Full Transcript for How I Judge Potential When Looking To Purchase Online Businesses

other assets require a lot less um operation. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:16.720 Um, but yeah, that was my my way in with SEO, yeah, as as the person operating and building them. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:17.040 Yeah. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:17.759 Nice. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:25.199 Yeah, I found that a lot of people that start investing in alternative asset classes, they don't really stop. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:33.439 They just kind of keep keep going into all of the non-mainstream asset classes. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:38.639 After they find one where they're like, whoa, this is has really explosive returns. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.800 I need to find something else that people aren't really paying attention to right now. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.079 Yeah, it's just a way of more quickly growing your capital. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:50.079 Um, and that's what I'm focused on. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:58.000 Um, you know, if if I've uh hit my capital goal, I probably wouldn't be doing, I wouldn't be as active in these asset classes. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:03.519 I I would be more traditionally diverse and go into real estate and things with a very low yield. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.839 Um but right now I'm focused on things that have um, you know, very significant upside. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.040 Uh and and then I also like to limit the downside as well. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:19.199 So uh yeah, digital assets, websites, domains, crypto, they they all have very high upside. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:26.399 And if you learn to manage the downside, that they're very good places to play in and to and to build some wealth in, yeah. 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:39.439 So that first jump that you had where you were doing client work with SEO and and things like that, and then you started kind of seeing some traction on the affiliate side of things, I'd like to talk a little bit about that. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:51.519 In terms of you found your niche in the the kind of software side of things, talking about um these different types of products through Amazon affiliates or different affiliate programs and offers. 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:53.040 What was that process like? 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.920 What led you to eventually find that niche? 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:02.399 Were you testing various different niches with keywords that were the most trendy at the time? 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.800 Or how did you kind of come across that? 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:14.560 Yeah, so I after um I moved away from SEO clients uh around 2013. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.279 I sold my SEO clients to another agency. 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:26.720 Um, but then soon needed to build cash flow quickly again, and and so I needed to come up with some kind of other service offering. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:29.199 I didn't want to do SEO again. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.879 And at the time I was learning about landing pages and sales funnels. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:36.480 And so this was around 2014-15. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:50.720 ClickFunnels had just launched, and I got in as an early user of that and sold a lot of the sales funnel services to customers and clients, anywhere from um$500,$1,000 funnels on the low end. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.560 So I did one uh high-ticket,$25,000 funnel on the high end and really got into that. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:03.839 And this was all using ClickFunnels uh as the software, and I was offering a service element on top of that. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:10.079 And so every customer, every client that I built a funnel for, I was earning an affiliate commission on ClickFunnels. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:12.160 Uh they were paying 40% of the time. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.160 I'm not sure if it's that high anymore. 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:22.879 And so that started just building up, that started to become material because affiliate commissions, they're occurring, they compound, um, and that can start to become significant. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:30.480 So, you know, I I probably started focusing on it when I it was getting into you know four figures a month in a in recurring commissions. 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:39.279 Um, and I thought that this is more um sustainable, um, more predictable, uh, and this can actually be an asset. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:47.840 Whereas, you know, service work I was doing it myself, I I I hired someone to um fulfill the funnels, but it was just not a business that I wanted to do. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:53.840 But you know, every month that went the uh went past, the the affiliate commissions kept increasing. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:09:01.759 So I I then pivoted out, um, I stopped all the service offering, um, I turned the site into uh an affiliate site. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.039 So the home page became uh just a big squeeze page. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.360 Uh I offered free funnplates. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:19.039 Um that page converted at 40%, um, which sounds insane, but um, if you've got a good offering and you know um you set up a good squeeze page, you can you can kind of get this this high conversion. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:32.639 So I was building a sizable email list and you know, um adding hundreds of new people a month, and uh a percentage of those were were signing up to ClickFunnels and uh did that for a couple of years and then sold the sold the business, sold the affiliate accounts. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.279 Um and that was the way into it. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.879 Um I was working with ClickFunnels, I focused on that one. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:50.159 I added some other offers, I was promoting SamCart as well, added a couple of others and then and then sold the business um on uh with with a brokerage. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:53.600 And uh so that was the the way into it. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:10:00.879 And so at the time uh I was one of the first sites focused on on sales final review software. 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.840 So that helped the

