Another of developer Mitch Ely’s and Provenance Development’s developments caught up at some point in lawsuits.

This South Congress development was completed after the contract completion date, and all owners have up to 2 years after closing to sue as of the contract.

Are you an owner of a Bend Condo? The Good News is you can sue for damages up to 2 years AFTER CLOSING.

Please email stacycaprio@gmail.com for more detail

Case Excerpts

Here are excerpts from one violation claim:

“Mitch Ely, a licensed TREC realtor and broker is violating a contract for his own financial gain, involving “fraud or misrepresentation that involves a loss of money or property <$10,000”.

-Contract for the Bend Unit #511 effective date 02/10/2021 (see attached)

-Amendment for the contract signed 08/29/2021 by purchaser and seller that changed the purchase price to $341,250, and changed the completion date in section 7.01 to December 31st, 2023 (see attached). The seller at the time did cite Covid delays as the reason for needing to extend, and presented both parties with an extension to sign, and both parties signed to make the extension valid. Both parties signed and were ok with extending the completion date at that time.

-December 31st, 2023, the utilities and recreational facilities were still not complete, putting the seller in default.

-January 1st, 2024, Purchasers Mark and Polly sent an email to agents Jonathan and Annemarie, asking for earnest back due to seller default of seller in regard to the agreed and amended completion date of December 31st, 2023. (see attached email)

-In response Jonathan the agent responded via email saying “We have received your note. The Seller is not entertaining any termination requests at this time, and we have been informed that in the event of a termination by Purchaser, the Seller would at a minimum retain the earnest money. They also have the right to enforce specific performance per the agreement, which could include additional damages & penalties.”

-The seller’s lawyer then sent a response letter to Purchasers Mark & Polly saying they will release Mark and Polly from the contract if they sign to do so, but will keep earnest as they do not believe they are in default due to Covid supply chain delays (see attached). The completion date was originally pushed back to the agreed December 31^st, 2023, due to Covid delays at a time when both parties also signed and agreed extend the contract completion date.

No agreement or extension was ever presented or signed to extend the completion date further.

The utility and recreational facility completion date in Section 7.01 was extended to December 31st, 2023, and it was not met.

The Seller is in default of their end of the agreement and is holding Mark and Polly’s earnest money against the contract and without their consent.

The Seller, Mitch Ely, a licensed TREC realtor and broker is violating TREC ethics by causing Level 2 harm to a consumer involving “fraud or misrepresentation that involves a loss of money or property <$10,000”.

Seller/realtor/broker Mitch intentionally never presented consumer Purchaser Mark Polly with a second amendment to extend the agreed completion date. This is intentional fraud and misrepresentation as he knew if he presented it, the Purchaser may not agree to extend, and he intentionally did this for his own financial gain at the detriment of the Purchaser, not allowing them the opportunity to have full information or transparency in a situation where Mark & Polly have more than $10,000 earnest at stake.

Specific TREC Violations in addition to Contract Violations:

At a Nick Gray, 2 Hour Cocktail Party author, networking event in Austin, TX, I met a handful of extremely accomplished and interesting people.

One was David Holmes of Red View Ventures, an entrepreneur who has bought, scaled and sold a handful of ecommerce businesses.

David Holmes has been in the Amazon space for more than 7 years and has successfully exited 2 Amazon-based businesses.

In 2020, he acquired an existing Amazon FBA business, grew it 500%, and ultimately sold it to a private buyer in 2022. His work has been featured on WebAcquisitions.com, ImportDojo, and other industry publications.

Now, he helps premium DTC brands take advantage of the full potential of Amazon through his unique launch and scale strategies.

Thinking it could be fun to buy, scale and flip an Amazon FBA site?

I met David Holmes, an entrepreneur who has flipped 6 Ecommerce sites, at a neighborhood networking event in Austin, TX last week.

I got to ask him a bunch of questions. Today we’ll dive into his specific tips to successfully scale and sell an Amazon FBA business.

He’s the best I’ve met at this, so you’re in for a treat if scaling or flipping an ecommerce business interests you.

Has anyone read entrepreneur Nick Gray’s book The 2 Hour Cocktail Party?

I haven’t read the book, yet.. but I want to! I went to a 32 person event the author hosted at Support Ninja founder Cody McClain’s house in my neighborhood in Austin, TX last week and it felt professionally hosted.

It was one of the best events I have been to, and chock full of accomplished, bright, entrepreneurs.

The event is where I met David, an entrepreneur who scales Amazon FBA sites full-time.

How has David sold 6 Ecommerce sites?

David was kind enough to give me some insight into FBA site flipping over coffee – Sharing his tips with you all below as I’ve never personally bought or scaled an Amazon site before.

Hoping to buy or scale your own ecomm business?

If you currently own an ecommerce site, or are interested to buy one, he can help you scale it. David runs an agency now and scales Ecommerce businesses with a profit-share model.

He knows what he’s doing. He helped one Amazon site go from $220,000/month to $2,400,000/month in under 6 months.

Let’s dive into David’s specific tips and experience below:

How did you first get into website investing and flipping?

I started my own content site in 2014 while I was in college. I quickly got it to $1,000/month which was a lot of money to me at the time. When I learned, I could sell it for $20,000+, I was astounded. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked.

What were you doing before you made the switch?

I used to be a mechanical engineer working in engineering consulting. I worked in accident reconstruction – where I would help reconstruct car crashes for civil litigation.

How many years have you been full-time buying and flipping websites?

I’ve been full time for 3 years now. In January 2020, I took the leap and I haven’t stopped since.

Is it more or less time-consuming than when you had a full-time job?

This isn’t what a lot of people want to hear but it’s definitely more time-consuming than a full-time job. You can’t just clock out at 5 pm. You’re responsible for every aspect of your business.

What do you prefer about having your own business vs working for someone else?

The freedom and the opportunity. I’ve been able to travel extensively while running my own business because I’m not tied down to a location.

Tell us about the first site (or last site etc you can choose one) you purchased. What niche was it? What type of site was it?

The last site I purchased was an Amazon FBA business in the skateboard niche.

Where did you buy it?

I purchased it off of Flippa in December 2019.

What stood out to you that made you want to buy it? Were there any red flags?

I had prior experience in the niche and I knew the seller from a previous skateboarding content site that I ran. There were multiple red flags – revenue was declining, product quality was iffy at best, and there was low net profit.

What did you do to optimize it/increase traffic/revenue/profit?

I did 3 things primarily:

1. The business was manufacturing in the USA. I outsourced manufacturing to China – saving 45% on cost of goods sold and improving the product quality
2. I optimized the Amazon Ad strategy. By doing so, I was able to grow revenue quickly.
3. I optimized the Amazon listing. This helped increase conversion rate quickly and helped grow revenue.

With this 2 sided approach (grow revenue and cut costs), I was able to drastically increase the valuation of the business.

How much did you increase its value by the time you sold it?

From the initial acquisition price to the exit price, I increased the value by 5x in under 2 years. Including cashflow while operating the business, it was a 10x return on investment.

What tips do you have for people who want to buy a site and flip it, what should they look for?

Always look at the negatives first. There are always reasons you can think of to buy a site. You need to think of all of the reasons this deal could go bad. Protect your investment first and then look to grow it.

What are your tips for how they can optimize it and grow revenue?

For content sites, you want to look for easy wins first – switch the ad network (Adsense to Ezoic/Mediavine/AdThrive), add comparison tables, add interlinking between the articles.

For bigger wins, add more content, improve backlinks, and start growing pageviews.

Where did you find the buyer?

I found the buyer through Flippa.

Any tips for people looking to sell a site? How can they present it in the best light? When is a good time to sell?

If you’re looking to sell a site, sell while it is growing! It is incredibly difficult to sell a declining site – I can’t overstate this enough. It’s possible but it’s difficult. You want to sell while your site is growing or stable.

You also want to leave some easy wins for the buyer. This gives them confidence they can quickly see a return on investment.

Do you tend to sell sites when they are on an upward trajectory?

I try to but it’s difficult. What I like to do is grow the site as quickly as possible, maintain revenue for 3-6 months, and then sell it – while leaving opportunities for growth for the new buyer.

How much more of a multiple do you find can you sell for if you sell for if you sell it on an upward trajectory vs a downward?

Multiples obviously vary wildly based on niche and the exact site but generally a growing site can go for 3-4x seller’s discretionary earnings. If it’s declining, you’re looking at a 2 – 2.5x earnings multiple.

What are red flags people should watch out for when buying an Amazon ecommerce site?

Product quality and moat against competitors. Amazon has become fiercely competitive in the last 3 years. You want to truly understand how you’ll differentiate from competition and maintain a premium price point.

What are some red flags you saw before purchasing your own sites that you wish you had paid more attention to or that made your growth and flip journey harder?

I wish I had paid more attention to the product quality. There were some quality issues that I fixed but there were other issues inherent in the product. That held back growth.

How many sites have you purchased, grown and sold? Have you sold all the sites you bought?

I’ve purchased 4 sites and built 2 other sites from scratch. I’ve sold all of them now.

Have all your site purchases been successful flips? If not, can you explain what happened and why and the lessons you learned?

Not all of them have been successful. I bought 2 sites built off expired domains in the spirituality niche. I ended up selling them a year later and recouped ~80% of my initial investment.

Biggest lesson learned was time.

At the time of running those sites, I was also running an Amazon agency and my own Amazon brand. I didn’t have enough bandwidth to focus on the sites so I eventually just sold them off.

Can you tell us more about what you are doing right now? What is your business?

