The At Home Couple

Crazy Super Flip-tastic Follow Up

For those of you who can recall April started off with me setting an obscene goal for myself: to flip 20 websites in 30 days. Almost all of you crazy people responded with genuine encouragement and rooted me on via emails and comments on my Sitepoint auctions – and it was much appreciated! All in all, April proved to be many things, and a overall success is definitely one of them!

So without further delay, let’s get right into the stats, the screen shots and the challenges I faced throughout the month – as well as the many lessons I learned. You guys and gals know I’m not a fan of bullshit people with bullshit screen shots and claims, so be assured that all earnings and screen shots are legit and no figures have been tampered with in any way shape or form.

Total Earnings Minus Paypal Fees

As you can see in the screen shot to the left, I had a total of $3566.79 in earnings, minus the Paypal fees. Note**this total does not include a few Hostgator sign ups I had via my site flips. This total is also in US dollars, which is irrelevant to me.

Total Expenses

After subtracting my expenses from my earnings above, my new total of net earnings for April comes in at $2990.15 USD. That equates to a total of $576.54 in expenses. This includes domain name purchases, content outsourcing, listing fees etc…

Total Subscribers Gained

Another contributing factor to my massive success was due to a list building element I’ve incorporated into my niche website business. I gained 26 new subscribers in April, all of which signed up via a link at the end of my auction copy – this brought repeat business. This was pretty sweet!

Here’s a little tidbit of information I thought you guys might like to know: At the beginning of each month, and April in particular, I absolutely freak-the-fuck-out thinking to myself, “what the hell am I doing?” “what if this doesn’t work” “what if people don’t want my websites or services?” “what if it all ends today?” and at the ending of each month I come to realize that I earned more than I did the previously.

I’m sure I can compile several logical reasons as to why I go through this each month, but the reality of it is that I actually do know what I’m doing, and that there is a demand and huge market of webmasters, both experienced and flowering, who find my website packages and services very useful and economical. Will realizing this prevent me from freaking out in the first week of May? Probably not, lol.

Anyways – Here are the totals for the month regarding the actual amount of websites I built and sold:

15 sites developed/sold
5 sites developed privately
10 sites sold on Sitepoint
2 sites re-listed which didn’t sell initially
5 more private site builds for May (sweet!)
$3546.02 in profit (Canadian Dollars)

So all in all, it looks like my site flip madness was a success! Truthfully, I can only see this business model becoming more efficient and cost-effective. Think about it… I sold my first website back in September, when I was broke and we had no money for groceries. Now, 8 months later, I am making more money monthly then I did as an insurance broker, I am working from the comfort of my home – and I have more time for myself and my relationship with Veronica, my friends and family.

So I ask you this: What is holding you back? Is it time? Is it money? Is it your own apprehension?

Whatever it is, I encourage you to sit back and evaluate your situation. I encourage you to really shoot for the stars, stick with one business model and work it until it is a fine-tuned machine. Will I be flipping websites forever? Probably not. Will I continue to kick ass online and take names? Fuck yeah.

Whatever is holding you back, you need to identify it and come up with a sound plan to work around it and start to take the necessary leaps required to work from home and make money online.

Cheers,

Elijah

20 Site Flips In 30 Days

Folks – I have officially lost my mind! Over the last few months my online business has been flourishing from all angles, including Adsense and freelance work, but more importantly my site flipping game has taken off to a whole new level.

I find a lot of times when people reach a certain level of accomplishment in the “make money online” world, they tend to slack off and loose that drive which got them there in the first place – and I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m definitely not one of those people. Sure I’ve taken the plunge, successfully developed a business model that is profitable and have consistently exceeded my earnings on a month to month basis, but I am by no means comfortable with where I am at.

Is it greed? Absolutely not. I was raised with next to nothing and given a foundation based on the premise that you should be appreciative of every opportunity you are given, whether large or small, because it could always be worse. It is this exact mindset that has enabled me to go from $0 in earnings on September 1st, 2008 to over $1600 and climbing in less than 6 months – keep in mind I’m working on average 10-12 hours per day.

