Buying out traffic

[whiteRabbit]

The other day, I was just surfing around some site and found that number of websites are on sale.  I was checking the price and statistics and thought, "Depending on how you modify and utilize the asset, it can bring up your traffic up significantly."

Here's some thought I had.  There are many websites related to what you do.  Web design, for example.  Site A has 500 registered users and it has 30k visitors a month, let's say.  If the price is $1000 - $2000, then it's so much cheaper than creating a site from scratch and promoting it by ads, link exchange, SEO or whatever and get 30k visitors a month.  If you can integrate the site with your existing site well, you will get 30k more visitors and 500 registered.  It seems like a really good price, doesn't it?  Buy out websites and buy out traffic.  Any thought?  Any comment?

[SensoVision]

hmm there is some problem arise at least for me... where to find the money? as for me it's easier to make site from the scratch rather than transform existing one to something new... but for particular projects this could be really good advice...

[Hope]

WR, you are correct in some ways. This is a great way to get instant traffic if you have the money. There are a few problems with buying a website.

1.) Why are they selling it? Is there something wrong?
2.) How do the search engines feel about the site? Is it black listed for some reason?
3.) Is the cost worth the traffic? Can you make that money back fast enough?
4.) What kind of traffic is the site getting? Is it quality?
5.) How much redesign will it take to make the site what you want?

Once these questions are answered you will know if the site if worth the money. Most of the time, it is easier and cheaper to just start from scratch. Other times, if the domain is good, it is worth the money.

[whiteRabbit]

There is this guide to buy websites and I post a link here; http://www.websitepublisher.net/scripts/article_print.php?ArtID=46.  Also if anyone's interested in actually buying website(s), you may want to check the following sites:

BizBuySell http://www.bizbuysell.com/
webmergers.com http://www.webmergers.com/
Creabiz.com http://www.creabiz.com/