So is this acceptable to do for site flipping?

I believe that it is but only if the sites are of good quality.  It is true that the sites are not unique and will have multiple copies being sold, sometimes even hundreds of the same site sold, but selling sites on Ebay we are not selling unique sites.

If you were planning to sell on Flippa.com then I would probably stick to unique sites and not buy premade template sites, but for selling on Ebay I don’t think it’s a problem.

Having said that……

I wouldn’t just buy any old template site, I would only want good quality and I would only buy them from a source I could trust and a source where there is limited numbers of the site sold.  You don’t want sites that have thousands being sold, so limited numbers is always good when buying site template packages.

These are also quite hard to come by, to find good quality template sites that are only sold to a limited number of people.  In fact, I only know of one source for these and that is one membership site that I joined recently through the Warrior forum WSO section.

These are good quality sites and they have a limit of 150 members, although at the moment have around 70 members so the numbers sold are limited.

http://weightlosswithacai.net this is a site that I created yesterday using one of these template sites.  The content was all on there as well as the Clickbank products so all I had to do was change the Clickbank ID to my own and change the Amazon page to my own Amazon affiliate widgets.

So remember, you don’t always have to build sites from scratch for your site flipping business, there are other options available.

So tonight I just listed a couple of new sites on Ebay so I thought I’d put the links on here if you’d like to check them out.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180403610422

Above is the link for a plush toy website, which I really, really like.  This is one of my favourites although I haven’t used this theme before, I’ve used the header in a different theme.  This site is monetized with Adsense, Clickbank and Amazon.

This site I have listed in my store stock as buy it now for $77 so it will sit there for sale until it sells, or if it doesn’t sell I can then change it to a normal auction listing.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180403590579&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

This link is for a ‘debt’ website, which is setup using the revolution theme which is quite nice.  There are quite a few articles posted on this site and it is monetized with Adsense, Clickbank and Amazon.

This one is listed on auction starting at $27 and has 5 days to run.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/FiveStarSites

Above is the link to my Ebay store, there are a couple of other sites on there if you’d like to check them out.

So if you’re in the market for a site of your own, check them out.  If you’re just interested in how sites sell, check out my completed listings and see just how well they are selling.  Remember also that with 95% of the sites I sell I also make money on the backend with hosting.

If you’re not convinced about site flipping yet, then I don’t know how much it is going to take to convince you.  It really is a very profitable business, so why not fill in your details over to the right there and grab a sneak peek of our Site Flipping ebook.

Start Up Sites

Flipping brand new sites is when you buy a domain name and build the site from scratch and then sell it straight away as a newly created website not yet earning an income.  These are often classified as ’start up’ sites and can sell quite well, particularly if your sites stand out from the crowd.

Start up sites do have a lot of competition though as they are quick and easy to create they are quite popular.  Some sellers will just sell the same site over and over again but on a new domain, so although it is a new site on it’s own, there could be 50, 100 or even thousands of the same website out there being sold.  These are known as turnkey sites and generally sell quite cheap.

I sell a lot of start up sites, but not so much turnkey sites.  Although my sites are not unique, I don’t sell hundreds of the same site.  I may sell a few of the same site, but spaced out with some months inbetween selling the same site.  Generally though I try to change the site a little so that they aren’t exactly the same, even if it is something as simple as changing the colors slightly, just enough to make it a little unique.

Start up sites can sell anywhere from $1 to $400 or $500, although generally you’d be looking at $50 to $100.  I never start my listings at as little as $1, I always start them at a price that will at least cover the cost of the domain name and the listing fees.

Established Sites

An established site is one that is usually over 3 months old and usually earning an income already.  You can either buy a domain and build the site from scratch and then promote it to earn an income from it, or you can buy an already established site and then promote it to earn income from it.

If you are purchasing an already established site, you can often pick up sites at a good price if they are pretty basic and not very nice looking sites.  Then you can give them a bit of a face lift, make them look fantastic and often this might be enough to sell it and make a profit.  Or you can spend a month or two promoting the site, driving traffic to it and making some income, and then it will sell for an even higher price.

An established site will usually sell for 10 x the income it is making, though many buyers will want to see a steady income that has been made over a few  months.  So if you just promote and earn one month of income, you will still sell it for a reasonable price, but if you can show 3, 4 or 6 months or more income, then you will earn 10 x the monthly income.  So a site that is earning you $100 a month in commission or adsense you could sell for $1000.

Conclusion

Both types of sites can earn a decent income.  If you like the promotion side of things, then established sites might be the way to go.  With established sites though, you want to make sure that the time you spend promoting the site is worth it when you sell the site.  Try and set your income to give yourself an hourly rate of income and if you are spending too many hours on a site to promote it and your sell price doesn’t work out to be much income per hour, then you are spending too much time on it.

Start up sites you need to create many more sites to make a bigger income, so if creating sites is the part you like doing, then this option may be for you.  Once again though, don’t spend too much time on a site so that the income you make isn’t worth it.  Remember, start up sites don’t sell for as much so you don’t want to spend a lot of time creating them.  You still want to have nice sites, but fast and easy to create sites.

To find out more about site flipping visit Site Biz Academy