I purchased a website for $52,000 last year and sold it for $178,000 in profit. Here are the SEO tactics and resources I employed to raise its worth.
Rob Boirun analyzes a website’s SEO and works to raise its rating using programs like Ahrefs and Semrush.
Since 2002, Rob Boirun has created websites and written material for them as a hobby.
In 2019 Boirun started to monetize his content aggressively, and in 2020 he sold one of his side projects.
He now purchases websites from marketplaces like Flippa and sells them for a profit of up to $178,000 per flip.
This interview with Huntsville, Alabama native, and Portland or News LLC CEO Peter Benard, 50, who flips websites for a living, served as the basis for this as-told-to piece. It has been condensed and trimmed for length.
I’m a lone wolf and don’t like managing a staff like other business owners. Therefore, I realized it was time to sell in 2019 when my website hosting and VPN businesses had expanded to the point that I could no longer handle them on my own.
Informational websites have always been something I’ve done for fun and as a place to write about the subjects I find intriguing.
Although I wasn’t motivated by money, I was monetizing them.
I crealizedthat I needed a new source of reliable monthly income after selling those firms. At that point, I decided to manage my hobby websites as a business rather than just a side hustle.
Over the years, I’ve maintained a few web pages at different phases. I’ve owned beginning sites with 10 to 20 posts, more established sites with over a year of constant development, and authority sites with good traffic earnings—for me, anything with a monthly income of over $5,000 is considered to be authority sites.
I’ve owned websites for general reviews, lawn maintenance, paintball, pinball machines, alcohol distillation, water purification, cloud storage, and other topics.
The websites concentrated on providing reviews and how-to information combined with responses to questions from the public.
I delved deeper into content marketing to replace my monthly income by learning more about specific subjects and producing useful material for internet users. It took more focus and self-control than operating the sites as a side job.
I learned much content marketing from scratch. Over the years, I also gleaned some advice from a variety of sources, such as Income School, Matt Diggity, and the late James Martell.
A broker contacted me about buying one of my cash-flowing sites after I chose to put it on the Investors Club marketplace.
I was gallowedto sell one of my hobby websites in 2020.
My introduction to the world of website flipping came through the process of selling a digital firm and discussions with my accountant.
Through online markets like Flippa and Investors Club, hundreds of websites are available for purchase at any given time.
You can purchase entry-level websites on Flippa for $100 or companies for $1,000,000 or more. The sites that Investors Club favors are often established and profitable; they typically cost above $20,000.
After selling my first website, I discovered another that was making $2,000 per month and was being offered for sale for $52,000.
Although the website was making money, it was obvious to me that the vendor was wasting money. It made sense for me to purchase the site since I knew that with little effort, I could boost the revenue it produced.
With the money I made from my first sale in June 2020, I paid $52,000 for the site.
The key for a website flipper is to look for ways to boost a website’s income right away.
I perform a thorough SEO audit after purchasing a website to determine which web pages and keywords are showing up in Google’s search results.
I have 100 to 200 keywords for the subject of my website that have a decent chance of ranking using the keyword data from these programs. I’ll perform a search for the keyphrases to see which other pages are currently ranked and determine whether the material is out-of-date or lacking.
My primary goal would be to write a more thorough guide or article if the top three Google search results for these terms could be improved. For each of the terms, I’ll create an outline of the subjects I plan to cover in my postings.
Based on the aggregate monthly searches a keyword receives and the opportunity score I assigned during my study, I will next map out a task list in order of importance.
When this list is full, I hire a freelance writer to turn the ideas into informative content for a blog or a guide.
It’s important to keep in mind that, in addition to keywords, Google is working toward displaying search-query and intent-based results, which means the algorithm is getting smarter at determining the search query’s intent.
Using affiliate marketing, advertising networks, and sponsorships, I also find ways to make websites profitable.
I was able to increase the monthly revenue from this site from $2,000 to $13,000 by using these strategies. In June 2021, I sold the website to Investors Club for $230,000, which allowed me to accelerate my website-flipping venture.
I bought five more sites in the previous year with the $178,000 I made from my first flip, and I’m currently working full-time on them with a small team of freelancers to manage and build each one.
All five of my sites are still under my management and provide varying amounts of revenue.
Some websites are better for generating revenue through advertisements, while others work well for affiliate marketing or e-commerce. Before selecting whether or not to sell a site, I oversee it for at least a year.
The site is better off with someone who can keep expanding it if I get bored with the subject or feel that I can’t offer anything of value to it. At that time, I’ll list it for sale.
Since I began flipping websites, the majority of my monthly revenue has come from the money the sites make.
Within the first few months after a flip, I use between 50% and 60% of the revenues to buy other sites. The remaining funds are used to pay wages and save for upcoming purchases.
SEO strategy I used and made $178,000 after flipping a website I bought for $52,000
