Few questions about flipping

[lee]

Hello all,

I've been gleaning flipping-related information for a long while now. Yet, it's only been recently that I decided to take the plunge in this regard. I've read/perused a conglomerate of articles, ebooks, and other materials on this subject.

I've read the whole website filliping section at Flipping Planet, only to discover at the end that it's been merged with EP. Most of the various sources I encountered contain information that converge to a number of essential guidelines. However, I normally go through more than one source to discover discrepancies among them so that I can isolate and tackle those problematic areas. The biggest one that I found out (in my opinion) was the issue of passion or interest in the subject matter. Many of the guides or ebooks emphasize the importance of interest or passion. But I seldom see this in forum posts, particularly those at FP.

The ex-moderators of FP even claim that they merely produce well-written copy without touching anything else, or what they call Perceived Value. Others claim that they complete the flipping cycle, so to speak, within a matter of weeks. The bulk of the posts I read primarily imply that flipping is all about tweaking either Perceived Value, Monetisation, SEO and/or Design. I might've forgotten a thing or two, but that's what comes to my mind at the moment.

My question is, how can a flipper be required to have a certain interest in the potential purchase when all he's hunting for is a good bargain, and all he'll be doing after buying the site is tweaking one or more of its aspects or even add perceived value only?

Sorry if my post was a lengthy one, and thanks in advance.

[akirk]

Welcome to the forum

Absolutely no need to have a passion - if you are running something as a business / commercially then as long as all the figures stack up and you can sell for more than you buy / your time / costs / etc. then you will make a profit...
however having a passion can be helpful - it can mean that you know the market better and therefore are better placed to buy the bargains / sell to the right people... but it can also be negative - it can mean that your passion distracts you from the reality of a commercial approach - buying with your heart rather than your mind...

Alasdair

[Kay]

Hi Lee, and welcome to Experienced-People. As you noticed we're in a process of a merger where the FP content will be integrated on here.

There's no need at all to apologise for a lengthy post. Quite the opposite - we like considered and interesting posts. BTW, the mods of FP are also members on here.

I do understand your point about having a passion for a subject or looking for something to make money (a bargain). It's an interesting dilemma. Do you want to do something you enjoy or something that will make you money? It can be very hard to find something that ticks both boxes, but it can be possible. Anyway, I don't know much about flipping so I'll leave it to the experts to join in now.

[KenW3]

Lee, Welcome to Experienced-People.

Many of the guides or ebooks emphasize the importance of interest or passion. But I seldom see this in forum posts, particularly those at FP.

Many of the people writing guides do not have the experience. The owners of FP can speak from experience, but day-to-day operations are seldom exciting. Even things that others find inspirational and uplifting become mundane. Perhaps an example would help:

I spent years loving and making music. It was my passion, my avocation. I decided it was something I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life, so I started a business focused on music. I quickly learned that going to work and doing a job focused in the music industry was no more glamorous and exciting than finding new clients for a plumbing company or installing a swimming pool.

People see the 5-minute performance on-stage, see the excitement and glamour, and never realize there was 40 hours of work (every week) to get to that point. There was a marketing department to get the performer noticed, an agent to negotiate payment, travel to and from (while trying to not be noticed), not to mention forced creativity (required for profitable business operations) in the industry (very much like publishing), endless hours of instrument practice per day to maintain proficiency, always learning and memorizing new material - Lee, it gets old fast and becomes a job.

The first song published is exciting, the tenth less so, the fiftieth is just another product, another copyright, the next attempt to sell and make money, another opportunity for promotion of a product. I had a music software company, helped thousands of people make music, and I can tell you that excitement wanes, passions decrease, and anything can become boring. This includes a business that spends 40 hours+ a week looking for website opportunities to flip, while competing against a thousand other businesses with as much or more experience than you may have. It's work but, as an avocation, it's fun. When it's required to pay the mortgage and becomes a vocation, instead, it becomes much less exciting and more like work.

Success is still a reward, and accomplishments are enjoyed, but what you may find here on EP is the same day-to-day business approach that requires dedication to action and focus upon detail, but not necessarily the passion suggested by ebooks.

[lee]

Akirk, Kay and KenW3, many thanks for the great inputs and for welcoming me aboard.

As Kay said, I thought before that this is a dilemma. But then it's very true that having a passion could be a double-edged sord, as Akirk said.

KenW3, what a great analogy! It really dispelled many doubts and uncertainties that were lurking in my mind. Your reply made me more determined than ever to start my Flipping journey and get my feet wet, at the very least. After all, hands-on experience beats anything else. Yet the likes of your analysis give one the needed momentum.

However, I have one last question. I am not the "quickly-flip-n-sell" type. I rather prefer to spend some time, maybe up to a year, tweaking, testing and tuning the site. In this case, wouldn't that necessitate having passion or interest in the niche of your choosing to help you keep going? Isn't it plausible that factors like updating the content will come into play in the long run?

Many times I see people saying that successful flippers must sell hands-free sites that require minimum or no effort to maintain, on the part of the buyer. But this collides head-on with the point that I made above: the need for fresh content, especially after Google's new policy to favor fresh, constantly updated sites. A possible solution would be outsourcing, but that drastically adds to the costs.

Would appreciate very much your enlightening opinions.

[Kay]

Isn't it plausible that factors like updating the content will come into play in the long run?

Absolutely plausible, yes. It depends on your motivation and strategy. If you're building or improving a site with the intention of selling it, you might outsource a lot of the content creation. On the other hand, if you put a lot of yourself into a website of blog on a subject you feel passionate about then you might want to keep the site rather than selling it. If you're building an evergreen site that won't require updating, and you're the best person to write the content for it, then chances are it's something you know and/or care about.

I'm somewhat passionate about the work of NGOs in Cambodia and I do write about the issues sometimes. However, I know it's something I'll never make money from. I'm not passionate about DIY projects, but I have a site about that kind of stuff because it does make some money. It would be ideal if you can earn from your hobby or passion, then you'd be in the fortunate position of getting paid for doing something you enjoy. I've no evidence for this but my guess is that it would be the exception rather than the norm.

[eppie]

There are significant advantages to being dispassionate in building sites for sale. If you're too personally invested in the topic, you may overvalue the site. If your passion leads to you being the public face of your site, it becomes much harder to sell, as it raises the question of the sustainability of your efforts when transferred over to the new owner. Make the operation as turnkey as possible.

[Clinton]

lee, welcome to experienced-people.net

There have been some good posts before this one.

My personal story: I mixed the two. I've had sites on dog training (no interest of mine), pregnancy (I've no personal experience), web design (I'm bloody awful at it) and other subjects that were bought as "businesses" i.e. they made money and I hired people to create the content. On the other hand, I've got sites like experienced-people.co.uk which is on a subject I do know a bit about and I've written most of the content on there myself.

[succor]

Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
-- Johnny Carson

I'm new to this business, but I have discovered a few things so far.

• Writing content gets boring, even when the subject is an interesting one to me.
• Tweaking the onsite SEO is tedious but I can spend hours and hours doing it for some reason.
• Customizing code is painful, but something I can do when the dire need arises.
• Dealing with customers and clients is not my forte, but again something I can do when it has to be me doing it.
• If I deal with a site for very long it gets boring and I'm ready to move on to the next thing, even if it is not a good time to do so.

For these reasons and others I have a partner. So, do I need a passion for the subject? No, not really; and having one doesn't really help either. My partner helps keep me on track and there are other aspects of developing a site to keep my interest... at least for a short period of time. Hope this helps.