Within the past year I have discovered a surefire way to make yourself a great income online as a young adult. That method? Selling websites. Everyday new people are joining the internet and have a URL that they would like to purchase. If you head over to Flippa you will find websites being listed for between $20-$25,000 and up. Some of those websites are well-established domains that bring in thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue for users. However, some of the cheaper websites are fairly new, they just have a great domain that the user was able to snatch up and is now selling. The concept of buying and selling websites, otherwise known as website flipping is not new, but it has become a very popular trend for internet marketers over the past year. Want to learn how you can make some money in this industry of buying and selling websites? Find out now!What to Look For When Buying a Website
Traffic- If no one is visiting the website, then why would I buy it? Sites like Google and Wikipedia are worth so much money, because millions of people visit them each day. The same goes for you when your buying or selling a smaller website. More traffic = More $$$
Revenue- While a site may be getting a lot of traffic, if it is not making any money then why would people want to buy it? Make sure when looking at how much a website makes you look at screenshots for as far back as possible. Sites fluctuate with how much they make each month, so while Site A may have made $4000 last May, that does not mean that Site A is making $4000 each month.
Age of the Domain Name- Google LOVES older, more established websites. When looking at ad postings on Flippa, you will notice that one of the first things they display under every listing is "Established:". People want to buy older websites that have been around for awhile and people know about, not websites that were created 1 month ago with 6 indexed pages. You will notice that older websites always go for more money. College students looking to make money online can take advantage of this by creating a handful of websites at the beginning of the year and continuously adding content throughout the year. Then at the end of the school year you have several established websites that you can make an awesome chunk of change off of, provided you have been offering great content and have been doing effective SEO on the sites.
Social Media Accounts- When pricing websites, social media accounts almost always come into play. Your websites should have active accounts with a decent following. Number of Facebook shares, Tweets, Google +1's and other values can help predict how popular a domain is.
What Should I Do With My Websites?
Once you have your websites there are some tricks that you can do to help your website become established which will make you much more money down the road.
Publish a lot of Content- Google loves content. Not just any content, but unique content. If you are coming up with weekly content that readers love, you will rank better on search engines and ultimately get more traffic and more money. This will fetch you a much higher price as you look to sell the website in the future. You cannot just purchase a site and forget about it, there is some work actually involved.
Have a Good Topic- If you have a website that no one wants to read, then you have the wrong topic. Make sure you pick something that you at least have some knowledge in. You do not want to purchase a website about quantum physics and then have no idea what to write about once you have it. Popular niches that have been know to create a lot of money on Flippa are fitness/health related, technology, food and gaming. As a teen or college student this is your chance to shine as you know more about what's popular in pop culture compared with older adults.
Get Natural Backlinks- The more traffic coming into your blog means the better chances that people will link to your website. The more authority websites linking to yours looks better to Google and search engines. Don't be fooled by BlackHat methods of collecting links. Solid DoFollow backlinks take time to build and there is NO method that will get you on the first page of Google in a week. Don't get discouraged, if you continue to produce quality content people WILL link to it and you will get natural links.
Dont be Afraid to Sell- If after 10 months of having a website you purchased for $100 you get an offer for $5000, don't be afraid to sell the website! Unless you are surely confident that you can fetch more at a later date, take the money when it is there. I had a friend who was offered $12,500 for a Fitness-Niche blog he created, however he did not accept it. A few months later he sold the site for $8000...a $4500 loss!
How Much Should I Buy/Sell My Website For?
When selling your website on Flippa, you should figure out the current value of the site. A simple way to determine this is to do a simple Google search for "how much is my website worth." There are numerous sites that can predict the value of your website based on different data analytics. However, be careful because many of these services often give you a range of values so it's best to read some reviews before you stick with a number. A great website that offers you an estimate is www.siteworthit.com. Another great way to determine how much the site should be worth is to compare it to other sites in a similar niche. That way you can get an idea of what past similar sites have gone for and how much you can expect to be making in the upcoming transaction or how much you should be prepared to spend when buying in.
I hope that I have provided you with enough information to help you as you begin the process of buying and selling websites. As always, comment below if you have any questions and thanks for reading!
