Internet Marketing Tycoon

**NBF** · 09-11-2006, 09:08 PM

From time to time I see high-traffic MySpace resource sites come up for sale. Since this is totally not my area of expertise, I was wondering if anyone could go over possible red flags to look for when researching a potential purchase.

For example, what kinds of things are against TOS that are often used on these resource sites? What is the standard revenue multiplier for a MySpace resource site? Would you buy an established MySpace site, or do you think they aren't a good investment at this point?

I would love any thoughts from MySpace experts!

Laura

**sasquatch** · 09-12-2006, 12:14 AM

I have looked a few that have come up for sale. disclaimer...I still haven't bought one yet. Here is my list on concerns.

1) If there using awstats, any hit on a graphic will show as traffic (which it's not)

2) How many bulletins have been spammed to generate the traffic. Look at referral logs and make sure there is a decent amount coming from the search engines.

3) Any revenue posted, look for more than one month showing. Bulletins will help boost the revenue over normal. If you keep sending tons of bulletins this will probably not concern you.

4) see if they have a myspace account associated with the bulletin spamming and see if they will give it to you with the sale.

5) make sure it doesn't have myspace in the domain name. Myspace is sending C&D letters to some site owners to stop using the trademarked myspace name in their domains. It would suck to buy a site and then get the letter.

I'm sure someone will post more but these are some of my thoughts.

**ForgottenCreature** · 09-12-2006, 09:56 AM

Myspace sites can still be a good investment, however, I wouldn't buy a myspace site with a ton of traffic comming from bulletins. I honestly wouldn't buy one with more than 10% of the traffic comming from bulletins. Myspace sites can have high traffic without the spamming on myspace, you just need to find a quality website. The way I see it is, why pay a ton of money for a site that just runs on bulletins when you can get the script for nearly nothing and buy your own myspace account? I've got two myspace sites at the moment, and both receive near 10,000 uniques daily without ANY myspace bulletins, so I assure you it is possible

Another thing, I wouldn't buy a myspace site unless it is more than 3 months old. Most of the myspace sites going up for sale right now are less than a month old and advertsied only through bulletins. Not a good investment IMO!

Here are some Myspace sites I would not buy:
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/1388?
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/1374?
http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/1348?

The list goes on...looking through the auctions I can see that most aren't a good buy. They mostly rely on bulletin spamming and don't get much traffic at that.

**GeorgeB** · 09-12-2006, 11:58 AM

Good advice i've seen here. If it's new don't buy it and especially not if the myspace account doesn't come with.

I've bought myspace sites just for the account that comes with them and it's been worth every penny in terms of the traffic I'm generating from those accounts alone.

Final piece of advice is to not get into this until you fully research it. Most will tell you how easy it is to get myspace traffic but it's also easily as possible to fail if you don't have a plan or simply don't know what you're doing.

**crunchi** · 09-12-2006, 06:03 PM

Hey ForgottenCreature,
can we get url of your myspace sites and see the reffers..
How did you advertise your myspace sites if you're getting 10k a day?

i hope you're willing to share info

regards

**ForgottenCreature** · 09-12-2006, 09:10 PM

I'm not willing to share all the information but a BIG traffic earner of mine is Google. Most myspace sites run on the turnkey scripts with little or no modification. One of my sites is run on one of these mentioned scripts, however I heavily modified it with methods to help get indexed in the search engines. My second site I coded my own script from scratch focusing solely on the SEO side of the website. Now you have to remember these websites are a good 6+ months old and have time on their side. I also did do bulletin advertising in the first month of each site, just to get a quick boost and some incomming links on myspace profiles.

One thing everyone should know that keywords like "myspace generators", "myspace graphics", "myspace tweaks", etc... receive a TON of searches every day

**chihpih** · 09-13-2006, 12:01 PM

Bulletins nowadays are not as effective as they used to be. I own a ****load of accounts and I still post bulletins advertising my sites once in a while but FC is right that you can get more traffic from other sources. Recently one of my sites got onto the first page of MSN for all the good keywords and today I noticed that I am #3 for the keyword that brings me the most traffic (1000+ uniques a day).

My tips would be to buy a site that doesnt depend bulletins for traffic, that has unique content and seo optimized pages.

**crunchi** · 09-13-2006, 12:22 PM

Doesn't every turnkey site have seo mod and 10kb htaccess?
I agree that bulletins are only for start..

regards

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 03:37 PM

Thanks guys - this is exactly what I was looking for!

I am actually looking at a site that gets a great deal of traffic every day (60-70k per day) - 95% from search engines - so I know they aren't using bulletins.

But also, it ranks really, really well for really tough keywords - which honestly worries me since losing that would kill the site (you know how Google can be...). MySpace sites just make me really nervous since they rely upon young (and some not-so-smart) people to keep them going. Ya know?

Thanks all!

Laura

**ForgottenCreature** · 09-13-2006, 03:49 PM

That must be a pretty large and well known site if it generates that kind of traffic...are you positive that those are unique visitors? Also, make sure you get a log of the referrals so you can be positive where the traffic comes from.

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgottenCreature

That must be a pretty large and well known site if it generates that kind of traffic...are you positive that those are unique visitors? Also, make sure you get a log of the referrals so you can be positive where the traffic comes from.

Yeah, I am not wiring money yet or anything.

I am in the process of collecting more information, but I believe the stats to be true (thankfully, stats are one thing I do know about LOL!).

I know they haven't done all that they can to monetize, so that's part of what makes it so appealing...

Laura

**chihpih** · 09-13-2006, 04:18 PM

ummm 60-70k/day from search engines sounds like a lot. i can see 10-20k but not more then that. with that much traffic the site could easily be doing $1000/day and i doubt anyone would be selling

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NBF

I am actually looking at a site that gets a great deal of traffic every day (60-70k per day) - 95% from search engines - so I know they aren't using bulletins.

Oops - I meant to say 75% from SEs, and of that, 95% from Google.

Laura

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chihpih

ummm 60-70k/day from search engines sounds like a lot. i can see 10-20k but not more then that. with that much traffic the site could easily be doing $1000/day and i doubt anyone would be selling

People sell sites all the time... And yes, it makes quite a bit of money, as you suspect.

Laura

**chihpih** · 09-13-2006, 04:35 PM

if it gets 45k+/day from google then it has to be very high on first page. goto google and search for the following keywords:

myspace layouts
myspace graphics
myspace generators
myspace codes
myspace tweaks
myspace glitters

i doubt that getting 45k/day from google is even possible and i base that on my personal experience of being on first page for most of these keywords on MSN

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 04:51 PM

MSN gets far less search traffic than Google. Have you had a high ranking on Google for a high-traffic phrase? It sends many times the traffic that the same phrase in the same place on MSN does.

Thanks for the feedback all - I appreciate the advice.

Laura

**NBF** · 09-13-2006, 08:05 PM

Is there anyone that is considered a "MySpace Expert?" (Expert on making money with MySpace resource sites, that is.) I really need to chat with someone privately, but I am not sure who...

Anyone?

Laura

**The Fat Boy** · 09-13-2006, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sasquatch

I have looked a few that have come up for sale. disclaimer...I still haven't bought one yet. Here is my list on concerns.

5) make sure it doesn't have myspace in the domain name. Myspace is sending C&D letters to some site owners to stop using the trademarked myspace name in their domains. It would suck to buy a site and then get the letter.

Rupert Murdoch's lawyers or not, you can pretty much wipe your arse with the Cease and Desist on this.