Other Side of Flipping Websites
These days many people are into the business of “flipping websites.”
What is the concept of flipping website, and how does it works? What does the person, who buys it, do with it?
Flipping website is a concept of “creating a website just for the sole purpose of selling it quickly for few bucks“. In general these websites have 10 to 15 pages of good content (optimized for Adsense) and on an average 3 months old. They are sold when the stats starts showing that the traffic has started coming to the site from search engines. Mostly these sites are sold from $100 to $200 range.
I have never flipped a website. But I always buy such sites. Why? There are many reasons behind it.
- The seller has already done the research to find some good long tail keyword which can bring in easy traffic from search engines. That saves my time in doing this research.
- The seller has already found the best possible domain name optimized for the keyword (so that he can sell it for more).
- I can read and review the content on the site to see whether it is good quality or not. In comparison, if I have to ask somebody to write the content for me, I am not sure that the quality of the content would be good or not.
- The seller has already done some off-site SEO to get some links from social bookmarking sites etc., so that search engines find it and start sending traffic to it. People don’t buy sites with zero traffic. So they try to bring some SE traffic and then only try to sell it.
- Site is already 3 months old and would add to the aging factor (though only of 3 months) when I compare it with creating a new website from scratch.
So, what do I do with the site after buying it?
I just do the following:
- I add my adsense, kontera and some more advertising networks
- I submit it to my network of directories, which bring good PR and backlinks.
- I ask my team to do 7 day SEO work for the site
- And, then I almost forget it.
- Start searching for the next one on DP or SP forums
In the month of July and August 2008, I have bought around 20 such sites and hosted them all on a new shared server (under a test to see whether this business feasible and profitable). The total cost of them is $2840. But now the total earnings from these 20 sites combined brings in is much more than 10% of $2840.
So, this is another business of buying flipped websites and groom them to milky sites, which can give you more milk in the long term. The only thing you need to concentrate is which one to buy and which one to avoid as there are hundreds of them getting sold on forums.
Go ahead and buy a few miniature gems. Who know they may turn out as big monster in the future.
Welcome back!
Jim Karter on November 4th 2008 in Advertising Networks, Business, Earning Money, Internet Marketing, Traffic Generation
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34 Responses to “Other Side of Flipping Websites”
Sponsored links from google adsense.
Envirogle responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 3:41 am #
The total cost of them is $2840. But now the total earnings from these 20 sites combined brings in is much more than 10% of $2840.
Is this monthly ???
Also when you buy your sites, do you buy a certain type, ie) Content, blogs, arcades, etc.
Armaan Bhati responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 4:05 am #
I have sold lot of sites. I am still doing this.
it takes maximum 3-4 days to make such sites and very easy to sell on DP or SP.
Jim Karter responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 4:24 am #
Envirogle, What it means is that those sites now make much more than 10% of $2840 per month.
Armaan Bhati, Ya, I know you are on the other side of the story.
EasyProfitPack responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 5:02 am #
I really want to get into the flipping business and I think I can use all the help that I can.
I think there are so many options when to comes to flipping and that makes me dazed!
theGypsy responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 6:49 am #
Interesting stuff… there is another version on ‘flipping’ that we use… We purchase strong domains, make them even better and sell after 18 months or so. These are sites worth $20k and up though… if you can afford that air, there is much to be made there as well.
Good luck with your efforts… and let me know when you’re selling a site ;0)
Zak Show responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 8:44 am #
Good post!
Pesonally, I do both, when I need money I create websites and sell them and when I have enough funds I look for some good niche websites.
By the way I just wrote an article about this topic too, it shows some tips on flipping websites:
http://www.zakshow.com/2008/10/31/tips-on-selling-websites
Zaman responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 11:11 am #
Hi Jimkarter,
My comment has nothing to do with your post. But I was just checking PR updates of some of my websites. I also checked the PR of shoemoney, DP, johnchow, doshdosh and even your website. Everything was ok but I saw that the PR of jimkarter.com has decreased to PR0. Am I seeing something wrong or has the PR of jimkarter really dropped drastically.
Just thought of informing you as I am not sure whether you have checked it or not.
Driveway Sealing responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 12:32 pm #
Rather than flip a site I try to work it to my advantage. If I sell it for $100 that is quick money and will be gone in a few days.
I hold the site and let it bring in more money over the long haul.
Neeraj responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 7:39 pm #
I ask my team to do 7 day SEO work for the site– what all in done in this seo work?
one more thing, you mentioned that you forget about the site after this, but as far as i know you are a man who believes in continuous promotion
ebusinesstalkdotnet responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 7:50 pm #
Jim
what is 7 day sEO work and how many directories you have? all different IPs?
Great read.
Money While You Sleep responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 9:58 pm #
It can be a bit unpredictable which of these sites will take off. I developed a few experimental sites recently, one is picking up 13,000 uniques per month after a few months, another is picking up very few. I think your approach of “keep building and keep developing new content” is the master strategy though, and choosing good keywords to target is critical.
Find Terms responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 12:06 am #
I also like to buy new websites that have a bit of content and hopefully heavy on the backlinks - that’s the real ticket to a solid buy.
Jim Karter responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 2:06 am #
Zaman, yes you are right. The PR of jimkarter.com is dropped to 0 by google. That means google has punished the website for selling links/banners without nofollow. But frankly, I don’t care as far as this site is concerned.