Back to my point…

In the spirit of continual self improvement and the annihilation of all things holy, I have set a goal for myself to double my earnings and break the $3500 profit barrier by the end of April. How will I accomplish this? More outsourcing and increased productivity through strict scheduling and communication. Without blasing my ninja tactics to the entire blogsphere, let me break it down a bit more for you crazy kids…

To pull off 20 site flips in 30 days I will need to complete and list 5 sites per week.
Total outsourcing, adding graphics to the equation, will run me around $425/week.
All other expenses (domains, listing fee) will add another $125/week – giving me a total of $550 in expenses.
97% of my auctions sell at the Buy Now price, which averages around $297 per site.
$297 x 5 = $1485/week in earnings, minus expenses, giving me a total of $935/week in profit.
Multiply my weekly profit by 4 and I’m left with a monthly grand total of $3740 in profit.

It all sounds pretty great in theory, right?

Well I’m sure many of you have sat down and developed little mathematical equations to faciliate your money making dreams and schemes – only to hit the gas and crash head first into a brick wall. Once business/creative plans are made tangible by writing them down on paper, in my case on a whiteboard, they take on a life of their own. But in order for me to make this work I have to do one thing – STAY FOCUSED!

All it takes is one “blah” day to fuck up the entire system. 5 flips per week is some serious business – and I’m not talking about crappy “acne prevention” niche sites built on Revolution themes – I’m talking my signature SuiteJ graduate, customized premium niche website packages. Each site will be fully loaded with Adsense, PLR ebook integration, Amazon affiliate store, unique targeted content and gorgeous high resolution stock images arranged in a 100% custom designed Woo Themes environment.

Anyways – at this point all I ask is to wish me luck!

I hope you all had a prosperous March, and are concocting your own insane plans to kick off the warm weather. If you’re feeling stuck, don’t hesitate to drop me an email – I’m always around to bounce Ideas off of!

Cheers,

Elijah

P.S. Veronica says hi, and she promises to write more this month!

No Such Thing As Luck

I woke up this morning, crawled out of bed and literally hit record. I don’t know what compelled me to shoot a video post today, but I felt the need to talk to you guys and gals – as it has been a while since I’ve done a viddy post.

Anyways, I give a little sneak peak into what my days are like normally, how many tasks I do within a given day and why it’s important to keep the right mindset when trying to quit your job and work from home.

Pardon the bags under my eyes and crusty hair as I didn’t even wash my face before hitting record, lol.

I get kind of personal at times – and keep your eye out because I don’t actually wake up until about half way through the video, and you’ll see the exact moment when it happens!

I had a laugh watching this back.

Also – I reveal what SuiteJ and I are up to in the site flipping world.. you’re not going to want to miss this info!

Cheers,

Elijah

Niche Keyword Research Tutorial

As promised, I spent a few hours today putting together a jam-packed tutorial which takes you step by step through the process of conducting effective keyword research. The purpose of this tutorial is to help you uncover profitable niche markets which surround any given keyword or phrase – and it’s really not as hard as you think!

Click Here To Watch The Tutorial

The tutorial itself is around 30 minutes long – so be sure to turn the tv off and duct tape the kids to the toilet seat. Grab a pen and paper and really let the info sink in.

I cover two of the more popular keyword research tools available online: Wordtracker and Google’s Keyword Tool. Wordtracker as most of you know is a paid keyword service, which is around $300 for the year (less than $30 a month, and worth every penny!) and Google’s Keyword Tool is free (not as detailed results).

I hope this helps those of you who are still unsure about the process of researching keywords for your niche sites and affiliate campaigns, as well as uncover some neat facts for the few of you who might be more experienced.

Oh yeah, Wordtracker has a free 14 day trial so feel free to sign up and follow along!

Let me know if you guys have any questions!

Cheers,

Elijah

I Made $800 Profit For Under 20 Hours Of Work

Wow, so I’ve officially written my first “how to make xxx dollars” post title, and though I should feel accomplished, I actually feel kind of cheesy for doing so. Regardless, the title of this post is fact – yesterday I profited around $800 for 20 or so hours of work.

No, I didn’t sell my beard trimmings to a scientific laboratory for the purposes of creating a perfect being, nor did I sell a bunch of iphone knock-offs on eBay. I made this money doing what I do best – developing and selling niche websites online.

