This week’s deals feature 2 websites for sale from EmpireFlippers in the gaming and culinary niches, and 2 websites from our private Facebook group in the home and electronics niches. We also cover an aged domain in the travel niche from Odys.
For domains, we share findings on 5 aged SEO domains and 7 branded domains live at GoDaddy auctions.
Aged Domain: Montenegro.org
Summary
Niche: Travel
Source: Odys Global (see listing here)
Age: 1996 (26 Years)
Listed Price: $5,100 (after 40% discount)
Ahrefs
Notable links: National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Wikipedia (nofollow)
Site History
This domain was used since 1996 for an informational site about the country of Montenegro that was created by the Montenegrin Association of America.
The site covered the country’s political history, historic landmarks, geography, language, and culture.
Here’s what the site looked like:
Growth Blueprint
Montenegro is a tourism-based economy that attracted over 2.5 million tourists in 2019. It has a scenic 300-kilometer coastline along the Adriatic Sea and is one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in Europe.
With this exact match domain that matches a country and several high authority links, there is a good opportunity to build an authority site about Montenegro travel.
Here’s what I would do:
- Cover topics that were previously published on the site (historic landmarks, geography, languages, etc.)
- Create travel guides for the top destinations with affiliate links to travel booking sites like Booking.com and Viator
- Look for writers living in Montenegro who can share knowledge and real-life experience
- Create informational articles about Montenegro that will attract links passively (people often assume the .org means an official organization)
The best opportunity for monetization is with tourism affiliate programs like Booking.com with a commission rate between 25% to 40% (of Booking.com’s cut of the hotel price). Viator offers an 8% commission for bookings of sightseeing tours and other activities in Montenegro. Affiliate links can be supplemented with display ads and direct advertisements for local tourism businesses.
5-Year-Old Gaming Site Making $4,332/mo on Empire Flippers
Summary
Niche: Gaming
Source: Empire Flippers (see listing)
Profit: $4,332/mo from AdThrive display ads
Asking Price: $173,268 at a 40X multiple using an 8-month average
Ahrefs
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- More than 750 quality written articles
- Excellent traffic and revenue growth during the last 12 months (as shown in Google Analytics)
- A decent backlink profile with links from sites like Nexusmods, Thenerdstash and Wingg
Setbacks
- Game-based niche and the interest in the game may eventually decline
- The content team will not continue writing for the site after the sale
- Ahrefs shows a traffic drop whereas Google Analytics shows an increase. Further due diligence is required.
Easy Wins
- Create your own digital product about the game (dedicated server hosting, game guides, etc.)
- You could resell game merchandise either as an affiliate or by directly selling game memorabilia through a shop (WooCommerce or Shopify)
- Develop your own gaming Youtube & Twitch channel
Takeaway
This site covers a gaming niche with content about popular crossplay game that has been around for several years. The active community and intricate game mechanics have led to the publication of over 750 articles.
While the site’s revenue comes exclusively from display ads, diversifying its monetization strategy would be beneficial. Over the last 10 months, the site has experienced explosive growth in both traffic and revenue.
However, it should be noted that the game’s popularity will eventually diminish, and the domain name restricts coverage of other games. Nonetheless, there is still a safe window of opportunity to continue growing the site for at least the next 2-3 years.
When doing due diligence, make sure to study the trends of this specific game and number of players active.
3-Year-Old Culinary Site Making $2,547/mo on Empire Flippers
Summary
Niche: Culinary
Source: Empire Flippers (see listing)
Profit: $2,547/mo from AdThrive display ads and affiliate marketing
Asking Price: $114,625 at a 45X multiple using a 12-month average
Ahrefs
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- The traffic and revenue numbers have been stable over the last 24 months
- The site’s traffic is fairly evenly divided between social media (Pinterest) at 43.58% and organic traffic at 38.65%
- A great backlink profile with links from sites like Healthline, Buzzfeed, and SimplyPsychology
- Active mailing list with 1,700 subscribers
Setbacks
- Only 100 published articles; low for this niche to build topical authority
- The site was constructed on an expired domain that was previously redirected to another domain
Easy Wins
- Add commercial buying-guide content which is missing on the site
- Create your own digital product (e.g., recipes e-book)
- Start a Youtube channel cooking some of the recipes found on the site
- Boost your activity on Pinterest by regularly pinning high-quality, visually appealing images with keyword-rich descriptions, participating in group boards, promoting your account on other platforms, and analyzing your performance to optimize your content strategy
Takeaway
This is a health and fitness sub-niche site that focuses on classic recipes. Its unique feature is its stability over the last 24 months despite having only 100 articles published.
The traffic to the site is well-distributed between social media (Pinterest) and organic traffic. One major issue is the site was built on an expired domain that was previously redirected to another domain. I prefer domains that never had a redirect in the past.
Due to the branding, it would be possible to add coaching and/or consulting for people willing to pay. For others, a detailed guide (e-book) or course would go along well with the existing content.
🚀 Off-Market Sites
The Website Flip runs a Facebook group where sellers can list sites for sale. Here is a selection of a few sites:
- $468/mo Home Niche Site: 5-year-old site earning $468 L6M average via Amazon and Ezoic Premium. 275 articles published and 75 videos on the YouTube channel. Asking price is a 40X multiple of the L6M average.
- $185/mo Electronics Niche Site: Site earning $185 per month on average in 2022 via Amazon and Adsense. 502 articles published. Asking price is $3,650.
🚀 Aged & Brandable Domains
Aged domains currently bidding from $50 to $970 at the time of writing.
- StolenMomentsCooking.com: Started in 2009. This was a cooking and homeschooling site with a DR of 29 and ranking for 484 keywords in the top 100 positions. Backlinks from Oprah, NBCNews and Buzzfeed.
- ThriftyMum.com: A family lifestyle blog started in 2011. It has DR of 28 and ranks for 435 KWs. Backlinks from MoneySavingExpert and GoodHousekeeping.
- PeakNootropics.com: A nootropics e-commerce store started in 2013. With a DR of 36, ranking for 410 KWs and backlinks from TechCrunch, LifeHacker and PopSci.
- Joyeur.com: The tech blog for cloud provider Joyent starting in 2004 with a DR of 52. Not currently ranking for any keywords but has backlinks from cNet, TechCrunch, VMWare.
- Kutoa.com: An energy bar manufacturer and children’s charity started in 2011. It has a DR of 47 and ranks for 2 KWs with backlinks from Fortune and Crunchbase.
Branded domains bidding from $60 to $10,000 at the time of writing.
- Swivels.com
- UnitedGames.com
- StrongerTogether.com
- FashionToday.com
- MetalDepot.com
- CarFanatics.com
- FoodPlans.com
👉 Additional Resources
Make sure to perform detailed research and due diligence when acquiring any domains or websites. Here are resources you should read up on:
