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Can Flipping Websites Be a Full Time Job?

October 25th, 2009

Can Flipping Websites Be a Full Time Job

Flipping websites involves a lot of work, and if you know what you’re doing and you work very hard you can make a decent income. After all it’s just like working as a web site designer, SEO consultant and internet marketer. In fact it’s a fusion of the three jobs, and if you can do them reasonably well, you can be assured that you have an opportunity to make a consistent income from buying poorly designed / optimized / marketed websites, improving them and then re-selling them for a profit.

The secret to website flipping is knowing exactly what a sites worth and more importantly, how long it will take to get a return on your initial investment. Remember that the investment you make is both a financial one and it is also time based.

When you’re thinking of turning website flipping into a full time income, the first thing you should do is work on it as a part time hobby. Build up a collection of short-term flips, longer-term flips and also sites to keep because they generate a good passive income. There is no reason to flip a good passive income website is there?

The golden rule of online business and Internet Marketing is passive income. As a site flipper you will get the opportunity to buy and sell sites that have this as the primary goal. Spend the time to build your own personal portfolio of the best performing earners so that there is always something making you money.

Getting good at site flipping isn’t difficult and after a while you will start to realize how much time it takes to get a site into shape, and most importantly you’ll know if a site is worthwhile. Remember, $30 an hour for 30 hours a week is a lot better than $15 an hour for 60; so don’t fall under the spell of online business, keep track of your hours and treat it like a real brick and mortar enterprise.

If you can make a success out of flipping websites then you can also market your services and experience to other people. Internet marketer’s long for the abilities of someone that has the skills of a good site flipper and as time goes on, those high ticket-price websites won’t look so scary. Whilst a $10,000 dollar website sounds like an insane prospect at first, you could soon be turning that into a $50,000 website.

Can you make money flipping websites? The answer really depends on the person. It’s like anything really.

If you can commit yourself, show passion and enthusiasm and exhibit creativity in your work, then you can certainly start to make a regular income from flipping websites.

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Posted in buying, how to, selling

Website Valuation

October 23rd, 2009

website valuation

Selling websites is a tricky business because surprisingly, up until recently, not many people valued them as tangible business assets. Instead, they thought that something which could fit on the size of a CD couldn’t actually be worth a great deal…

These days, websites are amongst some of the most valuable business assets a company can possess. Many companies wouldn’t even exist without their website. Think Google… Websites valued at anything from a nothing at all to billions of dollars!

When it comes to knowing your website’s value, how do you calculate it? Do you workout the time you’ve spent in hours developing it? Do you base its value on how many visitors it gets? It’s actually very complicated, and it depends on a number of factors. One rule of thumb is the more valuable a site is the more difficult it is to value!

Looking at the monthly profits is an important aspect of figuring how much your website is worth. One of the best rough calculations you can do in order to get a rough appraisal is to calculate the monthly profits for the past three months, then multiply by three + the age of your site. i.e. if my website generates $10,000 a month in profit and is 4 years old then I’d want to sell for $10,000 *(3+4) = $70,000.

But that’s just a general metric. It’s important to take into account other factors such as how many daily visitors you get. Chances are you’ve not went to great lengths to monetize your site, in which case, you can ask more based on the monthly visits. A good way to calculate is to add $1 for every hundred visitors your site gets, but remember to work this out based on an average over a reasonable period of time so you’re not basing you’re sites value on inaccurate information.

One of the other most important aspects of selling a site is its domain name. Usually domain names have separate value and it’s important to get a domain appraisal before you start to sell. In some cases, the domain can be worth more than the website, so take this into account when selling.

Ordinarily speaking, domain names need to be aged i.e. a few years old and they also need to have quality extensions. This means .com .net and .org. If your site is based on a .info domain then this will reduce how much you can ask, because .info domains and other ‘novelty’ domains are neither valuable nor attractive.

But the bottom line in selling a website for sale on the internet is that it is only ever worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Don’t think because you spent 1,000 hours working on it that a site is worth $5,000 dollars because whilst it may very well be worth that much, it could also be worth less or alternatively more.

Don’t make the mistake of selling yourself short, and most importantly, don’t try to sell your site for more than it’s worth. If you can’t get a good price, hold on to it for a bit longer, because someone will buy it, eventually.

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Posted in how to, selling

Authenticating Domain Ownership

October 23rd, 2009

Authenticating Domain Ownership

When it comes to buying or selling any website regardless of whether or not it is to flip, one of the most important first steps is to verify who the website actually belongs to. This can be easier said than done these days thanks to services such as DomainsByProxy, but it’s actually a relatively straight forward task if you know what you’re doing.

The first thing you need to do is to check the WHOIS registry. One of the best things to do is to use Domain Tools. Domain Tools lets you find out the three most important things about a domain name being the current owner, previous owners and also any recent changes in web host or name server.

You might be wondering why it’s important to know these details, and the truth is it’s ordinarily not but when it comes to buying a website, you need to take every precaution to make sure that what you’re buying really does belong to you. The consequences of buying a hacked website mean that you lose out on your money, and in a few weeks you possibly get taken to court.

By checking the name server history on a site such as Domain Tools you can verify that the domain hasn’t been pointed elsewhere. If you see that the domain name has just recently changed ownership or the DNS server has changed, make sure to query the owner as it could be a sign that the ‘owner’ isn’t quite who they say they are.

One of the best ways to ensure a safe transaction is to be thoroughly vigilant. These days there are numerous websites becoming victims to hack attacks. If you have any cause for concern, then don’t go ahead with the sale. If the domain does look authentic and the owner appears who they say they are, also be wary that you may be buying from a disgruntled ex or someone with a grudge against the real owner. Use an escrow service for anything that’s going to involve money and most importantly before you hand anything over, make sure to see some evidence on paper.

