I just sold a 8 week old website for $28,000

by forganics Banned
34 replies
So here's the story... about 2 months ago I bought a site that looked nice but didn't have any traffic for $1,000. I bought some traffic for it (about $400 worth) and started a serious social media marketing campaign where I spent about 1-2 hours per day of my own time promoting it actively.

It started getting some stable stats and I put it up for sale with an asking price of $28,000. I got a few offers with the best being around $7,000. The sale ended without a winner/buyer. About 7 hours after the sale period ended someone contacted me asking if it was still available and said they would be willing to buy it for my asking price. We talked for about 30 minutes on the phone and he transferred the money.

What a day.
#$28 #sold #website #week
  • Congratulations. If you can rinse and repeat that you'll have a hell of an income!
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexanderBeloev
    Originally Posted by forganics View Post

    So here's the story... about 2 months ago I bought a site that looked nice but didn't have any traffic for $1,000. I bought some traffic for it (about $400 worth) and started a serious social media marketing campaign where I spent about 1-2 hours per day of my own time promoting it actively.

    It started getting some stable stats and I put it up for sale with an asking price of $28,000. I got a few offers with the best being around $7,000. The sale ended without a winner/buyer. About 7 hours after the sale period ended someone contacted me asking if it was still available and said they would be willing to buy it for my asking price. We talked for about 30 minutes on the phone and he transferred the money.

    What a day.
    WOW - That's nice, $26600 profit for 8 weeks. Congrats on your success
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  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    nice
    Was the site actually making any money
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by espresso View Post

      nice
      Was the site actually making any money
      Yes, it only had one AdSense ad on it though, so not that much.
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Wait........

    If you closed someone on the $7000 sale, which service did you use to close it? If you did close the sale with a service that took a small commission, you can't really talk to someone on the side and work something with them after the agreement was made.

    Don't know how you got around this but congrats on your big sale.
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by talfighel View Post

      Wait........

      If you closed someone on the $7000 sale, which service did you use to close it? If you did close the sale with a service that took a small commission, you can't really talk to someone on the side and work something with them after the agreement was made.

      Don't know how you got around this but congrats on your big sale.
      No, the sale was not closed at $7,000. I actually had a $10,000 reserve on it so it didn't sell at all while it was publicly for sale. I got a few offers after the sale period including the one for my asking price.
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      • Profile picture of the author talfighel
        Originally Posted by forganics View Post

        No, the sale was not closed at $7,000. I actually had a $10,000 reserve on it so it didn't sell at all while it was publicly for sale. I got a few offers after the sale period including the one for my asking price.
        If the sale was still open then that's OK. I thought that the sale was closed and done with and then you worked with someone else on the side.

        Good for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    That's fantastic ROI. Congrats
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    • Profile picture of the author neilshearing
      Congratulations. It's a viable business strategy, as long as you can find enough "fixer-uppers" and willing buyers. Of course, at the profit margin you experienced, you won't need too many!
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      • Profile picture of the author forganics
        Banned
        Originally Posted by neilshearing View Post

        Congratulations. It's a viable business strategy, as long as you can find enough "fixer-uppers" and willing buyers. Of course, at the profit margin you experienced, you won't need too many!
        Thanks. The market for it is booming and replicating the process is easy. The sites I buy are a good match for my marketing experience and don't take much time to manage.

        I've been selling sites that are similar to this one for $5k-$10k but this one just sold in half the time for more than twice the price.
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  • Profile picture of the author dylan4f
    Congrats man..great ROI

    I'm just about to put a new website for sale tonight, and this gave me an extra motivation
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  • Profile picture of the author KimboJim
    What did you do with the social media campaign? Were you just making posts and gathering followers, or did you do something special?
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by KimboJim View Post

      What did you do with the social media campaign? Were you just making posts and gathering followers, or did you do something special?
      No, gathering followers was not part of the plan even though the site got a lot over the last few weeks. It was primarily the content that was driving traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Barboza
    What niche was your website?
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Alex Barboza View Post

      What niche was your website?
      Entertainment
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      • Profile picture of the author larryboy03
        Well done! I have my first domain up on sale just now 28,000 (easy ) lol

        It would be nice..
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        Do you have a website making money and want to sell it? Contact me, I'm looking to buy sites monetized by Amazon and Adsense!!
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  • Profile picture of the author GobBluthJD
    Proof or it didn't happen
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by GobBluthJD View Post

      Proof or it didn't happen
      Let's try this again.

