Mushfiq is a prolific website investor with over 175+ website flips in his resume and also runs the dedicated website flipping newsletter, TheWebsiteFlip.com. Mushfiq acquired a set of aged domains in 2019 from Odys. We catch up with Mushfiq in this interview to get his insights into aged domains and ask him how one of his projects is doing.
Let’s start the interview!
Tell us about yourself and how did you get started with SEO/affiliate?
My name is Mushfiq. I built my first website in 2008. I was a college student and stumbled upon SEO and the idea of website building for profit. I was a strong believer in Voice Over Internet Phone (VOIP) and built my website around that topic. A couple of years later in 2010, I sold it for $25,000, a huge amount for a poor college student.
Safe to say, I was hooked. Over the last decade, I’ve built, scaled, and sold over 175+ websites with multiple deals in the six figures.
How did you first discover Odys?
I discovered Odys in mid-2019. Prior to Odys, I always looked for quality domains via GoDaddy auctions.
However, I never acquired a domain using this method. I knew the huge benefits that came with a good pre-existing domain, so a service like Odys was incredibly valuable for my process of building profitable niche sites to sell.
My first purchase from Odys was in 2019 and I’ve been a fan ever since.
When did you buy your first aged domain? Tell us about your journey.
I’ve been buying and selling sites since 2008. After my first successful website sale while in college, I took what I learned and dove right back into the world of SEO and building niche websites.
I kept track of everything that seemed to work. This is when I started buying existing websites on sale and improving their earnings before flipping them. If I could build a site from scratch, why couldn’t I make existing sites better?
Over the next decade, I became a super seller on Flippa’s platform and was one of the early buyers on Empire Flippers. I’m a huge fan of case studies and publicly share what I’ve learned through years of real-life experience.
Looking for a good source of quality used domain names, I purchased my first aged domain from Odys in November 2019, then my second in December 2019, and so on. I used aged domains to build authority sites faster than I ever could with a brand new domain name.
I run TheWebsiteFlip.com, a dedicated newsletter/site that discusses website flipping strategies, flipping case studies, making profitable niche sites, and more.
What results did you achieve with it? How did you do that?
I actually did a case study on how my first domain bought from Odys did. Despite a slow rollout of content, the results were very good. The EPM was outstanding!
First, I bought a domain that would be a good fit for building an authority site in the renewable energy vertical. This is an area I have experience and expertise in, so that made sense as a good vertical to build an authority site in.
I bought that first domain from Odys in December of 2019 and began setting up the site. A couple of months later in February of 2020, I bought another aged domain in the same vertical and redirected it to a specific page to boost authority.
Traffic results here:
The authority that was already built into these domain names, and the redirect, was a powerful combination for getting fast early results.
While I’ve tested out multiple redirect options for SEO before, in this case, I used the Silo Page Redirect method to get link juice to the new authority site. In this setup, relevant pages are redirected to topically relevant pages on the new site.
This helps to make sure the links make sense and the content matches what was previously linked to from the aged domain I’m redirecting pages from.
On the negative side, this method might not be as “strong” in transferring link juice from a redirect, but I felt like it was the most fitting method for getting the new site up and running the way I wanted.
If you want the full study on the silo page redirect, it’s laid out here.
What was your greatest learning in the process?
Aged domains are abandoned real estate. What this means is that while there’s not much there at the start you have the framework of a site, the foundation, all this work on the property that was done before you showed up.
If I can come in and build a site on a used domain, it’s like fixing up an abandoned house in real estate. The framework is already there. Sometimes a very good foundation is already there. A lot of the difficult beginning work has been done. So at that point I know as long as my keyword research and writing is on point, I’ll see success.
The right aged domain can turn into a special website that makes money and then sells at a great valuation. On the other hand, not doing the research could result in buying an expired domain that just can’t be salvaged.
Due diligence is crucial to getting a used domain that will actually help my website building process and speed up the timeline.
Give us your honest opinion about Odys and the services we offer.
I love it. Other options are hit and miss at best, with a lot more misses than hits. Odys is my go-to domain marketplace. I can see what’s available, search for domains that have already been vetted, and meet my needs. This is a much better process than anything else out there right now.
