We Built & Sold A Website For Over $690,000 in Under 2 Years. Ask Us Anything!

[Potatoe]

@stackcash

Once all of the DD was done, the files were transferred over, escrow cleared, and the money finally hit your account... what did it feel like? I had my first substantial sale finalize late last year, and once the wire was sent I was checking my bank account several times a day. I remember when I finally refreshed and all the cash was sitting there, I was expecting it to be a big moment but I didn't feel anything, it was just flat.

I don't know how your situation pre and post sale compare financially, in my case it was my biggest win by far, and I was struggling for a few months prior to the sale. It was the biggest sum of money I've ever had, by FAR, but I didn't feel any different at all - which surprised me. I'm just curious how that compares to your experience. It's more of a personal question than about the site, I hope that's okay.

 

[Court Jester]

Gotcha. I'm also a member of AHP and that is definitely my main struggle. Building the site = no problem. Prepping and posting the content = no problem. Outreach? ugh. I'd rather spend the money than spend the time on outreach. Thanks for the answer!

An aside...

When I started framing outreach as relationship building EARLY in the site building process, it made a noticeable difference. Not only in my stress levels but in the strength of relationships. I now start outreach once I purchase the domain. Of course, this assumes one's site is valuable and not a TPOS (Thin piece of shit).

 

[animalstyle]

I've been reading the case study on your site and had a question on niche/keyword selection: when you're measuring competition you say to look at serps for your target keywords and if there are really strong competitors with home pages ranking, well aged sites etc, to keep looking.

I find myself building a project that I didn't do this and might be in a bit over my head. Any advice?

 

[stackcash]

Out of interest...you said you front loaded the content prior to launch. How much content did you launch the site with?

About 20 pages if I remember correctly.

@stackcash

Once all of the DD was done, the files were transferred over, escrow cleared, and the money finally hit your account... what did it feel like? I had my first substantial sale finalize late last year, and once the wire was sent I was checking my bank account several times a day. I remember when I finally refreshed and all the cash was sitting there, I was expecting it to be a big moment but I didn't feel anything, it was just flat.

I don't know how your situation pre and post sale compare financially, in my case it was my biggest win by far, and I was struggling for a few months prior to the sale. It was the biggest sum of money I've ever had, by FAR, but I didn't feel any different at all - which surprised me. I'm just curious how that compares to your experience. It's more of a personal question than about the site, I hope that's okay.

It's definitely been my biggest single payment ever, for sure.

I haven't really stopped to enjoy it yet, honestly. Once the payment hit the account, I immediately started executing on goals I had set for once I received the money.... fund new sites, write a case study, do an AMA, save money for a house.

I'm sure once I'm moving furniture into a new house that I'll own... It'll hit me.

I've been reading the case study on your site and had a question on niche/keyword selection: when you're measuring competition you say to look at serps for your target keywords and if there are really strong competitors with home pages ranking, well aged sites etc, to keep looking.

I find myself building a project that I didn't do this and might be in a bit over my head. Any advice?

Don't waste resources unless you know how they are directly leading to the successful completion of your goals.

 

[goldmercury]

This is a great case study. I've got the feeling my niche of choice sucks. Been pumping out content but can't get traction. I would pay for someone to help me refine my niche choice.

 

[eliquid]

I haven't really stopped to enjoy it yet, honestly. Once the payment hit the account, I immediately started executing on goals I had set for once I received the money.... fund new sites, write a case study, do an AMA, save money for a house.

I'm sure once I'm moving furniture into a new house that I'll own... It'll hit me.

It will at some point.

Mine really didn't hit me until I bought my house too. We paid in cash.

In the final meeting where all the papers get signed, we walked in and sat for about 15 minutes and signed some paperwork and walked out.

The other people who sold us the house had been there for close to an hour already signing stuff. They looked a bit odd at us as we strolled in and left. I later found out they were there for longer after we left signing stuff.

If you never bought a home, you might not understand this story. But normally people buy homes with mortgages/loans and you have to sign away all these papers for hours. Papers for the loan, papers for the inspection, papers for papers, etc....

The fact we strolled in when we wanted, signed like 3 documents, and left 15 minutes hit me that pretty much I could do what I wanted because I had options. Options is the very very key word here.

When you realize the options you have, it will hit you for sure.

Oh... another thing. I had the option to not move my furniture and fool with it from the old house we lived in.

I simply gave most of it away to family and never once touched moving any it. When we got into our new house, we simply went to a store and bought $30k worth of new furniture that was delivered and installed for us. We didn't have to even fill out a credit form, just paid in cash and left. Took about 2 hours tops.

That's options man. Doing whatever is you want, when you want.

 

[stackcash]

It will at some point.

Mine really didn't hit me until I bought my house too. We paid in cash.

In the final meeting where all the papers get signed, we walked in and sat for about 15 minutes and signed some paperwork and walked out.

The other people who sold us the house had been there for close to an hour already signing stuff. They looked a bit odd at us as we strolled in and left. I later found out they were there for longer after we left signing stuff.

If you never bought a home, you might not understand this story. But normally people buy homes with mortgages/loans and you have to sign away all these papers for hours. Papers for the loan, papers for the inspection, papers for papers, etc....

