Business Blog

Our article, “How to Sell a Blog” received quite a bit of attention. However, pointed out several times in your comments and emails was the fact that we didn’t cover anything in regard to buying a blog.

So I thought that today, we’d do just that.

What exactly should a company or an investor look for when buying a blog (or any website for that matter)?

In a word, value. However, value is going to mean something different to each individual buyer. So you need to know what value it is you seek. What I mean by this is, what do you expect to achieve by purchasing a blog or website? A new opening in a specific market? A specific reader base or demographic? Website traffic that you feel you can convert into sales for your products or services?

Maybe your just a “flipper”, someone that is looking to buy blogs or websites that have some potential so that you can resell them at a profit.

Whatever the value, you need to determine your goals long before you start shopping. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the sales hype when surfing the blog auctions and find yourself the proud new owner of a completely worthless web property.

Now you know what your value is, your reason for looking to purchase a weblog or website. You now need to know what to look for in order to sift through all the junk. Because there’s a lot of it. Junk that is. There are about a million auctions going on. Ebay, Sitepoint, whatever. All of them screaming about the deal they have for you. The “once in a lifetime” opportunities.

So in order to find the real, “once in a lifetime” blog buys, we’ve put a few helpful hints together. Some things you need to check out when considering buying a blog.

1.Domain

The site needs to be hosted on it’s own domain. One that the seller actually owns and can legally transfer to you. It’s important that you do this homework first. There are plenty of charlatans (read thieves) out there hocking websites and domains they don’t actually own. It is your responsibility to know that you are dealing with someone that can actually complete the transaction with you.

2.Blog Traffic

What kind of traffic does the blog have? Not just the number of “hits” from the Webalizer stats. But where does the traffic actually come from? Not just the raw numbers. The reason why is because many website sellers will inflate the traffic prior to listing it for sale. How do they inflate it? Several ways. They can buy cheap traffic, they can get all their buddies on Digg to give it a push for a little while, or on any of the “autosurf” websites out there. The point is this. You need to know that the traffic the site has is actually traffic that has value. Visitors that are going to keep coming after you purchase the website. Want a good traffic source? Look for blogs that have organic search engine traffic.

3.Income

How much does the blog make each month? Now this can be tricky because there are ways to manipulate these numbers as well. When you are asking questions about the website’s income, you need to be very specific. Ask them what the “gross” profit is first, and then ask them what the “net” profit is. Do the math. If they tell you that the site makes ten thousand a month in gross profit, but the net profit is $200, then you know you are going to have to shell out a lot of money each month in order to realize that $200. If they are spending that much a month to generate that income, ask them why. Ask the seller lots of questions about the money. Because the one question you don’t ask is going to be the hole that you’ll end up filling with money from your own pockets later if you don’t ask it.

4.Age

How old is the website? How long has this person owned it? Age does play a factor in the search engines. So you need to know if this site was slapped up yesterday in order to be resold, or it has been around for a while. This does affect the overall value and the price you should pay.

5.History

What is the history of the website or domain? By this I mean, what has it been used for in the past? Was it a porn site once? Was it used as a hate site? A website’s history is important because there may be links out there that are hurting it. You may be an investor, a website flipper, looking to simply “flip that website”, so you need to know what, if any, negative hits are out there in relation to your possible purchase. The owner is not going to tell you that it once pimped hardcore porn if it is now used for a mainstream purpose. So you need to do the homework. Use the web archive and check to see what the site was in the past. Doing some homework here might save you from a headache in the near future.

6.Unique Positive Factors

What unique positive factors does the blog you are considering have? Does it have a number one listing in Google for it’s term? Maybe the blog has number one listings in all three search engines for a really juicy keyword or phrase. But you need to find out. You can ask the seller what terms it holds and if it is generating any traffic to the site. Or, you can find out on your own, using tools like seodigger.com , or the Google Keyword Tool.

7.Blog Maintenance

How much work are you going to have to do? Even more important, how much work are you willing to do? You need to know how much work is going into the site every day and then you need to ask yourself if this is a commitment you are willing to make. A blog can be deceptive, especially if it’s a niche you are not familiar with. If the seller is an expert in a specific niche and you are not, keep in mind that it’s going to take you longer to add the same amount of content that he or she added each day. Because you are going to have to research your material more.

8.Licenses

Does the blog contain pictures, video, or any other media that might be subject to licensing or copyright issues? If you buy the site, you may be buying a problem. Especially if that blog contains material that it shouldn’t. Mainly mp3 downloads, illegal video, or images that the blog seller did not have permission to publish. You need to see proof if the blog contains this type of multimedia, because the neck that will be on the line should a lawsuit come will be yours.

9.Escrow

Do not buy a blog or a website without using an escrow service. Now this might not be written in stone if you are buying a site for less than fifty bucks on EBAY, but it’s true in every other case. I don’t care how nice the person on the other end of the phone sounds, you need to make sure that the deal is going to go through if you decide to make the buy. The only way to do this is by using a well known escrow company to help you complete the transaction. If for some reason the blog seller can’t come through with their part, you get your money back. Minus a small fee to the escrow service. A small price to pay when considering slapping down a large pile of dough on a blog. CYA (cover your assets)…

10. Due Diligence

“Let the buyer beware.” Truer words were never said. It’s time to put on your tinfoil hats boys and girls and look for holes anywhere and everywhere. Do a ton of research on the blog you are thinking about buying. Understand exactly what it is that you are buying. Make sure you are really getting whatever it is you think you are paying for. Ask a million questions. If it irritates the seller, so be it. If they don’t want to answer your questions, you can always find another web property to purchase. It’s your money, and you get to spend it wherever you want to. Just make sure the investment you are making is one you really want. Because once the sale is done, it’s done. There aren’t too many sellers that are going to give you a refund the day after you buy the blog.

Remember that you are the buyer. Everyone and anyone is trying to build a website to flip these days. They have aspirations of building a website and selling it for millions, retiring off their blog posts. You are in demand. But you also need to keep your initial goals in site. Remember what the value was that you determined before you started searching for a blog to buy. Stick to the basics here and buy something you can really use.

If your looking to flip a website for a profit, be sure you actually have a plan that can be put into place to make that site more valuable. Don’t rely on the seller to do this for you. If they knew how to make the site more valuable at this point, they probably would have done it before they put it on the market for sale. The seller doesn’t care one bit about how the site produces after they have sold it to you. It’s going to be your baby from here on in. So make sure your investment is a sound one.

You can make money from flipping, buying and selling good blogs and websites. But you need to know that basics to pull it off. I hope this post has helped cover some of these points.

I also hope some of our readers will make some comments below to help buyers catch any areas I might have missed in this post.

Good luck. I hope you find the deal of a lifetime when you buy your new blog.

Tags: blog flipping, buy a blog, flip that blog

This entry is filed under Blog Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.