Although the initial expense of purchasing any kind internet business will be higher initially there are several advantages in doing so in terms of search engine ranking, traffic etc. Also you need to consider the opportunity of sales and profitability depending on the niche you are interested in.

Remember that there are always a certain amount of risks in buying an internet based business, but by doing due diligence and researching sufficiently the particular niche market that you are interested in and asking the seller the correct questions you can reduce those risks enormously.

Here are some of the things that you will need to check:

Before you even consider whether to buy or build a site, you need to search for the amount of interest in the niche you will be targeting. Find out if the product or niche is something that people are generally keen to buy. Check specific key words on Google to see just how many people are interested in this product. Search thoroughly through forums and blogs, the niche you have chosen to see the amount of people who are interested in the product.

The next important point to check is the history of the website that is for sale. You can't always trust the seller of the website so check the history and claims being made. In fact many website that are for sale are nothing more than shell sites and scams, where the same website in all but name is being sold several times to different unsuspecting buyers.

By running a Google search on the seller, and again visiting forums, you will quickly learn if the person selling you the website is a known scammer, as there will be complaints from other people who have been burnt in the past. Do a search on websites that have similar content.

Once you have found a website that you like, ask the seller to sign a non-competition clause so that they will not immediately set up a rival site to the one they just sold to you.

By purchasing a website with a recognized double opt-in auto-responder service you will be assured that the prospect list has been built up by legitimate means and not by spamming.

The minute you become the the owner of the website, change the passwords.

The advantages that you will benefit from by buying a website are you will save yourself many, hours of work in designing and building the website and in building up traffic and writing copy.

Don't for a moment think that just because everything is in place you will be able to sit back and watch the profits pour in. There is still work to be done. Before you can see any sales you will need to change every affiliate link and all the contact details including the mailing list subscription form. Then you will need to work on maintaining and improving the traffic and conversion levels that the site has been receiving.

If however you have done your due diligence and have bought the website at a reasonable price, you should quickly begin to see a return on your money and can continue to build your business but with profits from the get go.