Web site flipping or Exit Plan as it is commonly referred to, is a process of selling a web site. There are a number of locations on the internet that specialize in web sites for sale. This is not like selling a domain name, as you are selling a fully functioning site with visitors and everything else that is related to it.

Flipping is not broadly discussed around the internet but it has become a very large industry for internet marketers. Large profits can be made by flipping web sites only a few months old. Most sites that are flipped generally have a money making source attached to them. The income derived from a web site can be varied in many different ways from AdSence to selling of physical products.

Why choose to flip a site?

The main idea behind selling sites is to make money as you have probably worked out by now. Deciding which sites to flip and when, is the key to making money with this method of marketing. A web site needs to show that it is making a profit and has a healthy visitor rate over several months.

Some people wonder why you would sell a site that is making money. To this question there are many answers. Some people just get bored with the niche the site is in and feel that a new challenge or project would be fun. These sites are generally the higher cost sites to purchase.

Some people build these flip sites just to make money. The idea is to start a web site and make it profitable with a good amount of traffic to maintain the current profit margin. The reason they sell them straight away once profitable is the return is normally around 10 x what the site makes per month. They sell them so that they do not have to maintain the site or have to worry about changes in search engine logarithms that could affect the traffic. What they are making as profit today might not be what the site makes 10 months from now.

There are some that sell a site because they need the money and it is a relatively fast way to raise cash. For example, let's imagine you need a new car because your car was wiped out in an accident and the other party was not insured. Selling a web site that you have had for several years that makes a steady profit is a good way of raising the cash needed. There is an endless list of reasons some one might want to sell a site in this category.

Another big player in the flipper market place is test site builders. These individuals build a small niche site. These sites are generally fast to build and used to gauge the market place for such a site. Once the site shows that it is a profitable niche the owner will sell it while it is making a profit and invest the money back into a larger authoritative web site on the same subject knowing that it is a profitable market to go into.

Who would buy a flipper?

There are many people who are looking to invest in these web sites. One reason they are attractive to people is the development costs associated with a web site today. By purchasing a site already up and running with traffic cuts the costs dramatically and from day one you are making money. Due to these facts more and more people are deciding to purchase these types of sites.

The down side when looking at investing in to such a web site is working out that the traffic is truly organic and not CPC traffic or traffic purchased from some traffic system that only gives the impression that a site has lots of traffic. When deciding to buy such a web site one must pay very close attention as to the rankings of keywords, Page ranks and traffic sources.

Always investigate the site under a microscope before buying one that you are interested in. As with any industry there are sharks out there that will manipulate figures in both traffic and sales to make the site look better than it is. Unfortunately if you were to buy such a site you have little if no recall on the seller once the deal is done.