Everyone is familiar with real estate investment. It’s as simple as purchasing a home or land to rent or sell for a profit. The same principles apply to digital real estate, only it is done online.

Every domain name, website, social media account, and blog is online property. They symbolise digital real estate that may be purchased, developed, rented, and sold for a profit.

Some people make a full-time living from purchasing and selling domain names and websites. Some domain names sell for millions of dollars, and websites are frequently purchased for large sums of money as well. One example is lasvegas.com, which was registered in 1994 and sold in 2005 for $90 million. You, too, can generate money with digital real estate.

How to Invest in Digital Real Estate

One of the most common reasons individuals avoid investing in websites is that they believe it takes sophisticated technical expertise and web design experience to construct and run a website while avoiding web design blunders. However, the converse is true: you don’t need much technical knowledge to begin investing in digital real estate.

New technology and open software platforms, such as WordPress, have greatly simplified the website construction process for newcomers. You also have the option of purchasing an established website.

There are two approaches to investing in digital real estate:

• Purchasing an established website.

• Creating a website from scratch has both advantages and disadvantages.

How to Purchase an Established Website

To buy an existing website, you must first set a budget, discover a website to acquire, perform due diligence on the site, such as verifying domain ownership, requesting analytics, reviewing financial facts, and negotiating the purchase contract.

Pros and Cons of Buying an Established Website

There are advantages and disadvantages to purchasing an established website. For example, if you opt to purchase a website, you may incur significant upfront costs. However, if the site is already profitable, you can see a return on your investment much faster. You’ll already have access to a targeted audience, and you won’t have to invest the time and resources required to create a website from start.

However, there are also hidden hazards to purchasing an established website, such as obsolete content, poor SEO, or penalised traffic. All of these things should be addressed before making a purchase.

Where Can I Buy An Established Website?

The cost of purchasing a website ranges from free to hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the typical cost falling between $1,000 and $100,000. Small business websites are often on the lower end of the spectrum, with corporate websites in the middle and more successful e-commerce websites on the upper end.

If you have the funds to purchase an established website, you can look through many marketplaces to find websites for sale.

1. Flippa

Flippa is one of the most popular marketplaces and an excellent spot to start your search. This platform allows you to engage in website auctions and purchase profitable websites. The marketplace’s website listings show you how much money the site makes each month as well as the monetisation tactics it employs.

2. Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers is another prominent online marketplace for purchasing and selling websites and online companies. It focusses on e-commerce shopfronts, content websites, software-as-a-service companies, and other digital assets. The platform screens businesses before listing them, so you can be confident that you’re getting authentic and profitable leads.

3. Motion Invest

Motion invest is another platform that allows you to buy and sell content-based websites. This platform focusses on smaller speciality websites that make revenue through display ads, affiliate marketing, and other monetisation strategies.

The platform focusses on lower to midtier websites, making it accessible to anyone wishing to invest in online assets without incurring the significant prices associated with larger website marketplaces.

Remember that while purchasing websites, you cannot always trust the listings. Do your research to guarantee that your money is not wasted. Before purchasing a website, utilise a program such as Semrush to analyse its SEO, backlinks, visitor count, and other statistics.

Tip:

If you require purchasing assistance, you can contact a website broking agency, such as FE International. These firms do all of the heavy lifting for you and assist you in finding the best website for your investment.

How to Create a New Website

Building a new website begins with the same process as acquiring one: determining a budget. In addition, you must decide what your website will be, select and register a domain name, and choose a website builder. You can build the website yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Pros and Cons of Creating a New Website

Building a website from scratch needs little expenditure and can be started practically immediately. You’ll have complete control over your domain and its content, giving you the freedom to realise your own vision. This is great for anyone who wants to establish an internet presence from the ground up.

However, creating a whole website might be time intensive. You must put in a lot of effort to make it successful, and it will most likely be a long time before you can sell it for a profit.

Website Builders to Create your Website

If you want to create a website from scratch, you can do it by using a highly rated website builder. Hosting and app development normally cost $15 to $40 per month, however major enterprise systems and e-commerce capabilities might cost hundreds of dollars. Hiring a professional website designer normally costs between $500 to $10,000 per job.

Wix

With over 900 responsive, industry-specific designs and customisable tools, Wix makes it simple to create a website, regardless of your level of experience.

Tech beginners can benefit from the platform’s simple setup process and drag-and-drop capabilities, while skilled users can construct custom coding using Wix’s dev mode, Velo by Wix. Wix offers both free and premium plans, although the free plan includes adverts.

Paid plans are ad-free and cost between $17 and $159 each month. The Core, Business, and Business Elite plans all offer website analytics to assist you understand how your site is working. Learn more about Wix here.

Weebly

With its user-friendly interface and many functionality, you can easily create a website that suits your requirements. The platform contains over 50 website templates organised by category, a drag-and-drop design tool, and an HTML editor for custom coding.

Analytics, e-commerce, and marketing apps are among the additional features. Both free and premium programs are available. Paid options range from $10 to $29 per month.

Hibu

If you’re seeking for a professional to take the reins, Hibu could be the appropriate person for you. The full-service web design firm specialises in designing “smart” websites that cater to both search engines and specific audiences.

The company also provides other services to assist you manage listings, online reviews, reputation, and e-commerce transactions. The costs of Hibu, which is a service rather than software, vary depending on the project. You must schedule a session with a Hibu representative who can provide a customised price quote.

Did you know?

Website design software is a self-service application that allows you to create your own websites. In contrast, web design services are full-service businesses that assist with website development, construction, and upkeep. These organisations generally provide extra services such as SEO, branding, and marketing.

How to Profit from Digital Real Estate

After purchasing or creating your website, you must provide material on a constant basis in order to attract people and increase traffic. Use Google Keyword Planner to generate blog post ideas based on keywords that people are already searching for.

If you don’t have time to produce blog entries or promote your website, pay freelancers to do it for you. You may locate reasonably priced freelancers on sites like Upwork. Once you have enough traffic on your website, monetise it to create revenue. Here are some ways to make money with your site traffic:

• Advertising: To monetise website visits, sell ad space or use an ad network like Google AdSense. You make money when people click on your advertisements.

• Affiliate marketing entails promoting and selling products developed by other firms. You receive a percentage on each sale made through your affiliate link.

• Product sales: You can design and sell your own items, such as e-books, online courses, and software, on your website.

• Sponsored content: Advertisers frequently approach organisations to sponsor blog posts that promote their own brands and products. They will pay you for writing about their products on your blog.

You may eventually start profiting from your website. Then you can decide whether to sell it for a profit or to keep building the site as an income source.

The good news is that creating a website does not have to cost a lot of money. The bad news is that, unlike investing in stocks or real estate, you can’t sit back and watch the value of your digital real estate grow over time; you must work to improve the worth of your website.