competition was was very low. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:10.159 Um so it was relatively um relatively easy getting people into the software at that time. 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:16.480 Um so yeah, it wasn't too too deliberate, it was just where I currently and was at that time, yeah. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:18.000 That makes sense, yeah. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:32.799 Like you you nailed the the funnel space in the sales process, so you figured, okay, there's gonna be other people coming in to do something similar, and they need to see a review site, which makes perfect sense to address the the hole there. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:33.519 I love that. 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:44.320 Where you've kind of learned the space by operating in it and then figuring out, all right, how can I actually, as this space scales, because click funnel really kind of sparked a whole new industry, right? 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:46.879 With all these different sales funnels. 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:48.720 Yeah, it really blew up. 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:49.039 Yeah. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:49.360 Yeah. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:50.720 I think it got very competitive. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:56.000 Everyone was writing a ClickFunnels review article, and you know, now it's uh pretty hard to rank on the first page. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:01.360 You need a very powerful domain, um, and you need to uh invest uh quite a bit into it. 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:04.399 At the time, it was uh relatively easy. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:08.799 Um I was also ranking for ClickFunnels brand uh search term as well. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:10.639 So uh that helped. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:14.480 So if you can get in early with a new product, that that definitely helps. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:16.639 But um software, yeah. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.879 You briefly mentioned that you had sold clients to an agency. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:34.320 And I often tell people uh you know about all different types of ways as a business or even as a contractor, you can generate revenue if you have some cash flow, uh just in lump sums. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:41.600 So I've I've heard of a lot of people that you know during this whole crazy global pandemic, they'll sell receivables. 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:58.639 You know, if they have quite a lot of invoices and receivables sitting on their balance sheet, they actually sell them to investors that you know get the cash up front and a discount, and then they can move over the kind of debt to an investor and things like that. 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:04.080 So I like that you you touched on it where you had sold customers to an agency. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:19.200 And I think that that level of creativity, a lot of people don't really think that way, you know, when they're when they're thinking about ways that they can generate some cash flow in, let's say, a pinch like currently with small businesses suffering all over the world. 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:32.559 Yeah, I think that that's a really cool um thing that you touched on, where you kind of bundle together all these clients that are paying, and you say, Hey guys, I'm I'm done with this business, you know, take this over. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:34.320 I really, really like it. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:35.200 Yeah, yeah. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:45.440 A lot of people would just uh if they if they had enough, uh, I think would would just kind of cancel the retainers and and and and close the the website, close the business. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:49.919 Um, I was working with an agency at the time who was actually fulfilling it for me. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:58.960 So uh it was uh they may have even uh I think they even um you know uh started the conversation, you know, could we actually just take them on? 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:00.720 Because I was paying them half. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:03.519 Um and they were interested in in scaling. 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:12.240 But yeah, a lot of people that get their own clients uh as a solo operator uh may not realize that they actually do have an asset that they can sell. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:19.039 You can sell the business, the name, the website, or you can, you know, sell your monthly retainers to to a bigger agency. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:24.639 And so yeah, maybe that was the the first time that I uh built and sold an asset. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:27.519 And thinking back, I hadn't really I haven't really thought about it like that. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:36.080 Um but a little e-commerce store that I started that was the first one that um that I ended up selling in uh through through Empire Flippers. 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:38.960 Um that was the the one that kind of kickstarted every everything else. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:44.960 And uh I realized I could build and sell um online businesses and um yeah. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:14:07.840 Yeah, it really opens the opens up Pandora's box once you once you realize that you can sell sell an asset that you build uh digitally to somebody at a at a multiple, it really kind of gives you that aha moment where you can start generating even even more cash than you would over the course of two years with something. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.320 And that's a really empowering feeling. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:15.519 So anyone that's listening that's brand new, they have a blog, let's say a content site. 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:18.399 You mentioned that you worked a lot with content and SEO. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:26.720 Let's say someone listening has a blog that they have been working on for five years, generates$500 a month. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:34.879 What do you think from a buyer's perspective, from an investor's perspective, what are the key things that you would want to see? 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:42.399 Like me as a brand new blogger, I've never sold anything before in my life uh that's like a business of any kind. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:48.080 And what would you want to see in

