The idea that you can make money buying and selling websites is one that goes back practically to the birth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. A website is a piece of property, a piece of virtual real estate, if you like, that once fully developed has intrinsic value. If the website is profitable, then it becomes even more valuable.

Making money through the buying and selling of websites is known as website flipping. The idea is simple enough. You find a website that has potential, but isn't doing particularly well. You approach the owner and make him or her offer. If they accept, you buy it, make it more profitable, and then sell it again later for a healthy profit.

The industry recognises two basic types of website: undeveloped, and therefore unprofitable websites, and fully developed and therefore usually quite profitable websites. Needless to say, the latter tends to outsell the former by a very large margin.

People are basically lazy. They like the idea of buying into something that already makes money. This means that they don't have to lift a finger in order to have a small income stream. If they go on to buy several of these small income streams, websites that are modestly profitable, they can soon end up with a passive income that can be quite substantial.

That's one reason why people will buy websites that are already making money. Another reason can be that they feel they can develop the website even further for even greater profits. In effect, they could be doing the same as you: making money buying and selling websites.

Unprofitable websites sell quite well too. They sell for their potential to make money. An unprofitable, but potentially profitable website can easily sell for $100 and take just a few hours to build. Often it is powered by WordPress, the free blogging software, and has Amazon affiliate ads and perhaps Ebay affiliate ads too for potential monetization.

You should browse through Flippa, an auction website dedicated to the buying and selling of websites, to see what kind of sites are being bought and sold. Look carefully at the quality of the different kinds of sites. They aren't difficult to copy in essence. Anyone can do it really.

You should first decide whether you want to build developed websites or undeveloped websites. A fully developed website will take several weeks at least to develop, and most likely several months to do it justice. This time will be spent promoting it, driving traffic to it to make it profitable. It will be monetized by affiliate ads and perhaps Google AdSense.

An undeveloped website simply has to have the potential to make money. That bit must be obvious to the potential buyer. It needs to be on a popular topic that is already in the profitable arena, such as weight loss, dieting or something similar.

The undeveloped site should be eye catching and look good. This is easy to do with WordPress themes, and through the use of plugins it can have lots of useful gadgetry too. When you are ready, offer your website on Flippa or Ebay or somewhere similar, and wait for a buyer.