Guide to Site Flipping

My first venture into making a buck online was actually graphic design, but that was a long time ago.Recently I have been flipping sites to make quick and easy cash; this online revenue stream is a sure way to get money.I created my first site on a unique micro niche and got it some visits, I was able to get some adsense clicks but I realized that this site was not going to make me the next internet millionaire.I decided to sell the site, I figured that the site was a virtual dead end and so the best option was to sell it to a potential buyer. Site flipping is a good way to get started in the internet business, you can create sites doing all of the work and then sell them for a profit to people that are too lazy to make the actual content.

The first step to flipping sites is to find a niche, you can check out my guide on finding a niche using my ‘niche mode’ method. The next step is to do keyword research on keywords within the niche, I have a guide for that as well. Once you got all that setup the next step is to purchase the domain. It is wise to purchase a domain with the keyword that you are targeting in it, say for instance if you wanted to target the keyword gardening tips. Something along the lines of www.gardening-tips.com would be ideal, or without the – and just www.gardeningtips.com. It is advisable to only purchase .com domains, or if you have to .net. .Info hardly ever get ranked in the SERPS and seem to have some kind of penalty associated with them, ideally search for a .com, if you can’t get that go with .net

For registering a domain I go with www.namecheap.com, it comes with free private whois and you don’t have to use a credit card to sign up, also the menu system is easily navigable and I just hate those stupid godaddy commercials. Remember to search free namecheap coupons, this will save you a buck or two while registering a domain. Friends have also stated that if you email the register stating you are a domineer they will give you a couple bucks discount, although I personally do not have any experience with this.

Next you will need hosting, preferable cheap and able to host multiple domains so that you can set up multiple streams of revenue.I use http://www.resellerzoom.com/, at only 5 bucks a month for unlimited amount of domain hosting it is defiantly cheap.I have heard nothing but good reviews about them, and have never experienced any down time. Once you have you’re domain and hosting setup you will now have to get to the actual work part.

Most people who don’t want to design a website go with word press, it’s extremely easy to set up and you can add and edit content easily.You can also get a ton of plug-ins that help drive traffic to the website, and it is just generally a good option.I have used word press a few times, but prefer to make easy CSS templates and just them multiple times.I have heard from a friend that google has penalizing wordpress sites because so many people make spammy sites intended to make revenue with them, and google has just seen them too much. Although I’m not 100% sure on the truth to that statement. If you just want to make an easy CSS layout, I would suggest http://www.blueprintcss.org/ spend some time on the wiki and get to know how to use it. You can set up layouts that fit your needs and are easy to navigate. Once you have one layout set up you can copy it up for other campaigns and just change up the banner somewhat.

The next part is content, now you can outsource this and I have done that before.Although the one time that I paid a content writer to write me an article I felt jipped, those guys don’t know any more than you do about the subject and usually fluff their articles with tons of unneeded words just to make the word count. I would suggest just doing the work yourself; in the long run it will improve your writing skills as well as save you money. If you have time to spare than do it yourself, if you are so busy with multiple sites and making hundreds a day then outsource it. It is really just up to you to decide and if you have to calculate if its worth the extra time to do the work yourself. For my niche websites I usually try to get about 10 articles of 350-600 words a piece. This isn’t that much and I can usually crank it out in a day or two.

First take your keyword list and find the top 10 topics people are searching about the subject, usually you can include a pictures section as well as an about the site owner section to add some extra pages. This step requires some research, search the internet, go to the library, read a book, whatever it takes to become knowledgeable on the subject – or hell just bullshit it, it is the internet after all . I usually check Wikipedia and read on that to get a general understanding of the subject, after that I’ll find at least 10 or so websites about the subject and begin to skim each one of them, I’ll put each site up in a tab and just write about my subject. Google penalizes people that have the same content as other websites, so be sure not to directly plagiarize, change up some words if you have to just make it different. Another good trick I used before, find a site in a foreign language, use the google translator and just copy it, be sure to reword it so it sounds like English. This trick works extremely well when you are having trouble finding content on a particular niche. Be sure to include your targeted keyword in there a good amount, but keep it natural don’t just plug it in every sentence. If you are writing about a particular topic and it should be fine by just writing about it naturally and not purposefully sticking the keyword in there.

Another good way to add a page to your site is to make a products page, search through amazon or ebay and find any products that match your niche, sign up with an affiliate program there and then put links through the program on the products page.Not only will this add another page to your site but it is another way to monetize.
For an example, if we are using the keyword of Gardening Tips your navigation should look something like this, I used Gardening Tips Information instead of Home to add extra keywords.

Gardening Tips Information
Gardening Tips Hints
Gardening Pictures
Gardening Products
Gardening Top 10 Tips
Gardening Tips for Home Owners
About the Site Owner

See how we cleverly placed more keywords in the site just in the simple navigation? Another way to fill the site with keywords is to put the keyword in all the Alt text of the image, so

<img src=”…” alt=”Gardening Tips”>

Be  sure to also include a H1 and Title tage with the keyword as these are important steps to SEO.

<title>Gardening Tips</title>
<h1>Gardening Tips</h1>

Okay so your website should be filled with content about now, the next step is monetization. If it is a unique micro niche you will most likely have to use adsense for it, but be sure to check all of the affiliate marketing programs that your niche does not have an offer on it. For google adsense you can place up to three ads per page, I usually place a big horizontal banner right below the site banner. This uses a technique called banner blindness, basically the banner is so big and bright the user does not know where to click. Make sure to have the ads match the text that it is around, people are getting used to Google ads and you have to be clever to produce clicks. If people think its content they will click it by mistake, not knowing that it is an ad. With one ad below the banner, I usually have one below my navigation links, and one right in the middle of the content with a <span> tag attached. I have tracked my adsense ads before and have noticed that the content ads are usually what get the most clicks.

Okay now you should have a fully functioning 10 page or so website, fully monetized with google adsense as well as amazon or ebay. Naturally the next step is to build back links and get the site indexed into google, submitting to social bookmarking sites. Although if you just plan to sell the site you can skip this step entirely, it depends although the more traffic and revenue the website has the more money it will potentially make. I’ll get into building back links later because I wrote this guide on how to flip sites, not how to create backlinks.

The final step is to sell of your website, you have done all of the bitch work and your website is ready to generate revenue, lazy people will surely be interested because they basically have a turnkey operation.They don’t have to do much at all to start making money on this website.You can sell websites at any number of places, here is a list:

http://www.ebay.com
http://www.sitepoint.com
http://www.wickedfire.com
http://www.forums.digitalpoint.com

Be sure to include a thoughtful and igniting sells pitch, don’t make it bland and prove to them that you have something of value to sell.This method has worked for me and I am still using it today to sell sites. Now go out and make some websites!