Buying a website

Hi

I have found a site that I am really interested in buying. My problem is it’s not for sale “yet”. The site has been update about 3 years ago so I don’t think they really use it anymore.

How do I approach this guy?

Any suggestions
Thanks

 

Send an email asking a generic question. Start a conversation about something in regards to the site. Once the conversation is going you can slowly steer towards popping the question.

Christoph

 

Just be straight with him. Make him aware of your interest and find out where he stands on selling up.

Whenever I've had people people interested in something, I've always appreciated it when they have been straight with me.If it comes about that the site is for sale, he'll probably want you to make an offer. Have a clear figure of what the site is worth to you. Your ceiling amount. Then make an offer that is lower but make it reasonable....there is nothing more annoying than a time-waster making laughable offers.

Your offer should ideally be based upon the negatives surrounding the site and not its potential. You are buying what it is now.... not what it could be. A top tip is not to seem over eager and desperate. You may have some great ideas for this site, but it may be that he hasn't seen the potential in it. If you charge in begging him to sell it alarm bells start ringing and prices start rising.

Also, be careful not to give away too much detail about how you plan to revive this stagnant site.I never advocate lying in business..... but there is a difference between that and being selective with the information you provide You don't want to inspire him into taking another stab at it himself.

Obviously without going into detail, what type of site is this you are after?

Anyway, hope that helps and keep us posted on your progress

 

Thanks alot ideas_man

Lot of your points sounds much the same as what I was planning to do. Think I will earn more trust when I am straight. Don't want to let the mail look to much like spam.

The site I am after is an plain content site, with a few pages. This will be my first buy so I don't want to go to big the first time..

 

If it only has a few pages.... is it worth spending money on? Since you will have to inject a lot of time, effort and content to revive it.... might it be easier to start from scratch and put the money to better use?

I dunno....just wondering.

 

I have seen lots of sites with a few pages even one page get huge traffic. I am not sure how to find out what kind of traffic this site is getting, but it appears for quite popular terms in the better known search engines.

 

Ya, why not start your own?

 

Very interesting. I am just wondering how come one page website can got many traffic.

 

Sometimes buying a website is worth it for the name and traffic alone. Good Luck in your venture

 

You dont need lots of pages to get traffic. If you rank well for a keyword or phrase that are searched alot its easy to get great traffic.

 

A couple of things you should look at when buying a website:

How much the website makes monthly
What the monthly expenses are
How long it takes to maintain the site a week
How old the website is
Check the search engine rankings, link pop etc.

In general, websites seem to sell for about 12 months of income before expenses. However, when you approach someone who is not looking to sell, they usually get greedy and want alot more.