Midascode | Buy & Sell Websites

When you think Christmas gifts, you don’t usually think of websites… but we are entering 2009 and times are changing.

Today we ask the question, would a website make a great gift this Christmas?

The short answer is YES, but, it has to be for a certain type of person.

A good understanding of the Internet is a plus, and the person should have an hour or so of free time per day to work on it.

Also, you should match the topic of the website to their passion.

So, for example, if they love football, you can buy them a fansite of their favourite football team.

How To Buy The Site

There are loads of articles on this site to show you how to buy a website, but the first step is to set a max budget. e.g $500

Then, you wanna head over to a site like Sitepoint.com and use their marketplace to find your site.

You can use the search feature to search for your chosen topics, or you can post a “Want To Buy” post which will request that type of site.

Summary

Buying a website as a gift can be a life changing gift, it can give them a whole heap of new opportunities, and potentially set them up with a monthly income for life.

That said, there are some technical aspects to the process, so consult with an expert first.

Midascode

They say a good workman never blames his tools, but having great tools on the Internet can save you a lot of time and hassle. Today we are going to look at 6 kickass tools that will help you find websites to buy, and research the quality of a website.

Hub Finder

Hubs are known as authority sites by the search engines. Owning one of these sites can be hugely valuable. But how do you find them?

Simple, use this hub finder tool

Trend Finder

Here is a common scenario. You buy a website because it made $2k per month in the past three months, but now it seems to be making only $100 per month. Why is this?

A common reason is because there are trends in any market, and it is best to be able to detect those trends.

You can use this trend finding tool by Google.

As an example, I used the search term “halloween gifts” and it gave the following trend patterns:

Duplicate Text Checker

Are you looking to buy a website with a lot of content on it?

If so, it is vital that you know whether the content was created, or stolen from another site.

Copyscape is a tool that will let you know whether the site owner has been a bit naughty.

Creative Commons Content Source

Have you purchased a website but it looks kinda plain and boring?

What better way to spice it up than with some images and perhaps a video?!?

However, you don’t have the money to create your own, so instead, why not try using content that is free to use under the creative commons license?

Here is an amazing resource for creative commons content.

Source Viewer

Have you ever wondered how Google views a website?

This tool will show you.

This is vital to check for spam. Especially if you are buying a Wordpress blog, as even the authority sites can get hacked.

URL Research

If you are buying a website, the last thing you want to do is spend the next 6 months fixing problems with the code.

This tool will check the site and give detailed information on a number of key areas.

Today we ask the question: With all the economic and financial problems around the world, what affect will this have on the prices of websites and web businesses being sold?

Will the credit crunch mean that people start selling their websites to raise some money?

Will investors see websites as a safer investment than the stock market?

Put your thoughts in the comments below.

Midascode

The fansite can be an attractive investment, afterall, getting paid to run a website based around one of your favourite rock bands, tv shows, celebrities etc sounds like a dream world.

However, the reality is often quite different, and if you are not careful, you could be left heavily out of pocket.

So let’s get straight to the single biggest danger when buying a fansite:

Today’s news could be tomorrow’s chip wrappers.

Or in plain English, that huge boyband that everyone is talking about, may not even be together in 2 years time.

This means that fansites can be a ticking time-bomb investment… you are not only taking a gamble on the website itself, buy you are taking a gamble on the continued fame/popularity of the tv show, or celebrity in question.

Which leads us to the second major issue when buying fansites…

The Expiry Date

Unlike most other sites, fansites have an invisible expiry date, after this point the traffic will drop to a trickle, and so will the value of the site.

Even huge tv shows like LOST carry an expiry date, afterall, there is going to only be 2 more seasons, so you have a max of three years to make your money and get out… but how can you sell the site when there are no more seasons left?

The result is that you are left with a nostalgia website, and trust me, there is not much money in those. I would much rather have a website on a hot-topic.

The Lawsuit

Owning a fansite can bring a whole host of legal issues… infact, it can be a real minefield.

For a start, today’s celebrities trademark their name, they also have copyright over all logos, images, art work, lyrics and videos. So simply by having the celebs name in your URL, you could be in legal trouble.

If you are lucky, the management team will realise that you are promoting their artist, and they will leave it at that, at worst, you will be taken to court for damages and your site will be shutdown.

Summary

Fansites can be a great way to make money from a subject you are passionate about, but you must factor in the above when valuing a potential investment, and always look for the REAL reason the site is being sold.

Buying websites is a great way to own your very own successful web business, it is also a very fast way of doing it… however, there is one factor that a lot of people forget, and if you are not careful, it could happen to you to.

