Last year in January, I decided to try niche websites and see how much money could be earned. I started a niche website about a hobby that I was not really interested in.
The main reason for starting that website was to try this side hustle I kept hearing about. The truth is that niche websites work and can make you a lot of money.
In one year, I got $620 from amazon affiliates. I wrote 2–3 articles per week in the first few months, and after that, I stopped. So for months, I got passive income.
While it was not much, when I combined it with other affiliate websites I own, it ended as a decent amount.
The problem was I did not know that much about the niche. That made writing content quite hard.
For that reason, I decided to sell the website. After researching, I discovered you could sell one website for times 12–24 its average monthly income. In my case $60 per month. This means 60*24= 1440.
What is Flippa
Flippa is a website that operates as an online marketplace for buying and selling websites, domains, and other web-based businesses.
It’s a platform that connects buyers and sellers worldwide, allowing individuals and companies to easily buy and sell established or starter websites, online businesses, and premium domains.
Flippa offers various services, including auction-style sales, negotiated sales, and appraisals, making it a convenient one-stop shop for all your website buying and selling needs.
About the Website
The website was 1 year old when I sold it and monetized using Amazon Affiliates. I used WordPress and no paid plugins or themes to build it. I tried to keep my costs down.
In one year, I wrote a little bit less than 100 articles, but most of them were around 1000 words.
The big problem was the niche. It required a bit of technical knowledge, and that made me want to stop and focus on my other websites.
Another option could have been outsourcing. The problem was that a well-researched article could cost a lot, somewhere around $50. And for a website that earns $60, that is not a good option.
Selling on Flippa
Creating a listing on Flippa was not very hard. They even have an app that can estimate the value of your site. My website was valued at around $1k.
Initially, the auction had 30 a days time limit, but I changed it to 14 days to sell it faster.
After a few hours, I received two messages from people interested in buying the site. They initially requested access to Google Analytics and then asked a few questions about the website. Granting access to analytics is something every buyer will ask. They need to make sure your website traffic is real.
Of the two buyers, only one decided to make me an offer. I could have waited for the auction to be over and maybe would have made more money, but I was happy to sell it fast.
After this, I transferred the domain name and gave the buyer access to the WordPress dashboard to transfer the content. Everything took about a week, and I had to google a few things to ensure everything was right.
If you have a bunch of websites you will not create content for anymore, you should consider selling them. This can give you a few hundred or a thousand bucks to focus on other websites or side hustles.
The selling process was smooth, but there were some things that I did not like.
Pros
- 12–24 multiplier
- Fast and easy money
Cons
- High taxes ($39 for the Flippa listing and 10% after I sold the website)
I ended up with $1240 out of $1400. Also, I had to pay income tax in my country, which is another 10%. Remember to pay your taxes even if you don’t have an LLC or something similar. I heard people got in trouble for not doing that.
The Buyer
The buyer was professional and helpful throughout the process. I noticed from his profile and talking to him that he bought websites for thousands of dollars and runs many of them using VAs. He probably earns a huge amount of money from them.
This shows how profitable niche websites are and how you can turn them into a full-time income.
Having ten websites like mine means $600 per month without any effort. This is digital real estate, basically.
Obviously, there are costs to running these websites, but the earning potential is huge.
Conclusion
Overall selling a website taught me more than I expected about niche websites. I can now say there is a lot of money to be made from this side hustle.
And since this is my main focus, I will continue to build websites and maybe flip them.
