This week we review one website listed on Empire Flippers marketplace in the education niche, two websites on Flippa in the services and outdoor niches, and an aged domain in the gaming niche from Odys.
For branded domains, we share data on 15 domains live at auction. The SEO metrics are shared for each domain as well.
Let’s get into each deal!
Domain: ErrantSignal.com
Domain Summary
Type: Aged Domain
Niche: Gaming
Source: Odys Global (see listing here)
Age: 2009 (13 years old)
Listed Price: $1,650
AHREFS
Backlinks: Tutsplus, GamesRadar, GameDeveloper, Anand Tech, Something Awful, and more.
Site History
This was a personal blog of a video game developer. This individual has a Youtube Channel (search for ErrantSignal) where they are continuing with this brand. They did not want to continue on the blogging side and switched to Youtube.
Here is what the blog looked like in the past:
Growth Blueprint
The video gaming industry has grown every year non-stop. It’s not slowing down. Starting a content site in this space is a great way to generate significant traffic (due to the sheer amount of keywords and volume available).
This domain would be a low-cost ($1,650 for the domain) entry point. The backlink profile is clean with niche-relevant backlinks from gaming and tech websites.
This is what I would do:
- Recreate the top pages with links (homepage, blog page, and a few of the articles that have good links).
- Add a silo category about game development and add 10-20 articles about this topic (original topic of the site)
- Add categories with content about specific games that have a following (think Minecraft, etc)
The focus of the site should be game development, getting started in this space, etc., with secondary categories discussing specific games.
Bonus: the site seems to just have been let go. Ahrefs is showing traffic still coming to the site. This is a plus point since the “downtime” of the domain has not been long.
1.5-Year Old Education Site Making $1,413/mo on Empire Flippers
Website Summary
Type: Existing Content Site
Source: Empire Flippers
Niche: Education (Maps)
Revenue: $1,413/mo from Google Adsense
Asking Price: $53,076 at a 38X multiple using a 7-month average
AHREFS
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- High domain rating (DR) of 49
- Traffic goes to a diverse set of pages – top 3 pages get 24% of the site’s traffic
- More than 800 pages to optimize
- Evergreen niche
Setbacks
- Entirely dependent on ad income
- Niche domain which limits potential
- Valuation based on L7M, which inflates the site’s valuation
- No Google EAT
Easy Wins
- Switching to an ad network such as Adthrive/Mediavine can improve revenue anywhere from 20%-40%, or about $280-$560/month
- Collecting emails can increase traffic and diversify traffic sources
- Selling digital products can improve revenue
- Add more maps such as city maps to improve topical relevance and traffic
Takeaway
This site is a site in the education space with no real red flags, has some instant wins, and has solid long-term growth opportunities. Although this site isn’t in the most exciting niche, it’s evergreen and doesn’t have a lot of competition. It’s also easy to understand and has no real seasonality, making it easy for a new owner to operate effectively.
The site has grown considerably in the past year and looks set to continue to grow despite a slew of mediocre backlinks, though none seem to be PBNs. The biggest opportunities involve switching to an ad network and adding city maps. We project an ad network will increase revenue instantly and adding city maps will increase overall traffic, which will lead to increased earnings.
This site is a good opportunity for someone looking for a simple site to operate with some solid upside. Due to the niche, it’s fairly straightforward to run and even a new owner is unlikely to be overwhelmed with this taking over this business.
Flippa Site: LocalTreeEstimates.com
Website Summary
Type: Existing Content Site
Niche: Services, Outdoors
Source: Flippa (see listing here)
Revenue: Unmonetized (Display ads + lead generation potential)
AHREFS
Due Diligence Dashboard
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- Setup as a lead generation plus content site; hard to find
- Lead generation is targetting the Canada market with 4 cities currently
- Quality backlinks from Huffpost and AOL
- Includes verified Google My Business listing
- 125+ leads over 2 years
Setbacks
- No tree company is buying the leads as of now
- 57% of traffic goes to top 3 pages on site (semi-setback, not as bad as just one page getting traffic)
- Unmonetized site (no ads or lead buyer)
- Selling leads is not “passive”. You have to find a offtaker, negotiate, send them leads, and continously monitor the process.
Easy Wins
- Add Ezoic display ads to informational to generate $150 to $200 per month ($10-$15 EPMV)
- Find buyer for the leads in Canada (seller states lead value is $50 average)
- Add more city/state/country pages to generate traffic
Takeaway
It’s rare to come across a lead generation site with content. Most lead generation sites that I have seen for sale are a simple few pages generating traffic through Google My Business (GMB) listings, not really organic search listings.
This site has been around since 11/2019 and has obtained quality backlinks naturally. The website has 21 articles published and room to grow with more keywords remaining.
Note that the seller is “claiming” revenue based on projects. The site is NOT monetized. The leads do not have buyers. There are no display ads or affiliate revenues. This is a $0 revenue site. With that, the seller is savvy and is of course making an estimate to get a good price for this website.
The second note is that while generating leads is simple, selling them is not. You have to find a local tree company willing to pay you for the leads. This may require calling many tree companies, negotiating, setting up a trial period, and more. It’s not as simple as “turning on display ads”.
🚀 Other Site(s) For Sale
Here are a few sites that are listed on Flippa. I have not done a detailed blueprint on these because they do not fully pass my due diligence but may be worth it for you. Do your own due diligence!
- Troutster.com: 8-year old domain with 371 articles. Branded domain. The site needs work since traffic is at roughly 7,500 pageviews with 300+ articles. Monetized with Ezoic.
🚀 15 Brandable Domains at Auction
My team and I sifted through the marketplaces and found 15 branded domains that are live at auction.
The top brandable name with authority this week is PixelGames.com, with an AHREFS Domain Rating of 43.
First registered in 2002, PixelGames.com was a site for Half-Life mods and forums. It was listed for sale around 2007 with an asking price of $4,500, after which it became a flash games site. Currently bidding at $900+ with a GoDaddy estimated value of $7,047.
This week, there are several good brandable names, including BlueSapphire.com, Helpr.com and Luta.com.
The priciest domain on the list is Deso.com, currently at $60k, possibly a name upgrade for the blockchain company Deso.org.
Last week’s most expensive domain, Bobby.com, ended up selling for a whopping $116,000. 🚀
| Domain | Link | End | DR |
| AlphaClean.com | GoDaddy | Mar 16 | 1.8 |
| Blockhead.com | GoDaddy | Mar 16 | 5 |
| Mathematicians.com | GoDaddy | Mar 16 | 0.6 |
| Cutouts.com | GoDaddy | Mar 17 | 0 |
| Trong.com | GoDaddy | Mar 17 | 0.7 |
| Deso.com | GoDaddy | Mar 18 | 8 |
| Dixies.com | GoDaddy | Mar 18 | 0.3 |
| CommercialMortgages.com | GoDaddy | Mar 19 | 0.2 |
| PixelGames.com | GoDaddy | Mar 19 | 43 |
| LovelyPlanet.com | GoDaddy | Mar 20 | 0.3 |
| VeganLand.com | GoDaddy | Mar 20 | 0 |
| BitPack.com | GoDaddy | Mar 21 | 9 |
| Helpr.com | GoDaddy | Mar 21 | 7 |
| Luta.com | GoDaddy | Mar 21 | 0.2 |
| ServerHost.com | GoDaddy | Mar 21 | 0.2 |
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:
