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Tag Side Hustle

Flipping websites – how to buy and sell websites for profit

Investing in websites that are already making money can be an excellent way to earn extra income.
Berto

Berto

Flipping websites has been a popular way to earn online income for many years, driven by the realistic chance of radically increasing the value of a site. Buying an existing site, improving it, and then selling it at a greater price is achievable for marketers and designers with little experience, but having a methodology is vital to the process. Before you begin, it is important to understand the value of the site you are buying, how much you can add to it, and an estimated price it could be sold for. When you can follow this formula, making money from website flipping is a realistic goal.

Research Niches

Auction sales can be led by the niche of the site. Popular niches can have a number of bidders, leading to a higher price. It is also helpful if you can spot an emerging trend before it completely takes off. An evergreen niche, for example, health, fitness, and finance, should always find buyers if you can add value to the site. A trend-based niche, however, could be purchased at a reasonable cost, left to mature as the enthusiasm grows, and sold at a profit. Sites like Google Trends will be important in spotting growing markets.

Browse Sites

Next, you need to find potential sites for purchase. FlippaSedoSnapNames, and GoDaddy are prominent auction sites, but there are many private sellers you can deal with. Look for sites that you feel you can improve in a tangible way. A site might be unattractive and benefit from a redesign, while others could improve with a sales funnel that maximizes revenue. Over time, your ability to spot possible improvements will grow.

Conduct Research

The best site flippers don’t just rely on their instincts. Get used to studying the analytic data about each site. Sellers should provide you with traffic stats, income details, and subscriber counts, but always request them if they are not readily available. Studying the data might uncover a site that is getting a lot of traffic, for example, though it isn’t translating into revenue. In this case, experimenting with alternative advertising could improve results. If a seller is reluctant to give you any analytic data, it is wise to avoid a purchase.

Purchase the Site

Purchasing a site can be achieved in a variety of ways. A private seller might offer you a deal, with the possibility of a negotiation taking place. An auction site like Flippa will often have an immediate purchase price, but also have an ongoing auction taking place. Regardless of the method, set yourself an upper price limit to avoid getting drawn into spending more than you are likely to get back from your own eventual sale.

Add Value

After purchasing the site, it is time to try adding significant value to the worth of the property. Certain aspects might add immediate value, while other factors take time to come to fruition. Improving the design can take place immediately, taking into account the emergence of mobile traffic and compatibility. Testing alternative revenue methods can begin straight away, with the option of developing long-term revenue from an email list. New content can be added on a consistent basis, leading to a more thriving blog. Finally, implementing a number of traffic strategies will bring more visitors, but increasing traffic will usually take time.

Sell the Site

When you are comfortable with the value-added, the next stage is to flip the site for profit. It could be a quick sale if the immediate sales have had an impact, but there are also benefits to letting it mature. Selling your site involves marketing to potential buyers, so spend time crafting good sales copy that promotes the benefits of owning the property. It is important to be responsive to potential buyers, so be prepared to communicate effectively with all serious interest that follows.

Rinse and Repeat

The price of websites varies considerably, but most website flippers are looking to make consistent sales. If you are buying and selling sites, there will usually be a limit to how much profit you can gain from a single sale. Instead of hoping for an occasional big win, look to develop your reputation as a top seller, allowing you to repeatedly generate income from sales. When you have mastered the process, you can repeat it indefinitely. There will be times when a sale won’t generate the interest you hoped, but your consistency will counteract any disappointments.

Following these methods, making money from website flipping is possible with minimal experience. Your ability to analyse potential successes will increase over time, so you can expect profits to gradually rise. While there is always the option of creating sites from scratch, buying them for a good price, improving them, and then selling them means you can flip more sites in a reduced time period. Flipping websites is a technique that has worked for many years, but the steady increases in online entrepreneurship indicate it is unlikely to stop any time soon.