How To Not Buy a Blog On Sitepoint
As someone who’s had a lot of bad experiences on SitePoint, I thought I’d share what I have done wrong on SitePoint so you guys don’t make the same mistakes I did. When I started with SitePoint, I was very optimistic about the possibilities in that marketplace. But after engaging in a couple of transactions, I am not positive that there are more sharks out in that marketplace than good folks. Here are the things I did wrong:
- Site Description: I bought a site from a seller without checking the details of what I was buying. I saw a good premium domain, and I skimmed through the description thinking that I might lose the deal if someelse buys the site before me. Turned out I bid on something that was not right for me. The seller wanted me to use his hosting account. Not something I was interested in.
- Community Rules: I always had this impression that if you are selling a website to more than one person, you let your buyers know that there are other copies out there. After all, you are not going to get any SEO benefit if the same site has been sold to other 10 times or more. SitePoint does not have a policy against this practice, which is strange. But I should have read the rules before making my purchase.
- Seller Reputation: paying attention to seller reputation when buying on SitePoint is a must. I thought having 97% reputation score is trustworthy enough. It turns out you find out more about the seller from the other 3%.
- Trusting PayPal: we have all heard it from PayPal before. They protect buyers against fraud, and they keep pushing that to make you use their service. Unfortunately, PayPal should not be trusted when it comes to online transactions. They have so many exceptions in their policies on what’s covered and what’s not. In my case, it turned out non-physical products are not covered. Thanks for the protection PayPal! I am glad my life didn’t depend on it.
- Trusting Sellers: sellers on SitePoint are charged considerable fees to be able to list their items on the marketplace. It’s no wonder they try everything in the book to sell their websites. You should never trust the figures the seller’s provide you about their sites. They may tell you that their site is getting 1M unique visitors a day (and they want to sell it for only $200). First of all, that’s too good to be true. Second of all, you should ask for real proof. Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean they are not misleading you.
At the end of the day, you should do your due diligence before parting ways with your money. Go through the listing on SitePoint and try to figure out if there are similar ones out there. Check the reputation of the seller you are interested in buying from to see how he has treated his past customers. Does she retaliate negative feedback? Is he/she responsive? SitePoint, PayPal, and your credit card company promise you a lot of things, but since PayPal always takes the side of the sellers in these situations, you are most likely not going to have a successful charge-back attempt if you get into the wrong transaction. Do proper due diligence before deciding on an offer. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
You may also be interested in reading:
- Things To Consider Before Buying a Blog…
- How To Sell Your Blog – Part I: Where To Sell
- Should You Buy a Blog or Start One?
- Blippy: Find Out What Others Are Buying?
- How To Save Yourself from Tax Headaches
