Have you ever bought or sold an affiliate website?
Buying and selling websites has been part of the affiliate business for as long as I can remember. Frequently, it is just a domain name and the site that comes with it. Other times, it can involve all or part of an established business with content, relationships and even employees.
The subject has been on my mind recently, so I thought it would make a good topic for this week's poll.
Have you ever bought or sold an affiliate website?
As always, in addition to voting in the poll, please share your thoughts and experiences in a post. If you've bought or sold an affiliate website, what was the experience like? What did the transaction include, and were there any unexpected challenges along the way? If you've considered buying or selling a site but haven't done so, what has held you back?
Personally, my first acquisition was Rolling Good Times (RGTOnline.com) in June 2002. The site had been launched in 1996 and was one of the earliest consumer news websites covering the gaming industry. That acquisition included not only the website, but also its staff and syndication relationships with numerous authors. It was also how we first became involved in editorial content rather than focusing exclusively on directories. Rolling Good Times still exists today, and we subsequently created CasinoCityTimes.com as its successor.
I've made other acquisitions since then, the most significant to me being taking on responsibility for the GPWA. That was a very different type of transaction. There was a community to nurture and grow, but not new employees.
But despite having been on the buying side more than once, I've never been on the other side of the table and sold an operational website. That may be about to change. I'm currently in serious discussions to sell one of my sites. A purchase and sale agreement has been drafted and is being refined, so I've been getting a firsthand look at the process from the seller's perspective.
Michael
