Start fresh or buy something established?

[SimonK]

Hello,

I am a pastime poker player and writer and I am thinking about trying my luck with affiliate marketing. I have a friend who is doing this for some time but he is not really successful and experienced at all. My actual question is, would you start fresh all over or better save some money and buy a website that is somewhat established and work on it, try to improve it and so on. I am not a complete newbie when it comes to websites and the basic seo stuff.

I would really love to hear your advice on this because I really want to give affiliate marketing a shot.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer if you do!

[kdollar]

It is not necessary but to have more immediate success it helps to have an age factor.

I think you should find a niche you want to target and think of a way to add more value then the current sites are offering. Then see if it would be possible to buy a site in that niche but look for sites that haven't cracked the top 5. That way you can possibly by a site with age but not have to pay a premium because likely below top 5 they aren't making much.

[parttimepoker]

Do both.

[nikolayjs]

Maybe its better to try develop something already established.

[casdir]

Definitely better and easier to buy an established website. New websites take a long time to rank in Google, especially with the recent Panda updates. I'd much prefer to buy an older website that is already ranking in the serps

[pokeraussie]

Definitely better and easier to buy an established website. New websites take a long time to rank in Google, especially with the recent Panda updates. I'd much prefer to buy an older website that is already ranking in the serps

Actually, I don't think Panda has affected the time it takes to get a new site to rank at all.

[PokerFelts]

Actually, I don't think Panda has affected the time it takes to get a new site to rank at all.

I can second that, i have a 3 week old site that is ranking very well for a number of keywords without too much effort!

[casdir]

I can second that, i have a 3 week old site that is ranking very well for a number of keywords without too much effort!

I must be doing something wrong then, all of my new sites take forever to start ranking. Maybe it depends on how competitive the keywords are? Cheers for the info

[wendybluff]

It is better to start from scratch and learn the ropes this way. Only when you are experienced, buy established sites. As an example Tapie is trying to buy Full Tilt and it is a bad idea as they do not know what they are doing.

[mindfreak]

It is better to start from scratch and learn the ropes this way. Only when you are experienced, buy established sites. As an example Tapie is trying to buy Full Tilt and it is a bad idea as they do not know what they are doing.

She has a good point, start fresh and learn the basics and then you can buy established one