Lastly, trademarked domain names are an important issue. If you are about to buy a website that has a domain name which uses another companies trademark, no matter what the seller tells you, you are breaking trademark law and the most likely reason the site is up for sale is that the previous owner has already been issued with a cease and desist letter, alongside an order to delete the domain name.

Copyright law states that any domain name using a company’s trademark belongs to that company. Facebooktips.com is a violation, microsofttips.com is another violation, and googlesucks.com is another. Make sure to check these issues first, and if a domain appears to be a trademark violation, don’t buy.

Buying a new website isn’t as hard as it sounds, and whilst you do need to be constantly vigilant, the best piece of advice we can give is to make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into. Once again, the golden rule here is that if it looks too good to be true, chances are it really is.

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Posted in Domains, buying, how to

How To Protect Yourself From Website Flipping Scams

October 19th, 2009

Protect Yourself From Website Flipping Scams

As flipping websites has become infinitely more profitable, more and more people have joined in on the bandwagon. Sadly, not all of them are selling legitimate web sites. Some may simply be stolen, others may be completely fraudulent. Simply paying money for a website may not even guarantee that it’s yours! So to ensure your absolute safety whilst buying or selling flipped sites, make sure to follow our guidelines below.

Google is Your Friend – The golden rule when conducting any sort of online transaction is to check the person out online first. This could involve searching for their name or e-mail address on Google; it’s surprising how much it can reveal. Make sure to do your research so that you know the person you’re selling to or buying from is legitimate.

Check WHOIS Information Thoroughly – If you’re buying the site make sure to get the URL off of the seller before you go through with the transaction. Visit a site such as http://www.who.is and double check that the registrant is the person who is selling. If it’s not then you may be buying nothing but thin air.

Always Use an Escrow Service – When it comes down to the final transaction, if you sell without an escrow service you always run risk of being stolen from. Whether it’s your site or your money that gets stolen, PayPal do little to help, and in the case of bank transfer it’s next to impossible to get them reversed, so use a reputable online escrow service to give both parties piece of mind.

Traffic Can Lie – A common scam that happens just before a sale is that visitor figures are artificially inflated by sellers who purchase traffic at a very cheap rate. As soon as they’ve sold the site, the traffic disappears and you’re effectively left with nothing but a dysfunctional site. Make sure that you have access to full statistics so you can check traffic and make sure there is a natural looking growth pattern. If there is not, chances are it’s a scam.

Check The Domain Name – Did you know that if you bought a domain name such as Microsoftsoftware.com you’d be at Microsoft’s mercy as to whether or not you’d be allowed to keep it? If you’re thinking of buying a flipped site that features a possible copyrighted or trademarked domain name, then don’t because it’s only a matter of time before it could be subpoenaed and subsequently deleted, along with the website.

Sign a Contract – Before completing the transaction make sure to have some form of written contract which states what’s been transferred and what you’re giving or receiving. That way both parties are protected and you can rest assured knowing that whatever’s been agreed on is also in writing.

Flipping websites is filled with all sorts of problems to be aware of, but given appropriate care, this is a highly lucrative industry where you can make fortunes in just a short period of time. However, the golden rule of life is always if it seems too good to be true, it ordinarily is!

Don’t ever believe anything on faith, and especially when it comes to online transactions, make sure you know exactly what’s happening at all times. The Internet really can be the Wild West, so be careful out there!

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Posted in buying, how to, selling

Separating the Good Flips from the Bad

October 17th, 2009

Separating the Good Flips from the Bad

Site flipping is similar to the real estate market. If you know how the real estate market works, then you can gain a lot if you apply some of your knowledge to site flipping, as whilst the two markets are both distinctly different; they also share a number of parallels.

However, there are a number of factors that you need to be aware of to make sure that when you’re buying a site you’re getting the best value for money.

How much traffic the site gets, how old the site is and how well-established it is are all important factors when looking at sites to flip. If you buy a site that’s just a few months old, then you may be forced to wait until it ‘matures’. Before buying also check to make sure that it’s not just a short term craze which will die out in the next few months but a business venture that has the capability of growth.

Websites cost money – it costs both time and money to flip a website. Before you start to buy a site, find out what’s involved in maintenance and most importantly, how much time you need to spend dealing with support and administration issues. Many of the sites on Flippa are being sold because of the fact even though they are profitable; they are taking their current owners too much time. Maybe it’s the perfect deal if you can outsource the administration or streamline it, but if it cuts into the profit margins too much, then you’re stuck with a site that simply is more hassle than it’s worth.

Not Everyone Can Design – Whilst it’s easy to upload a website and build traffic, there are many out there who need to realize that designing is for designers and programming is for programmers. This presents both an opportunity and a problem as there are countless sites being flipped right now that need a major makeover both aesthetically and programmatically. Take this into account before placing any bids, and ask as many questions as you can before buying.

SEO is not for everyone – A lot websites out there could do ten times better if their owners knew a little SEO. A little SEO knowledge goes a long way, but even so, many webmasters don’t do nearly as much as they should because quite simply, they don’t have the budget to invest in search engine optimization or more realistically, they don’t know what it is. Many of the sites on Flippa for example could easily be made infinitely more profitable with nothing other than a refresh and a clearly defined SEO campaign. After all with visitors comes profit!

When it comes to buying or selling websites, it’s important to ensure that information is accurate so both parties know what the sites worth and more importantly what’s involved in making it work. It’s estimated that only 30% of websites are actually profitable. If you have what it takes to make a website profitable, then you stand to make a great deal as a website flipper.

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Posted in buying, how to