Posts tagged "websites for sale"

Thank you for visiting this section of our site designed to bring you great information that could assist you in your pursuit of finding an internet business opportunity. Our mission is to educate the prospective buyer/seller, while providing great established businesses to choose from.  Look for piercing insights from our experienced staff of website business brokers as to the market trends, preparing your website business for sale, what to look for in your next internet business opportunity and much, much more. Make sure to visit regularly to stay current with what these experts in the field of website business brokering are talking about.  It could help you in your process.

There is a lot of websites popping up recently promoting the fabulous virtues of flipping websites for a living and making BIG money. Many offer extensive courses and consulting on the do's and don'ts of this business model. There are certainly plenty of self proclaimed experts and gurus who are now exploiting this niche by selling off their e-products and personal coaching on how to capitalize on unwitting, naive, or unmotivated sellers. The premise is to find websites that have certain fundamentals like age, search engine positioning, and original content that have been under optimized and under monetized and convince the owner to sell at a lower multiple - say 10 - 15 months net profits. Once accomplished, the new owner, flipper, redeploys the site with better on page optimization(keyword enrichment in tags and copy as well as good internal linking/navigation) which can be accomplished pretty quickly and getting more back links using keyword anchor text in the links to make them more effective. Concurrently, new monetization elements such as pay per click(PPC) code like adsense, banner ad networks, paid links, affiliate program links, etc are placed on the site or reformatted to more strategic positions on the pages for better conversion. The end game is to improve monthly profitability and traffic so the site can be sold for more money - and typically at a higher multiple!

The strategy can work very well for entrepreneurs who take the right approach and do their homework. I have personally bought and sold over a dozen websites in the past, selling them for 10 -20 times what I purchased them for because I had developed the websites into thriving profitable businesses with solid fundamentals and cash flow. That is the point - to create better website opportunities for a future owner that is more solid fundamentally and more viable long term with lots of upside in profits. Buying an existing business that has a good foundation saves a lot of time over creating a site from scratch - so it can speed up the process of becoming very profitable and has more history of stability and growth which buyers will appreciate and value.

Most of the website flipper gurus seem to focus on the lower end market for websites for sale making a few hundred or few thousand dollars. Personally, for a more seasoned investor/ buyer, I think it is a much more interesting and potentially lucrative focusing on existing website businesses that are already producing healthy monthly profits and are worth more than $50K. The reasoning is that the right kind of business that is throwing off this level of revenue can literally explode to 4-5 times that amount with some basic strategies implemented once purchased. You generally get what you pay for and so buying an internet business with better current revenues can be much more of a lucrative venture with less risk than buying less robust cheaper sites and trying to manage many small sites to flip for modest profits

The biggest areas of improvement to a website are optimization of the meta tags, and page copy to improve SEO rapidly. Many times a site can leap in position overnight just by improving the Title and description tags to target better or more keywords and phrases. Improving and honing the body content so every page of the site is unique will go a long way to improving SEO. Internal linking with keywords - using the main keyword phrases in the sites navigation - will make a big difference as well - providing more link relevancy as long as every page of the site has unique content. After the websites "on page" optimization has been implemented, the back links the site has pointing to it from other sites will radically bump the site's natural positioning over time - sooner than later with established older sites. The key here to is to get links from sites/pages that have good PR, are relevant in nature to your site and use keyword anchors in the link. Some experts argue that it makes no difference if the site is not relevant - this can be argued currently - however it is in Google's and other search engine engineers best interest to continue to refine their algorithms to achieve better results for users - results that are relevant and not manipultaed by massive inbound linking strategies.  I think it is better to to concentrate on quality more than quantity personally and expect this to pay off in the future.

Getting more traffic inevitably equates to more revenues for a site, however it does not guarantee it. Herein lies the next opportunity for a website flipper. Once the sites optimization is underway, the other areas to consider renovating are the sites layout and graphics.. Many of the best opportunities can be improved simply by giving a site an updated web 2.0 makeover. Visitors to your site will leave in a nanosecond if the site doesn't appeal to them quickly - ugly colors and graphics, busy wordy layout , poor quality digital images, etc. By giving the website a facelift - which doesn't necessitate spending a great deal of money - can improve the stickiness and appeal of the site and lead to much higher page impressions and conversion of the monetizing elements embedded throughout the website.

If the site is a content based model offering information, the areas to grow revenues will likely be with PPC links, testing different layouts and positions on the page, affiliate programs related to the subject matter - check out www.clickbank.com for thousands of e products to offer , paid one way links , banner ads , and even webpage advertorials.

For e-commerce websites, spiking sales revenue and profits can be ramped up by adding new products and product categories that get further optimized, implementing a targetet extensive PPC campaign with good copy and hundreds of tertiary keyword phrases for the individual products and categories, integrating an affiliate program and recruiting strong affiliates, promoting to existing customers who have purchased in the past - offering loyalty programs and incentives to return and buy more, and adding a toll free number for ease of contact (make it easier for customers to order and be comfortable they are dealing with a legitimate retailer).

Some websites and business models will be easier than others to optimize and monetize so be sure to measure all the attributes of the website itself, the niche, the model - ie e-commerce, social networking, forum, blog, PPC, etc - and see how much work will be involved post closing. This will determine the viability of the purchase - buying an e-commerce site may not be appealing to some buyers unless it is a drop ship model because of the need to inventory product, process and ship orders and answer the phones - all of which may necessitate hiring employees. This  may be ideal for a website owner that is expanding and has some infrastructure in place to manage the new acquisition until it is ready to sell again.

