I was rummaging around my apartment looking for my Canadian passport this week and came across a DVD recording of one of my presentations at an Andrew and Daryl Grant workshop. The focus of the workshop was quick cash ideas, and I was invited to tell my story of how I “flipped” websites part time and made $180,000 in profit.
I managed to take the content from the DVD and get it online for you to watch. The quality is not great, but you can certainly understand what I am saying and see most of the presentation fine.
I was considering keeping this as a private bonus only for my members because there really is some great content in this presentation and the people at the workshop paid to be there, but I reconsidered because I like to share as much as I can with you.
You can watch the whole presentation right here on my blog. It’s an hour and twenty minutes long, no pitches, just great case studies of how I bought and sold websites and made good money doing so, all as a part time activity.
This presentation was done in 2009 and was one of the last recorded presentations featuring my full long hair – so it’s a bit special :-).
A few of the links in the presentation have changed, most notable the Sitepoint website marketplace has moved to its own domain, Flippa.com, which has some pretty cool features, so well worth checking out on a daily basis if you are into website investing.
Website Flipping As A Part Time Activity
Although blogging has been my main business for the last 15 years and before that a proofreading business called BetterEdit was my focus, I had plenty of spare time to dabble in other things because the models I follow require only part time work.
The most successful side project I have done so far is investing in websites.
Some of the profit I made came from websites I bought, improved, and held as near-passive income sources, and then later sold, and I also sold two of my web businesses (including the proofreading business), which I created from scratch myself over a period of years.
All of this happened while I spent the majority of my time working on my businesses, so if you’re looking for a way to reinvest your profits or expand your income sources, watch this video.
It’s also worth noting that several of the websites I purchased ended up creating income streams of one to two thousand dollars a month, and required very little maintenance to keep that money coming.
Many times I considered quitting everything else and just focus on buying websites because the return on investment, when you do it the smart way, is quite good – and you can build diversified income streams. Of course the more sites you buy, the more maintenance required, but as I explained in the video presentation, you can outsource much of the work, so it is a scalable business.
I still consider this a brilliant opportunity. The tools we use to access information online are becoming more diverse each day, meaning we use the web more (for example, I never used Facebook or Twitter nearly as much as I do now thanks to my iPhone), and more people are coming online as infrastructure is rolled out across the world and people are educated in how the web works.
As with property in cities with growing populations, now is a great time to “buy land”, establish market leading websites and then flip them for profit or sit on them as cash flow sources, watching their value increase until you are ready to sell.
If all this sounds confusing or you want to learn how I did it, please watch the video at the top of this page. I also recommend you check out these related articles I have previously published about buying and selling websites –
- How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
- How To Sell A Website – How Much Is Your Website Worth?
- How To Invest In Websites In Your Spare Time
I’ll have the transcript of the video for you up soon. I hope you enjoy the video and please post your feedback or questions as comments in reply to this blog post.
Free Workshop: How To Buy & Renovate Websites For Passive Income
I recommend if you are serious about this business model that you take this free workshop from my friends in Australia, Liz and Matt Raad.
I’ve known the Raads for years and they are two of my favorite people. They are down to earth, easy to learn from, very supportive of their community and have been incredibly successful buying and selling websites and helping others to do so.
You can take their free introductory training here:
I’ve attended their live three day conference as a guest and a speaker several times. I know they are truly the best in the business at teaching this strategy.
You will learn a lot from them, so go sign up for their workshop now.
Yaro
Website Flipper
Hello Yaro,
Thank you for sharing this video with us. I’m going to listen to it now and see what I can apply as I launch my new membership site. It’s seems best to create good structures in the beginning for if and when I might like to sell in the future.
Hey Yaro,
Awesome post man. Flipping business is something that i’m working on. Flipping business takes hard work and patience. Thanks for the video yaro.
Thanks for sharing this great Post.
~Dev
Very coincidental, I was just thinking about this the other day.
Thanks for sharing the vid for free!
Yaro,
Your website and story continues to be an inspiration for the potential of the online industry. I truly look forward to my own potential in it.
