Most People Get This Wrong—And It’s Why They Stay Stuck in the 9–5. Here’s How to Choose the Right Path and Finally Build Real Online Income.
If we lost everything tomorrow…
No digital skills.
No money.
Just a laptop and a dream to build freedom from scratch—
Would we build a website from the ground up…
Or buy one that’s already making money?
It’s a question we’ve been asked a thousand times.
And after building over 100 websites, buying more than we can count, and helping thousands of people escape the 9–5 grind with real online income—we’ve noticed something:
The people who succeed?
The ones who grow 6- and 7-figure digital assets?
They all learn one key skill first.
In this video, we’re going to share what most beginners get wrong when it comes to buying websites in 2025—and why learning this one skill could mean the difference between owning an income machine…or a money pit.
If you’re serious about using websites to buy back your time, your freedom, and your life—You need to hear this.
Let’s dive in.
Your Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Digital Asset Portfolio
In today’s digital economy, owning online assets has become one of the most accessible paths to financial independence. But for newcomers to this space, a critical question emerges: should you build websites from scratch or buy established ones? This decision can significantly impact your journey, timeline, and potential returns.
Matt and Liz Raad, pioneers in the digital investment space, have helped thousands navigate this choice based on their own extensive experience buying, building, and selling online businesses. Their insights reveal that this isn’t simply an either-or decision—it’s about understanding which approach aligns with your skills, resources, and goals at different stages of your journey.
The Benefits of Building Websites
Why Learning to Build Websites Helps You Create a Foundation of Digital Skills
“Building is where we start when we train people. It’s the best place to learn,” explains Matt Raad, reflecting on how they guide newcomers in buying and selling online businesses.
This approach isn’t just theoretical—it’s based on personal experience. Both Matt and Liz began their digital journey by building websites, learning the fundamentals that would later inform their buying decisions.
1./ Building Websites is Lower Cost than Traditional Businesses
Building websites from scratch offers several distinct advantages that make it particularly suitable for beginners. The biggest benefit is the minimal financial risk involved. Unlike traditional investments like real estate or brick-and-mortar businesses that require substantial capital, creating a website can be accomplished with almost no upfront investment beyond basic hosting costs.
“The biggest cost is probably hosting, which is maybe $10 a month. Other than that, you can actually build it for free. So, it is just time.” – Liz Raad, eBusiness Institute
This accessibility stands in stark contrast to other asset classes where significant financial barriers exist, making website building one of the few opportunities where someone can create a valuable asset without substantial capital.
2./ Online Businesses Offers Lifestyle Flexibility
This low-risk approach also provides flexibility that accommodates diverse lifestyles. You can work on building a site during evenings or weekends, maintaining your day job while developing your digital skills.
The asset also doesn’t demand constant attention—you can step away for days or weeks, and upon return, you’ll often find your site has continued to build authority and traffic in your absence.
“You can do this part-time in the evenings in your jimmy jams. You can walk away for a week, leave it sit there, it’s going to be fine, and then come back to it.” Matt Raad, eBusiness Institute
See How Students Are Building Profitable Passion Content Sites
The creative freedom that comes with building websites allows you to help align your online business with your own personal interests, potentially turning hobbies into profitable ventures. This approach has created incredible results for many in Matt & Liz Raad’s community.
Joshua, featured on the Digital Investor podcast, created a profitable content site dedicated to jet skis—his personal passion. After developing the site and building content around his interest, he eventually sold it for $20,000 USD. While he invested significant effort, the process remained enjoyable for him because it centred on a topic that he was genuinely enthusiastic about.
Interestingly, the passion-focused approach isn’t the only viable path. Yvette, another success story from their community, built a site around pickleball—a sport she knew nothing about but had heard mentioned at an event. By hiring expert writers to create authoritative content, she developed a valuable online asset that she later sold for $15,000, all while working on it part-time alongside other projects.
For those willing to invest more time, the returns can be substantially greater. Greg, a jazz guitar teacher, transformed his expertise into a six-figure online business by building a comprehensive website focused on jazz guitar instruction. While this achievement represents years of development rather than a quick win, it demonstrates the significant long-term potential of the building approach.
“The cool thing is, though, because he went through that process and learned how to build it, we helped him do little things to then just take it to the moon. It’s kind of like the rocket ship, where it takes a lot of effort and time to launch. But once it’s out of the Earth’s atmosphere, it only takes a little bit of effort to push it to the moon.”
Why The Local Business Strategy Can Help You Build Faster Returns
While building content-based websites typically requires patience—often 18 months or more to see significant results—there is a middle-ground approach that can help accelerate the timeline to profitability.
Building websites for local businesses or creating lead generation sites for specific industries can produce faster returns while still developing critical skills.
This approach has generated incredible outcomes for a number of Matt & Liz’s students. Some have built income streams ranging from $500-$1,000 monthly to impressive figures of $20,000-$30,000 monthly within their first year. The local business focus makes ranking in search engines easier, allowing for quicker visibility and client acquisition.
Pete and Renee are a great example of how this strategy can help build a significant lifestyle business around their family. By building websites and providing SEO services for local businesses, they’ve created a seven-figure enterprise that accommodates their preferred schedule and lifestyle priorities.
“Pete and Renee built a business where they were able to design their own hours. Their story is very similar to ours when we were building our portfolio of websites. We also had small children, so I worked 9.30am to 2.30pm before picking up the kids and spending the afternoon together. We constructed the day around this, and that’s what Pete & Renee have done too.”
