Website Flipping Business Model Explained
Most of your know by now that my main business model is in buying and selling websites.
But what most people don’t know is HOW this business works or why I strongly believe it’s the most profitable internet business you can ever run.
Well, one thing I’ve learned to be successful in business is to take what’s already working in a different industry and apply those same principles to a new industry.
Basically what I did was model the real estate investing industry for the internet. I guess you could call it “virtual real estate investing”. Only, rather than buying hundred thousand dollar homes or apartment complexes, I buy “fixer upper” websites and make a lot more profit per deal.
The main difference between my virtual real estate investing business vs offline real estate investing is the cost to get started and the minimal risk.
The way I run my business, you can literally buy websites for as little as $400, compared to buying homes for $150,000. You can even build the websites yourself for virtually nothing besides an $8 domain name and $8 for web hosting.
Last I checked, you can’t build a home yourself, especially for $16 
It really is as simple as that!
The more complicated something is, the less likely it will work, so I keep everything I do as simple as possible.
If you want to learn more, you can signup to watch more free videos like this one on this page.
This is a very interesting concept.
I’ve looking into real estate investment for quite some times. Frankly, it really takes a lot of hard work and people skill to get a great bargain of real property.
But in flipping website, it doesn’t involve too much of people skill. Am I right?
Max,
Just wanted to say thanks for the post.
I recently have found myself in an interesting position. The small newspaper that I worked for folded, and I was left with the newspapers website which has OK traffic and a decent page rank. I’ve placed adsense on the content pages (which aint’ gonna pay the bills), but I’m looking at the site as a great opportunity to follow your advice and add a fee based members area, and eventually sell it.
The one factor that I see that is working against me is time. Plus, I’m discovering how important it is to just take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and sit down with a pen and paper and plan the whole idea out. My initial response was to throw an area together put a price tag on it and see what happens…but there would be no way I would join a site like that, why would others? Now, after some initial planning I think I have some unique features to offer.
I really look forward to your posts Max,
Keep up the good work!
Hi Mike,
Send me an email if you want me to take a look at your newspaper site. I might be able to give you some ideas…
Max
Just wanted to say thanks, Max.
To let everyone else in – the site I talked about is in a difficult niche to monetize. So moral of the story, be careful about what you’re about to dedicate your precious time to.
I believe that I’m probably going to be putting my efforts into a new property, something I have a stronger interest in, and since my previous employer has prepaid the hosting for the site for 2 years I’ll just keep on taking in the revenue from adsense, look for better affiliates, and eventually put the domain up for auction.
Thanks again Max,
(yup, he answers email!)
This is really something that I want to learn… I do believe in its potential and I will be trying to learn more about it,,, 😉
I think Max put out some great free videos that summed up what you need to do and provided motivation for people to try this less known way of making money online.
It prompted me to create a niche real-estate site with the aim to get monthly subscriber advertisers. Still working on this, but more promising than a MFA site I think.
Also, I made a few Bans sites for a laugh.
Hi Max, i’ve been reading this blog sinse you took over and have been nothing but impressed with all the quality advice and help.
I am really trying to push a site I started 3 months ago, but after watching your video, i’m not sure I am in a popular enough market. Mine is aimed at artists that want to sell more art online. http://www.sellmoreartonline.com . Do you think I will get that traffic and membership (if it becomes a membership site) that I will need?
Art – I think the market is big enough for you. Art.com gets millions of visitors per month, so people are interested in art online. Are artists willing to pay a memberships fee to learn how to sell more art online? I don’t know.
Andy – let me know how it goes.
When you see sites like Digg, Twitter and others that become popular fairly quick, do you think they should sell those considering how popular they are or are they worth more to hold on to? What would you do if you owned either of those?
~Terry
Sell more art online > (i’m french with poor english) It’s the first time i see a website on this niche market (learn artists to sell their art and branding themself). Your content is pretty good. I bookmarked your blog
I think you could keep a wordpress blog with free content and charge fees for a private section dedicated for serious artists (with aMember)
Try to sell an eBook on your blog and set up a separate sales page, put some good advice in your eBook. Charge it for 1$ / 1€ and you will know the potential of the niche. Test the market before.
I think there is a market. For example, my father paint since 40 years, it’s just a hobby, he sold less than 25 painting, all the rest are in familly’s houses. he knows nothing about sale, digital photography, internet, marketing. He had no creativity, he can’t make a paintng from scratch, he makes perfect copy of Bretagne Landscape postcard because he loves that and he’s really good to do this. I tried to help him to sell online, i explained him some basic business advice but he’s too lazy. he don’t want to try harder, he think that good painting should sell itself (yes, it’s a loser). It’s a typical profile for your business. I meet some artists that make impressive art, but they are too shy, no self confidence, they are afraid to sell and fear to look like a bad salesman or newbie artist.
There is so many people dreaming to be famous artists (painting, sculpture, accessories, this kind of art). I used to be a tradtionnal brick & mortar business owner and it was a pleasure to cover my walls with local artists art to help them. I sold some painting (and take comission by the way) but it was always sad to ee the mindset of theses artists. They often don”t have the right mindset and really need to be seriously coached to generate profit from their art.
I think you should try this niche market. There is low competition and you produce great content. There is good advices on About.com too (we don’t have an equivalent of About.com in France) but text only. Produce tutorials, videos, interviews, photo report.
Max,
I have read through your site, and all good stuff.
Realistically, how many sites do you think you should work at one time.
I am thinking to buy sites to “fix up”.
I am thinking 1 or 2 a month, is that realistic, that there are that many available (in the $5000 or less range) and would I have enough time to work it.
Thanks,
Brian
thank for sharing this nice info related Website Flipping Business Model Explained….keep it up..with best wishes……..