We all know how people invest in
properties and real estate. They buy properties, hold on to them for a while,
renovate and spruce it up a little and put it up at the market. Ultimately they
make a neat profit out of the whole deal. Website flipping applies a similar
concept, albeit in the virtual world.
I was in a bit of a dilemma whether
or not to include this concept of website flipping here since this is for people who are already
aware of how the internet works, how webpages are built, domains bought and
hosted with a service provider. And not just that, website flipping in itself
is a very vast topic requiring hours of study and there’s so much of
information available out there that one will get buried under all this data. But
then I thought that Onlineaamdani isn't just about basics. Ideally I would
like to believe that everyone, regardless of his/her proficiency with the
internet and, more specifically, knowledge of money earning opportunities on the www, should be
able to find something of use in the blog and take away something worthwhile.
This prompted me to include the concept of Website Flipping in our discussions,
though I will keep it to basics for now. So lets jump right in.
Website Flipping as a concept,
refers to buying a website, updating and improving it, and then selling it. In
other words, buy at a low price, enhance website and sell at a higher price.
Now, some of us will confuse Website
Flipping with Website Selling. But there’s a slight difference. Website
Flipping doesn’t include buying (a new domain name, hosting services from a
service provider), creating (content) from scratch, and selling a website. So
website flipping ideally means working on existing websites and not on
Greenfield/turnkey projects.
Also, website flipping isn't the
same as domain flipping which involves buying key domain names with potential
and sell at a profit. There is no work done with the domain, not even proper
hosting.
Website flipping involves the
following steps:
1.
Buying:
First of all you have to find a website to buy. This is the most difficult part
though some might not realize it. Some might think, “I have the money to pay
for it so let me purchase it”. But that's not how it should be done. This is
business, and any investment needs to make business sense and scope to make
money. To be ideal for flipping, the site you buy has to have some potential to generate some
income for you. There are a lot of considerations to be made before buying and
bidding for a website, like, how much is the current average traffic to the
site, which niche of the market it is catering to, what is the cash inflow it is
generating, what is the competition. Ideally it should cater to a niche which
isn't yet fully tapped, which people are interested in but the competition is
still low. Its difficult but we have to try and find the right balance of these
factors and the price that is to be paid. To purchase websites, SitePoint,
Warriorforum and Flippa are some websites which you can explore. I will share
some free resources for you to learn more about buying websites.2. Optimization: Now that you have bought a website, you have to choices – do nothing or work on it to make it better. Sometimes doing nothing is okay, but there is always some scope to enhance the website, optimize it and make it better. Intention is to give it a boost of traffic and to increase the revenue it is generating. Higher the traffic your site is attracting, higher is its value. More the revenue your site is generating, more is the value of your site. So traffic and revenue are the two most important factors that will determine how much money you can make from a website. If you don’t attend to a website it will start losing traffic and the revenue will start decreasing. Trick is to make the sale profitably before this phase starts. Or otherwise work on improving your website with things like search engine optimization, PPC (pay per click) ads and article marketing where you post articles relating to your website’s niche in article directories like Hubpages, squidoo, ezinearticles.com, articledashboard.com, goarticles.com, etc. Do some social marketing using facebook, twitter, orkut, etc. and bookmarking in sites like dig, del.icio.us, etc. You can also create a blog to support the website. These are just some of the ways to increase a websites popularity and visibility. Read up on ‘Google page rank’, SEO, backlinking and ‘Article Marketing’. I will soon put up free resources and ebooks on these concepts here so you need not pay for such resources.
3. Selling: The final step is to sell the website. How much time you hold onto the website depends upon your strategy. Whether its short term, medium term or long term investment you are targeting. Normally, if you don’t want to work too much on the website that you have bought, then use it as a short term investment and sell as soon as you get a good price. Otherwise if you can tinker with the website here and there and can increase the traffic and/or income it is generating then use medium term strategy. And if you think that you can really add value to the website and take it much beyond what it is today then it makes sense to hold on to the website for the long term. Once you decide that the time is right to sell it, go back again to Flippa, warriorforum, sitepoint etc. and put it up for sale. Keep your fingers crossed...God willing (and with some smart work) you will be able to make a neat profit out of your investment and effort. Of course, like any other art, ‘Practice makes man perfect’.
Advantages of website flipping are
manifold:
One, financial entry threshold to
this market is very low. With a relatively low investment you too can be part
of the market (but first get your basics right).
Two, in most cases as soon as you
make the investment you will be able to start making money. Once you buy a
website which is already generating revenue, you have the luxury to earn money
even while you are working on it to improve your asset, the website(s).
Three, you have the flexibility to
choose your investment strategy, short, medium or long.
Four, even an average internet
investor can be a part of the website flipping bazaar.
This concept has immense scope in
the coming years. To the readers this is my suggestion, learn the
ropes of website flipping slowly. Take 6 months, 1 year even, and get your basics in place. And by
the time this concept gathers momentum you will be well equipped and well
entrenched in the market. The marketplace is going to heat up.
All the best! I will bring to you
more free resources shortly and if you become interested in website flipping
you will find them quite helpful.
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