How to Flip a Website: A Complete Breakdown

Is it possible to generate money by establishing or purchasing a niche website, developing it into a revenue stream, and then selling it? This stream of business is quite the new norm— it is called website flipping! You can make money this way, but there are two things to consider. First, it needs months or even years of dedicated effort. Second, if something goes wrong, you may lose money. But how to flip a website, exactly?

Your internet worldview shifts if you start thinking of websites as assets that can be developed, bought, and sold.

Consider buying a website for $2,500 and selling it for $50,000 months later, or even more. It's not entirely out of the question.

This is known as "website flipping," which is purchasing a website with potential, unlocking that possibility, and afterward selling it for a profit.

In this blog post, I'll go through how to make money by flipping websites and some crucial things to think about before you get started.

What is the concept of website flipping?

Investing in websites that are already profitable, enhancing them either by boosting website traffic or producing more money from the same number of visitors, preferably both and after that selling the website for a gain of profit.

This is, of course, a simplification. A lot goes into the entire process, from choosing the right website to investing in months of labor to boost its search ranks.

While there are several methods, you may use, if you want to get an advantage in this field, you'll need to invest some time in discovering one that resonates with you.

What's good about website flipping is it can be done on a large or small scale. You could buy an existing website for just a few hundred dollars and resell it for its obtained value. You might be amazed to learn that a $5,000 website can grow to up to $50,000 or more using the same resources and techniques.

The bigger the website, the less work you'll have to do, as the job you do on it scales up, even if the risks are higher.  If you reinvest the gains in new websites to flip, you can wind up with a substantial sum of money after a couple of years.

Site Flipping: To Buy Or To Build?

"Should I purchase a website or construct one myself?" is the most common question you might ask yourself. It all depends on the preference in the end.

Do you appreciate building websites and see a chance to have more control over how they are built? Or would you prefer to buy a prototype that needs a little cleaning up and some development?

Both options have advantages and disadvantages, but there is no perfect solution. 

Creating a Website From Scratch

Building a website from the ground up can be both time-consuming and rewarding. If you love working with websites, this career path might be right.

The time it will take to get a website up and running is the most significant challenge. This is how the complete approach looks:

• Identifying a lucrative niche

• WordPress installation 

• Deciding on a traffic generation plan 

• Using the most effective SEO techniques

• Increasing the value of the website

• Increasing the value of the website

Google sometimes will show that it doesn't exist, yet their engine certainly includes a sandbox or other elements. As a result, a completely new website hardly receives traffic right away. It will take some time!

Remember that if you want to make it to Google's first page, you'll need to promote your site extensively.

Buying An Existing Website

Most of the foundation has already been laid with a functioning website. Someone has put forth the effort to establish some primary branding, create some core content, gain some backlinks, and showcase a method of generating revenue.

Most significantly, they've given the website time to develop, enabling you to do so rapidly than if you were starting from scratch with a recently registered or recently parked domain. As a result, you may get right to the fun part: improving the website and increasing revenue quickly.

For many people, growing something that is already entrenched is simpler.  Online marketplaces are some of the most common venues to buy and sell websites.

However, before buying a website, make sure you conduct a thorough investigation, sometimes known as due diligence.

You don't want to spend $10,000 on a website whose Google results will plummet in a few weeks or whose revenue will mysteriously cease to be paid the next day. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Flipping Websites

You may sell a good website for about multiple times its monthly income if you find the best buyer. If you buy a site when it earns around $2,000 every month and sells it when it reaches $20,000 per month, the market multiple is essentially the same.

Of course, this appears to be a lot easier than it is. There's still a lot of work to be done in the overall processes. Most of this work, particularly research, writing content, and website optimization, could be outsourced.

Let's have a look at the steps on how to flip a website:

1. Select a website that provides a working prototype.

Before you figure out how to make revenue by flipping websites, you'll need to determine whether or not a site is worth the investment.

Every seller is eager to discuss the merits of their websites. Even if they have a lot of organic search traffic and tons of email subscribers, the site only produces $50 monthly.

Whatever the case, you should conduct your investigation to ensure that the site is functioning.

