I’m always fascinated when a new potential opportunity comes up in the niche website space. While the debate over the pros/cons of building niche websites versus buying them continues, another option emerged: pre-made DFY niche websites.
I can see the appeal of a DFY niche website. If a team can construct a profitable website for me while I’m working on other projects, that could be a major way to scale. For relative beginners, it could be a way to get a reliable source of income and study to learn how to build their sites correctly.
DFY websites offer pros and cons just like the other options of building and buying.
Let’s get started!
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Where To Buy Pre-Made Niche Websites?
While many groups are offering pre-made niche websites, there are four providers who really stand out to me when it comes to making quality pre-made niche websites that get traction and results for customers.
WebOperators Niche Sites
WebOperators, an agency that I launched, provides done-for-you niche sites at affordable rates.
Each website is built by a website operator, someone who has built sites from scratch, grown revenue, and then sold the business. They know what they are doing when it comes to the proper foundation of a content site.
Our team can build a fresh site from scratch, or rebuild on an aged domain. The team can also continue growing the site after it is built hence being fully hands-off for you.
Human Proof Designs
Human Proof Designs creates niche websites and affiliate sites pre-loaded with content. They have some options where they build from scratch and others showing currently active and earning websites that are for sale.
WebAssetBuilders
WebAssetBuilders is another niche site agency. Their primary service is to build you a site but they also will handle content posting, website optimization for speed and SEO, and provide ongoing support and consultation.
Their packages include 50,000, 100,000, or 250,000 words of content.
What Is a Pre-Made Niche Website?
A pre-made niche website, or DFY, is a website where all the initial stages are handled by a third party. They do the topic/niche selection, keyword research, website & hosting setup, on-site SEO, and create content based on the most promising keywords.
I can see the appeal of this, and if a team was extremely good at picking out profitable niches with rankable keywords, this could be an excellent way to scale up building a portfolio of passive income sites or websites to improve and flip.
Having professionals deal with the technical details of setup and the initial keyword research could be especially appealing for individuals who find SEO or writing their strong points when building sites but struggle with the rest.
This can also be a viable option for individuals too busy or with too many projects to give a niche website the focus it needs to get going.
Done For You vs Building vs Buying Niche Websites
How do DFY sites stack up as an option versus building my own or buying an existing site? There are pros and cons to all three methods, and I’ve looked at all of them to make a thorough comparison.
DFY Sites
Done For You (DFY) sites take a large payment from the customer and then do all the base work in setting up and building out a profitable niche site. Work like niche & keyword research, hosting, design, on-site SEO, and initial content are all handled by the agency or provider to create a (hopefully) profitable niche site owned by the buyer.
If the site works out, this can be a great way to scale a portfolio fast or start new projects while focus and energy are elsewhere. There are advantages and disadvantages to going the DFY niche site route.
Pros
- Market & niche research done by professionals
- In-depth keyword research and analysis is done for you
- Detailed content development plan created and shared
- They handle all aspects of website design
- Can be a way to scale the portfolio when time is tight
Cons
- Quality varies greatly depending on who creates the DFY niche site
- High initial cost
- Skipping the steps that teach you about the niche and what type of content works in the niche
- Same niche/keywords could be sold to multiple clients
Building Your Own Niche Site
I’m a big fan of beginners always building your own site first because this is how I learned the skills, technical solutions, and training needed to not only make profitable niche websites but also better training to train hired workers in the future.
Those lessons are invaluable, and if building and flipping niche websites is of interest, you will need to learn those skills to be effective just like I did, just as other website flippers have. The better those skills, the more consistently flips will turn up profitable.
I built my first site while in college and continue to flip websites while working another job, so this is possible even with limited time.
This is also the least expensive option by far, and the one that gives the most control over the project from the very beginning.
Pros
- Learn the necessary skills for building and flipping profitable sites
- Can bootstrap on a low budget
- More of the total revenue from an eventual flip is profit
- Full control of the process from start to finish
Cons
- Very time-intensive method
- Every part of building the site is your responsibility
- No starting cash flow
Buying Niche Sites
Buying existing niche sites is a strategy I’ve used very effectively. Finding an existing website that has rankings, traffic, and income, but is a long way from being properly optimized, is an incredibly strong strategy.