I help e-commerce brands launch and scale on Amazon through my agency: https://www.redviewventures.com/

What is the specific service(s) you provide for companies? Does it involve just running their Amazon ads or do you offer other services / does it involve a more comprehensive growth plan or multiple services?

I perform full Amazon channel management – including listing creation, launch strategy, Amazon Ad strategy, scaling, and optimization. My goal is to take 90% of Amazon off of your hands.

Do you offer multiple packages or do you have a single service package offering? If multiple, what are the multiple offerings and who should choose each one?

What types of companies do you work with?

I work with e-commerce companies primarily doing $200k+ in annual revenue that want to expand to Amazon. If they’re not on Amazon, we’ll help them launch their products on Amazon. If they’re already on Amazon, we’ll help them scale to become category leaders.

Do you work with all niches as long as they are Amazon sites?

I only work with companies selling physical products.

How soon do you find companies experience revenue/profit growth after starting working with you?

Typically 3 months is the sweet spot to see good traction and revenue growth.

What is the most monthly revenue growth, and profit growth, a company has seen while working with you and how long did it take to get there?

I helped one e-commerce company go from doing $220,000/month to $2,400,000/month on Amazon in under 6 months. I wrote a case study about it here.

What made that company such a perfect fit to grow with your help?

They had the capital and cash conversion cycle to grow quickly. For other brands, we’ve been able to scale but have been limited on the inventory side.

Where can someone follow you on social media?

Connect with David on Twitter and Linkedin

Where can someone reach out to talk more if they have questions about your company or working with you?

david@redviewmanagement.com

If a Her.CEO reader is buying an Amazon site and wants to work with you, are you interested in running the ad portion for a percentage of revenue share? If yes I can let readers know.

Yes, I predominately work on a performance/revenue share basis.

Watch my aged domain case study with traffic numbers and more here:

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing my experience with building a website on an Odys Global aged domain.

You’ll get to see my full Odys review, and learn about my experience building a website on a premium, aged Odys domain.

First, we’ll go over why people (like me), buy aged domains, and how buying an aged domain can speed up the website ranking process.

The main reason people buy aged domains on marketplaces such as Odys.Global, is that brand new domains and sites tend not to rank.

Do Brand New Domains Rank?

Brand New Sites Take Time to Rank

With a brand new site you have two options. You can either wait it out, and build site links and authority, or, you can build a site on an older, aged domain with high authority to try to rank more quickly.

Another option to help a brand new site rank more quickly is to redirect an older, aged domain with high authority to your brand new domain to transfer authority onto the new domain to try to help it rank more quickly.

One question many people have is, why don’t new sites rank?

Why don’t new sites rank?

• The Google Sandbox
• No time for Google to see how visitors react to the site
• No links, trust or authority
• Need more content / keyword-researched content

The Google Sandbox

One reason new sites don’t rank right away is the Google Sandbox. If you’re an SEO or have been in the online world for any amount of time, you may have heard of the The Google Sandbox.

The Google Sandbox refers to a general 6 month period that most websites are in a sort of purgatory before they have a chance to start ranking for any keywords at all.

As you can imagine, this can be frustrating for many website owners who are impatient to see results.

Google Needs Time Before it Ranks a Site

The reason for the sandbox is that Google tends to need time to start indexing new sites, to see if they actually have good content, and to figure out what they’re about.

Because of this, Google tends to wait at least 6 months before they will even start ranking a brand new site and domain.

This period of time is known as the Google sandbox period and is recognized by many in the SEO world and by those who have ever started a brand new site on a brand new domain.

No Links, Trust & Authority = No Google Rankings

Another reason a new site will have trouble ranking is because a brand new site has no links, and no trust or authority.

When a site starts fresh with no links this is a sign to Google it has no outside trust so Google is less willing to rank it or trust it.

Links are outside trust factors that show to Google and other search engines that a site can be trusted.

A brand new site has no trust factors that search engines can recognize to rank it.

Since a brand new site is new and without links, trust or authority, and search engines don’t want to rank something brand new with no trust factors. Lack of links, trust and authority are part of the reason it takes brand new sites so long to rank.

No Content = No Google Rankings

New sites also tend to have less content or even no content. 

Every site needs content to rank.

Specifically, every site needs content that targets keywords with some type of search volume and low enough competition for the site to have a chance to start ranking for anything.

No Content = No Rankings

• To rank, a site needs keyword-researched content. Since new sites tend to have less content, or even no content they start out not ranking for  anything. The less content a site has, the less chance it has to rank.
• A new site will never rank for every single keyword it targets, so part of ranking is a numbers game of how much content you can put out into the world to even have a chance to rank. A brand new site will generally have less content and fewer chances to rank.

The key to getting your site to rank in Google, is getting Google to trust your website.

What makes Google trust a website?

• Age
• Site history with links, content, visitors and Google
• Number of links, quality of links, relevance of links 
• Quality of content, visitor engagement with site
• Sources, who it links out to & who its authors are

Website Age

There are several things that make Google trust a website, and one is age.

Google tends to trust and rank sites that have been around for a very long time. This is more often the case when the site has been around for a long time and provided good content and a good user experience.

Sites with 5-20+ years of age have already gotten past the new site ‘sandbox’ period, and Google knows them better so is more likely to rank them.

Having an older, stable, established site is a trust factor and can help a site rank, and stay in the rankings on Google and other search engines.

I’ve bought multiple sites and one thing I always look for is site age.

Buying a 10 year + stable ranking site is always a good sign for the site’s future health. Buying a brand new, rocket-ship growth site that only has 6 months or a year of traffic and earning potential is usually a red flag because the site has a higher chance of using risky SEO tactics or being penalized quickly after you buy it.

Number of Website Links AKA Authority

Another thing that makes Google trust a site is the number of links it has, the quality of links it has, and the relevance of the links it has. 

Links from other sites show Google a website is trusted enough by other sites for them to reference the site on their own webpage.

This is a positive trust signal.

The more links, the more trust a site has. Of course it is not as simple as that.

The more relevant links, meaning links from sites in the same niche, the more trust a site has. Links contribute to how much Google trusts a site, because links from a site in the same niche show that the site is “trusted” by other sites in its niche and therefore has more credibility and expertise.

When a site is trusted by other sites enough to be linked to, Google sees that as a positive ranking signal, and boosts the site in search results.

Why are random links neutral, or even bad?

Random links show Google that your site is either buying links, using unnatural link building tactics, or is looked at as less valuable by Google because the site linking to you doesn’t have the expertise to decide if your site is actually trustworthy or not.

Getting high quality links from those in your niche is the best type of link, even if the domain linking out has a lower authority than an unrelated niche.

The quality of link is also important, you don’t want links from a PBN, or a blog that advertises they accept sponsored posts, paid posts or guest posts.

You want links from high authority sites, meaning sites that have lots of trust signals in the form of links from other sites.

If other high authority, high trust sites show Google they trust your site, that means more to Google than a site with no links or authority linking out to your site.

Why do high authority links matter?

High authority links are similar to if you get a letter of recommendation from a random person on the street, versus getting a letter of recommendation from the President of the United States.

Which do you think will carry more weight with the job you’re applying to?

Of course the letter of recommendation from the president of the US, because they have high authority and are recognized by others.

Why do in-niche links matter?

Additionally, if you receive a letter of recommendation from the president of the US, and a letter of recommendation from the Owner/CEO of the company you’re applying to, which would hold more weight?

Likely both would have weight, but the letter from the CEO of the company would hold more weight, because even though the CEO of the company has less social trust and authority than the President of the US, the CEO is more relevant to the job you’re trying to get since they own the company.

 Quality of Website Content

Another Google trust factor is the quality of content and visitor engagement with site

Google’s algorithm is continually changing to try to figure out which content is the highest quality and how visitors are engaging with the site.

Since no one can figure out the exact algorithms, and since Google keeps changing them anyway and getting better at detecting good content, the best thing for you to do is always produce the best quality content for your site that will serve visitors the best.

Google trusts sites more when they have high quality content and when visitors seem to respond well to the content, ie, not immediately clicking back into search results after visiting a site, or staying on a site longer to read more articles.

Quality of Website Sources

Lastly a Google trust factor is a site’s sources, who it links out to and who its authors are.

Google is asking, where is this site getting its information? Is it linking out to reputable sources? Who are its authors? Are they subject matter experts?

Google is trying to serve high quality content to its visitors, so they try to make sure the content is factual and not made up or pulled out of thin air.

These trust factors are not present in ‘brand-new’ sites, and are why some people choose to build websites on aged domains, such as those from Odys.global marketplace.

Why do people build sites on aged domains?

• An aged domain has many search engine trust factors including age, authority/links, past site visitor engagement, past site content & sources

People build sites on aged domains so they can:

• Skip the Google sandbox
• Get the power of the domain’s trust factors (age, authority/links, past rankings)
• Rank more quickly
• Rank with less effort
• Utilize the power of the domain to rank their site and content effectively and quickly

What are the risks of building a site on an aged domain?

• Choosing a domain that had low traffic or declining traffic before it expired, or had bad backlinks or was previously penalized
  • When you choose a domain that never had traffic, or was penalized, or had bad backlinks, you’re simply reviving a site that never worked in the first place, so there’s no reason it should work again now.
  • The main thing I always look for when buying an expired domain is finding one that had traffic when it was live, was live not too long ago, and doesn’t seem to have been hit with any type of penalty, or declining traffic.
  • I also look at the backlink profile using Ahrefs, and make sure the linking domains are high quality, high DA and relevant.

