Aged domain name with PR was bought for SEO purposes, thats why domain already has pagerank. I am honest, open and upfront about everything and I expect everyone to treat me the same way too. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks
Huge Business Oppurtunity Providing Free Websites: 39,000/Month Hosting Affiliate Commissions
2 Fulltime Developers 8 Fulltime Writers Agreement With Hostgator 125/sale 12 Sales A Day Guaranteed Income
http://www.aptigi.com/
Closed
This listing ended without a winner.
- Bid History:
- 0 Bids (0 Pending)
- Offer History:
- None accepted (0 Pending)
- Listed:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:58:23 GMT
Accepted Payment Methods: Credit Card, PayPal, Western Union, Electronic Transfer, Cheque, Escrow.com
Description
For sale here is an established business set up. This business requires full attention and is not some part time oppurtunity. You will need to invest minimum of 3-4 hours a day and possibly more, depending on how well you manage everything.
Background
My partner and I established everything few weeks ago. It took us 3 months to do everything from start to finish and it has cost us $18,000 so far. We started with conducting research and finding a unique oppurtunity, we found a huge market for this service and unlimited marketing potential. My partner was the one who invested all the money and I was the one who did all the research and would run the business. We set everything up and at this point we are ready to start but unfortunately, my partner is facing some serious financial trouble and he wants out. Unfortunately, I lost my job few months ago and have no savings or access to capital to fund this business by myself. We are listing this established set up for sale to recover the investment of capital and time that we put in.
What is it?
We offer FREE content rich websites. There are lot of people providing content rich, niche website creation service in forums like Digital Point, Site Point, Warrior Forum and Black Hat World. They are charging anywhere from $50-$99 per website. Each niche website contains 8-15 CopyScape passed articles and is monetized using adsense or affiliate marketing. Below are some good example of people providing this same service
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1198093
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=11619776
Some people decide to build a website first and then sell it on sitepoint same day. Here are some examples of such listings
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/69331
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/69295
I am sure, you have got a good idea of the value of these websites. If you offer this service just like others, you should be able to make $60-$100/website and if you read the above threads you will notice the HUGE demand for such websites and service.
We offer the same thing but we dont charge clients anything!!! We will offer the website to clients for FREE. This will wipe out the competition as soon as the service is started and the huge demand for this kind of service will get you more work than you can ever handle. People will be begging you and getting in lines waiting for their websites.
Whats the catch?
We require every client to sign up with hostgator. Its a win-win situation for both the client and us, they get the website absolutely free, they can even use the first month free coupon with hostgator and not have to pay a single penny upfront and we get paid $125 for each client.
All this was not as easy it seems. We had meetings with hostgator, I personally went and talked to Mr Chad Bean (Chief Marketing Officer & Affiliate Manager) and Mr Lance Custen (Chief Operating Officer) Me and my partner discussed everything with them and got their approval for such promotion. They even offered to start us with highest payout $125 instead of $50 and also offered to increase the payout even more once we have everything running.
I am saying above just to inform everyone that we covered every thing and ironed all the details out.
There is nothing left that needs to be taken care of at this point. Hostgator a multimillion dollar company is willing to work with us and offer us personal level support from the chief officers. I was planning to contact other companies too but after I met Mr Chad Bean, I changed my decision because the meeting went so well and he was so willing to offer their help and support that I didnt have to look further.
Manpower and outsourcing
I contacted a fellow wellknown sitepoint member who has a very good and reputable outsourcing company and hired 8 writers and 2 developers from him. He offered us dedicated office, housing our team only and a part time manager on top of superior management. Its a perfect setup, the manager was trained to handle everything and writers and developers are trained accordingly aswell. We invested about $15,000 for this setup.
Competition
It is nearly impossible for anyone to compete with us for several reasons.
1) No one has a similar setup and it is not easy to have a setup the way we do. We only have to pay $3300/month as salary for 10 professional employees working fulltime. It is not easy for anyone else to match such offer and there is also the setup hurdle in place which needs capital of atleast $15k-$20k
2) Competitor will have to discuss the details and get permission or written consent from hosting companies. We already have a deal with hostgator and they will not allow anyone else to do something similar, atleast at places where we are advertising. Other companies most probably wont allow this.
