Deal Flow (Apr 13): 3 Websites, 6 Aged And 8 Branded Domains

This week’s deals feature one Flippa site in the food/kitchen niche, a site on Empire Flippers in the music niche, and an aged domain in the business/agency niche from Odys marketplace.

I also share one Flippa site I covered in a past deal flow newsletter which has been re-listed and has taken a recent traffic dip. Buyer beware!

For domains, we share data on 5 aged SEO domains and 8 branded domains live at GoDaddy auctions. The SEO metrics are shared for each domain as well.

Let’s get into each deal!

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Domain: HippoThinks.com

Domain Summary

Type: Aged Domain

Niche: Agency

Source: Odys Global (see listing here)

Age: 2014 (8 years old)

Listed Price: $2,740

AHREFS

Backlinks: Clutch, Entrepreneur, The Guardian, Huff Post, Venture Beat, and more.

Site History

HippoThinks was a content agency and PR firm based out of Chicago, USA. They worked with B2B and B2C clients around the globe in various industries.

Here is what the past website looked like:

Growth Blueprint

If you are planning to start an agency (ideally a content agency), this would be an excellent domain to acquire. While display ads and affiliates do generate passive cash flow, the agency model provides a significantly higher amount of revenue. However, not that with agencies it is more “work”.

The rebuild of this site would be very simple since it did not have a blog. Here is what I would do:

1. Redirect to your existing content/PR agency as-is. Make sure a topical relevancy match exists.
2. Rebuild the homepage, contact, about, and portfolio pages of the original site and perform 301 redirects. Match content as best as possible

Monetization in this niche can be done via affiliate marketing (commission to sell customer’s content packages from another provider), lead generation (sell customer leads to another agency), or providing your own services (build a real business).

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3.5-Year Old Music Site Making $3,623/mo on Empire Flippers

Website Summary

Type: Existing Content Site

Niche: Music

Source: Empire Flippers

Revenue: $3,645/mo from display ads and affiliate marketing

Asking Price: $184,773 at a 51X multiple using a 12-month average

AHREFS

Growth Blueprint

Highlights

• Stable traffic and earnings
• Has multiple streams of income and not dependent on a single source
• Nice mix of high DR and relevant links
• Large niche with plenty of topics to write about
• 1800+ keywords ranked #6-#10 that can be pushed for additional traffic and earnings
• 300+ pages to improve and optimize
• Owner seems to be an expert in the niche and wrote 95% of the content
• Pinterest has almost 20,000 monthly views

Setbacks

• Decent EAT, but should be improved to add credibility
• Niche can be technical so it may be difficult to get good writers for the site

Easy Wins

• Money pages can be improved to increase affiliate revenue up to 20%, or about $350/month
• Negotiate higher rates with private affiliates which can increase affiliate revenue up to 10%, or about $175/month
• Add pop-ups to collect emails to diversify revenue and drive more sales

Takeaway

This music website is a solid content website that anyone should consider due to its strong foundation and high growth potential. The site’s traffic and earnings have been very stable over the past year. Additionally, the site earns almost evenly from ad revenue and affiliate revenue. The latter of which has several sources in itself which means the site’s earnings are well diversified.

For quick wins, we’d focus first on doing CRO to affiliate pages to increase conversions and get a quick boost in revenue. From there, we suggest reaching out to the private affiliate programs to leverage higher payouts.

As you do these things the new owner will want to start getting some content written. The niche is so large that there is plenty of content to write about – enough for years to come. Due to the site’s size of 300+ pages there is also plenty of work that can be done to keep improving the site quality, which should pay dividends. The easiest wins revolve around getting more affiliate income.

With a mix of short-term and long-term growth opportunities, this site can certainly grow. It’s a solid site with no major risks so even the more risk-averse should consider this site.

Valuation: The site’s valuation is 51x of the last 12 months average monthly profit of $3,623 which leads to a buy-it-now price of $184,773.

While we really like the site it’s hard to imagine anyone justifying paying a 51x on a site that is flat in its growth. Instead, we’d recommend paying up to a 40x, or $144,920. There’s a chance you may be able to get it for high 30x, depending on how negotiations go.

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Site: GirlCooksWorld.com

Website Summary

Type: Existing Content Site

Niche: Food

Source: Flippa (see listing here)

Revenue: $289/mo over last 6-months via Amazon Associates and Sponsored Posts

AHREFS

The seller has Clicky analytics and thus it was not possible to analyze the traffic data via the EasyDiligence.io dashboard.

