn't given any thought to increasing the income with alternative monetization schemes, like recruiting affiliates. Not that I know anything about starting an affiliate program. The site is only taking PayPal. Is ClickBank the way to go for affiliates?

Clickbank has its pros and cons, but would be one of the easier options open to you and one of the easiest ways to attract affiliates. You could also setup your own affiliate program with something like PAP (post affiliate pro) which would give you more control (CB pay slowly and will refund without question). What's the niche if you don't mind me asking?

[Subprime]

Clickbank has its pros and cons, but would be one of the easier options open to you and one of the easiest ways to attract affiliates. You could also setup your own affiliate program with something like PAP (post affiliate pro) which would give you more control (CB pay slowly and will refund without question). What's the niche if you don't mind me asking?

Thank you for the info. I'll start researching those two. The niche is very boring. In my offline world we'd call it an "evergreen" category, meaning it will enjoy steady demand for decades, but will never be hot and trendy. Do you think the boring factor will make it less desirable for affiliates?

[Thomas]

Thank you for the info. I'll start researching those two. The niche is very boring. In my offline world we'd call it an "evergreen" category, meaning it will enjoy steady demand for decades, but will never be hot and trendy. Do you think the boring factor will make it less desirable for affiliates?

Not at all. If all affiliates are anything like me, they will promote whatever will make them money. You might find there are less affiliates, but this doesn't mean you'll make less sales (more likely to find fewer, higher quality affiliates). In niches like IM, you might have 1000 "affiliates" of which only 50 ever send you a sale.