It can be difficult to make money online by flipping websites and selling them. However, with some elbow grease, you can increase your site’s revenues and sell it for profit.
This article will walk you through eight steps to increase your website’s profitability, whether you are a novice or an expert blogger.
We’ll also discuss what we learned about building niche-specific affiliate sites that reached more than 11 million people last year and generated $380k in income for affiliates in December 2020.
Let’s get started.
#1. Write Product-Focused Content to Attract Readers in “Buying” Mode
You need to make money, whether selling websites on a large scale or purchasing your first domain. Two of the most profitable content types have been identified that can be used to help us monetize our strategy.
- Review of product
- The best lists (also known as. product roundups)
Review of Product
We discovered that a large proportion of our affiliate revenue from Listen Money Matters came from product reviews.
These content pieces were long-form and detailed our favorite financial services. We chose to concentrate our attention there and adjusted to add custom summary boxes at the top of each review, such as the one below.
Clicks and commissions were directly related as clicks increased.
We wanted product-review post offers to appear at the top of our page, so we added affiliate links to the summary boxes.
You can see that we placed the affiliate link twice above the summary box without it looking spammy or affecting the user experience.
Another change that hugely impacted the revenue generated by product-review posts included adding no-code custom product displays with affiliate hyperlinks to these posts.
We tested this method against Crazy Egg’s standard in-text link placement. Users scrolled past text links but stopped and clicked on our Lasso product boxes (such as this one).
Our research shows that trust badges, secondary calls-to-action buttons (CTA), and custom fields (for instance, star ratings or pro/con section) increase click confidence.
We found that simple product displays added to posts increase clicks by 5% to 10%, compared to other content types.
Promote anything, especially a product review, in a product display.
Best Lists (also known as Product Roundups) Product Roundups)
List posts, especially “best lists,” convert at a higher rate than other types of content. Matt Giovanisci, the co-founder of Lasso, found that his “Best Lists,” which he posts on SwimU, convert 10% more than his regular content.
After testing, we discovered that people love clicking images. We decided to add product images with affiliate links to our top-list articles.
We added them to our H2s to increase link placement. When we added them to our h2s, we saw an increase in conversions from our List Displays (and our CTA buttons).
- Images
- h2s
- Product descriptions
These content types are solely for product promotion. It attracts the right type of readers, who are more likely than others to click on affiliate links.
These methods have been proven effective by us. Our December record-breaking month saw us bringing in more than $380,000 in affiliate revenue.
#2. Use Structured Data to Increase Your Chances of Appearing In SERPs
Structured data, also known as HTML, is a computing language like HTML that describes your website to search engines using code they can process quickly. It labels each element on your page so search engines can show them in a richer and more detailed manner.
Structured data can be used in many ways. Perhaps you recall seeing a recipe in a carousel rich result clipped.
You may also have seen FAQs that link to other pages on a site:
These rich snippets are created using structured data. It is how structured data can be used to increase traffic and generate more revenue.
Below is a bulleted listing of featured snippets displayed in the SERP. We discovered that when more than 80% of a page is listed, we get more views and featured snippets linking back to these pages.
Google loves list posts.
Please look at the number of posts on our site that feature snippets after plugging them into Ahrefs. As you can see, Google favors posts that use this format.
You don’t even need to know coding to use our List displays. This feature was important to us, so our plugin makes it easy to create List displays.
Reviews of Product Reviews: Targeting Review Snippets
Another way to use structured data is by targeting Review Snippets for product reviews. It helps to ensure that the SERPs display better results.
This example is located on the first page. It includes additional information regarding the query.
The case above shows that Google did a review of Roofstock. This real estate product includes enriched results such as the following:
- Style rental (Turnkey).
- Shared ownership
- Paying fees
- Star rating
- Author
This search result also generated FAQs linking to different sections of this page.
Side note You can try different plugins that work with your CMS if you aren’t a programmer. You can search Google for “product review plugins” and “ordered lists plugins for WordPress” to see what results you get.
#3. Use Google Analytics to Optimize Existing Content
Many niche and affiliate site owners neglect to optimize their existing content. They are so focused on creating new articles they neglect to optimize pages that get traffic.
Look at your pages and ask, “Could this article convert better?”
You can check Google Analytics to see which pages people visit.
These landing pages are your website’s “front doors.” They are where people will find you. These pages can be inspected to optimize your site.
Find opportunities to:
- Add product displays
- Broken or out-of-stock affiliate links fixed
- Links to low-clicking links can be replaced with links to products that could improve conversions
- Internal linking strategies can boost these landing pages
#4. To find out what visitors want, set up site search tracking
People use search bars on websites. It can be very helpful to understand what query they are using.
