Being a Website Mogul

It comes as a great surprise to many, but websites have become a very valuable, profitable and trade-able asset in the past few years. Even, that's what got me involved in the whole online thing, even before I got interested in WordPress and SEO.

Websites and domains have become equivalent of property and land. You can build them, rent them, flip them - all for profit. The main difference however is that you can do it from the comfort of your chair and you can do it even if you are only 16 years old (yep, I've read a lot of stories about teens selling sites for 6 figures).

How did I got involved, and how can you

Back in the days while I still had a regular job, and was using Internet to write email and play games I bumped across a booklet by Randy Brown (whom I later interviewed) which completely changed my perspective on things.

This was so inspiring, I remember I printed it out, and read it almost every day over and over, even on my vacation, until I have finally grasped all the possibilities of the new emerging online world.

About the same time I got to read a book called 'Rich dad, Poor dad' which explains the fundamental principles that the western economy is based on, yet another eye opening experience. This book was so important because having been raised in Eastern Europe (or any other part of the world non-US for that matter) you miss out these important principles early on (when they matter the most), simply because nobody will tell you they exist. Maybe only, if you have an uncle who traveled the world..

And boy o boy, do the two together (website real estate and fundamental economy principles) make for a very powerful combination.

What is Website Mogul

This is simply anyone who is dealing with online assets like websites and domains, either using or turning them for profit. Website sales are an open and growing market with huge profit margins in capable hands.

Here are some of the sites I have 'flipped' in the past year:

• themestube.com - bought for $500, sold for $1000 couple of months after, profit 100%, no work involved
• nowatermark.net - bought for $600, held it until it paid itself off, then sold it for $1000.  Profit 140%.
• zoomwallpapers.com - bought for $1000, held it until it paid itself off, and then sold it for $2500. Total profit 250% (get the picture of insane profit margins?)

The principles involved in these sales are the same for much larger sites -have a valuable online asset and find the right buyer.

Here are couple of tips I learned the hard way:

1. Buy low, sell high - I bet you didn't see that one coming.
2. Don't buy websites you will not have time develop.
3. Do not buy sites about something you do not understand. Worse even, in a language you don't speak.
4. Be patient, either to sell or buy. Sleep over a decision, if it still looks appealing then go for it.
5. Learn from your own mistakes!

Startups

Web startups can be a great way to put your dreams and passion into the world. This blog is a startup in a way, with it's content, public and goal.

I am quite keen on startups; watching it grow from idea to realization is one of the best feelings in the world. Making technical and business decisions along the way is both challenging and exceptionally rewarding (in case of good decisions at least).

There are couple of startups I am involved in now.

Berzica.com is the first freelance portal in the Balkans region of Eastern Europe. It is entirely non-profitable (actually I am losing money with it) but this is such an important concept that this part of the world is missing out on that I am ready to take this loss. I am sure the reward will come in a different way. It already has over 6,000 registered members and freelance projects posted here get up to 30 bids, much better then some famous counterparts on the net.

Gfxmarket.com is an international freelancer site with a completely custom developed underlying CMS. Although, I am thinking about selling the site and CMS as my focus has shifted since. Feel free to ask.

GeekWithLaptop.com is an online technology portal with Internet's first laptop comparison engine. You can compare the specification of any two laptops side by side and we have all the latest laptops covered as soon as they come out. That's just the part of the site, we also cover the latest news in the industry, have a lot of offbeat articles and good rankings.

Cleveritics.com is my youngest and most exciting project to date, bringing the power of real time web analytics with usable feedback information (instead of screens after screens of pointless numbers). It is still in development, and will accept beta signups soon.

Is this for me ?

I am pretty sure that anyone involved in online business has the opportunity to really make a difference for themselves. Internet offers unparalleled possibilities for the fraction of the cost of offline business.

But be ready to learn. If you just have ideas and no time to learn, you should outsource work to development and marketing companies (this assumes you have some money). Either way, just do it, you will be surprised.

See also:

• Why are search results are so important today?
• SEO Case Study: From Zero to a Hero in One Month
• Busy as a Bee