It is important to be clear as well on the timeframe of the investment. The longer you are willing to hold and build the sites revenues, the better the new history and the larger the multiple you can expect on the net profits. If you want to maximize your profit on the flip, it will be better to hold for at least 6 months before listing again to establish the trend. Remember, buying cheap sites is not guaranteeing a larger profit on the other side - look for solid sites as mentioned above that you can sink your teeth into for a longer period of time and you will enjoy much higher returns and profits when you sell your website business.

 David Fairley

Preident,

www.websiteproperties.com

The last 6 weeks have been quite a shock to most Americans and people around the world. The economic upheavals have been monumental and without precedent. In our business as website business brokers, we have seen multiple deals fall apart or not move forward as a result of the uncertainty and fear in the marketplace. Of course, in any economic swing there will be people and businesses that reap massive profits and actually thrive. However, the vast majority of people and businesses feel the effects both financially and emotionally as a result of the meltdown on Wall St and now Main Street.

In this climate, there are definitely more sellers than active buyers in the internet business sales and acquisition field. The point is - is that there are buyers! These buyers are being extremely selective and cautious and are literally cherry picking the most attractive website business opportunities available providing the price is right. Sellers with online business opportunities that are stable or still growing despite the economic malaise because of the niche they are in, stand the best probability of consummating a deal in this period. The other sellers that will succeed in closing deals will be those that are more aggressive with their selling prices.

Just like in real estate, the seller that drops his price lower than the rest of the market gets more attention and sells quicker. If you hold out too long for a premium price or average price in volatile markets, you can find that you wind up selling for much less in the long term if things get even rougher.

A year ago, the average multiple on an average website business with solid fundamentals was 3-3.5 times the net trailing 12 month profit. In this global financial crisis, average sites are tending to be moving if they are priced between 2.0 -  2.5 times the trailing 12 months all cash at close. The selling price may be higher if more owner financing is involved, which, with the current credit crunch, has become more prevalent. The risks of a further down turn are tangible, so buyers are factoring this in when making offers. As I mentioned earlier, there will be lots of good deals to pick up for buyers with good capital reserves but buyers needing financing are just not able to secure the funds to get a deal done currently. The best opportunities will still get a better multiple on their business because they are able to thrive in this environment, but the pressure from the market means that it is a buyers marketplace and sellers will need to adjust their price expectations if they want to get acquired. The other choice is simply to ride this out and hope there is a quick turnaround later in 2009.

 David Fairley

President,

www.websiteproperties.com

On the eve of turkey day and a well deserved long weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to give thanks for the business I find myself engaged in currently. As a website business broker I spend my days conversing with website owners wanting to sell their internet businesses and budding internet entrepreneurs looking for the next deal. I get to interact with a very interesting cross section of people and generally have very stimulating conversations.

I am thankful for the opportunity I am presented with daily to offer advice and help people achieve both financial success and financial freedom from both sides. Many new buyers looking to start out on their own, away from corporate America after 20 years, get the thrill of finally owning and building their own business that they can operate from their home in their pajamas instead of commuting to a skyscraper in their suit and tie!

I get to assist sellers who have worked hard developing and building great fundamentally solid website businesses that are attractive to many buyers. I get to celebrate their joy and new found freedom after a deal is closed and often maintain long term relationships with these clients often participating in their future business deals. 

I am thankful for working with a dedicated, intelligent and fun staff and partners who know the value of team work, customer service, loyalty and excellence! They make it easy to enjoy my company, manage its growth and celebrate its successes too!

To know that the deals we broker are fair and balanced and are a win win win for all parties, including websiteproperties.com, is a great feeling. I truely am blessed doing what I love and helping people achieve their dreams and goals and building great relationships along the way.

So, I will enjoy my time off over this festive holiday, but undoubtly I will find time to creep back online to read and answer some emails because when you do what you love, it is not work.

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all my readers, clients and prospective buyers who visit an read my blog.

David Fairley

President,

www.websiteproperties.com

The year that is passing may not have many fond memories for a lot of people, but for those who have invested in an online business for sale or have sold one, it wasn't such a rough ride! In fact, now that the shock and awe has passed there is an air of optimism among internet investors and website owners. 2009 is setting up to be a great year for internet entrepreneurs. Sales offline dove by several points while online sales remained positive or flat for the most part. With more layoffs and uncertainty in the workforce more people are turning to the internet for opportunities to supplement their income or take matters into their own hands.

Overall we have seen a lot of activity in the last 6 weeks of this year and expect a surge in the new year as people follow their new years resolutions to take action. There are plenty of excellent website opportunities available so saavy buyers can cherry pick the best internet businesses. There are still a lot of buyers sitting on cash reserves too that are willing to make all cash offers but at more aggressive multiples. However, 2009 may be the year of a higher percentage of owner financing deals and as a larger percentage of the selling price because interest rates are not providing much incentive for sellers to stash their cash in a bank or CD. Other deals will likely get structured with earn outs and upside potentials built in so the risks and the rewards are spread evenly between buyers and sellers.

 In the end, the best deals are always fair and balanced where all sides are happy and feel comfortable. We at www.Websiteproperties.com will continue to strive towards fair and balanced deals for our clients while respecting our qualified buyers who subscribe to our opportunity alerts. In addition, we will strive towards representing and listing only the best, most fundamentally solid web-based businesses on the market, so buyers know they can rely on us to present exceptional and exciting online business opportunities.

 From all of us at Website Properties, have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

David Fairley

President