With so many different business models for making money online, it can be hard for beginners to determine the best internet business to match their individual skills and resources. Entrepreneurs working alone cannot be an expert in everything, and it can be hard to know which internet marketing niche to focus on.
Questions like should I spend my valuable time learning e-commerce shopping cart software? I have a great idea, but how do I find suppliers for a particular product or service? I’m thinking of dabbling in affiliate marketing, but how does the latest Google update weigh in on my SEO strategy? Do I try to promote something in the mobile market?
With all the ways to potentially spend precious hours, how does one determine where the time investment will achieve the greatest results?
Surprisingly, when looking at business ideas for beginners, a workable approach that is very often overlooked is to just purchase an existing internet business that is already making money. If you do enough due diligence, you can greatly increase your chances for success.
It is much easier to improve an existing business than trying to build the best internet business from scratch. In some cases the previous owner will even assist with training. The trick is to find a web site that is performing marginally that you can pick up at a bargain price, and then make changes that will improve the bottom line.
So where do you go to find viable web sites for purchase? flippa.com is the most reputable marketplace. Whole courses have been written just on the art of buying and selling websites, and I strongly suggest you take a look some of the better ones before diving into the process. “The Site Buying Method” is a good course as it’s both informative and relatively inexpensive, but you should really do your own research prior to purchasing.
There are many considerations when evaluating a website, but here’s some of the key takeaways:
1) Understand the product being sold. Where is the income coming from? Is the profit margin sustainable given the costs to operate your site?
2) Understand the traffic. Knowing the source of your traffic is just as important to the product offer. You need to be keenly aware if your traffic is primarily paid or organic search. The last thing you want to have happen is see your traffic disappear the moment you purchase the site.
3) Understand the offer. This is all about your site’s content – is your content original and does it convert? Can the seller prove this?
4) Understand the price. This is where you need a critical eye – you don’t want to overpay for what you’re getting. A good baseline is a 3-5 multiple of annual sales or a 10-12 multiple of annual profit. You can also determine price based on annual visitors, but I wouldn’t recommend this approach for beginners.
The best approach when searching for websites is to try to find the ones that you believe you can optimize to increase profit potential. Maybe through keyword research you’ve determined there’s a great market available, but the site is not optimized properly for the keyword terms. The bottom line is to take your time and perform some solid analysis to find the hidden gems that can make a good profit. This is certainly easier said than done, but can be very rewarding. Remember persistence pays!
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