This week’s deals feature 2 websites for sale from Empire Flippers and Investors Club in the pets niche, and 2 websites from our private Facebook group in the gardening and bartending niches. We also cover an aged domain in the educational niche from Odys.
For domains, we share findings on 5 aged SEO domains and 7 branded domains live at GoDaddy auctions.
6-Year-Old Pets Site Making $8,185/mo on Investors Club
Summary
Niche: Pets
Source: Investors Club (see listing)
Revenue: $8,185/mo from Display ads and affiliate programs
Asking Price: $327,400 at a 40X multiple using a 3-month average
Ahrefs
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- 900 articles published, with a carefully crafted balance of educational content and buying intent, adhering to an 80:20 ratio
- Revenue distributed between display ads and affiliate commissions
- Active social media accounts (Pinterest 13.6 followers, Facebook 950 likes)
- Stable traffic numbers during the last 12 months
- Solid backlink profile with links from niche relevant sites like figopetinsurance.com, animalwellnessmagazine.com, and handicappedpets.com
Setbacks
- The site’s slow loading times are caused by an overabundance of display ads, resulting in a hindered user experience
Easy Wins
- Improve comparison tables. Include on 3 products instead of 5+ currently being done. Make tables vertically instead of horizontal; increase product image; and add a proper call-to-action button not image.
- Include CTA to Amazon and Chewy together for increased commissions plus adherence to Google Product Review guidelines
- Seek out alternative partners by identifying and reaching out to best performing affiliate products sold with your affiliate ID
- Create a Youtube channel with voice over videos covering existing content on the site
Takeaway
Over six years, the site amassed more than 900 articles published.
Most of the best-performing articles are educational. Revenue is well distributed between display ads and affiliate commissions. The backlink profile looks clean, with many niche-relevant domains pointing back to the site.
The easiest win is in content formatting to improve clickthrough rates to affiliate programs. This includes revamping comparison tables, product boxes, and call-to-action buttons. Currently, it takes significant effort for the user to “find” where to click. Simplifying this would result in more clicks and hence more revenues. My best guest estimated is an additional 10-20% boost in affiliate revenues by doing so.
Aged Domain: CarefulParents.com
Summary
Niche: Parenting
Source: Odys Global (see listing here)
Age: 2015 (8 Years)
Listed Price: $5,330
Ahrefs
Notable links: YouAreCurrent.com, IndysChild.com, Kcbi.org, Kpel965.com, 973thedawg.com HuffPost.com (nofollow).
Site History
This domain used to be a website for a non-profit organization that provided parents with free child safety educational resources.
Here’s what the site looked like:
Growth Blueprint
Internet child safety is a huge concern for today’s parents. Children are spending a lot of time on the Internet and parents want to protect them from harmful content and other dangers.
Here’s what I would do:
- Publish tutorials about setting parental controls for popular apps, video games, or streaming services. AHREFs shows 600+ keywords matching “parental controls” with KD of 0-10.
- Publish guides about child safety for popular apps like Tik Tok and online games like Roblox
- Review software and other tools that help parents monitor their child’s Internet and smartphone use
- Publish articles answering questions about whether a popular movie, show, or content creator is appropriate for their child’s age (e.g., “Is Mr. Beast appropriate for a 10-year old”, “is X kid friendly”)
- Conduct outreach to be added to lists of child safety resources on library websites, local government sites, and parenting sites.
Monetization could include display ads combined with affiliate links to child-monitoring apps like Bark.us and Qustodio. Qustodio offers up to 20% commission for sign-ups to their service.
3-Year-Old Pets Site Making $2,108/mo on Empire Flippers
Summary
Niche: Pets
Source: Empire Flippers (see listing)
Profit: $2,108/mo from Mediavine display ads, Youtube ads, Amazon Affiliate, other affiliates, and digital products
Asking Price: $94,874 at a 45X multiple using a 12-month average
Ahrefs
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- 480 articles covering the niche in depth
- Traffic is well distributed with the best page getting 2% of traffic
- Revenue distributed between display ads, Youtube ads, and affiliate earnings
- Active Youtube channel with more than 17K subscribers
- Stable revenue numbers during the last 12 months
Setbacks
- Traffic has experienced significant fluctuations, with a drop of more than 60% around March 2021 that was unrelated to any Google algorithm updates. However, it has since recovered and has now returned to approximately 80% of its pre-March 2021 levels.
- Earnings from affiliate commissions are too low, given the site’s authority and emotionally driven niche
- Given the specificity of the domain name and the saturation of the niche with nearly 500 articles, it will likely prove challenging to expand into related sub-niches
Easy Wins
- Refine the current structure of calls-to-action (CTAs) and incorporate additional CTAs into the educational content
- Find more direct affiliate deals from dog kennels, dog trainers, and even veterinarians
- Improve the Youtube channel by adding personalized videos instead of voice-over videos.
Takeaway
This is a solid site in the evergreen pet niche focusing on one of the more popular dog breeds.
The seller maintains an active presence on YouTube, generating 26% of their revenue by creating and uploading simple voice-over videos. The revenue has been stable during the last 12 months.
A setback is that similar sites in the niche earn way more from affiliate commissions than this site. This is based on other sites we’ve reviewed in the past and/or brokered.
To increase affiliate revenue, one strategy could be to improve the existing content designed to elicit buying intent, integrate additional calls-to-action (CTAs) into educational content, and actively seek out direct affiliate partnerships with companies relevant to the niche.
Finally, Youtube and Pinterest channels could be improved for more revenue and traffic.
🚀 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:
- $247/mo Gardening Site: 1-year-old site earning $247 L12M average via Ezoic and Amazon. 29 articles published on an aged domain. Asking price is $8,600 at a 35X multiple.
- Cocktail Recipe Site: 2-year-old site with about 15K average pageviews per month. Earning via Mediavine but current traffic levels are under Mediavine’s requirements. 80 articles published, 500 emails, and 4,000 social followers.
🚀 Aged & Brandable Domains
Aged domains currently bidding from $20 to $1,525 at the time of writing.
- TheBaristaLife.com: An e-commerce site that sold barista accessories starting in 2013. With a DR of 18 and ranking for 211 keywords in the top 100 positions. Backlinks from Buzzfeed, SFGate and BusinessInsider.
- FindYourPhoneLifeBalance.com: Was a phone app to monitor usage patterns starting in 2018 with a DR of 57 and ranking for 147 KWs. Backlinks from CBSNews, TheGuardian, Inc and Wired.
- GrillfishDC.com: The site for a seafood restaurant in DC started in 2004. It has a DR of 27 and is ranking for 117 KWs with backlinks from Eater, Homestead and Philly.
- Looksi.com: Was a clothing and lifestyle e-commerce site started in 2017. With a DR of 51 and ranking for 9 KWs. Backlinks from Crunchbase, Medium and HelloMagazine.
- LovingSimpleLiving.com: Was a lifestyle blog started in 2011. It has a DR of 26 and ranks for 2 KWs with backlinks from Medium, SO and MrMoneyMustache.
Branded domains bidding from $205 to $10,000 at the time of writing.
- CJY.com
- Fixation.com
- SelfieSticks.com
- GeekTV.com
- OpenSourceSoftware.com
- DailyCharts.com
- SimpleArchery.com
