Are you familiar with the concept of website flipping? It involves buying an existing website, increasing the site’s traffic and revenue, and selling it for a profit.
Of course, you can also create a new site from scratch, but buying an existing site allows you to skip the initial grind that usually involves investing a lot of time with no immediate financial reward.
Instead of starting from scratch, you can buy a site that’s already getting some traffic but has room for improvement, and it’s possible to see results almost immediately.
Website valuations are primarily based on the site’s average monthly profit. For example, the site may be valued at 36 times the average monthly profit, which is fairly typical for a content-based site.
If you can increase the site’s average monthly profit by $1,000, you will have increased the site’s value by $36,000. As you can see, improving websites can be potentially very lucrative.
Of course, you’ll also make money while you own the site, in addition to whatever you sell the site for. And you can hold it for as long as you like before selling. Some flippers aim for a quick turnaround in about six months, while others typically hold the sites for a few years.
I’ll explain the process in more detail throughout the article, but I want to start by summarizing the concept. Essentially, you’ll look for a content-based website that’s already getting some traffic and making some money. It could be monetized with display ads and/or affiliate programs. Other options like digital products are possible, but for the simplicity of this article, we’ll assume the site uses ads and affiliate programs.
Ideally, the site offers room for improvement. If the site’s content is already much better than its competitors, there won’t be as much room for improvement. So you want to look for a site that’s getting some search traffic and making some money, but the content doesn’t necessarily wow you.
After buying the site, you’ll identify content to update, improve, and optimize. You’ll use NeuronWriter to ensure that Google loves the content and that it has the best chance to rank. Ideally, search rankings will improve, traffic will increase, and that content will generate more money each month.
Once you have at least a few months showing higher profits, you can sell the site for a profit.
Before we get into the details, it’s important to mention that buying a website involves financial risk. Of course, the goal is to improve the site and make a profit, but that doesn’t always happen. Be sure that you’re aware of the risks before jumping into anything. It’s also a good idea to start small so your risk is limited.
I’ve been building and selling online businesses since 2007. Most of my experience involves starting sites from scratch, but I have bought three sites within the past few years for flipping. I’ve had 6 different six-figure exits, including 2 six-figure sales this year.
Here’s a screenshot from Google Analytics showing the search traffic during the last six months before I sold one of these sites. As you can see, there was a slow but steady increase in traffic as I improved existing content and added new content.
And here’s a screenshot from another site I sold this year. This one also shows a slow but steady increase in search traffic.
Now, let’s move on and look at the step-by-step process.
Buying the right website or blog is a critical part of the process. The ideal site should:
The fastest and easiest way to find a site to buy is to browse listings at website marketplaces like Flippa, Motion Invest, and Investors Club. Most brokers and some marketplaces focus on large sites with high price tags, but the marketplaces above list sites that are more affordable.
If you want to buy an existing site that’s already making money, you’ll probably need to spend at least $10,000 – $20,000. You can find options in that price range at Flippa and Motion Invest, and Investors Club starts just above that level.
Motion Invest and Investors Club perform due diligence (verifying traffic and earnings) on the sites they list for sale. However, it’s best to still do your own due diligence before buying.
The sites listed on Flippa have not had any independent due diligence, so it’s essential to proceed with caution and verify all the details for yourself.
Start by determining your budget, and then browse the marketplace listings to see what’s available. New sites are added all the time, so check back frequently.
Before you buy, it’s helpful to inspect the site’s search traffic to see if there are opportunities for improvement. Having access to a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs is very helpful here. You’ll enter the URL to see how much estimated search traffic the site gets each month and what keywords it’s ranking for.
Look for keywords where the site is ranking somewhere between #5-10. Google already likes these pages, but it thinks they’re not quite as good as the content ranking at the top of the search results. If you can improve these rankings, you can significantly increase the site’s search traffic. There’s a huge difference in the amount of traffic a page will get if it’s ranked in the top 3 compared to ranking 8-10.
If you can find a decent number of pages on the site with keywords that are ranking #5-10, there’s a good chance you can increase search traffic by optimizing that content. Ranking 11-20 can work too, but you’ll need to experience bigger improvements in the search rankings to get results.
If you can find a decent number of pages on the site with keywords that are ranking #5-10, there’s a good chance you can increase search traffic by optimizing that content. Ranking 11-20 can work too, but you’ll need to experience bigger improvements in the search rankings to get results.
It’s also helpful to check NeuronWriter to see if the content is already optimized. Enter the keyword and check the optimization score of the content compared to competitors. For example, if the keyword is “how to power wash a brick sidewalk,” check to see how the page’s score compares to competitors.
If the optimization score is already higher than all the other competitors, there’s not much room for improvement. But if the score is lower than the site’s outranking it, you may have an opportunity.
In the screenshot above, you can see that the page currently ranking #1 has a higher score than all the other pages. All of the others have room for improvement by increasing their scores.
Do this for a few keywords and you should get an idea of how optimized the site’s content is.
