Since some of you guys are about to jump into site flipping, probably for the first time, I figured I’d give you a sense on what people are looking for. It’s very simple doing your research on what people are interested in; just go to your major site selling forums and see what people are asking for and actually buying – see, simple!. But wait, there’s more than just that!

First off, let me just say that the best type of site flip is the unique niches and ultimately the ones that make a good chunk of revenue. Though, I’m sure if we could all find unique niches and make money off of it then we wouldn’t need to do this type of research, now would we?

Matter of fact, if the unique site makes quite a lot of money with minimal work then you might want to consider holding onto it for a while.

Anyways, this is what I do before I create a site in which I will potentially try to flip:

Check Places Like Sitepoint and Other Marketplaces Like That – I tend to visit only the marketplace section where the sites are being sold as well as the section “Want To Buy”. If I see that a few people are looking for sites related to gaming then I’ll try to make a quick Wordpress-based site, make some money for a few weeks (or months) and sell it soon after.

Sometimes people are willing to buy the site based on the potential rather than stats and revenue proof. Just keep that in mind.

Check Out the Competition – No one wants to have a site and compete with millions in the same niche *cough* make money online *cough* so you want to check out the competition. If you’re starting a blog, Technorati is a good place to search to see how many other blogs are in the same niche.

You can also Google specific keywords related to the niche. Eventually, you will want to build links around your popular keywords anyways so you will have to look into this.

Will It Make Me Money? – I understand that some people will buy sites based on potential, traffic and whatever else; but most will base it on revenue. Revenue surrounds site flipping and you should embed this in your head because people will want proof. Plus, you always want to earn money from the site just incase you are unable to sell the site.

Will It Cost Me Anything? – A lot of pro site flippers tend to spend money to speed up the process. I am not one of those types. So, if you’re planning on spending money to build up a site, make sure your net profit is always higher. That should be pretty obvious.

How Much Time and Effort Will It Take? – If you feel as though you’re spending too much time on it then more than likely you are. Now, if you see potential in the site and making money then you should spend as much time as you need on it.

On your quest of researching, you should be checking out other people’s listings, and while doing so, you can take a lot of knowledge just from that. For instance, not only will you see the type of sites that are selling but you will also learn things like:

How to Write Your Site Listing – Writing your site listing will be extremely important because you become an online salesman with a sales pitch because you want someone to purchase your product; in this case, your site. You always want to emphasize the strong selling points and if you need help, just look at some other ones that have already sold.

Other Ways of Generating Revenue – It’s funny but I still manage to find new ways of making money online just by reading site listings. For instance, what networks and programs people are using, how they’re converting, etc.

New Ways of Building Traffic Sources – I’m sure if you’re trying to start a brand new site that you don’t know too much on, reading a similar niche site listing will give you endless information on building targeted traffic.

Anyways, I hope you guys take some time to at least look through site listings just to see how you match up and who knows; maybe you’ll gain a few things from it.