Forum Moderators: phranque
Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this. If it is please direct me to another forum or site to inquire.
I have recently started developing a few websites. They are going well, but of course all PR 0. I have gotten a few backlinks, mostly from PR 4s and the like.
My question to those out there is do they recommend that I buy a PR 7 website for around $1500 USD? I am very close to striking the deal. The site is an educational resources site. It has a lot of content based on different topics like math, science, etc.
The traffic is currently at about 18000 uniques a month and has been consistently growing. This is infinitely more than any of my sites. A lot of this is from google, but also from a few other referring sites. A couple web rings (educational / teacher based) which I am not thrilled about, but hey. For some reason I see webrings as bad.
About 122 backlinks in google from marketleap. Listed on 2 sepearate dmoz.org pages (if 2 separate matters anymore) and consequently google's directory. It also has a couple links from separate PR 6 pages, one of which is related to the content and one of which isn't. These are home page link partners.
The site hasn't been well monitized. It can use improvements in design. I believe they use adsense and have made $60 in 2 months, with poor ad placement (in my opinion).
Also there is the (possibly unethical) opportunity to sell backlinks. This site gets a lot of link requests. A web directory has also been started on the site.
The big thing I would do of course is use this site as a base to push off of with my other sites.
Do people think this would be worth it for $1500 US?
I think that it will stay a PR 7. I think it has a HUGE potential to actually be optimized for key search phrases - as the home page isn't - and neither are the sub pages (@ PR 6). However, $1500 unfortunately is a lot to me.
I have seen various posts with talk of the 3-5 rules. I believe even at the low end, say 30 dollars a month - it would clear that rule, as far as amount the site can bring in. However I believe there is a lot more I can do with it to improve it.
I just wanted to at least get some opinions before I bite the bullet and spend the dough! =)
Any opinions would be great!
Also, do people generally use 301 redirects if they want to change .html pages on an old site (or one they buy) to php? Or I was thinking possibly mod-rewrite. The subpages are the major concern here. However, I believe that they gain there PR almost 100% from internal linking - so I am thinking perhaps changing the file names will not matter? What are people's views on this.
Thank you in advance so very much!
shina21
Is this a good price for a PR 7 site?
If you can monetise it (on-site or by kick-starting your *on-topic and relevant* money-orientated sites by directing the traffic there) and get your money back plus a return on the investment in a reasonable period of time for a reasonable amount of work, then yes it's worth it.
If not then it's just a waste of money.
Whether it's a $1,500 site or a $150,000 site, the formula is the same.
The PR itself has no inherrent value without the content and/or the traffic.
TJ
But,..you are paying a premiunm for the PR7..and looks like you researched it out fairly well.. you said it has had nice growth..
you also realize his adsense placement is lousy ..so certainly if all you did is come in a fix the ad placements..whats that another $10 a day? another $20?
and you want the site..
so yeah I'd go for it..
Buy it because the site gets traffic and can convert sales. make sure that its not a few links holding the ranking :D
I do want the site. I think I can make it worth it. Actually I did have to talk them down quite a bit to get to $1500. I just didn't want to be getting ripped off.
I understand that PR is not as relevant any more. But I think it could go a long way to have my other sites get a link from this page and make them at least PR something. LOL.
I know it is similar to voodoo science - valuating a site online. Also, I know PR can go away in a flash. I think maybe it is a few strong links holding the PR together, but I have seen that they aren't owned by this kid (yes kid). Also the 2 dmoz.org listing I believe are PR 8.
The traffic has been growing, and I guess the good news is that this site hasn't even undergone SEO - like, at all. so around 15,000 uniques with really no SEO - its catching mainly some love on a couple subpages thru google.
Thanks all for the insight - if anyone has any more please add it! Haven't pulled the trigger just yet but I think tonight is the night to decide!
=)
shina21
That's just IMHO. :)
are those uniques because of Google alone?
I would want to check that a lot of different people are llinking to the site because they find it a good, useful resource. If it is, there's no reason to believe the PR and/or the traffic would suddenly disappear.
Maybe make sure that your SEO and ad placements aren't going to detract from the value of the site for visitors; and figure out which KW you could optimize for (and check their search traffic).
From what you said, I assume you can make that money back in less than one year, because of growing traffic, SEO work and better ad placements. That's my criteria for an investment- ROI of 100% or better :)
are those uniques because of Google alone?
no, that's not only from Google, also from Yahoo, Altavista, MSN, other SE and links from other sites (including my owns ;) )
