Digital Investing Overview — Buying, Managing, Growing, and Selling Online Businesses
Welcome to my series of posts about buying, managing, growing, and selling websites and online businesses.
Why am I writing this guide to investing in digital assets? Because
- I’m doing it, and have been doing it for most of this year,
- There’s almost no (objective) information out there about investing in online assets, and
- I realised that in spite of thinking I knew a lot from years working in finance and in my own online businesses, I realised how much more I had to learn about the acquisition process.
And as I usually like to do on this blog, I’ll share what I learn, so others can benefit from it.
In this series I’m going to cover that you need to know how to do to buy, manage, grow, and (eventually) sell a website — the major things you should be familiar with.
See below for an overview of articles I’ve written. The existing links are the ones I’ve published; the ones that aren’t linked are articles to come.
Digital Business Investment Basics
- What are the different kinds of digital businesses you can buy? Websites, apps, marketplaces, shops, and more.
- What is a “Website”? No, it’s not just a domain name! How do they make money? (affiliate, advertising, SaaS, products, amazon, and more)
- Digital investment terms you might hear (a lot)
Deciding to Buy a Digital Asset
- Why buy websites (and not property, gold, stocks, bonds, crypto etc.) for cash flow and investment
- Is owning a website “passive income”? A reality check
- The time required to manage, build, and grow a website
- Investment multiples for websites — what you should expect to pay for a reasonable amount of income
- How much it costs to build a website — What it has likely cost the person selling it to you
- Buying vs Building a Website
Shopping for Websites — How and Where to Buy them
- Where you can buy an online business — brokers, Facebook groups, or direct purchasing
- The best brokers for buying websites (EmpireFlippers, Flippa etc.) — compared
- Should you buy a “Starter Site”? Checking out starter sites on Flippa
- How to get a great site made for you — Outsourcing services
- Finding “good deals” — What they look like (and what to avoid)
- Types of websites you can buy — marketplaces, blogs, review sites, forums, and more
- Checklist for website purchase due diligence — everything to check
How to Value a Website to buy
- Analysing SEO — Page rank, keywords, rankings
- Tools to use to analyse a website’s performance — Google Sheets, Ahrefs, SEMRush a few others
- What’s a domain name worth? Is a .com worth more?
Risks in buying websites
- Are PBNS or paid backlinks bad, if they’re even disclosed?
- Red flags — Signs you should walk away from any investment
- How to evaluate website investment risk and how it affects valuation
- How to analyse the seller in your due diligence (KYC)
Take over and Transition
- Avoiding getting screwed — how to use a payment escrow service
- Checklist for website hand-over — everything to include
- How long it takes to acquire a website and hand it over
- Contract terms that any website purchase should include
- Migration — the Best Website Hosts compared
- Transition the team, or build your own team?
Maintain / Grow your Website
- Major parts of website management to outsource (content generation, backlinks, technical management)
- What is traffic worth when it’s not monetised? Understanding potential RPMs
- Analysing site technical performance — load times, display, etc., and opportunities for improvement
- Tools to use to manage a website’s data
- What you need to do to manage a website once you’ve bought it
- Website Revenue Streams — an overview
- Comparison of major advertising platforms — Adsense, Mediavine, Ezoic, Adthrive, and others
- Affiliate revenue explained
- Costs of managing a website — what will it cost you to host it, manage it, and grow it?
- Optimisation — how to improve website statistics
- Best tools to improve a website’s performance
Connect with other Online Investors
- Resources for website buyers
- Facebook groups to join for website buyers and sellers
- Courses to take on website buying and selling
