Make $1,000+ a Month Selling Starter Sites

[SOCOM]

The way to do this method without blowing your brains out is having auto-generated content.

 

[LEETdude]

Greate share OP I am definitely interested in your case study

 

[SEOMadHatter]

Assuming you know SOME english, you can manage 40 articles in two weeks or less. The average amount of money you will get for a niche blog with 40 articles is spot on with OP, around $1,100 give or take. Fees are $15 for listing. Easy money when you don't have any work on your hands. I average 1 every month, with some months being able to pull through two. It works. Big market.

L.E. I see the example OP posted even had GSC stats. The last 8 blogs I sold weren't even indexed completely, yet alone traffic. Buyers usually are able to skim through the AI crap everyone is doing, so it's easy to make a point as to why didn't you wait for indexing, traffic, etc. I usually include another 10-20 easy keywords as well for future content.

It pays like a job, there's no get rich scheme.

I figured there'd be at least someone here doing this. My assumption is if your content is good enough to rank you'd get some more value for the site from impatient people like me who want to scale an aged site rather than wait for the sandbox (or whatever you want to call the long-ass wait time for a new site).

If anyone is considering doing this, pay attention to that edit. Buyers want to see growth potential and less experienced buyers will want a bit of a roadmap for what to do with the site. Keywords, social media accounts, additional monetization options - throw everything you have in.

The more I read this thread the more I'm tempted to give it a go. When doing keyword research I come across loads of good keywords but they're not for me, either estimated traffic isn't enough, is very seasonal or just isn't something I feel I would be passionate enough about. All these keywords at the moment I just ignore but I wonder if I could make some quick cash out of them.

I spend far too much time watching what other sites are doing out of interest and I like this model for the same reason.

I would caution that you don't want to niche it down too much. Especially if you're selling it as a starter site there needs to be some growth potential there. One way to do that (and tackle these smaller niches) is to use a brandable domain in the wider niche and start a hub for these smaller keywords.

I have tried this. I like to call these "micro sites" and they can be fun to build and make some quick side money. But I definitely wouldn't prefer building sites like this full-time.

Good micro sites that are somewhat well written and is properly set up can easily get sold in the 1k-5k range. The buyer usually values the content when buying sites like these and often would have spent half of what they buy the site for high quality content anyways, so they find it worth it.

I wouldn't paint a rosy picture however and claim that it's easy. When it comes to low-ticket sites, quite a bit of luck is involved in being able to successfully sell your site for what you want to pay. There are hundreds of sites like this on flippa and not all of them get noticed.

Moreover, the "effort to income" Ratio when it comes to projects like these exponentially starts increasing as more and more people do this. There would always be someone who has done 5x more effort than you on their microsite but are selling it for the same 1k. A buyer would definitely value theirs more.

Interesting. I've been looking at more established sites lately but anytime I look at starter sites the quality ones move fast. The hundreds on Flippa that I've seen tend to be automated junk.

This is absolutely something that could be saturated by quality but I certainly don't think we're there yet.

Interesting
I'd love to see your case study

I would be interested in seeing a case study as well, and true the market is flooded but many of the sites are pumped out and poorly written for a quick buck from non English speak people. Good quality may be the turning point until saturated

This is very interesting atm as I help out at a local charity and am trying to offer some ways people down in their luck/ in recovery can make a couple of bob to make ends meet whilst they get back on their feet.

A case study would be fab, but also just a pointer to a decent platform to sell starter sites would be appreciated?

Thanks

PJ

The case study is on the to-do list now. I'm pushing a bunch of other sites this month but I think I'll launch some new ones in a few weeks and we'll try and flip one or two of those.

And @pj777777 Flippa is probably your best place to start. If you wanted to branch out there are also Facebook groups that'll save you the listing fee and once you get yourself a list of a couple of buyers you can probably save yourself the bother of that.

It is a great idea and method, but if someone cannot wait long before he starts to see his earnings I suggest that he should do something else.

It really depends what you're looking for.

The advice we tend to give people here (other than 'sell weed' or 'OnlyFans') is vague "do CPA" or work as a freelancer. If you can string some half-decent content together this is going to be more stable for a beginner and there's also potential growth if you wanted to take it further.

Your margins would be slimmer but there's scalability to this with some outsourcing and upselling other services to go along with the site.

The way to do this method without blowing your brains out is having auto-generated content.

Flippa is full of autoblogs that don't sell. I had a skim through some of them a few weeks ago and most seem to be part of a larger strategy. They'll list a few dozen sites and sell a small percentage but I guess that does give you a list of site buyers to sell to.

An autoblog for lead-gen basically.

Greate share OP I am definitely interested in your case study

Cheers

 

[getivan]

I would love to be able to sell simple sites on Flippa, but frankly, I don't see how it's economical. (seems risky)
If it's just based on pure content, then maybe, but I don't see how you're getting 200+ referring domains, without spending more on links than what you'll make in returns from the Flippa sale.
Flippa is definitely a wholesale market, comparatively, so again, I just don't get how folks are pulling a profit, unless they just have some really good $2/hr VAs pulling all the stops, or something.