Flippa is amazing. I didn’t post a listing there but contacted some of the potential buyers I know of for the website in my signature..man I was blown away by the offers..I am not thinking of selling it yet..but yes, flipping sites is a huge business…
I never thought of using Flippa.. after you said it here, I’m going to try it one one of my most active blog.. Just to check its real value there.
Flipping website can be immensely profitable, but as you said, you need to be able to outsource most of the work otherwise it is not possible to scale up the business…
I cannot believe you decided to give away this content for free. You’re one hell of a confidence builder!
woah… thanks for sharing such a great content! Very interesting… 🙂
I started Flipping sites on the original (Aussie!) Sitepoint Market Place site ( which has now evolved into Flippa.com) with some success.
I have to say I preferred the older site as, for lower end sales ( my market i.e. start up blogs), Flippa is ‘swimming’ in poor template type sites for sale and quality offerings can get lost in the mix.
Hey Yaro – thanks again for sharing REAL content. I’ll put this video on my projector this evening instead of watching a movie, but my favorite format is an audio that I can put on my ipod and listen to while I bike, walk or as I’m going to sleep at night.
Canadian passport eh?
Lol, love it, eh?
Everyone focuses on blogging because it is *seemingly* easy and has a low barrier to entry. While their is not question money can be made, its quite challenging to get any traction. My personal development/ attraction site is a labor of love, I put a lot of time into it, and its growing little by little, but has yet to get over that blogging hump…but it will because I rule 🙂 j/k
This is opposed to my network of affiliate sites that actually make me money. I can make an affilaite site and within 6 months be making 400 bucks a month off it.
Outsourcing apps is another viable business model as well. I’m starting to ramble, my point is their are a lot of ways to make an income online.
IN SPANISH PLEASE SEND INFORMATION MY EMAIL
EN ESPAÑOL POR FAVOR MANDA TUS MENSAJES A MI EMAIL
I can’t write in Spanish sorry Marco!
Hola Marco, necesitas alguna ayuda con la información de Yaro?
Hi Yaro,
Since I am not ready to get into buying/selling websites (almost zero cash on hand), I am paying more attention to the part in your video about “tweaking” websites. I’m a beginning blogger who can definitely use those tips to tweak my new blogs as I go along. Very, very helpful, and thanks so much for sharing…I feel you could have charged for this video as part of a training program! Great value…you really moved the free line on this one!
–Barb–
Outsanding post Yaro! Thank you. I look forward to the transcript when it becomes available.
hello yaro,
watched the whole video. awesome. you were generous in your sharing. that is great. I have attended internet marketing classes but they do not teach you everything and they always upsell.
now, I will get a few of my friends to group together and test out your strategies .
Tq,
cheers,
sandy
bestkuchinghotels.com
kuching,
sarawak, malaysia
Hello Yaro, I’m working on blog flipping by almost 6 months, with very good results for my humble opinion.
I will watch your video from now on, so thanks for sharing it with us.
It’s an unbelievable value for us.
Thanks and see you soon,
Alessandro Zamboni
This info is very timely as I am seriously considering selling the site I started through your August 2008 BlogMastermind launch. It was my first site, but is obviously not at the income potential it could be per your course. Now I need to decide whether to take the time to bring it up to top level sale potential, or sell as is. Thank you for providing such timely information on selling a website. Much appreciated.
Your Message Yaro
This was such an incredible video. It had such strong value in helping me understand the industry of flipping blogs. It is something that I have been wanting to learn for some time now. Thank you for sharing your hard earned knowledge. I had an epiphany watching this video in regards to how you can give so much information away and still make so much money. I loved learning what you said about where the “Value” of your blog is because most people do not understand where the value is. They only see the list building value and they leave so much money on the table. Not very many people pay attention to systems and income.
thanx so much
Vickie
Your website and story is a amazing I am a member of flippa.com and I have sold about 5 websites. But I never looked at it the way you do, Thanks so much for the great content.
Richard
Thanks for this. Really. You are Pro. The problem I personally face, and i think lots other people. Selling site is time consuming matter. Its not like pure gold. Somebody have to like it.