Google Analytics allows you to track site searches and see the results. If you find a frequently searched term but no corresponding content available, create it and optimize it to convert.
This report shows:
- Website visitors make search queries
- Visitors who leave after performing a search
- Visitors start their searches from pages they have already visited
You can set up site search tracking by searching on the website. I will use “roofstock” as a search term on our finance website.
The URL will be displayed on your Google Analytics account. Scroll down until you find “Site Search Tracking.”
Once it is there, toggle it to “On,” then enter the letter “s.”
Next, click “Save.”
Side note: A query parameter refers to the letter that appears before the keyword and equal sign in the search URL. Common query parameters include “s” or “q.”
WordPress websites use the “s” suffix. In my case, I searched for “roofstock” and found that my query was followed by the letter “s.”
To remove the query parameter from all reports, tick the “Strip query parameters from URL” box.
#5. Consolidate or Delete Content to Improve Search Traffic
Google’s ranking algorithm considers user experience. Sites with poor content won’t be found, and sites that are poorly optimized will not make a profit.
Everyone must, at some point, consolidate or remove content. It includes removing poorly written articles or consolidating posts on similar subjects.
You might consider deleting articles that fall into this category from your website. Itis will improve search traffic and increase site valuation.
Marie Haynes Consulting conducted a site audit, and nearly half of our content was removed.
We created a spreadsheet that included the following metrics:
- Page
- We need to take action
- URL
- Page views
- Top Keywords
To avoid losing visitors, we redirected all articles marked for deletion (using the Redirection WordPress plugin).
It led to an increase in traffic.
#6. Create a Resources Page to Accelerate Income
A website’s Resources page showcases favorite tools and products.
A product roundup is one blog post. A Resources page is a page that is dedicated to your site, usually located in the navbar. People can easily find it.
It is also a great place to promote affiliate links. Many tools can help you create one.
Our plugin Lasso allows you to create Link Groups (or categories of affiliate links) that you can display in Grids, Lists, or Galleries.
The Toolbox on our finance website has the following categories of affiliate links appearing on one page:
- Business
- Budgeting
- Debt
- Real estate
- Investing
Then we display them as grids:
This page also contains secondary call-to-action buttons that link to product reviews. Many visitors start at our Toolbox page before moving to the reviews and deciding.
These visitors convert at a higher rate than those who find our reviews online. This page is responsible for 10% of our affiliate income.
#7. Link to High-Quality Affiliate Landing Pages
You won’t usually have created the landing pages that you will send your visitors if you run an affiliate website. You don’t have to let this stop you from working with brands in creating landing pages that are unique for your audience.
Copy.ai created this page for Pat Flynn’s SPI subscribers. These pages have been a great help to our websites to improve their conversions.
Your audience will feel more human if you have a unique offer. A photo and testimonial can accompany it. People are more likely to click if they can see who you are.
A landing page customized for specific readers is a great way to make you feel extra special.
A landing page’s primary purpose is to convert website visitors. The desired action of an affiliate program will determine the conversion.
You can link to any page that will increase sign-ups if you cannot collaborate with a brand to create a unique landing site.
It could be used in digital marketing to encourage visitors to download a PDF or sign up for an email list. It can also mean generating leads, following social media accounts, and purchasing.
If you have suggestions for increasing conversions, you can always speak to the merchant. You both want the same thing, which is to make money. So you are invested in each other’s success.
#8. Optimize Your Content with More Keywords to Improve Rankings
Ahrefs found that about 90% of blogs receive zero search traffic. There are many reasons why this is so.
People don’t write for the web. They don’t follow search engine optimization (SEO) or match search intent.
It is a great opportunity for website owners to capitalize.
You can also attract backlinks to your site and get it indexed. Another wise SEO strategy is to use tools to capture more keywords in your content.
You will get more traffic if you rank higher for keywords. A clear scope is a tool that allows you to capture as many keywords and broaden your search for related terms.
Clear scope optimizes your posts with keywords that are relevant to your seed keyword. It ensures you cover as much ground as possible. This tool is invaluable if you run a content website.
Clearoscope’s search box will allow you to enter your target keyword and generate a report showing related terms.
Never write a blog post without first running a report.
Last words
Empire Flippers and other online marketplaces make it easier to buy and sell.
It’s not enough to rely on Empire Flippers as a website broker. The first step in creating a digital asset is to improve your website’s traffic and potential income. Good luck!