• Choosing a domain that is copyrighted and that can be taken away from you
  • If you end up buying Google.com in-between its renewal period like that guy did a few years ago, the copyrighted url is owned by someone else and they will be able to take it back quite easily.

• Trying to pivot the direction of the domain once you own it
  • This is key, you want to keep the domain in the same niche with the same intent, and I’ll go over my own case study regarding this in a few slides and go into more detail about keeping the domain in the same niche and same direction for best results.

• Writing content for/choosing a niche that doesn’t match the old site’s content or intent**
  • Again, this is super important. You want to write new content for your aged domain that is spot on with the old site’s intent. Trying to pivot the site’s niche or intent will signal to Google that the site is now different, not the old trusted site Google liked before, and this comes with ranking and SEO risks.

Note: Just like buying a live site, of course there are other risks as well. Any site at any time can have organic traffic or any type of traffic taken away from it for any reason (as likely many of you know if you have been in the online world for any amount of time).

Tips When Buying an Aged Domain

What to consider when choosing a niche

• Choose a niche that is an exact match if possible.
• You can choose your niche first, then find a domain with the same exact intent, OR you can choose your domain first and then build a website with the same exact intent as the old website

Choosing an exact match niche when buying an aged domain is very important.

When you pick a website where you can pick up where it left off so Google says,

‘oh look, it’s my old favorite trusted site, and it’s back again, only better! I love this site and I want to push it right back up to the top of the rankings where it was before! Yay, I missed my old friend!’

When your niche picks up exactly where the old domain niche’s content left off, it’s a signal to Google the site is back and your rankings tend to come back quickly.

What you want is content that picks up exactly where the old domain niche’s content left off for best results.

Aged Domain Case Study

Buying my First Aged Domain:

• I bought an aged domain from Odys, 6 months ago
• The domain was a DA 33, with 1.2K or so backlinks
• Many backlinks from very high-quality .gov etc domains
• When I bought it, it was live. Odys keeps their aged domains live so you don’t have to ‘revive them’ completely from the dead.
• When I bought it 6 months ago, it was only ranking for a small handful of keywords.

My Process Buying an Aged Domain

My first time buying an aged domain

Before this purchase, I had never bought an aged domain before, only websites with current traffic and revenue, or bought fresh domains and created my own sites on them.

6 months ago, I was curious about how building a site on an aged domain could help it rank more quickly and without putting in the usual link building legwork.

I had been hearing about people building sites on aged domains and the process of taking a domain that already had links and trust from search engines intrigued me.

I liked the thought of simply taking a domain that had been ranking well, and then putting content on it and having the potential to rank again without much effort.

Buying my aged domain through Odys

At the time I had been hearing a lot about Odys Global, a company that buys, curates and sells aged domains, through reading several of my  favorite SEO email newsletters I follow, so I decided to look at their site for aged domains.

I’d never purchased a domain with no current traffic for so much money before, so it took me a good two days to work up the nerve to make the purchase before I finally did

I ended up buying my first aged domain from Odys (O-d-y-s), 6 months ago, and looking back I’m very glad I did.

I like looking for aged domains on the Odys site because they curate high DA, high quality domains and they keep them live while they sit for sale.

It’s better to pick up an aged domain that hasn’t been offline for a super long time, so I like that they keep the domains sitting live while they’re listed for sale. Odys also pre-vets sites and makes sure the domains have high quality backlinks which takes a lot of the work out of your end when looking.

Buying my second aged domain at a GoDaddy auction

I’ve looked for and bought an aged domain on my own as well, and it was quite an involved long and uncertain process.

It took a few days of poring through domains on my own using SEMRush to find even a handful that looked semi-usable. then I had to wait over a month for it to fully expire. then i had to go into an auction period to actually purchase the site. 

Benefits of Buying an Aged Domain From a Marketplace like Odys

• Marketplaces make it easy to find a curated list of high quality domains, no spending days searching for quality expired URLs
  • One thing that’s nice about Odys is all you have to do is simply logon to their website and you see a list of ready to use, high quality domains available right away when you want one.
• Fixed, buy-it-now price, no bidding wars.
  • The Odys domains are also reasonably priced with a fixed buy it now, which is also nice.

My Recent Experience Buying an Aged Domain Through a GoDaddy Auction

The other aged domain I recently purchased through an expired domain auction directly from GoDaddy.

As I explained before I had to spend several days trying to find the domain, then once I did I placed a backorder on it, and then waited over a month for it to expire.

Then the day of the auction there was another person bidding on it at the same time I was. Luckily they only placed one bid and then I got it.

I’ve tried with other domains and it’s a ton of work to find them in the first place, and other people usually want them pretty badly so they tend to get snapped up.

Buying an Aged Domain on a Marketplace vs Buying an Aged Domain at an Auction

Pros of buying an aged domain in a marketplace

• It is easy to find and view quality aged domains in a marketplace
  • One reason I like buying an aged domain through a marketplace, such as Odys, versus at an auction, is that you can simply login and see a list of high quality domains available to buy.
  • This means you don’t have to search through hundreds or thousands of expired URLs, trying to find a quality one in your niche, and then waiting for it to expire just so you can get into a bidding war with someone else who wants it.
• You don’t have to wait to buy the domain, you can buy it now
  • Sometimes you need or want the domain right now, and you don’t want to go through an unpredictable auction process.
• You don’t have to compete in bidding wars 
  • When purchasing an aged domain on a marketplace, you don’t need to compete in bidding wars, instead you pay a buy-it-now price.
  • In an auction, it is always a possibility you may have to compete in bidding price wars wondering if you’ll even get the domain you want.

The ease of buying an aged domain in a marketplace, the ability to purchase the domain right away, and the price certainty of not having to compete in bidding wars are all part of the reason I found it nice and easy to buy my aged domain on an aged domain curator like Odys. 

Process of buying an aged domain through an auction

I also personally think it’s a good experience to go through the process of finding and buying an aged domain on your own, so I recommend you try both ways to get acquainted with the entire process that goes into finding and buying aged domains.

It can be possible to get a better deal on some auction domains, as long as there isn’t too much competition or interest. This is one reason why setting up several backorders in a niche you’re interested in can be a good idea.

1. Find quality URLS
   • If you’re looking to buy an aged domain at an auction, first you’ll have to find a list of URLs that interest you. I use Ahrefs to find these, you can use any tool, or even search on aged domain marketplaces directly.
2. Monitor domains as they expire
   • Then, you need to either monitor the domains on your own, or pay for and set up domain backorder tracking to make sure you are notified when they expire.
   • This is so you can get the domain automatically if you’re the only bidder, or bid on them in the auction if there are multiple bidders.
3. Bid on the domain in an auction, or automatically receive it
   • After the domain expires, if there are multiple bidders, you then have the live auction situation where you will need to bid against others for the domain.
   • Whoever wants to pay the most for the domain will win it in the auction.

Cons of buying a domain through an auction

Buying a domain through an auction means you’ll be bidding against others to get the domain if more than one person is interested in buying it.

• You may not pay enough to win the domain
  • Bidding for a domain means you may not want to pay enough to win the domain, and it means you have to be ok with waiting all that time for the domain to expire, and then walking away empty-handed without a domain.
• You may over-pay for the domain and regret it
  • In an auction situation, you also risk getting caught up in the auction mood, and then over-bidding and over-paying for the domain and regretting it later.

Expired domain auctions, with all of their uncertainty and bidding wars are one reason I do have a soft spot for curated aged domain sites like Odys, since in these marketplaces you don’t have to spend time waiting for a domain to expire or wonder how much it will cost you.

In a domain marketplace such as Odys, you can just browse the site and hit checkout when you see one you like. 

Aged Domain Case Study: What I did

What I did:

• I bought the aged domain from Odys, www.odys.global
• I looked up all of its high-link, high-traffic pages
• Then I 301-redirected all the pages with 2 or more quality links to a new keyword-researched page targeting the same keywords
• I added a ton of new content, specifically over 70 new category pages, and thousands of new content-specific pages
• I strategically internally linked the content category pages
• I waited 6 months

Aged Domain Case Study: Lesson #1

One takeaway: 

• One thing I would do differently looking back is I would have matched my site’s relevancy spot on
• I matched the exact niche, but it was more of an overlap.
• It’s still ranking first page for the exact niche match keywords, but many of the overlap keywords are still page 2-3
• I noticed the exact niche keywords shot up in the rankings, while the related niche keywords are ambling up the rankings on their own time more like a normal site would.

Takeaway: Related/overlap niches can work when building an aged domain, but you’ll see the rocket-ship results from exact content intent matches.

Try to keep your intent exactly as the old site was for the best of the best rocket-ship type results.

Takeaway Explained

• Traffic and intent are the most important things to consider when buying an aged domain
• Look at the old site’s traffic, if it was always high, then that is a good sign, regardless of how high the DA is
• Look at the old site’s intent, if your intent is the exact same, then that is more important than getting a site with a super high DA

My site had very high DA and traffic. My intent was a 50% match.

My site is still doing quite well, likely because of the high DA, high past traffic, and that the intent is a pretty good match.

However it was easy for me to see how the exact match intent keywords went from 0 to 100 in a few days, and my 50% overlap keywords are still page 2 and 3 after 6 months, which isn’t bad, but it is a clear difference.

For the Best Results, keep the intent a 100% match. For Good Results, keep the niche the same.

