45 min
Ep:28 Jim Harmer - Site Strategies & YouTube Success Website Investing from Investing.io
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- Investing
In this episode of the Website Investing podcast, Avi speaks with Jim Harmer from Income School. Jim explains how he sold his entire portfolio, his strategies for building successful sites, and his incredible success using YouTube.
EPISODE SPONSOR
🔥 Smash Digital - an SEO growth agency with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients. Check. Them. Out.
📝 Show Notes
Recent Happenings
Garage Sale
At the start of this year, Jim Harmer from Income School made an interesting decision.
He decided to sell their entire portfolio of websites, calling it a garage sale and documenting everything on his YouTube channel, Income School.
They did this because they were getting really busy with the huge amount of work and projects they were handling. They also didn’t have enough expertise to manage everything. In fact, despite getting tons of traffic, they weren’t able to take advantage of it, nor make the most of it.
They listed all their sites for sale in order to start their portfolio from scratch. The websites sold quickly, in large part due to how aggressively they listed and because they wanted to sell quickly.
They did not use a broker. Instead, they simply announced the intended sales on their YouTube platform. In the end, they earned around $500,000.
Valuing the Sites
Jim and his team priced most of the websites they sold at 32x revenue.
Many of the sites had no affiliate links, as they mainly used ads to generate revenue. Amazingly, they all sold within an hour - for the list price. Numerous offers came, and even reached around 20 for one site.
To choose a buyer, they selected the first 'Project 24' student who made an offer for the website. As these people were already customers, Jim and his team had a sense of trust in them.
Avi says that having an existing audience to sell to is a valuable asset, especially when you want an easy exit from a site or portfolio.
No Brokers?
Jim prefers not to use a broker when selling his websites, as he’s had prior bad experiences with brokers who left him high and dry after doing several expensive deals. The process was filled with red tape, long back and forth discussions and coupled with horrible service.
Though he admits that there are good brokers in the industry, this particular experience definitely burned him and imprinted a lasting memory that deters him from dealing with brokers.
What options are there for new website owners who also don’t want to deal with a broker?
Jim says that joining a community is a great place to start, as you can post your listing in the group for other members to see. Another option is to just put a banner on your site explaining that it is for sale. Surprisingly, this has worked well for Jim, especially with his smaller sites.
Starting Over
One benefit of starting from scratch and building new websites for Jim and his team is that they have shown and taught their whole process to their students. Jim now has 10 sites in his portfolio - all of them less than a year old.
Buy vs. Build
Jim says that he would opt to buy only if he can find sites that are built the right way. Otherwise, he would build from scratch. He says that he rarely sees sites built in the right way or as he would like. Thanks to their Idaho-based writing team, they churn out tons of content for their sites, tailored to their needs and the sites’ needs.
Regular Garage Sales
Jim plans to make garage sales a regular thing for his Income School website, and post around 2 to 3 sites for sale each month.
These sites are all brand new and have been built from scratch by Jim and his team. The websites include all content and SEO, and are non-revenue generating sites. They are also buying some customers’ small sites that aren’t growing as expected. They will dump a ton of content on these and then sell them in the garage sales.
Though buying from a garage sale is different
In this episode of the Website Investing podcast, Avi speaks with Jim Harmer from Income School. Jim explains how he sold his entire portfolio, his strategies for building successful sites, and his incredible success using YouTube.
EPISODE SPONSOR
🔥 Smash Digital - an SEO growth agency with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients. Check. Them. Out.
📝 Show Notes
Recent Happenings
Garage Sale
At the start of this year, Jim Harmer from Income School made an interesting decision.
He decided to sell their entire portfolio of websites, calling it a garage sale and documenting everything on his YouTube channel, Income School.
They did this because they were getting really busy with the huge amount of work and projects they were handling. They also didn’t have enough expertise to manage everything. In fact, despite getting tons of traffic, they weren’t able to take advantage of it, nor make the most of it.
They listed all their sites for sale in order to start their portfolio from scratch. The websites sold quickly, in large part due to how aggressively they listed and because they wanted to sell quickly.
They did not use a broker. Instead, they simply announced the intended sales on their YouTube platform. In the end, they earned around $500,000.
Valuing the Sites
Jim and his team priced most of the websites they sold at 32x revenue.
Many of the sites had no affiliate links, as they mainly used ads to generate revenue. Amazingly, they all sold within an hour - for the list price. Numerous offers came, and even reached around 20 for one site.
To choose a buyer, they selected the first 'Project 24' student who made an offer for the website. As these people were already customers, Jim and his team had a sense of trust in them.
Avi says that having an existing audience to sell to is a valuable asset, especially when you want an easy exit from a site or portfolio.
No Brokers?
Jim prefers not to use a broker when selling his websites, as he’s had prior bad experiences with brokers who left him high and dry after doing several expensive deals. The process was filled with red tape, long back and forth discussions and coupled with horrible service.
Though he admits that there are good brokers in the industry, this particular experience definitely burned him and imprinted a lasting memory that deters him from dealing with brokers.
What options are there for new website owners who also don’t want to deal with a broker?
Jim says that joining a community is a great place to start, as you can post your listing in the group for other members to see. Another option is to just put a banner on your site explaining that it is for sale. Surprisingly, this has worked well for Jim, especially with his smaller sites.
Starting Over
One benefit of starting from scratch and building new websites for Jim and his team is that they have shown and taught their whole process to their students. Jim now has 10 sites in his portfolio - all of them less than a year old.
Buy vs. Build
Jim says that he would opt to buy only if he can find sites that are built the right way. Otherwise, he would build from scratch. He says that he rarely sees sites built in the right way or as he would like. Thanks to their Idaho-based writing team, they churn out tons of content for their sites, tailored to their needs and the sites’ needs.
Regular Garage Sales
Jim plans to make garage sales a regular thing for his Income School website, and post around 2 to 3 sites for sale each month.
These sites are all brand new and have been built from scratch by Jim and his team. The websites include all content and SEO, and are non-revenue generating sites. They are also buying some customers’ small sites that aren’t growing as expected. They will dump a ton of content on these and then sell them in the garage sales.
Though buying from a garage sale is different
45 min