Digital real estate is a property that exists in the digital world. There are many forms of digital real estate, including Domain names, Apps, Websites, and Online businesses
Digital real estate investing can provide you with an ongoing stream of income or resale value depending on the approach you take.
In this piece, we take a closer look at Digital Real Estate and will be seeking to answer questions like: what is Digital Real Estate, how does it work, and how can you get started. Keep reading to learn more.
What Is Digital Real Estate?
Digital Real Estate is “property” that exists in the virtual world. Owning physical property needs massive investment upfront but owning digital property can cost just a few hundred dollars. Besides, you don’t have to deal with tenants or expensive repairs, which can be stressful.
Savvy investors earn passive income by buying up digital products, domain names, and virtual platforms.
Unfortunately, most digital real estate models are not a guaranteed path to building passive wealth remotely.
Therefore, if you’re serious about building a passive income with digital real estate, there are ways to improve your odds of success. One of these ways is by finding a mentor, such as Jeff Lerner who teaches Digital Real Estate strategies.
There are many ways to invest in digital real estate but you should come to terms with the fact that no matter how good or experienced you are at it, you can never really have total control.
A digital real estate business done right doesn’t require constant prospecting and high-pressure sales tactics for you to make money online. In fact, there are many ways of making money online and building wealth without having to leave the comfort of your house.
Once you familiarize yourself with the digital world this is a type of investment that can pay you back in spades.
I should mention that if you enjoy writing blog content and putting your ideas online, then there is an opening for you. On top of that the future of digital real estate looks bright especially as we keep moving into this technological age.
Types Of Digital Real Estate
There are many kinds of Digital Real Estate. Digital property can be classified into many forms.
Some of the most notable types of digital investments include:
- Domains: These are website names that don’t have owners
- Digital Products: These include training classes, eBooks, and Membership courses.
- Websites: Examples of these are online stores, authority blogs, and affiliate sites.
- Apps: Applications that are installed on smart phones, computers, and tablets
Digital real estate is not so far from traditional real estate because if you want a quick decent profit, you let the value appreciate and sell your digital asset at a profit.
On top of that, you can can earn passive rental income on your digital real estate in the form of lead generation, ad revenue, affiliate commissions. This is akin to the rent you get paid by tenants if you own a piece of property.
Therefore, just like conventional real estate, with digital real estate, you buy an asset and build value so that you sell that property later on if you want to collect a capital gain.
How You Can Make Money With Digital Real Estate
There are various ways of making money. For example, you could build a website specifically for an audience and start earning passive income through ad revenue.
Another way to go about it would be to buy a domain name that you believe will be valuable in the future. A good example of this is with politicians seeking higher office.
Therefore, if you bought a domain like “joebiden4president[dot]com” it could have paid had the campaign team decided to buy it from you.
Digital real estate investing is still a relatively new concept because the first domain name was bought in 1985.
Before 1995, you could register a domain for free. That was before the Foundation for National Science allowed a company called Network Solutions to charge $100 for a two year registration.
Domains are really cheap and you can buy some for a little as one ($1) dollar per month in the first year. Then once you have that domain, building the website may also be very cheap.
Rather than buy any domain, you should seek to buy a domain name that will get a lot of attention to your website because that will be more marketable.
Digital Real Estate Investment Models
We know that there are multiple ways of investing in digital real estate that enable you to make money. Now let’s take a look at some of the most common models people use to make the most money:
I should point out that perhaps the most common digital real estate investments, buying domains and building websites, are relatively common.
These are tried and tested models that have shown immense potential to make a good amount of money if done right. You can think of a website as a restaurant that you’ve bought.
Every restaurant needs a crew to run things and when you come in, you should ensure that everything keeps running like normal. Just as you do with any business, you can make changes.
However, you should not overdo it if it was working perfectly before you bought it. No need to re-invent the wheel. Another kind of website is the one that hasn’t been built yet that has a good amount of profit potential. It is like a stores in an area with a lot foot traffic.
The challenge is that such domains are usually hard to find. But if you do find one and launch the the right business, then you can see a good ROI.
To make money it’s gonna take investing in your business, and you have to come up with ways to get people to frequent your “store”. The first model is:
Building A Website
Besides buying a domain, building a website is the most basic type of digital real estate investment. If you can bring in website traffic, then you can make your website attractive to other investors and venture capitalists.
If you run a website that gets thousands of visitors every month and it’s making money, soon you will start getting people contacting you about partnering with them.