• Traffic and intent are the most important things to consider when buying an aged domain
• Look at the old site’s traffic, if it was always high, then that is a good sign, regardless of how high the DA is
• Look at the old site’s intent, if your intent is the exact same, then that is more important than getting a site with a super high DA

Intent Example

• You purchase an aged domain site that helps people with low income buy “affordable balloons”
• Exact-match intent: Reviving the site and continuing to help people figure out how to buy affordable balloons
• Overlap intent: Reviving the site and starting to sell balloons directly on your site to all types of people searching for ‘buy balloon’ keywords

Both work, but with the exact match intent your rankings have a higher chance of hopping right back to page 1 right away, and with overlap intent the new keywords may rank much more slowly, if at all.

Note: (in my case), the exact match intent keywords ranked right away and the overlap intent keywords have slowly been ranking and after 6 months many are on page 2-5.

Aged Domain Case Study: Traffic

I bought the domain here, in April of 2021. Note the upward keyword ranking growth curve.

Aged Domain Case Study Site Traffic Over Time

• Note: Month 1 the site was already getting 418 visitors
• The site is getting 759 visitors a month now, 6 months later (no link building etc only added new content):

As you can see in the blue Google Analytics graph below, month 1 the site was already getting 418 visitors. The site was getting traffic right from the point I set it up, from all of its exact match intent keywords that started ranking right away.

The site was live with other owners during these other two periods, ranking for quite a few keywords, as you can see in the first and second arrow on the left side of the orange Ahrefs graph below:

I bought the domain in April. Note the upward keyword ranking growth curve. as you can see in the third arrow on the the right on the orange graph below:

I would like to note I did no link building to this site at all, I only added new content.

Note, you can sign up for the future case study updates at www.her.ceo/subscribe.

How to buy an aged domain:

• From an aged domain marketplace, such as Odys, where I bought mine
• Directly from an owner, contacting owners of live, or expired domains using WHOIS contact info
• Waiting it out and putting a backorder on a domain until the domain officially expires, and playing in an auction to win it
• Putting a backorder on a domain until it expires and hoping you win it without it going to auction

There are a handful of ways you can acquire an aged domain. The easiest is buying directly from an aged domain marketplace such as Odys.

I’ve acquired one aged domain from Odys, and one from a backorder + auction.

How to set up an aged domain website?

First you’ll want to find the high link pages, and recreate these pages on your site, making sure to 301 redirect the old pages to your new site’s pages.

One caveat is to not copy the pages word for word, and don’t even copy the URLS word for word. Instead it is often best to keyword research your own new urls that will have a better chance of ranking, and 301 redirect the old URL to your new similar URL.

Then, in terms of content you want to create brand new high quality content around the same topic to avoid any copyright issues.

Here is how to Recreate & Redirect the old high-link pages:

• Put the domain into Ahrefs
• Go to > Pages > Best By Links

To find all the pages with links:

• Create new similar keyword-researched pages for the pages with 2+ good links
• If a page has a ton of links, consider keeping the exact URL for that page
• 301-Redirect all all these old URLS to your new keyword-researched URLS

Doing this page creation and redirects will help you keep the link authority of the site in place.

How to create content for your aged domain:

• Create a ton of keyword-researched, exact intent-match content for the site.
  • Pro-Tip: Ask yourself, what would the old site do? Then create content that the old site would’ve wanted to have.
• Create the best content you can for pages that historically ranked top 10 or 20 (because those will likely have the best chance of ranking again now).

Keep the site intent the same, but put new great content on the site for the best chance of ranking well.

•   I focus on creating the best content for pages that historically ranked top 10 or 20 because those will likely have the best chance of ranking again now.

•   The point is to create new content that is targeting the same keywords the site used to rank for, or keywords in the exact same niche. Keep the site intent the same, but put new great content on the site for the best chance of ranking well.

•   Note: When creating your new site’s content, don’t copy old content word-for-word. Create new content that is under the same topic. You don’t want to get into any copyright issues.
  • I almost made this mistake but luckily contacted the Odys support team asking how to do this and they warned me to stay away from directly copying content due to potential copyright issues.
•    Use the Wayback Machine for content inspiration.
  • The Wayback Machine allows you to see almost any old page on the web.
  • The Wayback Machine works by archiving webpages in its database so you can look at old versions of sites and sites that no longer exist by inputting the page URL and selecting the date you want to view the page.
  • This is really cool because it allows you to see what the old site looked like and what the pages content was, so you can create pages that are similar so they have a chance to rank.

•   I focus on creating the best content for pages that historically ranked top 10 or 20 because those will likely have the best chance of ranking again now.
  • The point is not to create a whole new different site, but take the exact same niche if possible and create a better site.
  • Google trusts the old site so if it senses you’re making a completely new or different site or a site with a different angle you’ll have a higher chance of falling of the trust radar and losing traffic.

 In Conclusion: Why Aged Domains?

• • Trust: Google trusts sites when they have age, authority/links, good history with traffic, rankings, and visitor engagement
  • Rank more quickly: People build on aged domains to leverage their power and links to help a new site rank more quickly, with less effort
  • Don’t Forget: Choose an exact-match niche, 301-redirect old website pages, and create new original content for the site

How to buy an aged domain:

• Go to an aged domain curator such as Odys and pick out a domain to purchase

• Contact website owners directly and ask to purchase their domain
• Place a backorder on a site like GoDaddy and wait it out until the domain auction

Remember to subscribe to the Her.CEO newsletter to stay up to date on future case study updates!

How is a Starbuck’s Design Similar to Website Design?

I live a 2 minute walk from the largest Starbucks in the world. They built it just two years ago in Chicago in 2019, and I’ve only been a handful of times.

It’s stunningly beautiful, all glass on the inside and outside except for a few supporting beams.

There are four different levels, each one with a different array of fanciful gourmet food, pastries, and any type of coffee you can think of. It even includes a full bar on the fourth floor and a roof-deck you can make reservations to eat on.

The building is stunning inside and out, and working on my laptop next to the full length windows makes me feel expansive and content. The food is incredible, but definitely over-priced, even compared to a regular Starbucks.

The only thing it doesn’t include is computer wall plugs. There are no plugs anywhere. In the entire four story building.

The first time I visited this surprised me. Don’t *all Starbucks* have wall plugs?

Nope. Not the biggest Starbucks in the entire world. This is not by mistake or some overlook mind you. This is very intentional.

I’ve seen a line of a hundred people out of it at times. So naturally they want to keep it moving. No encouraging hanging around plugging your computer into the wall all day.

Normal Starbucks don’t mind having plugs because they get a bit more business from remote workers who want to come work for the day, plug their computer in and buy a few things at the same time.

The largest Starbucks in the world, however, doesn’t want its thousands of visitors hanging around all day. So they don’t encourage that by having plugs in the walls.

Personally, I actually like this, because I have found my computer battery life matches my will to work life. So I go in with it fully charged, work for 4 or so hours, then leave, take a break, and finish my work day somewhere else.

Does Time on Site Impact SEO?

The point is, you can encourage people to hang around or leave more quickly with your website design, just like you can with a Starbucks building design.

There is debate how Google specifically measure site engagement and uses it as a ranking factor and SEO signal, however I have seen in personal experience that time on site and engagement are most definitely SEO ranking factors.

When a page has a long time on site, this is the type of page that usually has a chance to rank. I’ve had pages ranking for a keyword that have had less than a 30 second time on site, and they usually drop off the first page within a week or two.

Google senses the visitor is not getting value from the page, so they stop ranking it.

It’s the same when people click into a page, and it clearly doesn’t match their intent, so they quickly go back and find another page.

I’ve also found sometimes a page will rank for something that clearly doesn’t match the intent of the query. Then, usually pretty quickly, it will stop ranking.

To me these all signal that Google is pretty clearly looking at engagement and time on site when they rank pages.

Encourage People to Stay with Website Design

With your website, you want to be the opposite of the world’s largest Starbucks. You want to be like the regular neighborhood Starbucks. You want to have plugs in your walls so people come and stay for a while.

When your visitors hit out of a website too fast, that’s a sign to search engines that your site isn’t worth visiting, so it also must not be worth ranking.

You need to make your site with ‘plugs on the walls’, so visitors will want to stay and engage, if you want your site to rank.

When you give them interesting content and reasons to stay, you’ll be able to build a loyal following, and content that ranks better in Google.

How to Run a Dwell Time SEO Report

You can check if dwell time and time on site are correlated with your own site rankings.

There’s a great Analytics report you can run to look at average time on site and ranking for your own websites, to see if this is true for you. It’s kind of fun to do, and I ran it on the Her.CEO site the other day.

It held true to my theory and personal experience that time on site contributes to ranking.

I found the report here on WordStream.com, you can take a look and run it on your own sites too.

The article shows you a picture that makes it clear how to run the report, and here are the specific steps:

1) Pick a time frame before the new algorithms were in play (i.e., 2015).

2) Segment your content report to view only your organic traffic, and then sort by pageviews.

3) Then you want to run a Comparison Analysis that compares your pageviews to average time on page.

The point is, does your website have plugs in the walls? If not, maybe consider adding some, unless it is already the world’s biggest website and you don’t care about getting any more traffic.

Have you seen time on site contribute to ranking on your own sites? Either way comment below as I’d be interested to know.

How important is it to have a map? Does it matter who you buy your map from?

We will get into all of that below.

The ‘Free Map’ versus the ‘Paid Map’

My family and I went hiking in Santa Fe this week.

The entire time we were walking on the hiking trails, my family kept joking about the ‘free’ map we were all using, versus the ‘paid’ map a man in the gift shop had tried to sell us before we went on our merry way.

The man trying to sell the map mentioned that the free map wasn’t accurate and complete and that you had to pay for the map to get all the information you needed.

Of course we didn’t buy the paid map and we started our hike. Right away, we were looking at which trail to start the hike on. The free map didn’t have this information marked clearly on it.

