Local Flip Formula: How To Bank Loads Of Cash Flipping Websites Locally

I feel like a guru today. I finally get to use one of those over-hyped, “make money” headlines! While the headline may be cheesy, the content in this post is not.

This is an interview I had with Peter Beattie, the author of Local Flip Formula. To learn more about the book itself, read my Local Flip Formula review.

This book blows any other ebook about flipping websites out of the water. And I’m not the only one to think that. Peter sold 100 copies of the book within 2 1/2 hours of Local Flip Formula going live on the Warrior Forum. Within two weeks, a total of 208 copies were sold during the WSO (Warrior Special Offer). Since the WSO, the book continues to sell like crazy. What makes this book so popular?

Peter is an experienced offline marketing consultant. He created a system on how to develop websites you can sell locally to businesses (and to the average Joe off the street) for $300-$600 a pop. And this is just for startup-type sites you typically would sell for $150 on Flippa. If you develop these sites at all, you can make $1,500 or more per flip!

I grilled Peter about his book and after reading this interview, you can decide for yourself if you think it’s worth the $47 investment or not…

FW: Peter, it’s a real pleasure to chat with you today. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for a few weeks now! I’m pumped about getting the word out about your latest creation, Local Flip Formula, as I believe it is the “gold rush” of website flipping today but before we dive into your book, let’s talk about you for a minute.

I read your bio and you have an interesting background. You were an architectural designer by trade and it was the boring “office environment” and mundane job that drove you crazy and eventually drove you to make money online. Tell me briefly about your story.

I talk a little bit about this in my course but what I am about to tell you I have actually never spoke about to anyone who knows me through business or online. This is how I finally left my day job and transformed myself into an overnight work from home entrepreneur….

I and my then girlfriend of 9 years had just bought a house together in March of 2009. 3 months later in June 2009, she woke up one morning and left without warning! I never saw her again! It goes without saying that I was extremely depressed and had no clue how to continue on in life let alone how I was going to pay our new mortgage and bills by myself which we were supposed to split. I took a few days off from work after this and upon my first day back I was greeted with a message from my boss that the company was laying off employees and I had gotten my hours cut back to just 32 per week. There was no way I would be able to afford our new house by myself now with a 20% cut in pay. Talk about a complete life change in just a few days!

So this is when I decided to throw it in my boss’s face and fire him. I decided I was going to start creating websites for local businesses and once I got my first paying customer, I would quit my job. Within short time, I got my first customer which was a local house painter. He paid me $1,500 to design his webite. I never designed a website for anyone else before in my life..but I did it! As soon as I got payment from him I went into the office, wrote my boss a resignation email and left my job without notice. The rest is history.

FW: Wow, that’s an inspiring story. So what do you primarily spend your time doing today?

Right now I am at a 50/50 split with Internet Marketing and Offline Consulting. I continue to design websites for local companies (at full price) and flip websites offline but I am also focusing a lot of my time on creating the best training courses I possibly can to help others make money online & offline. I want to share all of the things I’ve learned with others so that others can do what I have done…work for themselves on their own terms and write their own paychecks.

FW: So let’s talk about your book, Local Flip Formula. You define the formula as the act of flipping websites in the offline world. I’ve been calling this Website Flipping 2.0 – the next generation of website flipping…lol. How did the idea come about?

Local Flip Formula came about when I found myself working insane hours to complete custom website projects for clients. Every job was custom and required A LOT of my time and creativity…which drained me of every bit of energy I had. I had no life and wanted to come up with a way to continue to build websites and make money doing so, but eliminate as much of the hard work as I could. So, I started “flipping” websites locally instead of designing custom sites tailored to each client. I still do custom website design, but I charge a lot more than I used to before I started offline site flipping.

FW: The book consists of two models. The “Consultant Model” and the “Hero Model.” Briefly describe these two models.

The Consultant Model explains how to create websites and flip them to offline/local business owners. There are a few different types of websites that I flip to local business owners, and these are detailed in Local Flip Formula.

The Hero Model explains how to create websites and to flip them to NON business owners. In other words, people living about in our local community. There are also many different website “models” within the Hero Model explained.

FW: When flipping websites to the offline world, realistically how much money (on average) can someone make PER website?

When I flip websites to business owners (The Consultant Model) I get anywhere from $595 – $1500 or more depending on the industry, the type of website and what it has for “bells and whistles” or “add ons.” A basic small business website goes for $595 while a small business website with e-commerce capabilities which allows the business owner to sell their products and services online can go for upwards of $1,500 or more (which is very easy to accomplish with WordPress which I explain in Local Flip Formula).

When I flip websites to people who are not business owners I get anywhere from $300 – $500 or more also depending on the type of website and it’s features. A startup website with no revenue can sell for $300 – $500, while a fairly new website with just a little bit of income history can obvioulsy go for much more.

FW: Assuming someone follows the steps outlined in your book, how long will it take to go from website development to actually getting it sold?

For those who have the basic skills to get a website up fairly easily (I use wordpress), they can take it to market the next day. If they work smart and promote the website it can theoretically be sold the next day. For me, some websites sell within just a few days while some might take a week or two. It really all varies depending on the niche or industry and type of website.

