Buy to Flip Websites - Virtual Real Estate Flipping

What is it.

Online real estate is very similar to physical real estate so when someone is referring to "Buy to Flip Websites" the concepts and exceution is very similar to those of physical real estate flipping. In simple terms you find an undervalued website or one that has some specific areas where you can quickly add value, buy the website and either put it back on the market at a higher value or add value and get it back on the market as quick as possible at the higher value.

Why do it.

Simply to make money.

Before you start

Ask yourself these questions:

Can you remain emotionally unattached in the middle of a deal?
Are you covered if it goes wrong i.e. make sure you can afford to lose what you invest?
Have you got your technology platform sorted?
Have you got the time (it does take a considerable amount of time at the start)?
Are you excecution focused i.e. you have to focus and close deals quickly
Are you prepared to do all this - Checklist for buying a website
Do you have access to the skills you dont have
Are you prepared to lose on the first few sites
Do you know how to plan and stick to it
Are you honest with yourself about your own skills and capacity
Are you prepared to work whatever hours are required? Its a 24*7 market

Below is a list of some of the basic ways in which you can enhance the value of a website that you buy to flip:

Method	Description	Difficulty	Value Increase	Success Factors
SEO	One of the most common areas that people use to improve the value of a website, if a site has a good background (e.g. been around for years) but the site is not SEO optimised its a realitively easy job to optimise it, get it ranked for decent serps and hey presto you have potentially tripled the value of the site.	Medium to High	High	SEO Expertise and resources
Content	Adding quality content is not only about the users but also massively helps your SEO efforts. Dont try the shoddy approach to this i.e. get some guy who barely speaks english to write a load of articles on english literature. Add quality content, if your not adding quality content and only adding it for SEO value then your not in this category your in the one above.	Low to Medium	Medium	Ability to create good content
Theming & UI improvements	Some people are crap at the Theming and UI aspects, someone with real skill in this area can turn a site that looks terrible in something aestically appealing in a few days. This is great for sites that are actually getting traffic but failing to convert traffic into revenue. Its also a major contributor in people (potential purchasers) being able to understand the real value of the site combined with the fact that its one of the key worries that people have i.e. coming up with a usuable nice design.	Medium to High	High	Creative and UI programming capabilities
Adding Products	Can be a great way to increase the value of a site, turning a content site that just makes revenue from adverts into a site that actually sells a product(s) and realises real revenues can be extremely profitable	Low	Potentially High, but down to product, dont be emotional about this and think your product is the best ever, go with solid known performers	Product selection
Improved commercialisation	Is the key focus for people in this area, people who have an inate understanding of how a site can be setup for optimum commercialisation if run properly can create a site that people can immediately associate with and they can see where the money will come from. Sites that are commercially optimised flip very quickly. Get good at this and you can make a profit from revenue before you have even sold the site.	High	Very High	Commerical accumen
Alternate Purpose	My favorite and potentially the most profitable, can you see something that no-one has spotted.	Low to Very High	Potentially unlimited	Your creativity
Prediction	Can you spot a market trend, that has not kicked off yet but you are sure will.	Very High	Very High	Knowledge of market or niche and loads of luck
Merger's	Do you already own a complimentary site that would benefit from merging with this one, could you raise the value of both by merging. Can you buy a couple of competiting sites simultaneously and create a powerhouse in a niche.	Medium	Medium	Ability to spot synergies and operationally execute the merger.
Already sold	Do you already have a potential buyer for the site/domain/content	Medium	Low to Very High	Dependant on your business connections
Is there value in the parts of the site thats above the buy price	Can you sell any of these - domain/content/members/etc as individual units at a price higher than the purchase price. Remember that sometimes things are worth more when split apart.	Medium	Low to Medium	Ability to understand value points and correctly split it into the most valuable units.
Functional Enhancements	This is where techies really come into there own. If you are an expert programmer or you have a preset platform that offers a wide range of fucntionality then you can easily add a lot of value to a feature poor site	Medium to high	Medium to High	Techical skills and resources
Reduce running costs	You have two types of good techies, those that can do cool stuff and those that can do cool stuff cheaply. Moving a big website off of a Microsoft platform to an Linux based opensource application can massively reduce running costs and turn a site that breaks even into one that is significantly profitable	Medium to high	Medium to High	Techical skills and resources