How would you go about buying a website & developer skills?
Discussion
Good evening chaps.
There is a hobby website I use regularly which provides a service to the general public for free. The service they provide is very niche and is not something I'd be able to recreate myself without a developer/programmer clued up on the technical intracacies and also someone to design and build a website.
I can see a huge potential for generating money from the service if it were subscription based and they expanded their range of services a little (easy enough to do).
What I'd ideally like to do is buy the website and basically "employ" the developer/programmer/current owner to continue doing what they're doing on the technical side of things but as the new owner of the site I can change and implement new ideas and eventually make it revenue generating without needing his permission.
Has anyone ever been in this position, either as the buyer or as the existing website owner? I'm looking for thoughts and suggestions on how to approach it/make it happen, if at all.
Of course, the obvious thing to do would be to approach the current owner and be honest with my ideas but I fear either one of two things would happen :
1. he would want to keep it free and thus not entertain my plans/ideas.
2. he would take my plans to monetise it and simply do it himself without my involvement.
I know it all sounds a bit crass but he's sitting on a gold mine.
Thanks
There is a hobby website I use regularly which provides a service to the general public for free. The service they provide is very niche and is not something I'd be able to recreate myself without a developer/programmer clued up on the technical intracacies and also someone to design and build a website.
I can see a huge potential for generating money from the service if it were subscription based and they expanded their range of services a little (easy enough to do).
What I'd ideally like to do is buy the website and basically "employ" the developer/programmer/current owner to continue doing what they're doing on the technical side of things but as the new owner of the site I can change and implement new ideas and eventually make it revenue generating without needing his permission.
Has anyone ever been in this position, either as the buyer or as the existing website owner? I'm looking for thoughts and suggestions on how to approach it/make it happen, if at all.
Of course, the obvious thing to do would be to approach the current owner and be honest with my ideas but I fear either one of two things would happen :
1. he would want to keep it free and thus not entertain my plans/ideas.
2. he would take my plans to monetise it and simply do it himself without my involvement.
I know it all sounds a bit crass but he's sitting on a gold mine.
Thanks
if he is sitting on a goldmine then you could afford to hire developers and build your own, but be aware that making money online is not easy and esp. with niche websites...
if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
akirk said:
if he is sitting on a goldmine then you could afford to hire developers and build your own, but be aware that making money online is not easy and esp. with niche websites...
if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
Well yes. Hence my post and thread !if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
Essentially you need to contact the owner and see if they are willing to sell first. Then get an independent body in to value the site and take it from there. You could always look at sites like http://www.flippa.com to get values of similar sites in other niches.
If the owner doesn't want to sell and you decide to start your own site, feel free to contact me to help with the technical side.
If the owner doesn't want to sell and you decide to start your own site, feel free to contact me to help with the technical side.
Ted2 said:
akirk said:
if he is sitting on a goldmine then you could afford to hire developers and build your own, but be aware that making money online is not easy and esp. with niche websites...
if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
Well yes. Hence my post and thread !if you need dev. skills you are going to have to buy them in, so if a simple website, do your own... if complex and the current one is good, buy it!
I was saying that the first step is to make a decision based on cost of restarting v. purchase - If you are buying a website there are two elements to the cost:
- cost of building the same code - you can buy it at a discount by buying the established system, but in 90% of websites you are also buying issues, most websites which are amateur and have grown organically are likely to have architecture issues so it can often be better to build from scratch on new technologies, with a better architectured system using your knowledge of the current system to keep what is good, remove what is bad, add in what is missing etc. and built robustly to allow for your planned future rather than being caught out again 6 months down the line...
- cost of customer / user acquisition... this is the big one and the reason you might buy a website... and so your decision might be based primarily on this - if the audience is low, or you can produce a significantly better website which will attract the audience away from the current one, then build your own, don't buy - but if the figures stack the other way then purchase...
just remember that the owner will value the website code above what it should (ignoring that it will come with issues)
and website owners - esp. amateur sites will over-value their websites
so, unless there is a good reason to acquire the customers, build your own...