Neeraj, 7 day work getting some good number of backlinks from various place by various methods.
ebusinesstalkdotnet, I have around 25+ directories. Some of them I don’t even remember the names.
Money While You Sleep, yes you are right. Its difficult to predict which one with make it big.. but when you have many there are chances that one or two of them gonna make it big.
Ankit responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 1:18 pm #
Awesome !!!!
This type of posts really help a newbie to make more money online.
Again a Superb Post.
Jim You are Great !!!!
Mike Huang responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 4:21 pm #
The only problem here is if Google decides to do any type of updates, you may lose everything. I heard from this month, they did some sort of “update” that dropped a LOT of good keywords for sites.
-Mike
Money While You Sleep responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 10:11 pm #
Hey a quick question for you Jim… something I can never seem to find people to agree on… Google is known to look out for “unnatural patterns of link development”, some people suggest only adding 1 or 2 links per day to a site, whereas others suggest much higher numbers, any idea how many links per day is a safe number? I would imagine domain age affects this also.
Jim Karter responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 10:47 pm #
Mike Huang, that is true for any site which a new one you make, or the old one you have, or the one you just bought.
Money While You Sleep, I am not sure what is the right number but I do it like 2 links a day types. For the free directory submissions, I do them at bulk coz it takes very long time to get them listed. So it automatically looks natural.
Masrur responded on 06 Nov 2008 at 3:08 am #
Great…very inspiring…
I think I would try it now.
thanks to heads up.
Raoraj responded on 06 Nov 2008 at 9:10 am #
i like your idea of flipping sites. but i think its not easy to make money frm these sites.
Chris Guthrie responded on 06 Nov 2008 at 2:04 pm #
Hey Jim,
Great post! Quick question though, what is done during this phase:
“I ask my team to do 7 day SEO work for the site”
I assume it’s something different than what you’ve described earlier.
mr.din responded on 07 Nov 2008 at 2:50 am #
nice post, jim. hm.. so the cost to make top SERP is not a little..
Make Affiliate Money responded on 07 Nov 2008 at 5:57 pm #
I have done some website flipping but didn’t start out with that intention. I managed to sell a couple of sites last month for about $500. I have now bought a couple of similar domains with the intention of selling them on once I have built some links and traffic. Is pretty easy way to make a bit of extra money.
JZ
Envirogle responded on 07 Nov 2008 at 9:20 pm #
@ Raoraj
I didn’t know Jim coined the idea of flipping sites.
You can still make a pretty penny flipping sites. or should I say a pretty $13′449, last month earnings.
@ Armaan Bhati
That isn’t flipping, but it is a great way to make a quick $150, if I am currently working on a project and I need to pay a freelancer a few $$$, I just make a quick site, and the sale will be complete in less than 12 hours @ sitepoint.
@ Jimmy
Sorry didn’t manage to mention what a great post it was.
Also what people don’t realise is that not everyone out there monetizes their site to earn the maximum income or any income for that matter.
So you don’t really have to look for sites making money, sites that are generating targeted traffic is great, as they are mostly cheaper as the seller doesn’t know the true value of his site, and also since there is no revenue earnings you can bargain better.
However you need to be careful when purchasing and do your due diligence, and make sure traffic is not bought etc.
It is best to purchase from trusted members or ask to pay half upfront and check out the site for a month and pay other half at the end of the checking period.
Affiliate marketing guide responded on 08 Nov 2008 at 1:25 pm #
I used to create sites and flip them but its honestly not that high paying, I found that building/buying sites and making money out of them through affiliates to be a much better income source.
Money Academy responded on 09 Nov 2008 at 1:25 pm #
i didn’t try it before , but if you got profit from it , i think i should get a try
Goonie responded on 09 Nov 2008 at 5:23 pm #
I never heard this kind before. Thanks for the information, may be i will try to buy available flipping site and monetize it.
Goonie
Viky responded on 11 Nov 2008 at 7:12 am #
Well very much new idea for me. I always used my own sites to bring money by keeping them with me.Will surely try this. Thnx for the info.
ravi responded on 11 Nov 2008 at 11:38 pm #
where did you use to buy such ready made profitable sites.give me the source.
i’m struggling to get traffic for myblogs.
i will make a try by buying that type of sites
Jim Karter responded on 12 Nov 2008 at 3:37 am #
A good place to start is site point market place.
Ruby responded on 12 Nov 2008 at 7:19 am #
I’ll give it a try. if you have, then it’s worth it. Thank you for the heads up.
aloy responded on 13 Nov 2008 at 2:07 am #
Hmmm, i still curious about “I ask my team to do 7 day SEO work for the site”. After that you just update content and not doing some SEO stuffs again?
Joanne responded on 25 Nov 2008 at 2:12 am #
Hi Jim,
What type of site are you looking for? do you have example site you bought previously? I’m curious on it as there’s a lot of junk site in DP and sitepoint and I believe your example would really help us in choosing the potential site.
titan responded on 11 Dec 2008 at 8:42 am #
its good idea and i believe you know how to make money from that kind of site. I also like to do flipping business.
Other Side of Flipping Websites | KrazyPad.com responded on 22 Jun 2009 at 8:33 am #
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