For those who don’t have the techinal skills to create their own websites, the entire process could easily be outsourced. Although some small startup capital will be required for this route, it allows practically anyone to apply the Local Flip Formula methods and profit no matter what their skill level.

FW: You just mentioned you use WordPress for all of your websites and you recommend using it when applying the Local Flip Formula. Why WordPress?

Yes, I use WordPress because it allows me to create a great looking website extremely quickly. WordPress is just so easy to setup, maintain and customize that it wouldn’t make sense for me to not take advantage of it. It also allows all of my clients to quickly and easily edit and maintain their new website with just some basic training. Which saves me some major time on support emails and calls.

FW: Do you recommend free themes or premium themes?

I always use premium WordPress themes from iThemes StudioPress for most of my sites although most free WordPress themes will do just fine. It all really depends on your taste. In Local Flip Formula, I also talk about a way to get access to around 4,500 free html website templates which can easily be used to create just about any website you can think of. These can be a great alternative to going the WordPress route.

FW: How “nice” do these websites have to look? Does the Local Flip Formula require that these sites look “super professional?”

If you decide to use WordPress then you have a wealth of great looking professional themes available at your fingertips. We are not creating masterpieces by any means. Of course the websites should look professional and be easy to navigate, but this can easily be accomplished by plugging in a theme of your choice and adding your own touches. Each WordPress theme should be customized depending on what type of website you are creating. For example, for a basic website I just upload my WordPress theme of choice, add a custom header and add content. You can customize each WordPress theme more if you have the skills, or you can outsource this process on one of the many freelance sites on the web.

FW: How much money will the formula require – on a per site basis – to get started?

Like I said earlier, if you have the skills to do most of the work yourself then you will save some money upfront. Although you will be doing most of the work. If you do most of the work yourself, then you can expect to get started for the cost of a domain name ($7) and a reseller or shared hosting account ($10 – $25 /mo).

If you want to outsource the creation of these sites then you will need to invest some more money upfront. To outsource the entire website setup and installation with wordpress, I spend anywhere from $25-$50. If you want to outsource article writing, content creation or even graphics or logo design, you can expect an additional $50-$75 up front investment per site.

The cheapest way to get started is to just do everything yourself. But of course if that is not an option, you will need some small startup capital.

FW: Does the Local Flip Formula require that you get these websites well-ranked and bringing in traffic first before selling?

Search engine rankings are great and help add to the value and asking price of your website, but rankings are not required.

The bulk of the websites I create are startup websites with no history of revenue. In fact, there is never any need for a history of revenue for websites created with the Consultant Model since they are created for a business or business type in mind. Businesses buy the websites to be the face of their business and don’t expect the website to be earning any revenue.

In the Hero Model, startup websites can easily be flipped with no revenue history or search engine rankings. Of course a revenue history and great search engine rankings add a significant amount of value to the website, but neither is required.

FW: How complex are these websites? Are we talking 5 page “mini sites” or are you talking about creating large, 20+ page authority sites?

With the Consultant Model, the average website is a simple small business website with 5-7 pages.

With the Hero Model model, the website might be a blog with 5 main pages.

So, to summarize: Yes, for the most part these websites are very simple in nature. However, if you want to command a higher price point such as $1,500 or more then the website will need to be more complex and may be significantly larger.

FW: Let’s talk about hosting opportunities. Do you normally host these websites after you sell them – be it the Hero Model or the Consultant Model?

Yes, I host most of my client’s websites on my HostGator reseller account. In fact, this is a major part of my business and the Local Flip Formula course as one of the main goals is to create a residual income stream for years to come which get’s larger with every flip.

I usually give each buyer around 3 months of free hosting when they buy a site from me and then the yearly billing cycle starts. I usually charge yearly rather than monthly so I don’t need to track down late payments each month. For basic sites, I charge $49.95 /yr – $79.95 /yr. For larger sites or ecommerce sites, I charge over $100 /yr. It all depends on the amount of disk space they use up on my reseller account.

FW: How does a guy go about selling these “localized websites?”

In Local Flip Formula I talk about various different promotional methods such as local classifieds, Craigslist, small scale direct mail, cold calling (ahh!!) and more. Each different website model has it’s own promotional method which works best. I also explain this in full detail within the course.

FW: I’ve purchased many “make money with offline marketing” products and most of them say if you want to be successful, you MUST cold call and physically meet businesses in person. Does the Local Flip Formula require the same or can you still make good money skipping these methods?

While cold calling is very effective it is not required. Most people do not like cold calling, including me…but I force myself to do it because it makes me money. With that said, I employ a number of different promotional methods aside from cold calling such as local classifieds, Craigslist, and small scale direct mail. These other promotional methods are a great way to get started with Local Flip Formula if you do not like cold calling.

Thanks, Peter, for you time! I love your book and I HIGHLY recommend the Local Flip Formula to anyone who wants to make good money flipping websites!

Tagged as: Website Flipping 2.0, Website Flipping Interviews