How I Made $12,000 Flipping Websites
And why I plan to start again today
Over the last 10–20 years, I’ve experimented with a whole host of different side hustles.
One of the more successful experiments was building websites for Google AdSense, then selling them either privately or via Flippa.
I would do some keyword research to find niches that weren’t too competitive. Then I would build a very simple site. Then I’d hire a writer to write around 10–20 articles. I’d hire another person to create backlinks to the posts.
The process was very simple and I could build out a whole site in a couple of weeks. I’d then keep adding backlinks until it ranked on page one of Google Search.
What I found was that out of every ten websites, a couple would do well, a few would be average and a few would fail. I could never figure out what the difference was between the sites that succeeded and those that failed.
My best guess is that there is an element of luck involved.
A 20 percent success rate follows the Pareto Principle, so it made sense when looking at it from that perspective.
The best sites I had earned around $200 per month from AdSense, while the average ones earned around $50.
I was able to sell these for around 10–20 times monthly earnings. My best site sold for $4,000, while some others only sold for $500.
Some of the failures I either had to abandon or sell for under $50.
My total sales were around $20,000. Expenses for hosting, writers, and backlinking came to around $8,000.
That left me with a profit of around $12,000 over a 6 months.
If it was so good, why didn’t I continue doing it?
With everything going so well, I woke up one day to find out that there had Google had released a major algorithm update. My rankings dropped across the board.
From that day forward, my backlinking strategy stopped working. I tried building a few more sites but didn’t get any traction at all.
But now I’ve decided to start another site.
These days, sites like those can sell for 30–40 times monthly profit.
I plan to write the articles myself based on topics I’m interested in, so no need to hire any writers.
I also have a new backlinking strategy that I can implement myself.
This means I won’t have any expenses for writers or backlinking.
If the sites don’t work out, all I will have lost are the hosting fees. I can repurpose the articles for use elsewhere if needed.
So I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
If my new strategy works, I can sell a site earning $200 per month for $6,000-$8,000.
If I can do that a few times a year I will be very happy.
Have you tried building websites to sell? If you have, how did it work out? Do you have any tips that could help me?
Be sure to follow me to get updates on my new flipping side hustle.
