[is0tope]

Off topic question to those who are the buyers of these "small websites". What exactly is the idea here? Do you buy it up for the domain, or for the underlying business/cash flow? I've heard of this many times but have yet to meet anyone on the purchasing end of it.

[fragmede]

It depends on the site being bought, but commonly, it's both, and also an Instagram account w/ followers. Or even just an Amazon account. Basically, instead of starting from scratch to make a site that sells, say, tactical turtlenecks, that ranks first when searching Google for that and when searching Insta, you can just buy the whole thing and have a known amount of revenue/year for an up-front cost.

We all know the drill, you get the itch to start a new project, but starting from scratch just sounds exhausting. If you've got the time and energy to put into a new venture (that the original creator no longer has), then why not take (buy) a stab at something, while standing on the shoulders of someone who's come before you?

If you already have a website selling something and just want the SEO, that's one price, but often times is an operating business including drop shipping (or fulfillment) that will generate you cash starting from day one.

[htrp]

InternetBrands LLC is the enterprise version of this.... so I imagine there are companies who buy these sites and just keep them running. Though IB could easily just vacuum up smaller sites too since most sites could just monetize on the webtraffic alone.