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It takes a crypto reality check to realize that our main focus as investors should be on cashflowing assets
Hey there, with the crypto and NFT markets all heavily down, it’s a good time to focus back on the cash flowing asset world of profitable online business.
Indeed, in this week’s newsletter we have updates on content sites, ecommerce, saas & apps (plus domains & fractional investing).
However, just dropping this here:
Remember, every heading in this newsletter is a channel in the Discord - come join over 1000 of us.
Richard Patey, Director, Investor Community at Flippa
#contentsites
Sean from the excellent Rank Theory newsletter just published ‘The future AI Content Update and the Collateral Damage of Boring Blogs’ which is a case against using AI content:
Yes, I see how it can rank in Google, and yes I think there’s some interesting potential there that I am looking forward to testing, but I am super reluctant to put any of it on a site I really care about.
My theory is: one day Google is going to release a core algo update targeting “AI content” and a ton of really boring, really “this could be a bad Wikipedia article if there weren’t so many grammatical mistakes” kind of articles are going to get the poor sites they’re attached to sunk…
…In my opinion, and something I’m going to try and really inject into the content across the sites that I publish, content that really feels like a relatable narrative constructed by a person, is content that’s going to stand out and is going to be raised up by this update.
The case for how to effectively use AI content comes from Justin at Content At Scale with this post in our Discord:
The idea is that you have "seed" content and see what sticks. Then work the Hubspot model of updating posts that are ranking to improve them further.
With ContentAtScale.ai that's what I'm ultimately working towards, a way for a user to just input a keyword and get a 1,500-2,500 word blog post that's basically 90% of the way there. Should take minimal editing. We have it sounding human like with some sort of personal story out of the gate, adding transition paragraphs now so that it flows better... have a built-in copyscape check that will rewrite a few variations automatically and then use semantic analysis to compare to ensure the meaning is still there.
It uses 3 different AI engines and 2 NLP algorithms to build the content. The challenge is actually determining the sections/subheaders. Right now, we do are doing this manually... but working on advancing the algorithms to pick based on what is ranking already for the given keyword. We already make recommendations on keywords to include, which should be in subheadings, etc... but now need to marry up that with the semantic analysis to identify the best subheaders to add to the post.
Check out the Million Dollar Homepage of the web3 era, where you can own advertising space and rent it out.
The Modern Billboard lets you purchase lots on a billboard hosted on people’s websites. You can see an example on the Koodos site:
Lots are priced in ETH, and to change adverts you actually need to spend gas.
Here’s some advice from a top Flippa broker Joe from Just Website Brokerage who has sold over a million USD of sites in the last 12 months:
As a buyer, you can still get a great deal if you are willing to take a bit of a risk. Perceived potential sells, often for more than it is worth. For example not installing Adsense on an amazon affiliate site can sell for more because buyers see a quick win.
I am personally finding my sweet spot for deals in exactly around my average sale price. Obviously most people just getting started aren’t going to want to front 6 figures for a risky asset class. Around this $20k mark, we are seeing this be a great entry point, meaning more buyers and higher multiples.
#ecommerce
There’s been a ton of innovation and drama in the one-click checkout space lately.
Third party merchants can now use the Amazon checkout (V2) on their websites, Bolt is reported to have ‘Built $11 Billion Payment Business on Inflated Metrics and Eager Investors’, Fast recently imploded, and headless checkout solutions such as Rally offer a decentralised alternative.
The current situation is summed up very well in a recent episode of This Week In Startups below.
Maybe the end boss Elon will throw his hat into this Amazon & Shopify dominated space:
#apps
We all know the opportunity with buying Shopify apps, and there’s always a new tweet storm for inspiration:
But did you know about opportunities on the Atlassian marketplace?
It launched over a decade ago and has over 5,000 apps from customer support apps, project management apps to themes and styles. The Atlassian Apps & Services twitter account is a good place to keep up to date.
#domains
Handshake domains on Namecheap:
Are coming sooner than we thought:
#fractional
HoneyBricks enables crypto holders to to buy fractional ownership tokens of US real estate directly from your wallet. They target property investments in the 15 biggest US cities that have stable tenant income. You can receive rent payments in any cryptocurrency, borrow against your assets, and enjoy real time liquidity.
Ok that’s it for this week. If you’re reading this on the web and you’re not yet subscribed just hit the button below.
And come join the discord where we discuss:
Alts by Flippa is owned by Flippa. Nothing in this email is financial advice and we are not professional investment advisers. We send weekly updates on what we're doing personally - consider it informational and for entertainment purposes only.