The Business of Flipping Websites
May 30th, 07 | 10 remarksThe subject of blog flipping (or website flipping) is one which keeps coming up lately in my regular reading, and every time I run across an article about it, my interest is renewed. It’s something I’ve wanted to get involved in since first hearing about it over a year ago, but even after reading through a hefty number of articles, I still never felt I was any more knowledgeable or prepared to go forward with the idea.
Now I think I might just have to blunder through it at first. Haha - kinda like sex! No one ever really knows what they’re doing the first time. Hm, ok I better get back on track before this turns into an entirely different post! ;)
Anyway I’ve decided (ready or not) that June will be the month I purchase my first website to flip. I have to quit worrying about the “what ifs”, and give it a shot. My purchasing budget is barely worth mentioning anyway, so it’s not like I stand to lose too much. I’m also going to keep a log of my experience with this endeavor, and maybe someone else who wants to try it can learn a little something also.
I might make it a series - listing resources, ideas or lessons learned as I go along - or I might just write up one big article after the fact. Maybe I’ll make it into a light ebook. Not sure yet. I guess it depends on how much time it takes me to find the right site to flip, how smooth the transaction is (or isn’t), and the steps I have to take to switch everything over. Then of course there’s the time involved in making some improvements and/or adjustments to the site, and putting it back up for sale. I really have no idea what to expect at this point.
Nevertheless, the search begins. I’ll be starting with Performancing and the Marketplace over at Sitepoint - both well-known resources for finding deals on blogs for sale. I hear DigitalPoint also has some diamonds in the rough occasionally in their Buy Sell or Trade forum. If you know of any other good marketplace or auction sites, I’d really appreciate a link. Oh and if you want to send some luck, blessings, or fairy dust my way that would be cool too!
Have you got a target group for your acquisitions? Your last paragraph suggests that you’re going to be focusing on blogs - am I correct?
May 30, 07 | 12:36 pmerm… what IS website flipping…?
May 30, 07 | 1:12 pmBuy an old website, make it more attractive to a buyer - that normally means more traffic, links, pagerank, subscribers, income per month, and then sell it for a profit.
May 30, 07 | 1:52 pmI’ve pulled off some quite successful flips in the past, but I’ve never considered making it a regular revenue stream!
Given the somewhat volatile nature of the blogosphere, I’m not totally convinced that I’d like to dabble in blog-flipping anyway! ;)
May 30, 07 | 1:56 pmPaul - I’ve not yet marked a target. I’m not objectionable to buying blogs, but I don’t plan to focus on them specifically. Also I understand your wariness. I certainly don’t want to rely only on flipping as an income, but I relish the idea of adding another stream. :D I have more reading to do obviously, and more decisions to make but I’m anxious to try.
Aaron - flipping websites is like flipping real estate (in the digital sense). Andy put it perfectly. There’s always someone wanting to shed their site for whatever reason, and sometimes a little attention is all that’s needed for a quick resale for profit… or so I’ve heard. ;)
May 30, 07 | 2:45 pmOf course, the real question is: “are wannabe flippers the only people buying flipped sites?”
May 30, 07 | 3:10 pmThe best current example of flipping a website I know of has to be what the extremely smart team at Blogcatalog are doing.
They purchased a static blog directory with a large subscriber base.
They cleaned up the database and got rid of all the junk sites.
Then they added some functions similar to MyBlogLog and started using the mailing list to bring back registered users.
They added more and more functionality, unique features and a forum to increase stickiness.
They paid around $40,000 for Blogcatalog.com, I am sure it is worth many times that, and was already clearing a profit before they.
Alexa traffic growth from around 40K to 2K in 5 months from when they bought it, though most of that growth really started at the beginning of March.
May 30, 07 | 4:03 pmI think an opportunity like that would really be something. Now… where to get $40,000? ;) Seriously, that is so smart, and it’s interesting you mentioned it Andy because I recently read an article about how well BlogCatalog has done revamping their system, and how it’s now competitive with MyBlogLog and even stands to surpass it. I wish I could remember where I saw it… I don’t think the article mentioned it was under new ownership, so that would explain the comeback.
May 30, 07 | 4:47 pmLinking through to my write up from the beginning of April, which I think covers most aspects, though I have been encouraging them a lot on the features, enough they coined the phrase “What Would Andy Beard Do” when evaluating some things.
However credit where credit is due, they had done enough me to convince me of the potential before I even wrote that first article and there have been a few more since.
$40k might seem hard to come by, but if you can monetize a site immediately for $1-2K per month as soon as you buy it, that certainly is enough to cover any cost of credit.
May 30, 07 | 5:10 pmTrue, but I’m rather new to the whole monetization thought process so I have a learning curve ahead of me. As you can see, there’s currently very few ads on this blog. Trying to figure out how to monetize in a way that’s optimal yet non-obtrusive has proven difficult for me. I think that will also will be my weak point as far as flipping goes.
Then again, maybe I won’t worry as much about ad placement on a purchased site because it won’t be a labor of love such as this - just business. I’m looking forward to learning some new skills at least, and if my wallet comes out a little fatter, even better! :)
Also thanks for the link Andy. I’ll be checking it out!
May 30, 07 | 6:35 pm