A website flipper is kind of like a virtual real estate broker, except you don’t need a license. The term comes from the real world real estate business. Flippers buy property, fix it up, and then sell it for a profit. And website flippers do essentially the same thing, but with websites, not houses.
But how do you actually make money from web flipping and how hard is it to do? Here are some tips for those considering giving the virtual real estate market a try:
1. Buy a site that complements a product or service you already sell: Established traffic from that site may be redirected to yours. Just make sure it’s the type of traffic you want. Research the site’s audience before you buy. Just because you have a high visitor ratio doesn’t mean a site will bring you the kind of visitors you want or need.
2. Buy a site to generate ad revenue: This works great for sites whose overall content is good, but the owner hasn’t optimized them well. You may not need to do much more than increase the traffic coming to the site. Buying the site will also entitle you to all of its content, which you could repackage and redistribute for even more profit.
3. Buy a community site – Many busy forums are started by enthusiastic hobbyists, who then run out of money to pay for all the extra bandwidth to keep them up and running. Just be careful with the site’s audience, as they may not like your community forum becoming an ad-heavy affair and leave quickly. Here subtlety is requested so as not to be left with a lemon in your hands.
To be a successful pinball website, you need the design and marketing skills to successfully update the site, or at least know where to hire someone to do it. To get the kind of profit you expect, you will need to work hard, you are not a “passive” money maker.
Good places to start shopping for a website? Flippa is a major player in the industry, but even eBay now has a website for sale section. To really find a bargain, you may have to dig into a Google search, but this rapidly expanding business venture could make you a lot more money than you think.