terms of as a package when you're messaging with me? 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.240 In terms of uh a private deal or a listing on a on a marketplace. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:58.720 On a listing on Flippa, for example, if you went through there or even through a brokerage, you know, anywhere. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:01.600 It could be a private deal, it could be a marketplace, it could be anywhere. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:09.360 Yeah, I mean as a buyer, as an investor, I would want uh, you know, a responsive seller. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:19.519 So any questions asking, you know, to uh get back in a you know uh in a decent time frame, uh, you know, and honest answers. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:24.799 And you know, you know, try you're trying to figure out whether the seller is is legitimate, whether you can trust them. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:31.519 Obviously, you know, assets are taken in escrow, uh and that helps, but you you want to have a good feeling about the seller. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.679 But as an investor, I mean you want a clueless seller. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:41.519 You want a seller that doesn't is not aware of the potential of the asset that they're um selling. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:47.120 So maybe they're not monetizing the the traffic uh too well, and you can see upside with that. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:53.840 Uh maybe they haven't optimized the pages for SEO, and you know that you can improve traffic and and and therefore improve revenue quickly. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:16:00.480 So um you're looking for uh you know under optimization, that that's what you are looking for. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:08.879 Um a lot of first-time sellers are not aware um of the of you know the upside that they're leaving on the table. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:18.159 And uh, you know, every time I've gone through a sales process, uh it's made me realize that uh there is definitely more that I could have done. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:32.559 Um so yeah, you as an investor, you you just want uh an honest seller and uh who who hasn't gone through the process before, who isn't as clued up, maybe isn't pricing it as aggressively as they could. 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:36.720 Um but yeah, you just want to deal with someone who's genuine and is honest. 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:42.480 Um, and if you if you see upside, um, you know, that that's what you're that's what you're looking for. 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:53.919 And are you looking for, I think one of the amazing things about buying and selling websites is that there's all these different potentials for seller financing. 00:16:54.080 --> 00:17:03.600 I think that's something that a lot of people skip over where you don't have to necessarily have all of this, you know, two years of revenue, let's say, up front to purchase a business. 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:15.440 It could be one year of uh you know cash flow that you're doing that's upfront and then let's say 50% of net profit each month to pay back towards the principal that you've offered. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:27.599 Have you worked on any any deals with kind of clever financing that you could talk about or any kind of fun, fun deal structures that beginners could could use as a competitive edge? 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.000 Uh I I have not. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:34.799 It's uh everything I I've done as a buyer or seller has just been in cash. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:35.680 Got it. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:41.599 Um, so uh yeah, nothing, nothing creative to to share. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:18:02.400 You typically see that at um larger asset value when you're dealing with anything, you know, six figures and above, but below that, um, it's probably not not something that's um that's gonna work out too well for you because there's a lot of people with a lot of cash at that level who will just um come in with an all cash offer. 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:16.960 Um so uh I like picking up um you know, like micro assets, real small deals, 5k deals, 10k deals max, um buying for the content, buying for the uh ranking and and some potential. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:21.200 Um, but yeah, when I'm selling, uh, I also just want all cash. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.440 Um so uh yeah. 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:24.400 Got it. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:29.920 So 5k, 10k deals is your sweet spot where you're always looking. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:36.640 And in terms of what would the monthly gross and profit be for something that was 10k, let's say. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:38.319 Yeah, I mean, ideally nothing. 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.720 Uh so I'm looking to pick up uh what Flipper would call starter sites. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:53.359 Um I I really it doesn't matter whether it's generating revenue or not, I just care about the fact that it's ranking, it's indexed in Google, it's ranking, it's showing some potential. 00:18:53.599 --> 00:19:05.119 Um, I I buy sites based on on how I value the content, uh, based on on the backlink profile, and then how well traffic is spread out across the site. 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:09.759 So I ideally very little to no revenue is is what I like to pick up. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:19.839 And uh then you optimize the existing content, you add new content, you add uh some some new backlinks, or maybe you combine a couple of domains together. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.000 Um, that's the area that I play in. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:22.319 Yeah. 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:23.599 Got it, got it. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:25.279 So content focused specifically. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:31.519 Have you experimented around with e-commerce or uh any of these other sort of niches? 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:38.160 Uh no, so everything I do uh for the last few years and currently is still content websites. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.279 Uh so making money from affiliate from ads. 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:48.799 Um, I don't do any e-commerce or SaaS or um uh I'm not really I'm not doing any digital products either. 00:19:48.960

