Considering purchasing one of three websites: Any help appreciated!

[Eric]

So, I've been pursuing Flippa a bit more recently and have come across three auctions that seem interesting to me. I'm wondering if any of you have any opinions?

#1: http://www.scottscoffeehouse.com/
Auction here.

What I like about this site:

• Drop shipping requires no inventory
• It appears to me that the seller is being honest based mostly on the language the seller uses and my PMs with the buyers of the seller's previous auctions. I have a "good feeling" about this seller.
• I believe there to be opportunities to increase conversions and sales.
• My wife is considering starting up an ecommerce website, and owning this site could help us get a bit more experience in ecommerce and in dealing with ecommerce software (magento in this case).
• Winner supposedly gets 3 months of SEO work.

Things I don't like:

• Not completely passive income. Probably requires a few hours a week, just to maintain. More to grow sales.

Auction #2: http://www.exerciseballchair.org/
Auction here.

Things I like about this auction:

• Pretty much passive income.
• Potential for additional income by adding some amazon affiliate products???
• Two income streams.
• steadily increasing income

Things I don't necessarily like:

• Kinda looks like a spammy crappy website.
• Only a few months of DECENT income.

Auction 3: http://www.ovariancystreatment.com/
Auction here.

Things I like about this website:

• Two (actually three, but no amazon earnings that I can see) income streams.
• Good domain name for the niche.
• Relatively consistent revenue over nearly an entire year.
• I already have a clickbank account and am familiar with selling clickbank products.

Things I don't like about this website:

• Also feels like another spammy website...
• I'm a little surprised that no one has asked any public questions...
• Edited to add: My wife says I should not be in a business giving people medical advice (for liability reasons). Makes sense to me...

I'm still new to this game, so I'd definitely appreciate any tips or suggestions you might have on these auctions.

[meathead1234]

One of these auctions is being run by one of my students - so I won't comment on anything specific for obvious reasons.

As a general comment - all auctions look decent to me and the sellers seem legit. Any of these would be a decent starting point - just be aware that SERPs can change at any stage and unless you know what you're doing or at least what needs doing, I wouldn't recommend leaving SEO to a third party and being at their mercy straight off the bat.

Good luck!

Thomas

[Eric]

Hi Thomas, thanks for your thoughts. So you'd pass on the free SEO in the coffee house auction altogether?

I do understand some SEO having read several SEO guides, although I have not done much actual link building myself.

[meathead1234]

Don't pass on the auction as a whole. Just be careful not to bring in intangible extras into your calculation for purchasing and a fair price. He/she may well promise XXXX value of SEO, but I'm generally a sceptic and wouldn't add that to the price. It's a nice extra, of course, just don't make it make/break your decision.

SEO isn't really that complicated, it is just made to sound it by those who can then charge a huge premium for their services - I'd recommend doing your own SEO (assuming you have the time) when you start out so you get the hang of what needs doing and how. Once you can do it yourself, you can then outsource it. I always think it is dangerous to outsource something you don't fully understand.

Thomas

[Brent J]

Hi Eric,

Thomas aka meathead, referred me to your posting. I hope you don't mind. I am one of his Killer Flipping Secrets students (which is amazing by the way).

I own the exerciseballchair.org website and I thought I could come in here and maybe answer any questions you had.

The website does have passive income. I actually gave up on it when it was stuck at #8 on google.. but then it was still paying me $70 dollars a month. The site now ranks #1 on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for the main keyword of exercise ball chair, but there are also 4 other pages focusing on 4 other keywords. All of my money so far has come from the exercise ball chair keyword so if you were to get some of the other keywords ranking that would mean more money.

I have a few amazon sites and amazon does convert really well. Amazon also sells several different exercise ball chairs. I also looked on ebay and there are several auctions for exercise ball chairs.

"Kinda looks like a spammy crappy website": It does doesn't it? But that is on purpose, because that is what gets people to click on the adsense ads or click on an affiliate link. The theme of the website is actually proven to convert very very well after a year of testing by Xfactor. (xfactor is the forum name of a famous adsense guy)

"Only a few months of decent income": Yea you are right. Like I said it had been stuck at #8 in google for many months and finally pushed to the top. I run several sites and try to build a new one everyday, so it's very hard for me to focus on promoting one site. You said you know some SEO so if you got some of the other keywords ranking well that would increase the websites profits.

If you have any other questions or anything just let me know. You can also reach me on <deleted>

Thanks,

Brent

[Eric]

Thomas: Yeah, I agree with everything you said there in your last post. Those are wise words.

Brent: Thanks for your response. I will definitely be thinking about your auction as well as the others over the next few days.

[Brent J]

Thanks Eric! I wish you good luck with any website purchase you make.

[Brent J]

Hey Eric,

So I thought I would give you my opinion on the 2 sites you are looking at. (that aren't mine) I felt like I kinda hijacked the thread and now no one wants to give their opinion so I'll get the ball rolling.

I checked out the scottscoffeehouse.com one and I think that would be a great way for your wife to learn how to run an ecommerce site. It can be tough starting a website from new and building up traffic. She could possibly run the coffee site while yall work on building and promoting the ecommerce store of her choice.

About the Ovarian Cyst Treatment website... it doesn't look too bad. I think you will make money with the site. The only thing I don't like is when people stretch the truth to try to fool people.

He talks about how many searches his 2 keywords gets, but what he doesn't tell you is that the number of searches he is quoting are actually broad searches. People do this to make their website look better.
Also he tells you, "OVER 1 MILLION WEBSITES COMPETING AGAINST US AND WE STILL RANK 1st PAGE in GOOGLE!". No, there aren't over 1 million websites competing for that keyword. There may be 1 million pages (not websites) that mention the words anywhere on that page.

Personally it bothers me when people stretch the truth to try to fool others. I wouldn't buy from him. But, I do like the coffee website. I think that would be a great learning tool for your wife since its already getting some traffic and orders.

I hope its ok I gave my opinion about the other sites. I hope others come in here and give you their opinion about those sites and mine as well.

Brent

[Eric]

Thanks for the input Brent. I actually kinda glossed over that bit about the keyword searches and number of "competing websites" but certainly wouldn't put much stock in that either. It also bugs me when people stretch the truth in that manner. Unfortunately it is super common on Flippa in my experience. That's one of the reasons I like the coffee one too - the owners give me a good vibe with their listing text and in the comments and PMs I sent them about it.

Probably I'll forget about the ovarian cyst website since my wife doesn't want me owning a health care website. She's probably worrying too much about too little on that front, but I kinda get it. The other two look good too.

Now, the question is: will I be able to get one of the two for a reasonable price that is within my budget???

What's the most you guys would pay for the coffee site or the exercise ball chair site? (Brent, obv you don't have to answer about your own site)

I used Clinton's valuation tool on the coffee house website and came up with a figure of $720, but I'm sure that it will sell for more than that.

[Clinton]

ovariancystreatment is also being discussed in this thread. Anybody wishing to discuss that site please post in that thread to keep it all together.

Eric, I like your OP. You've taken the time and trouble to present your case well, explain what you've already found and share your thoughts on the pros and cons. That should be a model for anybody else looking for DD. What the buyer plans doing with the site has a big influence on what aspects need to be researched and what answers found so the more we know about that the better.

I'll come back to this thread when I have more time and post some of my findings after others have had a chance to give their DD input, but in the meanwhile, welcome Brent J, glad to have you here