web property

I’ve covered the importance of web hosting in my previous posts, and today I’d like to offer you a legitimate case study.

It’s actually one of my web properties.

Although not considerable in value, this property - it’s a blog on mobile phone - is nevertheless very important to me.

In fact, all of my web properties are very important to me, so that I can’t tolerate any complacents related to them. I’m sure you agree with me on this.

The case study

Let’s say the blog is hosted on X web hosting company. When I opened an account with them, all looks fantastic - nice site management tools, domain name management tools, and other tools that are (supposedly) add value. What’s more, they are on promo - so it’s fairly a cheap hosting at that time.

However, the X company seems to forget their number one critical success factor in offering web hosting solutions for clients - reliability.

To cut long story short, my blog seems slow and patchy at times, and it’s rarely cannot be displayed due to server problems. This results in dropped traffic, SERPs, and eventually PageRank, not mentioning readership and Google AdSense revenue!

Regarding the latter - I’m not sure whether it’s related to web hosting reliability or not, but logically, if Google ’see’ your site going up and down too often, I think it will see my blog less important, hence dropped in PageRank. Any explanation would be much appreciated :)

This is recoverable, but it wouldn’t be easy.

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I would like to announce the sales of one of my web properties - First Worlds Web Directory.

It’s a niche web directory that incorporates bidding system.

I design the directory myself, based on the original template by the script I use - PHP Link Bid. So, the design is pretty much unique.

The reason behind the sales is due to the much needed investment to boost my offline business through recession.

If you are interested, please visit my auction at SitePoint.com through this banner:

Thanks!

Ivan Widjaya
Web property investor

I have involved for at least four months in web properties. Although still new, I learn a great deal from experience, from experts, and from critics, as well.

I started my web property investment by purchasing and starting web directories, as I learn that owning an Internet guide & web directory is lucrative :)

But first, why I join webmaster forums and why I start my web property investment with web directories?

Webmaster forums are to learn the basic from the experts

I joined webmaster forums, such as those of DigitalPoint.com and SitePoint.com, to learn the basic from the experts. From both forums, I land my first web property purchase, as well as my first web property sales.

Both forums have different characteristics and type of experts - Learning from both forums kick-start me into web directories - the ‘playground’ of webmasters.

I am not a webmaster - a wannabe, perhaps, but I always want to learn the basic webmaster skills that are proven to be very useful in my web property investment journey. Well, at least to avoid being scammed by the smarter guys :)

Web directories are (still) important and lucrative today

I wandered around the forums to learn what are people working on to make money online these days. I found several prospects, and one of them is web directories.

Web directory is a listing of things - could be general or niche, could be free or paid. While most people say that web directories are dead today, I still see that web directories are pretty much playing important role and still lucrative today.

How to choose a good web directory to invest in

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Investing in web properties and web businesses is definitely rewarding today.

With the ever-growing eCommerce market and ever-expanding Internet business marketplace, owning and investing in an online business is very lucrative.

Web estate - a portable real estate

Web estate - the term I use referring to web property - is indeed a portable real estate. It is a investment property with a perk - you can actually move then wherever and whenever you want.

What I mean by ‘moving’ is actually changing web hosting.

In a layman’s term, web hosting is a service that offer you high-capacity servers to ‘host’ your websites. You can either rent a certain amount of space on the server, or rent the whole server for you, of course with a different monthly payment amount.

Choosing the right web hosting is important

It is apparent that choosing the right web hosting partner is crucial in owning and developing your web properties and businesses.

What to consider in choosing one?

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Money and Minds is my recent web property purchase that I can’t stop talking about :)

I always look for a niche blog that cover a laser-targeted topic in any industries. Money and Minds is the answer of my long search for such blog.

Money and Minds - Personal Neurofinance

Money and Minds is a blog about personal neurofinance - that is, about how the brain affects your personal money decisions - finance, budgeting, investing and other financial topics - all from the perspective of neuroscience.

This topic is, in my opinion, will soon to be booming, as finance experts and scientists alike are exploring the ideas behind our daily money decision making, all for the purpose of understanding human better, as well as how to develop better financial solutions.

