Another day, another way to make money for you guys. I’ve been using this method to take advantage and make a few pretty decent website sales.. I’m talking low four figure sales for about an hour of work.

You see, the problem with niche marketing is that well… it’s difficult to get a foothold in the established niches. Forex, diet pills, make money online even - there are thousands, if not millions of competitors out there, most of which have a budget that will blow yours out of the water.

What if those competitors… weren’t a problem?

What if your competition was so weak… you could rank first page for a 500+ daily search term… in a day or less?

I have, and now you can do.

I’m talking about current event annilhilation.

By taking advantage of current events, we can make sure that most of our competition isn’t established… everyone starts out on an even foothold. No more having to compete with sites that are years older, have thousands more backlinks etc.

One of the comments yesterday spoke about wanting to know how to find and act on untapped niches… about setting trends and the like.

The websites we’ll be setting up will be small, 5-10 page niche websites. Nothing too complicated. Here’s how to find our niches though.

The two best places to find what people are interested in is a) Yahoo Buzz and b) Google Trends.

Yahoo Buzz has a little chart on the right showing top ten searches (updated hourly) while Google has 10 on their homepage and up to 100 if you click through.

This is a goldmine, because we can see what exactly people are searching for at this moment. Hot search terms = profit.

Let’s take a direct example, so you guys can understand better… at the moment, one of the hot search terms in Yahoo is Miley Cyrus.

Right now, people are pretty interested to see what she’s up to. At the moment there are more than 100,000 searches daily just for her name… that’s not even including other keywords.

As soon as you see a search term that you like, what you do is enter it into SEOBook’s tool.

From SEOBook’s tool, we can see variations of the hot keyword that other people are searching for. Now the direct keyword - in this case Miley Cyrus - will usually be too hard, but there are plenty of others.

You’re looking for anything with more than 500 searches daily.

The easiest way to rank first page… is by snagging the relevant domain. If the domain is still available for a term, it’s likely that there’s less competition, and thus it’s easier to rank.

Now for the above keyword, there are around… 20 terms that get more than 500 searches daily. That’s a potential 15,000 visitors monthly (if you snag top place - this is not difficult with the exact keyword in your domain).

Use Instant Domain Search to make searching fast, and just take keywords from the SEOBook tool and enter them directly in.

A lot of the direct keywords were taken, but in this case the keywords miley cyrus shower and miley cyrus bra were both available (in .COM). Both are near the 1,000/day search range, one slightly above, one slightly below.

Now the former keyword had around 2,000,000 competing pages. The latter however, had only around 750,000 pages - ripe for domination.

Pick a simple template from OSWD and setup a 5 page website. Make sure you do simple SEO (meta tags, page titles, bolded keywords, h1 / h2) and create 3-4 articles, one picture page. Make sure you download any pictures you find and reupload them with the keyword as its title (to benefit from Google Images traffic).

Now… pages need links to get them indexed. So submit them to the top few Social Networks, using the keyword as your title when allowed (Digg, for example). You don’t care about promoting it, just the high power backlink. After you submit it, ping the Digg entry to get your site indexed within 24 - 48 hours.

You can also leave comments on dofollow blogs or build links in other ways. All you need is around 25 links total with your keyword as anchor text (if you have an account on forums with a few hundred posts, this is good enough). Use the search term as your anchor text.

As for monetization… use Adsense, or similar (PPC). For some keywords (like miley cyrus bra) Adsense may not work, so use something like Adbrite. However you can stick to ’safe’ keywords if you prefer, as Adsense pays better than any similar kind of program. The great thing is that it’ll pick up the keywords in your article and link to similar websites, and especially celebrity related topics - these kinds of users are click-whores.

You can also try out affiliate programs - no offense meant, but in this case - the people that search for celebrities tend to be not that bright and believe they can win things like a free iPod by just entering their email address. Email / zip submits are king on celebrity kind of websites. However, most of them only allow USA traffic, while Adsense allows you to monetize everyone.

Within a few days, use Shoemoney’s SERP tool to see where you’re ranking for your keyword. Depending where you are, build links - you should be first page or close to it, but if you’re not just keep on building

Once you hit the first page, keep working (won’t take long) until you’re top five. At the top five positions, it’s fairly easy to make around $20/day. As long as you have 2-4 weeks of consistant revenue, you can flip the website for $1,000 or more (just list it at the various webmaster forums).

