David Ford – Building And Selling Websites For Profit

David Ford – Building And Selling Websites For Profit

Check it out: David Ford – Building And Selling Websites For Profit

Have you ever considered building and selling a website? Can you do that? Is it profitable?

Yes you can – there’s a huge market of both buyers and sellers that creates a unique opportunity for us savvy marketers. Read on…

Why do people decide to sell a site? 

Some people might switch directions with their business, some might get too busy to run their site anymore, or some might just want to cash out and do something else.

Ok, so why do people buy sites?

There are some big advantages to buying a site that’s already making money. Not only do you have an income producing asset right away, you also have an aged domain which can be very valuable.

An aged site that’s been established for a while makes it much easier to rank in the search engines, among other things.

There’s another big reason people buy sites – to flip them for a profit.

What does that mean? This is just an example but say you buy a website for $500, improve it a bit, and sell it for $2000. You’ve made a nice profit!

You can make some great money flipping sites for one big reason:

Most people aren’t great at marketing or monetizing a site. 

There are plenty of people who build sites but they just aren’t maximizing traffic and income. There are small and large sites making anywhere from $1 to $100,000+ per month and are still leaving a lot of money on the table. This isn’t a dig at anyone. Lots of people who build sites are really good at something like writing content, or sourcing products, so that’s where most of their focus goes. Nobody is a master of everything.

Get to the point already!

Ok….Bottom line – there are a ton of sites for sale that have so much untapped potential.

These are great opportunities to make a quick flip for income. You just have to know how to spot them.

Buying and selling sites (aka flipping) is great, but…

The best opportunity is building sites just to sell them!

As you’ve probably guessed, this is one of my income streams. I initially got into it as an experiment, but found that it could be very lucrative if you approached it the right way.

This is one of my projects I’ve gotten down to a formula I can replicate, so it makes outsourcing much easier. It’s an arm of my business that doesn’t take a lot of hands on time from me since I have the process optimized.

[Sidenote – people think I’m super productive and awesome because I have a lot of projects going on. I agree with the ‘awesome’ part of course, but I’m probably not as productive as you think I’ve been doing this a long time, and building income streams one at a time. Anyone can do this, including you!]

Why would you sell a site you’ve built? This is a strategy a lot of different businesses use – they build something with the goal of selling it for a lot of money right?

Think of all the tech entrepreneurs who’s startup gets bought by Google (or whoever) and they get a huge payday. Think of the small health food brand that gets bought by one of the big food giants.

There are countless examples of this. The point is, it’s a solid business model.

I have a few friends who started out in affiliate marketing, then went on to grow startups and selling them for a ton of money. Building sites to sell is the same idea, just on a different scale.

How much do sites sell for?

All kinds of numbers get thrown around when it comes to valuing a website, and it’s hard to put an exact multiplier on this.

At the extreme ends of the spectrum it ranges from 10x the monthly revenue all the way to 50x at the extreme high end.

That means if a site is making $3k/month it could sell for $30,000-$150,000.

Those numbers depend on a lot of things like age of the site, income history, and income potential just to name a few.

You’re probably wondering how a site making $3k/month could sell for 6 figures. That would be on the high end for sure, but it might have something that makes it super valuable like future growth potential, if a buyer can integrate it with their current business, the number of good backlinks, etc. There are multiple reasons.

It also depends on the type of site it is. For example, an ecommerce site might not be worth as much as a blog. Even if their monthly income is the same, the ecommerce site is probably more difficult to run and has higher risk.

The important thing to note is this – Many sellers don’t know how to value their website which makes for perfect buying and selling opportunities.

Ok, just tell me how much I can make building sites to sell?

Let’s look at some numbers. 

Say I have a site making $1k per month – roughly $12k per year.

I know (depending on different factors) I can sell for anywhere from 10x-50x the monthly revenue. So…

$1k x 10 = $10k
$1k x 20 = $20k
$1k x 50 = $50k
Etc.

There’s another metric we have to consider though: How much time and energy it takes to build and grow a site.

Take this silly example:

Pretend I had been working for 2 years on a site 12 hours per day 7 days per week and it was just starting to make $1k a month. That would be a LOT of work for a hypothetical $10k+ payout.

Remember this is an example – If it actually took you that long to get a site to $1k per month you would be doing something very wrong! Not trying to make anyone feel bad, so if this sounds like you send me an email so we can get you on the right track!

Although there is no ‘normal’, I’ll give you an idea of the kind of numbers I see. Keep in mind, I have a lot going on so I can’t dedicate all my time to this. If you have more time, your numbers would likely be better.

It’s a realistic goal to get a site to $1k/month in roughly 6 months or so. Keep in mind, this is an average of all the sites I build to sell. Some might take longer, some might take less time.

A 6 month old site isn’t (usually) going to fetch the price a 1 year+ old site would, but it takes less time and money to make. There’s always a tradeoff. Again, this depends on a lot of factors. There are ways of boosting the selling price more by building the sites email list and various audiences.

Sometimes you can end up making more by selling newer sites, since they take fewer resources. Ideally, you want a mix of sites to sell.

Every year, I do a master class that people can get for free and this is going to be it. Read on for details…

I wasn’t going to do this class right now, or any other class, because I have a lot going on and some vacation planned. I got talked into it by a few students in my group coaching class, and somehow ended up agreeing to do it lol.

Announcing the…

Master Class on Building and Selling Websites for Profit

 What is the class goal?

By the end of the class, you’ll know how to build a site to sell and replicate that process over and over. You’ll learn how to create a steady, sustainable, and scalable business from buying and selling sites.

The end goal is to outsource this, so you can have a hands off revenue stream.

