The Red Paperclip Principle: Trade Up Your Website
By Bryan Clark on Nov 27, 2007 in Principles of Success
If you aren’t familiar with One Red Paperclip, it’s the story of a man trading a single red paperclip for a house. Now, he didn’t do it in one trade, the paperclip for the house. But he gradually traded his paperclip for something of more value, and then again, and again, and after fourteen trades, he had traded his way all the way up to a house.
What if you could apply the Red Paperclip Principle gameplan to making money online? What if you could begin with ‘Parakeets-Are-Really-Neat.biz’ and end up with a ‘Law.com’? (A friend’s Dad purchased and sold Law.com some years ago for a tidy profit. They now own and run Scrapbook.com).
You can. And this is how you AND I can earn $10,000 a month within the next year.
I’ve already tested the system. I’ve already traded my paperclip. Now it’s time for the snowmobile.
The problem with trading is that you’ve got to find someone that wants what you have, who also has what you want. That’s not a very efficient way to do business. I suppose that’s why we use money instead of bartering in today’s economy. You won’t actually be trading site A for site B. You will be selling site A, and paying the equivalent sales price for site B.
Here is what you do for each trade:
- Find a non-monetized or under-monetized site with a #1 position on Google for a search term.
- Send them an email asking if they are interested in discussing selling the site. Do not discuss price.
- When a discussion is opened, you will offer 1/5 to 1/2 of what you feel you could get out of the site annually by fully monetizing it.
- If they ask for too much, or they refuse with no counter offer, do not respond.
- Rinse and repeat, 3X nightly. (Once each week, you are permitted to email the ones that really excite you or you feel MAY come down in price, and tell them that you wanted to give them another chance before you commit your money elsewhere.)
We will discuss each of these in detail later, but as you can tell it’s pretty straightforward. When you find a deal, you go for it. Gradually, as your funds and confidence grow, you trade up, and up, and up.
A #1 position on Google for a decent search term? Under-monetized or non-monetized? Am I crazy?
First, understand that Adsense hasn’t always been around. Back before affiliate programs, ebooks and adsense, some webmasters created website that got links (remember when people used to link to other sites?), and became authorities in their subject. They didn’t make much money showing banner ads, so they took them off. They left the site be, and have kept the site renewed each year simply because they put so much effort into it, and hey, what’s $9? They may not realize that their site is at the #1 SERP position. Or they do, and because it’s not monetized, they don’t think the site is worth that much.
So start!
Start with the site you’ve created now. Or some money from Prosper.com. Trade it up, and then trade it up again. Turn your Red-Paperclip-Website.info into a real #1 SERP SuperChamp.com. Start today, and put the Red Paperclip Principle to work to accomplish your online income ambitions.
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10 Comment(s)
By Malignition.com on Nov 27, 2007 | Reply
Some really good advice. Many of the older webmasters have absolutely no idea how well their sites can monetize today.
By James @ Total Web Review on Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
I have tried buying websites before, I contacted the owner of a #1 biker site early this year but I never got a response. The site hasn’t been updated in a few years but they have it monetized. I am not sure how well the site does but I am going to try and contact the owner one more time using the whois information.
I currently own 3 domain names and sites that are motorcycle related sites so the other site may come in handy. Then again it could prove to be a pain keeping it up. My motorcycle related site are http://www.openroadbiker.com and
http://www.openroadbiker.net and then I have a top site set up on the .info.
What do you think, would the other site be a good investment if I could get it for a good price?
By Mark on Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
Austin,
I have been lurking around for a while now and thought I would jump in regarding your $10,000 a month goal. I think that it is overly ambitious. It is human nature to overestimate what can be accomplished in one year and underestimate what can be accomplished in 5 years. It is still as noble a goal to be earning $10,000 in 5 years. Sometimes it takes a long time to build up a head of steam. In my own business I did not make $10,000 per month until I was 10 years into the business. The first seven years were losers but in time with incremental growth sales exploded in recent years. This past October I sold more than the first 7 years combined. To make goal setting effective goals should be realistic and obtainable. If you miss your numbers and come in at only $2,000 per month next year you may be tempted to quit.
However, if you factor in your natural enthusiasm into your equation and realize that it is human nature to puff up the numbers and come up with a plan to be doing $2,000 the second year, $4,000 the third, $8,000 the fourth and $16,000 in your fifth year it becomes more realistic. You can then focus on doubling your sales each year. As the years go by it will be harder to grow your sales because of the large increases in volume. However your skill set will grow and you will be able to keep on track.
Keep up the great posts
Mark
By nick on Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
Mark,
I think Austin has like ten static sites that he plans to make 1,000 0ff of this year. Wait, actually I don’t know what his businesses are. Does anyone know how he makes his money? I am assuming it’s off the internet…
By Mark on Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
James - I think that if he didn’t respond to you indicates that he is not keeping up the site and hasn’t got a lot of interest in pursuing doing more with it. He would probably be apt to take a reasonable offer. He may have dropped off the face of the planet so it might pay to make a backup offer on the domain name in the case he does not renew. I visited your two bike sites. I liked the layout of the .net it was very readable the highlighting on the .com made it hard to read your last post. Cudos for your pin for subscribing or posting offer. Maybe Austin could send out a “GOT GOALS?” pin. I be back again to your site to find out more about your paid posts. I need some help in promoting http://www.atvbible.com
By Austin on Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
One Disneyland website…. $500/month.
One gun repair ebook…… $475/month.
Spending 10X the time I spend on those sites checking comments and linkbacks on this blog…. priceless. JK
Nick - I try to put in the time each night to do my 3 “interested” emails. Remember, almost every site is worth it…. depends on what you pay for it!
By Bill on Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
I would think a 10k a month goal is going to require more than a post every few days. The red paperclip thing is cute…but enough already. I love the concept of the Blog…but get on with it.
My 2 cents…it’s your business.
By Austin on Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
By Justin on Dec 3, 2007 | Reply
I like the idea. It makes a lot of sense. Even if just 20 minutes was spent for emailing a couple people each day, one would pop up that would be a money maker and just the age and content alone would be worth it. If you don’t get what you want in monetizing it from the get go or reworking the layout, it will still payoff.
By Live Music Los Angeles on Jan 6, 2008 | Reply
I heard of this master trading route that worked! I didn’t believe it when I first heard it.
Then I saw it on the news on TV .
Trading up sites is a great idea. you would almost have to run across a real winner within a few trades.
I’m interested in watching the outcome on this suggestion! James