I created a full A.I. method SOP last week, finally, for an assistant to implement, and in each timed test I did, it took about 20mins to finish one single article.
So, even if I get someone at $2/hr who is competent, which is tough, then for 100-articles you're looking at about a week's worth of work, or less, and $67.
At a higher wage, it could be $150, or more, and we haven't even begun to talk about the link profile.

You showed sites selling for $250, then $300, then apparently you bought one, and flipped it for $1100. (right?)
From what I understand, you're saying that the content is the main factor, but it seems to me like the link profile would be the reason those are selling, no?
I'm interested, but I guess I just need to understand how the market over there works, so that a legitimate profit margin can be achieved.

I would even be willing to do a case study on this, myself, if I could see a stable and predictable profit margin.
Right now, it just looks like you do a ton of work on something, and then sell it for very little comparatively.
What am I missing, here?

I've been doing SEO for clients full-time since 2015, and after my first year, or so, I did try selling a site on Flippa, which had good articles and a clean design that I put a lot of work into, but it didn't even get a single bid, even after promoting the listing. (waste of money)
So, I'm frankly pretty skeptical, but can obviously see sales occurring, so I'd like to know where the sweet spot is. (thanks!)

 

[aristocratic]

If this gets interest, I'll start a case study doing exactly this. I'll build up a bunch of smaller content sites and flip them. There's just such a market for content sites I'd probably have a harder time selling meth.

Would be great to see a case study!

 

[genya]

Interesting, will follow case sudy

 

[blogmen]

I did try selling a site on Flippa, which had good articles and a clean design that I put a lot of work into, but it didn't even get a single bid

Indeed, that's what usually happens. I think OP got excited about the idea but he didn't try it yet to see how it is.

I'd be glad if he could prove us wrong.

 

[Shwepps]

I did try selling a site on Flippa, which had good articles and a clean design that I put a lot of work into, but it didn't even get a single bid, even after promoting the listing. (waste of money)

Maybe your site was overpriced? But I agree with your thought in general.

p.s. case study is still welcomed from OP

 

[getivan]

Maybe your site was overpriced? But I agree with your thought in general.

p.s. case study is still welcomed from OP

If I recall, I started the bid at either $150 or $200? LoL
Definitely worth it, for what it was.
Given the fact that a decent site can go for $500, from design services, I think anything under $500, with even a small amount of development, is worthwhile.
That's the Flippa wholesale market for you, though...

 

[Ozzyzig]

You know, this is a pretty tasty prospect, thanks for sharing it. I'm normally in work pretty early in the morning before my shift starts so I can chill before the madness begins. It would be totally doable to churn out a few high quality articles each morning and then punt the site thereafter.
Add in a few Reddit links to some of the key pages and it could be a real winner. Hell, even for a few hundred quid per site, it's better than me pissing away an hour on my phone at work. Throw in some el cheapo hosting from Namecheap and it'll be a cinch migrating the data from me to the owner and its a nice little money spinner.
For many though, they'll think it's not worth the effort and will just ditch the whole idea. That's the one big problem with a lot on here; laziness. There's no magic bullet anymore for making a boat load of money without any effort.

 

[djsobuj]

Yes it works

 

[Mukiwa]

Getting to a level where you can source/outsource content and build a site of good quality to flip at a reasonable price is a really viable strategy to earn consistent income.
Throw in a list generated via a couple of solo ads and for a couple hundred quid outlay you should be gold.
Not a silver bullet or push button method as it takes work which is why this fits into money maker in my opinion.
Great share OP - and nice site btw with the case studies!

 

[Astredia]

I have seen sellers on the forum marketplace selling these types of websites. I think any beginner should be ready to face competition in this kind of market.

 

[GenesisOne]

Not an easy ride.
Need to wait for too long to profit.

 

[Kaitlyn.g]

Good Idea, but it needs capital and good seo skills and design needed.

 

[NoMorePixels]

Was I the only one that Flippa charged for publishing the website? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[PMBingA]

WOW this is what I have been looking for! I have a bunch of abandoned domains and websites sitting on a shared hosting account. Do you think I can sell them? They dont make money and barely have any traffic. Some of them have high quality unique content but I am not a SEO guy so never ranked them.

 

[Android Tipster]

If this gets interest, I'll start a case study doing exactly this. I'll build up a bunch of smaller content sites and flip them. There's just such a market for content sites I'd probably have a harder time selling meth.

do you buy articles for your new sites?

 

[warriorsam53]

There’s a lot of competition for starter sites with no traffic and no revenue.

But there’s very little competition for sites making between $50-100 a month. These sites usually sell in a few hours.

It’s very easy to make sites that generate 50 bucks a month in 6-8 months with low comp keywords and no links. I think that’s where the money is.

 

[kucluk]

I see your point if you need quick cash, but...

You still gotta write like crazy (few sites per month x 30-40 articles each). You still need to do keyword research. Still need to wait months until you get earnings.

You say it's good for beginners but they won't be able to write fast nor be good at keyword research.

But I think beginners can still buy articles and buy research keyword services