Website flipping, or whatever you want to call it, has been a primary source of our monthly income for the last several months, along side our growing Adsense portfolio. Though the Sitepoint marketplace is getting saturated, primarily due to the natural hype of the Internet and a handful of crappy site flipping ebooks (not including any of my readers who’ve shared their techniques) there is still tons of room for you to step in and make your move.

Here’s the catch – in order to survive in any business, especially one which resides in the madness which we call the Internet, you have to be willing to think like Wayne Gretzky – and put yourself where the puck is going to be. Remaining one step ahead of the game will ensure that your business, regardless of the model, has the tenacity to survive the inevitable hoards of hopefuls who jump on board once word spreads that your “model” is highly profitable.

Elijah, what the fuck does Wayne Gretzky have to do with you making $800 yesterday?

Absolutely everything – and here’s why:

Regular people trying to make money online do the following…

Follow what they are told, step by step.
Refuse experimentation because they fear the consequence is irreparable.
Once they make money, they fall victim to comfort.
Quantity over quality.
They see proven methods in a single dimension, and fail to develop their own unique back end model to create foundation, stability and adaptability within the changing marketplace.
When shit gets tough, they drop ship and move onto the next method.

People who will actually succeed at making money online do the following?

Follow what they are told step by step for the first little while. Once confident, they begin to tweak.
Often jump in head first to see how quick they hit bottom. Usually they won’t.
Are constantly driven by personal and business goals. They don’t get comfortable because they value their accomplishments so much that the thought of failing is not even an option.
Find a harmonious balance between quantity and quality – with quality always a few steps ahead.
They observe each business model and method from every angle, often developing several layers beneath the initial point of sale or contact. This also creates the opportunity for them to eventually remove themselves from the equation and enjoy the profits in a “hands-off” fashion.
When shit gets tough – they find a brown paper bag, a lighter, an unsuspecting neighbor, and continue towards their destination.

So where am I getting at with this? Well, as some of you know I’m a co-conspirator, good friend and proud student of SuiteJ – also known as Big Head. A week back Jay and I were talking on Skype regarding the completion of NicheOnDemand.com, my back end site flip foundation, and he was giving me some advice regarding how I should present the packages and various other ideas surrounding that. Jay mentioned that I should consider providing some sort of bundle option on a recurring basis i.e. get 3 unique niche sites per month for x amount of dollars.

At first I thought to myself there is no way someone will pay $700-$1000 per month for website packages. But instead of dismissing the idea, I took it to heart and let it simmer on the back burner.

A couple days later I listed two new site flips that were recently completed and continued on with my day. Less than 24 hours after listing the sites I received a pm from a woman we’ll call “Jersey” – Jersey informed me that she had placed bids on both of my auctions and was really interested in what else I had floating around.

Well one thing lead to another and after a few pm’s back and forth I secured a 3 site bundled sale with Jersey, and had a phone meeting arranged to discuss ideas and to get acquainted (communication is the difference between good and great). Not only did Jersey grab a 3 site bundle from me, but we also spent an hour talking about future projects and idea’s she has (she’s super creative) for another site.

Here’s where the icing gets put on the cake…

I spent the entire day yesterday with my favorite person in the whole world, my grandma, and came home not only to see the payment of $775 from Jersey, but also that one of the sites I listed had sold at BIN for $297 to an awesome guy we’ll call “Hunter” who I just got off the phone with, and is a Broadcast Journalist in New York who’s looking to start a network of news related blogs.

That my friends is how I made $800 profit for about 20 hours of work. Rather than dismiss the idea suggested by Jay, I let it sit and continued on with my business. Opportunity knocked, I did what I do best, revisited his advice and benefited from it, even though I initially thought otherwise.

4 websites which takes around 4-5 hours per site to put together, and $200 in outsourcing and expenses equals $800 in profit for 20 hours of work.

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” – Wayne Gretzky.

For those of you who doubt my ninja skills – eat a dick. But for all you “earnings screenshot” whores, here’s your fix! Click for the full size image.

Cheers,

Elijah