You’ll make anywhere between $100 - $500+ of revenue and net a thousand or so for the website sale.

Don’t think. Act. All you need to spend on is the domain name and some time (hosting is available at $0.01 first month at HG) so you have nothing to lose.

Good luck, and if you have any questions let me know

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I finally fixed the Testimonials page - thanks all that sent them in, I’d been busy and forgot to put them up. If you want to send in more, feel free.

All of you are ’selling’ something if you run a website - it may not be directly for money, but if you plan to run a profit money will be an end goal. Some of you may have simple aims for your readers - just to keep them coming back, or capture their emails addresses. Others may want their visitors to click ads (Adsense etc), sign up for something (CPA etc) or even buy a product.

What most people recommend to others trying to sell anything is to do what they call ‘market research’ … take a look at what 5-10 of your competitors are doing, take what you think are their best ideas and use them for yourself.

This is bullshit.

Firstly, you don’t know whether the ideas you see on other websites are successful. For example, there are plenty of bloggers preaching about how to get loads and loads of traffic… and then on the off chance they post a traffic report, you see they’re getting 50 - 100 visitors a day (or even less in some cases).

Secondly, all strategies are different. Funny posts about where he ate lunch may work for Blogger X because his readers are morons his readers like that kind of thing, but post up a picture of where you snacked yesterday on your internet marketing blog and you’ll get laughed at. I dare you.

For me, the best way to find out what your market wants is also the easiest one… to ask. If you have a list, send them an email; if you have a blog, write up a post (like I’m doing now). If your list or blog isn’t big enough for you to get answers, use relevant forums as people that visit them will be the same that could be buying your product (whatever it is).

By just asking, you save a) time and b) money. It took me around 30 minutes to write this post - now think if I had to analyse ten blogs or sales pages, how long that would take me. And we all know I was born lazy

Does this work?

I only give you guys stuff that works… if it doesn’t, and is just a theory, it comes with a huge disclaimer. There’s no disclaimer with this post, so yes - it does work.

Over the past two months, I’ve sold three different main products, in three different niches - one cost $27, one cost $47, while one cost $97. In total, they’ve made over 200 sales till date (combined).

Total refund requests?

3.

One person didn’t want a refund anymore after I explained something to her, so that’s 1% of refunds. Whereas for standard products, the refund rate can be as higher as 15 - 50%.

How? All I did was send an email out before hand, asking what people wanted… and when they told me, I tried to deliver.

Anyways, here’s where the asking comes into play - I have a couple questions I’d like answers to, and it would be killer if you guys could help out.

1. This blog. I’ve got post ideas, but I ramble on here quite a bit.

I want to know what exactly you guys want. You see, the less crap I put out that no one’s interested in, the more time both you guys and I save, so let me know what you want to see on here and I’ll try to oblige. The more specific, the better - for example, don’t just say ‘money making ideas’, say the topic you’re interested in.

2. The site flipping course.

I picked up a decent domain as well as vBulletin today, and will be getting ready.

There will be two courses - a cheaper one, aimed at the masses (around $37 - $47) which includes forum access and the like. I want to know what exactly you want to see on there - what sites, etc. I might be getting some JV partners on board, not necessarily to help me promote, but to help out in the forum, answer questions etc. What kind of websites do you most want to learn how to flip? If it’s ‘easiest’, don’t worry; I got that covered.

The second course will be more personal, and will come with a double your money back guarantee. I’m confident in my abilities, and know that if people take action they’ll make money. It will also be higher priced.

Let me know guys, would be a great help. To make things easier, *best* reply to this post gets 1 x free lifetime access to the former course.

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Everything you read on this blog WILL help you make more money online… even when it isn’t obvious, you can take tips on what to do by studying the posts and ideas a little bit (for example, that 15 ways to get sacked post was useless on the outwards end of things… but I received over 5,000 uniques to it which should tell you something).

Rather than confuse you guys though, the topic of this post is fairly simple. Sorry for it being delayed, but I’ve been busy.

Higher ticket items will generally make you more money than lower ticket ones.

You see, when I started out selling products - I focused on the low end. Around $5 - $10 per product sale.