This approach also inspired others to achieve similar results with increasing efficiency. Amish and Avani followed Pete and Renee’s model to build a 7-figure digital agency within three years.
Derek and Courtney, inspired by Amish & Avani’s success, accomplished a similar feat, earning $15,000 income per month within 9 months.
These cases demonstrate how the building strategy, particularly focused on local businesses, can create valuable assets without requiring massive capital investment.
When Buying Online Businesses Makes Sense
See How Buying Websites Can Provide Instant Cashflow and Established Systems
While building online businesses helps build the foundation of learning new digital skills, buying established websites offers distinct advantages that appeal to those with some experience and investment capital.
After Liz built her first website in the early 2000s using Dreamweaver and HTML, she concluded that the process wasn’t for her.
“I realised I didn’t want to do that again, even with tech help,” Liz recalls. This realization led her to explore buying websites that were already operational and generating income, providing immediate returns on investment.
1./ Buying Websites Helps Provide Immediate Traffic & Cashflow
The most compelling advantage of this approach is the instant cashflow. When you purchase an established website, you immediately acquire its earning capacity—there’s no waiting period while you build authority and traffic.
Dave and Connor exemplify the potential of this strategy. They purchased a website for $1 million that was generating $300,000 annually. Within six months of acquisition, they doubled their online earnings to $600,000 by simply optimizing the advertising structure. This improvement dramatically increased the asset’s value from $1 million to approximately $2.4 million.
2./ Gain Access to Bigger Affiliate Programs
Beyond immediate income, buying websites provides several other “instant” benefits that Liz highlights:
“The other instant things you get which you might not have realized through buying a website is instant network. You get access to these affiliate deals and affiliate programs that you would never get access to if you were building a website because you’ve already got all that traffic.”
3./ Benefit from Existing Talent & Operating Systems
Additionally, buyers acquire established systems and potentially existing team members who understand the operation. This eliminates the trial-and-error phase of building, allowing new owners to leverage proven processes while focusing on optimization rather than establishment.
4./ Use Your Digital Skills to Find Bargains & Increase the Value of Existing Websites
For those with the right skills, buying can also present extraordinary value opportunities. Websites, like other assets, sometimes become available at prices below their true value for various reasons—financial emergencies, tax obligations, or simply an owner’s inability to recognize the site’s potential.
Here’s just some examples of Matt & Liz Raad’s students who have purchased ‘diamonds in the rough’ to significantly increase their monthly profits and asset values:
- Heidi and Mariano found a website listed for $130,000 that they ultimately purchased for just $30,000. And they doubled the website’s income within 4 months.
- James discovered a site listed at $50,000 that had been overlooked for nearly a year, acquiring it for only $12,000 because he recognized opportunities others missed.
- Perhaps most impressively, Nathan Alexa purchased a neglected gardening website for $400 that now generates $4,000 monthly after several years of strategic improvements.
When to Build and When to Buy Online Businesses
The decision between building and buying ultimately depends on your specific circumstances, particularly your experience level, financial resources, and risk tolerance. Matt and Liz Raad recommend a strategic progression that begins with building to develop fundamental skills before advancing to buying.
If you have limited investment capital or lower risk tolerance, building websites represents the optimal starting point. It allows you to learn the technical and strategic aspects of website management while minimizing financial exposure. The building process, particularly through creating websites for local businesses, can generate income while you develop your expertise.
“If you don’t have a lot of money to invest, or if you’ve got a low risk profile, if you don’t really want to throw money out into the marketplace…then it’s much better to build an asset first and really learn and get the confidence.” Liz Raad, eBusiness Institute
Buying becomes more appropriate once you’ve gained experience, understand website operations, and have capital available for investment. Crucially, successful buying requires the ability to conduct thorough due diligence and identify optimization opportunities that others might miss.
“You need to have the skills to run it. Ideally, you want to be at a point where obviously you understand due diligence, but also you have the ability to see opportunities.”
Matt reinforces the importance of starting small when transitioning to buying: “We never recommend going into debt to buy online businesses. They are businesses, they come with a risk level.”
Unlike traditional businesses that might require hundreds of thousands to enter, the website market allows for small initial purchases—ideally under $5,000—that minimize risk while allowing you to apply your skills.
Ready To Improve Your Digital Skills to Buy or Build Profitable Online Businesses?
The journey of digital asset investment doesn’t require choosing exclusively between building and buying. Most successful digital investors, including Matt and Liz themselves, incorporate both strategies at different stages of their journey.
Beginning with building develops the foundation of knowledge that makes buying more successful. As you gain confidence and capital, you can progressively incorporate buying into your strategy, potentially starting with smaller acquisitions before moving to larger opportunities.
The stories shared by Matt & Liz’s community members illustrate the diverse paths to success in this space. Some have found their niche in building websites for specific audiences or industries, while others have discovered their talent in identifying and optimizing undervalued digital assets.
Whether you choose to start by building a passion project, creating websites for local businesses, or carefully buying your first small digital asset, the key is to begin with education and proceed strategically.
If you haven’t done so already, register for Matt & Liz Raad’s free Masterclass. By understanding the advantages and considerations of both approaches, you can craft a personalized path that aligns with your goals, resources, and risk tolerance as you build your portfolio of valuable digital assets.
