I mean it. You can literally buy a website from someone. Just like you would buy anything on Craigslist or eBay. Why would you do that? Because quite a lot of websites out there earn good money (or at least have a good potential to earn money with a few simple tweaks).
And from time to time owners decide to sell their website. Because they have shifted their priorities, have another website that is earning better money, or simply lost interest after years of running it. This is your moment.
As an example, the marketplace Flippa.com currently has over 6,000 listings where people sell their website (or domain).
This must be expensive! How much does a website cost?
Well, that is not so easy to say, nor calculate and it depends on a lot of factors. But as a rule of thumb, people take a multiple of the monthly profits a website earns (i.e. the owner could pay out to herself after all bills have been paid) to calculate the purchase price.
And on average, websites currently sell for about 30–40x their monthly profit (here is my detailed article on how to value websites). Those numbers change, and historically they have gone up quite a bit. But if you compare that to real estate this asset class is still very, very interesting.
You can get your money back in <2–3 years, everything beyond that is profit
In other words, if you only manage to keep that website running and earnings stable, you recoup your initial investment within 30–40x months. And now imagine you are able to either improve the income (or cost structure) of the website! Then you have your money back even quicker.
There is no free lunch — be aware of the risks
But behold — there is no way to earn quick money (and I nearly lost substantial money from buying a website). Websites might face an algorithm update, which sends their search results down (to page 2 and beyond) or Amazon changes their affiliate commissions. Or, you simply do a technical mistake. Or, you did not realize something important during due diligence.
There are substantial risks associated with buying websites and I only write this article for educational purposes (read my disclaimer for the relevant legal mumbo jumbo). But a house can burn too or a tenant can wreck your place. So (nearly) no investment comes without risks, please do your proper due diligence.
And where can I buy websites?
There are quite a few places. From relatively unadministered marketplaces to brokers that help you quite a lot. After all, it depends a lot on your budget.
Let’s say you want to give this a test and spend $5,000. Then no broker will even lift a finger for you. So doing the proper due diligence and finding the right website, speaking to the owner, that’s all up to you.
If I would be you, I would look at:
- Flippa.com
- SideProjectors.com
- Investors.club
If you want to spend serious money (approx. >40,000€), I suggest:
- FEInternational.com
- EmpireFlippers.com
And if you want to go beyond $1m, the game is again slightly different. Then I recommend:
- FEInternational.com
- Latonas.com
- HelloExit.com
Interested to learn more?
I am currently creating a course (How To Buy Websites For Profit) to help you get started. I share good sources to find deals and tricks on how to do due diligence. It’s far from being done, which is why I offer it for $19 (and hope for your feedback, while I keep working on the content).
And if you don’t like courses (because you never finish them anyhow), sign up for my free newsletter where I share my learnings and more.