Mainly because I didn’t feel I could sell them for more - this was a HUGE mistake for a few reasons:

Less buyers means more time to deal with each one. Which is why I’d rather have five buyers paying $20 than ten buyers paying $10.

A higher price point means more interest. The more interest there is, the higher the chance of you making sales. If you see a $1,000 product and a $10 product, both linked to from a standard page, which link are you more likely to be interested in? (Even if you had no intention of buying before clicking - that can always be changed with killer copy and a few other things).

Lower ticket buyers tend to be the bitchiest type of customer around. They whine because you’re not delivering them hourly updates for their fee of $10/month, annoy the hell out of you with questions and whatnot. Why? Because generally, it’s newbies that buy cheaper products, and newbies are sometimes (not pointing fingers at anyone, just making a general statement ) some of the most annoying people to deal with online.

I’ll walk you through two examples.

Product one… was a short eBook, sold for $10. I sold over 100 copies, netting slightly more than $1,000 in the process.

I did have to deal with a) chargebacks (people paying with hacked Paypal accounts) b) pre sale questions (for a $10 product… come on!) and c) irrational buyers (buyers that asked for refunds for weird reasons - ex ”because I wasn’t sure what it was about” or ”I already knew the idea even though it was stated in the sales page” etc).

I spent quite a few hours on that, and it was a bit of a pain.

Product two… was a personalized course I launched a couple days ago privately - I asked seven people, four agreed and paid. The course cost $247 up front, and all payments were sent within 24 hours. Same amount of money, far less hassle.

Less Paypal fees, no chargebacks (people don’t tend to when it’s for an extended period of time or for a larger payment that doesn’t involve immediate gains) and no annoying buyers. No broken English, coaching over instant messenger… easy as hell.

With the higher price, I can take on less people, be more relaxed and dedicate more time to each person.

A question from a $10 buyer is the same (they will both usually expect the same quality of response) compared a question from a $247 buyer.

A few days ago I talked about relaxing to make more money… this is the same thing. Why deal with 100 customers… when I can deal with 4 customers, that are of a higher class?

Just a small tip for you guys, one that’s made me a few thousand since I started using it myself. You see, I used to be in the mindset that my products were cheap… that was until I saw rehashed crap sold for hundreds. If they could do it - why couldn’t I offer something that was a) more affordable and b) better? Both were easily done.

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Sorry about yesterday’s post, I was experimenting with Digg and the like. Did not make the front page, although it has 200~ Diggs so far - not bad I thought. Make sure you enter the contest for a Nintendo Wii.

This is something I’ve recently come across (over the last few months or so) - membership sites. I love membership sites, simply because they turn into recurring income if you do them right, and although some will unsubscribe (just like your RSS feed) if you promise them killer content AND deliver on that promise, you’ll be able to keep people for a few months - turning them into a source of passive income.

The problem with membership websites is that well - transferring them. If you setup Paypal subscriptions, you are screwed - if you want to ever sell the website, you have the hassle of getting everyone to cancel then resubscribe - most will not if you make them do that. You could also transfer the Paypal account (only if it’s a business one) but this is unrealistic for most of us.

Here’s where we can use vBulletin to handle memberships.

The great thing about vBulletin is that you can offer multiple memberships on the same website, with usergroups. All you do is set usergroups and offer paid subscriptions; people select what they want to pay for and how long for (including recurring / non recurring) and get access to your members area.

You can change the Paypal address at any time, so transferring is a breeze, and most people are pretty familiar with vBulletin. Unlike similar solutions for running memberships, vBulletin is actually pretty cheap -
a brand new owned license costs $180 and a second hand one is available for $80 - $120. vBulletin also comes with quite a few sweet mods which are mostly free and improve functionality.

Remember, if you have a few members that are somewhat long term, you can easily sell a website for 10x or even 20x it’s monthly revenue - it’s not hard at all to get 10 people paying you $10 a month in any niche for a couple months and if you can do that you have a website worth $1,000 - $2,000. In the internet marketing niche this can be harder, but elsewhere - one PLR eBook, maybe some audio, a members forum and you’re all set.

