In these harsh economic times, making that extra income has never been vital. This stems from the need to stay abreast with the rising costs of living. You may also want to make more money for the sake of investing or purchasing a major asset.
Needless to say, many avenues for making that extra income do exist. However, the website flipping stands out as the premier of these. The main reasons underlying this claim are the higher returns this avenue brings on investments and the relative simplicity of undertaking it.
In our discussions hereunder, we are going to get deeper with this subject matter. We shall first and foremost define and explain it. Then, we shall explain how to make money using it. Then, we shall take you through some step-by-step procedures of how to actualize it.
Table of Contents
What is Website Flipping?
For a start, website flipping refers to the processes of purchasing, improving and the reselling websites to third parties. It differs not so much from what transpires in the real estate world. There, speculators buy property, refurbish them, and then resell them for a higher price.
Like any other business, you have to carry out your market survey and raise the necessary finds before setting out. Be sure to know exactly who your competitors are or might be. They might pose some challenge to the long-run existence and operations of your company.
Then, you also have to set some realistic timeframe within when you might accrue some profits. Your failure to do this might squeeze you hard and interfere with your own enjoyment of the entire exercise. In fact, you are asked to give yourself some time before expecting any profits in return.
Flipping Website Business on a Long-Term Basis
Just like any other business, you might pursue this website flipping as a one-time cash cow or as a long-term career. Our first method envisages a scenario where you pursue the business as a long-term career. Here, you have to set up base just as you would do with a normal business.
Step I: Get some Computing Basics
You can never attempt to pursue this trade as a long-term career without the mastery of basic computing skills. Though you need not necessarily be an expert, you must be familiar with the tiny details which the trade entails for the sake of familiarity.
Among the many skills you have to know are MS Office packages, coding, programming, database management, networking, signal transmission, web design, and WordPress. These form the core of any computing task and will require your application from time to time.
To obtain these skills, you might need to enroll in your local academy. Alternatively, you might also visit an online site like the Udemy and so on. You need not obtain any certification as you might never have to be employed anywhere else.
Step II: Pick a Niche of Interest
There are a lot of niches available to choose from. However, the best idea is to always select a niche, you are interested in. If you select a website niche without having much interest, you won’t be able to make tremendous progress. Here are some popular niches listed below.
- Automobile
- Home Garden
- Pets
- Health
- Internet Business
- Crypto Currencies
- Woodworking
- Fishing
- Travel
- Crossfit
- Fashion
- Self Improvement
- Dating
There are potentially many ways to flip a website. It may not be that you are familiar with all the ways. That is why it makes sense to pick a particular niche of interest. Some of the ideas you might want to consider are:
- The use of white spaces
- Optimization of page speeds
- Attractive calls to action
- Hyperlink differentiation
- Segmentation of key information
- Incorporation of images
- Well-designed and written headlines
- Consistent website pages
You might need to invest some of your time and money to get to learn about their finer details. Alternatively, you might wish to hire someone or a team of people who already have these skills. This might require you to dig deeper though and is not advisable for a start.
Step III: Get Your Flipping Business Online
Having assembled everything you need, you will not have to get online. This simply entails placing your business on the World Wide Web portals. To do this, you will first and foremost have to construct a site for your business.
Then, upload it on the web via an Internet Service Provider. Lastly, you will have to announce its existence and availability far and wide. This, you shall do through various ways and means. These include the use of paid advertisements, social media platforms, and search engine optimization techniques.
Use your site to attract would-be clients. Tell them about who you are and what you potentially have to offer to them. Then, go ahead to receive any quotes or expressions of interests. After that, you go ahead to embark on the process of flipping the site as per their requirements.
Step IV: Add Value to the Website You Want to Flip
Other than merely flipping your site, you also have to add some value. This entails making your site more valuable than you initially bought it for. You will need to employ several tools to do this job.
For one, your site will take no less than 6 months to be profitable. It takes time for people to familiarize themselves with your site and to be willing to purchase it all together. You may hasten this process by paying for advertisements via the major social media platforms.
