Would you take this offer?

by ladywriter

Posted: 14 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

As a newbie, if someone offered you "control" of a blog and half of the profit, would you take it?

Pros:
PR2-3 (is this even a Pro at this point? I never care about this)
4 year old TLD site, already set up with good articles
can link to my other sites

Cons:
not EMD
highly competitive niche
traffic isn't great
they own it and get half the money, I do all the work...unless I buy them out (which I plan to, if it's successful)

So basically it's like a flippa sale except I won't own it outright for a while.
Leaning toward no but is there something I'm missing or should consider?

#offer

Johnny Optimo 14 years ago

I'd be very wary of this

However- if you wanted to give it a spin for a month and see how everything goes, then buy it... that might be alright.

Has it been profitable in the past?
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dtang4 14 years ago

EDIT: Oops, I misread.

Doesn't sound like a good deal. Great deal for the other guy, tho!
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Ryken 14 years ago

Well I'm not a pro but first what's the seller motivation? Also from what you have posted, in my opinion you answered your own question. "Highly competitive niche and the
traffic isn't great" This can be improved on your part but since it's establish I say no. Now if you love challenges and have the time and money to go on an adventure then go for it. Other wise just observe and what what happens in 6mths.
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travlinguy 14 years ago

Depends on a couple of things. You say you do all the work. What work? Will you be adding new content? If you like to write, that might not be so bad.

The real issue is how are you going to be paid? Affiliate programs? Unless you have the password(s) to any affiliate programs where you're able to check on sales, I'd say get that into a written agreement before moving forward.
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- ladywriter 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by travlinguy
  
  What work? Will you be adding new content? If you like to write, that might not be so bad.
  
  I'd be doing all the SEO/traffic/marketing and she'd be doing some of the content. I'd probably end up revising/writing content too, since she admits to knowing little about SEO, etc.
  
  Originally Posted by Johnny Optimo
  
  Has it been profitable in the past?
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  What are the current income sources, and what's the mechanism for verifying and dividing the income?
  
  This is an acquaintance, her story is she "bought it cheap" and it hasn't been doing well. There's adsense on it, amazon....She's even more of a newbie than I am. She heard I was "into that stuff" and basically wants me to "get it going". I asked about just buying it but she is leaning on "let's see how it turns out first" cause "it would be such a good setup, right?".
  
  You're all right, I'd absolutely get something in writing first because my plan would be to buy her out if I did it at all. I'm leaning toward no for reasons everyone has said, but I guess I'll see if I can get passwords and look at what the income has been, she says "not much" which I assume to be negligible.
  
  I already have a brand new site running adsense--making no money lol. I guess the bigger question is whether my site has as much potential as hers. But I get 100% if my profits as is...
  
  Thanks
  
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  tomcam 14 years ago
  
  Strongly recommend you avoid it. You already know enough from perusing WF to create your own dynamite site. A partner situation is no good, especially where you're not even making money. You can write. Why not crank out some PLR and sell it as a WSO?
  
  If you must go through with it, then what John said.
  
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Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by kstark

they own it and get half the money

What are the current income sources, and what's the mechanism for verifying and dividing the income? (Are the first things I'd want to know, myself).
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- JohnMcCabe 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  What are the current income sources, and what's the mechanism for verifying and dividing the income? (Are the first things I'd want to know, myself).
  
  To which I would add a solid contract defining a future sale, including the price or pricing formula and a definite date or series of dates on which you could activate a sale, but the owner could not force one.
  
  Otherwise, it's a lop-sided deal in the owner's favor. His or her sole responsibilities seem to be keeping the domain registration and hosting paid, and in return collect 50% of a growing profit.
  
  Under that kind of arrangement, the better you do, the less incentive he has to sell.
  
  If you want to tackle this, get the sale terms in writing, along with current income sources and and verification systems.
  
  If the site owner won't provide that at terms you can accept, walk away and don't look back...
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe
  
  the better you do, the less incentive he has to sell.
  
  Exactly so ... this is the feature of the deal that raises some "red flags" in my perception of it ...
  
  Thanks
  
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- Kay King 14 years ago
  
  If you do it - the buyout price and time frame must be very specific.
  
  I wouldn't offer that to someone - but if it's been offered to you it might be something to consider IF you think the site has potential and IF you know how to maximize the potential.
  
  I'd want to carefully look at why the blog hasn't been successful so far before I put any time into someone else's property.
  
  kay
  
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CDarklock 14 years ago

Originally Posted by kstark

As a newbie, if someone offered you "control" of a blog and half of the profit, would you take it?

What's in it for you?

Seriously, you can have control of a blog and ALL the profit for $25.

Why is control of this blog better?
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audrey77 14 years ago

Sometime back, I put up my site for sale and someone offered me half of the money for a 50% share. We also have the option to buy each other out after one year at the original selling price of the site or simply sell it to someone else and split the money. The deal is I will continue putting up the content of one post a week while he does the promotion/SEO thing.

Back then it seemed like a good deal because my task was only to write one post each week and I expect the traffic to increase because he was supposed to do his part. But after a few months, I still don't see any traffic increase and there is no way I can keep checking what he is doing on his part.

So, from experience, I think deals like this is good on paper, but not so practical-wise. Each will start calculating how much she should do and there is no way you can force her to do her part.

But if you really want to go ahead with the deal, then be very specific on each other's responsibilities, right down to the numbers, like articles, posts, backlinks per week, etc. Otherwise, when one starts to slack, there is no existing benchmark to measure against like in my case. And of course, like others have mentioned, also work out the pricing mechanism for the buyout beforehand.
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serena85 14 years ago

My opinion (do not do it, that is my answer) is that if I had the blog I will try the same thing, for example:

- lets believe that she does not know anything about SEO and she was paying for that, you intervene here and do the SEO and also give some money away to do that

- another risk is that after 6 moths you will not have the money that you first invest
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jerytohn 14 years ago

If you know her/him personally, then it is not so bad. Have to be wary though
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rockone 14 years ago

I prefer working on my own site and not for someone else in partnership. If I work sincerely on my own site then it stays with me for lifetime.
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rosetrees 14 years ago

It sounds to me as if she wants to keep the site - for whatever reason. If she doesn't want the site, then why doesn't she just sell/give it to you now?

I would suggest a permanent, joint ownership, agreement. In writing. With you both having full access to the necessary income stats - affiliate schemes, adsense, etc.

With the best will in the world, and probably not even intentionally on her part, if you build the site up to a reasonable income, and don't have a joint ownership agreement, she will want to keep it for herself.

Also, if you build up the income and then offer to buy it, she will be loathe to let the set go as she will then feel it is worth more than you are currently offering her.
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Michael Johnson 14 years ago

I agree with rockone.....having your own site and making profit from it is priceless
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