Have you been looking at buying websites for profit, but don’t know if you have the skills needed to do it successfully?
We have been teaching students for over 10 years how to buy, renovate and sell websites. From our own personal experiences, we’ve identified 5 core skills that practically anyone can use, even as a complete beginner, to create a portfolio of online income-generating assets. And it might just be easier than you think – even if you’re a technophobe!
So, in today’s video, we’ll give you a sneak peek behind the curtains at the skills we have personally used for buying websites for profit. These are the exact same skills that we teach our most successful students to generate their cashflow online and live the lifestyle that they actually want.
Click below to watch the video or read the transcript.
Liz Raad: Hi again, and today we’d like to answer a common question we get, which is, what skills do I need to buy websites for profit? And that’s a really good question, because most of our students who start with us have zero online experience. Some of them even struggle with emails.
Often people hear what we do, and they think, “Oh man, that’s awesome, but I’m not technical. I don’t know if I could do that?”
So let’s go through some of the skills that you actually need to develop in order to successfully buy websites for profit.
Matt Raad: And these skills are probably not what you think. The great news is (as Liz said), we do have complete beginners doing this. Particularly people who may not have grown up with computers. A lot of us haven’t grown up using computers very much, particularly in a moneymaking sense.
There are some specific digital skills needed that we do teach. You don’t have to come in already knowing these things. But these are the skills that you can learn to help make your journey very successful, so that you can start make money online from these websites.
Liz: Yes, and these are the skills that we’ve learnt over the years too. We have been coaching people for so long, and we can see the skills that people need to develop to be successful at this.
Skill #1 – Understand How Websites Work
Liz: So, skill number one is you need to understand websites. And this is where we start with all our students. You need to understand how they work. You need to be able to build a website yourself, and not from coding.
Matt: Definitely no coding.
Liz: No, Matt does not code! And neither do I.
So it’s not about coding. It’s actually about understanding how websites go together. Knowing how a good website actually converts and makes sales and money. What does that look like? Where do I put what, and where? And also understanding how the back end of a website works. How do you manage a website, and how you keep a website secure etc.? That’s really important.
You need to understand the background so that when you build your portfolio you know what your outsourcers are doing, and you understand what’s happening. You can talk with confidence about your websites and know what you need to do with them.
Even if you’re a technophobic, you can still learn the skills needed for buying websites for profit
We find it really interesting when even the most technophobic person (who’s never done any anything online) goes through their first website build using the skills we teach them. If they go through step-by-step, they just feel so much more empowered and also excited because they can do it.
A lot of our students are 40+ years old.
Matt: Even 60+ years old.
Liz: And they now know more than their kids! And they’ll say to us, “I know more than the kids about this!” And I’m surprised, but even 20-year olds who use the internet (and use websites) a lot, don’t actually understand what’s going on in the background. It’s a very powerful thing.
Younger Students are using Website Income as an Alternative to University
We also have lots of teenagers who are learning digital skills with their parents. They’re learning how to design and build websites. One of our younger students, Liam, built a website and sold it for $2,000. Now to a 14-year-old, that’s a lot of cash!
Matt: King’s ransom.
Liz: Cash is raining down.
Matt: Liam’s home schooled. And he’s now looking at this as a career and realizing he doesn’t have to go to uni if he doesn’t want to.
Liz: And if he does want to, he can support himself through.
Matt: If he wants to, he can support himself when he goes to uni. But that’s life changing at that age.
Liz: That’s better than a lemonade stand!
Matt: Yes. That’s right.
Liz: And it takes a lot less time.
Chriss went from zero digital skills to making money online by buying websites for profit
Matt: And one of my favourite stories is (and one of my favourite clients to personally coach over the years) is the beautiful Chriss Smith. We’ve followed Chriss and Mark’s journey over the last 5 or 6 years they’ve been with us.
But it’s really cute. For those of us who saw Chriss at our Digital Investor Summit, she got up and said the classic line, “When I started this, I said to Mark I don’t even know where emails go! I’ve got no idea how this works. I don’t like computers, and I don’t want to work with them!”
And if you watch her most recent interview, you’ll see that she works from home in rural Victoria. Now she does house sitting at these luxury houses out in the country, and she just sits there with a laptop and she makes money online.
