We’ve all heard of people flipping real estate; buying the house for a low amount, doing some minor/major work on renovations and then selling for a profit. Now people are doing the same thing with websites, site flipping. But is it a fly by night profession or another great business avenue for people to take? In this article I want to dig a little deeper into the subject. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Concerns about site flipping
There are a few arguments I see a lot when talking about site flipping, one I see the most being the fact that quick built websites are ruining the quality of the internet. In my opinion, you can’t hurt the quality of a place with billions upon billions of websites already floating around google. Searching for “clinic” in google brings up 115 MILLION results. Now, building websites targeting this keyword really will not make a dent in he amount of quality information out there. So regardless if people think its wrong, you can still do it for and make a profit for it.
Build with quality in mind
Even if you’re putting up a website to just sell, you should still treat it as a website you’d be proud to tell people you own. Flooding the page with 20 ads but only have 500 words is not something (in my opinion) to be proud of.
If flipping is your game and you want to make a go of it, as always it starts with great content, a desire to make it work and a determination to keep going. I am a shining example of an entrepreneur who loves the thrill of the build, it is almost like a high but coming off it when heading into the “maintain it” stage of the lifecycle is when I get extremely bored and restless.
This is not uncommon, look over the history of the vast percentage of the fortune 500 companies and you will find that usually the founder is not the person running the company any longer.
So if your unique ability is in finding a niche, building a following, passing it off and doing it all over again this could be a very profitable business model for you.
In this economy – flip the coin over
With the daily economic doom and gloom that is shoved down our throats, it’s hard to remember that we are in the middle of one of the best buyer’s market we have seen in a long time. History has proven that more millionaires are created in a recession if you take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves when people are scared.
Buying websites may be one of the easiest of these markets to get into because I don’t think there is a lot of “noise” in this market yet. This blog is an example of the power of this. I had been looking and learning everything I could about online marketing when I stumbled on the marketplace at sitepoint.com and found this site for sale. It was inline with my passion, had a great community and I saw that I could provide value to the readers and have a place to build credibility for myself without having to start from scratch and presto here I am.
Now when this economy turns around I will have an asset that I can choose to keep or be able to sell when it is the right time to do so. I believe that in the future websites that have strong ranking, a big following and good content will catch the eyes of bigger companies wanting to get a foot up on the competition.
Either way I’m left with choices and that is never a bad thing.
I would also add a “buyer beware” to your concerns section. It is very possible that the site you buy may have been banned by google or have a nasty history that is easily uncovered by the wayback machine and such. Additionally, when buying for PR purposes. the actual PR that is claimed on the auction sites is often fake.
Hi Wayne, you make a very good point, as with any business purchase it is really nothing that should be jumped into without doing the same level of research that you would for any purchase of this magnitude. It is not a decision to be taken lightly.
Cheers,
Derek
I love the process of finding new niches and setting up high quality auto blogs. The market research can be a bit boring, but that can really be outsourced. I get bored very easily, so blog flipping is right up my alley.
This helps me a lot, thanks for the information.
Hi, great article, and kudos for taking the time. One thing, I believe your images are missing? Or is it my browser?
Another Fantastic write up, I will save this in my Reddit account. Have a good evening.