Don't Forget Your Salary

The holder of this auction thinks that his profit is 90% of his revenue.

“How much is your net profit?”

I work alone, so maybe around 90% after Elance commission, payment processing fee and monthly membership.

So Elance commissions and payment processing are the only outgoings of this business? Wrong! What about the salary of the employees of the business i.e. the site owner? Does he work for nothing? Of course not. His time is worth something, as is the expertise he uses to complete his work.  He must deduct a notional salary + all the other costs before he gets even close to some estimation of profit.

I did some rough calculations based on the numbers he posted. He earned $4033 in 6 months and claims to work a mere 1 hour a day. That sounds like a good deal but when I gave him a freelance rate of $35 / hour and subtracted his salary from the revenue, I got:

salary = 182.5 hours x 35 = 6387.5

4033.00 - (6387.5) = -2354.50

In my book, that negative number is bad. The 'business' is making a loss and we haven't even started on the other costs yet (Elance membership, Elance commission, payment processing etc). Also, for someone of his obvious talents, $35 / hour is a little conservative.

It's Not A Business, It's A Job

This 'business' is nothing more than a job. If I buy the website and all associated accounts,  I still have to procure contracts and do work before I get any revenue.

In fact, I would be buying something less than a job. I would be buying a reputation that will only potentially generate more work for me (but maybe not). That work is not guaranteed.

Can you buy a reputation? A reputation is an opinion of a person or thing i.e. it is inextricably linked to the owner of that reputation. You can't transfer it. This transaction isn't like buying a company replete with employees who do the work. In this case, the reputation is built on the standard of work of those employees who are still present.

But let'e pretend you can transfer the reputation of an individual. You can see that the new owner's prosperity in this busness depends on his level of skill. He needs the expertise to maintain the high reputation the current owner built. So, imagine that you have the high level of skill required to maintain that established reputation. Why would you spend $35,000 (the Buy It Now value) on this site when you could establish your own reputation? Building your own reputation also has the advantage of tying it closely to your real abilities. The danger of 'inheriting' this guy's reputation is that your abilities might actually fall short. In this case you would have shelled out a huge sum of money for a business that fails because your work doesn't cut the mustard.

However, it sounds like a good proposition for the seller. He can start a new account and build its reputation in the same way he built the current one. And then he can sell it for $35,000!

Buying Jobs

What the seller has, and is trying to sell, is a job. He does work and he gets paid for it. If he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid. Yes, it's freelance work, but it's work nontheless. I have a 9 to 5 job but I doubt that I'd be able to sell it to anyone (it is a really good job though). Imagine if everyone had to buy their jobs!

Time Is Money

Unfortunately, most sellers in the marketplace don't account for the time they spend maintaining their sites, and certainly don't see this as a cost that should be taken off their profit.

Auction Details

Sitepoint Listing
Zero Traffic. $10,000/Year. Working From Anywhere In The World. Lazy Elance Business. High BIN
No Screenshot. No Bullsh*t. You Get To See My Proof of Income LIVE on The Internet.

* URL: http://hire.ghoulwriter.com/
* Established: Mon Apr 02 2007
* Uniques/Month: 0
* Page views/month: 0
* Monthly Revenue (USD): 1,000
* Google Pagerank: 0
* Listed: Yesterday 15:56

Description:

I hate a non-paying buyer to death. Sorry for being so direct, but please read this business offer carefully as I don’t want to waste my time and I certainly don’t want to waste yours.

Reserve Price: $25,000

Asking Price: $35,000

Annual Income: Approximately $10,000

Established since April 2007

I’m not going to advertise my business as “Make $10,000 Per Year Automatically!” – Most of that stuff is just full of crap if you ask me. Besides, I’m not merely selling a website here. This is a real business where you have to do some work.

WHAT?

I’m offering you an established business account on Elance.com, the most profitable freelance job exchange in the world. Since 2007, I’ve been selling my writing services to lots of people from around the world.

So far, I’ve earned $13,000 working part time. Then again, I wouldn’t even consider this as a part-time job, because I only work roughly 1 hour per day.

