There’ve been a lot of questions about making your first $1,000, and it’s not that hard when you’re getting lump sums from site sales. In this walkthrough, you’ll see how to build small sites that can be sold for chunks of cash.
In case you haven’t noticed, you no longer have to build huge websites in order to have huge paydays; sites with even very small revenues (or zero revenues) often sell for several hundred dollars and into the low thousands.
And even if you do a lot of things wrong, you can often still cash out for a cool grand.
See this site that sold for $1k on an income of $1/day: Strange Adsense Niche Sells For $1,000
Or this site that had almost no traffic and income that sold for over $2k: WebHostingReview.org
And if you’re using the Site Snowball Strategy (monetizing the free traffic that is already coming to a website) then you know that sites can sell for a few hundred bucks a pop, even without income. When you monetize that traffic, it sells for even more.
See this site that had no income, but sold for $1,500 because of it’s traffic stats: Stomach Fat Site Sells For $1500
(This, by the way, makes for a great intro lesson in site flipping: buy a site that has traffic but no income, monetize the traffic, and then resell it for more.)
In fact, a case study was recently recorded with a man named John for the students of Lump Sum Profits, and in it, he revealed that his ultimate goal was to get his niche sites to make $1 per day, and then sell the website for a $1,000 lump sum, some even for $5,000, and one sold for $7,000.
Consider this philosophy: the goal is to make $1 a day and then sell them for thousands.
Best of all, it’s all done from scratch. Try doing that with real estate.
Every day, you are preached that you need to go out and build a website that makes $1,000 a month, $2,000 a month, or $10,000 a month…
And sure, we’d all love to have sites that made that much money, but when you’re first getting started, getting to this point can feel like a million miles away.
But what about $1 a day? Could you do that?
When you look at it that way, it brings a lot of freedom – it’s a relief to think that you don’t have to beat your head against the wall until your investments are making full-time incomes… you just need to get the ball rolling, and then it can be sold for huge paydays.
For example, assume that you’ve built a website in hopes of selling some products – whether they be your own or someone else’s products – but for whatever reason, you’re not seeing any sales. The site is getting a few hundred hits per month, but it’s not making any sales.
Instead of fretting about the fact that it’s not making money, you switch it to an advertising site – you put Google Ads on the site, sell a few text link ads, and you put a small CPA offer on the site in place of the previous links. All of a sudden, you start seeing a couple of advertising dollars, a few leads, and a small amount of revenue from the text link ads. It’s not make much, but it’ll certainly be making enough to sell to someone else.
And all of a sudden, you’ve got cash in your pocket.
Sound feasible? Here’s how you can get started:
1) Build a “Tiny Site.” A tiny site is a blog with a few (4-6) posts on it in a specific niche. To get an extra bump in the search engines, put the blog on a keyword-rich domain. For an example, see one that I built for a friend: Voice Lessons Online
(Notice that it ranks on Google for ‘voice lessons online.’ That’s because the keyword is in the domain, and all the posts are relevant to that keyword.) We teach you how to build sites just like this inside of Lump Sum Profits.
Note: the research that goes into this step is likely the most important step in the process. When you find a hungry niche that buys and keywords that are easy to dominate, then you are golden.
2) Write articles, put them on EzineArticles.com, and link them back to your site. That will drive traffic back to the website, and you’d ideally structure your articles to rank high in the search engines for other less competitive search terms. If you don’t know how to do this, see BumMarketingMethod.com. At the end of your article, include a link back to your website so that people can find your Tiny Site. This will help you develop a stream of consistent visitors to your site.
3) Build links to your Tiny Site. Your articles will give you a jump start with this, and having your keyword in the domain will make link building twice as effective. Use Digg.com and/or SocialPoster.com to bookmark each of your posts, and then ping the URLs of your bookmarks at www.Pingomatic.com. Blogging and making blog comments, press releases, social profile links, and forum posts are all great ways to get links to your site. Just be sure to include your keyword in the keyword in the link so that the search engines give you credit for it.
