Post: #1

I was recently checking out: https://flippa.com/ and noticed a lot of websites for sale. Some had revenue (sales leads? advertising?) and I wanted to see if any forum members had recommendations for books/magazines/websites that could provide a credible breakdown of how people are making money online?

I have a couple of concepts that I want to be bring to the web, however I wanted to see if anyone can direct me to some good resources that can provide a decent overview.

Post: #2

(07-03-2012 11:23 AM)BostonBMW Wrote:  I was recently checking out: https://flippa.com/ and noticed a lot of websites for sale. Some had revenue (sales leads? advertising?) and I wanted to see if any forum members had recommendations for books/magazines/websites that could provide a credible breakdown of how people are making money online?

I have a couple of concepts that I want to be bring to the web, however I wanted to see if anyone can direct me to some good resources that can provide a decent overview.

This one was decent
http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Work-Week-Blu...blueprints

It's a short book and I read it in about 30 minutes. The author goes to auction sites, looks @ the pro-forma information, verifies what the can by contacting the seller, and then breaks down how to reverse engineer the business.

Don't let the four hour work week name fool you. It has very little to do with that process.

Just as a preview, about 5 of the 27 businesses sell physical products. I don't think any of those 5 are actual manufacturers. They are probably drop shippers.

The rest of them
1) provide content (news, pictures, flash games) to browsers and make money by selling advertising via Google Sense

2) sell intellectual content to browsers (e-books, software, plug ins, memberships)

3) affiliate sites for physical and intellectual property

As far as I could tell none of them were, "coaching" and other shady/service businesses.

I think there is still a huge market for teaching people how to make money online be it e-bay, craig's list, offline stuff, coding, freelancing, writing, marketing, so on and so forth.

I think the best way to do it is like Gary Vaynerchuck - dude sold a lot of Wine online and figured out generalized way that you could do it for everything else.

You have to make money doing something legitimate, in order to make money off the method. It's real hard to put credibility in a guru who makes most of their money selling people stuff on how to get rich.

But if you build a successful factory, restaurant, brick and mortar store - the whole thing becomes more tangible for your perspective customer.

WIA

Post: #3

From what I know about Flippa, a lot of the sites listed on there are putting up fake revenue figures or getting fake bids in to drive up the cost. Be careful if you were considering buying a site that appears to be profitable.

Post: #4

http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/...o-you-use/

Not a bad overview.

The real learning curve online though is the marketing. That's where the web really is different from offline business and internet marketing is a whole new world - there are so many different marketing channels, all requiring different skillsets. You absolutely need a grasp of it even if you just want to pay someone else to do it all for you, because you need to have some idea of your marketing strategy before you even build your website really.

Post: #5

Ask me.Your question is far too general.

Post: #6

(07-03-2012 01:21 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

(07-03-2012 11:23 AM)BostonBMW Wrote:  I was recently checking out: https://flippa.com/ and noticed a lot of websites for sale. Some had revenue (sales leads? advertising?) and I wanted to see if any forum members had recommendations for books/magazines/websites that could provide a credible breakdown of how people are making money online?

I have a couple of concepts that I want to be bring to the web, however I wanted to see if anyone can direct me to some good resources that can provide a decent overview.

This one was decent
http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Work-Week-Blu...blueprints

It's a short book and I read it in about 30 minutes. The author goes to auction sites, looks @ the pro-forma information, verifies what the can by contacting the seller, and then breaks down how to reverse engineer the business.

Don't let the four hour work week name fool you. It has very little to do with that process.

Just as a preview, about 5 of the 27 businesses sell physical products. I don't think any of those 5 are actual manufacturers. They are probably drop shippers.

The rest of them
1) provide content (news, pictures, flash games) to browsers and make money by selling advertising via Google Sense

2) sell intellectual content to browsers (e-books, software, plug ins, memberships)

3) affiliate sites for physical and intellectual property

As far as I could tell none of them were, "coaching" and other shady/service businesses.

I think there is still a huge market for teaching people how to make money online be it e-bay, craig's list, offline stuff, coding, freelancing, writing, marketing, so on and so forth.

I think the best way to do it is like Gary Vaynerchuck - dude sold a lot of Wine online and figured out generalized way that you could do it for everything else.

You have to make money doing something legitimate, in order to make money off the method. It's real hard to put credibility in a guru who makes most of their money selling people stuff on how to get rich.

But if you build a successful factory, restaurant, brick and mortar store - the whole thing becomes more tangible for your perspective customer.

WIA

Thanks for the info. I brought the book and will check it out over the weekend. I definitely needed a book that could break down how money is made online.

I'm leaning towards Item 2. I have some thoughts regarding a subscription based service.

Post: #7

(07-03-2012 04:05 PM)AlphaTravel Wrote:  From what I know about Flippa, a lot of the sites listed on there are putting up fake revenue figures or getting fake bids in to drive up the cost. Be careful if you were considering buying a site that appears to be profitable.

I would never buy a website on flippa or anywhere else. I was just curious about the revenue figures and where they are coming from. Apparently there is money to be made and I definitely have a credible product/service.

Post: #8

(07-04-2012 12:48 AM)RichieP Wrote:  http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/...o-you-use/

Not a bad overview.

The real learning curve online though is the marketing. That's where the web really is different from offline business and internet marketing is a whole new world - there are so many different marketing channels, all requiring different skillsets. You absolutely need a grasp of it even if you just want to pay someone else to do it all for you, because you need to have some idea of your marketing strategy before you even build your website really.

This is great breakdown of the models. If you have any resources on marketing, please let me know.