Besides, large companies will always be looking for ways to sell to a target audience and if your website specializes in a specific product or service, then such companies will consider you valuable to their growth.
If you put in a bit of investment into a domain, website, content, and strategic linking, you can generate profit margins as high as 80-90%.
In the world of digital real estate, big companies find it more convenient to buy a website that is “ready-to-go” and turning a profit than to build a website from scratch. So, when they find a website that has good content and is already making money, they will be tempted to buy.
When it comes to starting a website, there is no limitation to the kind of website you can start. You can launch one about trucks and cars, baby clothes, or a home decorating blog. The most important consideration is that it is making money and has profit potential.
It will be appealing to a digital real estate investor or large company. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of the content you have on your website because if the material aligns with those investing in digital real estate, then it will be picked up quickly.
For example, if you build a site with the goal of maximizing and monetizing traffic to that site and you’re getting 100,000 visitors to your site every month. If you use an ad network like Facebook or Google, you can earn up to $.03 for each reader.
Therefore, you can make thousands of dollars every month just from running ads. And that’s without factoring in the money you could make from Affiliate Marketing platforms like Clickbank.
If you create the content on your own, along with the links, your overhead will be small since it will go into hosting and research tools. In that case your profit margins can reach up to 90%
Buying A Domain
Flipping domains is also a viable approach to investing in the world of digital real estate. I should mention that making money with this method has gotten a bit harder since the turn of the millennium.
Nowadays it is a hard finding profitable domains for investing in because a lot of them have been bought up by Domainers/Domain Investors. The investors who buy up domains usually do so in order to flip them.
However, investing in domains like this requires patience. You should be comfortable with the fact that the domain you buy might take a few years before anyone else wants to buy it from you. However, when the time comes, you can make a tidy profit.
This is how you buy digital real estate outright.
Now, how do you make money flipping a domain?
If someone wants to start a new business but the domain that they think will be crucial to the success of their business was owned by another individual, they may opt to buy it from the current owner.
If the owner is a domainer, they will have just bought the domain, built a quick little one page website, and waited for someone (like the business) to buy it from them.
Sometimes, a domain can be bought for thousands of dollars when the domainer will only have spent about $20 to set it up. If the business wants this “digital property” badly enough, they will happily pay for it.
Why Should You Invest In Digital Real Estate?
In this day and age, anyone can invest in digital real estate. Nevertheless, you probably won’t see any success without a plan.
Now, with rental properties there is no shortage of courses, but there aren’t very many you will find about digital real estate.
As you conduct your research, you’ll find terms like SEO, CSS, Backlinks, Citations, XML Sitemaps, and Content Creation.
Although it can be intimidating as a beginner, you shouldn’t let it scare you, because this is all just part of the digital real estate world.
If you are willing to put in the hours of work needed to see a profit, these can be rewarding. There are some people who’ve earned profit margins of 90% or more.
To set the wheels in motion, you need to understand how the digital real estate industry works, what types of digital property you need to focus on, and the mistakes that you can avoid to drastically improve your income potential.
If you do your research about what goes into digital real estate, you’ll understand the basics of being a digital landlord. With the right moves, you can create a digital investment portfolio that will be profitable.
Pros Of Digital Real Estate
There are benefits to Digital Real Estate investing. Here are some that make investing in digital real estate attractive:
Quick Appreciation
Your investment will grow pretty fast. In fact, in an year your website’s value can increase by 5x.
High Supply
There is an endless supply of domains and websites you can get regardless of what country you live in.
Passive Cash Flow
You can make money off your website while you own it by putting ads on it. You can become an affiliate and link out to another site.
Improving your site is easy
If you have an inexpensive website with a good domain name, you can make it more valuable by just adding content.
Low Risk
Rather than investing $100,000+ like you would on a house or an apartment building, the risk is a lot lower when purchasing a $20 domain.
Cheap To Get Started
You can purchase a domain and set up a website for less than $100. You can decide either to build a website or hold onto the domain until a buyer comes along.
Higher Profit Margins
You can have profit margins of up to 90% given the low start up costs.
Building For The future
The online has become a crucial part of our daily lives. Therefore, setting yourself up for success by purchasing online real estate properties is a solid move.
FAQs About Digital Real Estate
Investing in digital real estate is a relatively new phenomenon. If you compare it with investing in the stock market or just good old real estate investing, you can see that it hasn’t been around for that long.