--> 00:19:53.920 So my main business now is the publication on Substack and that is a paid subscription. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:20:01.119 Um so like paid media and subscribers, um, yeah, I really like as a business model. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:06.880 Uh, but in terms of buying and building and selling assets, it's still all content websites. 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:22.799 Um, I I can see a time in the near future where I'm gonna try e-commerce again, uh, but that's only because I've I've recently uh fell in love with uh specialty coffee, and I'm buying a lot myself, and uh I've been learning a lot about it. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:28.160 And I think it's pretty likely that I'm gonna set up a subscription coffee business um at some point in the near future. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.240 Uh based in the UK, so it'll be UK, uh UK one. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:38.160 Um for for no other reason, maybe to just a business expense coffee would be uh would be a good thing. 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:40.559 Uh because I I'm buying too much. 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:43.920 Um but right now, yeah, it's just it's just content and affiliate. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:45.359 Um that's what I do, yeah. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:46.000 Nice. 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:53.279 Yeah, and I think with content sites, I've I've had quite a few and um you know relatively smaller deals. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:21:06.799 And I think that one of the um the the sort of underlying risk exposures that that I realized early on was Google uh being the main driver of of a business like that. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:30.480 And I think that if they they change their algorithm, very similar to like an e-commerce company that's overexposed to Facebook ads, uh, you know, as their main driver of revenue, I think there's there's all these sort of uh intricacies to each business that if you have a good diversification of of traffic, you can definitely scale it up, I think. 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:49.599 And in in terms of your experience with the ebbs and flows of Google and the and the organic traffic coming through, is there any sort of tips or tricks that you've learned that uh could really be beneficial to somebody that's like, okay, I love what Richard's talking about with a content site. 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:56.640 I want to get started on, let's say, uh, you know, gymnastics apparel or something like that. 00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:59.839 How how would you mitigate that risk? 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.039 like that exposure to to Google or can you? 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:04.720 Yes, I mean you can. 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:08.799 You can focus on other traffic sources to try and diversify. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:10.880 You can uh do social stuff. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:17.039 You can if it's a visual um niche that you're in, you you can diversify with a bit of interest. 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:23.519 You can uh build an email list and and and bring back people that way to your site. 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:34.079 But in essence, uh you know a content site is reliant on Google and and that is the game that that we play. 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:36.880 It's also why I don't like to hold assets. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:46.160 I like to flip as soon as as soon as possible, as soon as the the majority of the upside that I can generate is realized, that's when I like to sell. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:49.279 So I I don't like to hold because of that risk. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:53.039 But um that's the that's the game that that we play. 00:22:53.200 --> 00:23:07.359 So if you are holding for the longer term you will want to diversify you will want to build an audience of people that will return to your website of uh people that you can remarket to that you can directly communicate with an email list. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:09.680 All of these things are good things. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:16.720 But uh in terms of like a pure affiliate play um I would say just focus on Google. 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:21.759 Know that that's a big risk and uh obviously don't rely on these sites for income. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:31.680 If you do you need to have a pretty sizable portfolio so that if any one or two gets hit by a Google update you you're gonna have enough income from the other sites. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:35.359 And that's the nature of it. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:43.279 If I do do this e-commerce coffee play I'm probably not going to try and rank any content it's probably going to be paid acquisition. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:52.799 But with content sites that you know we are reliant on Google traffic that will you know that's the majority traffic source. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:24:02.400 And uh yeah the the Google updates over the last year have been pretty aggressive and um often they can make not a lot of uh sense. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:25:00.880 So yeah you need to mitigate that risk in terms of owning a range of sites um or holding them for the for the shortest amount of time and you know you can buy a website or flipper you can uh improve conversion rate you can add some tweaks and you can flip it you know six to nine months later and uh uh yeah hopefully you know there may not have been a sizable Google update or anything that could have uh negatively hit your your site in that time so uh yeah that's that's my perspective yeah yeah I love the comparison to real estate as well where you buy let's say uh um you know a not so not so good house currently and then you fix it up and make it you can sell a vision on it and then flip it in six months, three months whatever it is however long it takes to to buy a house and flip it I think that there's so many similarities there in terms of the the the mindset that an investor has to have coming into it. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:26.559 And one of the things that I interviewed Cody Sanchez and she did a great job of articulating if you're buying let's say a six figure deal in a niche one of the things that you can do and

you touched on this briefly that seems to be a consistent trend amongst investors that I like is that when you when you have let's say a core business like uh in her case it was like a cannabis business. 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:32.640 I don't remember if it was a news site or not but it was like a core business that was a big portfolio part of her portfolio. 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:43.119 So having these additional businesses that could be bought at a low let's say four or five figures add to that business. 00:25:43.359 --> 00:26:00.880 So you could buy something that's generating a ton of traffic from Google and then you could add it to your portfolio and even 301 redirect to your main business or have it linked to your main business and create your own little ecosystem around a core business and have all these together. 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:14.400 So in your experience you mentioned it briefly that you could buy a a four-figure site that has a good backlink profile and and you're kind of adding it to different businesses. 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:31.759 Could you give us like an example of of something that has really worked well with that in the past where you've had a uh a core site that was generating some revenue and then you added to it with other ones or are you mainly just flipping it before that even uh is an opportunity? 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:36.319 And I'm doing it with with one software review site right now. 00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:44.720 And um so I I've done uh a number of 31 redirects but never on a site that has any significant revenue. