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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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Web Whizzes Renovate Rickety Sites to Flip for Profit

Real-estate 'turn-over' tactics move to Internet

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(Newser) – Web entrepreneurs are taking a page from the real-estate book: they’re buying badly designed websites cheaply, fixing them up, and selling them at a profit. Website sales on eBay and similar sites have soared in the past few months, with many site-flippers happy to sell for just a few hundred dollars, the New York Times reports.

Buyers toy with the fonts, colors, and layout of a page. Making sites more visible to web searches is key. Focused on appealing to advertisers, many flippers seek out speciality niche sites like bird-cage.com. “It’s about creating value where there was none,” said one self-proclaimed “web property developer.”

Flippers focus on making their websites easier to find.
Flippers focus on making their websites easier to find.   (Shutterstock)
Online entrepreneurs are following the real-estate flippers' model.
Online entrepreneurs are following the real-estate flippers' model.   (Shutterstock)
Flippers are avoiding the dot-com pitfalls of 2000.
Flippers are avoiding the dot-com pitfalls of 2000.   (Shutterstock)
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