Purchasing Websites vs Building Your Own
When you decide that you want to run your own online business,
the question will soon come up in your mind about whether you
should purchase an established website, or build one from
scratch. The answers may surprise you, and in this article I
want to go over both strategies in detail.
Building your own website from scratch is a lot of work. You
will have to work very hard, and unless you have thousands of
dollars up front to get started, you shouldn't expect to start
earning any serious money until after a year has passed. It
takes time for a brand new site to build link popularity,
traffic, and content. It is necessary for a website to have
these things before it can begin to earn money.
When you build a new website, you may find it hard for seasoned
webmasters to take your site seriously. I've found that some
webmasters will even refuse to exchange links with your site if
it is brand new and has a zero page rank. You can avoid this to
some extent by adding lots of content to your new site.
Purchasing a website is easier in the sense that if you buy a
site that is already established, there is no need to wait long
periods of time in order to get it to the point where it is
earning money. If you purchase a good website, you should begin
earning money within a month of making the purchase.
However, there are a few things you need to know before going
out to purchase a website. You need to do careful research on
the site you're interested in to make sure it earns what the
owner says it earns. Request from the webmaster a copy of
earning statements for the last twelve months.
Join webmaster forums and ask other veteran webmasters their
thoughts on the site you're interested in. Listen carefully to
their answers. If more than one person says that they wouldn't
buy it, and gives good reasons for doing so, you may want to
take their advice. It is also important to get the website
appraised. Make sure that is is worth exactly what the seller
says its worth.
You also want to make sure you buy a site rich in content. Check
to make sure the content is original and not copied from another
source. If you are a busy person who doesn't have time to build
a website from scratch, purchasing a website would be an
excellent choice.
However, purchasing an established website which is earning
money will not be cheap. You can expect to pay at least
$10,000.00 for a three year old website with a pagerank of 5 or
6 which is earning $500 per month. It is important to do your
research and look at all the factors involved in both building
and purchasing a site.