Featured Listings
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Proof That Website Flipping Is Legit
- Posted By: Mubashar
- In: Advice
- On: February 28th, 2008
I came across this video recently that I thought was very interesting.
If you had a doubt that website flipping was a real money making opportunity this should change your mind.
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Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche
- Posted By: Mubashar
- In: Advice
- On: February 15th, 2008
ReadWriteWeb discusses some different methods for identifying top niche blogs. The information could be valuable if you’re thinking about buying into a niche sector.
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Best places to buy and sell part of your online empire
- Posted By: Mubashar
- In: Advice
- On: February 6th, 2008
If you are looking to buy or sell websites and domains for your online empire, knowing the right places to conduct your transaction is key. Whether you are an experienced online entrepreneur or just getting started this article will tell you how and where you can buy or sell websites and domain names.
First of all you need to know that there are two main types of places where you can buy and sell web properties and services: Forums and Marketplaces.
Forums
Forums are a great place to buy and sell web properties because there is an active community that is interested in everything related to websites. You can usually list your property for free and get exposure to a lot of interested buyers or find great deals on properties for sale. Unfortunately the old adage you get what you pay for still rings true. Although you don’t have to pay a dime for listing or buying a property there are also a lot of shady characters, promises made and bad deals.
Before buying or selling anything do your homework and deal with reputable members. Forums usually have a member rating system that can be used to tell whether or not someone is trustworthy.
A strong webmaster forum that has a more experienced group of webmasters and has a tighter community. V7n was started by webmasters frustrated by the available forums. This forum has an active marketplace but you will usually only see activity on higher end web properties.
Cost:
- Free
Digital Point
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/A very active webmaster forum that has a mix of newbies and experienced webmasters. DP is sometimes criticized for how many newbies are on the forum but it is still the most active and sells the most web properties of any forum.
Cost:
- Free
Namepros
http://www.namepros.com/A domain names only forum and is very active. Some of the most respected domainers participate regularly. There is a very active marketplace for domain names and some big deals have been done here. However, don’t expect to sell crappy domains here as members of this forum will simply laugh you out of the building.
Cost:
- Free
DNforum
http://www.dnforum.com/Another domain name only forum that is respected in the Domaining world. However, this domain does charge a $60 fee in order to participate in its domain marketplace and member forums.
Cost:
- $60 membership fee
Talk Freelance
http://www.talkfreelance.com/A a growing community that is focused on freelancers who do work to develop web properties. The site also has an active web properties market place which is free.
Cost:
- Free
Marketplaces
There are a lot of marketplaces where you can buy and sell web properties. Many of them with millions of dollars in transactions each month and have a lot of great opportunities. The same rule applies here as with forums. Do your homework and know who you are dealing with.
Marketplaces often times have higher quality websites and domain names for sale and offer an extra level of protection. Sellers do have to pay fees or give up a percentage of their sales to the marketplace in exchange for listing their property. Those fees and the tendency for properties being sold to be of a higher caliber also mean that the average selling price of a property can be significantly higher. In some cases 100% – 500% more than it would be in a forum or through a private sale. Also, just because there is an extra level of security in a marketplace doesn’t mean there aren’t scams and bad deals.
Sitepoint
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplaceBy far the largest marketplace for websites and domain names. It is the largest marketplace to sell both property types. Sitepoint is a great place to find established websites that are already making a profit. However, Sitepoint is often criticized for not policing their sellers and buyers resulting in bad deals on both sides. There are a lot of properties with inflated stats, buyers that don’t make payment and questionable properties. With that said there are still a lot of deals to be found.
Cost:*
- Domain Name - $5
- Website - $20
- Premium Website (over 10k) - $40
Godaddy
https://www.tdnam.com/Godaddy’s TDNAM is not the most active and doesn’t usually get the top of the line domain names but there are some real gems to be found if are willing to pay. Also, TDNAM has a good selection of expired domain names that you can search before they are available to register. Some domains may have a website associated with the sale but it is primarily a domain marketplace.
Cost:*
- Annual Membership:$4.99 Listings – 5-7% of sale price
Sedo
http://www.sedo.com/A domain marketplace as well as a domain parking service. Sedo has a lot of competition but is by far the leading domain name marketplace. In 2007 they reported sales of 72 million dollars a 60% increase from 2006. Sedo regularly has great domain names for sale and if you search you can find some good domains at a bargain. They do use an auction process for all of their domains. Meaning once you bid an initial amount that is accepted it is then pushed to an open auction.
Cost:*
- 10% commission
Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/Hot or cold place to find domain names. True to its nature you can either find a lot of junk or a few gems. You do have to do your fair share of digging to find gems but there are some good websites and domains available on Ebay. The nice thing about Ebay is that if you do find a good web property there usually isn’t as much competition because it is not the typical place where buyers and sellers are looking to do business.
Cost:
- Listing Free:$.20 - $4.80 depending on the starting price of your item
- Commission:5.25% + 3.25% if over $25 + 1.25% if over $1,000
Flip Square
http://www.flipsquare.com/A new marketplace that is in development as a secondary market for sellers to directly list any of their web property related products; Established websites, Domain names and designs.Flip square is incorporating additional security features to protect buyers and sellers to prevent bad deals, artificially inflated stats and buyers that don’t commit. Flip square has not yet launched but if you would like to keep up to date on its status and participate in its beta launch marketplace sign up on their homepage. Flip square will be a great marketplace for buyers and sellers to do business.
Cost: *
- First 2 months will be free of charge.
Doing your Homework
Cool tools – Some cool tools to help you with buying and selling websites and domains.
SEO for Firefox – Provides you with the # of links, age, Alexa rating and PR of a domain name.
Compete.com - Provides free information for every site on the Internet including site traffic history and competitive analytics; a list of available promotional codes across thousands of online retailers; and site-specific trust scores based on up-to-the-minute data from Compete and third party security services.
Quancast - Another way to compare traffic and reach numbers for websites you might be interested in buying.
Archive.org - This is a great way to see how long the website you’re interested in buying has been around and what type of content it had on it.
Finding the right deal:
Most Listed - A great marketplace listing aggregator. Come on we’ve got to have the shameless plug.
*additional fees for enhanced listings
Aaron Kuroiwa contributed to this article, visit his website for professional translation services.
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The Dangers of Buying a Blog
- Posted By: Mubashar
- In: Advice
- On: January 25th, 2008
An interesting post over at Devlounge, about traffic levels dropping after the sale of a blog. The headline … “a site will lose up to a third of its traffic after being sold.”
Whilst the post admits that this is a generalization, it seems to merit consideration when deciding how much to pay for a blog you are looking to buy.
Devlounge itself was acquired a few months ago by Splashpress Media, who have a lot of experience in buy blogs, and whilst this can’t be considered a scientific study their experience is probably very close to the norm and not the exception.
Blogs traffic is understandably tied to the blog authors, their personalities defines they style of the blog, and these celebrities gather their own little following. When the site changes hand, the followers may move on with the original authors, and the style of the blog will inevitably change with new people in charge. The decline can be eased by having the original authors stay one and help with the transition, make a few posts, and advice on style and content.
At the end of the day however the Blog is now yours, you must stamp your style on it and build a following of your own.
Whilst this drop is less likely with other types of sites, which are less personality driven, it is worth thinking about how you will keep your users with you as you bring your own style and method of operations to the site.
