Welcome to the first ACQUIRE.GG Insights report, brought to you by TreasureHunter, where I’ve put together the top 20 ways to generate upside after a content site acquisition.

Rather than putting this behind a lead magnet or turning it into a paid product, we can thank TreasureHunter for partnering to make it available for free. To ensure you get first access to future reports, subscribe for free below:

TreasureHunter acquires and optimizes content websites while still preserving the site’s DNA that your audience knows and loves. If you’re looking to sell a content site that’s making $300K-$2M revenue over the L12M, TreasureHunter will get back to you with a decision and LOI within 48 hours. You can find their process for sellers here.

TreasureHunter has also just launched a raise on Flippa Invest, where accredited investors can get access to a diversified portfolio of 4-6 profitable content websites. The Fund is aiming to 3x investor capital within a 3 year time horizon and pay out a 15% dividend.

Top 20 Upside Wins for Content Sites

After acquiring a content website from a marketplace such as Flippa, these are the top 20 ways I know to generate upside, to then be able to flip or cashflow for the long run. You can look to apply these Upside Wins to websites featured in the ACQUIRE Deal Flow emails.

1) Content audit

Find pages that have low search traffic and no (valuable) links that you can look to improve, redirect or delete. Having a lower number of higher-quality pages in the Google index can boost site-wide rankings.

👉 Resource by Neil Patel.

2) Publish more content to achieve topical authority

Map out all the keywords required to cover a topic, then feed them into an AI tool such as Content At Scale (or hire human writers) to generate pillar pages and topic clusters.

👉 Resource by Moz.

3) Optimize existing content

Use a tool such as SurferSEO to check content length, add any additional keywords, and pick the right anchor text for internal linking.

👉 Resource by SurferSEO.

4) Reduce keyword cannibalization

Stop pages competing with each other in the SERPs to dramatically boost your rankings.

👉 Resource by Ahrefs.

5) Featured snippet stealing

Steal featured snippets from your competitors to get your content to the answer boxes at the top of Google.

👉 Resource by Diggity Marketing.

6) Sitemap optimization

Reduce the number of sitemaps to those that only contain the pages you’re trying to rank. SEO plugins such as Yoast can add a lot of unuseful sitemaps.

👉 Resource by me.

7) Add (mobile responsive) product comparison tables

To increase affiliate conversions, rank products within a table near the top of your product review pages, as these get the highest click-through rates. Make sure to affiliate link up product images.

👉 Resource by AAWP.

8) Add a table of contents to each post 

Adding a TOC enables Google to display sitelinks in the SERPs which will get you more clicks.

👉 Resource by ReliableSoft.

9) Add display ads on information pages

When you’ve acquired a website that is only monetized by affiliate, boost revenue by running ads on informational articles.

👉 Resource by Ezoic.

10) Add sticky sidebar widgets 

On desktop, the sidebar is prime real estate - add display ads, affiliate offers or your own product.

👉 Resource by WPBeginner.

11) Monetize non-US Amazon locations 

You will often see sites listed on marketplaces that are only monetized by amazon.com. Use a tool to bring it all together and monetize multiple geos.

👉 Resource by Geniuslink.

12) Add a popup after visitors have digested the information

Add a popup to grow your email list or direct people to your top offers, just before they’re thinking about leaving.

👉 Resource by OptiMonk.

13) Negotiate higher affiliate payouts 

This is something I do as soon as I become a 10 top affiliate for a software product - it’s unlikely they will say no, and it immediately boosts your profit.

👉 Resource on Flippa.

14) Add and update the [YEAR] within product reviews

By updating this in title tags at the end of every calendar year, you’ll get more clicks through from search.

👉 Tweet thread by Glen Allsopp.

15) Improve your core web vitals

The Google Page Experience update introduced core web vital metrics - reduce the amount of load time to improve user experience and rankings.

👉 Resource by Matthew Woodward.

16) Improve your Expertise, Authority and Trust

Make your about page, author pages and footer look more professional - add social profiles, an address and an email (it’s what real brands do).

👉 Resource by Marie Haynes.

17) Build high-quality links to boost domain authority

No matter how good your content is, if you’re in a competitive niche you’re not going to rank top if your domain authority is lacking.

👉 Resource by Smash Digital.

18) Leverage aged domains

This is a higher-risk tactic, but can be a much faster and less expensive way to increase domain authority. Buy an aged domain on a marketplace such as Odys, rebuild the content, let it index and then 301 redirect to the main pages on your website.

👉 Resource by FatRank.

19) Collect email addresses and monetize your list

Add optin boxes within posts, your sidebar and popup to build a newsletter (unless you know can make more money running ads or promoting products with that real estate). Use email marketing platforms such as ConvertKit, to build out automated sequences that educate your audience and link to your top pages and offers.

👉 Resource by ConvertKit.

20) Launch a weekly newsletter and offer sponsorships

Launch a free newsletter on Substack and monetize by offering sponsorships to brands in your niche. Then (dependent on the niche) you may also be able to monetize by turning on a paid newsletter subscription. This transitions you from just running a website to building a media company.

👉 Resource by A Media Operator.

👍 Patey Recommends

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#3 WorkHero

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👉 Pass The Buck

I hope you unlock a lot of asset value by following the above Upside Wins.

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Cheers!

Richard Patey

Important Disclaimer: Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research. This newsletter is monetized through affiliate links and sponsorship.