Buying Websites for passive income streams?

[GulpinSculpin]

Hey guys,

New here, but read the book and have tech BD experience.

So I was thinking of ways to generate passive income streams, and one of the things I was thinking is VS RealEstate, why not try to buy blogs or other sites that generate passive income streams?

I could use some help and feedback on a few things though - hopefully, someone here has been successful in this (in sure there are a ton) and can offer some wise words of wisdom on how to build a portfolio and scale this sort of thing while reducing my time exposure.

1. Lets say I keep it simple and just stick to content sites like blogs with Amazon affiliates or Ad Sence or whatever, aiming at sites that make like $50-$100 bucks/month to take them to 1k+ or so/month
a. Can I just hire someone to produce the content on an automated basis? Something like reinvesting all of the cash to generate the content?
b. The site might need a facelift and to add social media, etc...Can I just hire a team to do this or will it eat me alive?
c. Do I hire people from Upwork?

2. Anyone that has a formula down of any feedback that's willing to share, Id be greatly appreciative.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

I've heard of people doing this and been interested in the same.
Apparently it can be very lucrative if the site is about finance, investing, or politics.

Finding one to buy could be impossible (if there aren't any for sale that are any good or that you can afford)... You might be better off building from scratch.

I'm here to follow this thread in case someone with more experience chimes in

 

[OverByte]

Hey @GulpinSculpin ,

Websites are assets and yes you can buy them, the level of passivity will depend on how well you can manage your systems. For buying content based sites this basically means how well you can systemize content creation and delivery. There is a thread on here where someone was buying a bunch of smaller businesses for this purpose, I don't remember the title offhand but you'll be able to find it if you look around, if you're new here you should do some browsing anyway.

The answers to your questions a,b are pretty obvious, yes you can hire someone to do anything. Will it eat you alive - that depends on your management and hiring skills and ability to identify opportunity.

Regarding c, I personally like upwork and it's the easiest way to get started but you need to know how to vet people. As you scale you can look at other options. Note that if you hire someone directly you'll have more paperwork to do (if you want to operate legitimately) - services like upwork shield you from that which is why they are easy to get started with.

2 - you've already answered this yourself and know what to do if this is the path you want to take, a) buy business that is content oriented, b) systemize content creation process, c) hire content creators, d) measure results e) reinvest in what's working. Those are the high level steps, each one is going to take a bunch of head banging to get right, there are no shortcuts.

In my opinion the most important thing for you to figure out is how to buy undervalued website assets in a niche you can find writers about which will drive a target audience that actually purchases something while ensuring the cost of content creation < the profit from conversions to your affiliate offers. If you can figure out all that, you can make it work.

If you're serious then I'd suggest buying a site in the ballpark you mentioned and figuring out how to scale it, document what you learn, that will give you the formula that works for you. Then apply it to other sites.

 

[GulpinSculpin]

I've heard of people doing this and been interested in the same.
Apparently it can be very lucrative if the site is about finance, investing, or politics.

Finding one to buy seems pretty challenging... You might be better off building from scratch.

From what ive read, you need to do keyword research (low competition and CPC - am I right?), and search a few pages back on google to find ones that are older and out of the google sandbox with organic traffic and links.

I think building one is cheaper but harder... an established site where the owner is a hobbiest or just lost the desire might be quicker to get up to speed.

I could be wrong and maybe everyone's different, but.... I think you look at this and say "I can give this a face lift, add social media and fresh content, and boom! were off to the races"

Again, I have yet to do this, but doing some diligence and seeking feedback before I invest cash...

 

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[GulpinSculpin]

Hey @GulpinSculpin ,

Websites are assets and yes you can buy them, the level of passivity will depend on how well you can manage your systems. For buying content based sites this basically means how well you can systemize content creation and delivery. There is a thread on here where someone was buying a bunch of smaller businesses for this purpose, I don't remember the title offhand but you'll be able to find it if you look around, if you're new here you should do some browsing anyway.

The answers to your questions a,b are pretty obvious, yes you can hire someone to do anything. Will it eat you alive - that depends on your management and hiring skills and ability to identify opportunity.

Regarding c, I personally like upwork and it's the easiest way to get started but you need to know how to vet people. As you scale you can look at other options. Note that if you hire someone directly you'll have more paperwork to do (if you want to operate legitimately) - services like upwork shield you from that which is why they are easy to get started with.

2 - you've already answered this yourself and know what to do if this is the path you want to take, a) buy business that is content oriented, b) systemize content creation process, c) hire content creators, d) measure results e) reinvest in what's working. Those are the high level steps, each one is going to take a bunch of head banging to get right, there are no shortcuts.

In my opinion the most important thing for you to figure out is how to buy undervalued website assets in a niche you can find writers about which will drive a target audience that actually purchases something while ensuring the cost of content creation < the profit from conversions to your affiliate offers. If you can figure out all that, you can make it work.

If you're serious then I'd suggest buying a site in the ballpark you mentioned and figuring out how to scale it, document what you learn, that will give you the formula that works for you. Then apply it to other sites.

Awesome!

Thank you!

 

[jdm667]

@GulpinSculpin not a bad idea - venture capital is starting to get wise to this concept and valuations are going up. I have been toying with the idea, but have not bought a site yet.

However, I have built a few sites from scratch (one has made $1K during several months this year). Just know tha it can take time to get out of the "Google Sandbox" and start ranking with a new site.

You can buy "aged domains" from Human Proof Designs (I'm sure other companies sell aged domains too). The theory is that aged sites will rank in Google faster, since they are not brand new. I don't know if this is true or not.

Buying an established site with content and revenue will be the expensive option, but it will save you time. Just be careful if the previous owner used "black hat" SEO, or else a Google update could kill your site (they just did a major update earlier this month, and another one in May this year).

If you hire people to produce content, you will need to master a human resources system. There is nothing wrong with that, but it takes time and effort to manage people. Hiring a manager is also possible, but you would probably need a site making more than $1K to pay someone competent.

You can also use content writing agencies to buy batches of articles all at once. Some of the writers are good and some are not. You would have to find a way to weed out the bad ones - that is probably a major difficulty and opportunity in this business model.

This thread is long, but awesome and related to what you are asking:

GOLD! - HOT! - From 0 To $240,000 Per Year PROFIT In 18 Months (Acquisition Entrepreneurship)

From 0 to $240,000 per year profit in 18 months I've been a follower of this forum for about a year now, had read the Millionaire Fastlane book, and finally have decided to tell my story. About a year and a half ago, I found myself unemployed and with near zero savings, two house payments, and...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Good luck and let us know if you follow this path.

 

[Kal-El1998]

have you thought about building your own lead generation sites instead? after it takes 2-3 months to rank, they'll be worth about $1,000 a month each.

 

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