Yes, it’s a crossing of finance-science, and probably not your type of easy reading, but I ensure you the articles within the Money and Minds blog are unique and top-notch quality.

I in fact team-up with 2 excellent writers that contribute on regular basis to the blog. So, yes - Money and Minds blog is a more desirable business model, even compared to this blog.

Please visit my personal neurofinance blog to read interesting insights on the issues of finance and your brain.

I have finally sold one of my web property. All this time, all I do is acquiring websites to add to my portfolio.

I can’t disclose the details - yet.

But this first-time experience is really teach me a lot, because, in fact, it’s not as smooth as I thought it would be :p

The transaction is through Paypal, and as long as Paypal has a 60 days transaction cancellation period, I have to be worry for the next 56 days or so, because it’s easy to get refund using Paypal :)

I actually eager do transaction with escrow services, such as Escrow.com, but my country is not in their list :(

All I can say is that some minor details went unnoticed, and my buyer asked me to settle the problems.

Silly me - I should’ve checked the details not when I’m about to sell it, but when I bought the site 5 months ago! A newbie mistake, I believe.

Fortunately, the buyer is keen to work this out and not rushing to get a chargeback through Paypal.

I’ll keep you updated with the outcome.

The first lesson I learn in website flipping is: Triple check every transaction detail and inquire small details as much as you can to the seller. It’s better being annoying than sorry later.

Ivan Widjaya
Website flipping noob

Here is my latest addition to my web properties portfolio - Camrosecs Link Directory.

It is a one month old directory that grow at significant rate - currently it has more than 1,100 submitted links. So, the growth rate is 30-40 new links per day - great, great potential for such a young directory.

As the name implies, the asset of Camrosecs is its submitted links. Let’s say that the current focus is building up the asset at the shortest possible time. Again, I am a noob in this - I’ll learn on the go to push the growth of Camrosecs Link Directory.

In financial perspective, this directory is not a producer - yet. In the world of independent directories, revenue doesn’t come fast.

Why I buy Camrosecs Link Directory - My investment analysis

Directories today don’t shout cash - they shout asset. Let’s say I’m buying a not-so-liquid asset that has low-moderate cash flow.

You might ask, if it’s not a money maker, why did you bother invest in it?

My answer, low-risk investment.

In my opinion, directories are the most stable, hands-free, time-tested investment on the Net.

On the down side, it’s not a great money maker - and it would stay that way later on.

On the up side, it’s like investing in a precious metal - you simply can’t go wrong with it, as long as you play ‘clean’ - especially in the eye of visitors, partners and the search engines.

What is playing ‘clean’? Directories’ strength are their purpose; For link submitters, directories help them to promote their site and expose to the directories’ visitors; For visitors, directories help them to seek anything they wish, thus making their life easier.

So, the key in owning directories - ensure the quality of submitted links, and expose the directories, so that they are easy (-er) to find.

What makes Camrosecs unique?

Camrosecs Link Directory does look similar to others.

What differ it from the other is the presence of accompanying blog.

Along with that, Camrosecs also offering free, no sign-up, no reciprocal, and fast approval listing service. A total package!

There are basically 3 type of directory growth plan:

1. The directory stays as a directory.
2. The directory will become a partial or full bidding web directory - that is, incorporating bidding for top position in a regular directory.
3. The directory will become a link-article-blog combo directory.

I envision Camorsecs Link Directory to be the number 3 - just like what the authority directory, Romow Directory, did and still doing it.

Will Camrosecs Link Directory be big? Honestly, there are chances to be one - that’s my gut feeling.

Ivan WIdjaya
A proud father of his new baby

I always love Yaro Starak’s flag blog, the Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.

I even more ‘attached’ to his writings due the fact that he is into web property investment (although he already sold some of his web properties, such as SmallBusinessBranding.com - to focus to his new online venture.)

I clearly inspired by his writing because I consider myself as a noob in this area - I currently have several web properties that one of them is the cash cow. I believe that just like the ol’ real estate, your intuition and experience in valuing a property is important.

Yaro, one of the pro-blogger (a.k.a a famous, authority blogger, on the Net) that invest in web properties, as he wrote in his article, never lost money on a website investment. Therefore, it’s a great way to cut your learning curve in web properties business by following his lead.

