This SitePoint article doesn’t really cover anything new – individuals and groups have for years been buying Web sites, bringing in their talented staff to spruce it up, then make it as attractive as possible for sale.
James and I ended up being that talent in such a scenario, and witnessed first-hand the interesting set of priorities and methods. The about page for the site very much read like a real estate listing.
What I took away from this article was the realization that small-time operators could indeed be “flippers” – and could turn even a parked domain-name into a nice profit, as well as seed capital for the next project. The key would be systemization.
Just like there are countless “flip houses for riches” systems out there, there could/should be a “flipping sites” system – formulas for evaluating the value of a site and its existing components (hosting specs, previous performance, existing DB data, userbase, etc.), ways to predict what work needs to go into renovating a Web site, and tips/tricks for getting the right buyer.
It could be argued that such a system, with its myriad of formulas and case studies, might never be comprehensive, or even be futile. But, I’m guessing that just like those house-flipping systems have data for piping, wiring, tile, and carpet calculations, a system could be developed to break a Web business into its elements.
Of course, if this already exists, please share the info.
[UPDATE]
The author of this article, Peter T. Davis, has a link for Site Flipping: http://siteflip.blogspot.com/
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