Site Flipping University

Guest Post by Nick Underhill

As many of you may, or may not know, I’m a long time reader of Bryan’s blogs.  We launched our original sites, the IWS Sports Blog and One Man’s Goal, around the same time, and through the fate of a Google Search, we were brought together.  Over time we’ve became great friends (as far as e-friends go) so it brings me great - well at least a little- joy to write this post today.

In the coming days Bryan Clark will be a certified internet legend for successfully completing the blog flip challenge.  It may take time for the gravity of his accomplishments over the last 24 hours to really sink in, but one day we will all be able to sit with our grandchildren and relive the events of August 22, 2008.

This year will not be remember as the one in which Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals, or for Barrack Obama’s improbable march towards the White House.  No, it will be remembered as the year that Clark flipped not one, not two, but five websites in 24 hours for more than $1,000.

Bryan’s note - Nick’s having some fun, he’s not serious… you’ll see!

These historic events came to fruition by chance, all sparked by a blog flipping hobbyists innocuous, if not careless, remarks on his gossip website, in which he claimed a 24 hour-old website could not be sold for more than $20 dollars.  Like any true warrior, Clark challenged this net fool, and rose to the occasion.  It spurned great debate across many of the other gossip columns, some folks even went as far as to call him a crackhead, belittling his aspirations to a mere pipe dream.

He was like the New York Giants, up against a stronger, imposing opponent:  time.  But like the Giants, he would not be deterred from his mission.  As we all now know, Clark went on to persevere, achieving the zenith of his trade, in the process turning the doubters, one by one, into disciples.

Ok, that went waaay too far.

All jokes and ridiculousness aside, at the end of the day, what Bryan did was nothing short of amazing.   He did what he did, fair and square, before the eyes of thousands of curious onlookers.  There’s no debate here.  The whole thing was completely transparent, if there was something running amuck to the previously stated guidelines, he would have been caught.  It wasn’t a complicated process.  We were all witnesses.

I had access to the behind the scenes stuff.  I watched Bryan work on these sites one by one.  In fact, prior to the contest I encouraged him to do some early work on many occasions.  I told him that it was an impossible task, and there was no way he could do this in 24 hours, but he staunchly refused.  He told me that it wasn’t about winning or losing.  He just wanted to challenge himself and see what he was really capable of.  I laughed at him, figuring that he’d come out of this with pie on his face, but he made it happen.

Look at the work he put in, and the results he got out of it.  We can all learn from this, regardless of what you do.  Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t achieve something, no matter how crazy or obscure it is.  Always strive to be the best, and you will not fail.  Once you decide that you’re going to do something, and take that first step towards your goal, there is no such thing as a clandestine outcome as long as you stick to your course:  you will succeed.  It’s not the products, the marketplace, or the methods that have failed.  When you fail, it’s only your fault.

That’s the reason I think there is so much controversy around this now.  Bryans’ the type of guy that can be called a crackhead and laugh it off, but to discount the work he put into this is completely ignorant.  Outside of the obvious monetary gains, he told me several times that a big reason he did this is to show you, the readers, what is possible with a little hard work and determination.

He’s kept things completely transparent all along, he wants you to learn, he wants you to make money, and if he has to keep proving to you over and again that it’s possible, that’s what he’ll do.  It’s not hard, he’s given you the resources, he’s taught you the lessons, what else can you ask for?  There’s nothing left to prove.  He’s given you a blueprint to follow, one that can make you $1,000 every single day if you’d like.

A lot of you have come to realize what really happened here.  It’s not hard to build one site and flip it, what made this interesting was that it was five.  I wouldn’t ever recommend putting in that kind of work, no matter how much you outsource, it’s still not an easy task.  But the point Bryan was to show you that there IS money in this niche.  Stop listening to the people that are just blindly throwing their hat in the circle and saying it’s impossible.  They don’t know, and how would they?  But more importantly, if you wanna learn how to make money flipping sites, be smart enough to realize who’s who.  If you had access to Brett Favre, and wanted to be a quarterback, I’d hope you go to him to learn about football, and not your neighbor who has watched a few games.

So, anyways, congratulations Bryan.   Don’t get lazy on us now with your new status; keep showing us how to make this money.

Bryan’s note - Remember, the contest starts at 12:01 am CENTRAL time.  So you are free to get to work after that.  I’ll be out of town until Sunday, so I’ll see you all then!