Website Flipping

Sometimes, all you need to look for in a website to make a profitable site flip is a good domain name.  This is especially useful when you’re starting a site from scratch with an intention to put it in the market after a small amount of development.  Even if you’re looking to buy a built site, though, the domain name will play a heavy factor as far as its future marketability is concerned.

These are the things you generally want to look for when choosing a domain name.

1. The shorter, the better

A shorter domain name will be easier to remember, faster to type and easier to brand.  As much as possible, stick to within three keywords or less.   If you can get away with it, do limit the character count to 19 or fewer as well.

2. Stick to the major TLDs

For purposes of flipping, keep the domain name to within the three major TLDs, namely .com, .org and .net.  If you’re considering purchase of a site with a different extension, see if you can buy a major TLD of the same before going through with the transaction.  Otherwise, you may just want to pass.  The majority of people default to .coms when they hear about a website, so as much as possible I grab a .com domain.

3. Cram your keywords into the domain

Having the main keyword in the domain automatically brings SEO value to the site, as well as slapping those vital words right on the brand.  This brings major points once you throw the site back on the market as keywords are among the first things buyers look at when looking for online properties to invest on.

4. Avoid trademark violations

Always check whether a domain violates any trademarks.  The last thing you want is to invest all that time and energy developing a site for flipping, only to have buyers refuse to even come near it for fear of infringing on other companies’ legal properties.

Stick to these few guidelines and you’ll be off to a good start in the website flipping proccess.

Wordpress blogs are among the most popular types of properties that site flippers love to turn.  With the wealth of extensions available for the platform, turning a blog from a standard install to a multi-faceted website can be done in a very short time, without requiring a ton of work.

While the number of existing RSS subscribers will likely be your future buyers’ main concern, there are a few other things you can do to give the blog a better chance at making a successful sale.

Add A Premium Theme: Throwing in the license to a premium theme, along with a few well-placed customizations, adds plenty of immediate value to a Wordpress blog.  If your custom changes really manage to set the blog apart, the design alone can be a major selling point.

Create Flagship Content: Pay a really good writer to develop some linkable, attractive and flagship content.  These types of features will give the site the timeless content edge that majority of blogs lack, giving potential buyers a major incentive to invest on it.

Add Regular Content: Give your blog momentum by having regular content appear on its pages.  Whether you schedule articles, hire part-time bloggers or produce some short videos, a busy blog offers a more lucrative purchase compared to the lot of sparsely updated Wordpress installations peddled on the market.

Get Some Quick Links: Try and get some quick, low-cost inbound links to your site from other blogs.  Hire cheap labor to post a few comments on do-follow blogs, join carnivals and run a couple of social media campaigns to highlight your flagship content.   The more links you can manage to eke out before rolling the blog back out to the market, the more profitable the venture can be.  I usually use this to build some quick, high quality links.

So get started doing the following tasks and see how much value is added to the blog when you cash it in for that payday.

-Brett

ps. site flip academy has some great resource for flipping all types of blogs and website, so check them out here.

Finding a website to flip isn’t that hard. A quick look at popular webmaster forums like Sitepoint and DP are guaranteed to turn up more than a few sites available for cheap that you can easily sell for over twice the cost of acquisition.

If that’s all you’re going to do, though, you’re not going to maximize the inherent profitability of the business model. Sure, picking out a $25 site, tweaking it a little and letting it simmer for a few weeks before turning it over for $200 is a good way to make a small profit. However, it’s neither going to make you rich nor is it a real foundation to a sustainable business.

Experienced website flippers always go beyond “cheap” when looking for properties to turn around. They also don’t restrict themselves to places where websites are normally traded, such as webmaster forums or auction sites like eBay, where competition can prove fierce. Instead, they turn to search results and other avenues, evaluating websites to go after based on their merits and potential.

Finding those sites that are not on the market but may be available requires you to really search deep into the web. The more familiar you are with a particular industry, the more likely you will be able to scope out those under-performing properties that hide within its confines.

