🤑 10 Ways to Optimize Value
Get the price you want, ROI on dotcom domains, 'Project Cashflow', $1.4M selling sites, and extra investing news below.
Welcome to Website Investing Weekly, bringing you up-to-date with what’s going on in the world of website investing and alternative related asset classes.
👁️ What Do Buyers See?
What does a potential buyer see when they assess your business as an option for purchase?
There are masses of sloppily prepared websites on the market that we wouldn't look at twice. Even basic issues such as a poor site design are ignored in favor of placing more ads and reviews.
You have an opportunity to stand out from other sites in your niche and encourage a buyer to look more closely - long before you list your site for sale.
Think about the things you could work on today.
If you're growing a site to flip, then you'll want to optimize business value and limit the possibility of a deal falling over.
Fortunately, Blake Hutchison from Flippa has this covered in his latest post. He examines 10 ways to improve your site's value and increase your chance to get the price you want.
Blake's suggestions are (mostly) within your control and include:
Looking after your reputation
Reducing your cost base
Documenting standard practices (SOPs)
These 10 tips are actionable right now. Implementing these tips will encourage more buyers to dive deeper into your analytics and line up a chat.
Blake says:
You want to leave something for the new owner to bite into.
Our own Richard Patey agrees:
…to optimize business value I’d make sure that I leave optimizations on the table. Most buyers are looking for upside and if you max out everything you limit your buyer pool.
See all the optimization suggestions here.
🤑 Project Cashflow
We all know that it takes plenty of expertise, a bit of cash, and a chunk of time to grow a successful site from the ground up.
In addition, not many of us are brave enough to move into a new or different affiliate niche.
That's what Matt Diggity is doing right now.
He's gone all in with a niche he's been considering for the past year, and is documenting his journey in a series entitled "Project Cashflow."
Although Matt recommends starting a site from scratch, this time he's purchased a site in a micro-niche with low competition and lucrative commissions.
The goal is to grow the existing $900 monthly revenue to $10k+ as fast as he can.
In this first instalment, he covers his approach to:
Choosing the niche
The pros and cons of buying an existing website
Finding the right site to purchase
Basic affiliate site valuation and negotiation
Matt begins the process of outlining every step he takes to build a niche affiliate marketing site from day one. He even gives you the exact email templates he uses to reach out to sellers.
For an inside look at his strategies, this is recommended reading.
❓ Dot Com ROI
These days, securing a great dot com domain is difficult because any domains of investment quality are in the hands of owners who will not sell cheaply.
That means you'll need to pay near to today’s end user prices to secure a deal.
Supply and demand will always dictate prices. You may feel that you're overpaying now, but, like any asset in short supply, this could look like an excellent deal in the future.
In this article, Elliot Silver from Domain Investing touches on the issue of figuring out how to buy domain names that will realise a ROI in the future.
Elliot says:
It is very difficult to buy exceptional domain names right now, and I think it is necessary to overpay today to secure a deal that will look like a good value in the future.
See what else he had to say here.
SPONSORED LINK
🦄 SEOs with Skin in the Game
Smash Digital - a growth agency, filled to the brim with unicorn images and SEO memes.
A team of SEOs with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients.
An agency with so much link juice you’ll need a mop and bucket to clean it all up.
🎙️ Podcasts
↣ $1.4M Selling Sites
Steve McGarry recently interviewed Marc Andre, the personal finance blogger of Vital Dollar. He explains how he started in this industry and gained $1.4 million by selling the sites he built. Marc also speaks about the essential components to keep in mind when selling websites.
Steve and Marc discuss:
Key Components In Selling
Outsourcing And Hiring His Workforce
Affiliate Marketing
Partnering and Collaborating With Companies
When asked what he would tell his younger self, Marc said:
I think the main thing I would tell myself is, “To be more aggressive and to aim higher.” So, if you had told me when I started my first blog, that I’d be able to sell it for $500,000, I probably would have laughed and said, “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” but it did.
You’ll find the complete interview on The Exit Podcast.
↣ A Dangerous SEO Mistake
You've started a new site, published fifty blog articles in ten weeks and then realise that barely anything’s ranking.
Most people try to address the problem by producing more content.
That's not the answer.
In this episode from 'SEO For The Rest Of Us' Brendan Hufford talks to Matt Barby (Snr. Director of Acquisition at HubSpot) about the most dangerous SEO mistake you can make.
A sound bite from Matt:
People fall into the trap of trying to do twice as much of the thing that isn’t working and hoping it will deliver results.
And another:
I need to be able to become very good at knowing what I’ve done wrong. That’s what I spend most of my mind-space doing whether that’s from an SEO point of view or a marketing point of view from a leadership point of view...
Listen in here.
🍿 Investing Snacks 🍿
↣ ↣ Who Is HeyDay.co?
HeyDay.com is an established business so who bought HeyDay.co for $45.000?
The answer to that was revealed in a recent article from Forbes.
It turns out that HeyDay.co has raised $175 million to buy, launch, and grow Amazon businesses. They're not the only company racing in to snap up third-party sellers' businesses.
Sebastian Rymarz (who started Heyday in August) says:
Amazon provides a lot of tools, but there are still some very big gaps. We are building an e-commerce platform to make brands boom on marketplaces like Amazon.
↣ ↣ Free Presentation
During the upcoming December NARALO (North American Regional At-Large Organization) meeting, there will be a presentation discussing the domain name aftermarket and its merits. ICA (Internet Commerce Association) General Counsel Zak Muscovitch and Board Member Nat Cohen will host a talk entitled, “The Secondary Market in Domain Names.”
The presentation will be held virtually, and it is open to the public. You will find the login information on the NARALO page within the ICANN website.
↣ ↣ Podcast Highlight Reel
Empire Flippers "The Opportunity Podcast" is only 10 episodes in, but they've just posted a highlight reel for us.
The post summarizes each episode’s highlights, the growth opportunities discussed, and gives a few choice quotes.
We recommend Episode 2 with Barry Deen. He's a content-based business acquirer who talks about his approach to seasonality in online business and his portfolio strategy.
It's worth tuning into.
↣ ↣ Domain Investing Tools
Domain investors use a lot of tools.
If domain investment is your livelihood, then you may be interested to see which tools Elliot Silver employs to manage his business.
Elliot posted a list of over a dozen of his favorites, along with a short description of how he uses them.
That’s all for this Monday.
🙋How did we do this week?
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We look forward to seeing you here next week.
In the meantime, hit us up in the comments at the bottom of the web version.
Cheers!
Juliet