My dad remarked jokingly, “Guess we should have paid for the map! Then we’d know which way to go.”

As we kept walking, the map jokes continued.

One of us would say, “I wonder what those rock formations were used for? I guess we’d know the answer if we’d paid for the map!”

and my sister would say, “Yeah, that type of information is definitely not included on the free map!”

Guess we should’ve paid for the map!

We’d all laugh and say, “Guess we should have paid for the map!” and make all these jokes about the free map missing information that the paid map included, but we were obviously kidding.

It was way more fun to joke about all the things the paid map had that the free map was missing than it would have been to actually have purchased the ‘paid’ map.

Jokes aside, having a map, whether that map is paid or free, can be useful in any endeavor, especially when you’re trying to reach an end goal you have in mind.

If you don’t know where you’re going, and if you don’t have a clear plan written out, then there is no way you’ll get there.

How can you reach a goal if you don’t have one?

One thing that every single goal, website and non-website, I’ve ever reached has in common, is that I knew I wanted it before getting it, I wrote it down, made a plan to get there, and then worked toward it.

The point is, if you don’t clearly identify your goal, make a goal action plan, and work toward it every day, then you will never get to your goal, or any goal at all.

Create a map to help reach your goal

You need to create your own map, and it can be a free one. You can also get a special ‘paid’ map, by paying someone who’s been there to help you create a map, but the main takeaway is you need to identify a goal and create a map to reach that goal.

Otherwise, you’ll be drifting in life directed by other’s goals and wishes, such as your boss’s in your 9 to 5. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to be aware of.

You simply need to realize if you have your own goals to work toward and if yes what they are, or if you would rather be present and live life without specific goals.

Who should you hire to help you create a map?

If you want to start a company like Amazon, then paying Jeff Bezos to create your map would probably be a good idea. Although hiring him to create a map would likely be out of most of our price range.

If you want to be a teacher, then sure hiring your first grade teacher to create a map is a great idea. If you’re doing anything but becoming a teacher, then likely you’ll want to pass on Ms. Jenny’s map since she won’t know how to get to where you’re looking to go.

My first website goal

For example, my first website goal was to make $1,000 a month with a website. That is the reason I made my first two to three site purchases, all with this goal in mind.

I looked for sites I could take to this level on Flippa, would buy the sites and then work on improving their revenue.

At first I would switch ad networks to improve revenue to get to the $1,000 a month goal.

Then I worked on keyword research and adding new content to scale the sites farther past that point once I hit my goal.

If I hadn’t had my specific goal in mind of $1,000 a month, then I never would have spent as much as I did on website #2 and #3, because I would have had no reason to without my having my specific goal in mind.

Website Goal Map

1) When creating a website goal map, first figure out what you want and why you want it. You can spend time thinking about this in silence, or go on a walk outside and sleep on it for a few days.

Don’t make any decisions when you’re in any emotional state other than calm. If you’re angry, frustrated, depressed, excited, or emotional in any way, sleep another day or two before making your decisions or goals to avoid rushing into anything.

2) Next write down your specific goal, such as website revenue per month.

3) Then write down how you will get there. You can be specific here and write down if you will buy a site making X amount or start your own site from scratch, then what you will do to increase traffic or revenue and get to your goal:

Examples of action steps:

• Change theme to speed up site
• Test new ad networks
• Test new ad placements
• Keyword research 100 keywords for website
• Write and publish one piece of 1,000 word content per day for the next 100 days
• Backlink strategy
• Promotion strategy
• Email strategy
• Other traffic / revenue strategies

Fit your goals into your daily routine

I’ve found it is best when you can fit each into a specific daily routine, and take time to reflect each week and analyze progress and results, then shift your strategy in the direction of what is working the best

Obviously, this entire goal mapping process may not work for everyone etc, *insert whatever disclaimer here* and this is not advice or financial advice in any way it is simply my own experience and what has worked well for me.

You can comment here and let me know if you have ever reached a goal you set, or your own specific goal-mapping process if it includes anything I didn’t mention!

Remember that website for sale last week?

Remember the matrixlab-examples.com website that a Her.CEO reader listed for sale last week?

Many of you were interested in purchasing the website, and a great buyer closed on the site this Wednesday.

The site had a solid monthly 18,193 last 30 days traffic, and 29 Ahrefs DA.

It was also severely under-monetized with only one revenue source, Adsense, which the valuation was based on, even though in the past the owner had made money off of teaching services and even selling a few guest posts, so it had a lot of potential.

The site ended up selling over-asking price, and both the buyer and seller were very happy with how the sale turned out.

Looking to sell your own website?

If any of you have a website you are looking to sell, you can send me an email at stacycaprio@gmail.com and I am happy to talk more to see if there is anything I can do to help.

How do you find a good website deal?

One of the Her.CEO site readers was interested if this specific site would sell because it was priced at a multiple a bit higher than an Adsense site would generally sell at.

At first I was surprised by this question simply because the site had tons of traffic, a very solid DA and age, and was severely under-monetized.

Then I realized that this was a way I could share with you guys to identify undervalued websites so you could find sites at a great deal. Ones that you can easily increase revenue on.

Which is better, profit or traffic?

Many people value profit on a site more than traffic. Sure, profit is nice, but you have to pay a multiple on profit, not traffic. Websites in today’s market are valued at a multiple of monthly profit, not traffic, and traffic is just as valuable as profit.

Traffic is arguably more valuable than profit, since you can always monetize traffic. You can monetize it in layers too, which is what makes it so valuable.

Monetize the site in layers

You can put ads on in layers. You can put products and services on top of that. You can sell sponsorships and email sponsorships and sponsored shout-outs. You can get even more creative and add layers on top of that.

Traffic is the baseline for profit. It’s a foundation for profit. So the fact that websites are valued based on profit and not traffic gives you guys a loophole. It gives anyone a loophole to get an undervalued site.

Find a site that has a ton of traffic and low profit. Then add layers of monetization to that site to quickly improve profit.

That is one way to find and buy an undervalued site and diamond in the rough, just like the site sold in my last email arguably was.

My favorite way to bump up a site’s revenue

The site sold in the last email is a great example of a site where you can add in more monetization methods to quickly increase revenue because it already has a ton of traffic. For example:

•  Adding in your own or outsourced Math tutoring or teaching services
• Adding in Math courses or ebooks, you could put your own or affiliate links
• Selling sponsored posts or links on the site, the old owner did this a bit in the past and found it successful but didn’t include this in his revenue or in the multiple since it was further in the past
• Selling banner ads to other Math teaching companies etc, since the site already has tens of thousands in traffic a month

How to quickly increase revenue on a site with traffic:

Buy an undervalued site by looking for one with lots of traffic but low profit

One of my favorite things to look for in any site I buy is, how can i increase the revenue here quickly, with the traffic we already have?

That’s why I love switching ad networks or adding in new ads to quickly increase revenue. Because it’s not a bet on if you can increase traffic with SEO or social media.

Less risk when you use the traffic you already have

It’s simply taking what you already have and squeezing more juice out of it. It’s less risky if you know the traffic you already have can be monetized in more ways or better ways than if you’re counting on scaling the traffic to the moon or making some bigger change.

You still need a long-term SEO plan

Of course, long-term, looking to scale traffic and actually grow the site is usually the best way to very significantly increase revenue over-time, but to take away the most risk, I’ve found it best to look for very high-traffic sites that are severely under-monetized.

Traffic & Attention are Valuable

The key thing to note here is if a website, or anything for that matter, has a lot of traffic and eyeballs on it, but little to no revenue, is that it is still valuable. Traffic and attention are very valuable and you can always monetize traffic.

Profit is Valuable, but so is Traffic

It is much easier to take a site with tons of traffic, and put more ads on it or different ads, or simply add in your own extra layers of monetization such as adding in your own products or services to sell on the site, and then see revenue increase significantly, than it is to take a site with little to no traffic, even if it has a high DA, and grow its traffic and revenue that way.

Find an under-valued site by looking for one with traffic and low revenue

The key point here is I’ve found from experience that a site with traffic is often just as valuable, or more valuable as a site with revenue.

The only difference is that a site with revenue will cost you more to purchase, since websites are valued at a multiple of monthly profit, not monthly traffic.

Leave a comment and let me know if you’ve ever bought a site with tons of traffic and then added more monetization methods, I’m interested to know if anyone else has and how they did it!

As a reader of the Her.CEO blog, you’re probably aware of the power of an affiliate business in starting off as an entrepreneur.

This post is an Empire Flippers case study from a seller who bought an Empire Flippers site and flipped it for a profit. The website buyer bought the site, optimized it, and then sold it for $136,773, getting to keep $116,257 in their pocket after transaction fees. In total, the seller made a total of $64,001 profit on the site from time of purchase to time of sale 18 months later. 

This case study walks you through exactly how the seller successfully bought, grew and flipped their website profitably, and includes some great insights that will help serve as a roadmap for anyone interested in learning more about how to successfully flip sites.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize a website and create a hands-off source of income. Further down the road, you might even think about selling your site for a huge sum of money.

But what if the hidden value of an affiliate business lies in your skillset instead of the site itself?

Flipping sites can become a profitable career, even more so than building a business from scratch! Flipping online businesses for a living is becoming a growing industry. In the Empire Flippers marketplace, we see many sellers return as buyers, and they sell their acquisition for a profit in a year or so.

Once you’ve planned your exit strategy, you could use the capital windfall to buy a house without a mortgage, put the money toward your children’s college funds, or even buy a smaller affiliate business with the intention of improving it and selling it for a profit.