Since digital real estate investing is still relatively new, you will find that many people don’t know how to get started or even how it works.
That’s why it is important to understand how it works and what better way to do that than to go over some of the frequently asked questions about this kind of investment.
How Long Will It Take To Profit From Your Website?
The answer to this is not definitive because it depends on a few factors.
If your niche is competitive, It could take a lot of time and energy to get a website to the point that investors take notice. You have to invest in good content, strong SEO, and affiliate marketing. These will go help you get the traffic which is all important.
You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars if you don’t have that kind of money. You can write the content for your site and use tools like Canva, to create a good design for less than $1,000.
That being said, it will take time to fine tune your website and get the level of traffic you need to make your site valuable.
With time, you will realize that even when you are dealing with digital real estate, you should treat it like physical real estate because the more you put into it, the greater chance you have to make a profit.
If you have the resources, you shouldn’t shy away from hiring assistance, using software or other tools to do all the heavy lifting.
When Should You Sell Your Website?
You should not strive to sell your website or domain too soon because that’s not smart investing. You have to be patient.
The more time and energy you put into your domain names by building a value-based website with good content, the more money you will make in the future.
Is Investing In The Metaverse The Best Way To Invest In Digital Real Estate?
Selling digital real estate seems like a tough task when you are starting but the good thing is that the global economy is likely to enter a recession. Therefore, you may have started buying digital real estate.
If you have made the right moves, you will find buyers for your digital real estate valuable because you’ll be driving the business that they need straight to their phones.
In this period, you’ve probably heard of people buying “virtual land” in the metaverse. It is one of the major trends in this day and age but if you scratch beneath the surface, a virtual world or virtual worlds are not there yet in terms of being a viable investment.
Digital land is not something that you can make money from if you start investing right now.
Digital assets like crypto are also not doing well despite the performance in 2021. Therefore, these are not the kinds of virtual real estate you should be investing in.
If you want to start making money now, you will be better off if you purchase digital real estate in the form of websites that drive business today. Real digital real estate that brings you real money is the one that connects the buyer to the seller.
Digital real estate exists, but not in crypto or virtual land. A full virtual reality world is not the investment you want to make if you want to start making money now.
Is Digital Real Estate Investment A Get Rich Quick Scheme?
Digital Real Estate investment is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Your level of success will depend on how much work you are willing to put in. Therefore, you should not believe all the hype that the big profit gurus tell you.
The factor that will prove if your website or domain names are successful is the amount of effort and resources you put into it.
On top of that, since all the domain names have been bought, you will be better of creating an authority site. However, you have to spend many months working hard before it starts taking off.
Can I Buy Domains With A Trademark?
You should not buy a domain with a trademark. Businesses pay out a lot of money to protect their trademarks. Therefore, if you purchase a domain with a trademark, you will land yourself in trouble.
Ignorance is not a defense in case you buy a domain but had no idea that the name was trademarked. In such an instance, you can still end up in court defending yourself.
You should create a unique domain name that could also be your business name.
Can You Get Rich Flipping Domains?
Although you can pull this off, it’s highly unlikely.
If you bought domains in the 1990’s and early 2000’s when the internet was still new, you could have made a lot of money. But now with all the advancements, highly sought after domains have already been picked up by industry insiders.
You will find it tough to get your hands on “good” domain names. On top of that, very few people or businesses are willing to spend millions on domain names anymore.
Is Flipping Domains A Profitable Business Model?
It is but not as profitable as it once was. Can you set and forget your domains until someone makes you an offer?
It is not advisable because although the process of purchasing and parking a domain is pretty easy, the domain can expire if you don’t keep tabs on it.
You should check on your domain every one to two years.
Conclusion
When you think of property investment, digital real estate isn’t really the type of property that comes to mind. Digital real estate is a kind of investment that exists online.
When you invest in a brick and mortar property you’ll be looking at a $100,000+ investment. But when investing in digital real estate, your investment is far less than that because your overhead is virtually nothing.
That explains why digital real estate is so popular with the investing world. A small investment upfront makes digital real estate a much more viable option for investors.
Digital real estate is catching on because it’s affordable. All you need to do is invest just a few dollars into it and earn some profit if you put in the hard work and determination.
Nevertheless, you will run into the occasional pitfall. However, ensure that you have a solid strategy and put in the work. Sometimes, it can take 12-18 months before making any money. But, as you gain experience, the amount of time you invest in digital real estate can be dramatically reduced.
