How to approach an owner with interest in purchasing their site?

This is a newb question, but I'm a newb. I've recently become very interested and aware of how lucrative and well paying being an internet marketer can be. I more or less accidentally got into it at the beginning of the year, and well, lets just say I'm making 4 digits a month now. I'd like to expand into other niches and sites. I've found/made a list of sites that I feel confident I can turn into money with some of the techniques and things I've learned. My question is to people that do this frequently, what is your advice on how to approach the subject/site owner?

For discussion purposes, lets say the site I'm interested in already does run Adsense. I don't know what they make a month. I know the site has been online for 6 years. It has a Google page rank 2, with not many back links, and has an alexa rating of around 4.1M. I've been a member of this site for a long time, but not an active participant. The owner will recognize me from other websites similar to his. I do not have a relationship with them. The owner is pretty active on the site and users recognize their participation. The site has a nice design and you can tell they have some effort into it.

Is there anything I should think about, or know, before I just shoot them an email and say "Do you wanna sell your website?"

 

Just remember, he might ignore you, If he doesn't he might try to charge way too much for what its worth.

If he is interested and is asking a high amount and claiming it has lots of visits, or makes $$$$ from adsense ask for screenshot proof, Don't let him rip you off, but don't try rip him off either, it's only fair

 

make sure you dont sound too interested in the site or he will want more money than its worth potentially. but yes you have nothing to lose so just send a friendly email and see if you get a response. good luck billygoat

 

I posted a article a little while ago on SEOMoz about buying websites. Beyond that just shoot him a email and ask him if he would be interested in selling his website. Just remember a lot of people think they have something hot when they really do not. He will ask your offer right on the spot I would bet, tell him you need more data to be able to make a valid offer. Ie income, expenses, growth, etc. Then come back and make an offer based on that, and what you think it is worth. If he thinks otherwise, nothing you really can do.

 

Great read on that article. I will go over it once or twice more and then send off my email. Wish me luck!

 

Good luck. Just be straight forward with him so you come across as experienced and not to be taken advantage of. The worst he can say is no... then try again.

 

A follow up:


Once an agreement has been reached as for terms, how does one normally setup a transfer?

 

If the amount is small do PayPal, if large use an escrow service. You will be expected to pay before the transfer. Never do western union or a method you cannot chargeback or dispute.

 

Could anyone reccomend some good escrow services? Not a particularly large amount but large enough to warrant using one if thats an option I think.

 

The largest and most trusted escrow service is probably escrow.com. They require some verification and control the transaction pretty tight, so you're quite safe with them. They do however charge a bit for their service, but if you're doing deals in the thousands of dollars, Another $100 or so for security and safety might very well be worth it.

 

yea escrow.com is good.

 

Just remember Paypal only covers upto $10K and escrow.com is only for domains and does not cover website sales...

 

I think moneybookers offers escrow services as well.

 

I think a safe way is to use some broker like buydomains.com or similat. We have purchased some domains and sites with the help of these folks.