In my case most big or semi big site needs maintains for content or customer support. Thats why selling is tough. Most of the case peopel spending $X,XXX or more bucks dont intend to work on the site. Most but lot all work could be outsourced.
I have site which making me $1500-$3500 USD per month, for last 2 years+, but i could not sale it in my extreme need.
Flipping websites is something I have always been interested in. On my way to watch the video.
Yaro, i’ve done some blog flipping myself. Not at the scale that you have but i’ve done okay. You’re right, if done right you can turn a quick profit.
Yaro,
At 1 hour 16 minutes you give the lesson of all lessons in content marketing. I love it.
(the rest of the video is excellent as well, I found that last part the best)
Flipping a website sounds good and all, but doesn’t it take a lot of technical knowledge to do so? Is CSS and HTML involved?
Great content as usual Yaro, and thanks for mentioning Flippa. We’ve just clocked up a record $800,000 websites traded in the past 7 days – so website flipping is indeed alive and well.
No worries Luke – I’d love to get one of the founders of sitepoint on my podcast to talk about your businesses sometime.
Yaro, a course (membership site as you call it) on flipping websites might be a good idea to look into. Getting one of the Fippa founders for an interview would be a fantastic piece of content as well.
Thks Yaro for sharing this making money opportunity. Website flipping can be a good source of income but I believe I need to do some study up on this topic before I plunge into it.
Its time for lesson, got to watch your video now.
I am new to web site flipping so I took down lots of notes while watching the video. I appreciate the fact that you decided to post it for free.
Hey Yaro,
Thanks for the 1 hour + video, it does helped a lot. I’m in website flipping business and still learning, I’ve learned something new here 🙂
Wow, this a great article. I must download your webcast. I am still learning develop a website. maybe, with your guide, i can sell my website.
Thank you.
Very cool and insightful. Next time I want to win in my market I will have a girl with a low cut dress standing by. Just kidding. I appreciate you sharing this, Yaro, a lot of gaps filled in as I watched through.
Dear Yaro,
I have just taken out an hour of my time to watch this clip. I have been following you and Gideon for about 2 years now. I am a very experienced IT Trainer, running my own company here in Geneva, Switzerland. You could easily be my sons 🙂
Each time I come away impressed by the way you approach your business. You are clear headed and smart, but also nourish a certain way of life about which you are not willing to compromise.
This is great! I have talked about you to many of my business colleagues and friends.
Since your above clip was recorded, I have noticed that you went up from 50’000 odd RSS readers to over 90’000. So, here is to your well deserved success!
Kind regards, Doris
Thanks for reconsidering. This is a great presentation. I like how you you able to do many small but effective things to make money. It is easier for me to have many small projects, It helps me stay engaged. It can get hard when you sit in front of your computer for hours and feel like you have accomplished nothing.
thanks for this video..
I am amazed ppl are so willing to pay so much to buy up websites..
this has just given me hope to indeed focus on my intention on building and selling sites.
thanks Yaro as usual..
What an incredibly useful site. Had no idea flippa even existed.
Thank so much for sharing this – what a fantastic video, really breaking it down.
Thanks for sharing the video Yaro – I’m getting more and more interested investing in website and was recently thinking of selling a few extra ones I haven’t really been working on anymore.
Hi Yaro,
Would you say that any “pre-requisites” would apply for someone in order to get into site flipping? I mean, are there any IM techniques, or other, that would be advisable to know before hand?
Jose
I’m wondering if there is a way Flippa can provide proof of income to the buyers. I viewed some of the sites for sale and their numbers don’t add up. For example, there is one site claiming $400/month but has been established for less than a month and only has one post. I’m no genius but…
I’m building a site with a great domain name that I’ve had for years. When it becomes profitable, I will definitely try to sell it on Flippa. Thanks Yaro!
Ralph, unfortunately collecting proof of income from every seller would be a very time consuming and difficult task. We encourage all buyers to perform their own due diligence. Check out the Flippa Blog for lots of Due Diligence tips.