The fact we strolled in when we wanted, signed like 3 documents, and left 15 minutes hit me that pretty much I could do what I wanted because I had options. Options is the very very key word here.

When you realize the options you have, it will hit you for sure.

Oh... another thing. I had the option to not move my furniture and fool with it from the old house we lived in.

I simply gave most of it away to family and never once touched moving any it. When we got into our new house, we simply went to a store and bought $30k worth of new furniture that was delivered and installed for us. We didn't have to even fill out a credit form, just paid in cash and left. Took about 2 hours tops.

That's options man. Doing whatever is you want, when you want.

Man, I totally get this. Financial freedom is my chief goal, day in / out.

I'm *almost* there. It seems like the closer I get to the right side of that goal, the more frustrating it becomes. Problems I never even knew existed begin flying my way left and right.

I just tell myself that it's just a sign that I'm close and to keep pushing. I'll break through eventually.

Congrats on the success, homie. You practice what you preach, and it shows!

 

[Potatoe]

Thanks for the answer @stackcash and the insights @eliquid. Sounds like the answer to my sale not "hitting me" is that it wasn't enough, so the next one will have to be bigger

This is a great case study. I've got the feeling my niche of choice sucks. Been pumping out content but can't get traction. I would pay for someone to help me refine my niche choice.

Go look at 'sold' listings, either on broker sites (They'll almost always show the niche at least, along with some basic info publicly) and Flippa where they'll show you the whole shebang.

 

[goldmercury]

Thanks for info Potatoe - that seems like the right place to start. I'm guessing I may have to pivot on what my current niche is if anyone can lend their insight I'm willing to disclose my site via PM.

 

[stackcash]

Thanks for info Potatoe - that seems like the right place to start. I'm guessing I may have to pivot on what my current niche is if anyone can lend their insight I'm willing to disclose my site via PM.

If you have a specific question, please ask it.

 

[mmm91492]

Inspirational read, and congrats!

How much traffic were you getting at 3 months? 6 months? 12 months?

You mentioned you only had about 3 to 5 money pages - approximately what percentage of your traffic were you able to funnel to these pages, and how well did they convert when they got there? On average, how many funnel steps did users go through? What was the average value of a conversion?

I notice in the FE prospectus the site is listed as "Lead Generation" - were you doing something more than standard affiliate links to product pages?

Again, really great stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[stackcash]

Inspirational read, and congrats!

How much traffic were you getting at 3 months? 6 months? 12 months?

You mentioned you only had about 3 to 5 money pages - approximately what percentage of your traffic were you able to funnel to these pages, and how well did they convert when they got there? On average, how many funnel steps did users go through? What was the average value of a conversion?

I notice in the FE prospectus the site is listed as "Lead Generation" - were you doing something more than standard affiliate links to product pages?

Again, really great stuff, thanks for sharing.

I think the most unique visitors we ever had in a day was around ~300.

Our goal was to get the people ready to make a purchase on the money pages. We didn't do a whole lot of active "funneling," as the traffic that landed on informational pages were just interested in information. We did, however, make sure there were links to money pages on every page of the site. Most of the info pages were contextually interlinked with most of the money pages too.

FEI just categorized our site as lead gen, but we didn't capture any info on the site. It was just standard affiliate links. If a visitor resulted in a sale for the advertiser, we got a commission. Pretty simple.

 

[miketpowell]

I think the most unique visitors we ever had in a day was around ~300.

As someone with a media buying background this has been the most insane thing to learn about organic SEO for me. That 300/day visitors can actually be worth something.

 

[stackcash]

As someone with a media buying background this has been the most insane thing to learn about organic SEO for me. That 300/day visitors can actually be worth something.

Same here. I'm involved in a number of online communities...and all I see are people that are grabbing like 10,000+ unique visitors a day, and aren't breaking $100/day in revenue.

The key difference? Buying mindset vs info mindset.

Sure, maybe I'll be able to rank #1 for 500 informational keywords and bring in tons of traffic...but why should I do that if we can rank #1 for ~30 keywords that bring in people that already have their credit card in hand?

I whole heartedly credit @ddasilva for opening my eyes to this.

 

[animalstyle]

That's some mind blowing, zero ego, true baller shit.

Edit: turning this reaction into a question:

If your endgame was such low visitor numbers, I can imagine the initial buildup of the site must have been absolutely insane to go through personally. I know that waiting game for the first trickle of traffic can be testing on the mind.

Outside raw experience and time in the game, what did you guys monitor and what signs were you looking for in the early days as indicators that the site was growing in the right direction? How did you optimize the site using such low volume?

 

[stackcash]

That's some mind blowing, zero ego, true baller shit.

Edit: turning this reaction into a question:

If your endgame was such low visitor numbers, I can imagine the initial buildup of the site must have been absolutely insane to go through personally. I know that waiting game for the first trickle of traffic can be testing on the mind.

Outside raw experience and time in the game, what did you guys monitor and what signs were you looking for in the early days as indicators that the site was growing in the right direction? How did you optimize the site using such low volume?