To see my proof of income LIVE on the Internet, please go to...

http://elderwise.elance.com

No screenshot. No bullsh*t.

HOW?

Elance.com is a place where buyers (your potential clients) can post a job. When you see the job that you like, you just submit your bid proposal. If you’re selected, you can finish the job and get paid.

I communicate with all my clients through emails and private message board. Therefore, I’ve never ever talked, met and saw any of my clients before.

The jobs are writing articles, ebooks, sales copy, emails, etc, and I use software to finish the job. Of course, the new owner will obtain all of my software. Best of all, I'm going to show you how you can finish most of those jobs in the laziest manner ever.

Another way to get a job is to accept an invitation. Thanks to my reputation, I receive numerous business invitations on a daily basis to submit bid proposals. From my experience, people who personally invited you are more likely to become your clients.

But that’s not all. My previous clients often recommended my business to their friends and family, thus giving me some immediate income. Infrequently, people are just stumbled upon my website from God-knows-where and contacted me for my business.

About your payment, it doesn’t matter where you live; Elance will send you the money (by wire-transfer) directly to your bank account once a month for no extra charge. You decide the time. This way, you don’t have to mess with cashing checks, filling papers and all that stuff.

Another brilliant method is to get paid by PayPal. Very fast.

WHEN?

Usually, I work just around 24 - 48 hours per month. For example; in one project, I work just 1 hour per day. In another project, I can work 5 hours straight (usually on the weekend) and then do absolutely nothing for the next 6 days. Then again, that’s just me being lazy. If you want to go full-time, go ahead. It’s your decision.

Sometimes, I get paid $50 for 5 minutes of work. Now, if you don’t want $50 for 5 minutes of your time, then you’re probably Bill Gates. (Hi, Mr. Bill Gates! What are you doing here?)

Anyway, when you own this business, you can work whenever you want, however you want. You do have responsibility with your clients, but you’re in control of your time. You are your own boss.

WHERE?

When I said you can run this business from anywhere in the world, I do mean anywhere in the world. For most of the time, I work comfortably from my bedroom, butt naked.

If I can do it, so can you. As long as you have computer (or laptop) and Internet access, feel free to go anywhere you want.

WHO?

I’m just a regular old man with one grandson, that’s all. Nothing special about me and I don’t have a Ferrari because my 2006 Mercedes is doing just fine. Thank you for asking.

WHY?

If you really want to know the reason I’m selling this business, then you just have to come to my house. But seriously, I don’t want to bore you with my fantasy.

COMPETITION?

There will be new freelancers joining Elance every day, but you don’t have to worry about them. If they dare to compete with you, they’re dead even before they know it. As for older and bigger freelancers, you don’t actually compete with them in price. And if you think lowering your price is a good idea, think again.

GROWTH & EXPANSION?

Potential #1:

Remember, I communicate with all my clients through emails and Elance’s private message board only. I’ve never ever talked, met and saw any of my clients before.

If you want to talk with your clients on the phone or meet them personally in Starbucks to discuss the project, that’s even better, because this is where the big money comes from. You can get a huge project worth $4,000 - $6,000 per month with no trouble.

Potential #2:

I work as a short-term freelancer. That means; I always declined long-term projects, such as routinely providing a company with new contents every single week.

I’m aware that long-term projects can make me a lot of money as I’m aware that I won’t have enough time anymore to play “Magic: The Gathering” later on. You can take those long-term projects and generate another $500 - $1,000 every week for many months to come if you want to.

Potential #3:

My friends told me that I can grow my business if I hire 2 to 3 staff – like few freelancers who got big and hit more than $100,000 on Elance – but I guess I’m just too indolent.

You, on the other hand, can hire another staff as independent contractors if you want to. More head(aches), more money, right?

Potential #4:

So you know I’m lazy. I only take 1 - 3 jobs per week, one hour work per day. It’s easy to predict your income if you’re willing to take more jobs. $2,000 per month? $5,000 per month? It’s all achievable.

When you complete all the potentials, you will laugh at how cheap you bought this business.

