Recently I shared some of my one hundred goals for life. I’m pleased to report I am now further down the track to realising goal number thirty-three on my list, and that is to learn to flip websites (a.k.a. renovating websites).
I always find it useful to consult with the experts when I am learning a new skill, so I have been learning with Liz and Matt Raad from e-Business Institute. I’ve discovered their wealth of knowledge and expertise about buying and renovating a website and how it relates to buying and renovating properties.
As I continue on this journey of developing relevant ‘digital skills’ I am more optimistic than ever! I hope you will be too.
If you are keen to jump in and find out what this is all about Liz and Matt have a wonderful (free) Masterclass I highly recommend.
Liz has created financial freedom in her life starting from zero, using a really unconventional method – buying, renovating and selling websites and digital properties. The strategies she uses are very similar to those that we use in real estate. It can be done from home, starting with very little capital and no debt.
Goals For Earning Passive Income Through Buying And Renovating Websites
If you are serious about building wealth you must be thinking about how you are going to build more passive income. Income that makes it possible to live and get paid even when you are not working everyday.
Developing the skills to be able to buy, renovate and operate websites, or online properties, to add value and then either sell or hold them is a way to generate more passive income. There are different strategies for different times in your journey.
The process for all types of business begins with your goals:
- Short term goals: What do you need now?
- Long term goals: Where are you heading and what do you want to create for yourself?
Learning The Skills To Renovate And Sell Websites
Liz and her team teach people the skills they need to buy, renovate and sell websites. There are a lot of different ways these skills can be used. Liz said:
Everyone goes on their own journey. We teach them that same fundamental set of skills and then they can go from there to the outside world.
Running my own website has been a steep learning curve. When you’re educating yourself, you can try and learn everything or you can narrow it down to exactly what you need to know in order to achieve your goal. You don’t need to worry about all the other stuff. You want to focus on what you need to know and do it well.
The amount of time it takes to become proficient at the process of flipping websites depends on how much time you have to invest on learning the new set of skills. For most people it takes an average of twelve months to start making money. Within the first three months of Liz’s course everyone will have built their first website. The next step is to become more confident in your skills.
Once you have the skills and you understand how websites work, you don’t have to do the work yourself. It might cost you less, but like with renovating, if you pay the professionals to do it, it gets done quicker with a better-finished product in the end. It is an approach that can leverage your business and accelerate your journey.
It doesn’t matter if you are not tech-savvy. Some of Liz’s students started the course without even a basic understanding of how computers work and have created successful businesses out of buying, renovating and selling websites. It may mean that you are going to have to let go of your fear of technology and trust that it will work out.
We continue moving forward into the digital age. Learning how websites work is becoming a life skill. For older people who are looking for a job change or are looking at retirement and realise they are not set up for a comfortable life, focusing on learning the skills that will take you into the digital age and allow you to keep working and/or retire in style is a must.
How To Identify Which Websites To Buy
One of the things that trip up our students at The School of Renovating is learning which properties are going to bring them the most profit. Buying well takes practice. The same applies to buying websites to renovate and sell. Liz says that it takes a bit of mastery to buy well.
The good thing about the online marketplace is that you can become a master with very small deals. You can potentially purchase a website for under $500 or you can build a few small sites first and get some success under your belt with those. You can practice the process a number of times before going for the bigger deals where you may spend anywhere between $5000 and $100000.
You get to choose your own adventure. There are a lot of little deals available online for you to start practising your skills. There are brokers that buy and sell websites and sites such as Flippa that have new deals posted every day.
There is an art to finding the deals that are going to be profitable. It involves doing your due diligence on the sites that interest you. You must be able to match your skills to the deal. It is something that can be done worldwide, at home in your jimmy jams, in your own time.
To Maximise Profit From Websites, The Older The Better
When we are looking at properties to renovate, I have found that twenty-year-old houses are the sweet spot. They are new enough to have been built with modern building practices, but they are starting to look tired and are ready for a refresh.
As with physical property, the age of a website matters. For website land, the older the better. The more history it has, the more you can trust the future. When Liz buys a website it must have a history of at least one year, but preferably three or four years. The longer the website has been profitable, the greater the security.
The gold standard is to buy websites that perform well in search engines. Those that have good SEO (search engine optimisation) are the ones that will continue to be profitable. It is difficult to turn those sites off. It’s like buying a property in a Blue Chip suburb.
How To Replace Your Income By Renovating Websites
It pays to cover all your bases and build up a portfolio of websites. Rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket and investing in one big website, buy a diverse range of online properties at a variety of price points.
If your goal is to make $10,000 per month, you might need to spend up to $100,000 on the websites you purchase. They are priced according to their annual turnover. Liz has a past student who spent $50,000 on websites, renovated them and is now earning up to $20,000 per month. His portfolio is now worth half a million dollars.
The strategy is to buy smart and renovate the sites to increase their revenue. Liz’s goal is to double the website’s income as quickly as possible to be able to pay off the asset so that it becomes free and clear. And then you can take the money you are earning and invest in another site.
Tips For Setting Up Your Website Renovating Business
- Learn the skills required to buy, renovate and sell the online property.
- Look at the money-making model rather than the topic when buying a website.
- Outsource your content creation.
- If you are building a team to help you leverage the business, you will need a technical person who can troubleshoot.
- Use your content to solve people’s problems to drive traffic to the website.
- Use a reliable source for stock photos such as Adobe Stock.
- Use online resources such as Canva, Fiverr and UpWork for graphic design.
- Create good quality websites with good SEO and user experience that will keep them ranking on Google even when Google changes their rules.
Training To Get You Started In Buying And Renovating Websites
Liz and Matt Raad offer a free Masterclass training that goes into detail about the processes and how it all works. They show you how to get started and teach you everything you need to take the first step. The training answers the questions people often ask:
- What is this all about?
- Is this something I could actually do?
- Would it suit me?
Liz and Matt have created a special webinar for us, as property investors. It answers questions about how it can fit into your lifestyle and how it works in relation to investing in property. Can you use it to actually supplement your property income?
You can register for the Masterclass and learn from Liz and her husband, Matt, the experts in renovating online properties.
We would love for you to join us if your interest is peaked, as mine has been, meeting people who have taken the first step into the digital world of renovating online property.
