Welcome to the first instalment of random spotlight. Please don’t forget to participate and give your thoughts and comments. Just in case your not sure what it is I will manually review a random website according to certain website flipping metrics so that people can learn more about the practical application of my blog posts in terms of website flipping.  

First impressions

The very first thing I noticed was a lot of prominent blue links. At first impression I thought this is one of those pathetic spam sites that try and rank well for a keyword providing no content but a bunch of adsense links. I thought the site look old and tired and the poor alignment and amateur background didn’t help my impressions. So if I was surfing the web I would click away as soon as I arrived, as would 80% of the other visitors.

Statistics

Some pretty impressive stats include:

• Page rank - 4

• Alexa - 98000

• Age - 10 years

• Incoming links - 20000 (121 Google)

• Threads - 295,518
• Posts - 4,925,843
• Members - 40,528 

So first impressions can be misleading. Did anyone else have the same impression I did or was it just myself? Let me know in the comments below. 

Distinguishable features

There were some impressive features of the site that would make a website flippers job much easier and more lucrative.

-         Domain Name: Short, concise, keyword strong, easily recognisable the domain name gets a tick in every box

-         Huge Forum: Has so much content and so many members definitely a big plus. The forum is relatively quiet however compared to the number of members but at the very least you have 40,000+ email addresses.

-         Popular Classifieds: The classified ads section is more popular then the main forum and suggest an easy way to increase revenue.

-         Incoming Links: 20,000 incoming links would take a very long time to build. I haven’t checked the strength of these links but the sheer volume would position you well for strong SEO.

-         Some good articles: Could be used as leverage to promote the site when trying to build for a flip.

-         Niche Site: The site is dedicated to a niche topic that evokes plenty of passion from people within the niche.

Price

 This is very difficult to estimate without the sites financial details and exact traffic details. But what the hell I will give it a go anyway.  

• Design: $0. I think the site would need a full redesign after purchase to really capture the audience. The forum is fine but the linking structure, useability, and aesthetic qualities would definitely benefit from an update.  
• SEO: $300. I think the on page factors of the site would need a serious revamp to improve the overall SEO. I would give some value to the sheer number of links but I haven’t checked the quality of them so I will leave it as a rough estimate. 
• Content: $1000-$2000. Definitely the most significant part of the website. Personally I feel that much content is worth quite a bit of money but the fact that the site is seemingly on a decline may mean you can pay less then the real market value of the site.  

• Domain Name: $100. Domain names are losing significance but I feel the simplicity of this one including important keywords means it will have some extra value.

• Traffic & Income: $2000-$4000 . I have a quite varied estimate there. Mainly because I don’t know the numbers nnow and either way I think there is potential to improve on both.

So if my income and traffic estimates are incorrect then obviously the sites value will shift but I think a good price for (flipping) this site would be around $3500-$5000.

Summary

The site was misleading in its impressions originally and I assumed I was going to have to find another “random site” to evaluate. But on further inspection there is some real quality to a site that is dedicated to a niche that inspires passion amongst people involved in it. The site is 10 years old and it seems to have the same owners from the beginning so I think it would be difficult to buy in any case. If they had it for sale for less than $4,500 I would definitely consider buying it. The amount of content is ridiculous and the number of simple changes that could be made to improve traffic and income is quite incredible also.

Enhancement

Now here is the fun part. I think I was lucky that the first website I had found has such incredible potential. I would have a 3 – 6 month website flipping plan. Here are some of the changes I would possibly make bearing in mind I would probably not do all of them.

Before I wrote a plan though I would discuss with various members of the forum what changes they would like as well as advertise in related forums what features they would like on their ideal car site. I do this for two reasons, the first being I am not a car enthusiast so I would not know what they would want and the second being that the site is for my visitors and not for myself.

-         Site Redesign. I would update the look and bring the site into the year 2008 and create a simple and easy to use navigation system. I would integrate the same look into all pages including the forum. I would remove Google adsense from my most prominent position of the site and integrate it so it is more seamless (assuming I keep adsense). I would try to make a fast, sexy design with plenty of color and graphics to match the content of the site.

-         Create a blog. I am a recent converter to the power of the blog. Search engines, visitors and advertisers all love the blog. I would use it as a messaging tool to announce all the major improvements of the site to my visitors. Hang on I know nothing about mustangs. Well that doesn’t matter because in this case I would approach a few mustang blogs that look like they are struggling or a few knowledgeable members of the forum and ask if they would like to run a mustang blog (or at least write entries) for a website with huge amounts of members and traffic. I would offer some sort of revenue sharing scheme although I think a few dedicated members would write blog entries for free. 

-         Revamp the forum again. The forum whilst massive in scale seems to be on a decline and I think getting it back to its thriving levels would be a must. I would probably redo the categories (based on member feedback), as they seem constrictive to discussion. I would email every single member of the forum letting them know of the changes being made and also run several competitions in conjunction to really bring back the “spirit” of the forum community.

-         Monetise the classifieds. It looks like the classifieds are free at the moment I would charge a very small fee creating an income and also making less work to moderate the classified posts.

-         Create a shop. They may already be a partnership with the advertiser but if possible I would create a mustang memorabilia shop as part of the site. I feel a lot of mustang enthusiast would love stickers, models, beer coolers, flags etc of their cars. It would depend on the ability to find a supplier and the cost and time involved. If I were going to be lazy I would at least make a strong affiliate partnership with a mustang themed online shop and promote this shop heavily on the site.   

-         Improve Mustang World select section. I would definitely try and improve this area of the site where people can post their mustangs. I would possibly incorporate it into the forum so that members can talk about mods they made, performance, critiques and compliments because people love talking about their pride and joy.

I would say the cost involved would be roughly $1500, but more if you implemented your own shop. I think with a thriving forum a professional look and an improved income stream you could easily sell the site for $10,000 - $12,000.

Let me know what you think by adding a comment below.

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