Course Review: Become a Website Flipping Pro with Mushfiq the Master

Updated on 3rd January 2022

The Website Flipping Course is a rite of passage for all budding website flippers. Maximize your website exits with Mushfiq's unrivalled expertise and website flipping blueprints.

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This is a crash course in how to make (good) money buying, improving and selling websites, in record time.

I took full The Website Flipping Course, all 6 hours of videos, 51 lessons and 8 modules of it. Partly out of curiosity, but also to improve my flipping skillset. I’ve started a number of side-projects over the years but always started them from scratch and rarely worked towards a pre-planned exit. Opportunities missed!

The Website Flipping Course packages up the processes and learnings of a serial flipper, Mushfiq S. His playbook is yours to apply to your own empire building efforts. In a way that is extremely energy efficient, risk managed yet still all out exhilarating. Oh, and potentially very lucrative!

I also interviewed Mushfiq to get a look behind-the-scenes of The Website Flip and dive deeper into his 180 deals at 10x exits.

Disclosure: I was granted free access to the course for the purposes of this review

Be warned: be prepared to catch the flipping bug and take loads of notes

What is the Website Flipping course’s curriculum?

In short, the Website Flipping course covers the full lifecycle of buying, scaling and selling on an online business. It does so in 8 modules:

  • Module 1 [The Introduction]: deep-dive into what is website flipping
  • Module 2 [Website Flip Lifecycle]: deep-dive into the 5-stage lifecycle
  • Module 3 [Finding Sites To Buy]: how to buy, where to look for deals
  • Module 4 [Website Valuations]: details of valuations, multiples, and P&L
  • Module 5 [Due Diligence]: red flags to look out for on a deal
  • Module 6 [Growing The Site]: tactics you can employ to grow the site
  • Module 7 [Positioning for Sale]: how to get the highest exit price
  • Module 8 [Executing The Sale]: deep-dive into prepping your site for sale

It assumes you’re not entirely new to digital marketing, however if this is your first website flipping rodeo, fear not.

In less than day’s work, you’ll learn everything you need to make website flipping work for you. That includes how to spot and evaluate a good deal. The common mistakes to avoid. How to conduct due diligence, including the tools you’ll need to do so. How to repair a broken site and deploy easy wins. Plus, the power of great content and diversified revenue streams.

Ultimately, how to achieve a stress-free, speedy turnaround from purchase to 10x exit.

It’s worth noting that the Website Flipping course is weighted towards what to do, rather than precisely how to do it. More framework than detailed instruction manual.

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Good to know: Mushfiq doesn’t mess around. It’s not uncommon for the total turnaround on his flips to be less than nine months. Both he and his course has a particular focus on content-based websites and lead-generation websites, so, if that’s your thing too, you’re in luck.

What is website flipping?

Website flipping is about short-term turnarounds for a quick profit. You buy an undervalued site, improve it, and then sell it on for more. Websites are typically advertised on marketplaces such as Flippa, MicroAcquire and EmpireFlippers.

It’s an investment strategy in vogue at the moment, thanks to a ton of content and communities on the topic. Some are much better than others and few have done more to popularize the practise than Mushfiq.

However, it’s not without risks, which is where this course comes in!

Additional resource: → The best marketplaces to buy and sell websites

How much money can I make from website flipping?

As a standard rule, a site with traction and some pre-existing revenue will go for 35-40 times its monthly revenue.

That’s based on a number of assumptions, which are covered in the Website Flipping course. Mushfiq shares examples where he’s paid far less and others far more. This could be down to site momentum (or lack of it), number of revenue streams, quality of backlinks, and much, much more.

The course also tells you the factors that have no impact at all.

Mostly importantly, you’ll learn how to spot and assess opportunities on your own, using the techniques and tools Mushfiq uses for his own six-figure exits. A priceless skill to have!

Who is the Website Flipping course for?

Anyone who is excited about the prospect of flipping but yet to dabble. Or perhaps a few websites down and is looking for more deals, higher multiples and faster exits. In other words, somebody like me.

