Can You Really Make Money Building and Selling Websites?

Without any doubt the Internet has opened up different ways for people to make money these days whether full time or part time. From running of eCommerce sites and selling of information products, a lot of people have discovered lucrative opportunities online. One of such business opportunities is the building and selling of websites. What these people do is, like real estate developers, they create nice looking sites and then sell them on auction sites such as eBay.com. this online business model is also known as website flipping. The question many people will want answered is, can you really make money from building and selling of websites? Can these sites actually make money for the average Joe?

Here are a few ways you can make money from website flipping:

1. Hosting Services – Some website designers will offer a website for a very low price to entice a sale. Part of these offers is a free month or year worth of hosting on his or her server. Many of these people will use a reseller service for webhosting in order to sell off space on the Internet for a very low price. When a sale happens, part of the stipulation may be that you are committed to a specific amount of time with this hosting provider for a discounted price if not free. Some may think this practice borders on immoral, especially if the auction or sale doesn't emphasize this feature. At any rate, many of these practices are actually cheaper per month to the consumer over paying directly for hosting.

2. Outright Sale – It could take a great deal of work to generate enough traffic to sell a website for thousands of dollars, but it does happen. Developers will spend several months cultivating a website to generate a certain amount of traffic and then sell them to the highest bidder. If the developer can prove to the potential buyer that the website generates thousands of visits per day, he or she can easily make a sale. The more quality traffic a website receives, the more valuable it becomes. However, this could take a great deal of time and search engine optimization management in order to make this a lucrative venture.

3. It's All in the Name – A common practice on the Internet is the buying and reselling of potentially golden domain names. By keeping an eye on what's trending in the general public, a seller could discover the perfect domain name at the time and buy it from a registrar for less than $15. He or she can then auction off the domain or use services available such as those located on Godaddy.com to sell the domain name for a great deal more. Some of these sites have sold for tens of thousands of dollars from just a simple $15 investment. However, this entails that you have a good eye for the current trend and can make an educated guess as to what the next big domain name will be.

4. Content for Success – One of the most important constants to remember of the Internet is, “content matters.” Simply throwing a nicely designed template up with a few pages of content won't help you sell the site later on. The site needs to be rich with unique and well developed content. These pages need to be added on a regular basis in order for the site to score well with search engines such as Google. You can't write 10 pages of 1000 word articles and expect the site to generate a great deal of traffic. It needs to be a regular flow of relevant content to the niche supporting the website's name. For instance, writing about boats on a website named “babyclothes.com” is not going to bode well for future sales.

5. Don't Waste Space – If you are developing a website for the purpose of selling it later, you might as well use what you have. Add money making programs like Google Adsense and affiliate marketing banners to put more money in your pocket. If you can provide evidence that your site is making money from these venues, it will exponentially increase the value of the site. Coincidentally, you may find yourself wanting to keep the site because of the amount of money it makes from these services.

The Internet has provided a platform for money to be made in a variety of ways. Whether these are purely online services or selling products world-wide, the Internet opens possibilities to virtually any business idea. Developments for continued success are constantly being designed to benefit anyone. Regardless of whether you are a website designer looking to sell your creations or a guy in the basement of his house running an online eCommerce home electronics store, discovering new online methods could help you solidify your income.

Over to you: do you think money can really be made from building and selling websites on the internet? Share your views in your comments below.

Author Bio: Jason Miner an expert freelance writer loves writing articles on different categories. He is approaching different bloggers to recognize each other's efforts through “www.blogcarnival.com”. He can be contacted through e-mail at jasonminer8atgmaildotcom.