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Noob in need of help

by justinsane187
17 replies
Ive been looking on a online auction website..I wont mention any names but its one of the more popular ones..I want to buy a start-up website and im nts what would be easiest for a beginner. A reasonable income figgure im looking at would be $500-$1000 a month. I have alot of time on my hands right now cause I was laid-off and been researching affiliate marketing/niche sites. I realy dont want to make my own because im better at learning from what I have then reproducing my own things. I see that alot of these sites sell out at $40-$200, I dont understand that if the person would go through that much effort making a nice website and register a domain would sell this for so cheep if they can just simply throw it on there host and let it roll for them. I do understand that there is some advertising involved but alot of these guys have adsence/ebay/amazon already built in. That would be my first question. Next would be why does everyone host with blue host/godaddy and hostgater when you can get unlimited sites unlimited space and all the same things offered on other hosts for half the price?..thx
#noob
  • Profile picture of the author Slyknight
    "Next would be why does everyone host with blue host/godaddy and hostgater when you can get unlimited sites unlimited space and all the same things offered on other hosts for half the price?"

    Some hosting servers are better than others. It all depends on what you'll be using it for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sven Schoene
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    • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
      If all these sites are cash cows why not just keep them for residual income even if it takes a year to make the money they would sell it for? You can have 50 pumping out cash for you in a few years your set. My only guess is that it takes more time to advertise than it does to make the site..
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
        Residual income from websites is where its at.

        The only reason to sell a website is to use that money to buy a better site that will make more money!
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        • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
          It seems these guys work for a company that pumps these out like crazy..dono y they just keep them and work it all like a big buisness..im sure alot do, but maybe these websites suck lol..but better than I can do right now so probly worth the $90..
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          • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
            wow kevin that helps out huge! thx for the advice. I know cpanel is a must have and support would definatly be a plus seeing as i havent done this before..but why is a seperate IP important? Is it for traffic reasons? I dont think I would need the buisness plan as of yet because im only gona be playn around for a few months with a couple sites, but I imagine its all upgradable correct? And how is blue host? they seem to be the cheepest of the three. Im not sure if the websites I was looking at on that auction site were cookie cutter sites because they looked as if they have unique content. The auction is called flippa but im not sure if im supposed to mention that, if not sry in advance but this is what the seller wrote back..


            "Hi
            The site is made from scratch from a in house script we developed for our company use only , thats how we can sell these so cheap and much lower than other sellers here.
            I own my own hosting and the $36 a year is for the site thats being sold but I never charge a fee if more bandwidth is needed as I would just add it for free for this site only.
            Our true desire is building webistes to sell , we have done this for years , we do not desire to run them for ourselves, this being said we have little experience on advertising sites and cant be alot of help in that area as our specialty is building them and that we can do professionally."

            Im working on a low budget and would just hope that after a little advertising in blogs and forums one of these sites will at least cover my hosting costs lol..
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            • Profile picture of the author wbakhos
              Hey,

              The thing I would be concerned about is the fact its hosted on his/her server. etc etc. They are in control and they don't seem to be a hosting provider so that makes me think a little.

              Also ask how you will edit the site. Do they have a functional easy to use CMS or do you have to dive into code or keep plugging it into dreamweaver/frontpage every time you need to edit? If its 10 pages and non dynamic then if you change one link (say add a disclaimer) on the front page, you have to manually do this for all.

              If your new I couldnt strongly enough recommend getting a godaddy/hostgator account and your own domain and just use wordpress.org software to create a site blog. There can't be anything easier and you have full control from day one.

              The thing you'll start to realise is that setting up a site is super easy (I can do 2-3 a day and i'm not super technical) but its driving traffic and earning an income from sites which requires the real work and where all your efforts will go into.

              On the other hand if you have the cash to spend on an already made site then that's great, just make sure to find out details such as editing and controlling.

              In regards to hosting I think Kevin nailed it!

              Cheers and all the best
              Will
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              Jimmy Data... Turning hours of client Adwords reporting into seconds. Save time, money and wow your clients. Brilliant
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Koop
    I certainly can't speak for all the sites you have seen but many of them will be cookie-cutter type sites that were auto-generated using software. (in about five minutes)

    Or they may be a design they've already sold dozens of times before but using different domain names.