You'd want to purchase a website that has solid proof of concept. The traffic source and monetizing strategy should complement together at around this stage. Someone is just marketing their failing vision if the site has a friendly theme but no traffic or evidence of profit, and you'll have to invest more time or effort to make things work.

Also, keep an eye on the domain names, sometimes you can find websites with a valuable domain name that can add a couple of zeros to your sale! Speaking of domains is always a good idea to check the domain authority before a website purchase.

 Websites with high domain authority are great for content sites because this crucial Google metric makes it easier to rank your articles. Of course that you will still have to create high-quality content!

2. Assess the Website's Potential 

Evaluate the possibilities of your potential investment before purchasing a website.

In X years, where will this market be? A website dedicated to outdated toys is unlikely to endure. In contrast, demand for technology and fashion is unlikely to fall anytime soon.

Is there any chance that the site's traffic will rise? There are a few quick ways to address these questions and figure out the website's potential growth.

Starting with a basic SEO assessment is an excellent idea. This will aid in the identification of fundamental issues that may be hurting the site's organic search ranking.

On-page and off-page SEO issues will all be revealed during a full audit. When you explore further, you'll discover missing content opportunities, referred to as gaps by many. The next step should be to investigate this gap.

The final piece of the jigsaw is to ensure that the website's income stream is both functioning and consistent. Is there a method for you to start earning money the day you buy the site? 

You'll see that some discounts are simply checked out as you browse more. Every possible article has been produced. There are far more links on the site than it will ever require, they have already secured a higher commission, and it is currently running advertisements. Unless you're a genius, it is unlikely that you will be able to flip a site in these circumstances profitably.

3. Enhance the Website

It's time to start putting your ideas into action when you've chosen a site with a realistic path to possibilities.

Increase the amount of traffic you receive and the money you earn due to that traffic.

Utilize your knowledge and play to your advantage. If you're a Reddit expert, you might consider using it as a traffic source. If you're a natural salesperson, you might be able to persuade companies to promote your site directly. There are no restrictions if it earns more money consistently and can be passed down to future owners.

You might be able to double traffic, which would theoretically double revenue. Alternatively, you can increase monetization to generate twice as much money from the same quantity of traffic.

This might be as simple as purchasing a website that already produces money through Amazon Associates. You might obtain a 10% revenue boost by installing a link so it can make some extra money from Amazon purchases. Using display advertising could give you an increase as well.

The more you understand this technique, the more revenue you'll make from website flipping. With time, you'll be able to extract more money from each visit.

4. Put it on the market.

The last step is to put your website up for sale. While it's evident that some categories sell better than others, as a rule of thumb, if you're willing to arrange your site attractively, you'll get a more excellent price.

It's essential to treat every potential buyer with care, be considerate and communicative, and respond promptly.

You'll need to package the following items to be ready for the sale:

• The domain name(s) and site access are ready for relocation.

• Ensure that the content is unique and that the photographs are appropriately licensed.

• Any email inbox that can be accessed.

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for any process, such as content production, backlinks, management, social media, etc.

• Social media profile ownership

• Google Analytics ownership

• Logos and branding should be copied in their original form.

As an alternative, you might want to include a "for sale" ad at the footer of your website. 

Based on the scale of your site and your motivation to sell it, you may either go for the long term and sell it at a fixed price or take a chance and auction it off.

Investing in websites is similar to investing in other non-tangible assets in that you choose when to sell, and the market determines when to trade. Unless you prefer a low return, don't put yourself in a situation where you have to deal.

The Bottomline

If you believe in your capacity to enhance websites, there's no excuse why you can't do it again and again. Each moment you do it, you can push your boundaries beyond.

It's not always straightforward, and you'll make some stupid purchases along the way, but it is part of the process and will help you learn a new skill. You will learn to differentiate websites that represent a "reasonably obvious route to money and those that signal danger and risky purchase over practice and failures.

I hope that you'll learn the basics of flipping a website in this post. If you know how to calculate and manage the risks, your potential expertise will be a way for you to develop and expand your profit through this new stream of building a website flipping business.