Back in October I purchased this site for $1600:<p>https://flippa.com/auctions/109871/630pm-Ebook-Design-Service-w-Adsense-Income----Google-Page-1---REAL-BUSINESS<p>Some months passed, it always took the seller forever to answer my emails and finally transfer the site.<p>Fact is he put revenues as estimates on the sale page which were supposed to amount to more than $600.<p>More than 3 months after I can safely say I had 0 sales and just 4 inquiries (but see later about this).<p>When I complained the first time that no one was contacting me on the site I received 4 enquiries from @gmail.com addresses within 3 days, none of those turned into a sale.<p>I suspect he's sending fake hits because google analytics shows 85-90% traffic as type-in, which can hardly be the case.<p>So it seems that a lot of data in the auction was bogus (revenue and visits mainly), but I had no idea until I purchased the site.<p>I have tried contacting the seller, who seems a nice guy on the outside, but without any answers in the last 3 weeks.<p>Is there anything else I can do beside swallowing up the loss and try to promote the site anyway?<p>Anything else I could have done better in the due diligence phase?<p>We all make errors, I'm sharing mine so that you know to do better due diligence next time you buy a web property.
I wouldn't feel bad. I sometimes conduct DD on behalf of third parties for legal cases so I've seen a lot of scams and this one is (assuming it isn't genuine) surprisingly well put together for something on the lower end of the scale.<p>Reading the listing you can usually get a sense of problems, but there were only a few places that my BS alarm was triggered (one being that the seller claimed he made an average of $9 per day from Adsense ads that he set up just the other day. The screen shot for Adsense shows 19K impressions in three days, which seems a little off based on 2,242 Page Views Per month, with 1 Adsense block in place.)<p>There's no hard and fast rule to prevent things like this, but if you were to do it again, I'd advise<p>1) Either asking for access, or a video walkthrough of the adsense and paypal account as this is more difficult to fake.<p>2) Do a common sense check based on the numbers. Look at the traffic they are likely to receive from Organic Search (SEM Rush), look at the product and see if it's been sold elsewhere and look at the conversion rate you would need to achieve to justify the revenue figures quoted. As a rule of thumb, if product A costs $10 and the adword CPC is $1, I'll know that other advertisers need a conversion rate of 10% to break even. If your calculations shows this site needs more than that to produce the quoted figures approach with extreme caution.<p>Hope this helps<p>Justin
I've browsed Flippa a good amount, though I've never been inclined to make a purchase.<p>Honestly, the reason I wouldn't have purchased this is because there's only one month of proof (if the proof is even real, although that would be a PITA to fake). He probably told you just by that fact that it isn't a sustainable business. (You can't say it makes $600/m if it <i>maybe</i> made $600 in one month)
Thanks for sharing - I guess this will be useful to many who will visit this thread in times to come.<p>The seller said on the auction:<p>> I also don't have the time to manage affiliates and implement marketing strategies for this site anymore.<p>I'd have treated this as <i>warning</i> sign #1. This explains probably why<p>> it always took the seller forever to answer my emails and finally transfer the site<p>> Is there anything else I can do beside swallowing up the loss and try to promote the site anyway?<p>The site <i>does</i> look to be well-designed and SEOed - if you have a handle on the deliverables, I'd suggest promoting it.<p>As a last case scenario, you can at least try to cut your losses by putting it back on the auction (mentioning all the facts) and see what it can fetch.<p>HTH