This article will be your ultimate guide for buying websites. This will include some of the top places where you can buy a site right now. This will also include some tips and tricks for anyone who recently bought a site or is thinking about diving in!
Why Buy A Website?
The biggest reason why someone would buy a website is because of the potential profit that can be made. There are a lot of success stories out there of people who have flipped websites for a significant profit. This means that they bought a website at a lower price and eventually sold it for a lot more money.
Think of it like buying a cheap stock and then cashing out after the share price increases. Like the stock market, there is plenty of money to be made if you choose the right stock (or website in this case).
How To Make Money From Buying Websites
In this section, I will provide you with some specific examples of how you can make money in this space. This will give you a better understanding of how it can be done and will maybe even inspire you to get started.
A Hypothetical Example
Let’s just say that you purchase a website for $1,600, and it was earning around $50 per month when you bought it. This means that you purchased the site at a 32x multiple of the monthly income average ($50 x 32 = $1,600).
Let’s say that you then spend a year working on the site and it continues to grow in both earnings and traffic. If things go really well, your monthly income average could grow from $50 a month to something like $300 a month.
With the site now earning $300 a month (on average), you could then flip it for a nice profit. Using the same 32x multiple that you bought the site for, you could then sell the site for $9,600+. It could even sell for more than that as 32x is being conservative. In just one year, you were able to make a profit of $8,000+. Not bad for a website that you only spent $1,600 on!
A Real Success Story
Jared Bauman purchased a content site for $7,000, which was earning about $200 per month. This means that he bought the site at a 35x multiple. In only 7 months, Jared was able to raise the income average from $200 a month to approximately $730 a month. This came after spending time improving things on the site, adding new content, and more.
If Jared was to sell the site at the same 35x multiple that he bought it for, he could earn approximately $25,550 ($730 x 35). This would be a profit of $18,550, which is pretty damn good for only 7 months of work.
As you can see, if you know what you are doing and things go well, there can be some major profit to be had.
Another great case study is of Yoyao Hsueh who bought a site for $2,000 and it is now making $6,800 per month! You can hear his interview here discussing where he buys websites and tips for growth – https://www.nichepursuits.com/yoyao-hsueh/
Tips For Buying Websites
Here are some tips for when you are looking to buy a website of your own.
Do Your Own Due Diligence
When you are thinking about purchasing a site, a key thing to do is to make sure that you do your own due diligence on it. Some places provide due diligence services, others do not. Make sure to separately look at the site for yourself and try to spot any red flags or issues that you see. These red flags could lead to your site tanking in the search results or never living up to its full potential.
As you gain more experience in the space, you will be able to spot red flags a lot quicker. To start, make sure to look for anything that doesn’t look right or looks too good to be true. This might end up saving you from making a bad purchase.
Check The Backlinks
An easy tip when looking into buying a website is to check the backlinks of the site that you are looking at. There are various free tools where you can do this, including the free backlinks checker from Ahrefs. Just paste the site’s address into the search bar and hit ‘check backlinks’.
If you notice that all of the backlinks are in a different language, then that is a big red flag. These foreign backlinks could end up hurting your ability to rank in search engines, which you will want to avoid. With a simple check, you can see if a site is going to be worth your investment or not.
Beware Of Possible Scams
A concern in this space is getting scammed when you purchase a website. If you want to purchase a site from Flippa, you need to be aware that there have been people that have ripped off on their platform. This is because they don’t require a lot of verification/ proof to list on their marketplace.
I will give you an example of how scams can happen when proper due diligence is not done. A seller can claim that their website is making $600 a month. After you buy it, you find out that this was their total earnings from three different websites, not just the one that you bought. Since you only purchased the one, you are left with a site that only makes $200 a month, rather than $600.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t a lot of good deals on the Flippa platform either. You just have to be cautious that scams can happen, which is why doing your own due diligence is a key aspect of buying a site. Brokers like Empire Flippers and Motion Invest do extensive due diligence on the websites that they sell. This lessens the chances of you getting scammed and would be a better option for those who want to protect themselves.
Where To Buy A Website
The most popular way to buy a website is through a broker. Typically how it works is that the broker gets a certain percentage of how much the site sells for. A broker helps bring the listings to you. They also help with things like domain transfers, money transfers etc.
Here are some of the most popular places where you can buy a website:
Flippa
The biggest name in the space is Flippa. Every day, they have plenty of new listings that they add to their Marketplace. You can also buy more than just a website, as they have listings of things like E-Commerce Businesses, Apps, Domains, and more.