That’s exactly what one seller did in our marketplace: they bought an affiliate business and sold it for over $120,000 in profit after 1.5 years of improvement.

They achieved this success by following two simple steps:

• Creating a due diligence checklist and sticking to it.
• Figuring out a sustainable growth strategy that can be applied again and again.

We’ll break down how this seller achieved that in this case study, and hopefully you’ll have a better idea of what flipping online businesses looks like.

The Timeline

• Niche: Advertising, hobbies, lifestyle
• Site Created: May 2014
• Site Acquired: April 2017 for $52,256
• Monetization: Amazon Associates
• Total earnings (April 2017–October 2018): $60,000
• Completed Empire Flippers Application: October 6, 2018
• Listed on marketplace: October 14, 2018 for $136,773
• Agreed sale price: October 25, 2018 for $136,773
• Transaction completed: November 11, 2018. Net payout after broker’s commission: $116,257
• Total site profit: $124,750

Over the course of 18 months, this seller optimized the site and increased its overall earnings. After being listed for sale in the marketplace for only 11 days, it sold for its listing price in an all-cash offer.

Let’s break down the earnings. The site was bought for $52,256, and sold for $136,773. After the commission fee, the seller received $116,257. The seller made a profit of $64,001 from the initial purchase.

Keep in mind that the profit isn’t just the sales price. The seller received a monthly profit generated by the business from Amazon Affiliate commissions, which totaled around $60,000 during this time. In sum, the seller walked away with over $120,000.

Now that we know the details of the sale, let’s look at the seller’s strategy in buying the right asset to flip.

Fine-Tuning Due Diligence to Streamline Your Search

The seller’s main purchase criteria involved the following four points:

• An evergreen niche: The site should be as evergreen as possible, focusing on topics in the niche that will be relevant. 
• A great backlink profile: A spammy backlink profile could lead to a Google algorithm penalty. Some buyers also avoid PBNs and any blackhat SEO tactics. Look for high-quality backlinks from domains with high DR and in a relevant niche.
• A niche with a high potential ceiling: For this seller, potential was measured by how many keywords the site was already ranking for. In other words, they considered the search volume of the top keywords.
• Upward traffic trends: The seller focused on acquiring sites that had a positive traffic trend. Reading traffic was similar to reading stock charts.

These are some great starting points to consider when creating your own due diligence checklist. However, keep in mind that this seller has been flipping online businesses for a while, so their criteria will likely be very different from what you’d include. If you need help in deciding what criteria to use, download this free due diligence checklist to make your search easier.

Once you’ve decided on your checklist, this will help you eliminate unqualified businesses from your search, so you can spend more time focusing on the best available options.

In addition to the above criteria, you might consider the age of the business as a qualifying measure. While the site in the case study was created in May 2014, the seller acquired it nearly three years after it was started. This period of time is useful because it gives you enough time to grow a domain’s authority, which makes it easier to rank for keywords.

You might consider simplifying the criteria of positive trends to a minimum traffic measure, such as 10,000 monthly views. If you’re buying a site for the first time and you’re not confident about identifying trends, these types of stats can be easier to visualize to help you decide if a business might be a good acquisition.

Growth Strategy

The overall flow of the growth strategy in the case study was to identify the site’s strengths, improve them, and, once performance had improved, expand the business further.

The seller’s growth strategy can be broken down into three steps:

• Identify the top 5 to 10 highest earning pages.
• Optimize these top pages for on-page and off-page SEO.
• Create new content sections.

The first step included adding a unique affiliate link to each page so that they could monitor how much revenue each page brought in. From there, they could see the best-performing pages or articles and optimize the content. Another way you can check performance is by looking at your web analytics software. Google Analytics is a top choice for many bloggers, with Clicky being a popular alternative.

However, analytics aren’t as accurate as setting up unique affiliate IDs when measuring revenue performance. Check out this in-depth guide on how to create affiliate links if you want to follow the above strategy.

Once the seller identified the top-performing pages, they began optimizing them for on-page and off-page SEO to supercharge their potential.

On-page optimization ensures that you’re capturing all the relevant keywords from the parent keyword and placing them in appropriate places and with enough volume on each page. On the other hand, off-page SEO is more nuanced and requires a different approach, since this depends on a site’s backlink profile.

When considering manual outreach, many bloggers turn to guest posting for sites in shoulder niches or posting on forums while providing contextual links. These efforts require patience and steady output if you’re considering doing these on your own.

If you don’t have time for manual outreach, you could hire an agency to create guest posts for you so you can focus on securing opportunities and providing briefs.

The final step of the growth plan was to monitor the pages the seller improved. After seeing the site’s overall performance, new content sections were created in order to target new keywords. 

Finding new keywords to start ranking doesn’t mean you need to go after all the competitive ones with high search volumes. From a search engine’s perspective, targeting low-competition keywords with a small search volume can build the site’s overall domain ranking and authority, especially if those articles appear in the first few search results for a specific keyword.

The Exit

Once the site reached a certain level of performance, the seller decided that it was time to sell their investment. After 17 months of improvement and optimization, the seller listed the affiliate business in our marketplace.

It was listed at $136,773, and after 11 days, an all-cash offer was made. With low 6-figure deals, it’s more common to see offers with cash up-front, as buyers are able to raise the capital. Deal structuring can come into play to mitigate the buyer’s risk, but sellers can also use these earnouts in their favor to negotiate a higher overall sales price to compensate for receiving a delayed payout.

All deal structures are different, and although this case study didn’t involve one, it’s worth bearing in mind when you decide to exit your business.

Flipping – a Full Time Career?

We hope this step-by-step guide on how a seller managed to turn an initial $50,000 investment in an affiliate business into more than $120,000 profit has been useful to you. 

If you have capital and skills, flipping online businesses could be a great career opportunity. Instead of sticking with one or a few businesses, you could put the skills and experience you’ve gathered into improving failing or immature businesses and selling them for a profit.

The types of assets you flip depend on your strategy. However, it’s recommended that when you begin, you stick with a single type of monetization in the same type of niche.

Once you’ve created a system for choosing businesses that are the right fit for you and a way to optimize them, you’ve got processes to trust every time. All that’s left to do is decide where you want to buy and sell your online businesses when it’s time to flip the assets.

Where to Buy or Sell Businesses

If you’re selling or buying an affiliate business for the first time, we recommend that you use a broker’s service instead of going with a private sale.

A private sale has no protection for either party, and you’re depending on the honesty of the other party. If you’re buying, there’s no real way to tell if a business actually performs as advertised, or if the traffic and revenue figures have been doctored just to make the business look great.

If you’re selling through a private sale, you’ve got no way to protect yourself from tire kickers who will constantly present low-ball offers without any serious buying intent. Not to mention, there’s little protection in the final step when the funds are wired to your account.

When you use a broker, there are well-established processes in the service that will ensure that the deal goes as smoothly as possible. A reputable broker will ensure impartial service for everyone involved, since it’s the broker’s reputation on the line if they allow a bad actor into the system.

Which broker you should choose is harder to say. Stacy gives her own account of what worked and what didn’t, so make sure you check it out here.

In the meantime, if you own an online business, think about your exit strategy. You could gain a large amount of money in a short amount of time, and you can use that money to accelerate the growth of another project you’ve been working on. You could even start your own journey of flipping digital assets for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Start your own flipping journey by registering for free and start browsing today for the right deal that could be waiting for you.

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This post is a case study documented by Vinnie Wong. 

Vinnie Wong is a Content Specialist at Empire Flippers. Originally from the UK and now residing in Malaysia, he loves everything related to online businesses. When he’s not neck deep with work, he’s running after his toddler or trying to relive the glory days by injuring himself while playing soccer.

His first exit was in 2010.

Since then, he has done 175 website flips with multiple 6-figure exits. His free newsletter, The Website Flip, covers case studies on his portfolio of sites, website flipping guides, and exclusive websites for sale.

I had the pleasure to speak with Mushfiq and learn how he recently bought a website making $300 a month and has grown it to make $3,000 a month in under a year and a half. He plans to keep growing the site and flip it soon, so keep an eye out for when it comes on the market!

Mushfiq explains how and why he bought the site, what he paid, how he’s grown the site. This is a great case study anyone looking to buy, grow and flip a site will enjoy and learn a lot from.

Mushfiq explains what he’s done so far, and his specific case study, so he will take it from here:

Buying, growing, and selling websites is what I have been doing since 2008. Since then, I’ve successfully done 175+ website flips with multiple six-figure exits. 

This case study will reveal how I purchased a site for $23,000 at a 76X monthly multiple (6.33X annually) earning just around $300/mo. I reveal what I did to grow the site to what it’s earning today around $3,000 on average to $6,000 in peak months.

Let’s get into it!

The Website I Purchased

I use Flippa to find sites created by “hobby bloggers”. These are sites that the individual created out of passion, wrote a lot of content, but hit a wall when trying to figure out how to monetize it. This is because the bloggers are niche experts but not experts in SEO, monetization, and/or conversion rate optimization (CRO).

These types of sites are excellent acquisition targets for niche website investors. Let’s get into the stats.

Acquisition Statistics

• The site is in the overall outdoor niche
• Acquired on March 2020, paid $23,000 to the previous owner (76x avg earnings)
• The site was averaging $300/mo via Amazon Associates only
• Domain live since 2010
• DR 48 according to Ahrefs
• Around 500 articles written by experts
• 181,000 Facebook followers and an email list of 3400
• Multiple natural backlinks from high authority general websites (e.g., CNN, Forbes) as well as authority websites in the same niche

Why Did I Purchase?