      I guess the mods here don't like outside links so you'll have to email me for proof.
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  • Profile picture of the author karlmay1980
    Great work, well done you took a risk, acted and made a good profit keep it up!
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    Want To Make Your First £10,000 Online?
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  • Profile picture of the author thomas228
    Congratulations that's fantastic!
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  • Profile picture of the author Anton543
    That's excellent. What did you do between the time it was bought and sold that rocketed the value? How much was the site earning at time of purchase and time it was sold? How did you convince the buyer because if the value was in the earnings then it would have obviously had a very short track record at those higher earnings.
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Anton543 View Post

      That's excellent. What did you do between the time it was bought and sold that rocketed the value? How much was the site earning at time of purchase and time it was sold? How did you convince the buyer because if the value was in the earnings then it would have obviously had a very short track record at those higher earnings.
      As I said in the first post, I just spent time promoting it every day. It wasn't earning anything when I bought it and had a couple days with $100+ in earnings from AdSense with just one banner ad.

      I didn't have to convince the buyer of anything. He checked out the stats and made the offer himself. I'm sure he saw the value in the growth rate of the site and the concept of the site itself.
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      • Profile picture of the author Anton543
        Originally Posted by forganics View Post

        As I said in the first post, I just spent time promoting it every day. It wasn't earning anything when I bought it and had a couple days with $100+ in earnings from AdSense with just one banner ad.

        I didn't have to convince the buyer of anything. He checked out the stats and made the offer himself. I'm sure he saw the value in the growth rate of the site and the concept of the site itself.
        Please don't misunderstand me. Its just that lot of buyers like to see a substantial track record of earnings In your case, I think he saw the potential and bought it.

        Personally, I would never sell a site for 12 to 24 months earnings. If its a good site, not MFA, I think the owners are selling themselves short. Perhaps they need the money here and now or busy with other projects.
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        • Profile picture of the author forganics
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Anton543 View Post

          Please don't misunderstand me. Its just that lot of buyers like to see a substantial track record of earnings In your case, I think he saw the potential and bought it.

          Personally, I would never sell a site for 12 to 24 months earnings. If its a good site, not MFA, I think the owners are selling themselves short. Perhaps they need the money here and now or busy with other projects.
          For me, I sell the sites because it gets tedious to manage the same site every day long term. Some investors that buy sites do well to outsource the work or share the traffic the sites generate with other sites they own in their networks.

          I've had people buy sites then just redirect the traffic to their own sites. It doesn't make much sense to me but there's it goes to show, there are countless reasons why people buy sites like this.
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  • Profile picture of the author entry
    Originally Posted by forganics View Post

    So here's the story... about 2 months ago I bought a site that looked nice but didn't have any traffic for $1,000. I bought some traffic for it (about $400 worth) and started a serious social media marketing campaign where I spent about 1-2 hours per day of my own time promoting it actively.

    It started getting some stable stats and I put it up for sale with an asking price of $28,000. I got a few offers with the best being around $7,000. The sale ended without a winner/buyer. About 7 hours after the sale period ended someone contacted me asking if it was still available and said they would be willing to buy it for my asking price. We talked for about 30 minutes on the phone and he transferred the money.

    What a day.

    Edit: Thanks for all the feedback. Please email me at forganics['at']bellair.net for help with your site.

    Can you list 5-7 things you did to the site, interms of a plan, to make /boost its traffic and value?

    eg, 1) got Digg links to it...

    cheers.
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    I Have to say a Massive...THANK YOU to every Warrior who has helped me, and thanks to every warrior who helps me in the future...
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  • Profile picture of the author adamreilly1997
    Wow congrats on your success!
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  • Profile picture of the author Devin X
    Banned
    I feel bad for the sucker that bought the site. It'd have to be making at least $2,800/month to be worth that much...or it'd have to be a premium one word domain like MATCH or BUNGIE or FACEBOOK.

    Not hating, just being objective. Congrats man, really. But I sure hope the buyer gets a nice return on his investment too.
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    • Profile picture of the author Anton543
      Originally Posted by TheRealDudeman View Post

      I feel bad for the sucker that bought the site. It'd have to be making at least $2,800/month to be worth that much...or it'd have to be a premium one word domain like MATCH or BUNGIE or FACEBOOK.

      Not hating, just being objective. Congrats man, really. But I sure hope the buyer gets a nice return on his investment too.
      Well it depends. If the traffic sources are good then he probably saw the potential. having said that, I would want to see a longer track record to determine whether the traffic would be sustainable.
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  • Profile picture of the author Elvis Michael
    This traffic you bought, was it cheap/generic or was it highly targeted? Did your site retain a lot of that traffic or was it simply for the sake of boosting the site's stats?
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    • Profile picture of the author forganics
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Diablo2 View Post

      This traffic you bought, was it cheap/generic or was it highly targeted? Did your site retain a lot of that traffic or was it simply for the sake of boosting the site's stats?
      The traffic is not highly targeted because it doesn't need to be for the types of sites I'm working with. As long as they are real visitors they help build up the sites presence over time.

      I expect all my sites to continue to grow with the same effort, not just retain existing traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author franktwin
    PM Me the Site Please... would love to check that out..
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  • Profile picture of the author ymest
    Congrats! Really well done! That's inspiration for us all too!! xxx

    Yoan
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