Buying & Selling Websites

The world is changing, but let’s face it: these are truly exciting times. The world we live in today is not only vastly different from the world of just 10 short years ago, it’s changing so rapidly that in the next 10 years we’ll likely produce things it previously took us 100 years (or more) to do and find ourselves doing things we haven’t even conceived yet.
Think about it for a second. Can you imagine what or how you will live your life in 2020? What about the internet? How will it look 10 years from now? Since looking at one’s past is the best indication of its future, let’s take a short trip down memory lane.

The Internet In 2000: Yahoo picked newcomer Google to be their default search provider. That’s right, just 10 short years ago, Yahoo was using Google’s search results in their own engine.

The Internet In 2010: Interestingly enough, Yahoo tried to arrange a deal to use Google’s search results again in 2009, only to cancel the deal after regulatory pushback. Currently Yahoo and MSN are a very distant 2nd and 3rd in the highly lucrative search business.

The Internet In 2000: The United States and Asia each had approximately 110 million internet users.

The Internet In 2010: There are now 253 million people in the U.S. and 758 million people in Asia using the internet (an increase of 114% and 545% respectively). Both Africa and the Middle East have seen increases north of 1000%.

The Internet In 2000: There were approximately 360 Million internet users worldwide.
The Internet In 2010: There are more than 1.7 Billion internet users worldwide. This 472% increase means there are almost 500,000 new people coming on to the internet for the first time each and every day. How’s that for a growing market?

The Internet In 2000: AOL was the internet (You’ve Got Mail, anyone?) and was once valued at approximately $200 billion.
The Internet In 2010: Google is now the internet with a valuation of $199 billion as of January 4, 2010. AOL was spun off from parent company Time Warner in late 2009 and is currently worth about $2.5 billion.


The Internet In 2000: We made it through Y2K, and the world didn’t end.
The Internet In 2010: We made it through the past 10 years, and it seemed like the world almost did end (several times).

The Internet In 2000: Half of the homes in America did not even own a computer, and only 2 in 5 American homes had internet access.
The Internet In 2010: 4 out of 5 American homes now own a computer and approximately 92% of homes have internet access (with just over 50% being high speed).

The Internet In 2000: Online spending during the week after Thanksgiving totaled less than $1 billion.
The Internet In 2010: Online spending during the week after Thanksgiving 2009 totaled $3.17 billion: a 372% increase. Excluding travel, digital downloads, and event tickets, retail spending is expected to be approximately $150 Billion in 2010. If you account for total online spending, this number would be far north of $200 Billion.

The Internet In 2000: Social Media was instant messaging.
The Internet In 2010: Social Media is big business. Ranked by Alexa, the now 2nd (Facebook), 4th (YouTube), 12th (Myspace), and 15th (Twitter) most popular sites of 2010 weren’t even ideas back in 2000. These 4 sites collectively are worth an estimated $12 Billion.

These are truly exciting times. While a lot has changed over the past decade, as business owners online (or soon-to-be business owners online), it’s important to note the meteoric rise in two sets of data: 1) worldwide users online and 2) online spending.
With stats like 500,000 new internet users coming online for the first time every day, online business is a freight train you can’t afford to miss.
Think about it for a second. Everything you and I do online generates revenue for someone or some company. If you search, Google makes money. If you sign in to Facebook, Mark is making money. If you buy any sort of product or service online (or simply browse around most popular websites), someone is making money. That reality is what I want to focus on today (and we are not just going to talk about it, I am going to show you how to get involved).

So Where Does Buying & Selling Websites Fit In?

The data points above, while impressive, can be a little misleading when taken out of context. Just because more people are using the internet to buy goods and services, this alone doesn’t mean anything tangible until you can find a way to offer the products and services they are actually buying.
While there is a whole range of different things people buy online, it’s never smart to get caught up in the euphoria that the internet is a game changer or a market where fundamentals don’t matter. They do matter, and when you think they don’t you get something like the tech bubble to prove you wrong.
This is perhaps the first mistake most entrepreneurs make when starting a business online. They take their idea or their product and try to find people to buy it. While that is the core principal of marketing and I’m all for people coming up with the great new technologies of tomorrow, the chance of actually being the person to come up with the next Google or Facebook is slim to none.
Instead there is a different, far more predictable path you can chose to take; one I will show you on this very page. Pay close attention because what I am about to share with you is both incredibly valuable and often overlooked.
Becoming the next Google or Facebook is not my focus, and I don’t think it should be yours either. If you are truly looking for the “secret” that successful online entrepreneurs know it is