Some of the hottest shows on television today have to do with a subject that sounds boring—selling a house. However, the reality is these shows are thrilling. Flip or Flop, Flip This House and Flip Men are all about the concept of “flipping” houses. This involves buying a house cheap, putting in some work, then selling it for profit. One of the biggest decisions these house flippers make is deciding whether a house is worth the effort. As a freelancer, web designer, copywriter, or ad copy writing professional, you may find yourself in the same position—looking at a website and trying to decide whether it is worth the effort of turning it into something useful and/or profitable.
Flip That Website
If you look at the site and you think it looks like it has promise, flipping could be the way to go. What does flipping a website entail? It varies from site to site. Some of steps you may consider include:
- Redoing graphics and freshening aesthetics – Sometimes, all it takes is a new coat of paint on your old site to make it attractive and appealing to visitors.
- New content – If your current content is good, but sparse, adding some articles, blog posts, or other content could make your site fresh and exciting.
- SEO – If your site looks good but is just not attracting visitors, you may want to consider giving it an SEO overhaul. Even a little bit of optimization may give your site enough curb appeal to bring in the visitors.
It’s A Flop
While many sites can be saved, there are always exceptions (ie anything with a trailing cursor and background music.) If your site needs to be scrapped, it is not ALL lost. Take a final pass through your pages to find out if there is anything that can be salvaged— this could include useful articles, interesting links and attractive images. After all, even if a home were to be leveled, the owner would remove valuable light fixtures and old Oriental rugs!
There are certainly instances where you may have to call the website a flop and start over from scratch. However, there is often enough salvageable that you can flip the site into something that will accomplish your goals. Even if it’s not appropriate for use as a full-fledged site, you may be able to use it as a landing page or to otherwise support to your main site. Just like with flipping a house, there is a lot of work and risk involved, but the effort could pay off in an incredible way!
Tracy S is a content writer specializing in real estate and home improvement projects. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, competitive pool, spending time with her family and making plans to survive the zombie apocalypse.
