When entering into any transaction you need to be very careful, even more so when you are buying a website. There are several things to watch out for and a little bit of work can save you many headaches later. Here are our tips:

• Do your due diligence. In simple terms it means “Do your homework!”. Verify as much as reasonably possible about the website you are buying. Verify traffic information and cross-check them with third party information such as Alexa.
• Find out information about the seller and make sure that he/she owns the website and domain they are selling. Run simple background checks on the seller. You can use an outside service or use some of the free tools available on the Net - including something as basic as Google to look up his/her name.

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Forbes Media, corporate parent of Forbes.com, announced that it has acquired a 51% stake in the political website RealClearPolitics.com. The founders will remain owners and management. The site was started in the spring of 2000 and has grown to nearly 1,000,000 unique monthly visitors.

RVS Ventures, Inc.  announced that it has acquired beRecruited.com, a popular online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities. beRecruited has more than 125,000 registered student athletes, nearly 8,000 college coaches and more than 3,000 high school coaches.

TheStreet.com acquired BankingMyWay.com and RateWatch.com for $25 Million in cash and stock. RateWatch is a B2B subscription site targeting banks and credit unions, offering competitive data. BankingMyWay is a consumer site offering information on mortgage rates, CDs, loans and other retail financial products, along with links to money-related content.