Many of you reading this are only just getting started with your own website or blog online. I have talked a lot about methods to set up your own website from the beginning, but a growing number of people are starting their own online business by buying an existing website.

Risky Business!

It can be daunting starting your own business. You can conduct huge amounts of market research, calculate financial projections, even get investment, but starting a business is always a bit of a gamble. Approximately 90% of all new businesses fail within their first year, whether you are an inexperienced novice just starting out, or a veteran of the business world with years of experience. That is just business! There will always be more risk and uncertainty with any new business, compared to an established one with a proven track record.

The exact same principles apply to websites! Most new websites never last beyond the first 12 months, whether they are run by a novice individual or a huge corporation. That is the nature of websites!

Buying And Selling Websites

Anyone thinking of making a living online has a choice to make. Either start from scratch and build up your own website or buy an existing blog!

There is a huge market for buying and selling websites online. Sites like Flippa make their money from doing exactly that, by advertising sites that are up for sale. There are tens of thousands of profitable websites up for sale that are looking for new owners.

But if these websites are already doing so well, why are they up for sale? Many people think this, but there can be endless valid reasons for wanting to sell up. Many people make careers from building up websites from scratch and then selling them on (known as website flipping), some people move on to bigger and better things, they need to pay off bills, etc.

Buying a website has one major downside however. It can cost significantly more to buy an existing website business with an established customer base, rather than build your own from scratch. You are essentially paying a premium for the effort that it takes to set up a site from scratch and get it generating income and traffic.

There is an argument that it is better to start at the bottom and work your way up. You can learn so much by starting from scratch yourself, rather that buying an established site, which will give you the experience to further help your business in the future. I myself, would recommend that getting started from scratch is the best option, especially if this is your first time running your own website. You are going to make mistakes along the way, so it would be better to make them and learn from them from the start, rather than risking your investment in an established business. But that is an opinion!

How To Find The Right Site To Buy

Sites like Flippa list loads of sites that are up for sale. You need to begin by browsing through them and finding any that interest you, after all, there is no point running a business that you have no interest in. You will be spending a lot of time working on it, so having a keen interest in the subject matter is key, otherwise you will get bored and not put in the required effort to make it succeed. There is no point getting involved in a business that specializes in pet fashion products if you don’t like animals, or a business that deals in religious events if you are an atheist!

Make sure that you discount sites that are very new, or that blatantly over exaggerate themselves. These types of sites can usually be created easily yourself from scratch, so there is no point paying over the odds for them.

At this point you should have a list of potential sites that interest you. You can whittle these down further, simply by doing a bit of research on them. Whenever someone puts their website up for sale, they have to provide certain information that usually wouldn’t be publicly available. This includes traffic statistics, financial information, analytics data, Adsense income, etc. You can learn a lot from the information provided, which should tell you whether you want to buy the site or not.

Act like a Property Developer

You don’t always have to bid for existing sites that have a good track record. Some sites don’t work simply because there is not a market for them, however some sites haven’t worked because they haven’t been run properly! Finding sites that just need improving can be a good way of getting your business started.

Property developers are an excellent example of this method in action. They try to find run down or derelict houses that are in excellent locations and then renovate them. These derelict houses can often be bought on the cheap and sold on for a huge profit when they have been completed.

People do the exact same thing with websites. Individuals could start a site within an excellent niche, or acquire a brilliant domain name and then never really develop the site to make the most of it. These types of sites are excellent examples of investment opportunities. Buy them and develop them into a successful business, which can then be sold on or run yourself.

Buying A Website

Should you find a site that you are interested in buying, then you need to bid on it, just like you would for an item listed on eBay. If you are successful, then congratulations! You are now the new owner of an existing business which you can then build upon. If you are outbid, don’t worry! Hopefully you will have learnt a lot from conducting research into the sites that interested you. You can use this information to make better informed decisions on future bids on websites, or take the plunge and get stuck in making your own website from scratch.

Hope you found this helpful.  Please leave your comments below & feel free to ask any questions.