Pomade Guide – Introduction

Welcome to the introduction post for my “over the shoulder” style case study.

This project is all about helping you get a better understand of the work and processes that go into buying, improving and eventually selling a website – for a profit.

While there are lots of case studies out there today, I don’t think I’ve quite seen an “over the shoulder” approach to buying and flipping.

It’s my hope that you can follow along with the monthly updates and apply the strategy to your own websites – and if you have any questions, both myself and Mark are very active within our Facebook Group.

Let Me Introduce….

So, without further delay, I would love to introduce our case study website:

www.pomadeguide.com

I purchased the site via the Flipping Websites group for $1,225.

The last 3-month average earnings are $36.

This means I paid 34x monthly for this site – while I will cover valuations in more depth when I come to sell the site, you can typically expect to pay between 25-35x for a website – and usually a little more for sites making <$50 per month.

The site didn’t have Google Analytics installed but did have the Jetpack plugin. This is what the traffic looked like:

I liked the steady week on week growth, even if it has slightly plateaued recently – this shows me that the site responds quickly and gives me an indication that I can continue to improve on this momentum.

There are 10 posts on the website – 9 money and 1 informational.

While I would usually prefer more content, there are some nice quick wins that can be implemented.

The content isn’t great – buyer guides only cover (barely) 5 products and the actual guides are non-existent, but it’s ranking surprisingly well:

Updating the existing content should prove quick ranking improvements and is one of the first things I indent on doing.

Updating the design and layout of the posts will also provide a boost – at the moment there is just 1 call to action for each product, and no comparison tables.

Short Term Plan

• Install Google Analytics
• Install Thrive Architect
• Create a ‘buyers guide’ template and update old content to the new design.
• Update existing content to go more in depth, cover more products and add actual buyer guides.
• Identify low hanging pomade related keywords and order content.

Long Term Plan

• Identify low hanging hair product related keywords (this hairspray, wax, gel etc) and order content.
• Identify low hanging hair equipment related keywords (think straighteners, dryers etc) and order content.
• Explore additional monetisation opportunities.

While I don’t have a hard timeline on this case study, I hope to be preparing to sell in the coming 6-8 months.

I will be recoding lots of videos showing you how this process looks, and for the first month or two I expect to complete lots of the work. Once this intense period is over, the site moves into growth stage (aka boring stage) where I will just be adding new content.

When we arrive at this point, I will move to monthly reports very similar to how Mark is reporting his own case study.

I want this case study to be open and transparent and I encourage questions and engagement – the best place for this is within the Facebook group.

I’m really looking forward to sharing this journey with you!

Adam