The biggest issue with Flippa is that it is sort of like the ‘Wild Wild West’ of website buying platforms. There are some good deals to be had if you know what you are looking for. While saying that, they don’t have a thorough due diligence process for listing sites, which has led to a lot of people getting scammed.
There is no denying that Flippa is the biggest name in the space and has the most listings. While saying that, you need to be careful if you go with them.
Empire Flippers
Another well-known place to buy a site is at Empire Flippers. They have a wide variety of listings, including affiliate sites, E-Commerce businesses, dropshipping sites, and more. Unlike Flippa, they have a thorough due diligence process, so you know that you are getting a legitimate deal.
Most of the listings on Empire Flippers are over $100,000. This means that they are a great place for buying if you have a lot of capital behind you. If you don’t have that kind of money to spend, they probably won’t be a fit for you right now.
Motion Invest
Another popular place to buy a site is at Motion Invest. They are a broker that specializes in content websites. This means that they only work with sites that monetize through display ads and affiliate programs.
The listings on Motion Invest range anywhere from $1,000 to over $100,000. There aren’t as many listings available as Flippa or Empire Flippers. While saying that, they are a good fit for anyone who is trying to dip their toes into this space, but at a lower price.
What To Do After Buying A Website
So you now have a website in your possession. What do you do next? Here are some tips for some quick wins after purchasing a site.
Replace The Affiliate Links
One of the most important things to do after buying a website is to replace the affiliate links on it. This means changing the links from Amazon, Commission Junction, etc. to your own links. The reason is that even though you own the site, the links from the previous seller may still be active. As a result, the previous owner will still be generating the earnings from the site, and not you.
Make sure that all of the links are changed over properly so you can start earning right away from the site. This will be easy to do on a smaller site but more challenging on a bigger site. It is very important though as you will want the money going into your bank account and not someone else’s.
Look for easy wins, like adding Amazon CAN, Amazon UK, or Display ads
Another thing to do after buying a site is to look for some quick and easy victories. This means making some easy changes to the site, which will help it earn more money.
An example would be if you bought a site that only earned money from Amazon US. Changing the affiliate links to also earning from Amazon UK, Canada. etc. will allow you to monetize your readers from other countries. Chances are that your site is already generating traffic from countries outside of the United States, so you would get an instant boost in revenue by setting that up.
Another example would be to use display ads on the same site that only earned money from Amazon US. If you tossed on some display ads, you could monetize some of the pages that don’t generate you any revenue from affiliate sales. This is another easy victory that will help you boost the site’s earnings.
Continue to Produce Content
A common mistake is someone buys a website, sets up the monetization, and then forgets about it. In several months, they come back asking why the site has dropped so much. Google likes to see fresh content, so you will need to make sure that you don’t stop producing content for the site after you purchase it.
The cheapest way is to write the content for yourself. There are also places on the web that will write articles for you, for a price. You need to decide what makes the most sense for you. If you don’t have a few hours per month to write an article, the paid option would be the right fit. If you want to save some money, you will need to carve out some time for writing.
Either way, don’t leave your site without a new post for several months as it could end up tanking the site.
Have Someone Manage The Website For You
If you simply don’t have the time to create content or work on your new site, there is another option. If you have some additional capital at your disposal, you can hire an operator to do the work for you. Most of these places will write content for you, do the SEO work, and help you grow the site.
Here are some operators that you can look into if you are interested in going this route.
Onfolio
Onfolio is one of the biggest names in the space. They are for larger investors, asking for a minimum budget of $100,000 and a $10,000 per year budget. If you have a lot of capital to spend, they are a great option to help you grow a site.
Brandbuilders
Brandbuilders works with websites of all different sizes. Unlike others, they don’t have a minimum budget required but you do have to purchase one of their packages. The cheapest package is $500, which is a good fit for smaller investors who want to dip their toes in the space.
Domain Magnet
Domain Magnet is another option in the operator space. They are for larger investors, asking for a minimum budget of $100,000. Like Onfolio, they are a good option if you have a lot of capital to spend.
Empire Flippers Capital
Empire Flippers recently got into the operator game, launching Empire Flippers Capital in 2021. Like Onfolio and Domain Magnet, they are for larger investors. They require a minimum investment of $10,000 for each deal and their target investors are those who earn more than $200,000 per year.
Conclusion
Buying websites is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It takes a lot of hard work to grow and maintain a website. While saying that, if you find the right website and do everything right, there is some serious money to be made in this space.
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