How to Make Money Flipping Websites

There are many ways to earn a full-time income from a website. Bloggers, affiliate marketers, online store owners, course creators and coaches know this pretty well.
But what if you’re ready for another income stream? Something that still involves websites but isn’t as long-term as your main business? If that’s the case, or if you just enjoy building new sites and want to double your income, flipping websites might be for you.
In this guide, you’ll learn what that is and how to get started with it. It can be a great additional income and a revenue-generating free time activity. But if you dedicate enough time and build the skills necessary to flip sites like a pro, you can become a 5-, 6- or 7-figure entrepreneur solely thanks to this business venture.
What is website flipping?
Flipping websites is the business of buying and selling sites for profit. There are 2 main ways to do it, depending on what you like, are skilled at, and willing to try and master.
The first one is similar to flipping anything else, from real estate and cars to vintage clothes and furniture. You acquire an asset with the goal of selling it for an extra profit. In the case of real estate, for example, that can be by simply waiting for a seller’s market, or renovating and improving the home in a way that makes it valuable, after which you can sell when the right buyer comes along.
The same goes for websites.
You can have an investor’s mindset, buy existing websites and simply sell them for profit after their value increases, there’s a bigger demand or you just feel like it. Or, you can invest some more time, energy and capital in the web properly to increase its traffic, domain authority and earning potential and sell it for an even higher price.
As a blogger, the second scenario probably gets you more excited. If you already know how to start a blog, design it well, create content, build an audience, gain traffic from search engines and Pinterest, you don’t need to buy websites at all. You can start as many new ones per year as you feel like, grow them, and sell them for profit.
The better you get at this, the more you can earn. Six figures are not out of the question, even if you’re just starting out with flipping websites.
Now, you might be wondering where to begin. Let’s see the first steps.
How to get started with flipping websites
Part 1: Buying a website
Your very first step is to choose a website that you’d like to invest in.
Use a trusted marketplace like Flippa to locate the ideal web property. View the detailed information provided by the platform. That includes how old the site is, its traffic, monthly profit, and any other number that concerns you as the buyer.
You can do further research by browsing every page on that website and evaluating its potential. After all, you want to know what this platform can turn into so you can sell it for maximum profit.
The next step is to contact its owner and negotiate the price. You can also check the seller’s history on Flippa and see if they are trustworthy. Many successful previous transactions are always a good sign.
After that, place a bid on this website.
If and when you win, you can move onto the final step – ownership transition. This is when the seller transfers the domain registration, business name and all other details to your name.
Part 2: Improving the website
Moving onto stage 2 of the process of flipping websites – growing the site so you can sell it for more than the initial investment.
Some ways to do that include:
- Re-designing it;
- Driving more organic traffic;
- Publishing more content;
- Optimizing the existing content;
- Adding new features;
- Building an email list;
- Increasing domain authority;
- Building social media presence;
- Having professional branding;
- Improving the current monetization methods;
- Adding a new one to increase the site’s monthly revenue;
- Driving traffic from Pinterest.
Part 3: Selling the website
The 3rd stage of successfully flipping websites is to sell your property. Again, that can happen using a marketplace like Flippa, but in this case you’ll be the seller.
Create a professional-looking and detailed listing, give it a price (but be open to negotiations too), and respond to any potential buyer who has questions or needs more information.
If you want to go down a different route, you can choose a niche you’re passionate about, buy your own domain name, and set up your own site. Optimize it for mobile. Make it look beautiful and professional. Ensure it functions well. Start creating amazing content and driving traffic to it.
When you feel like you’ve done all your could and are ready to move onto other projects, create a new listing on Flippa and put it for sale.
Flipping websites is a skill on its own. Nothing will happen unless you get out there and actually buy a web property or start growing one, and find the courage to ask for a great price in return.
The more you stay in the business of buying and selling websites, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t.