COSTS:

Elance Membership: $19.95 per month*

Elance commission: 4%-6% for each project (Deducted automatically)

Payment Processing Fee: 2.75% for each project (Deducted automatically)

Domain Name: $9.99 per year*

Webhosting: $0 (I use blogger)

Advertising: $0

*I will secure three-year Elance membership for you until 2012 and lock the domain up to a decade if you choose my BIN price. This way, you don’t have to worry about any other upfront fees.

QUESTIONS?

“Can you show me proof of income?”

Even better, Elance will show you how much I’ve earned up to now. Just go to...

http://elderwise.elance.com

Like I said, no screenshot, no gimmicks, no bullsh*t.

On that profile page, you can see everything that you need to know, from my detailed feedback to my lifetime earnings since April 2007 ($13,027). All in US Dollars.

“How much is your net profit?”

I work alone, so maybe around 90% after Elance commission, payment processing fee and monthly membership.

“Anyone can open a business account on Elance, so why should I buy yours?”

Anyone can start a company, why should I buy Microsoft? Same question, different brain.

You’re right, anyone can open an account with their eyes closed. So please, go ahead. But how long can you survive? From what I saw, as much as 80% of new freelancers failed in their first 3 months. As for the rest 19%, they can't even make $1,000 in a year, let alone $10,000.

And here’s a fact that you can verify yourself right now…

Out of 28,030 freelancers on Elance (in Writing category), there are less than 300 people who successfully made more than $10,000.

Does that mean I have a higher IQ than 20,000 other people? Maybe.

Does that mean I work harder than 20,000 other people? Hell no.

I did spend considerable time in my first couple of months testing various methods, and now I have a system in place that generates new clients, sales and profits over and over again.

I’m offering you a freelance business with an established reputation which will give you huge advantages over the others and returning clients which means guaranteed revenue in the long run. I’m offering you the trade secrets to make some serious cash in a proven lazy way.

In case you’re wondering…

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In some jurisdictions, such secrets are referred to as confidential information or classified information – Wikipedia.

“Can you lower the price?”

I’m not going to brag all day that I’ve earned $1,000 a month from my bedroom, yet amazingly, you can buy this so-called “an established business” for $1,000 right now because that’s the BIN price. What a joke!

Nearly all REAL businesses sold for 5 to 10-year revenue, so I think it’s only fair if I set $25,000 as the reserve price. If you want to buy a phony business with a bogus income screenshot, go to Digital Point or Craigslist. They’re cheap.

“Will you help me after the purchase?”

After the purchase, the business will be your responsibility and YOU will be my responsibility.

During and after the transition, I’m only one click away from your mouse. I will give you full email support and assistance for one whole year (minus weekends and holidays).

I will lead you, guide you, show you and watch over your shoulder. Now that’s what I call manhood.

“Will you accept Escrow.com?”

I’ve had my honeymoon with Escrow.com, but now after she stabbed me in the back, the answer is no. I prefer Moniker Escrow (buyer pays all the fees). They are 1000% safe for both buyer and seller. If you choose my BIN price, I’ll pay all the fees.

“Do you want to team up with my business?”

Nope.

“I don’t have the money to buy your business right now, but I know I can…”

Nope.

CONCLUSION

This business has a recession-proof income. There will always be new jobs posted every time you woke up in the morning.

Besides, this business does not need traffic. I’m proud to say that Google, Yahoo, and Alexa are all irrelevant. Not everyone can say this. Ha!

Part time or full time; this is a perfect business if you want to work at your own pace from anywhere you can think of. This is the real Internet dream which you can show off to your friends and family.

To me, I always love to see those confused faces of them when I bought something nice every month without ever leaving my house.

That’s it. If you have any other questions in mind, just let me know.

Thank you for your interest.

P.S. Did I mention that I hate a non-paying buyer to death? They’re like itches that I used to scratch until it bleeds. On that note, I require 10% non-refundable deposit via PayPal within 24 hours of auction closed, whether it’s BIN or not.

So please, do not bid if you don’t have the money to pay now. If you’re serious about making money with my business (in a lazy way, of course), then I’m sure you don’t mind.
Revenue Details:

http://elderwise.elance.com

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