Where’s the best place to find an established website for sale? Some of the registrars and web hosting companies have their own auctions. If you spend enough time scouring these auctions, then it’s very likely you’ll come across a good deal. But, what’s a good deal look like? Would you know it if it was staring you in the face? And, what criteria is important to know about the site before making an offer?

Instead of buying a new domain and going thru the painfully long task of searching for a domain name & building/promoting a site from scratch, I prefer to go thru an auction to buy an established domain.

Here’s a checklist of several factors to investigate before making your offer.

Guide to Buying Established Websites:
1) Find a subject matter you like. Sounds obvious. But, people looking to make money can be drawn to website with a subject matter they have no interest in. If the subject matter of the site is something you like, then the odds are you’ll be much more interested in working on it.

2) Make sure it has a Google PageRank 3 or more. This is also good if you’re business model is selling blog reviews, textlinks, display ads, etc. It also adds a bit of credibility/respectibility.

3) Clarify if their are any liabilities associated with the site. You don’t want to buy a site, and then find yourself wrapped up in legal issues which prevent you from working on the site. And, possibly court-ordered to tear the site down.

4) Are their Forum moderators that will remain (if a discussion forum). If not, this could present a problem of maintaining the forum. Certainly extra work to recruit forum moderators, and possibly an additional cost to compensate moderators.

5) Does the website need a Windows server or Unix box? Do you need an additional web host?

6) Does it have a CMS (Content Management System)? Will you need to build a CMS? Do you need HTML skills? Do you need database skills? Will you need to hire a programmer?

7) Check the site using the link: command in Yahoo to check inbound links.

8 ) Check in Google the related: command for sites associated with it. Make sure it’s not in a “bad neighborhood”.

9) Understand that the site will need attention (possibly hours of work, improvement, marketing, etc).

10) It’s possible to negotiate with the seller a lower BIN (Buy it Now) price before the auction ends.

11) Check the Whois information.

12) Look for less competitive niche sites. Good for keyword rankings, and monetization of traffic.

13) Check the Web Analytics. Especially, if an ecommerce site, or if they are monetizing thru adsense (ads).

14) If it’s an ecommerce site, then what contracts are in place for inventory & fulfillment of products?

15) Is the content unique? Or, is it a scraper site?

16) Make sure they save all the files & databases on a CD and send it to you.

17) Perhaps use an escrow agent like Escrow.com. Paypal is also good, but you can’t dispute a sale unless physical goods were transferred, so have the seller FedEx you the files on a CD.

18) Does an email list come with the site? Is a newsletter format included?

19) Is it optimized for Search Engines? Do you know what to look for? If not, consider asking an SEO Consultant how much of their time, effort and cost will go into making it Search Engine Friendly.

20) Consider paying 50% upfront, and the remaining 50% upon receipt of the files.

Domain Auctions:
Afternic
Sedo
GoDaddy Auctions
SnapNames Live Auctions

Auctions for Buying Established Websites:
Digital Point Forums.
Sitepoint Marketplace.
ebay.

Website Brokers:
BizBuySell.
Website Broker.

Photo Credit: Josh Sommers

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