When you have articles driving traffic to your site, and when your site begins to rank on the search engines for its main keyword, you’ll have long-term free traffic come from multiple sources. If you’re on the first page of Google for your main search terms, you’ll be getting more than enough traffic to monetize and sell. And even if you never grace Google, your articles will drive traffic over time. The next step, then, is to monetize that traffic.
4) Monetize your site. There are a few ways to do this:
- Google Adsense – the simplest and most reliable way to run ads on your site is through Google’s own advertising network. Their payout isn’t the best, but it is an industry standard that buyers like to see, and it can be installed in a few seconds.
- Adbrite – If you don’t have a Google Adsense account, it can be difficult to get one, because they have cracked down over the last year. Adbrite advertising is a reputable alternative.
- Clickbank – The most popular affiliate resource, Clickbank has an information product for just about everything, and payouts are high. Your sales may be sparse, but that extra $30 per sale on top of your advertising revenue is nice.
- Text link ads – SEOs will pay to have a text link ad on your site, and there are networks that will broker them for you. TextLinkAds.com is the most well-known, but they’re very picky about who they accept. TextlinkBrokers.com is another option.
- CPA Networks – Run a Google search for “your nice + cpa network” and you’ll find cost-per-action networks that will pay you when someone signs up for a newsletter or even just enters their zip code (called a ‘zip submit’). Advertise some simple CPA offers, and they’ll add to your bottom line.
If one monetization vehicle doesn’t work out, then swap it for another. Remember, you don’t have to build up much steam before you can sell the site to an investor who will scale it from there. When a website is making $20 – $50 a month, it’s ready to be sold for a lump sum.
Every once in a while, you’ll build a site that really takes off, or that you really enjoy building, and those are the ones that you’ll grow into your Tycoon sites that make $1,000 a month or more. Then you can worry about scaling your sites to have mailing lists, deep search engine optimization, and selling more products.
To recap, you need the following:
1) A niche that buys.
2) Keywords that are easy to conquer.
3) A small blog on a keyword rich domain with a few posts.
4) A traffic and monetization strategy.
Contrary to what most gurus will preach, you don’t need to immediately go out and build a website that replaces your current income – and even if you *needed* to, it’s several steps ahead of where most people currently are. However, the ability to sell sites for a few hundred, a thousand, and two thousand bucks a pop is life changing for most.
And the good news is that your sites don’t need to be making ANYTHING for you to get started. But it’s by far better if you monetize the traffic that’s coming to your websites with advertising revenue or affiliate revenue. As soon as your site is making a few bucks a month, it can be sold to put a nice chunk of money in your pocket.
Then, you either invest it into future projects… or do it again.
Ready to start putting lump sums of cash into your pocket at will? Start generating huge paydays inside of Lump Sum Profits.
Hi Ryan, nice post, thank you. I have one (probably really simple) question that has been bugging me and has stopped me from having a go at flipping. If I own the domain, how do I go about transferring everything to the new buyer/owner?
Thanks again and thanks for all the great info!
Sarah. x
Hey Sarah! Transferring a domain is very standard procedure.
At Godaddy, you can put the registration to the new owner or they can renew the domain and pull it over from you.
Other registrars are as simple as emailing support and they’ll set you up.
Please, don’t let transferring a domain hold you up from flipping sites… There is a lot of easy money to be made and I’d hate to see you miss it because of a simple roadblock that is easily fixed. All it usually takes is an email to find out how it’s done.
If you email your registrar and are still confused, I’m sure I can lend a hand too..
@Ryan – awesome post. I have to say, the keyword rich domain is by far and away the quickest, easiest way to get traffic.
I’ve got a site: publicspeakingactivities.com that get’s 300 uniques a month off the keyword phrase in the domain alone.
Better yet, it started getting the traffic only days after I built it.