Big sites that show up in the first page of search results for that industry are obviously out of the question - they’re too expensive and well-managed on their own that changes you put in may actually be detrimental to it. What you’re looking for are those niche properties that have received some actual attention from their owners but are now being neglected for the most part. Maybe they’re good sites that are badly-optimized, content sites with no structure or decent products that weren’t given any promotion - if they actually carry some value but could use a little more work to make their mark, they will be your target acquisitions.

Take some time and go beyond the typical sources for websites to buy and flip for a profit. With a little work and patience, you can chance upon some real treasures.

-Brett

ps. if your interested in getting started or bettering your website flipping skills I highly suggest site flip academy

Shopping For Websites: What Makes Them Valuable

When evaluating whether you want to flip a particular website, you want to look for certain qualities that will make it a potential hit. Many times, you’ll come across sites with one or more of these factors going for it, with its owners simply unable to capitalize on them.

1. Backlinks

Despite all the  pages upon pages of SEO advice written across many books and blogs, nothing still helps a site up the search rankings better than solid backlinks.  When evaluating a site for a possible flip, check its backlink profile.

If it has many links from social media, adding an authority link from two or three popular and respected sources in its industry will probably be enough to turn it into a goldmine.  The more natural and authoritative links that it already has, the more valuable it should be to you as a potential site for flipping.

2. Pagerank

While many now discount the importance of pagerank, there are few metrics as easy to see that will give you good indication of where a site is at in Google’s graces.   People still pay good money for pagerank too.

3. Community/Users/Subscribers

An existing audience makes a property extremely valuable for any site flipper.  Whether it is a blog with RSS subscribers, a forum with members or an ebook sales website with a mailing list, having built-in users you can leverage right from the get-go makes a site brimming full of potential.

4. Professional Work

Check the layout, the design, the backend, the scripts and other tangible components that comprise the actual website.  Are they professional-grade or low quality patchwork?  Do the articles and databases look like they can be worth a decent amount?  Is it running some custom scripts or CMS that can be worth a good amount on its own?

5. Domain Name

How valuable will the site’s domain name be on today’s market?  Is it brandable and memorable?  You might recognize a site’s name to be related to a popular brand, for instance, on a totally different niche.  If you can buy the site, you can easily overhaul it to  serve that market and sell it for much more based on the name’s value alone.

If you are interested or want to learn more about website flipping check out Site Flip Academy

Site Flipping: A Golden Opportunity

Flipping properties has been an age-old business model utilized across many industries.  There is, indeed, a lot of money to be made in acquiring under-performing assets, dressing them up and putting them back on the market for a nice margin.

The same profitable scheme has also found extensive use online.  Instead of turning over real estate or yachts or cars, however, people have been banking it by flipping websites.

Under-Performers

There are probably millions, if not billions, of websites today.  While some of these browser fares have become all but indispensable in our daily lives, many more are merely languishing in the sidelines for a variety of reasons.

Down-on-their-luck websites like these are no different from real world businesses on their last legs.  While a few of them may have no chance of thriving (like a surf shop on the middle of the desert, for instance), some may have merely been mismanaged, poorly marketed or ignored in favor of more profitable ventures.

An Opportunity

While majority of these websites will likely fade into obscurity, never to be seen again, many of them may actually present an opportunity to someone with a keen eye for potential.  A web-savvy entrepreneur with the qualified know-how can take some of these under-performing properties and turn them into modestly profitable ventures.

Regardless of what kind of budget you’re working with, website flipping can be a golden opportunity for someone with the right skillset and the ability to spot a likely star amidst a sea of unwanted sites.  Do you have what it takes to dive in and be a part of it?

Get on it, and start flipping some sites!

-Brett

ps.  get your feet wet in website flipping with Site Flip Academy, hands down the best resources for your money…

Quick-Flipping: Buying and Selling Websites for Immediate Profit

Most people involved in website flipping take an under-performing site, put some development work into it and seek to maximize its potential before deciding to sell it.  A few, however, may not have the same desire to spend as much time on the properties they buy, looking instead to put it back into the market immediately.

