Selling my first site $700

[Techxan]

I built this local hardwood floor refinishing site about 6 months ago as a kind of experiment in lead generation and ranking local service providers. I put WP site with a few pages of content with some really pretty images I have of hardwood floors, and the site looked good. I used the phone number of the biggest hardwood floor people in town while it was ranking, hoping they would get wind of it and buy it. That part did not pan out.

I only linked it to local business directories, and a few larger social sites in the industry, then let it ride. It has 5 pages, and only about 90 backlinks visible in MS.

Last week I checked the ranking, and it was ranking #2 for "cityname hardwood floor refinishing".

I looked on the second and third page of the serps for that phrase, and went to each site and sent in the following in their contact form and e-mail if they were available. Sent these out to a total of 15 businesses.

"Want the #2 spot in <city> for the keyword phrase "cityname hardwood floor refinishing"? I own the site (blahblah.com) and am offering it for sale to interested parties for $750. You are not the only one to get this e-mail. You can verify the search results yourself."

A week passed, then yesterday I received a call from someone interested in the site. He told me that he wants the site as is, and we are getting together to finalize the agreement on Thursday.

I am selling it outright, I pass the reigns and database, domain, and details over, and walk away, and promise not to build another hardwood floor site for the local competition area.

My cost: domain 1 year $10.00, hosted on shared hosting account that costs $100 a year, and has many sites on it, so figure $10.00 in hosting fees. Did all articles and photos, so no investment there, did my own SEO, so no cost there either..

Total profit: $680 in approx 6 months, excluding my time investment of perhaps a week total. At the time I built this, I almost built one for carpet cleaning and lawn care in addition. Wish I had now, but they are in the next batch.

Feels good, really good....

 

[twistedtrick]

Congratulations! You know what everyone says now, SCALESCALESCALE. 50 cities, 5 different business types each. 250 sites selling for $700 a piece in 6 months...mmmmmm

Just a note on slightly different tactics, I have built a few of these but I always rent them out instead of sell outright and require a 1-year contract which nearly everyone pays upfront anyway. I figure more money in the long run, but keeps me on my toes SEO wise too in case competitors try to pull ahead.

Way to go on your first sale of hopefully many

 

[jdstudio]

nice one mate. I am doing something similar as well.

 

[brainstorm1]

Congratulations! You made quite a profit on that sale and it is a great start.

Now for the criticism. If you are producing lead generation sites like this, there is no reason you can't keep them and continually rent them out on a monthly basis. How much money does a wood floor company stand to make from a single job? Thousands, correct? So if your site produces AT LEAST a single conversion a month, your site is worth hundreds each month or even low thousands.

I commend your work and profit, but I think you are missing an opportunity to profit even bigger. Next time, I suggest you use the outright sale model as a backup plan rather than the goal. Rent first and sell if it doesn't rent. My two cents, anyway...

 

[fuzzy_corleone]

Getting paid $300-500 a month is way better than getting paid one time for $750.

 

[Deleted member 84902]

Congratulations! You made quite a profit on that sale and it is a great start.

Now for the criticism. If you are producing lead generation sites like this, there is no reason you can't keep them and continually rent them out on a monthly basis. How much money does a wood floor company stand to make from a single job? Thousands, correct? So if your site produces AT LEAST a single conversion a month, your site is worth hundreds each month or even low thousands.

I commend your work and profit, but I think you are missing an opportunity to profit even bigger. Next time, I suggest you use the outright sale model as a backup plan rather than the goal. Rent first and sell if it doesn't rent. My two cents, anyway...

This is actually a really really good idea. What'd I'd do is get as many people interested as possible and then hold an auction. They'd be bidding on the amount they'd like to pay the most per month for the site.

 

[poweronics]

Flipping a site is a one time profit only and renting it is a recurring monthly income so one must first weigh the options and then decide accordingly.

 

[szhang]

^^this guy is right. If you can rent it out, the recurring income is very valuable. You might even be able to rent it out to multiple companies at once. Linking to them or listing them on the site.

 

[nikao]

to the people renting out their sites:
how does this work? Do you simply have a link to their site + address details/phone number,
or do you redirect the domain, or .... ?

 

[Techxan]

Thank you all for your input, and i completely agree. Unfortunately for now, finical considerations tend to force me to take the cash when available, as I have a large expense at the beginning of each month for my wife's medicines. This $700 will cover 60% of them for this coming month. This is my problem right now, the hole I am in gets bigger and bigger, so I have to chip away at it when I can. $700 extra goes a long way to meeting my coming obligations better than waiting more months to get someone interested in leasing the site or buying the leads. Especially since I have terrible sales skills.

In time I will be even, then I can divert more of my extra income to longer term goals.

Then I can build for the future, instead of the the immediate future. If I can get a little ahead flipping, I have no problem doing that.