Today’s Authority Business Blueprints features sites from Investors Club in the finance space and an aged domain in the travel niche from ODYS Global.
For branded domains, data is shared on 10 domains live at auction with the AHREFs metrics also included.
Let’s get into the growth blueprints!
Blueprint #1: Rollinglobe.com
Domain Summary
Type: Aged Domain
Niche: Travel
Source: ODYS.Global (see listing here)
Age: 13 years old (2008)
Listed Price: $2,090
AHREFS
Backlinks: Notable links from BuiltInNYC, Bizfluent, NYCStartups, Wikipedia, Techcrunch, Bustle, and more
Site History
This used to be an e-commerce platform for selling trip packages and travel activities. This allowed travel specialists to open online stores where they can provide curated experiences, and earn commissions.
Growth Blueprint
The travel niche is lucrative with numerous low-competition keywords to target in different sub-categories (e.g., destinations, hotels, airfare, experiences). 2020 has had a severe impact on the travel industry but it’s an industry that always bounces back.
This is what I would do:
- Recreate the high-value pages (i.e., those with backlinks and related topics) on the aged domain. Redirect URLs to new ones on your site.
- Add informative travel guides for specific cities. Find keywords for cities that have lower competition (don’t target sought after cities like Barecelong, but something less competition like traveling to Phuket)
- Start adding guides on how to save and use airfare points, best hotels, etc.
The niche can be easily monetized using travel affiliate offers plus display advertisements. Mediavine and Adthrive display networks work extremely well in the travel niche.
Blueprint #2: AvocaDoughToast.com
Website Summary
Type: Existing Content Site
Niche: Personal Finance
Source: Investors.Club
Revenue: $931/mo over last 6 months via affiliates and Mediavine
AHREFS
Due Diligence Dashboard
I ran the site’s analytics through the due diligence dashboard. Here are the results:
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- Multiple revenue sources with display ads and and 6 affiliate networks
- 184 articles on the site. Overall quality content.
- Handful of quality backlinks pointing to the site (e.g., SelfGrowth, Verifly Mag, Debt.com)
- Diversified traffic to top pages (highest at 10.7%)
Setbacks
- YMYL niche (finance)
- Difficult domain name to remember, or even type in
- No author boxes, or proper Google EAT signals
- Seller is not very responsive; took over one week to get added to Google Analytics.
- Top articles do not have a simple affiliate marketing angle
Easy Wins
- Add call-to-action buttons within content to affiliates
- Add call out boxes recommending specific products through the articles
- Test a exit intent popup promoting a high-converting affiliate offer
Takeaway
The personal finance niche is lucrative, but difficult to get traction. Buying a site that is already performing gives you the edge to continue growing a brand in the space. With NerdWallet’s IPO coming up at $130MM with a $1.2B valuation, it’s clear this niche works.
However, be aware that this niche falls under Google’s YMYL topics and thus you really need a team of writers who have the credentials to write on these topics, plus high-authority backlinks.
With that said, I like this site listed on Investors Club because it earns from multiple sources, has 184 articles ready to be optimized for SEO, and has a good traffic trendline over the last 12-mo.
The site was impacted by Google updates in December 2019 but has shown stability over the past 1.5 years.
🚀 10 Brandable Domains at Auction
My team and I sifted through the marketplaces and found 10 branded domains that are live at auction.
Top pick for a branded domain this week is FireTrade.com. Works well with the Financial Independence, Retire Early, or “FIRE” movement. A way to plan out your finances and manage your spending habits so that you can stop working in your 30s or 40s.
The money-saving/investing niche is always popular with many high-paying affiliate offers to choose from.
The top authority pick is GreenIQ.com. Still indexed in Google, with a DR of 28 it’s a smart option for a Green Energy site. GreenIQ was an Israeli IoT startup that sold a device to cut water consumption for gardening.
As a bonus this week if you’re looking for a domaining brand check out DomainExperts.com.
| Link | End | DR | Ref. Domains | |
| Jobbit.com | GoDaddy | Nov 3 | 1.5 | 7 |
| DomainExperts.com | GoDaddy | Nov 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Powerfi.com | GoDaddy | Nov 3 | 0 | 0 |
| GreenIQ.com | GoDaddy | Nov 3 | 28 | 123 |
| MindHackers.com | GoDaddy | Nov 3 | 0 | 0 |
| FXStudio.com | GoDaddy | Nov 5 | 19 | 26 |
| UltraMax.com | GoDaddy | Nov 6 | 12 | 54 |
| Prenota.com | GoDaddy | Nov 6 | 0 | 0 |
| LifestylePlus.com | GoDaddy | Nov 7 | 0 | 3 |
| FireTrade.com | GoDaddy | Nov 8 | 0 | 0 |
Why I Bought EcoAffect.org from ODYS Marketplace
It’s taboo in the website investing world to share your niche” or keywords. It introduces competition from copycats. True in low-competition niches where anyone can target the keyword and rank.
However, I go after high competition niches where “copying my strategy and content” won’t work. I am happy to share my strategies and acquisitions so everyone can learn.
Backstory: I have a background/career in clean energy (Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Energy Economics). I’ve worked with many startups as a technical lead and helped raise many VC rounds. They all had one issue though. They were all highly technology-focused and were always to late on doing SEO, marketing, branding, etc.
So I am launching a bespoke agency for clean energy startups to provide them with content strategy, branded domains, SEO, and consulting.
My main agency will sit on the domain, “WattGrowth.com”. “Watt” is the term for electricity (i.e., wattage, kilowatts, megawatts). This is a play on words like “What growth?”.
To expedite the process, I bought EcoAffect.org, a 10-year old DR 21 aged domain from ODYS Global. See the stats below:
EcoAffect.org was a blog that covered topics in clean energy, climate change, opinions, and more. More importantly, they were an advocacy group helping shape the narrative around these topics. Well-aligned with my vision of helping cleantech startups put together their narrative.
Here is the plan:
- Put together a freshly designed site on the hand-registered domain, WattGrowth.com
- WattGrowth.com will have a blog covering industry news, clean tech funded startup analysis, marketing tips, etc.
- Redirect EcoAffect.org to a press release page (read why here) with internal links to pages on WattGrowth
- This will ensure my main domain, WattGrowth, is protected in case EcoAffect has any issues
If done right, my main domain WattGrowth will see an authority boost from the 88 or so referring domains pointing into EcoAffect.
Why do this?
- Grow faster by enhancing my domain authority
- Receive a boost in “topical relevancy” from EcoAffect when I start blogging on my topics on WattGrowth
This is a long-term project which I will work on over multiple years since TheWebsiteFlip is my main priority. Hopefully, the strategy and my thought process can help you think out-of-the-box on your next project.
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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:
