Quote: (02-02-2015 05:14 PM)Menace Wrote:
Have not seen a thread on this, and this only occurred to me after I read a blog post somewhere.
Instead of starting your own online business, you find a deal and buy an existing on-line business, or bundle of businesses that are already generating revenue. Then, you "renovate them," by fixing things that you know are wrong (bad search position, or whatever; I'm not an expert at this at all).
Anyone do this, or know anything about this? How would you find sites like this?
Before working online was cool this was easy money. Back then it was people who had no idea what they were doing who struck gold in the search engines, then would whack up AdSense and sell off the site for 20x monthly net. Someone with a brain could swoop in, monetise the sites properly (sometimes simply altering ad placements, others times creating products, forging relationships with affiliates/droppshippers etc), break even by month 3 then either flip again or sit on it.
These days it's incredibly hard. Especially for someone with no idea. The domain could've been slapped or the traffic is botted - they're the 2 most likely scenarios on the obvious marketplaces like Flippa. I used to have someone monitor those markets for potential acquisitions based on a set of criteria, last year we'd get about 1 possible site for every 500 or so listed. That 1 possible site would then get spammed to death with bids well over the odds - needless to say we no longer monitor those marketplaces.
It does work in some scenarios:
Vertical integration: The site offers something to add in your funnel. For example, if you had an e-commerce site selling gardening tools, then acquiring a gardening blog with 200k UVs a month and a subscriber list of 10k could work.
Horizontal integration: The site allows you to diversify your offering in a niche. For example, if you had an e-commerce site selling gardening tools, then acquiring an e-commerce site selling gardening clothes could work. You could either combine to create an authority site or keep separate and cross promote products.
Other than that, I'd recommend building your own stuff if you're starting out.
Quote: (02-02-2015 09:53 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:
http://www.empireflippers.com - they have a podcast about this, and their own market place
http://www.flippa.com
http://www.ecommercefuel.com - another podcast and website
Just to name a few.
Usually someone that's built niche sites successful, buys another niche site (20x monthly earnings is the suggested price, so a 200/month site gets bought for 2400.)
- adds content
- send more traffic from new sources
- collects emails from users - and then builds a product for them (electronic or physical)
Moving up the supply chain is harder, but it has greater rewards.
A fair # of guys on RVF do e-commerce, you should do a search.
WIA
I'd be surprised if anyone is getting 20x monthly net on a niche site. 10-12x is realistic.
20x on a branded authority site - maybe. I remember when that lifed.com site went for 200k, it was painfully obvious it was someone new to the industry with money to throw around. Where is it a couple years later? Fucked. They threw up a ton more ads, killed the UX and pissed off their readers. Then got hit by a Google algorithm update (Penguin 2.0 for you online nerds). Goodbye 200k.
Quote: (02-03-2015 10:22 AM)RioNomad Wrote:
Has anyone here done this?
I looked at Flippa for quite a while trying to find affiliate and e-commerce sites to buy back in the day, but it was riddled with garbage and scams.
I think the hardest part is finding a decent site of value that is already generating income, because who would want to sell it?
The only reasons to sell on Flippa are 1) urgent cash injection needed elsewhere, or 2) it's on a slippery slope downwards and hoping to sting someone new to the industry. If you can find number 1 and no one else does, you've got a shot.
If you want to buy a site I'd advise going for those outdated sites that are ranking in the search engines then contact them directly. Get access to their analytics (sometimes they don't have any - if they don't it's easy $$$) and crunch the numbers. You can find the domain owner's information through WHOIS lookup, if it's a private registration through GoDaddy you can contact them and they'll pass on your message.
Quote: (02-05-2015 08:23 AM)nmmoooreland20 Wrote:
Taking this to a new level, is there a way to implement a “leveraged buyout” type of strategy here? I assume banks would not lend to this type of business, but if the cash flow really is strong, I really have no idea. Perhaps it’s not feasible now, but an area for future development?
They lend to umbrella companies with online portfolios. Depends how you structure the acquisition. We're UK based so not sure about the legalities in the US.
Quote: (02-05-2015 08:38 AM)Aliblahba Wrote:
We need to come up with original content in real life, then use the internet to capitalize. The internet if full of Millennials that can't come up with anything new, but rather just copy and paste over each other. That is why it is so dog eat dog. The real advantage we have over them is we'll actually go outside in the sunshine and do something inspiring that others would want to read about. I've got some solid ideas we can market.
I read your DR thread the other day. Fucking brilliant. You could package that as one of those travel/experience holidays where a group comes down and you show them around, get them in the best places, introduce them to girls etc. Do the first one for free and get some of the big YouTubers on it, filming the whole thing, for initial exposure. If these basement kids pay thousands for a bootcamp I'm sure they'd pay thousands for a holiday of a lifetime, offer payment plans if they're not ballin. Would be easy to get in the mainstream media, too. I'm not sure what the security aspect would be like and if the DR would be suitable, though.
Anyway, if you have any ideas related to online stuff PM me and I'll point you in the right direction. I'm always down for joint ventures if the project and people behind it are right, too.
Quote: (02-05-2015 09:07 AM)AntiTrace Wrote:
Then I'm gonna rent a mansion in the phils. It'll be open to all RVF members. We'll work-out, drink, fuck chicks, and engineer internet hustles. It'll be project hollywood, just focused on entrepreneurship and slightly on game. It'll be like a frat house for business.
Ha. I mentioned doing something like this in the RVF Travellers thread the other day. I'm not sure if you were serious, but I'm planning something similar around September of this year. Mastermind online group by day, fuck bitches by night. Hit me up if you were serious.