FirstPass Memo added four screening rules on October 24, 2026, aimed at buyers evaluating young, AI-built websites. The checks cover a recent revenue spike, disclosed AI-generated or programmatic content, dependence on one income program, and descriptions such as “fully automated.” Each comes with a suggested question for the seller, according to the publisher’s update explaining the rules.
The useful distinction is between spotting a disclosure and proving a business is sound. These rules read what a listing says. They cannot establish whether the seller’s numbers are accurate, discover every undisclosed dependency, or determine whether AI-generated pages will keep attracting visitors.
For buyers, the strongest use is straightforward: turn a listing’s attractive claims into requests for evidence. A site’s automation may be valuable, and a strong latest month may reflect genuine growth. The purchase decision depends on what supports those claims.
What the Four New Checks Look For
FirstPass Memo says each new rule fires on facts stated in the listing. The conditions matter, especially where business age changes the interpretation.
| New check | Published trigger | What the buyer needs to investigate |
|---|---|---|
| Recent revenue spike | Last month’s revenue exceeds twice the monthly average | Whether the latest month is repeatable, and how the average was calculated |
| AI-generated or programmatic content | The listing describes AI-generated content, AI writing tools or programmatic pages | Human input, content differentiation and traffic history |
| One income program on a young site | The site is under 12 months old and the only named income source is one affiliate program or ad network | Payout history, account risks and alternative monetization |
| Fully automated operation | The listing says the site runs itself, runs on autopilot or is fully automated | Tools, costs, maintenance responsibilities and transferability |
The AI-content rule receives high severity when the site is also under 12 months old. The published example labels the revenue-spike, single-income and automation checks medium severity. Existing age rules separately flag businesses with under six months of history as high severity and under 12 months as medium. These conditions come from the October 24 update.
I’d pay more attention to the combination of disclosures than to a raw flag count. A five-month-old site funded by one affiliate program has overlapping history and concentration questions. Three related flags are not three independent findings that something is wrong.
Four Seller Questions Worth Reusing
What Caused the Latest Revenue Jump?
The revenue rule triggers when the latest month exceeds twice the monthly average. FirstPass Memo recommends asking for revenue and traffic month by month since launch, plus an explanation of what drove the latest month.
A useful follow-up is to connect the increase to something identifiable: more visitors, a better conversion rate, a temporary promotion, a new commission arrangement or another documented change. Those explanations have different implications for a buyer.
Revenue and profit also need separate treatment. A revenue jump alone cannot show how much extra profit remains after operating costs. If a seller uses the latest month to support an asking price, I’d want both the revenue series and the corresponding expenses before accepting that month as a normal baseline.
The threshold is a screening convention published by FirstPass Memo, not evidence that growth above 2× is inherently suspicious.
What Makes the Content Worth Buying?
The AI-content check covers listings that describe their pages as AI-generated, written with an AI tool or built programmatically. Its suggested seller question asks about human writing or editing, what competitors could not quickly reproduce, and traffic performance through recent search updates.
That directs attention toward the asset’s defensibility. A large page count tells a buyer how much material exists; it says little about whether the material contains original research, useful data, specialist judgment or an audience relationship.
FirstPass Memo argues that AI tools make large content inventories cheap to assemble. The practical implication is that buyers should separate production volume from business value. AI products used in production may lower costs, but the buyer still needs to understand why visitors arrive and what would keep them coming.
I’d ask the seller to identify the pages that generate meaningful traffic or revenue, then explain the editorial and maintenance work behind those pages. That is a more concrete inquiry than asking whether the site “uses AI.”
What Happens if the Only Income Program Changes?
The single-income rule has two conditions: the business is under a year old, and its listing names only one affiliate program or ad network as income.
FirstPass Memo’s example uses Amazon Associates. Its suggested question requests monthly payouts, any policy warnings and evidence of other income sources the owner has tested. The same general inquiry applies when the sole named source is an advertising network.
This is a concentration question, not an argument that every small site needs several revenue streams immediately. A focused business can be viable. The buyer needs to understand how much income depends on one account, one set of program terms and one payout mechanism.
There is also a disclosure distinction: “only income named” is narrower than “only income that exists.” A seller’s response may reveal an omitted source. The listing alone cannot resolve that.
Who Keeps the Automation Running?
The automation rule looks for claims that a site operates without intervention. FirstPass Memo’s suggested question asks which tools and scripts run it, their monthly costs, who repairs them and whether they transfer to the buyer.
For an acquisition, those details belong in an operating handover:
- Which subscriptions and accounts are required?
- Which workflows depend on the seller’s credentials?
- Who notices failed publishing jobs or broken integrations?
- What ongoing work sits outside the automated workflow?
- Can the buyer legally and practically take over each dependency?
My view is that “fully automated” is best treated as a request for a maintenance inventory. A scheduled publishing system may save substantial labor while still requiring someone to monitor output, handle failures and maintain accounts. The relevant purchase question is what work and expense remain after transfer.
The Published Example Raises an Averaging Question
FirstPass Memo illustrates the checks with an explicitly invented composite: a five-month-old product-review site with 1,800 AI-generated articles, Amazon Associates income and scheduled publishing.
The example lists a $14,000 asking price, $250 average monthly profit, $4,200 trailing-12-month revenue and $1,300 revenue in the latest month. Its reported payback of 56 months follows directly from dividing $14,000 by $250. That is about 4.67 times annualized profit, assuming the monthly profit holds. These are illustrative figures, not a real listing or independently measured business results. (Source)
The revenue-spike calculation deserves closer attention. The example reports the latest month as 3.7× the monthly average:
- $4,200 ÷ 12 months = $350 per month.
- $1,300 ÷ $350 ≈ 3.7×.
But the same example says the business is five months old. If that $4,200 represents all revenue earned during those five operating months, a different denominator produces:
- $4,200 ÷ 5 months = $840 per month.
- $1,300 ÷ $840 ≈ 1.55×.
Under that interpretation, the latest month would fall below the new rule’s greater-than-2× threshold.
This is an ambiguity in the published example, not a tested software defect. It produces a useful buyer check: ask whether “monthly average” covers operating months or a full 12-month window. For young businesses, that choice can materially change how dramatic a revenue increase appears.
Frequently Asked Questions
3 questions
1Does AI Content Automatically Mean High Severity?
No. FirstPass Memo’s AI-content rule is high severity when the listing also says the site is under 12 months old. The flag is a prompt for further questions, not a finding of wrongdoing.