Websites are businesses, and therefore require time, effort and resources to maintain.

This sounds obvious, but many people purchase websites with the dream of sitting on a beach whilst their website keeps pumping out money.

Yes, there are a few types of websites that can be automated, but they are few and far between, and even automated sites still require some effort to improve them.

For the other 99.99% of the sites on the Internet, you will need to put aside time each day to run the site. This could be anything from answering emails, being available during server or technical issues, adding new content, creating ad deals etc…

What’s more, unless you are experienced in all of these areas, it may require a LOT of time to complete these tasks.

Of course, you could outsource and hire employees etc… but even employees need managing, and don’t forget that they can eat into your profits.

Our advice when buying a website is to ask the owner for a list of tasks that are required on a monthly basis, and a rough estimate of the time taken for each one… once you have this list, add up all the time and then double it, for a more realistic estimation. If the result is more time than you can spare, then avoid purchasing it.

Remember, what may take 5 minutes for the current owner, may take 50 minutes for you.

An area where I often see this is with blog sales. Often the owners say things like “just 5 minutes per day is required for a new post”.

The reality of course is much higher.

A blog post of any sort of quality is going to take at least 20 minutes, and then you have the process of coming up with the idea for the blog post, which for some people can be a very lengthy process.

So be warned, running websites is a time-vampire, and if you don’t treat it like a real business, it will likely fail.

Midascode

As regular website buyers know, finding good sites at a fair price is extremely hard work. Here is a unique way of getting inside information on websites available for sale and catching them before they come up for auction.

When webmasters run their sites through the awesome website valuation report at ebizvaluations, they have the option of disclosing contact details if they wish to be contacted by buyers.

Want to see the latest listings?

Here they are

Midascode

The single question that we get asked the most here at Midascode is “How do I value my website?”, it is a question that had no simple answer, and often it would take a 500+ word reply just to cover the basics.

We all secretly longed for a solution, and authorative, definitive answer that the website buying and selling industry could use as it’s very own declaration of indepence-esque guide, we waited, and we waited, and we gave out snippets of information to keep the dogs at bay.

Well, I can happily announce that our prayers have been answered, an expert has taken up the challenge, and not only achieved the desired result, but grealty exceeded it.

Now, before your spam radar starts spinning, I should point out that this was not done by one of our team, In fact, we are not connected to this at all.

It was actually developed by a guy named Clinton Lee, and you can read the full guide over at Sitepoint.

The guide, dubbed ‘The Ultimate Website Valuation Guide’ is 6-pages long, and covers every main aspect of valuing a website.

Many myths are debunked, many records are set straight… and the upshot is that finally, the website buying and selling industry has a guide, a bible, a series of guidelines etched into stone for us all to benefit from.

So how can this valuation guide benefit you?

Quite simply, it can prevent you from being ripped-off. It can also ensure that you don’t sell for less than your site’s actual value. It can save you money, as you may no longer need to go to an “expert” who will charge you for 38-pages of jargon.

Website Valuation Tool

If reading a 6-page comprehensive guide is not your thing, fortunately there is a new valuation tool that takes all those 6-pages and crams them into one shiny, new tool. What’s more, this tool is free, and for the first time EVER, it is accurate.

But wait! I hear you cry, there are already numerous free site valuation tools on the market.

No there are not!

There are site valuation gimmicks, designed to inflate your ego and trick you into linking back to them. These tools are for fools, and they are severly damaging and confusing in an already noisy industry.

In fact, I decided to test out this new tool on my personal blog… the tool asked a lot of sensible questions, such as:

Domain name,

Monthly Profit,

Cost to maintain,

Expertese required to run it,

& a lot more…

When it finished, I hit submit, and got my valuation… and you know what, for the first time ever, I found myself nodding in agreement.

Actually, it was a little lower than I had hoped, but I couldn’t disagree with the valuation at all. It seemed to know the true valuation better than I myself did.

So today is the day that the website buying and selling industry can breathe a sigh of relief… the weight has been taken off our shoulders, there is now in my opinion a definitive overview of the site valuation procedure, and hopefully the industry will use it and we can all benefit from it for years to come.

That said, it is more than likely people will stick with the stupid gimmick tools, and continue to pull valuations out of thin air… but hey, at least now we have an alternative.

Thanks Clinton for boldly going where no man has gone before, this is one giant step for Internet businesses, one giant leap for the site buying and selling industry.

Midascode

Everyone seems to think that my lifestyle and income has been hit hard with the current recession… but truth be told, if anything it is booming.