Quick Sale

Some sites sold around the web simply go for less than what they’re worth.  Whether it’s due to plain ignorance of their properties’ actual value or a quick need for liquid funds, the owners are putting it up at a price that makes it a veritable steal.  Knowledgeable website flippers can identify these opportunities, sweep them up and list them up for resale at their actual value, earning a profit with absolutely no work.

Adding Value

While it’s always nice to make a quick buck from directly arbitraging a website without any work, adding a little more value to the property can raise its stock in considerable ways.   In fact, that’s how most seasoned website flippers will approach this same situation.

A few tweaks in some key areas like on-site SEO, backlinks and flagship content can easily double a cheaply-acquired site’s resale value.  If you can quickly implement these changes before the market renders it obsolete, you can be looking at a hefty revenue.

A Challenge

While that may all sound easy, the reality is that quickly flipping a website at a considerable gain is one of the hardest things to master.  The web, after all, is one of the fastest-changing industries in the world.  Unlike the stock market or real estate, your hot new acquisition may only stay that way for the next two months.  If the buzz fizzles out before you can capitalize, you can end up with just another loser in your portfolio.

-Brett

ps. if you need help getting started in website flipping I use and recommend siteflipacademy.

Website flipping is obviously a word derived from the terms “website” + “flipping”. The term flipping in this word is in turn, derived from the lingo of real estate industry which literally means buying a property (website in this case), enhancing it and then selling it on a higher price.

Factors that Affect Website Flipping

a) Website to flip – This is a big determining factor in website flipping. You should buy the right website to start with.

b) Website Development - This is not just an artistic thing, but also a witty step that must be done carefully. You should generate good contents for the website. This will pave the way to high traffic and conversions.

c) Website Marketing – This is the part wherein you have to market the website at a higher price. Normally you could start marketing the website at the same site where you first bought it. Of course, you should sell it in a higher value and remember to keep it at a reasonable price too!

Forms of Website Flipping

a) Set up Website Flipping

Fundamentally this is to create a website from scratch, do some marketing and then sell the site once it has traffic. This category takes more time but gives higher control on choosing the direction, setup and contents of the website.

b) Long-Term Website Flipping

This engages buying a website for its income and utilizing it as a long-term investment. So you investor will hold onto the site for multiple years profiting with its income capacity and then selling once the site reaches its profit boundary.

c) Standard Flipping

This is the universal website flipping - real estate model. As defined above, buy the right website, improve its contents and market it at a higher price.

Flipping domain names is a money-spinning business if you are familiar with what to look for and where to look.

Pointers to consider:

1. Domains with Google PageRank

Normally people purchase domain names with PR without considering of the actual domain name…

People that are purchasing domain names with Pagerank have high probability of selling links on the domain.
But the truth is that selling links is not really the deal. Your aim should be to acquire a domain name and flip it for a profit!

 2. Aged Domains are Good as New

Aged domain names have the advantage of preventing the Google “sandbox”. It usually ranks higher and faster in search engines for the targeted keywords.
Google is likely to grant aged domain names more weight and ranks them better.

Several tools can be used to sort out the domain name results depending on what you are searching for. Domain name lists are renewed every hour so it is advisable to check often and catch some GREAT dropping domains.

Some say flipping domain names is not a reliable full time online business. But Domain flipping, done with the right strategy at the right time, will undeniably give you high profits in a snap!

Ways to be a Good Website Flipper

Being a part of the website flipping business requires a sense of uniqueness for you to give a good innovation on the sites that you plan to buy and sell. An alternative way to get into this trend would be hiring a professional who has a broad knowledge on getting a highly profitable site to trade in the most cost effective way. Whatever way you would decide to use, a good research on website flipping would still mean a lot.