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:49.599 So I would do it at the beginning uh and that's what I'm doing right now. 00:26:49.759 --> 00:29:23.039 I've got uh a good three to four different domains with with good link profiles um in the software review space and I've got one three one to a main site right now that's um uh it's only got about 10,000 page reviews a month um it's got very good content so I've commissioned uh a good amount of content um on this uh I guess maybe maybe I'll do the the the full history so that the main site was an abandoned site in the in the SERPs I picked it up for um just$2,000 um no revenue um uh 50 pages also in a Google index no no no great content but I bought it for the link profile it was like dr in the 40s um strong links genuine site just abandoned by by the owner um so picked that up for for the link profile uh have commissioned 50 000 words from a writer um that's now on that site uh and that's going pretty well i've bought an age domain um from a company called odis um our uh our domains your se ody s um that was in this software review review space with a pretty decent backing profile i have 301 that to a category um page on on this uh website um and that's going okay but i'm waiting for it to take off if it doesn't take off then I'm gonna be rearranging everything because I I recently acquired another website for uh$5,000 um for the content is also has has an age domain with a pretty good backlink profile but that one was bought for the content so in total I've got about 200 uh 200 to 25000 words in this niche um three different uh domains with backlinks and I'm now trying to figure out the best way of structuring it um so uh yeah that this is a a process I'm I'm going through at the moment I haven't cracked it yet um and it's it's a waiting game this is the the thing but if any of these sites was generating insignificant revenue I wouldn't be doing this it would just be too much of a risk um but because um that there's uh very low uh affiliate commissions being generated at the moment most of the and it's a very competitive space that I'm going after um if you looked up in HRES like the keywords uh keyword difficulty in the 50s or 60s it it's it's the space where it will take months to to get to page one the two main pages I have are currently on page two which it which is good um but it hasn't broken through yet and I'm just kind of waiting. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:28.319 I'm gonna wait another month to see whether it's gonna carry on and it's gonna break through to page one. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:37.519 If it doesn't I'm actually going to move all content over to just one domain um in a different configuration and hopefully that will blow up. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:30:57.119 That was the original plan uh but with timing I I uh it it's ended up this way so I'm definitely no expert with this um but I I've got some uh I I've been at 3-1 redirecting sites for a while and understand the process of how to do it um and I'm just waiting for the the right configuration for it to take off um and it's just a waiting waiting game um so yeah hopefully that was that was useful um yeah I love building off on age domains it it definitely works I mean I've got one to 10 000 page views a month from from zero with within uh within six to twelve months but it's still not broken out where it hasn't got to where it needs to to get to yet if if it was a less competitive space um I think uh this would have been a lot easier um but uh this needs a lot of a lot of authority to to really crack um so the the content is as good as it needs to be uh I found a good writer and uh but yeah what once the main pages get to page one I think it's gonna take off but trying to find the right combination of domain uh of of where to place that content is uh is what I'm trying to figure out at the moment. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:02.640 And uh if nothing happens in a month's time I'm just gonna uh change everything up again. 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:08.480 Um so I guess it's kind of like um I'm I'm hacking Google by doing this. 00:31:09.440 --> 00:32:06.960 But there's no downside either because I can liquidate everything that I've bought um right now for uh uh the the domains the content the rankings for uh a similar amount or even more money than than I paid for for these websites I could uh sell them as starter sites um and someone else could take

them on and uh and look to build them out so that's what I mean by very little downside um I bought well um if you were to try and create the you know 200 000 pay two hundred thousand words of content it would um it would probably cost more than the liquidation price for everything that that I acquired so you know if even when this takes off um you know I'm I'm not gonna be selling what I have for for less than six figures that's the upside the downside is I can liquidate for$10,000 and uh pretty quickly uh and walk away so uh yeah that that's the space I I like to I like to play in here. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:07.920 Got it. 00:32:08.160 --> 00:33:26.400 So the raw numbers would be you're in net maybe seven or eight thousand uh let's say with your content the 25000 words uh you know buying the domains everything like that you're in somewhere around I don't know let's say five to eight thousand you could liquidate for ten thousand or you know you have this like real asymmetric return where it's like just six figures up there um that's that's really really interesting and and I like that we can use some some actual figures because that that helps people really understand because for the for newcomers they're like okay why it's not making any money so why is he focusing on building out all these uh you know this SEO profile for these businesses but a lot of people don't realize that a business in that niche would be the one that would buy it at the six figure range where they would say all right well this is generating uh a ton of revenue and a great example was the mattress review site that got acquired by Casper years ago where the guy was just reviewing mattresses and they bought his site for it was seven figures. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:32.960 I know it was a high seven figure deal and he was just creating great content in that niche. 00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:49.519 So that would classify as one of those you know don't make don't focus on the revenue that early on build out this really robust link structure and then you have this insane upside where it's like a 10x potential upside. 00:33:50.079 --> 00:34:44.320 Yeah it's got to be at least 10x um that's the goal otherwise it's just not not worth the the the the attention um and uh there would be other other assets uh you know with domain investing uh domain investors look for for 10x as well um and there's no work involved uh which is why it's something that I've uh been looking into um for in terms of that aspect um so yeah with website investing it needs to be at least 10x um for it to uh be worth your time um but you don't need to you don't need to acquire these sites you can build out from scratch um that's that's what I started off doing and and then you can sell for six figures um but when you're buying when you're investing you you've got to kind of get that spread um and uh and that's why I don't like buying revenue generating sites because you do have that you're buying the Google risk.

