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I recently received an email asking me about something that really threw me off. A reader of my blog wanted to know what a turnkey was. Although I’m sure most are already aware of this term, I figured if one person wasn’t sure about it there are probably more who would appreciate a concise explanation as well.

A turnkey is basically a website that is created and operated with almost complete automation. Sounds pretty simple eh? It is and it isn’t. There are a number of different types of turnkeys that all do different things. There are also good and bad turnkeys as well as pros and cons to using a turnkey over created a custom website.

Most Popular Turnkey Sites

Myspace Resource Sites
These are websites that serve up Myspace layouts, graphics, little scripts, and everything else you’ve ever seen on a 13 year old’s Myspace page. They’re usually run off of scripts that can be downloaded free, but there are also plenty more that are considered “premium” that require a payment to use. I played around with running a Myspace website for a couple of months when I bought MyspaceLot.com from Rob of TalkFreelance. I was completely uninterested in the website and only bought it to get some information on the niche out of curiosity. Despite the fact that I never once promoted the site, spent a dime advertising, or did any link-building, it actually made money. A couple dollars a day. I know that’s not a lot, but it just goes to show you the power of a turnkey. Absolutely no value was added to the internet when I operated this website. There was nothing unique about it. Yet it was in the green.

Arcade/Media Sites
These are turnkey sites that are basically mass produced versions of EbaumsWorld. They have simple flash games and movies aimed at curing the user’s boredom and keeping them at the site long enough to get them to click an ad. Many of the turnkey scripts that run arcade sites also have the option of giving buyers access to thousands of games and movies as well. So not only do you have the development taken care of but the content as well.

Resources/Tools Turnkeys
There is also a huge market for webmaster resources and tools. Such turnkeys provide IP addresses, pagerank, link count, etc etc.

Turnkey Content

Most content for turnkey sites is either purchased or stolen. Even the bulk of the purchased content is just an organized database of stolen material. How do they steal content?

Many turnkey sites use scrapers which browse other websites in the same niche and simply copy their content and include it into their own database. Scrapers are much less popular in Myspace websites but are extremely widely used in arcade sites. Ever wonder why almost every “[keyword]arcade.com” you visit has the exact same games as all the others? It’s a circle of “borrowing” content.

Not all turnkey content is stolen. Many turnkey scripts just create the developmental framework so that the user can add his or her own content and actually create something unique.

Pros and Cons of Using a Turnkey

The only real pro of using a turnkey website is the automation. Turnkeys are extremely easy and fast to setup and fill with content. This means that not only does each turnkey website you create take very little work, but you get a lot more time to focus on advertising and promotion or to move onto the next turnkey website and repeat the process.

There are, however, a numer of cons - whether or not they outweigh the only pro is up to you.

1) They are not unique - users and spiders alike recognize turnkey websites as just rehashed versions of tons of similar websites. SE’s penalize them for their duplicate content and code and users often times just forget about them when they leave since they are unable to distinguish them from others.

2) They typically do not make much money - this is of course a generalization. There are many people making $xx,xxx per month running turnkey sites alone, but they often have huge networks. Each turnkey site can only perform so well due to the fact that it is not unique and has really no value in itself.

3) They’re exhausting - since you’re not creating anything unique, it is easy to get burnt out on running your turnkey network. There is nothing exciting about running a turnkey website aside from perhaps the Adsense check you get at the end of the month.

Overall, I personally know plenty of people making much more than me running turnkey websites. It is a solid income stream. But in my opinion, one should never make turnkey websites their sole source of income. Running turnkeys is fine as long as you diversify your income a bit between turnkeys and unique sites.

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