Ok, I have been dabbling around with websites for about a year and a half. My efferts and earnings have left me with a couple of decent sites earning a few hundred dollars a month, a stable of domains, several informational type sites earning $xx/month, and about $8,000 in cash. I really do not want to continue to sit on the cash. I need to get it reinvested making a decent return. My problem is my "Real Job" and family obligations take up too much of my time. I cannot dedicate much to another project. I have been browsing "Sites for Sale" on all the major forums and have not found anything that would work for me. I even post WTB site paying 20x revenue and did not find anything worthwhile I do not feel plowing cash into any of my exisiting sites would yield enough of a return to justify it. Does anyone have any ideas of how or where I can invest this money to get decent returns? What is a good type of site I could develop or have developed that would start generating relatively hands off revenue with one hour a week or less in maintenance. I can do basic design work, SEO, PPC, know html, can edit php code, etc. all the basics of this business. Good responses will get positive rep!
a good stratergy and planning is more important then money. its easy to get money, but difficult to maintain growth and consistency in business. just get a good plan and proper marketing going.
You could always look into bankrolling another webmaster for his project. If you don't have a good idea on how to spend it, you might just want to invest it. There is also always the option of spending it or putting it away for a rainy day, or at least until a really good offer comes along.
Try real estate investment, if you don't mind leaving the internet world. It is the safest type of investment. All you need to do is put up 10% of the total cost as a down payment, and all you have to worry about is a montly mortgage and annual property tax. Renting out the property can get you a lot of money. Rep welcome
My dad done the same thing and hes spent all his life building his 20 houses and renting them out, all that comes from them goes on the mortgage. Now when he dies (in about 20 years probably) me and my three brothers will be sitting on well... Say now he does not buy any more houses so hes got 20 He gets £500 about $1k every month off each house $20,000 PM, not bad... So what does he do for a living? Car salesman (that's no money at all over here, and soon because he invested 40k (GBP) he has secured his whole familys future). Leave the Internet world, if you want to make real money and secure your whole family's future (as well as your tree) then real estate is the way to go, like the guy said above. My old man has only been buying his houses for 10 years and he ain't going to be seeing the money but me and my bros will .
Real Estate is probably the safest bet.....but I would consder hiring a Foreign exchange investor. With any investment there is a risk, but i know lots of people making a kililng on the foreign exchange. Just my 2 cents, JR
What kind of house is he going to buy for 80,000 in the US? If he does find one, it'll either be a run down shack off of the freeway or located in an area with Tornados.
Ok, Ok. Thanks for the advice but I have done the real estate thing. Too much head ache dealing with renters, maintaining properties, etc. Not for me. In fact, have the money I make now is off all the people I know in real estate trying to get out and into this business. Plus like it was mentioned, $8000 is not going to go very far in real estate. My "real job" pays the bills with ease so I am not worried about "securing my families future." I am just looking to find a decent return on my investment.
Enjoy it! have a great vacation, sex, drugs and rock n' roll! money comes and money goes ... don't loose sleep over it! just enjoy it and spend it!
Here's my suggestion, it's a variant of what I do myself. $8k isn't enough to get you a real big earner - very successful sites go for a lot more. At the same time, it's too much for a middling or smaller site. Instead, split up your investment. There are plenty of sites that would go for less than $1K that have decent potential, which the seller hasn't been able to capitalize on. Maybe he doesn't have the time either, or the knowhow. You'll probably need to evaluate a fair bunch before you find one that has potential which YOU can develop. When you've found it, you still need to manage your time. Outsource many of the promotional / traffic building activities - there are many guys here and on other forums / freelance sites who do a decent job inexpensively. Ditto for content or design, if you need it. Focus your hour on strategy and execution - how to improve the returns (maybe clicksense instead of adsense, finetuning the affiliate offers, or adding a blog to a content site, or getting backlinks etc. etc. etc.) By outsourcing the mundane activities, you'll get a lot more done than if you're spending your time - and possibly, better expertise than you have yourself. You'll still need to track the return to expense and make sure you're getting your money's worth - but over time, this pays off fastest.
Options: 1. Buy some more sites with decent traffic/revenue and develop them to get more out of them. 2. Invest in Stock market 3. Buy some LLL or NNN domains, their prices are rising and there is at least a 15 to 20% growth every year.
Great advice, newrhodes. This is basically what I have been scouting for just have not found anything worthwhile. Sukantab, 1) is a good idea. 2) I have money in stocks, the 8K is for my high risk investing, stocks growth rate is too slow. 3) I really am looking for income generating investements, not looking to make from capital gains.
Lol "Enjoy it! have a great vacation, sex, drugs and rock n' roll! money comes and money goes ... don't loose sleep over it! just enjoy it and spend it!" ^
Invest in a Web 2.0 company like Stumbleupon or PayPerPost or something that will probably sell for $1b+ Facebook's the next one in the firing line isn't it? :-p