    Either way, the sites will generally contain duplicate content and have little to no potential of getting organic SEO traffic.

    In regards to your hosting question, there is a lot more to hosting than meets the eye at first. If you're going to be serious about building a business, you need solid hosting you can count on.

    Here are some things to consider when buying hosting:

    [1] The companies reputation - do some online research first. Sure, you'll find someone mad at every company but if most everyone is mad, there's probably a good reason.

    [2] Customer support - if they don't have 24/7 customer service via email/IM/phone, I wouldn't even consider them

    [3] Normal stuff like... uptime, bandwidth, storage space, addon domains, etc

    [4] Perks... like CPanel, Fantastico Deluxe, AWStats, etc

    [5] Speed - you can ping the hosts server to see how fast it is

    [6] Unique IP - this is a biggie for me! I would not advise anyone to get a hosting package that does not give you a unique IP Address.

    Yes, you'll likely be on a "shared server" but you don't want a "shared IP." If you have a shared IP, some spammer on the same IP can damage your business!

    Right now, I have hosting accounts with HostGator, MidPhase and SEOHosting (a HostGator company).

    If I were to recommend one, it would be HostGator's "Business Plan" which covers everything I listed above. The "Baby" plan has it all EXCEPT it is a "shared IP."

    Hope this helps,
    Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Stamper
    If you are serious about jumping into your own internet business I would stay away from cookie cutter sites which is what is offered on auction sites.

    You will spend more time trying to customize those sites then if you started from scratch.

    Look long term... yes it may take you a while to build a site, but you will gain valuable experience in doing it. Experience you won't get from a cookie cutter site.

    So pick up a domain name, get hosting, then start building. Flesh it out the way you want it then get a coder to "pretty" it up and do things you feel are beyond your expertise. Just to go www.rentacoder.com or any other outsourcing site. You will get exactly what you want and it will also be cheaper in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Koop
    @justinsane187 - Personally, I wouldn't recommend you buy the website you are considering but you'll have to make the final decision on that.

    RE: IP's

    You want your own unique IP as IP's can be easily "blacklisted" by the SEs. So, if some spammer is using the same IP as you (which is possible if you are using a shared IP) then the IP may get blacklisted and it can hurt both your SEO and emailing capabilities from that IP.

    While there are some free/low cost tools that are ok to use when building an online business, hosting and an autoresponder service are two that I would never skimp on!

    (among others, if I pondered on it a while more)

    RE: HostGator

    The reason I say the "Business" plan is that it comes packaged with a dedicated IP address.

    If you get the "Baby" package, I believe you can get a dedicated IP for an additional $2/mo (so a total of $11.95/mo if paying month-to-month).

    RE: Blue Host

    I know of them but have never used them nor have I heard from anyone I trust about them. They may be fine but I can't say for sure.

    If you want to talk this out some more, PM me
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  • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
    To Wbakhos: The seller actually said he would push the site and domain to my server free of charge. I wouldn't have them host it anyway. Really all I want at this time is to be sure I cover the cost of hosting and all else doesn't really matter lol.

    I have plenty of time on my hands, I lost my job and Ive been on the computer a hell of alot more than I should be..This world of web design and affiliate marketing is something I knew nothing about up till about 2 weeks ago, and something I SHOULD have been looking into it 5 years ago instead of being a bench monkey at best buy warehouse testing all there crap!

    Anyway thats my story and all I really want is to make a few extra bucks..dont really expect much and it really does sound cool to sit back and watch your websites make money for you w/o selling anything..

