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bit of advice

by chrisdafunk
11 replies
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hi guys,

ive just been approached to take 50% control of a supplements site, the site has been up for 4 years but the guys who ran it didnt use it to its full potential and sold supplements that they held in stock and didnt have many customers and they have sort of fallen out of love with it. One of the partners wants out and one was looking to sell the website. He basically has about £3500 in this website already and originally wanted to sell it but couldnt get as much money as he wanted for it.

He approached me and asked if i wanted in and to go 50/50 with him. If i was to take it on i would want to remodel the site (which i would do myself) and do all the seo and promotion as well as find a dropshipper from which to sell the products.

I am definitely having second thoughts as the site has no customers and doesnt seem to be indexed on google or other search engines. I also wouldnt want to stock the supplements and ship them myself so the stock he has isnt of any use to me.

His idea is that until he gets his money back and i get my money that i have to put in at the beginning for various stuff neither of us will take any money then we will go 50 50.

I guess my question to you guys is do you think it is worth it? or should i just leave it and go alone

sorry for the long thread!
#advice #bit #ecommerce #supplements
  • Profile picture of the author kjamesnv
    What sounds appealing about this "opportunity" to you?

    Its a site with no traffic, no customers, no SEO and needs a complete redesign. Plus, the inventory is useless to you. And worse yet you will have a 50% partner that contributes nothing and wants out.

    Seems like you would be better off starting from scratch if you are interested in getting into this niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
      Yea this is what I was thinking, I was originally interested in getting into the brand but the more he got into it the more I have found that there isn't even a brand there, just some artwork, a domain name and that's bout it! Not really worth 3500 quid, do you have any experience in this market? What is it like?
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  • Profile picture of the author feedia
    I would have to agree 100%, this sounds like your 'partner' would be the only one to gain here!
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    Lane
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    thanks for your help! i just spoke to him and he has revealed that the twitter account has 2000 followers and around 500 likes on facebook! would have thought that would be one of the first things he mentioned! looking slightly more attractive now but not 3500 attractive!
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    • Profile picture of the author Solid Commerce
      Originally Posted by chrisdafunk View Post

      thanks for your help! i just spoke to him and he has revealed that the twitter account has 2000 followers and around 500 likes on facebook! would have thought that would be one of the first things he mentioned! looking slightly more attractive now but not 3500 attractive!
      I'd be careful before you let yourself get excited about Facebook and Twitter numbers. It's easy for marketers to see a number in the thousands on a Facebook page or on a Twitter account and get excited, thinking, "Say, they must be doing something right!"

      But it's really, really easy to simply buy likes on Facebook and followers on Twitter.

      The best way to measure the value of a Facebook or Twitter following is by checking out engagement.

      Does that Facebook page have a bunch of posts with nobody interacting? This is an indication that he doesn't really have an active audience. Just numbers. If people aren't commenting, liking, or sharing any of his Facebook content, that account isn't really worth anything. Mostly because of the fact that engagement is one of the biggest ways to get your content in front of more people. Your posts don't automatically go in front of EVERY person who follows a page on Facebook. The more that Facebook sees your content being engaged with (liked, shared, and commented on), the more people that follow your page will see it.

      Same goes for Twitter. Are people re-tweeting, favoriting, and clicking through to the links that are getting sent out? If nobody is actually interacting with the content on that Twitter feed, it's similarly not really worth anything.

      Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author darbok
    tell him what your willing to put up, stand firm... he'll come down.. he's desperate enough.. also verify the twitter and facebook counts.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    yes my first thought was to check the social media accounts, they look real enough, im going to do more digging though
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  • Profile picture of the author darbok
    just remember on FB he could of hired people to click his fb page with bots.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrisdafunk
    Yeah, I thought the same, I have checked through and there are lots of retweets, as well as comments on posts and messages to the page. all looks legit
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  • Profile picture of the author TheCodex
    The biggest thing you have to worry about when it comes to supplement sites is the merchant processing is the biggest PITA of all time.

    Supplements are extremely high margin, especially if you're private labeling your own... the problem lies in the fact that merchant processors are dropping them like hot coals.

    Caveat emptor.
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    • Profile picture of the author DSGDSG
      When I read your first post it read to me like you already made up your mind to say no. When I read what you would do and what his role would be, I wondered how much more effort would be required of you to just start up on your own. Standing on this side of things it doesn't appear to be much more.
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