3) It is not possible to compete with us if the competitor is offering a paid service as opposed to a free service like ours.
Marketing plan?
We have a full, detailed marketing plan in place. We plan to market on webmaster forums like Digital Point and Site Point. This is such a unique service that it wont need any extensive marketing plan and will cause a buzz in webmaster communities because people love websites like this since its very easy to make money using adsense from these. If people are getting something thats valued at $60-$100 for free then all you need is word of mouth marketing and that wont be hard at all but we do have a very extensive marketing plan that we will share with new owner.
Offer/Price
I am very sad to see this oppurtunity go to someone else when I had all my goals and plans associated with this. My parnter is asking for his money which he needs for personal issues and since I cannot afford to pay him from my pocket I am left with no other option but to put this up for sale.
I would be glad to get into a partnership with anyone who is willing to invest money into this while I handle all other matters and we split the profits 60-40. 60% for you and 40% for my efforts in maintaining and running the business. This is not a part time oppurtunity and will require atleast 30-35 hours a week to manage everything including clients and employees to ensure a smooth transition everytime.
I dont have any BIN in mind but the starting bid will be at $11,850. I am open to all reasonable offers and I am looking to close this asap since my partner needs money to pay off his medical bills.
I am willing to do the transaction through escrow to protect both parties and to ensure a smooth transition.
I prefer to talk to interested parties over phone to discuss all details. If you are interested please provide me your phone number and good time to call you and I will get in touch with you.
Revenue Details
Revenue is based on potential. 8 writers and 2 developers can make 12 websites a day on average working fulltime. They work 26 days a week.
There is no doubt as to weather or not you will find clients. You will most probably have waiting lists.
$125 X 12 = $1,500/ Day
$1500X26 = $39,000/ Month
Attachments 1 public (0 verified)
Questions 59 public, 18 deleted
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:48 GMT
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:04:50 GMT
Looks very interesting. COuld you explain to me here or via PM why anyone would want a small, 8 page website? who is buying these & for what reason?
thanks
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:10:39 GMT
Very simple :)
Follow this link: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1198093
You will see why people are interested and what kind of demand this service has. Keep in mind that the above thread is offering website for $50+ and we are offering it for free so ofcourse the demand will be much higher.
For more reading continue here
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=11619776
If you need to do further marketing research, I recommend you go to forums.digitalpoint.com and using the search function of forum, search for "unique niche website" You will see 100s of people selling similar websites anywhere from $100-$1000 each. Offer these for free and imagine the response you will get and guaranteed income ;)
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:55:54 GMT
So the actual revenue at this time is $0?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:08:59 GMT
You didn't answer my question. For some reason you answered my non-existent question of "prove to me that people are selling them and buying them".
I asked - WHY would someone want a little 8-page site? what's it's purpose? Surely they won't get any organic traffic...or very little anyways.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:21:41 GMT
Yes, you are right at this point the revenue is 0 because the service has not yet been started.
Sorry, I think I misunderstood your question. Everyone has their own reasons to buy these websites but most people buy them to create network of such small mini sites. They do VERY well in serps and so get good organic traffic (compared to the amount of pages) They rank well for long tail keywords and its easy to target micro niches using these sites. Well prepared website can get you $3-$4 per day on autopilot through adsense and if you monetize it better you can earn more. I am saying this from my own past experience. If you monetize these sites with affiliate ads you can expect more than $3-$4 a day. Now imagine having a network of lets say 100 sites a day (I know people who have build networks like that). Due to no maintenance required from the owner and basically no time involved, its very easy to build networks and increase revenue this way.
This is also the easiest and best method for a newbie to get started in online marketing field. To buy well established, huge website you will need good investment and most newbies arent willing to risk that so their only alternative is to buy sites like this to get started.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:35:10 GMT
I have now verified site ownership through sitepoint.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:46:51 GMT
wonder why if u have a private deal with hostgator your banner is linking through CJ.com instead of hostgator own affiliate program
I suggest interested parties to validate this deal with Chad at hostgator before proceeding, I know hosting companies dont like incentives to get new clients as they dont last long, so I should double check this. My 2 cents :) -
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:57:53 GMT
Its linking through CJ because we have not even started promoting. We just placed that banner and links from CJ to be replaced later since we had to put something there when developing the site.
