Screw the Sandbox - Buy an old site.
Posted Sunday, November 6th, 2005. Filed under Jim's Crazy Ideas, SEO Research.
I've gone 5 days without posting, sorry for the silence — I've got a new addiction sucking up my time. It's called "Buying Old Websites," and it's got me hooked big time. In the past 5 days I've bought 5 domains, ranging from a strictly informational site registered in 1996 with over 70k backlinks and 650 from .edu's, down to sites from 2003 and 2004 with around 50 backlinks each.
To obtain these 5 I wrote to about 50 people, using a little private tool that helps me find potential sites, researching WHOIS info and writing over and over. To heck with buying text links, buying whole sites is so much more fun — screw the sandbox.
Reader Comments
Nick: Nice work Jim, so you're privately emailing these guys and offering to buy their sites rather than searching webmaster forums for sellers?
Jim: Yes, privately emailing. Cost varies, some more than others. I don't plan on redoing the sites, only changing the homepage and adding content, but keeping up all old content and deep links.
Vernon Kesner: Is the domain registration info being changed? Won't Google still see it as a new site and throw it into the sandbox?
Jim: Good question, I try to change as little of the WHOIS as possible. I don't believe they'd sandbox an old site even with a new owner — I think the sandbox is more focused on the date the site was first found.
graywolf: Came to the same conclusion myself, emailed about 150 people and picked up 2 domains from 2000 for under $1K. I agree you try to change as little as possible, and don't do something goofy like adding 500+ new pages.
Mark: I've been advocating expansion via buying websites for a long time. If there's one asset type highly undervalued at present, it's websites, and buying a site gives you tons of advantages, from a ready-made DMOZ listing to a ready-made shell of inbound links.
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