Congrats to you on what sounds like a very successful venture! I am inspired.
This is definitely something I want to get into when I have more time and money. I have plenty of experience improving websites and doing marketing work. So I could probably setup a good system of improving sites and traffic, and then selling the site for more. Usually I’d rather hold onto a website that I’ve put effort into. So it would be tough to part with these sites instead of keeping them to build up more semi-passive income.
This is great! Thanks for sharing with us, Yaro! I’d never heard of investing in websites but it’s something I would definitely be interested in.
I’m pretty interested on buy and sell of website. I would like to learn more about it. This is actually what I want to know from the very start. Do you have any recommendation where I can learn more about it?
This is really interesting. I’ve thought of website flipping in the past but I had never really looked into it. I definitely didn’t know that this was something that could be so lucrative. Thanks for the knowledge!
I think no matter what the idea is not that simple. a website is still a business and 90% of the population interested in buying a business still think conventionally … it is getting easier and easier.. however fighting conventional thinking seems to be the hurdle no matter how perfect the system is.
If you know where to look you can pick up some amazing website for a fraction of their cost and if you know where to sell you can even sell some junk. Buy on not so popular webmaster forums and sell on Flippa in other words 😀
Thanks for sharing this video with us Yaro!
A membership site on flipping sites where we can learn more from you would be great…
Yaro:
Wow! Great video here. I can’t believe you provided this for free. Thanks!
I hope you don’t mind, but I embedded this video on my website flipping blog to spread the word. This is a video that all of my visitors need to watch! There is some great information in this video including how to monetize sites, how to create content for them, and how to add value to them so you can flip them for generous returns. You could have easily packaged this info and sold it so I’m grateful you provided it for free.
I had no idea you were a card game geek – and a mini bike website owner…lol. Great stuff.
Best regards,
Travis
I’m glad you uploaded this Yaro. Gives me great insight on purchasing websites in the future. Seems to be a bit of a throw back aye?! 🙂 Just a couple years old. Anyway, thanks for sharing, I always look forward to the content you provide!
I sold my bird cage website a few days back for $4700,it was making around $800 per month.Right now I am feeling quite terrible for selling it because I could have made that amount back in less than 6 months,should have sold it for $10000 atleast.Thanks for mentioning FLippa I never tried it out.I use digital point.
Ouch! It must be feeling too bad there. I wish to earn $800 from my blog alone.
How do you play a large video file within a blog like you do,what are you useing to embed from?
Thanks Shane
Wow! I just watch all 1.21 video, you are so great! You took your first sip of water at 0.28 there.. looks like you really like to give talk and this is interesting one. It’s like sharing your lifetime secret on online real estate business (buying and selling websites). I have similar thing in my mind and have registered some domains last month. I have never really got into automated type here. Thanks for sharing ideas like reducing maintenance cost by having guest posts, admin for proofreading, etc.
Reakky great video loaded with great information. The questions you were asked seemed a bit disappointing and off topic, I think the presentation will go down much better online where people tend to understand a little more.
Thanks for sharing it, made my mind work overtime!!
yes you are right…
Cool article! Flipping websites has always interested me – but I’ve never done it.
One of the major pitfalls is being able to verify seller claims, esp. if the seller is located in another country. If you get swindled it can be tough recovering your losses. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get around this? I’m sure it can be done, it just sounds like a bit of a pain.
Very interesting content Yaro. I enjoyed reading it. Thank you!
Kudos on being clever! The title of your story is in past tense (“How I made…”), and I’m thinking that now more people than ever are using the internet and I’m wondering if you are actually making MORE money nowadays? Or is that a steady average?
Hi Yaro. .. 180 K is very big amount.. congrats on your success. I will try to follow your words and a big thanks from me.
$180,000 is a big amount. I’m just new in building and developing a website. Everything I learned from internet has just implemented. I wish I can make money online by buying and selling a website in the future.
Hello Yaro,
Can I use drop domains that are just parked but not live yet?
If yes…then how to calculate the worth of the domain?
I never did anything with domain flipping Emma, so not my strong point!
Yaro