Get an aged domain, build out a site on it, make it spot-on in terms of the niche, get traffic, and earn money via affiliate marketing, sponsored content, ads, or lead generation. Or you could just flip it. In other words, there are multiple ways to turn your aged domain investments into profit. It’s just that you have a road to walk before it hits your bank account.
Mushfiq Sarker of The Website Flip has been in the business for quite a while now and knows the nit and grit of website building and doing business online. And yes, he’s great at flipping websites. This month he selected 4 Odys domains in the Politics, Wine, Entertainment, and Fashion niches to provide you with valuable and actionable advice on their development and growth. Check out what he’s got this time.
ElectoralMap.net
Elections are a popular topic each fall during Q4 when advertising spending and RPMs increase. There are also related topics that are less seasonal such as congressional maps.
A similar site that focuses on election topics is 270towin.com. It consistently gets over 500k monthly organic traffic (AHREFs) throughout the year and spikes higher during election season.
There are many opportunities to combine a geographic keyword modifier with an election topic. This allows for easier scalability by duplicating a topic across 50 states or many cities. Geographic-based content could be created inexpensively through programmatic SEO.
Here’s what I would do:
- Add an interactive US states map to the homepage to match the original site. You can use a WordPress plugin like Interactive Geo Maps.
- Recreate pages from the original site (there were only around 35 pages according to AHREFs).
- Add attractive charts and graphs that illustrate election data to attract natural inbound links (check 270toWin.com for inspiration).
- Find low competition keywords that can be duplicated across multiple states or cities (e.g., “Chicago congressional districts” has a KD of 4 and a volume of 300).
Monetization of this site would be primarily through display advertising. The goal would be to get approved by a premium display advertising network like AdThrive or Mediavine. 270towin.com uses Freestar for display advertising and sponsorships.
LetsMix.com
The domain previously hosted an online platform where users could listen to music mixes, share them with others, and promote their own mixes. Due to an increasing interest in electronic music production and its market valuation of US$6 billion, this domain would be perfect for reviewing electronic music production software as well as musical instruments including string instruments, keyboards, DJ mixers, and MIDI controllers.
Here is what I would do:
- Publish tutorials or articles answering questions about how to make electronic music with software (e.g., Reason 12 or GarageBand).
- Publish listicles curating best electronic music for X (e.g., “best electronic music 2020” has KD 7 and volume 60).
- Write buyers guides for electronic music equipment and software like keyboards, mixers, and MIDI connectors.
- Review or promote courses that teach students how to make electronic music.
Display ads can easily monetize this site, but affiliate links included in the review articles offer better earning potential. There are a few brands that pay decent commissions: Thomann, Audimute, and Soundtrap.
LalaLingerie.com
In the past, this was the domain of a company that sold women’s lingerie. A growing number of millennials, rising brand awareness, and increasing spending capacity among working women open up exciting opportunities for market players to reach more clients with creative lingerie and intimate wear for women. This domain can therefore be used to build an authority site in the fashion niche, particularly focused on lingerie.
Here is what I would do:
- Publish listicles curating lingerie for specific types of people or occasions (e.g., “best lingerie for petite women” has KD 1 and volume of 50).
- Publish listicles about lingerie brands (e.g, “lingerie brands chicago” had KD 0 and volume 100).
- Publish articles about the best lingerie at specific stores (e.g., “lingerie Forever 21” has KD 0 and volume 250).
- Publish articles comparing popular products from different brands (e.g., Victoria Secret vs Soma).
- Reach out to lingerie brands to offer to do a sponsored post or feature them in a listicle.
- Consider creating a private label brand that can be sold on Amazon and promoted on the site.
This site can be monetized via display ads and sponsored content such as paid reviews from various lingerie brands. Essentially, lingerie is a category that women are likely to spend more money on, and affiliate commissions from brands in this field are high. Among the popular brands you can promote are Eye Kandee, Agent Provocateur, and Haute Flair.
NapaLinks.com
There are several successful affiliate and content sites in the wine niche. CaliforniaWineryAdvisor.com is a good example with 68,000 traffic according to AHREFs.
Here’s what I would do:
- Recreate relevant pages that were featured on the homepage: Trip Planning, Tips on Wine Tasting, Ghost Wineries, Wine Caves, etc.
- Recreate the homepage with short summaries and links to the important pages.
- Publish listicle articles for best X wineries in Napa (e.g., “10 best dog friendly wineries in Napa”).
- Publish informational articles on pairing wine with certain foods (e.g., “wine to pair with chicken alfredo” has a volume of 60 and KD of 3).
- Publish affiliate reviews of monthly wine club subscriptions.
Monetization could be a combination of display ads and affiliate programs. There are several wine-focused sites that generate enough traffic from informational articles to be accepted by AdThrive or Mediavine.
There are many monthly wine delivery subscriptions that offer strong commission rates of up to 15%. With some subscriptions costing over $100 per quarter or more, the wine niche can be very lucrative. One wine club review site was previously listed on Motion Invest with a $3,000 monthly profit on just 4,000 visitors per month.
Learn from the Best to Do It Right
While the blueprints provided by Mushfiq are just recommendations and you could be a versed site builder yourself, considering the expertise he’s got in the business, taking notice of his words provides a deeper understanding of how things work. Aged domains are curious beasts that hold a rich potential yet they have to be carefully catered to in order to release it. Expert advice is a horn of plenty, so you’d better drink what you can from it.
In case none of the Odys domains listed above meet your requirements, you should visit and stroll through over 900 domains in 50+ niches: Odys Marketplace.
