Flipping websites for profit is a great way of making some extra money. Just as many people buy real estate, and after renovating it, sell it at a higher price, flipping websites for profit is done by buying potentially rewarding websites that have been neglected due to ignorance or lack of business acumen, setting a few things right in these websites and then selling them at the right time for a handsome profit.
One important aspect to remember when you are thinking of site flipping is that the transfer process and daily maintenance, as well as improvements, will take up quite a bit of your time so you should be aware of this. A new website, of course, comes with its own set of responsibilities like support emails, answering phones, and server maintenance to name a few.
Your Business Strategy
Once you find a site that you think has ample potential to generate revenue for you, you will first need to monitor the website. Collect as much as existing revenue data for it, preferably for the last year. Check out if the site has an online community like forums, chat rooms, and helpdesk. Visit the forums and the chat rooms to see what exactly happens there. Also evaluate the web design, the link structures, the keywords used in the content, the headings, and the titles in the articles on the site.
Once you have familiarized yourself with the website and have decided on buying it, you should contact the site through email to the owner. If you are not able to find the email address on the site, you can look up the domain name look up at the Who.is database where the email address of the owner should be mentioned. If the site was set up by a hobbyist or their likes, it would be simpler to purchase the site. However, if the site is an already existing business site, then flipping websites for profit can take a little while longer due to business registration and alterations of incorporation details. These things can get a little more complicated if you are not from the same country.
Through your communication with the present owner, you would be able to gauge his interest in the site. If you think he is willing to sell, you can start your negotiations of the deal. This stage can be very laborious and time-consuming as each party takes time to propose and counter-propose an offer. This will also be the time to ask uncomfortable questions like how much is the website worth, detailed statistical figures, and revenues. Sometimes, you may get the site for a few hundred dollars. At other times, a savvier website owner may make you pay higher, as he knows the worth of his website. To flip websites, one will need lots of patience and perseverance. Once a deal is reached, there are a few important things that you will need to remember:
The domain name registration will need to be transferred to you. Along with that, the business name, the incorporation information, and third-party software subscriptions will also need to be informed to you. Hosting details and ownership is other points that you will need to know. By the deal is finished, everything should be transferred in your name.
- Drawing up a contract that summarizes the deal is a good idea and make sure that all parties date and sign it. It is also worthwhile to enter a line that prevents the owner from setting up a competing site for a predefined duration after the sale.
- The next important thing that you should do is to download the mailing lists so that you can make backups as this is going to be very important data for you.
- Try to get the ex-owner to commit some kind of support for a few months after the sale. The support can be in the form of the owner being available to answer a few questions or doubts so that the site flipping process is less stressful for you.
Once you get the website running you will need to get into action mode to improve its traffic and revenue. For this purpose, you will need to, first of all, hire a professional web designer, if you don’t have the time to do it yourself. This can mean additional costs but also a search engine optimized, better-looking, revenue-generating website.
“Content is king” goes the saying in the internet world. It is true and search engines love content that is original, unique, and keyword rich. For this purpose, existing content on the website that you just bought may have to be altered or tweaked to make it SEO worthy. You may even have to dispose of the existing content and add fresh content. Keyword density is another factor that you will need to think about. Creating backlinks, and marketing your website online through social networking sites, blogs and forums are all work that needs to be done to improve your search engine rankings.
Once you do all in your power in improving the website to increase traffic and show considerable revenue, you can sell it for a profit. There are different ways to sell your website. You can either list them on sites that list websites for sale, or you can use the auctioning services of the web for this purpose. While pricing it, consider what you spend on acquiring the site, the amount you spent on tweaking it and “refurbishing” it, and the revenue it now generates, and price it accordingly. This should roughly come to around ten times more than the monthly income generated by the website. You should give as much information about your site when selling. If potential buyers need to ask you specifically for every detail, it might turn them off and it may also make it seem as if you have got something to hide. Also, make sure that your previous buyers get to know about this website for sale.