His latest article, How to Invest in Websites in Your Spare Time, is one of his articles that I’ve been waiting for long. You should check it out.

My favourite ‘insider’ tips from him, taken from the article I mention above, is as follow (summarised for the purpose of this blog):

Look for sites that grow organically

 

…My strategy has always been to find low maintenance sites, however it’s important to also consider the potential for organic growth…

 

I’ve advocated investing in forums… they tend to sustain themselves with little work beyond moderation… generally if you have a base of a few hundred regular forum participants (that’s daily participants - not just registered members), they will create content and bring in new readers without you needing to do anything at all.

 

…Buying established forums is great - creating one from nothing is challenging and time consuming.

 

Blogs can make good investments, especially if you are buying one with an established writer or a team of writers and an established readership… Blogs live and die based on continuous content and if you don’t find a way to keep the flow of new ideas coming, you might regret the purchase.

 

…If you find niche sites with a history of stable traffic targeting markets that, given things remain stable, should continue to grow with the natural growth rare of the Internet, then you may have found yourself a good buy.

 

I’ve stayed away from sites that sell products as their monetization method (like a site that sells an ebook) or sites that depend heavily on paid for traffic like Google AdWords… Niche sites that monetize with affiliate products are fine though since you don’t actually manage the products yourself.

 

…I always recommend you gravitate towards projects you have enthusiasm form and understand the model, so don’t follow my lead blindly - make up your own mind.

Great tips, huh?

Forums - THAT would be the next goal in my list :)

Ivan Widjaya
Do you Yaro? ;)

There is one kind of web property flipping type that people hardly talk about on the Net.

I call the one who do it a flipper-developer - simple, he/she buy an ailing, undervalued, potential websites, ‘renovate’ them, and sell them on a higher price tag. Just like the ol’ real estate guy that buy ugly houses, renovate them, and sell them to market value.

Consider this: nowadays, what happen in the physical world, can happen online. Even there are people that live in the two worlds. For budding online entrepreneur, this area of website flipping is lucrative and different.

I tell you why. Regular website flippers will buy a website and sell it as the opportunity rises - without doing much of a work in developing and improving the website. There are also web property investors that buy a website, work on it, and keep it if possible - they would sell their portfolio if and only if the right buyer at the right price comes.

Those are not the case of flipper-developers - Their job is buying, RENOVATE, and sell it. Notice the capitals - that’s what flipper-developers do best - they do search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, building rep, building back links (increasing the number of sites linking back to their sites), upgrading and redeveloping, and many other activities that can improve the value of a website.

The selling part itself is not that hard - nowadays, people look for quality and proven web properties - not much buy on potential web properties - typically those that have high price tags with little or no income. Buyers want valuable web properties, and they want them NOW - high demand.

How to buy?

Find a marketplace where people buy and sell websites - try sitepoint.com, digitalpoint.com, or webmaster-talk.com.

Research, research, research - you will soon notice that some site owners are desperate to get their sites sold, for many reasons. Probe for reasons, check the validity of their offers (beware, scammers are everywhere), and value their sites right.

This takes a lot of practice. So again, research, research, research.

How to renovate?

Similar to those of real estate developers, you need a team - unless you are an expert Internet guy yourself, you need to outsource the work to others.

You need a web developer, an internet marketer, and a web designer - don’t worry though. You don’t have to hire them - seek freelancers who, in my opinion, are as good as the company guys. Your biggest part of the job is finding one.

Contract them per project basis - so both of you can have an easy exit if something goes wrong.

The aim of renovating is to make your web properties more valuable and more profitable. Don’t neglect any one of them.

How to sell?

Just like the way you buy sites - go to online marketplace, and make the listing there.

You can actually do the selling offline - do a classified ad or the similar to market your site.

Just make sure you deal for an exit route that is comfortable for you and your web property buyer.

What is next?

Well, the best route for entrepreneur is to learn by doing. Better yet, find a mentor to help you during your learning curve. This flipping-developing thing is lucrative, so take action to capitalise on it.

Ivan Widjaya
Flipper-developer