Assorted Thoughts on Website Buying, Selling and Monetizing

It seems the easiest type of business - there are thousands of "website flippers" telling us how easy it is to create a new site and sell it for a profit.

Some use the same template over and over again (or with minor tweaks). Others have become smarter in disguising their templates/turnkeys as real businesses by installing auto-blogs, inserting free content they've taken from article directories, even putting fake ads on the site to give the impression they are established sites and popular with advertisers.

The scammer in this story setup site after site using a £450 database and a basic site design. He then targeted middle class individuals who wanted to break out of the rat race and run their own business. He charged them tens of thousands of pounds.

His sales talk was very convincing. He demonstrated potential and had very plausible looking revenue projections. He took buyers to his own house in Cornwall and showed off his designer furniture and 81 inch TV. He was described as living like a tycoon with fast cars, speed boats and properties in exotic locations.

He created an illusion of wealth. And he convinced them to buy into it.

In essence, he sold them website templates at up to £40,000 ($60,000) a go.

Read the full thread.


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