I know site flipping has become a hot trend and if you’re going to get into it, you’re going to need to figure out how to monetize a site properly. Most buyers base how much they’re going to spend by the site’s monthly revenue and of course, the potential of the site.
I haven’t had any big sales, yet, only smaller ones for a few hundred here and there. Honestly, a few of them aren’t even eye catching at all but when it comes down to it, if your site is making money, you will have a buyer.
A lot of people have a hard time with monetizing a site but if you’re creative or if you’re able to network with other bloggers, I’m sure you’ll find a way. It’s not as hard as you think and even if you stay with the basics, you should be fine.
So, what are the basics?
PPC Ads
When I started site flipping, I created a few HTML Adsense sites to get started. Basically, I created a niche site with about 5-10 pages. I based the entire site on a specific keyword and plugged Adsense ads on every single page (the most Adsense earnings came from above-the-fold ads incase you guys wanted to know).
As a lot of you guys already know, I’m pretty lazy and I procrastinate so creating these HTML Adsense sites was perfect for me. It was a one time setup. It was pretty easy to put together. I plan on selling it for $xxx after less than a month. And even if I don’t sell it, I’ll still be making money from the site and I don’t have to do anything else to it.
Adsense or any other main PPC networks are probably the easiest to monetize a site, especially if you’re site flipping. People trust Adsense, it’s pretty straightforward and it doesn’t require the buyer additional work like selling private ads or anything like that.
Matter of fact, PPC ads is the easiest way to prove to a potential buyer that the site makes money and if the site does good, I bet you can sell it after a few days.
Private Ads
Sticking with the site flipping theme, private ads would probably be a longer process especially since a lot of buyers would like to see revenue for the last three months and the fact that they have to keep those sponsors renewing every month.
I don’t think a lot of buyers find private ads too fond because it requires them to do additional work in finding advertisers. Of course, if you can prove that those advertisers find you, that might take a load off your hands.
Selling a Product
Believe it or not, selling a product is probably the most underrated way to monetize. If you look around, there are a lot of bloggers that have eBooks and they sell it for anywhere between $5-$50 (sometimes more, sometimes less). If you’re selling a product on your site and people are buying then you include that into your monthly revenue which will equal more money when selling the site.
Of course, when selling the site, you would have to give the new owner full rights to your product if you’re including that into the monthly revenue.
And believe me, eBooks aren’t the only type of products that people can sell. A lot of people sell themes, WP plugins, automated whatevers, etc. If you can make one or pay someone a small fee for full rights to one then it’ll be golden for you.
Affiliate Links
You don’t even have to be a super affiliate to make money from affiliate marketing. If you can get one person to sign up a month through your referral link and get paid $15 for it, well, you just increased your sites value that much. Most people would pay ten times the sites monthly revenue. $15 x 10 = $150. You see how that one signup and boost your sites worth?
CPM Network
If your site gets lots of traffic, then a cost-per-million could definitely work well. If you get tons of impressions, you can convert all of that to money. But if you’re only getting some visitors here and there, it might take you forever to make a decent amount.
But remember, we’re focusing on monetizing for site flipping so let’s say if you do take this route to add to your site’s value, I would submit to SU and some other social bookmarking sites and you’ll increase your traffic and revenue, both of which are crucial in making a sale.
Paid Reviews
This one isn’t as popular as you would like to think. At least not in the eyes of a potential buyer because you have to remember, potential buyers are lazy and they want to do very minimal work (of course, there are exceptions).
Of course, if you’re charging $100/review and a lot of people are buying them, I’m sure the new owner to your site would be glad to take that over.
There are a lot more ways to monetize but I just wanted to mention a few to focus on when it comes to making money online so it’ll be easier to show to your potential buyers.
Take Entrecard for example. If they monetized a little better, maybe they would have sold their site for their asking price of over $100,000. Unfortunately, since the site makes $2,000/month, I think they’re revisiting that aspect before they take another shot at selling for that ridiculous asking price.
Absolutey Jay, there are many creative options to monetize your site. Mainly affiliate prgms, sponsored reviews have been my way of doing. Thx 4 sharing
TeasasTipss last blog post..I forgot to tell you about the contest
I wanna start monetizing my site with paid reviews. I only used affiliate marketing until know, selling affiliate products.
Andrei Buius last blog post..Marketing is the queen
Great ideas on how to monetize. I would add to the list selling text links. If you have a high enough page rank, you can sell links for a month for a good price. And also, I am making several adsense sites as you called them, I am curious as to how you would go about selling them? I’ve never gotten so far as to trying to sell them, I would make them for the purpose of making a couple bucks a day or whatever. I would appreciate any advice you could give, Thanks.
Jonathan Muller
mastersofseos last blog post..Should I get a Site Map?
Nice list. I need to get more on the ball with a couple of them.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Knowledge Link Love #1: What Are Your Favorite Social Networks and Why?
I’ve found that if u include a ebook for the buyer to give away on the site than the selling price will dramatically increase.
Simon from Otooos last blog post..It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know
well thanks for telling how to monetize…… and aswell what mistakes people make………. great post
Great ideas to monetize your site. You should also look at the problem from a different angle. Some people don’t make money on the internet because they are trying too hard to monetize their sites. Sites crammed with ads will not appeal to the visitor. Content written for search engines will not appearl to the visitor.
John
Great list of ways to monetize on any site. I have really been most affective with affiliate links and PPC ads. They seem to bring in the most revenue as compared to some of the other techniques.
Teasa – Yeah, affiliates are the way to go. Though, it’s pretty hard to make all of them convert because it’s usually a small percentage. Plus, if you’re doing site flipping, PPC clicks are extra easy to monetize but usually you get less.
Andrei – Just make sure you don’t write TOO many paid reviews because it might be a turn off to your readers… unless you’re freakin’ Tyler Cruz LOL!
Jonathan – Yeah, I didn’t include text links because it’s basically like private ad sales. But I’ll write up a post on how to go about selling a site.
Dennis – Me and you both. I think I may go back into affiliated marketing.
Simon – Really? Personally, I never done this but I’m curious on how much it increases?
Zncustombuilding – NP!
John – True, a lot of people try TOO hard and that was me a few months ago as well. But content written for search engines will make you money and yes, sometimes it won’t appeal to your visitors but sometimes you have to choose, you know?
Get a Wii – I’ve tried most of these except selling my OWN product. I know it doesn’t have to be only an eBook but I’m too lazy to go about getting a specific product for people to buy.
Jay
Get a Wii – well done with PPC but don’t rule out the other methods. Remember, you are probably more likely to succeed if you are open to other things.
Michael
Michaels last blog post..How to access cpanel behind a firewall
I wonder if it was a negative for Entrecard to have made the large offer that they did. The action may seem like it has represented them poorly, but it may have raised their value by getting people thinking “Are they worth that much?”.
Great list of ways to monetize on any site, thanks…
i interested about private ads, please expalined about that step by step.
Harun Azis Free Drink Recipess last blog post..Delonghi Coffee Maker
Affiliates are my key growth area. How about everyone else? But of course, I use all the other areas too, on most of my sites, but still, aff. revenue seems to be best for me.
What exactly is site flipping? Is it selling off websites. I’m not quite sure about the concept. Anyway, good post with some useful tips.
Hi L Weng,
Site flipping means either building, acquiring or purchasing a website, improving it, and selling it for a profit.