    2 weeks in and Ive really learned alot, Ive found the right forum thats for sure..And Ive always known one thing is that if you want the strait goods you come to a forum. Alot I don't understand but cant thank you guys enough, all this info is giving me a headache but your doing a good job of simplifying it..And ill definitely pm kevin

    thx

    Ohh is there a good niche making software? I know ive seen a few out there but with the internet you really don't know what to trust..Even if its high page rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author anron
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    • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
      well im not putting in more than $100 bucks right now and if I dont see a dime im out lol..If I tried the best I can for a few months and still nothing I guess it wasnt ment to be..not looking to get rich quick just wana see what this is all about. I bonus whored the casino's back in the day when neteller was alowed in Canada, made a nice 3K or so..I know there is internet money out there..its just a whole other side i need to learn
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      • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
        Originally Posted by justinsane187 View Post

        If all these sites are cash cows why not just keep them for residual income even if it takes a year to make the money they would sell it for? You can have 50 pumping out cash for you in a few years your set. My only guess is that it takes more time to advertise than it does to make the site..
        Building Rome is one thing. Driving traffic to it is entirely another.

        All sites have the potential to make lots of money - provided the domain and site are started off with some SEO in mind and the keywords have been optimized. If you do nothing with a site after buying it you can't expect to just make money. Work needs to be done to keep things making money.

        There is another area here on the forum where you can purchase sites done for you. There are several paths you can take if you want to get a site that is ready to go:

        1. purchase your own domain and hosting, and just buy the site to upload to your own server

        2. purchase the site with domain - this can cost more if the domain is a good one

        3. find one of the awesome deals on this forum where you can get a site or blog built for you and you give them the keywords you'd like incorporated. For well under $100 you can get this done here with articles in place and everything

        4. Build yourself and learn as you go - hosts like bluehost have one button script installations and all you need to do is customize the site with a template and some plugins. You will still need content which you can create yourself, find some plr to rewrite, or outsource someone to write articles and content for you.

        5. There is someone on this forum offering FREE hosting and web building materials -all you will need to purchase is a domain for your site, but there is a way to monetize on the site with adsense and ebay and you get free use of their services as long as you continue to build your site.

        6. I'm sure there are a lot of other offers I have not yet encountered and are all over in this forum. It is like mining for jewels.
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        "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

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  • Profile picture of the author acufftg
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    • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
      And as you can see I'm not very good at making article's lol..never really got the hang of paragraphing, but i guess its for people to read easier..How exactly does a auto responder/auto blogger work?? is that the same as RRS feeds? And Ive tried a few auto article makers and they were pretty much bunk. Are there any that actually work?
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  • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
    So with this free hosting is it unlimited? Are there any ads attached? What section do I look under.. and I don't wana look a gift horse in the mouth but why free then? And acuffg, those are the things I have been looking at too but alot of the sites have not been established so there would be no revenue stats. Are the sites for sale on this forum better/more trustworthy than the ones on flippa? I imagine the only one sale would mean its to avoid these cookie cutter sites..Does cookie cutter mean they use the same template and format but only switch the domain name?.. I was looking at IXwebhosting and they offer 15 detected IP's unlimited everything with cpanel and 3 domains for as long as your with them at about $80 if you go by the year. Is it really necessary to pay that much to start out? Are there any good auto niche makers out there for when I wana just throw out a few sites here and there? I know SEO is a whole other world too but I imagine there are quite a few free programs and Ebooks that will help you with that..
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  • Profile picture of the author ppcpimp
    I would suggest not buying a cookie cutter site from any auction site. Pay a member here to build you a page in a niche that you want to test.

    The guys selling sites on those sites are building a cookie cutter site and then reselling the same site (different domain name)over and over and over.
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    • Profile picture of the author marmo
      Originally Posted by ppcpimp View Post

      I would suggest not buying a cookie cutter site from any auction site. Pay a member here to build you a page in a niche that you want to test.

      The guys selling sites on those sites are building a cookie cutter site and then reselling the same site (different domain name)over and over and over.
      In many cases this poster is dead on... i too would avoid buying websites on auction sites such as ebay.
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      • Profile picture of the author justinsane187
        Well I have looked at the sites for sale on Ebay and ya theres no way I would buy one from there lol. There are auction sites that sell established websites with proven traffic and income. Some of the start up sites have unique content, its just that you have to really know what it is your looking for. I might look into having someone do up a few websites for me on here though because I am looking for a few specific things that I know will never be in an online auction.
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