Edited by akirk on Monday 18th December 09:16
One comment here, you're not buying a website, you're buying a business which operates online...via a website
Are you sure you couldn't get one built yourself for less that you think?
What you really want is the customer base. How many to do they have? How much do they make from them? And if you know that, what proof it there is that?
Plus there is a big difference in offering everything free and then suddenly getting people to pay. Sites with free stuff will always be busy
Are you sure you couldn't get one built yourself for less that you think?
What you really want is the customer base. How many to do they have? How much do they make from them? And if you know that, what proof it there is that?
Plus there is a big difference in offering everything free and then suddenly getting people to pay. Sites with free stuff will always be busy
Edited by Frimley111R on Monday 18th December 16:14
`it sounds like a horrible proposition for the website owner.
He still gets to do all the work but no longer has ownership or control?
I realise that might work in offline business... i think its very unlikely to work for a smallish website.
you should be looking to buy it from him with a time period for changeover then he washes his hands of it. Or just clone the site and compete with him.
He still gets to do all the work but no longer has ownership or control?
I realise that might work in offline business... i think its very unlikely to work for a smallish website.
you should be looking to buy it from him with a time period for changeover then he washes his hands of it. Or just clone the site and compete with him.
He has replied, but (predictably) wants to know exactly what I'd be doing with the site and which direction I'd be taking it in. This puts me in a difficult situation. If I tell him what my plans are then it's quite probable he'll just implement them himself. To put it bluntly, how do you get from the "stop being nosey and asking questions" position to "just give me your price" position? 
In response to those that have said "just build your own site from scratch" it's not that simple. It's a very niche product and there are very few developers/programmers that are knowledgeable in the field. For example, putting an ad up on a well known freelancer site for a developer/programmer would most likely yield no results.
In response to those that have said "just build your own site from scratch" it's not that simple. It's a very niche product and there are very few developers/programmers that are knowledgeable in the field. For example, putting an ad up on a well known freelancer site for a developer/programmer would most likely yield no results.
Don't tell him what your real plans are then. Make something up that doesn't sound very viable.
And as a web developer, we take on projects based on subjects we know little about all the time. It's the mark of a good developer/PM that they can ask the right questions and learn the subject matter quickly.
And as a web developer, we take on projects based on subjects we know little about all the time. It's the mark of a good developer/PM that they can ask the right questions and learn the subject matter quickly.
jammy-git said:
Don't tell him what your real plans are then. Make something up that doesn't sound very viable.
And as a web developer, we take on projects based on subjects we know little about all the time. It's the mark of a good developer/PM that they can ask the right questions and learn the subject matter quickly.
But I don't want someone who knows nothing about it. I want someone who already knows what they're doing so that the site doesn't break every 5 seconds due to their bad coding. I've learnt my lesson from this once already when I engaged Indian and Filipino freelancers. It's a cheap price because they don't know what they're doing and you waste months/years of your life having to get in pro's to fix their mess which costs you more in both time and money than it would have done to just get a pro from the start.And as a web developer, we take on projects based on subjects we know little about all the time. It's the mark of a good developer/PM that they can ask the right questions and learn the subject matter quickly.
That's an issue with cheap outsourced labour. It's cheap for a reason.
It's one thing is the software or website doesn't do what it is supposed to do because the developer didn't understand the subject or requirements.
It's a completely different thing if there are loads of bugs because the site has been poorly coded!
Feel free to PM me some vague details about the project and I'll see if I can send you some helpful feedback.
It's one thing is the software or website doesn't do what it is supposed to do because the developer didn't understand the subject or requirements.
It's a completely different thing if there are loads of bugs because the site has been poorly coded!
Feel free to PM me some vague details about the project and I'll see if I can send you some helpful feedback.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff