Good methods for finding and buying a cheap-ish niche site to grow?

Poplanu

Poplanu

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My friend has some extra money to invest and is looking to buy an affiliate site (probably Amazon) in 2-3 particular niches that he's interested in.

I'm helping him out with this. The budget is max $20K, but preferably lower than that.

Since this is an ASAP thing, sitting around on Flippa / EF and waiting for the right site to come along is not an option.

So I figured that our best bet would be:
  1. Compiling a list of prospect sites
  2. Mailing the webmasters through WHOIS asking if they're interested in selling
  3. Negotiating from there with the sites that reply
So I have two questions about the technicalities:
  1. Is mailing ~50 emails per day through scraped domain WHOis emails OK?
  2. If your mission is: "Find all amazon affiliate sites in the kitchen knives niche", how would you go about accomplishing that?
Any tips / advice / criticism appreciated.

I'll be working on this for the next couple of days, and will report back with any insights :smile:
 
Most of the time they won't reply at the whois email, try first contacting them directly at their contact page/social network.
Just search best XXX and contact all the site in the first 2 pages, you will probably find a owner willing to sell the website for the right price
 
andreint said:
A shameless plug, but it seems relevant:

https://alphainvestors.com/how-to/websites-for-sale/
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. Reading this now and could really use a scrolling sidebar with the TOC on it. Or clearer headings. Or alternatively - back to top buttons that take you to TOC.

You know it's one of those long articles with a ton of images and elements. The problem is that if I want to skip a section, I can't really tell where a new section begins.
 
Every now and then on FB groups you'll find someone wanting a quick sale.
Downside there though is you have 50 people all asking for the URL and no intention of buying. But posting a looking to buy, might be one option.
 
Yeah, there are several subreddits, but none really active.
I'd love a good website marketplace, where sites are openly scrutinized.

Mods?
 
darkzerothree said:
Yeah, there are several subreddits, but none really active.
I'd love a good website marketplace, where sites are openly scrutinized.

Mods?
Click to expand...

Vetting for websites is almost always going to be done by the interested buyer. As a seller you might fill out a prospectus but beyond that, it'd be too much work to be done for sites that may not sell while also considering that the buyer is going to do their due diligence anyways if they're smart. I wouldn't be caught dead buying a site based on the word of a marketplace that is incentivized to sell it.

We have had website sales go through the BuSo Marketplace and anyone is welcomed to advertise their sites there. But they're also encouraged to do their due dilligence, getting access to earning reports and analytics and whatever else.

I just can't see it making sense for low-ticket sites due to the low cost of advertising it. The marketplace wouldn't earn enough money to warrant the work. For medium and high-ticket sales, the buyer is going to do it anyways. Flippa and EmpireFlippers seem like the best places to go for lower-tier sites, if you just want to browse them.

As a site seller, I wouldn't let anything be openly scrutinized. I wouldn't even reveal the URL before a non-compete was signed. And if any sudden copycats popped up in the next year, I'd find out who owned them and cross reference it against the non-competes.
 
hmmm...

maybe a sub forum for website sales?
especially smaller deals
 
darkzerothree said:
hmmm...

maybe a sub forum for website sales?
especially smaller deals
Click to expand...

Would this work better with metrics of the site, the niche and say traffic stats/proof of earnings visible and the url hidden. Then any interested buyers need to sign to sign an NDA and a non compete.
 
Update, as promised:

Mailing people with minimal customization works. If someone is interested in selling they will reply even if you didn't use their first name.

My contact finding hierarchy was: email (scrapebox) --> contact form --> WHOIS email

I sent a template email, the only customization was including site title in the subject line. Without the ".com". I also added a short paragraph about us to build trust - who we are, and why are we interested.

I was also surprised by how many people revealed their ballpark earnings/traffic figures when I asked them for it. Not just smaller sites either - a couple of $6K-$10K/mo ballers as well.

Also made some new connections, which is always great.
 
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