Once you find a site that meets your criteria and offers some room for improvement, you can buy it.
After you own the site, it’s time to start optimizing content. First, you’ll need to identify the content that offers the highest upside.
Check the site’s keyword rankings using Semrush or Ahrefs and export the results to an Excel file that you can sort and rearrange. Find keywords where the site is ranking #5-10 and check the page on the site that’s ranking for that keyword.
Start with keywords where the current ranking is highest (for example, start with 5 and work your way down to 10). Also, prioritize keywords with higher monthly search volume. For example, a page that ranks #5 for a keyword with 600 searches per month has a higher upside than a page that ranks #5 for a keyword with 75 searches per month.
Create a list of pages to update/optimize, along with the target keyword.
If you don’t have access to a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs, you can use Google Search Console for free. Start by looking at the pages that receive the most search traffic and look at the search queries that send the most traffic. Manually check to see where the page is ranking for that keyword. If it’s ranking #5-10, that could be a good keyword.
You can also consider the income-generation potential of the page. Content that includes affiliate links (for example, product reviews or buyer’s guides) typically generate more revenue than informational articles. So, if you can increase traffic to these pages, revenue should increase as well.
Now, it’s time to use NeuronWriter to improve the content’s optimization. You’ll enter the primary keyword and NeuronWriter will provide suggested words and phrases to include in your article.
NeuronWriter gives your content an optimization score of 1-100, with a higher score indicating better optimization. You can also see the highest score of your competitors, so you know what to aim for.
Start by optimizing the title and meta description. Look at the suggested words and phrases and include as many of them as possible in a natural way. The screenshot below shows an example title and description that are not well optimized.
Rewrite the title and description to improve optimization. See how the screenshot below shows more terms in green (the terms in green are included in the title or description)?
Next, move on to optimize the heading tags. Look at the suggested terms for H1 and H2 tags. To improve the score, you can edit the existing headers to include words and phrases, or add new H2 tags and sections to the article. As you add the suggested terms, you’ll see the score increase.
Next, click on “terms in the article,” which is shown at the top of the screenshot
above. Now you’ll see a list of words and phrases to include in the body of the content.
These suggestions are broken down into two sections: basic and extended (see the screenshot below). Start with the “basic” section because these are the most important terms. They’ll have the biggest impact on your optimization score and your ranking potential.
From my experience, optimizing the title, headings, and basic terms will usually get you very close to the highest score from a competitor. If a competitor’s content is really well optimized, you may need to add some of the extended terms to match their score. But focusing just on the title, headings, and basic terms will get you 90% of the way there, in most cases.
Once your content is optimized, you can update the page. NeuronWriter has convenient WordPress integration to important and export content to and from your site.
As you’re going through the process of optimizing content, it’s also helpful to evaluate the content and see if there are ways to make it more useful or improve it in some way. For example, adding more images, a table, a chart, or improving actionable steps that readers can use. Improving the optimization score is important, but it’s also worth the time to make the content as useful and helpful as possible.
Optimizing existing content usually produces faster results than publishing new content, but it’s also helpful to add new content as well.
The process of writing optimized content is very similar to what was described above. Use the terms NeuronWriter suggests in the title, description, headings, and article body.
NeuronWriter can also help you to find topics for upcoming articles. Open the content editor for one of the documents you’ve worked on and click the “next content ideas” icon shown below.
It will provide you with a list of related topics you can write about, which helps for establishing topical authority.
After you’ve increased the average monthly profit of the site, you can look to sell it. It’s important to understand that you’ll need at least a few months at the higher profit level to increase the value. Potential buyers will want to see that the site can sustain that level, so one or two good months will not be enough.
My personal approach involves holding sites for a few years, but some flippers look for a faster turnaround. Either approach can work. Of course, if you hold the site longer, you’ll earn more from the ongoing revenue it generates, but there’s also a risk it could drop.
When you’re ready to sell, you can list it at a marketplace or try to find a buyer on your own. If you have a strong network or you know someone who might be interested, selling it on your own may be an option. But marketplaces may be able to help you get a higher price because of the exposure and reach they can generate.
You can sell at marketplaces like Flippa, Motion Invest, or Investors Club. If the site makes at least $2,000 per month in profit, it may be eligible for listing at Empire Flippers.
The fees of these platforms vary, and you’ll need to consider the fees to ensure that you’re turning a profit after selling the site.
Website flipping can be extremely profitable, and NeuronWriter is an invaluable tool you can use to increase the profitability and value of a site. I’ve used NeuronWriter with content for several different sites, and it works very well. While there are no guarantees that your website flipping venture will be successful, using NeuronWriter will increase your chances by helping to optimize your content for search engines.
Marc Andre has been building online businesses since 2007. He’s built and sold websites and businesses in different industries like web & graphic design, photography, travel, and personal finance. His current project is Flip My Site, a blog that covers topics related to buying and selling websites.
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Paweł Sokołowski
Expert in semantic, NLP and SEO with 20y of experience.