Growth Blueprint

Highlights

• 11-year old domain
• 800 articles live, 560K words
• A well-designed site, good comparison tables, and product placements
• Quality backlinks via HuffPost, BuzzFeed, Organic, among others

Setbacks

• Top traffic page (according to AHREFs) gets 25% of traffic (ideal should be less than 15%)
• Seller accepted a few guest posts (which should be deleted)
• Three 301 redirected domains (FoodRoutes dot org, EatRealLiveWell dot com, OurNourishingRoots dot com) – Further due diligence is required whether these are good 301s

Easy Wins

• Add Ezoic display advertisements (est. EPMV of $15 resulting in an additional $200+ per month in revenue)
• Perform a content audit; 800 articles live on only 15K traffic thus a lot of irrelevant content
• CRO improvements: change CTA button colors to stand out, link product images to Amazon

Takeaway

If you are looking for a high-traffic potential niche, the food/home/kitchen niche is the one. There are a ton of low-competition keyword opportunities. Monetization is easily done with display ads partnered with affiliate ads.

This specific site has the foundation to continue growing.

However, there are some red flags. Specifically, the seller has not shared all the information in the listing. Here’s what’s missing in their listing:

• The main domain, GirlCooksWorld, was not built from scratch. This was purchased for $1,525 from GoDaddy Auctions as an aged domain on March 31, 2019 (according to Namebio)
• The seller has 3 other 301 redirects pointing to this site

With that said, as website buyers, it’s our responsibility to perform full due diligence regardless of what the seller says or does not say.

The site has a good design, easy win opportunities, and a good history on AHREFs of consistent traffic (except in 2019 when the site went to auction).

Valuation: The website makes about $289/mo over the last 6-months. However, $202 of that on average is via sponsored posts. The remaining $87 on average is via Amazon Associates.

The industry standard is to discount sponsored posts by 50% at the very least because (1) it takes effort to gain that revenue, and (2) it dilutes your site over time if too many external links that are irrelevant.

With the discount, the average sponsored post revenue is $101 and $87 for Amazon equating to $188 total per month over the last 6 months (as opposed to $289/mo claimed by the seller).

The valuation multiplier for this site is at a 35X multiple equating to a maximum valuation of $6,580.

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🚀 Other Sites For Sale

Here are a few sites that are listed on Flippa. I have not done a detailed analysis on these because they do not fully pass my due diligence but may be worth it for you. Do your own due diligence!

1. LocalTreeEstimates.com: I covered this site in a past deal flow newsletter on March 16th. It was recently re-listed but the traffic took a 50% dip in early April. Buyer beware and make sure to perform further due diligence.

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🚀 5 SEO Domains & 8 Brandable Domains

My team and I sifted through the marketplaces and found 6 aged SEO domains with quality backlinks and 8 branded domains that are live at auction.

5 SEO Domains

Here is a selection of authority domains currently at auction, priced from $250+ to $12,000+.

We share the AHREFs stats and also what the past site was about. View them below:

1. ServicemarkSolutions.com: was a site for a heating and air-conditioning installer starting in 2010-11. With a DR of 16 and 2013 keywords ranking in the top 100. Backlinks from PRWeb, Better Business Bureau and SF Gate. Note: there is a possible active trademark for “ServiceMark”.
2. BayfrontCharlotte.com: a site for a hospital network in Florida that rebranded to the name Bravera in 2021. Pro tip: keep your existing domain(s) registered and redirect them to your new site if you rebrand your company to keep the SEO authority flowing. Domain has a DR of 44 with 295 KWs ranking. Backlinks from CDC, BBB and WebMD.
3. CheckmatePowerboat.com: a speedboat manufacturer sold to Caldwell Marine Designs in 2020. Has a DR of 19 and 248 KWs ranking. Backlinks from MSN and Dunn & Bradstreet.
4. RateYourBurn.com: a site offering reviews of Gyms and fitness trainers starting in 2011-12 with a DR of 38 and backlinks from NYT, Business Insider, Adweek and Buzzfeed.
5. TheZodiacCity.com: was an astrology and zodiac info site going back to 2012. Currently has a DR of 19 with 2475 KWs ranking and backlinks from Pinterest, Tumblr and Buzzfeed.

For a detailed guide on how to repurpose these domains the right way, check out my Course on Aged Domains.

8 Brandable Domains

Mostly two-word brandables this week. Lots to choose from in various niches.

1. QRCodes.com
2. RocketReach.com
3. VrBox.com
4. CubeCloud.com
5. AirCenter.com
6. WireFrames.com
7. TherapyPlus.com
8. HouseWise.com

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Additional Resources

If you are interested in any of the deals this week, go through the specific platforms and contact the sellers. Make sure to perform detailed research and due diligence when acquiring any domains or websites.

Here are resources you should read up on:

• Framework to buy a website
• Due diligence framework
• Website valuation framework
• Vetting aged domains