The Course on Website Flipping review   modules   Mushfiq

I went into it wanting to learn:

  • the key concepts behind website flipping
  • uncommon places to find good deals
  • how to perform sound due diligence without it sucking the life out of me
  • pick up some new strategies and tactics to grow a site, and
  • access Mushfiq’s famed datasets and templates

The Website Flipping course covers lots of ground in not a great deal of time, flittering between high level overviews brought to life by the specifics of Mushfiq’s own deals and experiences. The course website does a good job of setting these expectations up front, so you know the level of detail to expect.

Why believe Mushfiq’s advice?

Because Mushfiq has unrivalled skin in the game. He’s closing in on 200 website flips, at a rate of 10-15 per year, becoming the undisputed authority on website flipping in the process.

Mushfiq’s purchases tend to be in the $5-$20k range, exiting for a lot, lot more. In just about every niche imaginable – outdoor, crypto, health, online learning, dating, you name it. If there’s a common thread, he usually sticks to content sites monetized with advertising, affiliate commission or digital products. This electric track record proves his framework can be applied to most website buying scenarios.

When not flipping, Mushfiq shares advice on his website – the aptly named TheWebsiteFlip.com. His weekly newsletter is a must-read for flipping enthuasiasts, containing full breakdowns of choice on-market and off-market finds (unsurprisingly most get bought shortly after the email lands) with many more bite-sized nuggets share daily on Twitter. Mushfiq brings his own data and a unique perspective as a serial flipper to everything he does.

And now he’s literally wrote the book on website flipping, in the form of this course.

In Mushfiq’s own words, he told us how he got hooked on website flipping 12 years ago: “After that first sale I became obsessed with learning about how to repeat what I did with the first site. I learned about SEO, monetizing, scaling sites, and developed my own database to apply to every future site so I could repeat that process over and over again.”

Format of the Website Flipping course

The modules are broken down into a series of short videos, featuring Mushfiq talking over slides. These are often accompanied by more detailed info and the occasional template and raw data download.

It’s not the slickest but it gives you direct access to Mushfiq’s brain and his black book full of secrets and strategies to put you on the right path.

As a teacher, Mushfiq is calm and methodical, making him easy to learn from. He’s refreshingly jargon-free and backs up everything he says with examples from his own portfolio.

If I could offer any feedback, it would be great to be able to mark videos as ‘complete’ and save others I want to return to, as well as having an area to keep notes. But that’s nit-picking.

Review of the Website Flipping course modules

Before I begin, I won’t give too much away. What you see here is a fraction of the insights in the paid Website Flipping course but I hope it gives you a flavour of what’s inside.

Early modules set the scene and get you up to speed on very quickly. Extremely high-level and assume you’re buying the course cold but with a reasonable level of digital marketing expertise. It’s not a huge blow if not, as Mushfiq takes you through common terminology in the areas of listing assets, assessing site value and growth metrics.

Standout early module: Setting your investment criteria

For me, the first breakthrough module is ‘Setting your investment criteria’. Mushfiq talks you through his investment philosophy and how he sniffs out a good deal. It’s very much head over heart, as he takes all of the emotion out of a deal and reduces it to one key question: How much money can I flip this for?

That question is of course made up of lots of smaller questions. The whole process is extremely structured and repeatable, which is exactly what you’re buying here. Key questions include, has it been monetized, and how? Does the site need a redesign? What it’s been built on? How about link quality? Is it an aged domain? What are the main traffic sources? Does the opportunity match your skillset and appetite for risk? And that’s just for starters.

So, if you’re the type of person who could get carried away in the heat of an auction and overpay, this module is your saviour. In terms of format, I couldn’t help but feel it would also lend itself to a digital tool to help you arrive at your ideal flipping strategy. But it’s useful having it all written down to keep returning to, as that strategy could evolve over time.

Mushfiq lets us in on his investment criteria and it’s useful to understand how you can position your assets to be attractive for professional flippers such as him.

