Are you Thinking about Buying a Website?

By | January 21, 2009

If you are considering buying a website, there are many issues that you will eventually factor into your final decision. The journey to this final decision will be filled with many smaller decisions, issues, and considerations. When you begin this process, you will face the decision of whether you should build your own website or purchase an existing site. Each option has advantages and your decision will depend on your own individual preferences, budget, skills, and long-term goals. If you find a website that has targeted traffic for a product or service you already produce or sell, your decision might become somewhat easier to make. Although a website that is only tangentially related to your products or services might not be enticing enough to assist you in your decision-making process, a website with the kind of targeted traffic you desire holds a degree of attraction for many individuals or businesses who are seeking websites.

For example, if you make custom greeting cards and are considering purchasing a website, you might come across one website available for sale that is used to sell stationery, another that offers writing services, and a third deals with making greeting cards to customer specifications. The stationery-selling site might appeal to you initially; you might rationalize that at least visitors to the site are interested in stationery and therefore might be receptive to the idea of custom greeting cards. The writing services option might also appeal to you given that you write the verse for each card; you might view the traffic to the site as a potential new customer base. But just when you are trying to figure out which one might make the most sense for you and your business, you find the perfect match: a site that offers greeting cards customized per the customer’s order.

Given a scenario like this one, your choice would be easy. Some decisions are not so straightforward and may involve a good deal more rationalizing, forecasting, predicting, hypothesizing, and good old guessing. The key is to find the site that most closely matches your product or service, as well as your philosophy. When you find the site that seems right for you, consider all contingencies before you make a final decision. The site’s targeted traffic will become your targeted traffic.