I don’t know the economical reasons, but a lot of people tell me they now use the Internet to find deals, as they need to save those extra pennies.

In fact, the only website owners I know of who are struggling, are those in the real estate industry.

So this begs the question… can owning websites be a useful acquisition during the recession?

I believe it can do.

More specifically, I think you should spread your investments around, and websites should be just one of your portfolio.

That said, if you only have the funds for one or two investments, then I would strongly consider websites.

Afterall, most websites require almost no running costs, so when times are hard, you are not paying rent, staff, bills etc…

They can often be automated, so they won’t use up a big chunk of your time.

Unlike stocks and shares, you can start earning from websites from day one, so it may be that extra cash required to get you through the months ahead.

All in all I think buying a website would be a great investment, and there has never been a better time, afterall, many people are selling their sites right now… which I think is a huge mistake, but nontheless, it is happening, and that means there are some bargains to be found.

If you want to know more, contac us via the form below.

Here is a question we get asked often: How Successful Does a Website Need To Be Before You Can Flip It?

The answer is that you can sell your website at any level. In theory, you can even just sell the domain, but that is a whole different ballgame (domain flipping).

However

However, ideally you want to ensure that at the very least your website has to have:

*SOME subscribers,

*and some revenue.

These are the big three golden factors, and if your website doesn’t have these factors, you will struggle to get a decent amount for your site.

But if you DO have them all, then you can get some really good bids for your website.

Happy flipping.

Midascode

Buying and selling websites has become a huge industry in 2008, but it can often be a confusing and scary process, so today we are going to shed some light on the top 10 things you should do to ensure you are successful.

1 – Thou Shall Buy a Business NOT a Job

If a website requires the new owner to work on it on a regular basis, then you are buying a JOB not a business.

For it to be classed as a business, it needs to be self-sufficient, it needs to be able to run without the regular input of the owner, and it needs to make a PROFIT without your input.

In other words, could you go to the beach for 6 months, return, and have a nice chunk of profit in your bank account? If not, then you are buying a job.

Additional Reading: Buying a job vs a business

2 – Thou Shall Not Neglect a Website or Blog

Neglecting a website is the worst thing you can do to it. Traffic will drop, visitors will lose interest, and the value will suffer.

3 – Thou Shall Be Realistic With Your Valuation

We have spoken to so many website owners who would be lucky to get $50 for their site, yet demand hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Additional Reading: The Webmaster Delusion

4 – Thou Shall Check The Compatibility

You would be amazed at how many websites look great in one browser, and then look like dogs backsides in another. Always check that a website works on the major browsers before you make a bid.

Additional Reading: Browser Compatibility Tools

5 – Thou Shall Do a Financial Check-up For Large Purchases

If you are buying a large and expensive site, then you may wish to do some background research on the owner. Better safe than sorry.

Additional Reading: Background Research Tools

6 – Thou Shall Not Consult Friends or Family

We all know that making business decisions based on what friends and family think is dangerous. So avoid making this mistake when buying and selling websites.

Additional Reading: Myths of Starting a Business

7 – Thou Shall Not Focus On Pagerank

There was a time where all people were interested in was the Google Pagerank of a website. I have seen awful websites sell for huge sums of money, just because they had a pr7. Luckily it seems that this virus is slowing down, but make sure you don’t make the same mistake.

Additional Reading: How Much is My Website Worth?

8 – Thou Shall Not Buy Hosted Domains

We all know someone with a website like joeblogs.blogspot.com – but if someone cannot afford the $7 to buy a proper domain name, why are you doing business with them? Remember, you don’t legally own a hosted domain name.

Additional Reading: Buying Websites On Hosted Domains

9 – Thou Shall Beware of Scams and Fraud

Like any marketplace, buying and selling websites is filled with people who are looking to make a quick buck. Here are some tips to help you avoid them:

1) Use archive.org to see the history of the website. Avoid any adult or potentially unsafe material.

2) Go to Alexa.com to get a rough idea of the site’s traffic. Compare this to the stats the buyer has published.

3) If you are buying from a forum, look at the members previous posts or sales. Also be aware of any negative feedback he/she may have had.

4) Always use Escrow for larger payments and Paypal for all others.

5) For larger purchases, ask the MidasCode.co.uk to do the due diligence on the site for you.

10 – Thou Shall Have Fun

Buying and selling websites is a serious business, but it can also be a lot of fun. You can own websites based on your passions and hobby’s, you can turn your past time into a serious money maker. The options are endless, but remember, have fun.