The 20-month estimate is by far the most effective in gauging the profitability of websites. In case you can generate net profits of no less than $1,000 per month, you are to sell it for $20,000 (20 times).
Step V: Sell Your Web Site
After flipping the site and adding value to it, the time has now come to sell it. This is perhaps the most intriguing part of the entire process. It entails finding a willing buyer who takes over your site at the rate you set.
At the moment, there are a number of sites that are dedicated to just that. The following are some of the top sites to consider leveraging while reaching out to potential clients:
- Flippa
- Warrior Forums
- Empire Flippers
- Craigslist
- Buy-Sell Website
To be guaranteed success, be willing to let your potential buyers bargain. Also, accept to take less than you would under normal circumstances. This way, you will sell more of your sites faster than your competitors will.
Flipping Website Business on Short-Term Basis
We already stated above that you can pursue this business as a long-term career or on a freelance basis. We now move to discuss the freelance part. Basically, freelance entails the pursuance of this job without any long-term commitments. Here, you need not set up a permanent business as those of long-term careers do.
Step I: Find Potential Websites
Your first task is to find those sites which you might flip. Several tools for achieving this end do exist. You might want to approach a particular site which you feel might have to be sold. Then, you will negotiate with the owner to have it transferred to you.
Alternatively, you might also visit a freelancing site, sign up, and bid for any available job. Some of the sites we suggest you try out are:
- Flippa
- Afternic
- Freemarket
- EmpireFlippers
- Digital Point Forum
- Web Hosting Talk
- Website Broker
- Trademysite
As a general rule, the best sites are those which have stayed unkempt or unattended to for too long. Those whose domains are to expire soon are also viable candidates.
Step II: Valuate the Website Accurately
After getting the site of your choice, you now have to evaluate it. This simply entails estimating the actual worth of that site. The purpose of this is to know just how much you might charge reasonably for the site. Though this is a role you can do independently, you would rather bring in an expert to help you out.
If you choose to go the independent route, these are the various parameters you will have to consider:
- Monetization method
- Verifiable traffic
- Source of traffic
- Keyword rankings
- Search Engine Optimization
- Revenue history
Step III: Flip the Website
Now go ahead to flip the website appropriately. This process is not so different from the case of the long-term career above. You will use one or several of these strategies:
- The use of white spaces
- Optimization of page speeds
- Attractive calls to action
- Hyperlink differentiation
- Segmentation of key information
- Incorporation of images
- Well-designed and written headlines
- Consistent website pages
After flipping the site, you will have to evaluate it a second time. This time around, you will have to factor the value you will have added with the flipping services. Then, find the final price by summing the base value with the added value.
Step IV: Make an Offer to Sell Your Website
Finally, you have to make a bid or offer. This is with regards to selling it to a potential buyer. To do a good job here, you have set a good minimum price. Consider the prices which your competitors will have also set. Definitely, this price has to be more than your cost of making the site.
Be open to any suggestions or bargains which might drive your price downwards. Only be careful that you make some meaningful profit. Do not let the price go way below your own profitability threshold. Lastly, you also have to exercise some bit of patience as you go about this issue. People take time to absorb and place their own bids, you know.
To accelerate the process, you might have to pay some advertisements or use social media to let everyone know about your offers. In the meantime, focus on making money via your site. By the time someone shows up to purchase the site, you will in fact even have recouped your money.
Final Verdict on Website Flipping
Whether it be as a long-term career or on a freelance basis, website flipping is a potentially lucrative business. The main reasons are the lower operational expenses, low cost of startup capital, and limited attention on your part.
It is hence an approach you want to make use of as a side hustle even when fully employed. Between now and the time you eventually set out, you want to master every basic of the trade. We ask that you refer to the sites that we have listed above for this crucial start.
As you draw, your plans, consider also the cost implications and the various strategies you will need to employ to make it a reality. Having done our part, we now pass the ball to you. Make every effort now to actualize the process. All the best in your subsequent endeavors!
