Recently I sold a handful of smaller websites. I had never sold sites before.
This experience has had a profound impact on how I view this online publishing business and likely how I’m going to approach a part of my publishing business going forward.
I’ve been crunching numbers based on my recent site sales and it’s occurred to me that flipping websites should be a PART of my online publishing business.
Or at the very least, I need to go forward with the FLIPPING MINDSET.
Generally, the investment needed to get a website earning $100 to $300 per day, while substantial, can happen pretty fast (12 to 24 months) with daily consistent effort and a smart combination of ad and affiliate promotions.
$150 per day values a site somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000.
Take those proceeds and you have the funds to grow two or three sites (or one big one) and do it again and again.
If that seems like a big nut to crack, think of it this way
For every $1 of revenue per day you add to your website, that ultimately puts $1,000 to $1,350 into your pocket.
$1 per day times 30 days (1 month) times 34 to 45 (monthly multiples used for website valuation) equals $1,000 to $1,350.
How do you add $1 per day in revenue to a website?
If you monetize with ads only, you need to add around 2,000 visitors per month. That’s assuming $15 ad revenue per 1,000 visitors.
If you average 300 visitors per article per month (definitely doable), you need to publish 7 new articles. Obviously that’s not going to happen in a day, but surely the thought that publishing only 7 articles will ultimately (on average) put $1,200 into your pocket is motivating. And that doesn’t account for the revenue you earn until you sell.
FYI, many publishers once past the early stages of a website average more than 300 visitors per article per month.
If you promote Amazon as an affiliate, you need to generate $1,000 in sales on Amazon.
Over the last 30 days, I’ve averaged $.08 per click to Amazon. That means I need to add 13 clicks to Amazon per day. Keep in mind that many affiliates earn far more than $.08 per click to Amazon. My performance here isn’t great… which means I have some good opportunities.
But it never hurts to hang onto a cash cow
I say all the above with the luxury of having one very large, well-earning cash cow website. I have no plans to sell this site right now.
So perhaps one viable strategy is to hang onto the site you see that can grow into something huge and then diversify with a side flipping strategy.
Need to track costs more carefully
What this means for me is I will need to take a more serious view of tracking costs.
Starting and growing sites for a flip in 12 to 36 months means paying closer attention to how much I put in them.
In the past, while I did ultimately sell a handful of sites, my intention was to hold onto them indefinitely.
I didn’t pay much attention to how much I was pouring into them. But based on the number of articles on each site, selling was profitable.
Looking back I probably should have put more effort into improving revenue before selling. I will next time, that’s for sure. Live and learn.
But if I’m going to turn this into a system, paying attention to the numbers is important. I’m not sure I have it in me to bean count but I’ll give it a shot.
Either way you win
The point of this email is not to advocate the flipping model. Instead, it’s to suggest that the FLIPPING MINDSET can sharpen your focus.
It certainly has for me.
When it occurred to me that adding $1 per day in revenue ultimately puts $1,200 into my pocket, I got to work on tweaking things to squeeze out a few more dollars per day.
For me, that’s implementing more affiliate promotions because that’s one revenue stream where I have room to improve.
The idea appeals to me… finally
I never started a website with the exit in mind. That may have been myopic of me but at the same time I have a large site as a result.
However, not only CAN flipping be profitable, but the idea of taking $X amount and building one site with the hope of flipping it for nice return sounds like a fun challenge at this stage.
I see now why there’s so much chatter and interest in website flipping.
Does this mean I’m turning my sites into “review sites” to eke out extra dollars?
No, not at all.
It does mean I’ll be publishing more informational content with a bit more buyer intent behind them. I’ll monetize it with ads but also incorporate affiliate promotions.
I don’t expect any single piece of content to funnel $10K per month into my pocket, but if I publish enough of it, the affiliate revenue (and ad revenue) should grow.
After all, every $1 per day I add in revenue is really $1,200.
The idea of putting more effort into revenue before selling is essential. I sold a few websites that were getting some good traffic but not a lot of revenue, and I regret it every day now that I’m years on and can see how I could have monetized them.
I’ve had the idea of creating sites to flip, but the pain of losing previous sites that had so much potential has kept me from building any kind of plan of doing so.
I also suggest not making your site too personal if you plan to flip. I sold one site with my name all over it, and the guy has just left it that way. I cringe that my name is attached to his site but there’s nothing I can do about it. He won’t respond to my emails when I ask him to use his name instead. Live and learn I guess.