The key to making money buying niche sites is finding those sites that already have good traffic and rankings but could be doing so much more with better monetization and on-site SEO work.
This is an especially good strategy for website flipping.
Pros
- Likely a starting cash flow from day one
- Existing rankings and content to build off of
- Evidence of traffic in niche and obtainable rankings
- Potential for both passive income and a major profit via flipping
- The right purchase can have massive scaling potential in both traffic and income
Cons
- Major up-front costs
- You need to find good deals on existing sites for sale instead of choosing a niche
- You take the damage from any mistakes in due diligence
- Not for beginners since having the right skills is crucial to improve the site for improved earnings and/or flipping later
Why Buy a Ready-Made Niche Website? 5 Reasons
Multiple good reasons exist for looking at ready-made niche websites as a viable option. If there simply isn’t enough time, energy, or focus to start a new project, but plenty of capital, this can be a way to make sure other projects are already started after a flip of an existing site.
Another reason could be playing to strengths. If I was only good at writing or only good at off-page SEO, having an agency better at the other parts of building a site handling those details allows me to focus on what I do best.
In some situations, this could maximize the chance for long-term success.
Testing the top providers to see the results could allow for comparing the ROI of each provider to get an idea of how profitable going the ready-made route can be.
1. Niche & Market Research Done
Competing DFY niche website builders need to have good testimonials, and they will get that from results. This motivates them to use the best tools available to do in-depth niche research and market research to make sure any site built is in a niche that at least has the potential to be extremely profitable.
2. SERP Analysis & Keyword Research
In-depth analysis of the niche and profitable keywords helps to make sure every article has the highest chance of both ranking and being profitable. Both are important.
I know from experience that it doesn’t matter how profitable a keyword could be if there’s no chance of cracking page one for that search term.
3. Basic Site Functionalities Built Out
This includes site design, pages, hosting, plug-ins, and anything else on that technical/structural side that needs to be taken care of.
4. Ready Site Design
Having a solid site design that emphasizes profits on individual posts while providing a good home page is an underrated benefit of purchasing a pre-made niche website.
5. Content Plan & Development
A full content plan should include category topics, article clusters, and individual keywords/topics. On top of that, having an “Order of Operations” content development plan is great not just for what the site builders provide, but that gives a plan of attack if I decide to take back over content production later.
4 Drawbacks of Buying Pre-Made Niche Sites
While the benefits of buying pre-made niche sites can be especially appealing, some drawbacks shouldn’t be ignored when making an informed decision.
1. No Content Quality Control
You get the content provided and while sometimes the articles will be quite good there are other times they’re not up to my quality standards. While more words of content is a major selling point, that’s only good if the content is top-notch.
This means with at least some articles, rewrites might end up being a necessity in the future.
2. Same Site Niche Could Be Sold Multiple Times
Since it’s not your research, your keywords, or your time spent finding a profitable niche, there’s no telling how many niche sites might be built or sold from that research the agency does.
This means five different customers could all be paying to end up as each other’s competition.
3. High Initial Cost
For the high initial cost, I’d prefer to buy an existing site that has proven revenue and that meets my personal standards for what I’m looking for.
With a pre-made niche site, a lot of money is going to an investment I have very little initial control over.
4. Skipping Learning Steps
Learning the skills necessary for building profitable websites and flipping them is crucial. When someone else is handling all the parts of building a niche site, you miss out on developing those skills from actually doing the work.
Updates Made To This Article
I’ve made the following changes to the content in this article:
- November 7, 2023: Remove Odys Global as a DFY site provider. They stopped that service at some point.
- November 7, 2023: Remove Niche Website Builders as an agency. They are bankrupt as of 2023.
- November 7, 2023: Removed Alpha Investors as an agency. They got acquired and new owners rebranded into a different service, unrelated to niche websites.
Takeaways
Multiple viable options exist for purchasing pre-made niche websites and several good reasons exist for doing so.
Keep in mind:
- There are pros and cons to purchasing a pre-made niche websites
- Four major providers are currently the top providers for DFY niche site services
- This is an option that takes a high capital investment
- Learning the skills to build, scale, and sell profitable niche sites is crucial – and missing from going the DFY route
While there are times when pre-made niche websites could have their place in a strategy for building an online portfolio, I am still a firm believer in learning the skills to spot a good deal on an existing profitable site and use capital to invest in that instead.