00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:55.519 And so yeah I like to buy potential I don't like to buy what's already um something that you know that someone has already got working. 00:34:55.599 --> 00:35:05.360 I I like to be the person that um that actually you know gets the site to to decent revenue um because you've just got so so much lower downside. 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:11.280 Yeah so yeah you you can you can do this with with relatively small amounts of of capital. 00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:36.639 And it's uh yeah it can be a fun space yeah yeah that's the that's the kind of that's a great way to tie this off is that a lot of people mistake this for something that takes six seven figures to get involved in they just assume that it's a um like a very unobtainable thing to buy a business and they assume that it takes a large amount of capital. 00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:45.119 And I think that's one of the things that I really like about talking to to great buyers and sellers like yourself that really demystify that. 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:55.440 You know they they break down that thought of you know you're buying websites for$2,000$5000 and you have the potential to sell them for six figures. 00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:02.000 It's just a it's a great thing to to allow the average person to get involved in this space. 00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:19.760 And that's one of the things that I'm really passionate about with this space is that people are the average mom and mom and pop can get involved in this still and I I think that that's that's gonna slowly and gradually change these things these things are going to go up in way more value over the course of the next decade. 00:36:20.159 --> 00:36:30.079 But that's kind of that's kind of it for the for the overview but I really wanted to kind of lay out the red carpet where where can people learn more about what you're working on. 00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:34.320 I know you have a newsletter now where can people learn more from you? 00:36:34.800 --> 00:37:03.039 Yeah everything I'm doing right now is at a publication on a platform called Substack and it's at investing.substack.com uh so there's a weekly Monday newsletter which I uh uh I'm gonna be getting out today's uh we're speaking on a Monday so every Monday it recaps uh what's gone on in the world of website investing and then there's other um additional benefits uh for paid subscribers as well um and then there's a weekly podcast uh on Fridays as well. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:11.599 Um so that's uh yeah a summary of what I do uh you know my week and then what's also been going on in the world of of websites here. 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:12.400 Excellent. 00:37:12.639 --> 00:37:14.719 Well thanks again so much for coming on Richard. 00:37:14.960 --> 00:37:15.599 Thanks for having me. 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:16.400 Good to talk to you. 00:37:16.480 --> 00:37:16.960 Cheers. 00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:22.639 Thank you so much for listening all the way through this episode of the exit presented by Flippa. 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:40.239 If you guys are brand new here definitely hit the subscribe button and don't forget to check out all of the show notes in the description wherever you're listening to this as well as on YouTube and the show notes will have all the links to everything that Richard mentioned his newsletter, his podcast, all of that. 00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:45.840 So you guys will get a chance to check that out and learn more about what Richard is working on. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:55.599 And personally I love the idea of people scaling their businesses and teaching others how to do the same after they have reached success like Richard. 00:37:55.760 --> 00:38:00.880 So that is it for this episode definitely hit a like if you liked this interview with Richard. 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:11.119 Leave us a comment on people that you'd like to see on the exit in the future and we have some really really exciting guests coming in the next days and weeks here on the exit. 00:38:11.199 --> 00:38:15.280 So that is it for this episode and I will see you on the next episode of the Exit