Ep 21 Part 1: Zach Zorn on the Money Nomad Marketplace

In this episode of the Website Investing podcast, Richard speaks with Zach Zorn from Money Nomad about his new marketplace and partnership with Empire Flippers.In this part 1, free subscribers get the first 40 minutes of the conversation; paying subscribers also get part 2 in their RSS feed. The second part typically elicits more insights as we get deeper into the conversation.EPISODE SPONSORS🔥 Niche Website Builders - a hands-off approach to outsourcing your content. Packages include keyword research & high-converting review templates. Get 10% off your first order.🔥 Smash Digital - an SEO growth agency with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients. Check. Them. Out.Part 1 Show NotesMoney NomadHow it StartedZach was approached by Empire Flippers with an offer of them becoming a minority owner in Money Nomad. The reason for this is that they don’t service and broker websites in the $30,000 or less range, due to profitability issues. However, with Money Nomad, Zach is then able to fill in the gap and service people who want to sell online assets which have a value between $5,000 to $30,000, which isn’t really possible with Empire Flippers. Connecting with SellersGenerally, Zach is able to connect with sellers through his following and e-mail list. However, Empire Flippers also helps out on this end by referring clients who do not reach their $30,000 value mark to Zach.Newsletters and the MarketplaceGetting PopularLots of newsletters have been popping up recently and are becoming a great way of bringing knowledge and tips to people, subscribers, and the marketplace too---especially in the website investing space, with Richard also having a newsletter of his own. Good Business ModelThe newsletter space is a really interesting one, as it doesn’t have a startup cost, and has lots of ways to monetize it. It’s a great way to feature deals and listings as well.Zach’s Blog ContentZach usually churns out 2 articles a month, and he makes sure that those articles are really well-tailored with all the keyword research included. He also writes these articles himself, and he’s been able to get lots of readers and really good rankings. Though he’d like to publish at least one article a week, unfortunately, time constraints are currently preventing him from doing so.The MarketplaceZach believes that as the marketplace of Money Nomad grows, Money Nomad will definitely grow as well. People in the marketplace would be ideally able to navigate to Money Nomad and vice-versa in the future. Zach did this, and essentially consolidated everything into one website instead of starting a new one. DomainingRichard’s PortfolioRichard currently has a lot of different domains, and he’s willing to wait in order to get the value of these domains to an end-user level. He’s also trying out different aspects, like branding and local names. Richard is aiming to get at least 10x, and will keep renewing the domains until they get to that level. Domaining, according to him, is definitely a waiting game.Domain DatabaseA great tool to search for domains, extensions, and domains with similar names is dotdb.com. Richard highly suggests this tool when looking for same or similar domains, especially when you are considering buying domains. Building from Expired DomainsZach has been wanting to get into building websites from expired domains. Richard himself has been dabbling in it for quite some time, and currently has a couple in his portfolio. Richard also says that he would definitely not start on a fresh domain, unless he is redirecting a powerful one into it.One popular way of acquiring these domains is through auction, like through GoDaddy and other platforms. They would then vet for these domains and make sure that everything is in order and will work smoothly.Richard is looking into acquiring more domains, and is also looking to get a low 5-figure domain by the end of the year. You can definitely spend a lot of time searching for domains, and it can become a rabbit hole. PPCs and LeadsIt would be hard for someone to put up PPCs, unless you are able to generate leads well enough. Zach does this pretty well, as he’s involved in brokering yachts. Since he’s able to generate leads well, all he needs to do is just create a landing page with funnels, and things can flow from there with PPCs. Zach would then be able to sell boats and yachts from there. Adding Content and RedirectsWhat Richard would normally do is buy an aged domain with a brand name, and 301 redirect any page from that old domain that had links, into his new site. He would map the pages, and also rebuild or recreate them, then get them indexed. He would then add some content to those rebuilt pages, and copy these pages onto his main site. Afterwards, he’d add a canonical tag so Google knows that the content has moved. Lastly, he’d add the redirects. This, according to Richard, is the safest and most legitimate way of moving, while allowing the authority to pass on to his new domain well. If rebuilding can’t be done, Richard suggests redirecting them to the most relevant page, or home page. All of this requires a lot of time, but will reap a lot of upside in the end.Episode 21 Part 2In part 2 of this conversation we discuss:* How Zach handles website payments / escrow* Sculpting the best audience for his marketplace* Websites investing vs stock market correlation* A website investing event?…Part 2 is for paying subscribers, you can access by hitting the button below.Enjoyed this episode or have any questions? You can leave a comment at the bottom of the web version of this post.CheersAvi Silverberg (Producer) & Richard Patey (Host) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investing.substack.com