Some domains are just sitting there waiting for you to dig up and find. There are lots of domains for sale some are just that – names but no website. These premium domains may have some assumed value, so their owners are holding onto them until a potential buyer wants it.

Other domains may already have some kind of site built on it. These sites can come in varying degrees of progress. The previous owner bought a domain, built a site, got bored and now wants to sell.

Or a previous owner bought the domain with the intention to get some traffic and some monetization and then resell. Many times these domain sellers are just tired of the project and want to move on.

Perhaps the previous owner had no idea about SEO traffic techniques – that all the site really needed was a few tweaks to convert a blah site to a profit puller. There is huge potential for someone who knows the process or can figure it out.

Where do you fit into the game of flipping virtual real estate? There are some questions to be answered first:

What are your skills? Can you take a domain from scratch and build up some ads and then resell? Can you by an existing domain that just needs a makeover with some ads thrown in and then resell? Do you have an eye for making a profit? Can you add some color, graphics, text (lots of text), and AdSense? Do you know SEO tricks that would make the site push up in the ranks?

With that in mind, let’s look at what’s involved in flipping websites. Like buying and selling brick and mortar real estate, you need to check out the neighborhood, so to speak. You can go to Site Point or Digital Point forums, two popular sites where you can find Virtual Real Estate (VRE) to flip.

Here, you can buy or sell at auction or “buy it now” all different kinds of websites at varying degrees of “finished.” You have to be careful here. Unless the seller has a good reputation, you may find yourself stuck with a domain headache.

A more profitable and often overlooked way to find VRE is to actually go domain searching for sites that are already indexed but that you can make an offer to the owner. Type your niche keywords into your favorite search engine and see what comes up.

What do you look for? Number one is the keyword in the domain. Sometimes the best way to go shopping for VRE is to just type in your particular keyword or phrase. Take a look at each site.

Does it have ads? What kind? Can you improve the advertising placement? How about the overall look? Is it old school HTML that could be improved with a blog template or other format? How about SEO?

Many older sites were thrown up as a marketing aid but without thought for SEO. Could you do some serious “fix– ups” and then resell that VRE for cash? Once you find one you’re interested in, look it up in WhoIs domain search so that you can learn how to get in touch with the owner.

Then contact them and tell them of your interest. Let them know you are serious about buying their domain and would appreciate them contacting you. Just how much the site is worth depends on a lot of things.

Ask the owner what kind of revenue the site generates. It’s typical to pay for
4-10 times the monthly income. Next, you can do some bargaining until you come to an agreement about the price. From there, you’ll need to do a typical transfer of ownership.

It isn’t nearly as involved as real estate, though. What’s great here, too, is that you don’t have to be Donald Trump to get a good deal! The fact is, savvy marketers are flipping websites for cash each and every day.

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