Kostya76
Regular Member
- Dec 15, 2016
- 331
- 164
I just wanted to share one of my experiences with selling established websites. If you guys are interested, I can also talk about downsides of some of my other transactions later.
First of all, it's not that I am huge flipper, but I've sold several e-commerce stores (Shopify) and authority sites. Most of them transacted smoothly, but some sales left a bitter aftertaste. I am going to talk about one of such sales below.
I used to run a website about Electronic Dance Music. I spotted the trend early on and started the site in 2013 when EDM was 2-3 years away from its peak in the U.S. The site was doing great. I was getting press and VIP passes to all kinds of events and I was making a few bucks selling event tickets through affiliate links. It also ranked on Google like a MF'er. If you Googled something like "Diplo in [City Name]", "EDM Events in [City Name]", "Tiesto Bio", etc you would see my site in one of the 3 results. So, I was running this site for 1+ years, but at some point I've decided that the site was too location specific (it even had a name of the biggest city in the area as part of the domain name). It was really tailored to the audience in just one U.S. state, so I decided to move on to create something bigger and ended up selling my site to somebody from one of the European countries which seemed odd since they clearly weren't experts on the music industry in my area. Anyways, it was the cleanest translation ever and I had nothing to complain baout: I got the payment right away, no questions were ask, the buyer was polite and patient.
Here is the rub though: The site had huge money making potential and I thought that the new owner was going to take advantage of it. However, since the day the site changed hands 3 years ago, the new owner hasn't added a single new piece of content to the site. The site is still live, there are Google Ads, and affiliate links, so I guess the new owner is still making a few bucks on a monthly basis. But he hasn't even replaced my Google Analytics tracking code! So, I can see stats for the site and I can tell that traffic levels to the site have been declining constantly over last 3 years because no one is adding new contest and there is no reason for people to come back to the site after they visited it once...
At some point a couple of years ago, I tried to contact the owner to see if he would be interested in selling the site back to me, but but he declined my offer. I really have no idea why he needs it, but he seems to just be sitting on it without reaping the benefits of my prior hard work to make the site rank on Google and Bing and establish relationships with promoters, publishes, and musicians.
P.S. My second EDM site was a success too. When I started my 2nd EDM site my goal was not to make money, but to build a reputation in the industry in order to be able to connect with some of the most successful people (artists). In less than a year I was able to have a meeting to discuss things with one of the most popular (and in my mind the most reputable) DJ/producer in the world. Eventually, I outgrew the whole EDM thing, so I have very little to do with it right now, but this particular experience taught me 2 important lessons: 1. Always have a clear ultimate goal and be passionate about reaching it. 2. Spot the trend early on if you looking for your venture to grow fast.
First of all, it's not that I am huge flipper, but I've sold several e-commerce stores (Shopify) and authority sites. Most of them transacted smoothly, but some sales left a bitter aftertaste. I am going to talk about one of such sales below.
I used to run a website about Electronic Dance Music. I spotted the trend early on and started the site in 2013 when EDM was 2-3 years away from its peak in the U.S. The site was doing great. I was getting press and VIP passes to all kinds of events and I was making a few bucks selling event tickets through affiliate links. It also ranked on Google like a MF'er. If you Googled something like "Diplo in [City Name]", "EDM Events in [City Name]", "Tiesto Bio", etc you would see my site in one of the 3 results. So, I was running this site for 1+ years, but at some point I've decided that the site was too location specific (it even had a name of the biggest city in the area as part of the domain name). It was really tailored to the audience in just one U.S. state, so I decided to move on to create something bigger and ended up selling my site to somebody from one of the European countries which seemed odd since they clearly weren't experts on the music industry in my area. Anyways, it was the cleanest translation ever and I had nothing to complain baout: I got the payment right away, no questions were ask, the buyer was polite and patient.
Here is the rub though: The site had huge money making potential and I thought that the new owner was going to take advantage of it. However, since the day the site changed hands 3 years ago, the new owner hasn't added a single new piece of content to the site. The site is still live, there are Google Ads, and affiliate links, so I guess the new owner is still making a few bucks on a monthly basis. But he hasn't even replaced my Google Analytics tracking code! So, I can see stats for the site and I can tell that traffic levels to the site have been declining constantly over last 3 years because no one is adding new contest and there is no reason for people to come back to the site after they visited it once...
At some point a couple of years ago, I tried to contact the owner to see if he would be interested in selling the site back to me, but but he declined my offer. I really have no idea why he needs it, but he seems to just be sitting on it without reaping the benefits of my prior hard work to make the site rank on Google and Bing and establish relationships with promoters, publishes, and musicians.
P.S. My second EDM site was a success too. When I started my 2nd EDM site my goal was not to make money, but to build a reputation in the industry in order to be able to connect with some of the most successful people (artists). In less than a year I was able to have a meeting to discuss things with one of the most popular (and in my mind the most reputable) DJ/producer in the world. Eventually, I outgrew the whole EDM thing, so I have very little to do with it right now, but this particular experience taught me 2 important lessons: 1. Always have a clear ultimate goal and be passionate about reaching it. 2. Spot the trend early on if you looking for your venture to grow fast.
he's got some good music, but I don't like his personality. So, the answer is no 
