The Website Flipping Thread

Hey Everyone, I have noticed that Website Flipping is very common and many webmasters are flipping websites to make some money, so I thought, why not start a thread where everyone shares some tips about website flipping or asks any questions they might have. I'll go first.

What It is-
Website Flipping means buying domains at a cheap price, building a website on the domain thus adding to its value, and then selling the domain at a higher price than it was bought for.

The Basic Process-
-You buy a domain ( register new or buy exisiting)
-Develop a site( add some content, a logo, a good design, some basic seo so you get some traffic)
-Sell the site( The Sites for sale forum here(free) and the sitepoint marketplace(paid) are some good places to start.

I'll expand on these later. Everyone please feel free to ask any questions, share any information ,tips, case studies, everything.

 

I'll expand on step 1 of the process now - buy a domain

You have three options when buying a domain-
1. registering a new domain
+whatever niche you want
+ only 10$ to register
- most keyword rich domains are already registered

2.buying a domain from the owner
+ domain has aged(no sandbox)
+ maybe keyword rich
- might be expensive

3. buying an already established site
+ you get domain, established site
+ you write more articles, promote, do some seo and increase the value of the site
+ since the site is set up, the basic things ( indexing , a few articles, logo ) are taken care of.
+ you focus on adding more value
- this method may be expensive depending on the site you buy

What to look at if buying a domain from someone
- backlinks ( if any)
- domain age
- page rank ( if any)
- keyword rich/brand able

What to look at if buying established site
- traffic stats including type ( organic, paid)
- search rankings , indexed pages
- make sure articles are unique ( if claimed to be unique )
- site history, age
- PPC prices for the targeted term
- pagerank, backlinks
- look for those sites which have untapped potential.

Some Resources for buying domains and sites
DP's Sites For Sale and Domains For Sale Sections
Namepros
SitePoint Marketplace
sedo - pricey

To Register a domain, use a registrar like Namecheap or Godaddy

I'll be posting more later. Everyone Please Join in, share your tips, ask if you have any questions.

This is somewhat of a summary of the site flipping guide on my blog. Visit the site flipping guide for more on site flipping.

 

thanks for sharing your knowledge I guess it will be helpfull for alot of newbies

 

What is the right time to sell the flipped site?
when the earning increase 5x of the initial amount?

 

@Sensei.Design - Your Welcome. Please Feel Free to ask any questions.

@mentos - I dont really have a fixed rule about when to sell. I generally sell it when I think I have done the best in the short run, and I cant really achieve much better results for the site in a short amount of time. Basically, what I do is besides adding some content, I just submit to some good directories, a bit of article marketing, blog commenting, on page seo, social networking ( including a twitter account with targeted followers ). Then I wait for the next PR update, site generally becomes a PR3 ish. Then unless earnings are very high, I flip it. If they are high, I keep the site. But I generally never keep a site past the first year, selling it before the domain renewal fees are due unless of course I have decided that earnings are so high, I'd rather keep the site.

Again, I would encourage all newbies and experts and all those with any sort of interest to join into the discussion

 

what a site is worth depends on a number of factors. One of these is the amount of unique content it has (specifically, that is indexed). Buyers rightly see that as adding value. The fastest way to load a flipper with unique content, of course, is autoblogging. And a blog template usually looks as good or better than any site you might throw onto a domain...

 

Yes I agree. Content Should be unique. What I do, when I use word press blogs is that if I dont use unique content, I use a uniquifier script.
I have never had any problems with indexing. All I do is submit a sitemap using the xml sitemap plugin.

I usually develop domains into blogs. In my opinion, they are much better for seo, indexing and they look better. also quicker to set up and so many plug ins and themes available.

 

I'll expand on Step 2 - Developing a site
This is some common stuff for all cms and static websites. Later, I'll post more on using wordpress specifically for developing sites.

1.Plan
- What niche,
- what type of site(forum,blog,static?)

2.Design
- dont invest on a custom design( you're gonna flip the site anyway. use a premade template/theme.)
- do invest in a logo (5-15$) Why?: it adds to sites credibility, makes it look more professional,will attract higher offers at time of sale

3.Content
- Some Unique Content + Some Article Rewrites.
- If you cant do it yourself, hire someone.
- For Rewrites, you can use an article spinner. but proofread and correct the spun article of grammatical errors.

4.Promotion/SEO
- Proper On Page SEO. (Check out this thread)
- Unique Title Tags for every page. Use keywords in them.
- Add your site to Google Webmasters Tool, submit your sitemap.
- Link to your site from forum sigs and from existing sites
- Comment on Blogs. (Check out this thread for a guide on finding high pr blog posts to comment on)
- Build a couple of .edu links. (Check out this thread for a guide on how to find .edu links)
- Submit to directories, article sites, social networking sites.

This is a summary of a guide I wrote on Site Flipping. For the whole thing, visit the post on site flipping

That's about it. I will post more later on this, specifically on using word press. Everyone please get involved, share tips, ask questions

 

Where do you get these uniquifier scripts?

 

I use wp uniqueifier. It is available for purchase on goscript.net, but I remember seeing someone offering a similar sscript for free on these forums, don't remember the name though.

 

I had a question on what kind of articles should be written on sites inteneded to be flipped. I thought I'd answer it here.

Write articles which will be useful to the reader even if he reads them a long time after they are written.
Eg- Posts like best web design tutorials, best iphone applications, posts with recipes of food will be useful to read even if they are read a month or two after the post was written, but posts like This Sports Team wins this cup or this is a new product coming, will lose value very fast. Basically avoid news type posts on sites you are going to flip.

 

I am surprised to see that noone is contributing. Guys Please Contribute. Also, I had a couple of questions through Pm. I would encourage you to post your questions here because there may be others who can answer them.

 

You asked for it.
You could save lots of time by Getting the free Site Flipping Code Manifesto that was recently released for free. Your methods take lots of time. I would think it should only a day at most to build develop and list a website. Sell it for $200-$300 and your making at least 52k a year. Some people make 10K a month easy.
You are spot on for normal SEO but site flip IMO doesn't require SEO. It helps get more money, but if your going to fully develop a site like you are why not keep it?
Most who make money doing this build fast and sell fast and let the buyers do the marketing. All the builder needs to do proper SEO on each page and make it look real nice.

That just me though

 

Well, I perform seo so that It gets some good traffic, and I build links so the site gets PR, and then I get a higher amt for the site. Everyone has their own way, I am just sharing what I do. Why don't yo share some of your tips and techniques here?

Also, I request you to stop trying to use this thread to build your email list.

 

What I have found is that MOST people try and help you when you buy their site, for me, I would rather buy an existing website that has little revenue and just fix it up and promote the hell out of it until I hit a certain point and then re-sell. Creating a site from scratch is not always the best option

 

I find it is to much trouble for all the work. You can put up a site with wordpress and adsense and eventually get it to make $4 a day after a month of nonstop work. Then sell it for $30 IF you are lucky, sometimes not even that. Then sometimes you don't make nothing because you get scammed. So for me at least it is way too much trouble than it is worth.

 

NLmedia - Where are you selling your sites? If a sites revenue is 4$ a day, and you list it at sitepoint,( spend a couple of bucks for the listing), you should get mid-high xxx easily.

 

really?
I find that hard to believe

 

@saturn1000: I believe that TheMagpie was just trying to buiild his email list by advertising his ebook ( or someone elses) here. But, if you work hard, it is possible. However, you are more likely to make this sort of income, by focusing on a couple of sites, which you can really sell for some big bucks, after you get good rankings, large no. of subscribers etc.

 

im not a site flipper but very interesting guide tanay46 and thanks a lot for sharing!