Profitable - This is one you really have to watch out for. A great percentage of the websites advertised as "profitable" don't make a dime and have never made a dime. What you will see will most likely information in the form of a table. The heading will read something like, "Make up to $10,000 per month". The table will then show you how much money you can make based upon how many sales you make.

The truth is that this is not "Profitable". It could be termed as "Potentially Profitable" and that would be more accurate. Advertising a site that has never made money and is currently not making money as "Profitable" is misleading. As I said before you can always email the seller and ask about the profitability. I have done this many times and sometimes have received an email from the seller telling me that the website is not currently making any money. I was happy that the seller leveled with me about the profitability of the website.

Don't forget the rule about "If it seems to good to be true…". If you see a website that is claiming to make $1,000 a month in real earnings and it is a Buy-It-Now auction for $100, you know something is probably not right. People have many reasons for selling profitable website and none of those reasons include selling a website for less than it would net in a month. You have to ask yourself, "Why would someone do that?". I have a website that has topped out it's earnings at about $9,900 per month and takes about an hour a week to run.

I had a lot of offers but I just couldn't bring myself to sell it. Why would I sell that site for $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000 if it produces that in less than a year. To make a long story short just exercise caution and good common sense. Dependant upon the size and nature of the transaction you may want to seek legal advice as well.

As usual the rule here is get proof of income.

Huge Income - This falls into the same category as "Profitable". Also be careful of the difference between "net profit" and "gross profit". Someone I know emailed a seller the other day and asked him how the website could be considered profitable if the advertising costs were the same as the revenue. If you have to spend $3,000 a month to make $3,000 a month then all you are doing is breaking even. Why would you buy a business without assets that only breaks even?

Established - The sellers idea of established might be different from reality. An established website is either 1) Getting lots of traffic, 2) Making money, 3) Has been Online for awhile, 4) Has many pages listed in the search engines, 5) Has many other sites linking back to it. A site that lacks all of these is simply not "established" except in the mind of the seller.

High Traffic - The first question to ask here is what is the source of the traffic. Is the website getting high search engine traffic or is the traffic cost money?

Top Ranking - Ask the seller why he considers the website to be top ranking and for what keywords. I've seen some websites that claimed to be top ranking that weren't listed in Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Earnings in title or subtitle - Similar to "$6,000 a month". This will get you to look at the auction. Most of the time once you get inside the auction it will say "Make up to $6,000 a month" or "With the right promotion the site could make $6,000 a month".

Valuable Domain Name - Most of the domain name valuations you see is done by inexpensive software that doesn't have a clue what a domain name is really worth. there are many things that go into putting a value on a domain name. .com domains are typically the most valuable. Non hyphenated names are typically more valuable than hyphenated names. I recently saw an auction claim that a hyphenated name was worth almost $10,000. Truthfully if that were the case it would not be a Buy-It-Now auction for $100! I have a set of domain names listed for $15,000 and will keep it listed as such because it is worth the money.

Hosting Fees - check to see if hosting is included in the price and how much the seller is currently paying for hosting. Hosting has become pretty inexpensive these days.

Advertising and Promotion Costs - This is very important. If a seller is claiming that a website is currently making money then make sure you ask what the net profit is.

Domain Transfer Fees - This should typically be under $20 and in many cases under $10

I will add to this guide as I run across more ideas to save you money and help your online venture succeed.