How To Flip A Website

Before discussing the specifics on how to flip a website, let’s first define…

What It Really Means to Flip a Website

So many things have been lumped into the topic of “website flipping” that actually don’t belong there. Much of it has polluted the marketplaces, and that is largely due to the amount of guru products on the subject leading people astray.

Website flipping is not:

• Creating sites from scratch to sell…Even if it’s down the road
• Creating turnkey sites to sell with zero traffic or revenue

These activities are more accurately placed under the banner of “site selling”. And there’s nothing wrong with it. Lots of people add tremendous value to the marketplace by creating valuable sites to sell. It’s what they do for a living.

However, it’s not what I consider “website flipping”.

The phrase “website flipping” is borrowed from the concept of flipping houses. Consider the buy and renovate concept of flipping houses. When people invest in a house to flip, it’s usually because they recognize some things (like new paint and carpet) they can add or fix to immediately increase the value of that home for resale.

So, what about people who build houses to sell them? Are they considered “flippers”? I’d call them builders or contractors.

So, what is website flipping and how do you do it?

Flipping involves buying low, and selling high. Not buying and keeping. Not building to sell.

Buying low and selling high…FAST.

Now, you may buy a website and sell it several years down the road. That can be considered flipping, but REAL “flipping” involves turning properties over a little faster in my opinion.

This skill is more of an art than a science. It’s truly a beautiful art! Why?

For the very reason you’re reading this blog, and the reason our marketplace of buying low and selling high has become so popular:

BIG – MONEY – FAST

It’s not for everyone though. I’m seeing a trend amongst the savvy long term investors in our marketplace towards buying to hold.

That’s partly because many people struggle to find anything worth buying in online marketplaces anymore. When they do, they aren’t very keen on letting it go.

Honestly, buying to hold is a very wise model. If you’re looking for information about how to do this the smart way, I’d invite you to check out BuyingAndSellingWebsites.com.

For the sake of this conversation, let’s assume we’re defining flipping as buying with the intention to sell quickly. It’s what we teach in our course Killer Flipping Secrets and is where you have potential to make big money fast.

How to Flip a Website

To flip a website, you need a special set of skills. You’ve got to be able to do at least 1 of 2 things very well. They are:

1.) Spotting areas of underdeveloped monetization opportunities, or traffic generation.

Ask questions like, “Can I add an up-sell to this site’s sales process?”, or “Can I raise the price of this product?”, or “Could I increase the targeted traffic to this site by creating a PPC campaign, or doing some SEO?”

In other words, look for areas that require little work to achieve huge potential results on the bottom line of that business you’re about to buy.

Know what you’re good at or what you’re able to outsource, and try spotting opportunities to apply those skill sets.

2.) Arbitrage.

Buy low, sell high, immediately. That’s what arbitrage is all about.

Here’s the money question when it comes to selling an online business…

“Who stands to make the most money from owning this site?”

Answer that question and you’ll know who is also most likely willing to pay a lot more money to own it than what you can acquire it for.

This can also be done between marketplaces. Sometimes a site you find over at ebay.com can be sold for a lot more at Flippa.com.

Get familiar with the types of sites that sell well on the various marketplaces so when you find one listed lower than you’re used to seeing it listed for on another, you can scoop it up and sell it on the other site for a quick profit.

Fast Profits With Website Flipping

There’s so much stuff out there that people are teaching in forums and in ebooks that isn’t really geared towards the fast profits that can be generated using the above 2 concepts.

The entire appeal of flipping websites is fast profits. Don’t get me wrong, please. There’s nothing bad about buying to hold, or starting sites to sell. Those are good business models when done right, but they are not the same thing as flipping.

When I buy a site to flip, my goal is to get it renovated and sold inside 6 months. The time frame will depend on how much value I believe can be added fairly quickly and what’s involved in that process.

It’s only something I’d do if the potential upside of the flip is a large enough amount of money to justify the amount of time and work I’m going to put into the project.

If it takes longer than 6 months, or the potential margin of increase isn’t large enough to justify selling it again that fast, I wouldn’t take it on as a flip project.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy it to hold. That’s just a different conversation.

For those who are new to FlipWebsites.com, this should serve as a clear definition and brief introduction to answering the question “how to flip a website.”

For the faithful readers, and seasoned website flippers, perhaps this will serve as a reminder to get back to the basics of pure “flipping”.

Remember what flipping is about…

BIG – MONEY – FAST

Perhaps it’ll get you back on track if you’ve strayed the course or lost focus.

What do you think? Am I being too rigid with my definition of website flipping? Comment below and let me know.