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Purchase Pitfalls #3 - Website Content Risk
By Max | April 19, 2007
A lot of the websites that you’ll find for sale are going to be dedicated to a specific niche topic. As a buyer you’ll need to evaluate the relevancy of the topic in the future. Recently, there were a lot of Borat sites for sale. Some of these websites earned quite a bit of cash. There is just one problem. How many people are going to be searching for Borat once the movie is a distant memory. Sure there will be a trickle of traffic coming in, but the real money is going to be made during the first month or two of the movie’s release date. After that, it is anyone’s guess as to how many people will be visiting the site.
Compare this to a site like a Pittsburgh Steelers fan site. Barring the low risk of the team moving to a different city, the Pittsburgh Steelers will likely be a popular topic on the internet for years to come.
When you are evaluating a site for purchase, these things need to be considered heavily. Obviously you won’t pay as much for a Borat (I would actually steer clear of most movie sites) site as you would a Steelers site. However, some cases are not so black and white. How should a site dedicated to a television series be valued. This is a tougher problem, because you don’t know if the show is expected to last 2 more seasons or 10. If the answer isn’t clear, its probably a good idea to stay away.
Topics: Puchase Pitfalls |
April 19th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I would think that TV sites are more likely to remain popular even after a show is canceled as most popular programs are syndicated all over the world and are forever re-run.
April 21st, 2007 at 12:18 am
It really depends on the show. Some shows are popular, and then forgotten. Other shows become franchises. A site based on the Simpsons or Seinfeld would have a lot better staying power than a site based on “Ally McBeal”. “Ally McBeal” was really popular for about a year or two, and you would have been out of luck if you bought a fan site based on that show since its popularity dropped off drastically.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Good Post.