Should I buy or build a website?

[Lemilion]

Looking for a simple advice: should I buy a website with proven profit or build a website from scratch?
This is my situation: I’ve got a small capital I’m willing to invest(max 3k), and I find a website that makes the profit I wanted to achieve for start, 100 per month. Revenue is not stable, and I’m going to pay a little more than the 30x multiple but the site has a lot of pros:
1) it’s an old site
2) It gets constant revenue even if it’s not updated
3) it’s in a competitive niche but that I enjoy
4) there are several long tail kw to go for, even money post.

Let’s see the cons:
1) I don’t have any experience with wordpress or affiliate, just theory knowledge
2) I’m not a native, I would need to spend at least 20$ for a 1000 world articles
3) Site is really slow and I would need to work on that
4) traffic is going down, caused by inactivity and maybe a google update
5) Price is high

The alternative: I want to have a blog, that’s for sure. If I don’t buy one I am going to creat a site in my country. The problem is traffic is lower, so the payout work and reward would be lower. But in this way I would at least be able to gain some technical knowledge

what’s your advice?

 

[Lemilion]

In short: I have no experience with Wordpress and some knowledge of SEO. Should I buy a site that need to be updated and fixed but with revenue or create a site on my own, to gain skills but with no revenue?

 

[PaintedBlack]

I'll let the more experienced members give deeper advice, but I just wanna say this, and don't take offense to it, just my 2cents -

If you're not very experienced with SEO it's gonna be hard to judge what you're buying accurately. You need to be able to tell (many months in advance) if the site's rank will remain stable and if there isn't a powerful competitor with a large budget trying to outrank it. You need to be able to tell, in general, how much time and money you will need to sink into it to have it bring you back your money. And all of this would need to be consistent for 2 and a half years just so you would 'break-even'.

Buying versus building is usually an argument of how many resources you can afford to invest. If you don't have the time, the knowledge, the energy, etc. to build your own, it's usually better to buy, right? When you need a house, sure. But when you need a reliable source of income it's riskier.

Putting down 3k on an asset you still reliably can't 'pilot' wouldn't be my top choice. Why don't you start by setting aside 5-10% of that 3k on a small similar project, doing keyword research, writing, building links, practicing WordPress with youtube tutorials, etc, and seeing how well you can handle the hustle. Maybe you create a really good micro-niche site that brings in profit, then rinse and repeat. Even if you aren't successful you gain a ton of experience.

And yeah, I said writing the content because you don't really need top tier stuff for a micro-niche site. Find a shared grammarly premium account online for cheap, they can be found through Google search. Then just practice. Getting slightly better at writing can save you thousands of dollars, you aren't that bad at it, to begin with.

 

[Lemilion]

no offense taken, you have some good points. You’re right, I avoid US market because I’m not so confident about my writing skills.
My plan with this site was to update the site, buy new content, and then flipped it when it reached 300$ per month. In this way I would make some profit.
Your message is logical btw, I get that I could encounter a lot of problem handling a site like that, and it would cost to me money and times.
Thanks for your answer.

 

[EMAOneBillion]

You should build one first.
Develop it and learn from your mistakes.

The purpose is to get knowledge in the field and then when you have enough experience you can buy one.

The point is, you can buy a perfect website that can make a lot of money but if you don't know what you are doing you can ruin it pretty easily.

 

[sundivjat]

Exactly, you should build the Wordpress website yourself, it's easy to learn and build and this way you will gain experience. 3K is a good amount which you may invest later on for getting traffic to your website by purchasing quality backlinks. Do proper niche and keyword research before diving in. You may get some good content writers from the forum itself.

 

[Lemilion]

I can't get over the fact I could make now some money buying, while bulding will require time and effort. I know it's the wrong mindset, I have to overcome this.
Have you all started bulding befor buying right?

 

[Ross_mike]

You should build first..in that way you will learn a lot.

 

[GringoMonkey]

A trick i used to do when buying affiliate sites was see if i could also sell a similar product to what they recommended. Then change it to recommend my product.

Lets say product is $100, cost is $50 and affiliate commission was 10%.

10% = $10, but by owning the recommended product my profit goes to $50.

That way the purchase multiple never really mattered.

 

[sundivjat]

I can't get over the fact I could make now some money buying, while bulding will require time and effort. I know it's the wrong mindset, I have to overcome this.
Have you all started bulding befor buying right?

I built my own websites for Amazon Affiliate program by learning through YouTube tutorial in 3-4 hours using Wordpress Platform, it's quite simple, you just need to apply what you learn.

 

[Lemilion]

more than 30 months for sure, if content is added it would much less as I expect revenue to grow

 

[Lemilion]

I don't really know how hard is to build a site that get 100 $ per month, maybe someone could tell me his experience

 

[Lemilion]

Building it can be easy its getting traffic to it. Do you have a traffic source?

My plan was SEO all along as is the only traffic source I understand.

 

[SEOMet]

Build first. Once you learn, feel free to buy more.
An important rule in internet marketing (and many other disciplines) seems to be "don't outsource what you don't know how to do yourself first".

 

[hellway2]

It is better to make it yourself. There are a lot of platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Constant Contact etc.
These are very simple and easy to use and they have enough customization options.
Besides, making your own site helps you learn a lot.

 

[Lemilion]

Thanks everyone, the site sold at 50x multiple so I decide not to buy it. I’m gonna build my own site in my native language and then I would go for the US market. I Will open a journey soon, wish me luck.

 

[Kikerinka]

Thanks everyone, the site sold at 50x multiple so I decide not to buy it. I’m gonna build my own site in my native language and then I would go for the US market. I Will open a journey soon, wish me luck.

Sites that have good content, some growth potential, are truly legit (not like 90% of sites sold on Flippa), and bring in some residual income (from ads or affiliate sales) each month, will always sell for much more than 30x multiple nowadays.

Honestly, with 3K budget is impossible to get such a site that brings in $100/month passively (and that will bring it long enough to pay for your investment...).

 

[adamex1970]

Any good place to search for websites for sale?

 

[EAZYJ]

Definitely create your site from scratch and give it a go. You'll learn more from it and who knows, it might actually do better than the site you have your eyes on.

 

[EAZYJ]

Any good place to search for websites for sale?

Check out:

- Flippa
- Online forums