• I saw this as a strong authority site built by hobbyists that was poorly monetized
• Saw multiple easy wins to almost immediately 10x earnings (which was done by end of April 2020 just one month after purchase)
• Extremely strong backlinks all gained naturally
• Very high per visitor revenue niche when properly monetized
• Product focused niche with professional reviews
• Very recession-friendly topic

After performing detailed website due diligence, I asked the seller what their asking price was and closed the deal via a Buy It Now on Flippa. 

Now, let’s get into why I paid such a high multiple with the easy-win growth tactics.

How I 10X Growth with 5 Major Easy Wins

When I acquire sites, I like to map out the easy wins available on the site before purchasing them. This allows me to justify overpaying for the site to take it off-market.

Note that this is a skill set I’ve developed over many years by buying and selling hundreds of sites.

Here are the growth wins that I implemented within the first month after purchasing the site.

1. Add Custom Comparison Tables 

I knew adding a custom comparison table is a fast way to put information readers want right by a “check price” button they are very likely to click. The most successful Amazon affiliate sites use customized comparison tables. For example, Wirecutter is a good example of this.

This allowed me to display high commission relevant products in a way that was eye-catching, helpful, and appealing. This increases both the click-through rate as well as the number of sales made.

This is what I did:

• Analyzed Google Analytics to find the top 20 pages getting the majority of the traffic
• Analyzed the top products being sold on each page
• Created a dedicated comparison table for each page with 3 product recommendations

Here is an example of the comparison table I created for all of my top traffic pages:

2. Implemented New Affiliate Programs

It’s no secret Amazon doesn’t generally give the best terms to affiliates.

Many other affiliate programs have much higher affiliate rates and longer-lasting cookies to track sales. There is also a small but growing group of consumers who simply won’t buy from Amazon.

By having an alternative check price button I increased overall conversions as well as affiliate sales from programs that paid a far higher percentage than Amazon did.

I added relevant brands from AvantLink, ShareASale, and more with the comparison tables. This drastically increased both the number of total sales and the number of high percentage affiliate sales.

Here is an example of the multi-affiliate comparison table:

3. Add Contextual Affiliate Links to Amazon

I’m a huge fan of AAWP. This is simply the best WordPress plugin for adding Amazon links.

The flexibility of AAWP allows me to replace old Amazon links from the previous owner and display my Amazon affiliate links quickly and effectively however I want them presented.

The previous site owner did not add links to products within the content. I manually added links throughout the content. 

This increases the click-through rate because as readers read the content, they are enticed to click on links instead of manually finding the call-to-action buttons or comparison tables. 

Our job as site owners is to make the user experience as streamlined as possible. 

4. Added Display Advertisements

Since there were no display ads on the site, adding display ads was one of the clearest ways to increase revenue on the site.

I applied to Mediavine and AdThrive but the site was rejected due to the topic. Because of this, I went with NeworMedia for general display ads, and LockerDome, a specialized display ad network. 

I treat display ads as residual income. So I generally get a low ad RPM because I won’t interfere with the user experience to receive higher display ad rates. 

Video ads were added on the desktop via Ex.co to bring in another additional income stream. These are incredibly disruptive on mobile devices which is why I only allow them on desktop computers.

Even at low RPM rates, these display ads were new income to the site. Ramping up the traffic will only continue to grow the display ad income numbers.

5. Revamp Site Foundation

I saw multiple foundational issues with the site that could be improved immediately to help with both user experience and on-site SEO. 

First, I removed Elementor for GeneratePress Premium and GenerateBlocks. These are my preferred theme and customization tool options. They’re clean, flexible, and let me design the user experience I want visitors to have.

Next, I added the WP Rocket plugin for caching. This would help with load times and site speed.

Finally, I used Cloudways for hosting. I want web hosting that is fast, dependable, and that I don’t have to worry about.

These foundational changes mattered immensely when optimizing the site to run fast, smooth, and be SEO-friendly according to what Google wants to see. 

The Results

Now for the results! Here is the profit and loss of the website since March 2020. I’ve owned the site now for 14 full months as of May 2021. In blue are the revenues, and in red are the growth costs.

After acquiring the site in mid-March, I implemented the growth easy wins, and in the first full month in April 2020, the site earned $3,595.

I continued improving on the site as time went on and due to this being in the outdoor niche, the site received a seasonal uptick in revenues peaking at $7,536 in July 2020. 

One thing you will notice is that I invest heavily in growth. Growth includes new content, backlinks, virtual assistants, software, and more. 

When did I break even? Month 9!

Check out this chart that shows my cumulative profit every month since acquisition. The red line is my breakeven line of $23,000. Essentially when my cumulative profit surpasses the red line, I have fully recouped my cost of acquisition, and every dollar I earn is pure profit.

What’s next?

After owning the site for 14-months and in full growth mode, I am entering the maintenance phase of the website flip lifecycle.

Now, I am cutting down on a significant amount of content. At one point, I was publishing 50+ articles on the site. To maintain the site, I will be publishing 10-15 articles. 

Why am I cutting down? A few reasons:

• The content needs time to “marinate” in the Google SERPs. Giving some time for the content to rank will allow me to understand which articles need further optimization
• Build up reserves. By piling the profits, I can be ready for the new growth phase for this website
• Focus on other projects. I have a portfolio of sites so my other sites need my attention more than this one.

Will I flip this site?

Yes, I will flip this site at one point. I am a website flipper first. I prefer not to hold on to sites for a long time horizon. In approximately 12-15 months, I will plan for an exit on this site.

This is not because I do not believe in the site, it’s more about my personality. I like to grow businesses; not maintain them.

Wrap Up

Buying, growing, and selling niche sites is a great way to build up an income stream but also build up realizable equity in an asset.

While the passive income is nice to have, real wealth is created when sites are sold for 6-figure outcomes.

This site’s trailing 12-month average revenue is $4,840. At a 35X to 40X monthly multiple which is the approximate going rate these days, I can exit right now for $169,400 to $193,600.

Go out there, analyze some deals, and get going buying your first site!

What is the answer to the title’s question, ‘What costs $1.9 Trillion?’

Hint: It’s not a website, it is Congress’ next $1.9 Trillion stimulus bill.

Congress seems to be fond of conjuring money out of thin air and passing many trillion dollar stimulus bills this year.

Keep reading to learn more about how much debt the US has, how many trillion dollar bills Congress keeps passing this year, why I’m concerned about future inflation, and how owning assets like websites and real estate plays into that.

Here is the final Part 3 in my duplex real estate investing email series about inflation and how that tied into my duplex real estate investment decision.

*again this is not financial advice or predictions, these are simply my own thoughts about my own life I am sharing in an email, end disclaimer here*

how I feel about inflation

the media + fear + the government

This past year has been a scary demonstration of how the power of online media, fear and hysteria can cause regular people and politicians to take extreme actions rooted in fear and concern with how they think “others” perceive them.

Politicians all over the world, including the US, seem to feel they have unequivocal power to shut down businesses without any type of democratic vote and take away people’s freedom of choice.

“Let’s shut down the economy and then print trillions of dollars” – Congress

Then, because the US government decides it has the power to keep people locked in their houses and to shut down the economy, they also decide to print trillions of dollars with no regard for how it will affect the country long-term.

Ask anyone, a stranger on the street or your friend who doesn’t understand basic finances, and they’ll be able to tell you the government has printed trillions and trillions of dollars this year. Obviously doing this has repercussions. You can’t just print trillions of dollars of debt and think life will just go on as normal indefinitely.

As the US isn’t on the gold standard anymore, every time the government prints money, when that money is used, it makes the value of all the other existing money a little bit less.

What is inflation?

Even in regular years of government money printing and overspending, we get inflation each year where the money you have saved becomes worth less.

Simon Black, one of my favorite financial email lists, explains the issue with stats:

• Last year the Fed increased the supply of US dollars by 26%– the single largest annual increase since 1943.
• The Fed has almost doubled its balance sheet in the last 12 months, and nearly 10x’d its balance sheet since the 2008 financial crisis
• The latest COVID stimulus bill Congress passed, is $1.9 trillion.
• $1.9 trillion is nearly 10% of the size of the US economy, and roughly 50% of expected federal tax revenue this fiscal year.
• In simple terms, the Fed ‘prints’ money (albeit electronically) and sprinkles it around the financial system.

Each time the Fed ‘prints money’ it is a form of debasement, not much different from ancient Roman emperors cutting corners by reducing the purity of their gold and silver coins.

What are the effects of inflation? Does it really matter?

Looking at history, debasing the currency causes inflation.

You may have heard of some of the extreme famous historical episodes, like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, or the Weimar Republic, where the government’s crazy money printing caused hyperinflation and now hundred trillion dollar bills are used as wallpaper.

There are countless ‘quieter’ examples of inflation- like Brazil, where inflation is now over 5%, or Turkey, where the annualized inflation rate is about 15%.

15% a year isn’t hyperinflation. But it does make life pretty uncomfortable, especially when wage growth fails to keep pace. It’s still like losing 15% of your saved money each year, like paying a 15% ‘invisible tax’.

Even in a yearly 15% inflationary environment, each year people find themselves much poorer and worse off. 

What is the US thinking?

Even with all this historical data of how printing money can lead to inflation and lower everyone’s quality of life, the US government puts its little head in the sand and thinks its easier to print money and throw it in the air and simply ignores the fact it can have consequences. 

What will happen to the US dollar?

The truth is no one knows. 

