The Creative Design Blog

You’ve considered building a website from scratch but decided to find one already made. Or, you are looking to buy an existing website, add value through enhancements, then resell it (called “flipping”). Regardless of the reason, you need a website.

Your first task is to outline what you are looking for as a website can be used for many different reasons. Some of the purposes include an established database of clients for your product or services, an income from others with links on the website, to hold the domain name for an anticipated future trend, to enhance then resell at a profit, or to sell to a larger competitor down the road. Now that you know what you want it to do you know what to look for.

One place to look is on the Internet as there are companies that deal with the listing and selling of websites. Here is not where you find bargains.However, they are not without value to the buyer looking for specific attributes or results.

Another handy source are the usual Internet search engines. It stands to reason that the first sites you’ll see are the well managed ones that will prove to be pricey or not even available for purchase. While this may be what fits your strategy, chances are you will need to go deeper into the web. The deeper you go, the lower the page rank but this is where the bargains are and with some time and enhancements these are the sites that can be built into stronger sites. You should still look at those first searches, however, as they can assist you with your own enhancements.

A prime element of purchasing real estate is location – with a website it is research. Unless you are buying with the short-term goal to flip, you are buying to own not rent, and just as you would take more diligence in buying a house over renting an apartment, you need to take the time to research.

Do careful research on any site you are considering. Spend some time on the site reviewing it, reading any forums and discussions, and reviewing the history. Better to move on to another site if you see something that won’t work for you than to realize it after spending money.

Make no mistake, there is risk involved when buying a website but keep a clear head and do your research and you can reduce the risk.

To learn more about buying websites for sale and how to sell websites, check out the Flippa Blog.

Remember the dot com boom when companies paid silly amounts of money for speculative online businesses with no promise of profits? Investors were launched into an online business stocks money grab with many of them becoming millionaires overnight while many more went to the wall just as quickly.

Since the bubble burst, however, the market has developed at a more measured pace. That said, I believe web sites are still undervalued as assets. Market trends show that sites continue to increase in value across the board, and the trend remains upward – the market’s nowhere near topping out yet. This environment presents ample opportunity for successful speculation and website flipping. Just like the physical property market, the online property market is rightly being regarded by many as a great place to make not just a quick profit, but potentially a living.

As with a property, you can buy a web site and have it increase in value over time without having to do anything but maintain it (although the value of physical property depends on the scarcity of real estate, which is unlikely ever to be a problem online!). On the other hand, if you add value to the site you’ve bought, you can flip the property for a quick capital gain.

There are four steps to successfully flipping websites:

1. Find a virtual property you want to buy.

2. Bid on a website or make an offer directly to the owner and complete the sale.

3. Upgrade the website, adding value.

4. List the website in the marketplace and make a profit.

There are many strategies for monetizing a website. How you add value to the site will depend on the type of site you’ve purchased, your capabilities and the marketplace.

If you’re considering embarking on website flipping as a way to supplement your income, or even if you’re just thinking of selling a site you no longer want to build or maintain, it’s important to keep a running total of all your costs, including the site’s purchase price (if you bought it), hosting and domain registration, labor (including your own time), licensing fees, development and marketing expenses, and so on. This is the only way you’ll know if you’ve made a profit or a loss in real terms on any one sale.

At the end of the trade, if you’ve only made $10 per hour for your work then there may be better ways to spend your time than flipping websites. The more you can streamline the process of improving a website, the more money in your pocket.

Interested in learning more about website flipping. Visit the Flippa marketplace where you can find out more about website trading and how to make money flipping websites.

Savvy website owners are starting to realize that there is intrinsic value in websites that generate traffic. Subsequently a marketplace where people buy and sell websites has begun to emerge. People are trading all kinds of websites for short term gains or long term profits.

How does the website marketplace work? As with any marketplace, there is a buyer and a seller. The seller puts a website up for auction and the buyer has the opportunity to bid. On successful completion of an auction, the seller receives payment from the winning bidder and transfers the ownership of the domain and website.

So how do you get involved? If you want to buy and sell websites, you usually fall into one or many of the following categories:

1. Web Designer. You’re a web designer by trade and you’re sick of clients telling you that blue and green look great together. Can’t you just build a website the way you want to build it then sell to someone who likes it? Yes you can. Register a domain, build the site, drop some original content in it, let it mature for a month or two then sell it on Flippa. Start-up sites usually sell from $200 to $500 depending on the niche, quality of the site and content.

2. Website owner with established website. You’ve got an old website sitting in the cupboard gathering dust – one that you’ve neglected and have no time to do anything with. One man or woman’s trash is another’s gender in-specific’s treasure. Dust off that old website and list it in one of the many website marketplaces.

3. Business Investor. You want to take the hard work and time out of establishing an online business. Why not buy one ready made? The online business investor buys revenue generating websites, improves on them and reaps the rewards either through on-going revenue or by re-selling (or flipping) the website.

4. Speculative Site Buyer. You might be looking for a way to shortcut your entry into a particular niche you’ve been eying off. Buying a cheaper start-up site will help you skip the process of registering a domain, building a website and populating it with content. You can then focus on what you’re good at; SEO, content development, business development etc.

If you haven’t traded in the marketplace before, take your time to identify which category you fit into (it may be multiple categories), then structure your strategy accordingly. Take the time to find out how the website trading marketplace works – follow a few auctions, do some due diligence and you’ll soon be buying and selling sites like a seasoned professional.

Ready to buy and sell websites in the marketplace, then visit Flippa.com, the #1 marketplace for buying and selling websites. Start flipping websites today.