So, when I think of someone who is really technophobic, Chriss is someone who overcame that and learned the skills. And the great thing about Chriss is that the big skill that she learned was how websites work, because she literally didn’t know where emails went and had no idea how websites work.
And this is what we’re good at. This is what we love doing. We love teaching beginners how these websites work, how this online space works, and even how they’re monetized.
Again, I want to reiterate, you don’t have to be that technical yourself. As long as you’ve got that basic understanding of websites, you can then outsource it to technical people to do the work. We can project manage them, but you need that bit of knowledge first. How do these websites work? What’s the basic technical side behind them?
Skill #2 – Have a Clear Strategy when Buying Websites for Profit
Liz: So, the second skill that we teach all of our students is actually more strategic. It’s about having an understanding at a bigger picture level. What do you want to achieve online, and what sort of websites are you buying? We want to target specific websites based on what you want to create in your life.
If you’re in a space where you want to create cashflow, then this would be a slightly different strategy than if you’re in a space where you’re trying to build up assets etc. Or maybe you have a long-term goal – potentially the million dollar sell out etc.
So strategy is a really important skill to understand – to know what you really want to achieve when you buy these particular websites. And of course, the other thing too is the strategy around not just what to buy, but then what to do with them. So that’s what we spend a lot of time teaching our students about.
“We teach our students to have really clear strategies and goals in mind. And then how to buy websites for profit that will serve that purpose.” – Liz Raad, eBusiness Institute
Skill # 3 – The Importance of Website Due Diligence
Matt: Now the third key skill (in my opinion), is an incredible money-making skill in this digital age. And this skill is learning how to do website due diligence. In particular, if you want to buy websites for profit, you need to know how to do due diligence.
When I look back over our business career, we hang out with a lot of very successful high net-worth business entrepreneurs. All of them know how to value businesses, and they know how to do due diligence on businesses. So, we teach people how to value websites (because websites are businesses), and how to do due diligence, to make sure it’s a real website.
Liz: And knowing what questions to ask. That’s the most important thing in due diligence. It’s just knowing what to check and knowing what questions to ask.
Matt: This is a very unique skill. Especially in this day and age, most people haven’t bought or sold a bricks and mortar business.
Liz: Or even property, you might do one or two properties in your life.
Matt: Let alone a website.
Website Due Diligence is a highly valuable skill that will help to increase your online income
Matt: Now, obviously with websites, there’s some very specific things that you need to do when you do due diligence before buying a website, that you need to learn. And one of the things that one of our mentors taught us many years ago is:
The more unique skills that you have in life, the more money you can make.
Think of someone that works in McDonald’s. They’re paid a base wage, because anybody can work in McDonald’s. Versus a high net-worth entrepreneur who knows how to do due diligence on websites or on businesses. And they can buy and sell them. That is a highly, highly paid and sought-after skill. So it’s worth learning that skill in this day and age.
Liz: It also lets you find those diamonds in the rough. That’s the skill that lets you recognize an opportunity. And that’s really important.
I love this quote:
“Most people don’t get wealthy in life because they’re not trained.” – Robert Kiyosaki
They don’t know how to recognize the opportunities right in front of them every day, that is so true. It’s when you train yourself to recognize an opportunity, and due diligence is a very big part of that. It’s important to understand how to value a website, what questions to ask, and know what can be done to renovate the site. When you know that, suddenly there’s all this huge world of opportunities that opens up to you that you never even knew existed.
Matt: You’ll be like a kid in a candy shop. When I’m on my lunch breaks, I look at all these websites and I go, “There’s an opportunity. I’m going to write to that owner and say, do you want to sell your website to me?” You can see so much opportunity out there.
Skill # 4 – Understand How to Help People
Liz: Skill number 4 is an interesting skill and is probably one that you wouldn’t have thought of when it comes to buying websites for profit. This skill is about empathy. Understanding how to help people. When we own websites that deliver content (and review products), and do all those sorts of things, what we need to do is deliver a really awesome experience for the people who are coming to that website.
Our whole goal is to help people. Help them make a buying decision, help them get answers to their questions or solve their problems.
And you should approach this with the attitude of, “I’m here to help people. How can I serve these people and make this experience really easy for them? How can I help them move smoothly through the site, and find what they’re looking for?”
If you can do this, you will succeed. Because that’s what makes a great user experience, and that’s what Google loves. That’s what all the search engines love. They’ll rank your site higher if you provide that awesome experience for people.
