After you confirm the revenue, the amount and quality of content are two aspects you need to consider. The following checklist contains various questions you should consider before purchasing a website. Read on to find the answers to many of your questions.
How Original Is the Content?
You can use plagiarism websites, such as Copyscape.com, to ensure the owner isn’t selling stolen content. It won’t be worth the money you spend on this site if it is merely a copy of another site online.
Note: More on this in my article series “Copyright Protection and Plagiarism on the Internet”.
Is the Content of High Quality?
People who own blogging sites will often hire overseas writers to produce their content at a lower price – which often reflects in the grammar used on the website. Having a site with poor grammar or spelling won’t retain the attention of visitors. Be sure to read the content to see if it is of high quality and valuable for your visitors.
Is Ongoing Content Required?
First-time buyers rarely think to ask this question. It is good to find out if there will be a need for constant updates. The content may be what keeps the site up and running. If it is a blog site, then there will definitely be a need for ongoing content. You will need to decide where this ongoing content will come from and how much it will cost you on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis compared to the revenue it generates.
How Willing Is the Seller to Help You with the Content?
Perhaps the seller will connect you with the writer or writers they use. If not, you must find sources for the content. Be sure to ask this question. Many sellers are more than willing to connect you with sources for content.
Is There Any Way You Can Repurpose the Content?
There just might be underutilized content posted on the site that you can sell via subscription as a newsletter, eBook, or some other form of paid access. This is a good thing, especially if the content is high quality. This is yet another example of monetizing the site to bring in additional revenue streams.
Note: For more on this, refer to my previous article Cash in the Virtual Attic.
How Easy Is It to Improve the Content?
If you know someone in this niche and can get more content or improve what is already there, then this will help. Keeping the rank high, or making it higher, is what you need. If it is just a static website, then you could easily add more articles or advertisements. Blogs need more content regularly and the quality needs to be as good as, if not better than, the current posts to improve the website.
Can You Add More Keywords?
Find additional phrases and keywords to boost ranking for more traffic. You can easily do this by adding a few new pieces of content.
Note: We’ll explore more about keywords and other forms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in part six of this series “Virtual Real Estate Blueprint – Part 6: SEO”.
Is There a Newsletter That Goes Along with This Site?
With a newsletter, there may be a way to package the content and use it somewhere else on the site. It’s also wise to look into plugging content into an autoresponder to build an email list. Being able to do either of these successfully will make this website worth buying.
How Valuable Is the Content on This Site?
You need to find out how common the site content is across the Internet. If it is unique or specialized content, you may sell it for more money. Be sure to check and see if it is available for free anywhere else online. If not, then you could even raise the price and sell it later on. Bottom line, the content needs to be valuable to you now and later.
Content makes, or breaks, a website, and good content will bring in traffic. Even if you have great content and no graphics, traffic will still move at a steady pace. When it’s the other way around, lots of graphics and no content, there is far less traffic flow. Content is key, and you should make sure it’s search engine optimized.
*Originally published on WorldStart May 03, 2010