Learn and Practice the Website Flipping System

Online business is now greatly occupied by traders and “website flippers”, these are the ones who practice systems that are very similar to real estate and stock trading wherein they buy and sell in a short time then produces a swift profit from it. This system is well-established and serves a very great way to have a constant income.

As a starter, you must first choose the right website to invest for. You can do this by selecting a website which is highly marketable on the time you foresee to start selling or marketing it.

My guides for getting a profitable website are as follows:

Determine the website’s target market.

If you have a product that you’ve already started getting profit from, then this would be very helpful for you to find a website that fits your target market.

Find a website loaded with good contents.

This would mean just a simple rewriting of the contents and then proceed to optimizing the advertisements to get high conversions.

Venture for day-trading websites.

These are websites which has both good target market and good contents but not excelling in online marketing/promotions.The only thing you should work on this is maximizing its online presence and creates appealing promotions.

Community-centered websites means high profit.

These are websites which has well-established target markets thru their forum communities or networks. Be sure to select the site with high value to advertisers and has a wide list of affiliations where you can establish good marketing partnerships.

Consider the current and the foreseeable popular keywords that give a high impact to the online market.

If you have an idea about the current trends that’s booming around, then you have an idea of the current keywords that produces good results. Find the sites filled with good keywords to ensure that you’re competitive enough with the latest trends.

If you can’t beat them, join them!

Why would you compete with the high ranking websites when you could be one of them by simply joining their circle? This would lead you to finding a website which may be characterized similar to a circle of high ranking sites that you could offer partnership and once you’ve done this, voila! You’ve started a stable online investment!

Now, here are some tips that you can use when innovating the website that you’ve chosen to flip.

Make use of effective Adsense campaigns

Start Search Engine Optimization

Monetize with the use of purposeful blogs and articles

Tweak the articles/blogs with highly used and profitable keywords

Engage in affiliations to increase its value

Take Advantage of the Opportunities Ahead!

Once you’ve realize how easy it is to start a website flipping business. You’re now ready to take advantage of the opportunities that the World Wide Web is offering, provided you’re serious about it and knows how to deal with it.

With over 40,000 new blogs started everyday it is obvious that most are not dedicated or do not know how to grow there blog. There are thousands of things you can do to better your blog. I’m going to share a few with you that are fairly simple, yet very effective.

1. Post OFTEN:

And by OFTEN I mean as much as you can! Everyday is great, but at the very least try and post every couple days. New content will benifit your blog in many ways. FIrstly more content will get indexed on search engines which in turn will bring you more traffic. Secondly, your readers will appreciate how often you update and will be sure to check back regularly because they know there will be new content. Lastly, the worth of your blog will be increased every time you post, so if you are into blog flipping this is essential.

2. Original Content:

This is extremely important for someone in the website flipping . If your going to spend your time on building a website or blog to flip it you NEED original content. Sure you can build a blog up with copied content and sell it, but your going to get around 90%-95% less than you would if it was original. Trust me, it is key!

3. Encourage Comments:

If you simply ask a questions or ask for your readers feedback you will be surprised at how many comments you will get. When there are comments on a blog post people have the tenancy to read those posts, which will often trigger the new reader to comment as well. The more comments the better!

4. Interact With Readers:

This goes hand in hand with comments, respond and respond often to commenter’s on your blog. Also respond to your readers email with helpful and friendly help. This is very important in gaining the trust of your readers, when they trust you they are going to be returning knowing the great experience they had at your blog.

5. Recognize Your Readers

If you have a few readers who comment a lot and give helpful feedback and insightful observations, show them some love. If you have readers the comment often throw them an email thanking them. Also if they have a blog put it in your Blogroll, when others see that you really do appreciate them they will contribute more and more.

Well that’s it for now, if you follow those simple steps I guaranty your blog will grow. Word a little harder and it will pay off in the end. The best of luck to all of you. If you have anymore ideas feel free to add them.

Thanks,

Brett - WebsiteFlippingAdvice.com