I can change that up right now but I dont think it makes any difference because matter of the fact is anyone can sign up with hostgators inhouse affiliate program too so if I was actually trying to hide something then I would have already had those links up or would change them up and remove your comment.
Reason I even mentioned our meeting with hostgator was to answer questions that I expected later on. You are absolutely right that hosting companies generally do not like incentive offers and thats exactly why we went in and met Mr Chad and Mr Lance in person to discuss the details. This was few months ago when we came up with the idea and started the setup. I have no problem doing a 3 way conference call or meeting the new owner in person and arranging a meeting with hostgator staff to confirm everything.
Reason why these would last long is that we will require the clients to stay members atleast for 3-6 months and also recommend them to move their other websites to hostgator too and if they do cancel their hosting early we reserve the right to use the content provided to them in anyway we want, so it wont be unique anymore and basically their website will become little to no value.
We did discuss all possible scenarios and solutions with both Mr Chad and Mr Lance and ironed everything out with their advices and opinions.
Thanks for your comment and advice to buyers :)
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:10:57 GMT
Just to prove that I have infact discussed the details and met with Mr Chad, I have uploaded a screenshot of one of our email correspondence. I have removed some of the personal information of both mine and his for privacy purposes. I would upload our full conversation through email but I am not sure how comfortable he would be with me doing so, so I will not unless I get permission from him and ask him. I will try to get hold of him tomorrow and ask him for his advice in such situation.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:27:18 GMT
Not doubting your listing, but that email is very easy to duplicate by using anonymous email senders. Hiding the dates on the email seems weird, as that is something which would be needed to confirm the authenticity.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:22:19 GMT
If the revenue is in fact $0 at the moment then your monthly revenue figure at the very top of listing of $39,000 is very misleading and essentially false advertising.
I don't see how one deal with hostgator is worth $12,000+ which is what you are suggesting here. Do you have proof that this is an exclusive agreement?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:22:41 GMT
Can you provide a copy of any contracts?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:04:54 GMT
May I ask how on earth you managed to spend $18,000 building a simple 8 page website and talking to a few people making simple arrangements which may or may not work.
What if someone did the same thing without an arrangement with Hostgator, settled for the $50 income took the loss (or break even) for a while spending a $1000-$1500 a month, built up the business and then talk to Hostgator. They will know the volume, sit up and pay attention and offer the $125.And that’s not to mention that there are hosting plans that will pay $125 without any “Special” arrangements.
Total out of pocked for build and launch is going to be around $2000 in this model… And you say you’ve already spent $18K without the launch…
I think you are including the cost of a couple of very rich trips to Los Vegas! -
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:40:39 GMT
I would request everyone to keep their personal opinions to themselves. I have explained everything in full detail and everything is very transparent here, I have nothing to hide.
If you are doubting the fact that we have spent over $15,000 then I think you should consider the cost of 10 workstations including high end desktops at $800 each. That itself cost us $8000 and office space $2000 upfront cost from the BPO company we have a deal with. On top of that, it cost us $550 for head hunting fees that we paid to employee leasing agencies to find us 10 good employees.
Try setting everything up yourself and see how much it would cost you.
Contract with hostgator itself has no real value and I am not basing the price on the value of agreement. I am basing the price on how much it cost us to set everything up from start to finish.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:50:48 GMT
Im sorry my remainder of the post got cutoff, as people mentioned, you are selling a 8 page website and justifying its cost through end purchaser impact because of the decisions you made for purchasing the workstations etc. Well are the workstations and office space included?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:41:17 GMT
Ofcourse everything is included. You are buying stuff that we have paid money for. We are not asking for that much money for no reason!
