Do Website Investments Actually Pay Off? A Look at Sites Sold for $10K–$50K
A closer look at what really happens to “digital real estate” after the exit. Spoiler: most don’t survive.
We all know the pitch:
Passive income.
Digital real estate.
Set-and-forget websites that earn while you sleep.
Sounds great, right?
But here’s the question: how many of those sites are still alive today?
I’m not talking about the $2-a-month AI-spammed junk. I mean the good ones - content sites with real traffic, history, and revenue. The kind you’d find on places like Motion Invest, Empire Flippers, or Flippa.
Flippa alone had over 1,600 new listings last month.
But what happens after the sale?
Why I Did This
I’ve always liked the idea of owning a portfolio of websites - like rental property, just digital.
In fact, I even tried that once. (Spoiler: it didn’t go well →I Bought a $2,400 Website and Made $546).
But I’ve always wondered:
Are these content sites actually viable long-term assets? Or are most of them just short-term flips?
And in a post-AI world, do niche content sites even stand a chance anymore?
Let’s find out.
The Method
I didn’t overthink it. I pulled a random batch of listings from Motion Invest, mostly from their newsletters around 2020–2023.
Why Motion Invest? No preference - I just happen to know their ecosystem better. Also, most of their listings are content-based, which is what I decided to focus on.
⚠️ Not all sites were sold. Some sat for months or were unlisted. That said, even unsold listings tell us something about market perception and long-term viability.
I broke listings into 3 price tiers:
$2K–$10K → Budget tier. Lower risk, lower expectations. Easy to abandon.
$10K–$20K → Mid-tier. Should have some traction. Viable side projects.
$50K+ → Premium tier. These should have staying power and stable revenue.
We can’t access exact traffic or revenue post-sale. But we can see:
Is the site still live?
Is it updated?
Does it look maintained?
Let’s dive in.
$50K+ Listings
Even some of the most expensive listings didn’t survive the long game. Here's what I found:
Insights
RefrigeratorsReviewed.com
Used to attract 100K+ visitors with over 800 posts. Still exists, but hasn’t been updated in years.
The About page still shows the site is jointly owned by two companies, and content is published by a team of writers based in Nigeria. So it feels like either the website was never sold at all, or the new owners didn’t put any effort into keeping it afloat.
Clash.world
Niche gaming site for Clash Royale. Still active and thriving. Likely supported by steady demand and evergreen (until it’s not) gaming traffic.
VaporVanity.com
It was interesting (and kind of sad) to see that VaporVanity.com doesn’t exist anymore.
I genuinely expected this one to keep going for many years.
The last snapshot on Web Archive is from December 31, 2024.
The reasons why it went out of business?
Why did it go out of business? If I had to guess:
Unnecessary theme changes. Three different theme changes over the years. Google does not like this at all.
Niching down to cannabis vaping. Before the sale, the site covered vaping in general. When listed, it was rebranded as “cannabis vaping.” Maybe that niche worked short-term and they doubled down. But possibly, the broader niche is what originally made it successful - and narrowing focus hurt it over time.
The cannabis niche is brutally competitive. There’s money in it, which means competitors can hire teams and do real SEO. Also, who knows - maybe some shady tactics were used to harm the website.
Or… maybe it was a content acquisition. Web Archive shows a footer saying: “This website is managed by 747MediaHouse.” That’s an SEO agency active in the cannabis space. There’s at least one case study from that period showing them working on another cannabis site. Maybe they acquired Vapor Vanity just to transfer links or content to a bigger domain.
I’d joke that $125K is a hell of an expensive backlink.
Pontoonopedia.com
Grew from 100 to 430+ posts post-acquisition. Same theme, regular updates, quality content. Everything looks good so far.
GuidingBeauty.com
The site was only 9 months old at the time - likely too fresh for most buyers.
Despite earning over $2.5K/month, it hadn’t proved long-term stability.
Personally, I’d stay away from such young sites.
Today, the site seems abandoned - with 2020 in footers and article titles. Not a good sign for SEO or revenue.
$10-20K Listings
A few sites in this bracket looked promising at first glance. But a closer look reveals how fragile content sites can be - especially when they rely on ads, broad topics, or thin content. Here's what happened to some of them.
Insights
TheShoeBuddy.com
Had 290 articles and over 12k monthly visitors when listed.
Today, it has more content - most of it updated in 2023, but no signs of life since then.
Theme was changed, but no new posts added.
Still online, but unclear if it’s still profitable or just coasting.
FindLegit.com
Simple concept: tell people whether a site is legit or a scam.
Monetized with ads and targeted high-search "is X legit?" queries.
But after the sale, no new content was added.
Sites like G2, Trustpilot, and Scamadviser dominate this space.
With shallow reviews and no updates, traffic probably dropped hard.
ArchitectBoy.com
Likely built on an expired domain with some leftover SEO value, ArchitectBoy.com had a random name and scattered content like “best slippers for hospital delivery” or “best mini fridge for bedroom.”
With no clear niche or topical authority, it’s no surprise the site eventually died - broad, unfocused content doesn’t stand a chance against niche competitors today.
Elpasony.com
It had some solid traffic at the time.
But the website is on vegetables.
You know what are the most dreaded niches in affiliate marketing?
Definitely not vegetables.
People do not buy vegetables from review sites.
And ads is not something too sustainable in the long run. Especially for the website in food/recipes niche. Recipe websites are pretty saturated, and most of them do not earn much.
As of today, the domain now is parked without website being accessible.
GarageStorageLab.com
Website had been for 1 year 9 months at the time it was listed. With 72 articles and 5.7k monthly visitors it’s not something I would buy personally, but again, this was based on the income, which was x39 multiple.
Unsure what happened, but about 6 months later, the website was already unavailable, with some error on homepage.
I would guess after unsuccessful sale attempt the website started declining, and it was closed.
And now I can see the domain was released and can be bought by anyone.
$2k – $10k Websites
I’ve decided not to deep-dive into these listings. After seeing how many $10k–$50k websites didn’t survive, it’s safe to assume the odds are even worse in this lower range.
This category shows an even worse survival rate. And even the “survivors” (besides UnderWearView.com) appear outdated and likely underperforming.
Summary
So - is buying content websites still worth it?
It depends.
If you want a passive investment that takes zero effort?
Forget it.
My goal with this case study was to understand whether you can just buy a content site, let it run, and collect "passive" income. Turns out, that scenario is much rarer than I expected.
Given all the recent Google updates, content aging out, and the natural decline that comes from inaction - buying and ignoring a site is not a feasible strategy.
Unless…
You're willing to actually work on it.
The fact that many of these sites were making money proves the niche potential is there. Especially in the higher price ranges, the earnings were real. So with time, motivation, or even a team, it's possible to maintain and grow a site.
But if you don’t improve it?
The outcome is obvious: a slow death, and no guarantee you'll make your money back.
If you found this breakdown useful (or not), I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m experimenting with different types of case studies, and your feedback helps me decide what to dig into next.