ak

The best line is:

"I use shared trackers so I can't prove the revenue" (knowing full well traffic and revenue is zero). note: I don't always think is is people being dishonest, but sometimes I think it comes from general embarassment - don't be afraid to admit a failed, or negected, or poorly executed site for what it is, we all have them.

There IS room for honesty in this business, though I'd disagree with you on not buying failed site - those are the bargains of the world. Most people here call anything not ranking well "penalized" and it's just not accurate or true, I think more bad info is floating around this year than I've ever seen before.

One of the reasons I usually do not purchase failed sites here or other places is because the asking price is usually so high as if it was successful. Grip of reality is hard to some.

Here is another scam line used to jump up prices.

"Winning Bidder backed out, will let it go for less"

Seems to happen in 50% of the website sales, if a buyer backs out feedback should result that.

Any site that doesn't have individual trackers and analytics installed = fail. This takes less than half an hour to setup and any affiliate who doesn't have this done on every one of their sites is nothing short of incompetent.

I would never buy a site that doesn't have clear, verifiable proof of income and the same for it's traffic.

I can't agree more guys. There are idiots here, buyer beware, and do your own due diligence. Unfortunately I have spent thousands of dollars on building a marketplace similar to Flippa's over the past 2 years, and the majority of the members here always come back to wanting a "forum" marketplace when it's all said and done.

I gave up on trying to build a professional marketplace and I have no ambition to embark on it again unless I have some compelling reason to do so.

Buying a website is no different than buying a used car. Do your own research and make sure the engine is not shot and everything is as the seller describes it before you write the check.

Originally Posted by MJ

The best line is:

"I use shared trackers so I can't prove the revenue" (knowing full well traffic and revenue is zero). note: I don't always think is is people being dishonest, but sometimes I think it comes from general embarassment - don't be afraid to admit a failed, or negected, or poorly executed site for what it is, we all have them.

There IS room for honesty in this business, though I'd disagree with you on not buying failed site - those are the bargains of the world. Most people here call anything not ranking well "penalized" and it's just not accurate or true, I think more bad info is floating around this year than I've ever seen before.

I couldn't agree more with you on the bolded part. The "failed sites" are indeed often great buys. A lot of them have decent backlinks to go along with good good content and substantial age. Oftentimes they are focused on poorly converting keywords. Simply by changing the focus of what the site targets along with some additional links can turn it into an earner relatively quickly.

I know quite a few sites that always looked good and had good content, but never made much money. They were sold to other people and turned into great earners.