Today’s Authority Business Blueprints features two sites from Flippa (home improvement niches), and one domain from ODYS (knife niche).
Let’s get into the growth blueprints!
Blueprint #1: IKTHOF.com
Domain Summary
Type: Aged Domain
Niche: Knife
Source: ODYS.Global (see listing here)
Age: 2005 (16 years old)
Listed Price: $4,240
AHREFS
Backlinks: This site has notable backlinks from The New York Times, The Guardian, Blog To, KnifeThrowing, Star Tribune, The Star, and more.
Site History
This site used to be home to the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame. It was a site that held information ranging from memberships in knife throwing, pictures and videos of individuals within the hall of fame, the different knife throwing tournaments, and the rules within them plus more.
Here is a snapshot of the past site:
Growth Blueprint
This sub-niche within the greater outdoor vertical is lucrative. Some competitors in this niche that are doing very well include: KnifeInformer.com, BladeReviews.com.
This is what I would do:
- Write informative articles about knife history, collecting, types of knives, etc.
- Write buying guides focused on choosing the best knife (see KnifeInformer.com on how to do this the right way
- Write individial reviews for knives
There is a significant amount of low competition keywords in this niche. Specifically, each knife from the big brands (Gerber, Spyderco, CRKT, Benchmade) has high search volume as well thus lending itself to individual product reviews.
To monetize, Amazon and display ads will be prominent. In addition, BladeHQ is a large e-commerce brand in this space and has an affiliate program. They are picky so make sure to not apply immediately and obtain some authority first.
Blueprint #2: Fix-My-Compressor.com
Website Summary
Type: Existing Content Site
Niche: Home Improvement (air compressor)
Source: Flippa (see listing here)
Revenue: $688/mo via Ezoic
AHREFS
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- 8-year old aged site from original owner
- Expertly written content
- Highly-diversified traffic to top pages (highest is 6.6%)
- High time on page of 3.5 minutes
Setbacks
- Declining traffic since late 2019
- Seller has 2-3 sites in same niche (see Flippa comments)
- Minimal high-quality backlinks (even with age)
- Non-branded domain with hyphens
Easy Wins
- Redesign: implement a new theme with better design, navigation, etc.
- Add affiliate links: Integrate affiliate links to Amazon, Home Depot, etc.
- Add internal links between content
Takeaway
Discovering truly aged sites (not aged domains rebuilt) is difficult. This is an 8-year old aged site owned by the same person who wrote the content. This is a real asset that is worth acquiring and continuing to build out.
To grow the site, I would do the following:
- Full redesign using GeneratePress
- Improve the categories, navigation, and user experience
- Create silos for content within the niche
- Add affiliate links
- Add individial reviews and buying guides related to compressors
Blueprint #3: Pressurist.com
Website Summary
Type: Existing Content Site
Niche: Pressure Washing
Source: Flippa (see listing here)
Revenue: $164/mo via Amazon Associates
AHREFS
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- Quality backlinks from niche relevant domains
- Well-designed site
- Multiple affiliate progams (Amazon, Home Depot)
Setbacks
- Impacted by July Google algorthmic update
- Not much content (22 articles total)
- Largest page gets 34% of traffic; usually 15% or less is safer
- Google EAT needs improvement (low quality about page, no bio)
- Non-branded domain; no room for shoulder niches
- Seasonal niche
Easy Wins
- Add Ezoic display advertisements
- Images are not linked to affiliate programs; doing so will increase conversions
- “Read More” button goes to manufacture site without affiliate links; losing out on affiliate earnings
- Many low competition keywords available in this niche
Takeaway
If you are looking for a smaller niche site, this one could be a good acquisition. It’s well-designed, loads fast, has good content, and generates revenue from multiple affiliate programs.
The easy wins include adding display advertisements for an additional $25-$35/month on average. Improving the CRO on the page (linking images, restructuring) will increase revenues as well.
Wrap Up
These blueprints lay out the high-level strategies to accelerate your ROI after the acquisition. Of course, the real effort is putting all of this into practice.
For more resources, make sure to read the following guides:
