Advice for buying a website on Flippa?

[mdotwhite]

Hello Guys, I need some advice. I am seriously considering buying a website from Flippa.com. The site I'm interested in has an 11 year old domain name and is in a very, very, very, competitive niche. The site has a PR3 ranking and is on the front page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing all within the first 5 search results for a few different keywords.

According to Spyfu.com the average cost per click for this niche is between $3.00 to $5.00 per click. According to the last 2 months of Google Analytics the site is receiving about 650 visits per month. The site is not monetized for Adsense which is what I would be using for and It's NOT even being used to sell affiliate products, so there is no income claims. The guy selling the site was asking $3,500 for the site and I have negotiated the price down to $2,750. My questions are as follows:

1. Does this sound like a good deal? Is there anything in particular I should be looking for or asking?

2. When the domain name is transferred to me will it lose any of it's backlinks and/or PR rankings if I change the site over to Wordpress and add all new content made for Adsense?

3. Last but not least...Whats the safest way to execute the transaction. He wants to use Escrow.com.

Any advice will be appreciated. This is my first time purchasing a site online and I don't want to get screwed.

Thanks in advance.

[yukon]

Are you sure that's 650 traffic per month?

That's very, very low traffic for most competitive niches, while being on page #1 in the SERPs.

[mdotwhite]

According to the Analytic PDF file that's attached to the auction description the stats for September was as follows:

686 Visits
2,416 Pageviews
3.52 Pages/Visit
63.99% Bounce Rate
00:02:51 Avg. Time on Site
82.07% % New Visits

And October Stats as Follows:

681 Visits
2,465 Pageviews
3.62 Pages/Visit
64.90% Bounce Rate
00:02:55 Avg. Time on Site
84.88% % New Visit


Thanks

[EricBaglio]

Originally Posted by mdotwhite

1. Does this sound like a good deal? Is there anything in particular I should be looking for or asking?

2. When the domain name is transferred to me will it lose any of it's backlinks and/or PR rankings if I change the site over to Wordpress and add all new content made for Adsense?

3. Last but not least...Whats the safest way to execute the transaction. He wants to use Escrow.com.

Any advice will be appreciated. This is my first time purchasing a site online and I don't want to get screwed.

Thanks in advance.

1. I can't really tell without seeing the auction but judging by the traffic and that you want to make it into an adsense site, I'd say you may have a hard time earning back your investment in a timely manner. You may consider selling links on your site since it has that page rank.

2. When you transfer the domain, you won't lose any back links. The thing you need to be careful of is where those back links are coming from? If they're from other sites he owns, he may delete the links and repurpose them. There's no guarantee you'll keep the PR unless you see where the links are coming from.

3. Escrow is the safest. It guarantees you get what you want before he receives the money. It costs a little extra but when you're paying 2750, I'd say it's worth it.

Hope that helps...Final thought, just make sure you look up those links so you know the links won't change after the sale.

[mdotwhite]

How can I check the links?

[ry6782010]

To check backlinks try using majesticseo dot com, or, try using market samurai, which is free. With the traffic described being that low per month, and being on page one of google, have you checked to see if hes using an adwords campaign or something?. Before you buy any site on flippa, please, ALWAYS remember to check the sellers feedback and the reviews from people whove bought from them.

[jacksite]

I think 686 Visits a month is not a good performance.

[discustipated]

Thats low traffic and not worth that cash bro. Do a search for the adsense flipper guys and they have a legit listing of adsense sites making month to month cash for that price. I was looking at there portfolio today and they had some sites from $600 - $2,000+

[awddude]

Don't do it. I think you can spend your money more wisely. 2000$ and you could build and rank a much better site.

[ry6782010]

I second what discust said. Go to adsense flippers dot com. These guide build adsense sites that earn great revenue, and, also show some of the tips/tricks they use.

[mdotwhite]

I must admit I was thinking the search volume was low. I appreciate all of the useful information. I will talk to this guy tomorrow and dig a little deeper for more details.

[TryBPO]

Originally Posted by mdotwhite

I must admit I was thinking the search volume was low. I appreciate all of the useful information. I will talk to this guy tomorrow and dig a little deeper for more details.

Hey there,

We actually JUST did a podcast about buying sites with some tips/tricks to keep you from getting burned that you should check out:

AdSense Flippers Podcast Episode 3: Buying Killer Websites Without Getting Scammed | AdSense Flippers

You can also check out our article that details some of the "tricks" sellers will use to keep from disclosing everything...stuff you should dig into:

Top 7 Things Flippa Sellers Hope You Won't Notice (And How To Spot Them In Minutes) | AdSense Flippers

Hope that helps!

[mdotwhite]

Man there is a lot to look out for when buying these sites. The site I'm looking at seems pretty legit. The guy selling the site hasn't done much with it. Not a lot of backlinking at all. I was thinking I could purchase the site which has a 10+ year old domain name and add a ton of high quality content and increase the traffic to the site. I think this should increase the earnings.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by mdotwhite

Man there is a lot to look out for when buying these sites. The site I'm looking at seems pretty legit. The guy selling the site hasn't done much with it. Not a lot of backlinking at all. I was thinking I could purchase the site which has a 10+ year old domain name and add a ton of high quality content and increase the traffic to the site. I think this should increase the earnings.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Unless your selling high end items, you need new/better keywords besides the keyword getting 650 per month on page #1 in the SERPs.

How many unique pages of content does this site have in Google SERPs?

Do this site:domain.com , replace the domain/url with the site you want to buy, see what the indexed page count is in Google.

[Zeb]

650 per month traffic for close to 3k is not a good deal at all. It doesn't even have income. I wouldn't suggest you go for it.

[iDoubLe001]

I definitely wouldn't spring for this one.

[krestup]

What i think you should consider most is, how soon will this website pay for it self. Because if you pay $2700 and want cover your investment with 6months, then the website should has a potential to make $450/month.
Another thing i think you should consider is, how many keyword is the website getting traffic from, how many of this keyword are related to the website and how many searches/month does the keywords receive.
I will advice to download a copy of flippa website flipping ebook, it cover alot about buying a website.