To be clear, our goal wasn't low volume. Our goal was simply to target buying intent keywords. The fact that there was low volume is just a coincidence.

Wasn't really going too crazy waiting for things to pop off. I was building 3-5 other sites and operating WordAgents. I was / am doing at least 10 hours of active work a day. I have zero time to freak out. I only have time to execute.

The only things we really kept an eye on daily were 1) making sure the site had fresh content, and 2) how the site was responding to the last batch of links we built.

Seems like once a batch of links landed, it would take 2-4 weeks to see their results. So, while we were waiting to see the results of each link campaign, we would just focus on adding more content, making existing content more user-friendly, and figuring out what kind of links and anchors we want to target with our next campaign.

We did some very basic adjustments using heat map data... but that was really the extent of it.

To be honest... once we were ranking top 5 for most the keywords...the money was so good that we really didn't even have to worry about a/b testing. We put ourselves on the right SERPs and ranking top 3 for each was enough for us to bank.

The buyer knew this too. I can guess he was licking his chops at all the potential there was to test and grow revenue. From my conversations with our affiliate managers and other affiliates in the niche.... the potential for the niche was about 1x to 1.5x MORE than we were making every month. So, there was definitely room to grow in the single niche. That isn't even considering complimentary niches that could add to the site to scale it. They can also sell ad space, sell their own product, or add a paid forum.

 

[animalstyle]

@stackcash Thanks for that insight.
I love what you say about only having time to execute.

 

[built]

@stackcash so if you were monetizing with Amazon for example, would you just focus on creating as many money pages as possible?

 

[MrMedia]

@stackcash - can you elaborate on the process you used to evaluate the impact of links?

 

[stackcash]

@stackcash so if you were monetizing with Amazon for example, would you just focus on creating as many money pages as possible?

I think you might want to rephrase this because I don't think I understand your question. But... this wasn't an Amazon site, and it had about 5 money pages.

@stackcash - can you elaborate on the process you used to evaluate the impact of links?

Rankings? Not much to it.

Dan can probably elaborate much more than I can here... but each situation was different.

If a recent campaign gave us a boost that was better than we expected...maybe we focused more on content than links the next month.

If the campaign wasn't as strong as expected, maybe we tiered those links to get more out of them.

 

[Handel]

@stackcash, thanks for sharing your techniques, this is truly amazing stuff. One think caught my eye which is unclear to me:

For social we had an IFTTT syndication network setup and that was about it. We had nice profiles set up on about 20-30 major social platforms, but didn't do anything but autopost our content to them.

Do you simple autopost every piece of content from your site to all of the platforms, as simple as it is? Or do you have a specific system, like tier1->tier2->tierX or some sort of link wheels, or some kind of randomization (which social platform first, which links to which and so on), etc. Thanks.

 

[stackcash]

@stackcash, thanks for sharing your techniques, this is truly amazing stuff. One think caught my eye which is unclear to me:

Do you simple autopost every piece of content from your site to all of the platforms, as simple as it is? Or do you have a specific system, like tier1->tier2->tierX or some sort of link wheels, or some kind of randomization (which social platform first, which links to which and so on), etc. Thanks.

Pretty much just auto-updating each social property in some way anytime a new post is published. Could be syndicating the whole post, could be just sharing an excerpt in some cases, could be just sharing the link on Twitter, etc. You kinda just gotta set up a custom applet for each social property and do what works.

If you want to learn more on the topic, search for "DA Stacking." IFTTT SEO by Semantic Mastery is a great course too.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I reviewed the thread to see if you've dealt with this question. Forgive me if it's a duplicate.

Can you give us more details or manage our expectations regarding a structured payment? I'm talking about set-ups where 60% is paid upfront and the other 40% comes 6 months or a year later with stipulations regarding earnings.

 

[stackcash]

I reviewed the thread to see if you've dealt with this question. Forgive me if it's a duplicate.

Can you give us more details or manage our expectations regarding a structured payment? I'm talking about set-ups where 60% is paid upfront and the other 40% comes 6 months or a year later with stipulations regarding earnings.

Yeah...this is something that Dan and I really didn't know was a thing until we started dealing with the brokers. I've always used Flippa before this and was used to getting the full amount upfront.

With higher dollar website sales, they treat it as a true sale of a business. This basically means that the broker is going to balance the risk for both sides through the use of an earn out agreement.

This earn out basically means that the buyer will pay you X percentage upfront at the close of the sale and the remainder at a pre-determined point in the future. Some of these agreements will place contingencies on the future payments. For example, the agreement may state that the buyer will pay the final 25% of the sale price 6 months after the close of the sale, but only if the business hits a performance threshold.

It seems like there really isn't any rhyme or reason to the structure of the earn out period other than what both sides of the sale will agree upon.

There doesn't seem to be too much info online on the topic of structuring earn outs for website sales, but I'm sure @Thomas Smale can lend some insight if you guys need more detail on the topic.

 

[Nat]

Would you mind elaborating a little bit more on what your IFTTT / automation network looked like? Which properties you used (or how many in total) and how much inter-sharing you did on average? IFTTT SEO looks cool, but I'm not too interested in buying anything.