WOW - This is a tough one! Hundreds of thousands at stake. HELP!
Now, I have SOME experience in this because for a while I was into buying and selling websites (mostly on Flippa.com), but not on this scale. The website my client is looking to buy is in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars. So naturally, I am a little nervous about giving him advice on this purchase and helping him with the verification process.
The website is an adult site, and it makes it's money in advertising. It reportedly gets 12 million visitors a month. He was also told by the seller that there were people signing up for subscriptions of $30 a month, but he hasn't launched his own "subscription thing" yet, so he was redirecting those subscribers to a different site for their access and goods.
Also, the seller says he has a guy who he pays regularly to keep the site updated with content. So apparently the content is taken care of by a third party.
Apparently, the purchase consists of 12 smaller sites that all sort of come back to the "mother website" which is a much bigger and broader website. All 13 of which my client would be buying.
Now, this is a HUGEEEE purchase, and I do not want to steer him wrong at all. I do have some experience like I said, but I want to be extremely diligent with the verification process so that I know for sure it is all legit. What my client wants to do is just buy the site, and maintain it and collect revenue. He doesn't want to make any changes, because it's a very profitable site, and he doesn't want to mess with something he doesn't know much about. But still, that would mean he would have to keep the advertising spots filled, and other stuff like that.
As far as the revenue, I don't have to worry bout that. My client is going to review the sellers books and verify all of that on his own. What he would like me to do is verify the traffic, figure out what type of maintenance is needed, and basically just verify anything else the seller is claiming.
In my experience, the way I have always verified traffic is by Analytics snapshots, or access to the sellers Analytics dashboard, but with a site this big and profitable (and costly) I really want to be extra extra thorough with ALL of my verifications.
I would realllllly love it if anyone who has some experience or knowledge to share on this matter would do so. I think this could be a great project for me, and my client will end up super happy. I just don't want to miss anything or make any mistakes that could make things go bad for both of us.
Let me know what you think. Thanks so much!
Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
Video Proof
Over 350 Happy Warriors
After all, you're probably following a few hundred people already that aren't doing squat for you.....