What will you learn?

In the class, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know including:

• How to build a site the right way from the beginning if your goal is to sell
• The types of sites you should build and what you should absolutely avoid at all costs
• A step by step checklist of every feature your site needs and how to implement it
• Build what I call a ‘site simmering process’ to increase the value of sites before you even start building them.
• Buying aged domain names that can instantly increase the value of your site
• The right way to monetize your site to make it more attractive to buyers (most people get this totally wrong)
• How to increase the selling price of your site 5x-20k more, for very little additional work
• Easy ways to increase inbound links to make your site worth more
• How to decide when you should sell your site. When’s too soon?
• When keeping your site might make more sense – the pros and cons
• How to leverage your sites equity to grow fast
• My ‘content conveyor belt’ (yes, chessy name I know!) method for automating and outsourcing
• A system you can use to passively build a wide audience
• Traffic generation that works and what to avoid. MANY people waste time building the wrong kind of traffic.
• The multi touch funnel system to keep people engaged with your site and build a loyal audience
• Where to buy and sell sites and where to stay far away from
• Protecting yourself from scams and bad investments
• My checklist for spotting sites with potential
• How to manage and balance risk when buying and selling
• Negotiating for the best price and how to make the best decisions
• How to stagger your building process to keep your income steady and growing.

If you’re impatient (like me) and you might not want to wait 6-12 months to sell a site.

That’s where the buying sites to flip can help you make money faster while you’re growing your sites to sell. Honestly though, if you think about it, 6+ months isn’t very long for the kind of lump sum payout you can get.

Of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to building just one site at a time. You can build any number of sites you wish, then sell them for a big payday if you want.

Note – If you’ve taken my content curation class, you can probably imagine all kinds of possibilities to turn this into a streamlined business with high output.

Course FAQ

How much do I need to invest?

The only thing you really need is a domain name and any cheap shared hosting plan. I’ll recommend some other tools that will help, but aren’t required.

The majority of the class is on building sites to sell – This is the best and most consistent way to make great money.

Buying sites to flip is about learning to spot opportunities. Good opportunities for a flip are all over, but some will be out of your price range, the site will sell before you make an offer, etc. To make the ‘flipping websites’ idea work, you need money to buy the site of course. You also have to wait for the right opportunity. You’ll learn how to do both.

How is the class delivered?

The class will be delivered with video, text, live webinars and downloads.

Do I get lifetime access?

No, you only get 1 day access (I’m joking if that wasn’t clear). Of course you get lifetime access!

What about support during and after the class?

There will be multiple ways to get help, feedback, and discuss with other students.

What if my sites don’t sell?

I’ve never lost money on a website I’ve built and neither will you. Even if you bought a domain and didn’t do anything with it, the domain name will be worth more than you bought it for since it has domain history. My point is that you’ll make money regardless of how well your site turns out or how much you work on it.

Uh…What about that whole ‘building an asset’ thing you keep going on about?

Good question – on the face of it, it looks like you’re not really building an asset here. You’re building a site, selling it for a profit but then you’re back to square one without an asset right?

That’s technically true, but here’s how I look at it…

The ‘asset’ in this case is the system of building, selling and buying sites. You can, and hopefully will eventually outsource everything once you get your system going.

I’m going to teach you how to use a multi-track process so you always have sites growing and selling. This ensures a steady, scaleable income. Eventually, you’ll have a number of sites generating income for you, while you wait for the perfect opportunity to sell.

Do you have any kind of guarantee?

I’ll do everything I can do help you succeed. Please read the refund policy here.

 Can I get the class for free?

Wait what? Like just for free? Well actually…..YES! Keep reading…

I’ve done this before and the results have been great!

 Here’s the deal: 

1. You sign up for the class and pay the class fee
2. Document your site building and selling process
3. Keep this case study/journal process going for the required time

After you sell your site (or even if you decide to keep it), you can submit your case study where you show what you did and I’ll refund your course fee.

There are specific requirements of course. You can’t just write 2 sentences and call it your case study. You also can’t build a site and sell it a couple weeks later. Students will be required to build out a site following what’s taught in the class, have a specific amount of content and other parts of the site built, and run it for a minimum number of months before selling. You’ll have to meet all the guidelines I’ll outline in the class, but this offer is open to all students who take the class. If you have questions about this – please contact me. 

So, not only do you get the course for free, you’ll probably make a profit on it. Heck, I might even buy your site – I call dibs!!

What do I get out of it? 

You mean other than boosting my ego about my awesome teaching skills? I’m joking (kind of…)

I like helping people succeed. That’s my #1 goal with teaching and why I still do it. It’s a unique challenge, but super rewarding when someone’s life is changed.

I think this is a great way to motivate students. I try to do 1 of these classes per year, so for 2020 this will be the only class with this option. 

Plus…

Bonus #1

A special bonus webinar where we shop for sites for sale. I’ll go through my exact process of evaluating sites, spotting golden opportunities, and how to make strategic decisions.

I won’t be buying any of the sites we shop for, so that means even if we find some great deals I won’t be competing in case any students see a site they want to buy. This will be a fun exercise!

Bonus #2

This is completely optional but you’ll have the opportunity to partner with other students. Everyone has their own strengths and things like doing, so it makes sense to partner with people that can compliment those. This can be a really good way to ramp up this income stream. I’ll help you partner up and show you the best way to work together.

Bonus #3 

It helps to have a schedule and step by step checklist, so that’s what I’m going to provide. Think of it as ‘assignments’ that you can follow to build your sites. This is super helpful if you have trouble starting a project, or stopping part way through. By breaking it down into small action steps, it becomes much easier to succeed.