Thanks Ryan,
Great post. It really is that simple. The work is in going through the steps. Knowing the end result is what makes the work more like pleasure. How many people have fun using their imagination and the internet to make a fair income? For me it is the technicalities of building the website.
This of course only after learning many of the above strategies and much more from your eTycoon Master Class where you gave away the “kitchen sink.”
Great stuff. Keep it up
RobertB
Hi Ryan
Many thanks for the tips and your article.
I have built hundreds of sites in the past but usualy for myself.
One thing I need to find out about is how to actually transfer a blog ( the whole site) including the data base etc ) to a new owner.
In the past I have simply used my reseller accounts and given free hosting -
Is there an easy and simple way of trasferring a blog over to a new owner?
Hamant
Ryan,
One thing I worry (understatement, deathly afraid) about is someone copying a site I put up for sale.
For example, I have 5 sites in one niche, 2 static sites and 3 WP Blogs. I have 4 out of the top ten organic rankings including the number 1 spot.
These sites generate about $800 per month organically and another $3,000 from PPC across Adwords, Yahoo and Bing.
It wasn’t easy putting it all together and I’m always afraid of someone moving in.
I would love to sell but I’m afraid to list them and have no idea what they are worth. They are so simple, I can’t believe no one has copied them yet.
Am I just too paranoid? What could they be worth? I worked a solid 6 months with zero sales until I got this niche going in Feb. of 2009.
Thanks, always read your stuff on WA and that other site you had. I use a different name on WA. Too many vultures over there to reveal any successes.
Press
Thanks Ryan
Sarah. xx
Hi Ryan, thanks for another truly fantastic blog entry, and I’d like to hear your answer to Press’s question too
Hi Ryan,
I assume you have to you WordPress for these tiny sites.
Can you explain how to use WordPress? I have no experience with websites and I want to learn. Is it easy to use?
Hello Ryan,
I am new to social marketing. Can you please explain this below a little further.
“Use Digg.com and/or SocialPoster.com to bookmark each of your posts, and then ping the URLs of your bookmarks at http://www.Pingomatic.com.”
Thanks!
Hi Ryan,
Very good post. Solid, succinct info that is going to help me a lot.
\Martin
For those who think site flipping is easy and everybody can do it – think again. In most cases the time, money and effort investment in building the site and trying to sell it is not worth the money you will get (if any at all). All those upbeat revalations and stories are only for unexperienced newbies, they want you to buy they services (domain, hosting, SEO, marketing, Flippa commisions etc.)
Hi Ryan! I’m really eager to try this but I’m nervous about switching over all of the accounts linked to the page. What about social marketing sites/accounts or articles I’ve already published under my accounts or even clickbank sales that may go through after I’ve sold?! Thanks!
Thanks Ryan,
I have a tiny site that’s been left alone because I couldn’t figure out a way to get it ready to sell. Now I have the answer:)
Fantastic, intriguing and interesting!what is the next step or move and when?
This is truly something that i hadn’t thought about doing before,i mean i thought google and bing had every keyword and niche maxed out.I now know this is not the case.Many thousands of people are selling small websites for profit,and i want to be a part of it. Niche and keyword research is very important to find a good keyword/domain combinations.I’m planning my first small site…watch this space.Many thanks.
WoW! I’m blown away by this and it’s simplicity!! I had told myself that one day I would get into flipping sites b/c I see the potential to make some good money. I thought I needed to learn a lot more before trying my hand at this. I’m excited and getting ready to jump in, with both feet!
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for the great information, you are very inspiring and would love to be a part of the class but unfortunately finances are tough right now.
Anyways, I did have a question. Obviously I know getting a .com is optimal, but what about the .net, .org, .biz? Do they sell for less or does that not matter?
Thanks a bunch,
hello Ryan,
i want to know how much you charge to build blogs like voice lessons online.do you accept libertyreserve.com payment system. thank you very much for the insightful post
Where do I find the flip finder I signed up for a few days ago?