Flippa - Never buy someone else's problem | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

14 years ago

There are some quality sites being sold in the higher price ranges (above $5,000), but you should always do your due diligence.

For example, I have seen Google News sites for sale that were delisted due to the owners spamming, but still had lingering articles in the index. The seller did divulge that he had lost his publishing status. If you are looking to buy a GN site, make sure you ask the seller to publish an article, so that you can ensure that the article gets listed right away in Google News.

If you are buying an e-commerce site, make sure that you know about all of the traffic generating methods that the owner used to make the revenue that he is claiming. It would really suck to think you bought a site that was generating X dollars only to find out that the seller paid 100% or more of the gross in PPC just to generate those revenues.

I have had success buying and selling higher value sites. I don't mess around with the low cost "made for Flippa" sites, although I know that a lot of people here make good money with those, as well - both buying and flipping.

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Haroon Ballim

14 years ago

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

There are some quality sites being sold in the higher price ranges (above $5,000), but you should always do your due diligence.

For example, I have seen Google News sites for sale that were delisted due to the owners spamming, but still had lingering articles in the index. The seller did divulge that he had lost his publishing status. If you are looking to buy a GN site, make sure you ask the seller to publish an article, so that you can ensure that the article gets listed right away in Google News.

If you are buying an e-commerce site, make sure that you know about all of the traffic generating methods that the owner used to make the revenue that he is claiming. It would really suck to think you bought a site that was generating X dollars only to find out that the seller paid 100% or more of the gross in PPC just to generate those revenues.

I have had success buying and selling higher value sites. I don't mess around with the low cost "made for Flippa" sites, although I know that a lot of people here make good money with those, as well - both buying and flipping.

I seem to have read on another thread and that was by some Google News site owners with mant posts [Very Hyperactive Warriors] and they quote Google's Terms and Conditions regarding the sale of a Google News Sites.. The licence is not transferable. I bring this up Mr Rose as it is the second time I see you mention that google news websites can be sold.
Google News will kill the licence if you sell the site.. I stand corrected but an excerpt of google's terms and conditions was posted.
Anyone care to clarify

On the matter of good value websites , I purchased some on flippa below the $500 range and really they are in fact worthless .. Wised up now , but not after buying some real duds. I am actually amazed how easy it is to build a wordpress site. No technical skills required at all.. So yeah if you are looking to buy a website than make sure you buy one with good traffic and a history.. Being brand new , zero traffic sites are a waste of money.
The real potential is the potential of making the seller rich..
Besides Flippa and DN Forum , anyone know of a good place to buy websites.. Ebay not so sure.. Their was a seller with great ratings who sold me an affilaite website and charged me hosting.. Can you beat that. I found out when I tried making changes and she said sorry everthing is hardcoded no changes can be made.. Checked out the product seller and they were producing these sites free for their affialites. and as you know no hosting fees on an affilaite site.. Luckily manged to get my money back.. So be careful even with people with high ratings

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inter123 14 years ago

It really is astonishing how flippa continues to provide the service it does. There are many outright scams on there. Some of the sale pitches are way over the top and do not deliver and even some of the numbers / charts provided by sellers are fake (thanks to Photoshop).

I recently saw site based on a keyword that I have a site on. It was claming to make all these numbers which were not true at all.If flippa was an offline business, regulatory offices would have it shut down by now.
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caseycase

14 years ago

I did get one site on there once for under $1000 that was a real gem, but otherwise I haven't had much luck with flippa either. I go looking there eagerly every few weeks, and usually leave disappointed.

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DebraConrad

14 years ago

I'm one of those that don't buy "high price point" sites. Maybe someday I'll feel that brave.

I do look over on Flippa every once in a while to see what's for sale in the lower end price. I have purchased one site in the past.

I liked the niche and the products that would go into that niche. The site was aged about 5 months and had some quality backlinks. The traffic stats were clearly shown and the seller had great reviews.

I'm happy with my purchase. With a little modification on my part this site has been a consistent monthly earner without having to do anything. Yes - it is small earnings... but they all add to the big pie.

I'm sure the site was a "made for Flippa" site.

My question is - if someone has old sites (aged for several years) and want's to sell them (just to get rid of some of the excess) is it smart to sell them on Flippa?

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JackPowers

14 years ago

Originally Posted by DebraConrad

I'm one of those that don't buy "high price point" sites. Maybe someday I'll feel that brave.

I do look over on Flippa every once in a while to see what's for sale in the lower end price. I have purchased one site in the past.

I liked the niche and the products that would go into that niche. The site was aged about 5 months and had some quality backlinks. The traffic stats were clearly shown and the seller had great reviews.

I'm happy with my purchase. With a little modification on my part this site has been a consistent monthly earner without having to do anything. Yes - it is small earnings... but they all add to the big pie.

I'm sure the site was a "made for Flippa" site.