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:05:31 GMT
"$125 X 12 = $1,500/ Day
$1500X26 = $39,000/ Month"
you need to create 312 accounts with hostgator with 312 different people to achieve this in a month
then next month you need to create another 312 different accounts with hostgator with 312 NEW different people
how realistic is this? can you give me your opinion please ?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:20:55 GMT
People stop commenting you opinions here. I am not asking you for opinion on how to price this, it is my decision as a seller to put a price tag. If you are not interested, please do NOT bother. I am not trying to hide anything and I DONT say this site is already making $39,000. Read the listing and revenue details carefully. We have invested money in this and we are trying to recover as much as we can and looking to make a profit too. If you dont like it then pass on, I am not forcing anyone to buy this and I am not trying to hide anything. Everything is infront of you, this is an unfinished project that just needs to be launched. Nowhere in the listing I said that the site is already making $39k, if it was I would not be selling it for less than $500k.
@Thamyris
You are absolutely correct. We will need 312 different people every month to achieve our target. It is very possible because our target market is new webmasters not the experienced ones, experienced webmasters already know what to do and not many bother with small sites like this but someone who is just starting out and has no money or capital to invest, for him its a golden opportunity because most of these guys wont have hosting accounts already and probably have never owned a website. Its great for them because they are getting something for free and they will actually put effort in trying to promote their site or work with it. 1000s of people join webmaster forums everyday. Have a $1000 advertising budget and start buying signature links of active members. I have done something similar in past and it is very easy to advertise to newbie webmasters who are looking for help and are just starting out. You can rent signature space of active members for few dollars a month and you dominate the forums with that. Imagine if you have 100 signature links all saying "Offering absolutely free unique niche websites, get yours now" those 100 people posting 10 posts a day, pretty much covers every thread in a forum. Newbies wanting to own a website but have no idea how to do it or how to start one themselves will jump on the opportunity.
Please keep all comments to the point. I am not asking anyone for their opinions or what they think is a fair price. We have invested $15k+ ofcourse we are not willing to sell everything for $1000, so please no more useless comments. Thanks for understanding
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:44:25 GMT
my 2 questions please sir.
Could you show me an exemple of a website that you make to customers ?
So yoy give them a unique design and content ?
Also for how many months do they have to sign up so you get the 125$ ?
thanks a lot
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:55:59 GMT
You can check out one example in the portfolio section of the website. Go to aptigi.com and go to portfolio, you should be able to see the site there.
Good Question: No we don't promise a unique design but we may give them unique design if we cannot find a template to match, otherwise we use freely available templates and provide unique content. We only promise unique content, not the design
They only have to sign up for one month for us to get $125 but we ofcourse dont want lot of people canceling their accounts just after a month as thats not healthy for our relationship with hostgator so we try to convince them to stay forever and REQUIRE them to stay with hostgator for atleast 3-6 months.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:36:29 GMT
You say you are not trying to hide anything, but you are being very misleading when you say Monthly Revenue (USD): 39,000
If you are being honest and upfront you should change that to $0 -
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:54:39 GMT
It doesnt say CURRENT MONTHLY REVENUE and I am very sure no sane person would buy this without reading the whole description and finding out that its not current revenue its potential revenue that can be made so again I am not hiding anything. If I had not disclosed the fact that the income is based on potential then it would have been misleading and hiding something.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:11:48 GMT
Actually, it does: "# Monthly Revenue (USD): 39,000"
In the title of the auction as well. Sure, you go on to explain that it doesn't make anything currently and this is just potential revenue, but it doesn't change the fact that there's a misleading title and stat to draw interest.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:14:28 GMT
Thats just a good way to draw attention, yes I would agree with you if I had not explained the revenue details and was trying to hide something but everything here is transparent. Anyways, I would appreciate if everyone can keep the comments to the point. Thanks
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:57:55 GMT
Josh32,
Thank you very much for explaining to the group in detail about your website and your revenue stream. With the information you provide along with the questions you answered,
I think we can intelligently determine the fair value of your site. I'm sure the members who have followed this thread and have followed your responses can thank you for the information you have provided.Personally, I will pass on making a bid.
Regards
DJ
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:26:36 GMT
Josh32 - Once you get the 125, what additional potential there is? How are you going to make money the next year and the year after?
Sounds interesting. Pls send me your BIN.
Thanks,
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:48:44 GMT
@ djorgensen You are welcome.
