Selling websites to local businesses

Im not sure about selling, but renting it out. Its called pre-ranked websites or website rentals. You create a website, service + city name and get it ranked in Google to rent out. Call around and find a business to rent it out to and voila you have monthly income.

Yes, this became popular last year. You can find WSOs about it too. I think they call it website leasing, or some sell the site outright. It's a marketing approach that requires you do the work on the front end yourself, then take the proof of your efforts, the site, and put it out to bid or sale to 10 or 20 competitive businesses in your area. You might have a starting bid price but you let them start a bidding war. The proof is in the pudding, your page one ranking site so it's not a hard sell.

You have vast amount of information on this technique if you use the forum's search function. But yes, it's a viable business if you can integrate online + offline. But I can tell you it's a little bit more difficult then I expected.

Do a search and see the experiences various Warriors have shared last months. That should get you going.

My experience has been that lead-gen websites sell the best when you've pre-ranked them. You can flesh out the website with good content to help in ranking, but having a lead gen component allows you to lease not only a "ranked website" but also a known quantity of leads generated per month.

Until you're ready to lease out, sell the leads to a broker. Or even better, sell them to one of your prospects. Be sure to get enough for those leads each so that when you're ready to pitch leasing, the cost savings and potential for them is obvious.

Then when you've got the leads up enough, offer to provide these leads at a lower cost by having them lease the site.

There's basically 3 ways you can approach pre-ranked sites that I use, depending on the prospects.

1. Pre-rank and sell the leads one-off at a higher price (you own and keep the domain and they don't have access).
2. Pre-rank and lease the site for a flat rate or a per-lead rate (flat rate sells better but make sure don't de-value the leads by making the lease too low). You still own the site and can lease to someone else if they stop paying.
3. Pre-rank it and sell it - similar to flipping a site. Be sure to cover your costs and a good profit. You'll want to value like the flippers do. How much could you have gotten for a consistent amount of leads or a site lease over the course of about 12 months?

Just my 2 cents worth. Hope you find a nugget or two of use here.

Others on the post are right - you can find out a lot by searching the forum. And there are good WSOs. I'd advise staying away from the ones with hype claims or odd-sounding reviews and testimonials. There is enough good content out there to be picky and use common sense. Not saying those don't have good content either, but if you have to pick and choose because of your budget, be picky.

This is exactly how I started a few years back. Still do it today. The idea is to get it ranked first page and then locate a business on page 3+ and "rent" it to them. I have also gotten the site to first page and then sold it instead. It's a matter of preference. Still works today and will likely work for a long time to come.

@sprks79 is right on this. And Holly Cutter's WSO is good. I picked it up too.

Regarding research, you want to get the best buyer keyword you can come up with. People are kind of shy about email lead-gen these days, so I go with a domain and content designed to reassure them that they are getting high-quality information in return. And have a high-quality piece of content for them for free.

I agree totally about the high customer lifetime value. These clients are a bit better about knowing the value of a lead. Another big set of industries are subcontractors - painting, roofing, landscaping and other folks who gets over $1,000 a job and see the value of a spending some money to get quality leads.

Sometimes when I need inspiration, I'll go out and drive around, examining store fronts, signs, and even looking at houses in the neighborhood. I kind of plant the idea in the back of my head asking myself "how much does it cost me if I needed ...?"

Sometimes sub-niches are less competitive. Not dentists, but endodontists, or not painters but commercial real estate painters. The bigger the price on a single job, the better.

Regarding the leads tracking, I actually use an auto-responder to capture leads. I have my form email me too, but always capture the leads to a database. As long as it's your site, you own those leads as future prospects, and if you get double-opt-in, you can market to them on related products later down the road.

Great tips, thanks! For my first domain, do I need to have new jersey in the title, or no? This domain is the only thing holding me back from starting right now.

Thanks for the helpful tips I believe I will try this. I know offline marketing is very hot nowadays