My question is - if someone has old sites (aged for several years) and want's to sell them (just to get rid of some of the excess) is it smart to sell them on Flippa?

If your site has Adsense earnings and a nice Wordpress theme (such as the Studiopress/Genesis) ones, then I'm sure you can get a good price. I saw Adsense site selling for 10-15x the monthly income, with only a few months history and questionable traffic generation.

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Amy Carczak

14 years ago

It does seem as though it's hard to find anything that
is below the cost of simply outsourcing the creation of
it on your own.

Of course, there are a lot of sites there with "potential"...
seems like code word for "sucker".

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theory expert

Banned 14 years ago

I spoke with a warrior forum member about this similar concern. I believe the money is in being the one creating and selling perceived value sites(lower cost value ones). When you are in control of the sell it is just better in selling sites.

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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

I used to be able to find some real gems ... undervalued sites that had a lot of potential and needed just a bit of fixing up and even some low priced sites that didn't need fixing up. Haven't seen anything I wanted to buy since it changed from Sitepoint to Flippa. There was plenty of crap on Sitepoint too, but I found a lot bargains. I use it for selling some sites now and don't bother shopping there much.

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InitialEffort

14 years ago

Lately it's been a little dry IMO on Flippa. This is definitely a good opportunity if you want to flip a couple sites as there are many buyers looking for anything of "average" quality.

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InternetMarketingIQ

14 years ago

How much time and real effort does it take to develop a web property? Why would you expect to find anything "good" under $500?

That's reality. I won't touch ANY Web Project under $65 an hour. And it takes a minimum of 20 hours to create anything worth owning.

I walked into Walmart and didn't find any Nordstrom's quality merchandise. Go figure?

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Flipfilter 14 years ago

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

I walked into Walmart and didn't find any Nordstrom's quality merchandise. Go figure?

They bought Walmart here to the UK and no one really got that it was meant to be a discount retailer as the prices were so damn high for what they were selling !

I'm often accused of giving Flippa more credit than it's due on my blog posts but I can guarantee there ARE good deals to be found, just probably not in the sub $500 price range.

From what I've spotted over the last few weeks, the 'low end' sweet spot seems to be around $600 - $1000, but like someone has already said, it does take time and effort to develop a 'good' web property and the likelyhood is, that person will expect fair compensation for it. It's highly unlikely at this price point you're going to find a web app or members site worth buying but you will find some extremely good adsense sites that continue to earn with little tweaking.
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dimedesign

14 years ago

You will find a lot of junk on Flippa within that price bracket. When you decide to go up into the thousands though, you can usually find some good deals.

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Clyde

14 years ago

What kind of websites did OP expect for less than $500?

Profitable ones that actual value is 10x what s/he paid for?

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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Flipfilter

They bought Walmart here to the UK and no one really got that it was meant to be a discount retailer as the prices were so damn high for what they were selling !

Originally Posted by Al Mukmin

What kind of websites did OP expect for less than $500?

Profitable ones that actual value is 10x what s/he paid for?

I used to find sites that had a ton of original content in popular niches on Sitepoint for $200-$250. They were ugly but had all of the content needed to be a great site. They were profitable to flip ... all that was needed was a better theme/design. They were an excellent bargain. I imagine, since most of them were offshore sellers, that the price of Flippa puts them off now. Those deals are not found now. Anyone can good money for a great site, but if you are a flipper, your profit has just gone straight down the toilet.

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JackPowers

14 years ago

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

I used to find sites that had a ton of original content in popular niches on Sitepoint for $200-$250. They were ugly but had all of the content needed to be a great site. They were profitable to flip ... all that was needed was a better theme/design. They were an excellent bargain. I imagine, since most of them were offshore sellers, that the price of Flippa puts them off now. Those deals are not found now. Anyone can good money for a great site, but if you are a flipper, your profit has just gone straight down the toilet.

Exactly, I was looking to buy a website developed by a passionate newbie, who for some reason decided they didn't want to continue with their sites. When I first started out, I sold a few Forex websites for $250-$500 with only $10-$20 in earnings, but the content was really good. I had no clue about SEO back then, but I know one guy who bought a site from me did great with it.

It's not such a strange scenario, plenty of people could use a few hundred dollars to cover expenses, buy something for the wife or take the kids to Disneyland.

The majority of sites on Flippa are extremely bad, autoblogs, paid-to-click Adsense sites or expired domains with a Wordpress blog on. Almost none are 'real' websites.

Flippa seems to have been taken over by internet marketing flippers who have bought a WSO (or most likely stolen a copy) and now they are out to make a few bucks (literally) peddling their crap.

So where to look for 'hobby' websites? Ebay?