For example, Mushfiq only buys content blogs on WordPress sites. He’s always also looking for an angle, whether that’s easily switching on an absent revenue source or something that’s holding back it’s ranking potential. Mushfiq also wants to see steady monetization (i.e. not just a couple of good months) and needs to be able to verify claims being made by the seller with access to Google Analytics and the like. Advice I’ll definitely be keeping front of mind when I’m next buying something new or portfolio planning.

You also get an insight into one side of flipping that’s rarely talked about – when to hold and grow your portfolio.

Pure gold: Data from 39 website flips

Exclusively compiled by Mushfiq from his own deals, you’re free to interrogate this data to death. Data points include:

  • List/sale price
  • Page views
  • Where it was bought/sold
  • How long it took to sell
  • Revenue to Sale multiple
  • Growth investment …and so much more.
The Course on Website Flipping review and valuation data   Mushfiq

At this point I was ready to move beyond general advice into the specifics of Mushfiq’s own strategies and returns. If you’re wanting to take flipping more seriously hard facts should speak to you, giving you benchmarks to compare your own performance against. Personally, I’m a huge optimist, so it’s good to see what’s involved in a turnaround and to manage my expectations.

Why buy? The Pros and Cons of Buying vs Building Niche Sites

You might be wondering: can’t I just start a website myself and save some money?

Sure. I did that with Surges. However, it probably comes as no surprise that it takes longer, is far riskier and normally involves a far steeper learning curve. That can be incredibly overwhelming and demoralising for many starters.

On the flip side, buying a site with traction and revenue already coming in presents a huge headstart. Doubly so if the site has survived previous Google updates that can come down hard on a content site monetized via affiliate links.

My main takeout from this module was that the Website Flipping course empowers you to enter niches you might not (yet) be an expert in. Giving you the skills and confidence to spread your bets wide.

Thinking long-term: Building and managing a portfolio

Another handy spreadsheet, this time to calculate anticipated and actual ROI across multiple sites.

This is a very sophisticated model, covering minute details I guarantee you will not have thought of yourself. You can track a site’s purchase price and revenue, of course. But it goes far beyond this, looking at: plugins, office space, backlink investment, even different equity levels and earnouts.

There’s some wonderful cues here on the forensic audits you can do on a potential purchase, so there’s no nasty surprises after you’ve done the deal.

Other modules of note – The full sale lifecycle

The Website Flipping course gets more comprehensive and technical as it goes through the deal flow. It would be easy to indulge in the sexier aspects of flipping – buying and selling – but it’s the messy middle where people tend to go wrong.

Mustiq successfully balances spotting and seizing opportunities and mitigating the risks. Equal part inspiration and process. He encourages you to think bigger and shows you the actionable steps to take.

This includes modules on where and how to buy a site, performing due diligence like the pros, and when to how to prepare for an optimum valuation (hint: before a plateau!).

When performing a health check on a potential buy, Mushfiq says he looks for reasons to say “no”, and hope to be proven wrong. This includes at its history, any infringement of trademarks or copyright, the competitiveness and longevity of the niche, as well as various performance trends for the site in question. Wise words.

Another big shout out does to module on marketplaces. Mushfiq goes into the pros of going with them, such as expert vetting and upfront pricing, as well as the drawbacks, such as paying for the privilege with higher multiples and commission rates of up to 20%. Mushfiq has firsthand experience of them all and scans them daily, so is well placed to advise on their individual merits. He also mentions that the best deals are rarely advertised. With that in mind, he lets you into his secrets for sidestepping the marketplaces altogether and making your own luck. I loved this section (Using Unconventional Places) and the creativity Mushfiq applies to bargain hunting.

Top tip: the Website Flipping course has a sister tool, DealFeed.io, for tracking all websites for sale and any price drops in listings

The Course on Website Flipping review   Dealflow.io   Mushfiq

Related to this, you also learn how to calculate a site’s true value and not rely on the listing price. It shares the questions to ask, the proof to expect and negotiation tactics. The course pays for itself on this module alone! I’ll definitely be returning to if/when I ever find myself researching potential deals.