@sunshinebiz
There really isnt any future potential from SAME clients in this business model so you will always have to look for new clients which is not very hard BUT if you change the model and instead of being an affiliate of some hosting company, start providing your own hosting using a reseller account or a dedicated server you can make recurring income but I prefer to take $125 rather than $10 or so every month.
I have sent you a private message, Please check and let me know. Thanks
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:08:44 GMT
Can you please tell me more detail about the "Guaranteed Income" ? What are the specifics of your guarantee?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:24:15 GMT
I can personally guarantee the income ONLY if the new owner forms a partnership with me where I do all the work and he is basically just an investor. Like I said, I had all my goals and plans associated with this business, I am out of job so I have to find some work anyways and I would much rather do this and get paid more than go get a job somewhere. I wish I could afford to pay my current partner and just take over everything but unfortunately I cannot come up with capital and I havent had a positive response from banks either where I applied for personal loan maybe because of my current debt to income ratio on credit cards.
If the new owner decides to do all the work and run the business his way then honestly I cannot provide any guarantee because then his own choices and decisions will affect the business
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:26:04 GMT
If you can not afford to pay your partner, how can you afford to make such a guarantee? What happens if things don't work out as expected? Does your partner give you back the money to give back to us?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:47:27 GMT
I wont offer anyone a guarantee of money back within 1 day if things dont work out and that honestly is not possible the way I have everything planned out. Worst case scenario that can happen is some clients start canceling as soon as they get their site and not everyone is an ass like that so I dont think we will lose everything but worst come to worst I will liquidate all the tangible assets like workstations and other fixtures and payoff my partner but since that will take some time I WILL require time of atleast 1 month in such a worst case scenario but to be very honest with you I see no possibility of that.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:13:21 GMT
I think it's a great idea you have-one question-once someone signs up with hostgator-they can have as many sites with the babycroc program attached-so your only getting 1 sale per person? This idea well I like it but was tried before hundreds of times with good success and it repeats itself with people selling sites on ebay. It's to bad because personally ebay is the place for this service. Good Luck
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:16:14 GMT
I have received few offers in 10k range which was lower than my starting bid so I have removed the starting bid. I do have a fair reserve on the auction. Couple of people contacted me about BIN price, I dont really have anything in mind right now and I am just looking for offers and personally I prefer offers of partnership where I will do all the work and you are just pretty much an investor so price is not the only thing that matters in making the offer attractive. I will let the bidding run till tomorrow and will take offers too, as soon as I am able to reach an agreement with someone, I will post here and let everyone know and will close everything after 2 hours of my post.
I hope the way I am doing it is fair for everyone. Feel free to PM me your offers as long as they are above $5k (Reasonable in other words) Thanks
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:21:00 GMT
@ martel66
Thanks for your compliments, I am not sure what your question is or what you are talking about but if you are asking me how many times we can sell to one same person then the answer is just once. I am aware that people have done similar things in past with lot of success BUT I have never seen anyone offer UNIQUE content websites. It takes time and effort to create a site like this while the ones on sale at ebay are just junk templates hosted somewhere. This is somethings thats actually of a value and not trash that we are offering our clients. You can try selling this at ebay too but I think webmaster forums is the place where this service will actually be appreciated. Thank you very much for your wishes :)
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:22:39 GMT
So, exactly how much are you looking for from an investor? Do you have a business plan laid out?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:26:07 GMT
I am open to offers and yes I do have a complete business and marketing plan laid out.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:44:44 GMT
Maybe will be interesting if few guys buy like "shares" for this business and depends on how much invested - share profit. Do you accept such model? And do anyone interested in participation as investor?
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:46:44 GMT
"monthly revenue" means your website/companies current monthly revenue. You are therefore violating sitepoints terms of service by providing fraudulent information. I am reporting your fraud to SP.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:50:16 GMT
Why hasn't the service been started?
It doesn't make any sense. Your 'partner' and you both need money, why wouldn't you start the service and make your $39,000/month? In one month you would have your $18,000 back plus a nice profit.
-
- Posted by:
- Date:
- Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:11:26 GMT
Are you just selling a business plan and one screen print of an email from the hosting company for $39k?
Ask a Question
If you were logged in you could post a question.
Does this auction violate the Flippa Terms and Conditions? If so, please report it.
