Best way to invest lump £££ in online money-making?

[melat0nin]

Hi all

A couple of years ago I discovered the minisite thread on the forum here and had a go at it, with some success - I was up at 9 minisites, although today I'm down to one, which is making £60-90 per month from adsense. Obviously not a huge amount, but pretty respectable for my first effort.

I've got some capital behind me now and I'd like to invest a bit more in making money online to create residual income, but I'm not sure where it would be best to start. Some people buy software which generates affiliate stores, others buy expensive domains, and others buy fully-developed websites.

What would you guys suggest? I was looking at BANS (building a niche site) which is about £35 to buy into, so not a lot. But I don't really want the hassle of researching domains etc if I can avoid it. I'd be willing to spend quite a bit more on a site that already had an income.

Any thought would be much appreciated. I'm looking forward to getting back into the game!

 

[woopwoop]

I'm no expert... and I just plod along buying and developing names.

Some I guess are minisites, others directories, a few forums (both busy and dead, some geo, some topic focused), and others are bigger Amazon/other affiliate sites.

I've heard of BANS but haven't used it. I love wordpress, and have a self-made directory script, patched together, which does well with ads.

Although I'm making money I find that I'm just buying more names usually at prices between 1k-2k. Not sure exactly what I'm going to be using them for. I tend towards wanting to develop them but free time is an issue.

I am definitely trying to avoid stretching myself too thinly, and am trying to get new domain purchases hooked up with a site quickly to at least pay the reg fees.

One thing that hit me today (while my day job is getting very busy) is that I spend a lot of time doing this stuff.

Running forums and doing domain stuff is a lot of work. I probably should have thought about this earlier, but it is hours each day. It is at best a part time job and rather than seeing the income as easy money I think I should keep track of it to see my hourly wage. Some weeks I'm making less than minimum wage.

In the early days I use to consider it a hobby, and something that funded my gadget addiction. I don't know if anyone else has done this, but I find myself setting the price of a domain (or negotiating it) around the price of a new camera/TV/laprop etc. that I wanted. I remember selling a domain name for £800 so I could buy a Nikon D80 a few years ago. Things have changed a bit, now I sometimes need to sell when I have my eye on another domain.

Back on topic - I think that if you have found something that's bringing you £60-90 a month you could try to replicate it a few times (maybe different niches) or think of a way to build that one site to be even bigger.

SEO/backlinks/content are always key and something that I need to work harder on - especially building backlinks.

 

[ScottJ]

Buy a good established site if you have budget, reduce the risk, pay 2-5 years earnings if you have to & it warrants it, improve the site income, get paid back quicker, rinse & repeat.

 

[GreyWing]

Only thing with buying established sites is be cautious with the figures the seller supplies you with, due deligence is key.

But Scott is absolutley right, IMO that is the best way. But it will time to find a seller to let go of a site like that.

All the best
GW

 

[peacock]

As you have the capital, I agree that going for an established site is probably the best option. Then spend some time optimising it.
I think it's best to look for something you have some interest and knowledge of though.

Maybe your one adsense site can be built up and you can find other revenue streams ? Is it a strong domain ?

 

[melat0nin]

Thanks everyone, that's very helpful.

My minisite which is earning £60-90 a month (well, last month was its highest earner since Jan 2008 when I started it, and it brought in £92) is noisyneighbours . net. It's #1 in Google for the term, and gets 5-6k uniques per month. I put a forum on it about a year ago, and it has increased traffic (and earnings) significantly. I don't do anything to the site at all, it just ticks along nicely. It's only got adsense on it, nothing else, but I don't know if there's really any scope for monetising the niche any further.

woopwoop - the time is a key factor. I have much more free time now, having finished a full time job in order to go back to uni - but i can see that it would be easy to fall into the trap of allowing this to take over my life, because of the lure of potentially limitless earnings. I really don't want that - residual is definitely the key.

It seems like buying an established site is the way to go. GreyWing mentioned due diligence - this is the thing that concerns me most. Obviously people are in this game to make money, and there's no shortage of people talking up their sites/domains to try and make an extra buck. It's very tempting when you see a site auction (e.g. on digital point) to think Wow! and then just go for it, but I know that's a mistake without further research. What tips do you have to research a site and domain to ensure it's a good buy? I have pretty good capital, but not so much that i'm willing to take silly risks

Also, what's the best place to look for them? I know from Scott's blog that he often approaches people directly, but I'm not sure I have the knowledge to identify a good site yet. I looked at the DP auction forum, and it's full of dross with a few gems, but the competition there is obviously pretty hot. I'm not sure where to start.

Any tips most welcome!

 

[accelerator]

If you want to make money then I would advise doing some research into where the high paying areas are for affiliate marketing, but I'm not going to spell them out for you. Then pick site topics and build 3 sites. Really focus on thinking about what questions people need answering and building quality content that answers these questions. Long term, if you want recurring revenue, you need to know how to build a quality site. You could buy a site sure, but it's more risky - you still need to research which areas have potential.

Also, think quality not quantity. The quality approach will pay off better long term.

Rgds

 

[peacock]

Look at backlinks and site age to see if a site is as good as claimed.

Also on a forum like Acorn there is a feedback system so you can see if you are buying from a trusted / experienced trader.

In terms of residual income - certain sectors are better for recurring, "lifetime" commissions than others so be careful what you pick. Also think about life cycle of the products ... e.g. tech stuff is changing all the time so you need new content all the time to match it.

 

[melat0nin]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I've bought my first sites - a set of 3 for £255 - will see where they go. Stats showed rough avg earnings of £20pm, with some spikes of up to £60-70. Got Christmas coming, and they have development potential, so I think they could be a reasonable success. Here's hoping...

 

[stender]

Good luck, and let us know how they get on.

 

[ScottJ]

The good thing about approaching people who don't have their sites for sale is that you are less likely to get fake figures and less/no competition on price so it comes down to a good story (buying that lovely poem site for my wife, buying that magic trick site for my son) and due diligence in getting good proof if available of traffic & income and finally of course buying at a multiple or price your both happy with.

You can check the site code and confirm they have analytics installed before hand, the more you do it the more you can guestimate possible income even without good stats if needed.

Best of luck with your purchases.

 

[namealot]

People seam to hate it but always research research research..it really does pay off? Doesn't matter if its £1 or £1,000,000 an investment should make a return? otherwise its a speculative gamble..? There are a lot of scam sites.. promise small returns or big and most with a few hours checking fall flat... I know many think "Bans what an apt name for something so often de indexed by google" but research and you can be one of the ones that don't through it away...