How many members have gone into the business of flipping websites? I have read some articles and wondered if anyone here has had any experience in this arena.
search the forum there was a thread a little earlier where a dp member basically gave a step by step guide to do that so search the forums before you post we have seen threads like this a million times they are out there
The concept is simple and as old as business (buy and sell). The search function will come in handy. It's not rocket science. As with anything, you just need to learn what your controls are (what things cost, what things can bring, blah blah).
I'd suggest you start with sites that are cheap enough that you won't get upset if things don't work out... look for websites that are lacking in the one thing you're good at fixing. Eg. Traffic, Monetization, Design, Content, etc... Fix that major flaw and re-list after enough time has elapsed to prove the effects of your changes. That's more or less it. I know there are a lot of other webmaster forums that have introduced a marketplace subforum so you might want to scour those forums as well.
There are some members here who create and sell an entirely new site for more than $100 easily The main concept here is to provide a great foreseeable value in the site. I have actually included this as a bonus in my latest eBook, The Essential Guide For Forum Entrepreneurs.
I've been interested in this idea as well . Parts of the problem with the 'traffic and marketing' aspect is GOogle sometimes takes a while to update. Meaning, you could 'flip' the site in a week, but the traffic wouldn't reflect it. Granted, it wouldn't be bad to hold onto it to continue to build PR, but I would suggest either shared hosting with multiple domains or a reseller account if you are major flipper. I've only done two really. One was a directory I bought for $65 bucks. I put $30 into it so thats like $95 total. I made $40 off of it in a month and sold it for $100. Small time gain of $40, but I really didn't do much - maybe 20-30 mins of work. Trick is to first buy the RIGHT shitty site, then you're site.
I flipped one site and sold off four others this past June. Currently, I have other sites under development and will probably buy and fix up some more sites for flipping too. Like house flipping, you have to find the jewels among the junk.
I've purchased several sites here at DP... almost always paid BIN (sometimes overpaid considering the circumstances). I keep the sites I buy. I try to apply the techniques from my first post. Most of those sites took about 2 months to pay off... one took longer and some in only a couple of weeks. I know have several websites that earn their purchase price every couple of months with little or no upkeep. Sometimes it better not to flip them. If I flipped them, I would have made maybe 50% or doubled my money... by keeping them and holding out for PR updates and such I'm able to earn 30-50% monthly without having to invest in new sites all the time.
I usually look for sites that aren't fully "optimized." I don't really flip sites, because doing it for $30-$50 (even if it's just an hour of time) isn't worth the hassle. If you buy right, it's almost always better to keep the site. Most flippers tend to be short-term thinkers. The "cash now" syndrome. Of course, sometimes you just flip, because you don't want to mess around with the site. While the site selling forum here is 85% trash, there are some gems to be had.
I agree with marketjunction, keep an eye open for the sites that are generally good but need a little polishing up. It's not easy to find since there aren't many, but they are there. Even if you pick up only one per month you'll still have at least 10 by next year... and it won't cost you a fortune (unless you want it too) because you can build it up slowly. I'll admit it's kinda crappy when you're sitting there with only one or two websites, neither making much money... but be patient. Before you know it you'll have 5 or 10... and they don't need to make a whole lot because you'll be earning a little bit x10 which isn't bad.