Selling websites for profit is not rocket science, but one does need to focus on specific details in the procedure - particularly when searching for a great opportunity to buy a website to develop further and sell at a later date for more money.
Look for sites that have solid history - as a minimum 1 year - the longer the greater, as this establishes stability and the higher probability that most of the pages will have been indexed by the search engines.
Check the organic positioning for the keywords and phrases related to the site and see how well it ranks now.
Often times you can make quick adjustments by changing the meta tag title and description to get a quick leap in natural search engine positioning.
Next, review the site's material - is it unique and well written - is it duplicate writing or search engine food scribbled by someone from India? Use copyscape.
com to determine if it is original.
Now review how the site is currently being monetized, if at all, and uncover the potentials to leverage the cash flow radically! Sometimes a website is already producing descent cash flow, and just by employing better SEO tactics, can drastically improve the traffic and therefore the earnings - especially for pay per click AdSense sites and affiliate program models.
The key areas to scrutinize and scale up revenues are the following: For Content driven sites including blogs or forums start by adding PPC - Google AdSense or yahoo - if not already included on the site.
Most likely, the PPC element is in place - but analyze the positioning and layouts being utilized - sometimes adjusting the positioning or layout can incrementally improve the click through rates and income.
Consider installing ad networks like Tribal Fusion, etc.
There are lots of affiliate programs related to targeted subjects - both material products and also electronic software or eBook products available that convert well and pay terrifically - check clickbank.
com and cj.
com for opportunities.
Depending on the traffic content and PR of a website you can sell text links directly by coding an advertise link page on your site.
This should produce upwards of $10 - $500+/month per link depending on the number of visitors and niche and exposure on the page.
Another opportunity is loading a fee based directory for services or products.
If, for example, the site is about DUI attorneys, a directory of these businesses in every state could be developed and promoted on the site.
This will increase the pages and copy of the website while hauling in $100+/year per listing, potentially.
Also, installing a hover style advertisement that can't be stopped by pop up blockers will lead to much higher sign-ups for newsletters and email alerts - there are many to choose from like IMPopup.
com that can be utilized to craft these "floating" ads.
Creating member incentives to virally promote the membership is another way of leveraging current members to increase the membership, traffic and revenues to the site.
Offering rewards, etc can seriously jettison the existing membership upwards.
For e-commerce websites promoting products there are many ways to increase sales.
Giving the site a graphic and color makeover can improve consumer loyalty and interest and keep potential customers from exiting the site within 3 seconds of arriving! Replace any lousy quality pictures with clean digital images - create consistency of thumbnails and larger pictures as well.
Once the site is visually appealing, begin adding new products and product categories to offer - this by itself can often ramp up sales significantly year over year with similar traffic.
In addition, the new products and categories once optimized can rapidly get indexed in the search engines and create more targeted customers to the website.
Implementing a PPC program or expanding on a current campaign by focusing on a multitude of very specific product keywords and long-tail phrases can explode the targeted traffic to the site that converts very well.
Most people only focus in on the normal keywords - possibly only a couple dozen at most- when there are hundreds more that get nominal clicks per month but taken together create a tsunami of traffic.
Implementing an affiliate program, establishing a newsletter and building an email list, doing internet Press releases - Prweb.
com or PR.
com, can all be used to increase traffic and income and ultimately increase the valuation of the internet business for resale.
After addressing all the SEO changes, and improving the monetization of the site, the income and profits are going to improve if you have done this correctly.
The crux now is to create enough history with the increased profitability so you can sell the website for plenty more than you purchased it for originally.
There are a couple methods of accomplishing this.
Depending on the deal you made to buy the internet business, you may be able to make the modifications and sell within 1 - 3 months - and realize a substantial return.
If a website can start producing significantly more cash than with the former owner, it is a wise idea to operate at this elevated income level for at least another 6- 12 months.
With 12 months being the actual acceptable basis for yearly cash flow that an appraisal is based upon, you will generate much more money both during this time as well as at closing an agreement.
Depending on your nature, the quick flip may be more appealing but usually there is more money to be made by a longer term play.
In addition, the tax liabilities are much better when you hold for a year because the revenues will be taxed as a capital gain (15%) verses normal income tax(25%-35%).
Take your time! Do your research and follow the guidelines presented above and your probability of success and earning a living from flipping web site businesses will be very rewarding.