“One of the big skills that we help people learn is empathy, understanding people, and figuring out how can I deliver a great result and all the answers that they’re looking for.” – Liz Raad, eBusiness Institute
Matt: And importantly, how do you translate that onto a website? That’s the goal.
You’re there to help your visitors to your website, and this is what we do when we’re renovating our websites. We’re thinking “Okay, when someone visits my website, are they getting what they want quickly?” No-one has a long attention span these days. So not only do we want to help them, we want to help them really quick.
Skill #5 – Creating a Sense of Curiosity and Determination when Buying Websites for Profit
Liz: So, let’s move onto skill number five. And this is another soft skill that we’ve found has made massive difference. Our most successful students have a sense of curiosity. They’re open to learning new things. They’re open to finding out more, and they want to investigate things.
We’re obviously buying websites for profit that are in topics that we have no idea about. But we’re interested in these topics, and we go and learn about them to get our strategy set.
Matt: We do a bit of research.
Liz: Yes, we do a bit of research, and it’s really fascinating. It’s actually quite fun.
And the other thing too, is there’s also a sense of determination and consistency. Having that long-term goal, (those long-term plans), and just showing up every day and doing some step towards your goal. That’s what we’ve seen makes such a difference to our most successful students.
Matt: It’s about setting an intention in life.
For some of you, this might be a side hustle (or a side hobby). And it it’s something where you want to expand your digital education.
Students are learning digital skills to replace their existing jobs and create the lifestyle they want
Matt: But at the end of the day, if you want to make big money out of this, you need to be determined. This is what you want to do. Maybe you want to get out of your job. Normally that’s the number one determinant. It’s pretty easy actually.
Liz: That’s what makes them determined
Matt: It’s actually pretty easy to find self-motivated clients of ours who come onto our courses because they want to get out of their jobs or they’re approaching retirement. So that gives them the drive. But having that sense of curiosity has made a huge difference for us, and for our clients.
I’d like to add enthusiasm in there too. You’ve got to be enthusiastic about this. You don’t have to be enthusiastic about the topic that your website’s in. We’ve got websites and topics that I have personally no interest in whatsoever. But what I am enthusiastic about is the research process, and I’m driven, and I’m curious, I’ve got determination. I want to make it work. I want to make this weird and wonderful little website work. I want to see it double its incomes and things like that.
Liz: And you show up.
Matt: Yes I show up. I’m there. It’s not like you have to work 9 to 5, but it means I’m just consistent with it. I show up and I add value to this website, and we get it going.
Liz: And what’s really interesting is when people get into that kind of mindset (and we’re going right back to our number one skill, understanding websites), people start having a lot of fun, and suddenly we see this sense of creativity.
A great example of this is Sharon. She’s a litigation lawyer and spent 25 years doing this career that she really didn’t like. And now that she switched over to digital, suddenly Sharon’s discovered a whole new superpower with her digital skills she didn’t know she had. She’s loving it and loving the creativity of it. She feels like she’s really helping people.
Matt: I’m amazed with Sharon’s journey. I said to her on a recent coaching call, “This is like your secret superpower. Where the hell have you been for the last 25 years?” So, 25 years working as a lawyer, burnt out, all that sort of stuff. Then she jumps into learning her new digital skills-
Liz: And goes, “This is awesome.” Within months, she’s quit her job. She’s only seven months into our elite coaching and she’s quit her job.
Matt: Yes, make sure you read the interview in the link above. It’s an amazing story, but it’s really cool. Talking of skills, I think it really shows that it’s not just the skill of curiosity and creativity, but it’s that sense of, I guess it’s a soft skill.
Want to Learn More about these 5 Skills in Buying Websites for Profit?
Liz: So there you go. These are our top five skills. That’s what we’ve noticed really makes the difference and moves the needle for the people that we’ve trained over the last 10 years in buying websites for profit. This is what we’ve noticed makes that difference and creates that level of success, and gets them to where they want to be and achieves their goals.
If you want to learn more, then check out our free masterclass, where we’ll show you some more digital skills you need when buying websites for profit.
Also, if you haven’t already done so, subscribe to our Matt and Liz Raad YouTube channel. We’ve got heaps of videos there where you can learn a lot more about how to get into this world of buying, renovating, and selling websites for profit.
