Two Websites - Which to Choose?

MrMedia

MrMedia

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Soooooo.....

I have managed to source two websites that could be used for my next project. For the purpose of this thread lets say my next project is focussed on Goldfish.

Site 1:

DA: 31
Age: 6 years
Existing Site Topic: Goldfish (100% perfect match)
Existing Revenue: $1.3k p/m
Price: $60k


Site 2:

DA: 52
Age: 6 years
Existing Site Topic: House Keeping
Existing Revenue: $1k p/m
Price: $15k

My thoughts are that the topical relevance of site one is bang on however it has much lower DA than Site 2.

Site 2 is high powered but existing content would struggle to fit naturally in the new direction I want to take the site. It would effectively become a goldfish website with a category called "lifestyle" that would be home for every existing article on the site. There is nothing in the domain name of site 2 that would stop it being a good goldfish brand - it is generic and quirky enough to work.

Which would you guys go for?
 
MrMedia said:
Existing Site Topic: Goldfish (100% perfect match)
Click to expand...

This is my preference.

The latter while it sounds like you may be able to transition it into your niche, it's still a risk that it doesn't work.

Where-as the first you already know it's in your exact niche and it's working. There's no guess work and if anything you'll rank easier due to the existing topic relevance.

That's my two cents though.

A difference of $45k though is wild :smile:

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To note, when you say the second topic is about "House Keeping" does that then mean it's not necessarily related to goldfish? So the site could have content that's about "how to clean your toilet" - "types of dinnerware" - "difference between salad fork and dinner fork"

Now you're wanting to solely harp on Goldfish which many people keep as pets in a home. So content would then go into - "How often to feed goldfish" - "tank mates for goldfish" etc.
 
thisishatred said:
This is my preference.

The latter while it sounds like you may be able to transition it into your niche, it's still a risk that it doesn't work.

Where-as the first you already know it's in your exact niche and it's working. There's no guess work and if anything you'll rank easier due to the existing topic relevance.

That's my two cents though.

A difference of $45k though is wild :smile:

--

To note, when you say the second topic is about "House Keeping" does that then mean it's not necessarily related to goldfish? So the site could have content that's about "how to clean your toilet" - "types of dinnerware" - "difference between salad fork and dinner fork"

Now you're wanting to solely harp on Goldfish which many people keep as pets in a home. So content would then go into - "How often to feed goldfish" - "tank mates for goldfish" etc.
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The second site has nothing currently to do with goldfish but it is a brandable domain that could be adapted to host goldfish content.

It is like this as an example without giving away the actual domain - ItsmeKelly.com

If I went with this "Kelly" could become an expert on goldfish.
 
Well, the issue here is the price, right?

One is a significantly larger investment than the other.

One is basically free, because it only has a 15x multiplier, which is almost impossible to fuck up aka lose money on (all else equal). Not counting extra money on content etc, then you won't lose money on such a site, because it will earn some and it will have resale value to recoup losses in 95% of cases.

The other is a 50x'ish investment which is quite some other thing and open you up to a specific long term risk, which we all know is very real in this biz. No site is untouched, up or down, for 4 years.

Which means it is two different investment cases, which imo should have two different exit and investment strategies.

There's no doubt I would prefer site A, the 100% match, it will remove a lot of the content risk, you can likely hit the road publishing everything and anything about goldfish.

In the end though, will a potential buyer have the same considerations as you? Is the market going towards brand value and "real sites" or is it going towards easy to crunch numbers?

Personally, judging from what Authority Hackers are saying, and they're usually/sometimes on the point with trends, affiliate and content sites are looking to move towards own products. In that case, perhaps Goldfish.com is the better value? In the case of Glassbowls.com is that essentially just an aged domain with AI content?

All that said, 60k is a lot of money for something that only earns 1.3k, particularly considering you'll need money to match their "serious site" strategy here.

If this was poker, you'd be entering into bankroll concerns. While ideally you should make decisions based only on ROI, you also have to consider the risk-of-ruin.

To conclude, how big is your bankroll?
 
The perfect match in relevance is something I'd value very highly.

Do I value it enough to pay an extra $45k for it? If I'm going all in on this project, then yes, I do. Especially since I'd be going into this with the expectation of paying a closer to normal multiple, even on the high end, than I would hope to sneak out a low 15x multiplier (which makes me wonder if site 2 isn't e-commerce or something outside of a straight info site).

The higher DR score isn't too much of a concern either, again because if this is going to be a "main" project then I'll end up investing into it and naturally it'll gain more link authority over time. But with it being "niched down" to a degree you may not need as much authority and it may be overcome by the tighter relevancy and topical authority where you stay inside your topical lane the whole time.

The 100% perfect match is pretty valuable, in my opinion. It's harder to find that in an existing and earning website that's willing to sell, than it is to build more links, etc.
 
All good points guys thank you.

To answer - and without sounding like a dick - the money isn't the issue. The question for me is really which will be the most solid foundational base to apply my proven strategies.

To give some context -

$60k site cost
$120k content cost (over 2 years)

Monthly revenues at 24 months - $30-40k
Exit valuation - $1.2M
Exit plus revenue over 24 months - $1.5M

This is a category I know very well and the above numbers are easily achievable with my approach.

