I wanted to know tips for buying online business

Hi All

I am looking to buy an online business, I wanted to know tips to keep in mind while buying online business.

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Know the sites stats is a great way to understand if they worthy of buying. You can use SimilarWeb tool to get their traffic - www.similarweb.com

 

Hi.

Be very careful.

All online businesses can be doctored so that the stats look favorable before a sale- usually 3 months before. Usually web owners usually give 3 months of business expenses and that is a joke. If you are spending good money on a website then you want at least a year if not more. If they baulk at that, forget them. If they weren't producing cash, fine, but you still want the year or more- where they get cash from, how and sustainability. Future projections of payment and traffic are just Wizard Of Oz thoughts. I hate it when I see "the vitamin niche has 400 million searches a month!" So what, it is meaningless, they haven't got them

Check to see that the website hasn't been copied or the seller is selling multiple versions of the same site. If the website is making $300/ month and they want $600 then something is iffy. 1 month earning multiplied by 12 months is usually a ball park figure thought up by online people. But it is not a true reflection of what a business is "worth".

Then you have to think about copyright material, plagiarism and Google Sandbox.

Buying and selling websites is a fun business to do but it is filled with many scam artists. You really have to do your due diligence and then a little bit of gut feeling.

Oh, and use an Escrow account.

Regards.

 

Those are some good tips above. Alot of sites can easily buy cheap traffic to make their last 3 months look like there's a lot of visitors. Get a longer date range. If it's a big investment they should be able to give you access to their stats, hopefully they have tools that give alot of info like google analytics.

I would look at metrics like bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit, traffic sources, location of visitors etc.. Really do your homework. If their site is legit they would be more than happy to let you in on that info.

My last site purchase I used Sedo. They take a cut, but it was safe at least. I'm looking for better escrow services that have the staff more readily available though if there are any suggestions.

Best of luck getting your online site, there are some gems out there!

 

I'm guessing you are buying a site. Well, if would generally depend on what kind of site you are buying. If it is an adsense site, or any site that depends on SEO for traffic, then make sure their backlink profile is solid and is not filled with spammy links. Google is becoming stricter, and you don't want the site you bought to lose in ranking because of the seller's mistakes.

If they are getting traffic from other sources, then again, make sure it is not paid traffic sources, or any other source that is going to cost you a lot more money. Even if it is paid traffic, if the profits are going to be more than what you are spending, then fine. You need to make this decision on a site by site basis.

If its a service site, ask them if they are giving their current list of clients too, and again, what their source of traffic is. That's all I can think of now.

 

Every SERIOUS online business is owned by company , take a look at balance sheets , and everthing will be clear. However i suggest start own business website bcs nobody sells engine where is genereated money. Internet is full of pauperism from 3 world countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh Philipine ..... all Africa, so VERY OFTEN income of few cents is wealth.

 

do a lot of research and due diligence and check out the stuff on flippa

 

I follow this golden rule, if it seems to good to be true - RUN!

 

You need to know (and have proof):
- past income stats, dynamic and estimations
- past and upcoming costs (hosting, staff, ads)
- work involved and other dependences (in example if you buy a custom design site from the designer you'll not be able to sell custom designs without him )

Estimate profit and dynamics (going up/down) and calculate a good price you can pay. That ranges from 8 to 24 months of profit depending on business stability and reliability. Internet changes fast.

 

I suggest you use escrow.com when you make the transfer. They are reputable and it's the safest way to transfer a domain/content that I am aware of.

Good luck mate

 

Here are a couple of links to sites specifically outlining tips to buying an online business. Have a look and I help they help:

http://www.diomo.com/buying-an-internet-business.html
http://www.startupnation.com/business-articles/9157/1/buying-online-business.htm

NUK