How Do I Successfully Flip My Blog?
Flipping a blog can be a tricky business. Today I received an email from a reader who wanted my advice on how he can successfully flip his two blogs. He asked me to remain anonymous, so below is a copy of his email without his name or links included.
Hi Gary,
My question is about Site Flipping. I’ve created two sites, very good ones that I spent a lot of time on but no traffic. Anyway I put them up on sitepoint and digital point and I got one weak bid. I see other sites that are not as good as mine selling and I’m wondering how can I assure my site sells? What are the main things needed.
I’m including links to my sites but I don’t want you to post them to the video because I don’t want to spread my failure but if you want to just look at the sites for me and let me know what you think I would really appreciate it.
Here is my opinion about flipping a blog. My thoughts are when I am about to present a site for flipping on SitePoint.com or other places, I ask myself, “Would I purchase this site myself if things were the other way around?” If the answer is NO, then I ask myself what are the things I need to do in order to get the site to a level in which I myself would be interested in purchasing it.
In the case for the above reader, his sites were absolutely beautiful. He had invested money into Brian Gardner’s beautiful WordPress themes, he has tons of awesome content and everything looks super nice and very professional.
If you are looking for amazing and high quality themes, I strongly recommend Brian Gardner. I have known him for almost two years and his themes are WELL worth the money. I own all of his themes myself AND I have paid for them just like all his other customers.
The problem I see with these two sites are a failure in promoting them. Both of these sites are all set up to accommodate for a community but unfortunately the community hasn’t moved in yet. The sites are a ghost town.
Flipping sites or blogs is very similar to flipping houses, but the only key differences is most flipped blogs or houses require the purchase to include people living in them compared to flipping a house that doesn’t.
My advice to anyone who wants to flip a blog or site is to get these sites active with people inside them. They can’t be dead. While it is important that these sites look nice, that isn’t the element of importance. The thing that investors look for is to see if the site being offered for sale can give them a quick return on their investment.
Sellers in SitePoint are not stupid. They are very talented because this is their job. They make money online by buying sites that quickly add a return on their investment. If your site being offered doesn’t show them that this will happen, you will not get any bids.
If your site is earning money, you should provide income statements. If your blog doesn’t earn money, you should provide documentation showing investors the probability of the site earning money in the near future.
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3 comments
Regarding the parts about “Would I buy it” in my opinion he purchased it in the first place so the answer to the question is not no, its “yes.” The question really is if he is trying to turn a profit would he purchase it for that price.
That was really cool
What about for promoting do you submit articles to articlezine and goarticles? When you talk about social networks, do you mean a new account just for these blogs? what if you don’t want to promote a site for months and just want to make something nice and get enough traffic to flip it. What would you recommend would be the fastest way to generate just enough traffic to flip sites. I have a steady job and I’m just looking for quick cash doing something I enjoy.
The video answers are really helpful.
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the questions, there are good ones:
I don’t actively use places like that for promoting my sites or even a site as mentioned in the article.
Social networking would play a vital role towards recruiting new members into the community I was trying to build. New accounts would need to be created for sure because the process is really like birthing new digital identities that will be sold with the package. You are basically building a Jim or a Daniel and these virtual Jim’s and Daniel’s are identities that come with the purchase. Social identities are needed to help drive traffic to the site and help recruit people into the membership areas of the site.
There are many kinds of sites that can be flipped. However, with these particular sites I was shown, work will be needed towards making the sites look much less like a ghost town and more like sites that are packed full of people with money in their wallets.
Then in my opinion, you have no business being in the site flipping business. On a lighter note, there are other kinds of sites that flip better with less time investment. Membership sites or sites that have forums are hard because they can’t be empty.
Really what it all boils down to is money… and that is kinda why I have difficulty with the whole “Site Flipping Business”.
In my opinion, it is RARE that I’ll sell a site that is making money. I mean today, I have some interest in it, and I very well may list a few of my own sites in SitePoint very soon. But the only reason why, is because I want money to finish my house.
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