Is it possible that after someone sells you a site, they create one very similar to it? Wouldn't that hurt the buyer of the site?

Also, can someone post an ad on sitepoint if they don't own the site? As in, instead of misleading, is there actual scamming on the sitepoint?

They could but sitepoint has "verification" where they tell the person to upload a file called something crazy like hasdfjlksfda.html. Only the owner or someone with access to the server could upload a file like that so once sitepoint sees that file the listing becomes verified.

It's the same verification method used by google and yahoo for their various webmaster tools.

I would recommend really examining the traffic sources of websites you want to buy. When I bought a photoshop site it was a new site but was getting over 1K visits a day from various photoshop directories. I didn't even think about the fact that the submissions to those sites would drop off their front pages after a few days and that traffic would drop 90% like it did after I bought the site. It was only a $500 site though so it wasn't a big loss there.

Also some people believe that google gives a temporary boost to new sites with new content and eventually many of those sites drop in rankings so keep an eye out for that when considering a new site.

Max,
Has the owner of the counter-strike site changed anything since you had the site? It appears the only ads on the site are google ads.

It looks like he removed the Tribal Fusion ads I was running and changed the appearance of some google ads. I haven't talked to him since I sold the site, so I am not sure why he did this. I am pretty sure he was accepted by TF as a publisher.

This reminds me, I need to do some homework for spex now that I am back home from vacation.

Max,
Can you go a little more in depth on Tribal Fusion info? I've studied their site, but lack a website that gets 2k+ uniques in a day. Is this one of those things that once you start pulling 2k+ legit uniques a day you are going to make money no matter what, or will TF really increase your gains?

Thanks,
w

TF is just another banner ad network. There are others which will work with smaller sites. ValueClick is one. I liked TF because it seems their payouts were higher than most of the others, but it was maybe 25-50% higher for my sites. If you are only using Google Adsense, definitely adding banner ads will increase your earnings. Another reason I used them is that they allowed ads to be placed on forums which some banner networks do not.

Any recommendations on who to go to for anonymous registrations of a new domain? I've been researching and apparently a good number of the 'anonymous registrars' are US based and will drop the anonymity after a single letter from a lawyer - not even requiring a subpoena or court order. I plan on starting a new site with poker related material/links and I'd prefer to remain as distant from the site as reasonably possible.

Wow, thanks for the heads up on that one. I had no idea they were so weak with their anonymity.

I'm still grumbling about Yahoo wanting an extra $9 to keep your name and address out of the WHOIS lookup for the domain. Anyone know a place or way to circumvent this?

The anonymity thing is really just to keep your sites users from calling you in the middle of the night. Its a good idea regardless of how little protection it actually offers. I wish I had used it on a domain before. Some kids got my phone number and pranked me relentlessly.

I don't know how to get real anonymity, but you should probably try to figure out a way to use a name and address other than your own.

After researching some more, it seems the best advice is to just stay away from the US if you want privacy. I ended up going with a company based in the UK. Much better privacy protection and gambling/adult content is not an issue.

Namecheap.com offers a free whois guard. Is that what you're looking for?

Another shout out to max who encouraged me to purchase my latest site about a week ago. I purchased the site for 32k, and it brings in about 2100/mo in CPM ad revenue (Adsense, Tribal Fusion, as well as a rich media company). The site receives about 550k uniques a month, and looking at stats is growing by about 20-30k each month over the last year.

I plan on holding this site for as long as possible. The site is a graphics community focused around Photoshop files, so it should have quite a bit of longevity going forward. Without predicting future growth current revenue is $25,200/yr and requires less than 30mins of work per month. That's a 78% annual yield!!!

Thanks again Max, you've been an invaluable resource. I owe you many beers in Vegas.

I am in the early stages of trying to build my own website from scratch to gain experience, but also a possible income... I was wondering if any of you who have experience in website design / ownership have any advice on type of site to focus on..

I realize that having one that requires little work once the site is up possibly because users are the ones to keep adding information through forums or other possible ways, but is there something I should focus on?
-a specific video game site like max has?
-info on how to something that people don't know how to do?

Any help on where I should start would be greatly appreciated.