Top tip: Mushfiq’s EasyDiligence.io is a battle-tested dashboard and 45+ questions database

Above all else, I loved the case studies. Given Mushfiq has executed almost 200 deals, there’s room for him to add even more examples and further illuminate his theories.

The Course on Website Flipping review and example   Mushfiq

Growth levers: A focus on easy wins

You’ve snagged a promising website, now what? Mushfiq has hundreds of easy wins up his sleeve, including unlocking new revenue streams or shift to better-paying ad networks; tools you can use to improve technical performance; adding CTAs, and lots more. It’s a long list, including stuff you probably already know, but that’s easily forgotten.

The course also touches high effort, high reward techniques. It’s good to see the distinction between the two as we can all sometimes be guilty of pursuing vanity metrics and low-value work. Serving our egos at the expense of potential margin.

If there’s one thing the Website Flipping course teaches you to do, it’s to maximise returns and not leave money on the table. Which takes us on to…

And finally: Exiting on a high

It’s all be building up to this, the flip!

There’s a lot more to it than naming your price and waiting for the offers to pour in.

Here you’ll learn how to position, prepare and list your site for sale. With Mushfiq’s expert guidance you’ll be able to maximise your exit. There’s tips on highlighting easy wins for the prospective buyer, knowing where and when to list it (including some unlikely places) and the safest way to conclude the deal and secure payment. Consistent with the rest of the Website Flipping course, you’ll discover how to do all of this as quickly and painlessly as possible.

In summary: Flip websites for a living

Eight modules later and you’re left with everything you need to confidently make money from website flipping.

The Website Flipping course acts as pre-flip checklist, demystifying the entire process step-by-step. It’s based on 12 years’ worth of learnings from a serial and very successful flipper, Mushfiq S He’s generous with his insights and shares them in a way anyone can benefit from. The course is a healthy balance of basic and advanced tactics. Theory and examples. Framework and instincts.

You’ll learn where and how to buy a site. How to hidden gem, ripe for rapid growth and monetization. How to do your own due diligence. The first things to do when you get the keys to your new site, including fixing legacy issues and diversifying revenue streams. When to exit and how to prepare for an optimum valuation.

Most of that is probably to be expected. What’s not, is the ability to tap into Mushfiq’s brain and datasets for valuable insights. Discover his investment strategy and appetite for risk as you’re conceiving your own portfolio. Get tips on how to look under the hood before you buy, stabilize a site, build a content team, and, rather importantly, when to let go. Hear how, like Mushfiq, you can do private deals, approaching owners directly, effectively and respectively. It’s insights like these where so much of the value of the Website Flipping course is.

The Website Flipping course is also a GPS for the pitfalls to avoid. Mushfiq is methodogical in his investments and we too could benefit from detaching ourselves from the emotions of a deal and knowing when to let go of a beloved site. The further I dived into the course the more I realised how much harder I’ve made it for myself starting from scratch and not considering these things upfront. But it’s not as if you can go into a bookstore and buy a A-Z on website flipping. Until now!

It’s not to say you couldn’t work out some of this yourself after a few attempts of flipping, particularly if things don’t quite go to plan. However, the Website Flipping course is about doing it at speed and minimising the risk involved. Having Mushfiq’s blueprint you gives you a HUGE advantage if you do decide to take the leap.

It might also seed a lifelong love of buying and selling websites, so expect to be hooked!

No review is complete without some minor niggles. Things I’d like to see:

  • a digital tool to discover your ideal investment strategy
  • expanded module notes and links to videos on central topics or skills e.g. mastering analytics, reading a P&L, onboarding content teams
  • a directory of freelancers for hire e.g. WordPress freelancers, designers, SEO writers*

Is it worth the $390 investment?

Follow the advice in the Website Flipping course and it should pay for itself many times over. Again, and again, and again!

If you’re still not sure, the course comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.

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