The insane government money printing of this year makes me think inflation is going to get very out of hand and make money sitting in bank accounts worth a lot less. Who knows how soon, 2 years? 10 years? Who knows how much less, 10%? 100% less, or more? 1000% less?

Whatever the answer to these questions is, it’s not something I want to wait around to find out. 

Instead of housing money in banks you always have the choice to house it in an asset that has true value.

The most extreme example of worst-case inflation would be, say the US dollar became completely worthless, similar to how the government overprinted money in Zimbabwe and now people use hundred trillion dollar bills as wallpaper.

Why I’m focused on buying assets

In the most extreme case, even if the US dollar went to zero, a business that still has customers would still have value, a website still selling items would still have value, gold would still have value, a farm would still have value, homes would still have value. There are many items that have value that is completely separate from the US dollar, and real estate is one of them.

Technically stocks are representations of business value, and can be an asset separate from inflation, but they are also based on the emotion of buyers, and on underlying company performance, which I feel has a disconnect from stock prices right now.

I had initially been hesitant to buy real estate because of the property taxes you have to pay, and the maintenance costs and managing of tenants. 

Real estate has much higher base costs and recurring expenses than owning a website, and it can be more of a hassle in some ways, which are reasons I had never considered looking into owning any before along with the fact it is simply more expensive than purchasing other types of assets such as gold or websites.

The current crazed government printing and economic control means there is potential for business growth to slow and inflation to happen is why I ended up making my duplex real estate purchase, and am currently focused on purchasing assets.

Now you know my full reasoning of why I chose to move money from sitting in cash or stocks into real estate.

What would Warren Buffet do?

I’ll leave you with this Warren Buffet quote:

“Productive assets such as farms, real estate, and yes, business ownership, produce wealth– lots of it. Most owners of such properties will be rewarded.”

We can all choose where we invest our money and if we place it in wealth-producing, valuable assets or if we’d rather purchase Shawn Mendes digital NFT art. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy, even if that means owning a shirtless Shawn Mendes digital token.

-Stacy

Also, of course my Ad & Affiliate Disclaimers: I often feature products in the form of paid ads which are clearly marked in the email. Also, I often use and recommend affiliate products (only really good ones I actually like and use). If you use any of these products with my link or code, I get a commission, which is something I have to let you know. I’m also letting you know I get compensated for any ads in this email. You can always ask me about specific products or send questions and I read (and currently try to reply to) every one, so always feel free to send your questions.

Financial Disclaimer: *Nothing in this newsletter is financial advice, and I’m not a financial advisor. I simply share my own thoughts and actions about my own choices and thoughts. You may find or talk to your own financial advisor if you are looking for financial advice or direction.*            

Today let’s talk about why I moved money from stocks to my new duplex investment.

Today I’m talking about investing in assets and why I chose to move money I earned from website investing first into a business asset, stocks, and now into a real estate asset, a duplex.

Should I turn this into a real estate investing opportunity blog? haha! Just kidding guys.

Before we start, I wanted to say thank you again to my websites for making this duplex purchase possible. Anyone interested in buying their own Austin, TX duplex can search the available inventory here.

Are websites, like real estate, assets you can invest in?

Websites are one type of asset I have invested in that you can also invest in. There are many more investable asset types including businesses that you can invest in via stocks, and real estate you can invest in directly or indirectly through REITs or online offerings such as Peerstreet.

An asset is anything that produces value or income each month. Anything that drains your bank account each month, even by one penny, is by definition not an asset.

This means technically a home you live in, even one that is appreciating, is not technically an asset because you pay more each month than you get back from it.

If you’re looking for further asset reading, I love and recommend the book Rich Dad Poor Dad which goes into explaining what an asset vs a liability is in more detail.

What about NFTs? Are these assets?

I had to throw this one in here. Have you guys heard of NFTs AKA non-fungible tokens? A lot of celebrities, including Shawn Mendes are selling digital art of themselves as NFTs..who would buy that? Sorry if you already bought one, I’m sure it’s a great purchase.

Some people are investing in these as though they are appreciable assets, and they may be, but personally I would not invest in a digital Shawn Mendes art token.

Jack Dorsey is selling his first tweet as an NFT, and someone may buy it for $2.5 million. If you know more about NFTs feel free to email me because I don’t know much, but there are many other assets I would invest in before buying an NFT.

NFTs also don’t return monthly income, so they may be more similar to gold and bitcoin than actual assets such as dividend stocks, websites or real estate that can appreciate and return payouts each month.

What do you do with your asset payouts?

Some website owners like to pour all their profits back into their websites, which can speed up their growth as well as have nice tax benefits, however I actually prefer to take my profits elsewhere for diversification purposes and grow my sites with as little expense as possible.

That’s why I invest the majority of my website profits in other things like stocks, annuities, and now real estate.

This is the email that dives into why I moved a large chunk of my savings, earned from website revenue FYI, from stocks into real estate. *Note, this is not monetary advice, none of my emails are, and I’m not a financial advisor, etc. This is simply my experience and thoughts, end disclaimer*

My feelings on stocks, website investing, and why I bought a duplex

how I feel about stocks 

Stocks are a way to buy a part of a company you believe in, and you can get payouts in the form of dividends, and reap the benefits as the stocks grow in value.

I’ve had a large chunk of my savings invested in stocks, most of which I invested during the COVID lockdown-induced dip around April of last year. These stocks did very well over the past year, as most stocks did, ironically so, as investors were pouring money into the market while companies were suffering financially in reality.

At the time, I put money in the market because I thought the economy and US businesses would be back to normal or better in 2 or more years. Now, I actually don’t feel that way anymore.

I’m very happy I had money in the market during this time. However, I see the large discrepancy between actual company performance and stock performance now and the past few months.

Companies are still hurting from the excessive government regulations and people are bullishly pouring their savings, their government printed stimulus checks, and their unemployment money into stocks, driving the market up while actual company performance is suffering.

Who knows how much longer the stock market rise can continue? Either way I don’t feel very good about either the short or even long-term future of the stock market, more because I am now uncertain about the future of the US as a pro-business and prosperous country, and US dollar inflation.

how I feel about website investing

Yes, I still think websites are a great asset to have as part of my overall income and investment portfolio.

Obviously I think that, as they are the reason I am able to earn a living on my own, and the reason I was able to purchase a duplex. I love owning and investing in websites and will keep doing so for a long time to come.

My point is that I have always, and will keep always owning other assets as well.

Every asset and investment comes with risks, and websites are not immune to that. Even assets that appear they have no risk, yes, still have risk.

No investment is risk free.

Other examples:

• Stocks can always go down, just paper money.
• Bitcoin can be hacked or stolen. You can lose your Bitcoin password or hard-drive. Or it could just tank in price due to excessive government regulation, or people losing interest and moving on to the next internet fad.
• Real Estate. Here I am, talking about how I just bought a duplex, but real estate prices can fluctuate up and down, property taxes can rise, maintenance costs can arise, natural disasters you’re not insured for can happen, tenants can stop paying rent and the government can forbid you from evicting them (lol it’s funny because it’s true).
• Annuities & “Guaranteed” Investments. Even “guaranteed” things like fixed indexed annuities have risk. In a crazy scenario, yes, there is always the possibility your insurance company or all insurance companies backing your annuity could go out of business.
• Even bonds aren’t risk-free. Bonds are yielding 1.4% right now. Combine that with the current 1.4% US inflation rate and they’re break even after adjusting for inflation. Then add in the potential for higher inflation and even lower interest rates and there is always the possibility for a negative bond yield after inflation adjustments.

Alternatively, the US dollar could also become worthless. Or, it’s very possible inflation could hit a point with inflation where your annuity could be worth less than half or less of its value very quickly before you have a chance to take the money out.

Every single investment in the world has risk, even if people try to tell you otherwise. Life has risk.

Is website investing still a good idea?

I still love investing in and growing the websites I own. They are my main income stream and have been for the past 4 years. I am currently actively working on and growing the sites I already own. I did also purchase a small website of my own this year. I’ve always invested in multiple things at once, as this is basic diversification.

Now you know the first part of my thought process on why I purchased a duplex as opposed to putting all my website profit and savings into more websites.

Benefits of re-investing asset profits to grow the asset?

I know some website investors and owners like to pour 100% of their website’s profit back into their current site or sites, or purchase new websites with the profit.

This has some benefits, such as being classified as a business tax expense write-off, and allowing you to scale your site much more quickly in a hands-off way. I personally usually prefer to simply take most of the profits, and then use those to invest in other assets so I’m able to have some savings in different areas and so all my eggs aren’t in a single basket.

That’s why I recently purchased my duplex, partly to diversify, partly to move money out of the uncertain future of US stocks, and partly to hedge against possible inflation.

The final email in my duplex purchase series, Part 3, will include my thoughts on and some stats on government spending & inflation. Then you’ll know my full thoughts on why I invested my website profits into stocks and now into real estate in the form of an Austin duplex.

Feel free to reply and let me know what types of assets you are investing in right now.

-Stacy

Also, of course my Ad & Affiliate Disclaimers: I often feature products in the form of paid ads which are clearly marked in the email. Also, I often use and recommend affiliate products (only really good ones I actually like and use). If you use any of these products with my link or code, I get a commission, which is something I have to let you know. I’m also letting you know I get compensated for any ads in this email. You can always ask me about specific products or send questions and I read (and currently try to reply to) every one, so always feel free to send your questions.

Financial Disclaimer: *Nothing in this newsletter is financial advice, and I’m not a financial advisor. I simply share my own thoughts and actions about my own choices and thoughts. You may find or talk to your own financial advisor if you are looking for financial advice or direction.*