This week’s deals feature a site in the software development niche from Investors Club, a site from Motion Invest in the hunting niche, 2 off-market sites from The Website Flip’s Facebook group, and an aged domain from Odys in the crafts niche.
For domains, we share findings on 5 aged SEO domains and 7 branded domains live at GoDaddy auctions.
Let’s get into each deal!
Aged Domain:Â Craftiments.com
Summary
Niche: Crafts
Source: Odys Global (see listing here)
Age: 2012 (10 Years)
Listed Price:Â $4,190
AHREFS
Backlinks: Good Housekeeping, Country Living, MSN.com, Today.com, Buzzfeed, and more.
Site History
This site used to be a blog about DIY crafts with tutorials about creative crafting projects.
It received many organic links from major online publishers who linked to some of the site’s tutorial pages. It accumulated over 800 referring domains and there hasn’t been a decline in referring domains since the site went down in 2022.
The site was still live until about halfway through 2022 and consistently received over 1k organic traffic until the site was taken down. The domain still has pages in the Google index today which is a good sign.
It also has a catchy and memorable brand name that tells the visitor that the site is about crafts.
Growth Blueprint
Crafts are a multi-billion dollar business in the United States and millions of people participate in crafts like sewing, quilting, and homemade decorations.
With its strong foundation of high quality and relevant links, Craftiments has excellent potential to grow into a popular crafting authority site providing informational guides, buying guides, listicles, and tutorials.
Here’s what I would do:
- Start with a traditional blog homepage with the latest posts to create continuity with the old site
- Recreate pages with a lot of referring domains (a couple of pages have over 100 referring domains)
- Recreate pages with very high authority inbound links
- Review low authority craft sites with high traffic to find low competition keywords with high volume to target
- Look to hire a crafter who can write creative crafting tutorials with nice images (unless you can write them)
Monetization could be a combination of display ads and affiliate links. Craft sites are a popular niche for sites using AdThrive and Mediavine. Michaels affiliate program offers a strong 10% commission rate and Cricut offers a competitive 25% commission rate.
Affiliate programs for digital products are a good opportunity in this niche with many printables and courses that you could promote.
1-Year-Old Hunting Site Making $677/mo on Motion Invest
Summary
Niche: Hunting
Source: Motion Invest (see listing)
Revenue: $677/mo from Amazon Affiliate and Share A Sale
Asking Price: $24,009 (36X multiple)
AHREFS
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- Evergreen niche with plenty of topics to expand
- Attractive content design
- More than 10 pages with 100+ monthly organic traffic
- Traffic goes to a diverse set of pages – top page accounts for only 16% of the site’s traffic
- Backlink from Wikipedia
Setbacks
- Google EAT could be improved
- Seasonal niche (Q4 is peak hunting season)
Easy Wins
- Adding display ads can increase revenue by up to ~15%, or about $100/month
- Performing CRO can increase revenue by about 10%, or about $75/month
Takeaway
This content site in the hunting niche is a great site to consider for investors of all levels. It has a solid foundation in its quality content and design which has led to a growth in traffic over the past year.
Its only setback is that the EAT isn’t great, but this is just a minor concern. We’ve definitely seen worse, but the about page isn’t particularly convincing. We’d address this sooner rather than later, given how many updates Google is rolling out.
More importantly, there are two easy wins that could, when combined, increase the site revenue by up to 25%. First, the site has no display ads, and adding these in can increase the site revenue up to an extra $100/month – maybe more. Additionally, performing CRO on all the major money pages that get traffic can increase revenue by about $75/month. Some tips include adding exit-intent pop-ups for top products, to-the-point comparison tables, and removing “Amazon” from CTAs (i.e.,”Check Price” only).
2-Year-Old Education Site Making $622/mo on Investor Club
Summary
Niche: Education
Source: Investors Club
Revenue: $622/mo from 3 affiliate programs
Asking Price: $20,559 at a 33X multiple using a 12-month average
AHREFS
Growth Blueprint
Highlights
- Growing traffic month over month
- 300+ pieces of content
- Solid link profile including Wikipedia and edu links
- Evergreen niche with additional topics to expand to
Setbacks
- Weak Google EAT, site may be in YMYL niche
Easy Wins
- Adding display ads can increase revenue up 50%, or about $300/month
- CRO can increase revenue up to 20%, or about $125/month
Takeaway
This content site in the education space is great for anyone looking to enter the niche or wanting a site in this budget range. The evergreen niche has plenty of topics that a new owner can cover. Given how much its traffic has been increasing by, we like where the site is going and believe other content creation can go a long way.
However, there are a few things a new owner could do to see faster returns. The first of which is that at current traffic levels we believe the site can make up to an extra $300/month if display ads were added. Another opportunity is to do CRO on the money pages by adding comparison tables and exit-intent pop-up recommendations. Doing so can add an extra $125/month to the site’s revenue and taking advantage of both easy wins can see a big increase in revenue for the site.
The site’s only real con is its weak EAT, which is not a huge deal considering the site has not been affected by Google updates thus far. Unfortunately, this site is in the YMYL niche so a new owner will still want to address this ASAP.
🚀 Off-Market Sites in Facebook Group
The Website Flip runs a Facebook group where sellers can list sites for sale. Here is a selection of a few sites:
- $1,500/mo Christian Niche Site: Receives 9K pageviews per day. Traffic has taken a dip from 14K and settled. Minimal information in the listing so need to ask the seller for more information.
- $2,500/mo Lifestyle Niche Site: 7-year-old site with 99% of info articles (129 total articles). The email list is included with 7K subscribers. Looks like a great asset from the data and trends.
🚀 5 SEO Domains & 7 Brandable Domains
My team and I sifted through the marketplaces and found 5 aged SEO domains with quality backlinks and 7 branded domains that are live at auction.
5 SEO Domains
Five SEO domains this week. Currently bidding from $380 to $25,000.
- PhatCycles.com: This was the site for Huntington Beach, CA bike shop Phat Cycles from 2000 onwards. It has a DR of 30 and ranks for 20 keywords in the top 100 positions. Backlinks from Wired, Rochester.edu, OutsideOnline and Bicycling.com.
- AutographBand.com: Starting in 2014, the site for the band Autograph. With a DR of 25 and ranking for 68 KWs. Backlinks from Wikipedia and Last.fm.
- TheologyDegreesOnline.com: A guide to online theology degree programs starting in 2010. It has a DR of 25 and ranks for 476 KWs. Backlinks from Emory.edu and FaithLife.com.
- AfterschoolApp.com: A teen social media app started in 2014. It has a DR of 42 and is ranking for 3 KWs. Backlinks from Wikipedia, Huffpost, NYTimes and Techcrunch.com.
- NatalieCole.com: The official website of recording artist Natalie Cole starting in 2002. It has a DR of 48 ranks for 112 KWs with backlinks from Wikipedia, NYTimes, BBC, and TheGuardian.com. Note: This site was still active in July 2022, so it will be interesting to see if the auction completes or is canceled.
7 Brandable Domains
Seven brandable domains this week. Currently bidding from $92 to $1,125 at the time of writing.
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:
