Website sellers. What are we to do with them? It seems that the vast majority are not dealing from a full pack. Take this one, for example. The very first question, a request to post traffic stats, is asked on a Friday, and the seller only gets around to responding to it the following Thursday. That’s customer service for you. You would think the seller doesn’t want to part with their beloved site after all. Strike 1!

Someone is selling a parked domain that has a PR of 5. The starting bid is only $300, so it sounds like a good deal doesn’t it? Maybe it is, but it’s only when you do a little digging around that you discover that you’d have to do some work to keep that PR5 if you bought it.

This here is a clever chap. I don’t know where he got his brilliant idea from but what he’s done is pure genius. Either he’s created himself, or he’s got someone else to create, translations of some core pages on the W3C site. W3C are always looking for volunteers to translate certain pages on their site, so I’m sure his offer of translation services would have been gratefully received.

This is an interesting auction to dissect. Let’s get stuck in!
Firstly, the site being sold is a blog. What’s the problem with blogs? They usually require regular work. I say usually because there are some rare exceptions that receive good amounts of traffic without being updated regularly.

This seller is selling his site, knowing that it’s currently down! Anyone interested in it will find that the site is unreachable. He will provide a screenshot though. This is a bit like buying a house based on a photo of it.

I came across this auction today. Here is the immediate red flag:
“all website traffic is the result of organic search engine results.”
That’s good isn’t it? Organic search traffic means no nasty PPC expenses, right?

Skip to auction details.
This auction is worthy of study. Firstly, the site has genuine appeal for the following reasons:

the site generates $750 / month. This [...]

I love this guy! He started his site out of true passion and then put it up for auction a mere month later. I’ve known girls I’ve dated longer.

“Guitarhero-rockband.com was started from true passion for the game but I’ve decided its better for me to sell it.”

It’s better that the owner sells this site because it stands to make no money.

Question. It’s November. I have a site that made $230 in August, and then nothing in September and then another big fat $0 in October. What is my monthly revenue? If you think it’s $230, please stay behind after class because I’d like you to help me with my accounts.

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!