For me, direct sales - they’ve always been easier than selling someone else’s product (affiliate marketing) or even monetizing a site through things like PPC. If you understand what your customer wants (this is the same whether you’re selling an eBook, a script or a website) and can fulfill those needs, it’s far easier to make money.

I am seriously considering that website coaching class, as I’ve had a few people interested - maybe at a lower price (say $27 - $37) as a few of you seem to think $47 is too expensive. I’m also thinking of recruiting experienced ’site flippers’ … in different niches, so that you guys can get a lot more knowledge. Also maybe a case study of getting a website from the ground up to something successful, one of my $1k+ flips.

Nothing decided yet though, still searching around for things like a vB license. We will see how it works out.

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The website flipping industry is a lucrative one - Sitepoint recently cleared $1,000,000 in sales monthly for the first time and those are just public deals.

Sadly, in any industry where there is so much money, there is always going to be people looking to scam newbies out of money. Here’s a few tips to stay safe, both when buying and selling.

When selling:

1. Always take payment up front. I don’t care whether you’re a new member on a forum and your account was created two minutes ago - anyways that asks for the website up front will usually be trying to scam you.

2. If possible, use Sitepoint. Although it costs you to list, it’s a lot safer than Digital Point (there is the verification process - which requires a phone verification, as well as site verification for sellers) and if you’re selling anything worth more than around $50 you will usually get 30 - 70% more for the sale than you would at Digital Point or other webmaster forums. Sitepoint has a higher class of clientele, with more money to spend.

3. For larger deals, use Escrow.com - for me, I take my chances with Paypal (however I follow the next step to the letter), however you guys should use Escrow for larger deals. What quantifies as a large deal? Depends on the person, but for a newbie it would be anything over $500, for a slightly more advanced webmaster it would be anything over $1,000. It is a hassle, but it’s THE safest way to do business online.

4. If you’re too lazy to use Escrow (*coughs*) and go through services where chargebacks can be done, wait 24 hours before you transfer. The thing is that a lot of scammers pay with hacked Paypal accounts, whose real owners report unauthorized activity and get their money - Paypal will NEVER side with you in this case.

If you wait 24 hours there is a good chance the real account owner will find out before then and chargeback, saving you from transferring and losing everything.

5. Pay attention to the buyer. On forums, there are things that can tip you off - some forums have the ‘iTrader’ or past history as a feature, while members with large reputations and large post counts should be trusted more easily than those without. However, do not blindly go with anyone, no matter how reputable they seem - remember, forum accounts can be hacked too.

If a buyer is jumpy - wanting to close a sale quickly, that’s usually a sign that something is amiss. Don’t be pressured.

You can also look at a person’s Paypal record - someone that is verified and has a few hundred as their rating (mine is something like 420~) is a lot more trustable than someone that is unverified. However, remember that the Paypal account may be hacked so follow the previous step.

What you do is look at all of the above - if there are too many things that you feel uncomfortable with, don’t go through with the deal, no matter how good it seems. Remember that the more unrealistic it is (for example, a buyer offering you $2,000 for a website worth $100 at best) the higher the chance that you’re dealing with a scammer.

When buying:

Do the above in reverse.

Seriously though, take a note of the user’s history, reputation, Paypal level. Other things:

1. Ask the user to put up a page - something like /forsale.html - to prove they have access to the website.

2. Check WHOIS details and see if it matches the name of the person you’re dealing with.

3. If you can get access to statistics, make sure you verify them. If someone has a website promising thousands of hits daily and wants a high amount for it, ask for them to make you a Google Analytics account on the domain so that you can check if they’re lying or not.

If the website has a truckload of income, check where it’s from - for example, if they tell you that it’s a digital product which has been marketed on forums, ask for the forum thread and see how active those threads are.

3. Ask for profit. If they have expenses, you want to see proof of them. You don’t want to buy a website with $10,000 in revenue only to learn that it was making $100 profit monthly. If they tell you that they’re spending X on marketing, you want to see screenshot proof of that X.

4. For larger deals, try and discuss the sale with the buyer via a phone or even just Skype. Ask all questions you have before concluding a sale - including those about how they advise marketing the website, whether they provide after sale support (to you) and whatnot.

5. Don’t go for unrealistic deals. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is - or there’s something you’re not being told.

Do you have any other tips you use when buying or selling a website? Let us know

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