The Washington Post ran a story a couple hours ago on flipping websites. Caitlin Dewey took a look at some people who have taken to Flippa to try to make something off a website they no longer have the time or passion for.

From the article:

It helps, of course, that Flippa has a precedent in real life. People who buy struggling or neglected Web sites in the marketplace generally want to improve them — a process pretty similar to, say, any given episode of HGTV’s “Flip or Flop.”

“Essentially the same principles of real estate investment also apply to Web businesses,” McCormack explains. There are different types of investors on the site, of course. But when it comes to abandoned sites like Hipster Runoff, many are looking to “buy something old and neglected that [they] can easily improve — then work on growing and building it back up. Think buy and renovate.”

There are also some buyers featured in the story:

Since buying WorldTVPC.com for nearly $28,000 in November, for instance, Dan Eriksson has beefed up the number of writers for the cord-cutting and streaming blog to try to boost traffic. Trevor Vanhemert, who bought LimaEasy.com in October, slashed the site’s hosting expenses, coded a mobile version and hired a group of Peruvian writers. (So DIY!)

“I make a living from creating, buying, selling and operating Web sites,” brags Chuck Anderson, who quit his 9-to-5 job and is currently voyaging through Southeast Asia off the proceeds from Adherents.com, a site he bought off Flippa in July 2013. The site — which Anderson says he hasn’t really messed with, down to the FAQ — is basically a very ugly, very underformatted list of the number of people belonging to various world religions. With ads, naturally. Lots and lots of ads.

Read the full article on WashingtonPost.com