In this context the difference between $60k and $15k is practically irrelevant.
 
I think your main issue is not the money, but the price.

The second one is actually too cheap. In fact, so cheap that it's becoming suspicious. Why would someone sell it only for 15x the monthly profits?

I would definitely go for the first option, simply because the second one is just too cheap. I always stay away from anything that seems off. If money is not an issue for you, go for the first option, especially if it's more brandable, and you want to build something long-term.
 
MrMedia said:
All good points guys thank you.

To answer - and without sounding like a dick - the money isn't the issue. The question for me is really which will be the most solid foundational base to apply my proven strategies.

To give some context -

$60k site cost
$120k content cost (over 2 years)

Monthly revenues at 24 months - $30-40k
Exit valuation - $1.2M
Exit plus revenue over 24 months - $1.5M

This is a category I know very well and the above numbers are easily achievable with my approach.

In this context the difference between $60k and $15k is practically irrelevant.
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I was going to say, you definitely have the funds and resources to boost the authority (DR) of the first website, and that seems to be all site 2 has over site 1. My vote is for the topical relevance - site 1. I feel like the relevant content on the domain will rank higher and faster than it would on the other domain with the higher DR due to the topical authority alone, which will lead to a faster ROI.
 
The only situation where I would take site 2 is if the links giving it the fancy DA score are on articles driving real traffic. I've had a couple of article links that drive really nice value for me because in addition to being top tier articles on great sites; the pages the links are on rank for some hella big keywords and are written in a way that results in people actually clicking the links.
You can pick out the pages and use data for seo or semrush to check for rankings.

Also at your budget, why not just do both and 301. dddd
 
I assume with those prices that you have taken a good look at the backlink profile of each domain. I tend to treat DA/DR with a healthy amount of disrespect these days (given that my experience only marginally correlates with those metrics). Hopefully one or both of them has a nice varied bunch of Wikipedia/ODP/national news (not parasite SEO ones)/and topical authority referrals?
 
MrMedia said:
In this context the difference between $60k and $15k is practically irrelevant.
Click to expand...

In that case and when you have a certainty about your business model and you have the experience, than for me it's hard to not say that A is the correct choice.

I'd only say that A was not the correct choice if money was a concern or if you didn't have a well thought out business plan with enough experience and funds to back it up.

Personally, I do not like broad expired domain kind of setups, though I do have a site that is like Sports Star -> Sports Equipment kind of thing, which will be interesting to see if succeeds or if it bombs.

However, you'd have to do some due dilligence on the backlinks of site A.
 
tziahs said:
I think your main issue is not the money, but the price.

The second one is actually too cheap. In fact, so cheap that it's becoming suspicious. Why would someone sell it only for 15x the monthly profits?

I would definitely go for the first option, simply because the second one is just too cheap. I always stay away from anything that seems off. If money is not an issue for you, go for the first option, especially if it's more brandable, and you want to build something long-term.
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No its not a scam I checked. This kind of thing is actually pretty common. I find that passion bloggers rack up mega links and then just get bored with the sites and let them drift.

Both sites have good likes - Bustle, CBS, CNN even! but as you can expect the 15k site has the best of the links.
 
MrMedia said:
Bought site 1. Can’t wait to get started on some volume content strategies.

Target exit date: July 25
Click to expand...

Sweet!

I'd like to follow this scenario as its similar to mine, are you doing a lab thread?

Would be interesting to see how you tackle a tight niche site.
 
bernard said:
Sweet!

I'd like to follow this scenario as its similar to mine, are you doing a lab thread?

Would be interesting to see how you tackle a tight niche site.
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Considered it but it feels like this place is literally only a few regulars floating about now and I would guess only half of them are what I would consider serious builders.

Not much point shouting into the void.
 
MrMedia said:
Considered it but it feels like this place is literally only a few regulars floating about now and I would guess only half of them are what I would consider serious builders.

Not much point shouting into the void.
Click to expand...

It does seem a bit slow recently.

In any case, if you do decide to post more about it, then I'm sure many would be interested.
 
Are you incorporating YouTube into this project too? Or will it be purely your volume content strat?
 
MrMedia said:
All good points guys thank you.

To answer - and without sounding like a dick - the money isn't the issue. The question for me is really which will be the most solid foundational base to apply my proven strategies.

To give some context -

$60k site cost
$120k content cost (over 2 years)

Monthly revenues at 24 months - $30-40k
Exit valuation - $1.2M
Exit plus revenue over 24 months - $1.5M

This is a category I know very well and the above numbers are easily achievable with my approach.

In this context the difference between $60k and $15k is practically irrelevant.
Click to expand...
If this is the case, site 1 is definitely your best bet by a mile.
The value of a hand-in-glove fit of an expired domain with some domain age and backlinks far outweighs the value of a high DA domain in a different niche, with the way google looks at sites these days.
And since the cost difference is immaterial to you in the long run, it's a no brainer to go with site 1, IMHO.

You made the right choice in going with site 1 eventually.
 
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