In Episode 14 of The Side Hustle Show, Chris Guthrie helps me explore the idea of buying income-producing websites as a side hustle investment strategy. It takes a little bit of capital to play in this game, but Chris explains the first site he bought cost just $500 and has paid for itself many times over.
Buying websites is a risky endeavor, which is in part why the potential returns are so attractive. In the interview, we talk about how to mitigate your risk, find some winners, and make some money!
Listen to the episode to learn:
- How websites are typically priced.
- How Chris finds sites to buy that aren’t even “for sale.”
- How to identify sites that might be undervalued or under-monetized.
- How to do your due diligence to avoid getting screwed.
- Ways to increase the earning power of a website acquisition.
- How to transfer the site into your ownership.
- Chris’ #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation.
Links mentioned during the show:
- Flippa.com – the leading marketplace for buying/selling websites
- 3dtvreviews.org – Chris’ first website purchase
- CopyCatCrafts.com – a site he bought for public case study
- semrush.com – shows what keywords the site is ranking for
- moz.org
- compete.com – can give an estimate of site traffic
- ahrefs.com – link analysis tool
- Copyscape – tool to determine if a website’s content is original or not
- Vibrant Media / Kontera – contextual advertising services
- Escrow.com – for safe funds transfer
- WordPress Search and Replace Plugin – for swapping out affiliateIDs on a newly acquired site.
One thing we didn’t talk about during the show but is worth mentioning is an inexpensive software tool Chris built to help filter and sort through the madness on Flippa. It’s called SiteFinderPro, and I actually used it a lot last year when I was spending time looking through all the Flippa listings. Ultimately, I didn’t find anything attractive enough to pull the trigger on, but that tool definitely saved me time.
You can learn more about Chris at MakeMoneyontheInternet.com and check out his Kindle books here.
What do you think about buying sites as a side hustle strategy? Faster (and potentially more affordable) than building one yourself, but without the DIY satisfaction.
This is one I would certainly love to get more involved in, so curious to hear what you think. Let me know!