Buying Website On Flippa Advice

I've wondered about that. Good idea for checking.

Do any of the other sites have a higher proportion of legitimate pages for sale?

Thanks,

Do you have a source for that number, or is it one you arbitrarily made up?

Just another good reason to build your own from scratch. I mean, beyond the fact that it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

or you could just ask them to put your tracking tag in their footer for a week and get a full break down of the sites analytics stats. Banner clicks are not the best way to gauge website traffic.

There's Starter Sites section because the site is a new develop of course will be no traffic.

Personally I would not buy a site listed on Flippa--as I really do not think it is a good idea.

I would rather do my own research and build the site myself.

At least this way, I am in control of what happens.

Hope this Helps

The majority of sites on Flippa are scams. If they were legit I'd buy them all up in a second.

I sold nearly 100 sites on Flippa years ago. Now if I'm going to sell a site I go through a broker. Way more money and way less hassle.

I remember when people were buying up niche sites right before Google threw their updates in.

If you were buying a business, you'd at least meet that person face-to-face, double check the numbers, get your lawyer in, and then cinch the deal. Flippa doesn't let you do even 1% of that. No wonder there are more scammers than genuine sellers there.

If their websites were as good as they claimed, they wouldn't be creating and selling yet another one every single week.

There are plenty of good sites on Flippa. I was watching one that ended recently for 60% over the reserve.

It's good to see that there are smart people out there who realise the potential future income of sites, rather than the current income. The site currently has AdSense on it but there is a little known CPA affiliate scheme that pays around $1000 for a successful referral in this niche.

Are you looking to purchase an established website or just the domain name?

If you are looking to buy just the domain name, I cant help you out in that area. However, if you are interested in buying an established website then I can give you some pointers!

It is going to to be hard to find an established website that is also high quality in the price ranges that you listed, but it is possible. Below are the different factors that you should look into when analyzing a website:

Financials

How old is the business?
How has gross and net income been trending for the last 1-3 years? The last few months?
Can a new owner replicate the cost structure? Can they make any savings?
Are there any anomalies in the financial history of the business? If so, are they explained?
Can all of the revenue streams be transferred to a new owner?
How stable is the earning power e.g. are CPMs in this niche on the decline/hard to replace?
Is the owner an influence on the earnings power (i.e. owner-specific earning relationships)?
Traffic

What percentage of traffic comes from search? (i.e. what percentage is potentially at risk from search engine algorithm changes)
How secure are the search rankings? What is the mix of short and long tail?
How has traffic between trending for the last year? The last few months?
Has the site been affected by any Google algorithm changes or manual penalties?
What is the industry trend (see Google Trends)?
Where does the referral traffic come from? Is it sustainable?
Operations

How much of the owners time is required to run the business?
What are the owners responsibilities? Are there high technical requirements?
What technical knowledge is required to run or manage the business?
Are there employees/contractors in the business and how are they managed?
Niche

How competitive is the niche?
What are the barriers to entry?
Is the niche growing?
What are the recent trends and developments in the niche?
What expansion options are available?
Customer Base

Where does the business get customers from?
How much do customers cost to acquire?
If subscription, what is the customer lifetime value and churn rate?
If one-time, how active is the customer base? Are they re-ordering?
Is it possible to remarket to the existing customers? Is there a mailing list?
Other

Are there physical assets or specific regional responsibilities with the business?
Are there any licensing requirements in order to run the business?
Does it infringe in any trademarks?
Does the business offer any unique advantages? (e.g. trademark)