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Dellco

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JackPowers

Exactly, I was looking to buy a website developed by a passionate newbie, who for some reason decided they didn't want to continue with their sites. When I first started out, I sold a few Forex websites for $250-$500 with only $10-$20 in earnings, but the content was really good. I had no clue about SEO back then, but I know one guy who bought a site from me did great with it.

It's not such a strange scenario, plenty of people could use a few hundred dollars to cover expenses, buy something for the wife or take the kids to Disneyland.

The majority of sites on Flippa are extremely bad, autoblogs, paid-to-click Adsense sites or expired domains with a Wordpress blog on. Almost none are 'real' websites.

Flippa seems to have been taken over by internet marketing flippers who have bought a WSO (or most likely stolen a copy) and now they are out to make a few bucks (literally) peddling their crap.

So where to look for 'hobby' websites? Ebay?

It's true that the old Sitepoint had more quality to offer. These days, it's just mostly MFAs where everyone crowds around and the bidding routinely goes up to double digit figures. But I am always unsure about the earnings, because many times they seem too good to be true.

Anyway, competition for any sites remotely earning any form of passive income can be really hot, and if I was a seller, Flippa is surely the best way to offload them and watch the frenzy. Doesn't matter if the site is crap, as long as it makes "passive income."

Often, I wonder if those people who used BIN actually get to make back their money or not, because I've seen many examples where upon checking out the site one year from the sale, it is usually doing worse, one way or the other. Goes to show there are many folks with money to throw.

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Mike Anthony

14 years ago

Originally Posted by JackPowers

It's not such a strange scenario, plenty of people could use a few hundred dollars to cover expenses, buy something for the wife or take the kids to Disneyland.

it happens yes but theres a difference between things happening and expecting them to happen. As a part time developer ( not much these days) I really hate the lunch money mentality. Good sites take time to develop and expecting to get sites so the developer can buy something for the wife is demeaning to the time and effort that goes into it.

Sorry but this is why you can't find anything. I don't know anyone that builds a good site for those reasons. Its that kind of market expectations that just make people shy away from developing or offering the solid site. The more people who aren't willing to pay the decent money dries the market up. Its a vibrant marketplace that pays decent that allow for the occasional great deals. Without the decent pay the developer either doesn't build the site or doesn't offer sites for sale to begin with.

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evanlambda

14 years ago

Flippa is good to pick up cheap sites related to your niche. I wrote a script to scrape flippa and find the backlinks and their relevance. If they are indexed for keywords I am working on then it can be a good swap. I just update the site with my links and everyones happy.

You need to automate the process to filter out the crap if you want to have any type of success with flippa.

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Vijay M

14 years ago

I have used flippa only to buy PR 2-3 domains.

I have also used it to research the niches and monetization techniques employed. Its amazing to see how some smart marketers are monetizing their sites (not the usual adsense, affiliate, etc stuff)

Its a knowledge base and a fun way to kill a few hours, for sure.

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Vijay M

14 years ago

removed - sorry for double posting

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Jesus Carrera

14 years ago

Don't give up after just 2 hours. Not everyday there are good opportunities, set up an alert and be patient. Just last month I didn't want to buy another site but I found a really good one and I couldn't resist!

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Tracey_Meagher

14 years ago

Flippa has definitely lost it's attraction. The sites that are being turned there have so little imagination and creativity now. Some new and fresh ideas would be great.

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scottiedk

14 years ago

I have bought two sites from Flippa. First one was ok (and from a warrior), the other one was bought and unfortunately never got the site from the guy. It cost me around $200 so it was not too bad even though I was very unhappy about it.

tried to open a dispute on paypal but that didn't help. I still have a look at flippa fro time to time though, but I'm not sure if I'm buying from flippa again to be honest..

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Latsyrc

14 years ago

Where do you all recommend a newbie to sell some websites besides here?

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Hanz 14 years ago

Speaking of, do sellers tend to push their domain to the buyer after 45 days if the payment has been made by Paypal? How do you protect your site from being stolen by a scamming buyer?
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moneymarker

14 years ago

I believe DNForum would be a very good alternative to Flippa in terms of looking for websites or domains to monetize. This applies to both newbies and the experienced. If you want to buy and sell, you'll have to pay at least $59.95 membership fee.

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dremora

14 years ago

I would only buy the sites that I would otherwise build, to save time. It can cost a lot more than $100 to build that $100 site on flippa. Especially if it has the kind of keyword rich domain in a specific niche and nice designs, I can buy it, take the SEO to hell and back and monetize the hell out of it. Too bad I don't have the kind of time to even look through the flippa listings. Hell I don't even have time to monetize my own site. I wish I had tons of time so I could go back to site flipping business!

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blue_sky

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Hanz

Speaking of, do sellers tend to push their domain to the buyer after 45 days if the payment has been made by Paypal? How do you protect your site from being stolen by a scamming buyer?

There are already a couple of threads here about flippa and how to protect yourself - the best for both sites is an escrow service... a lot of buyers seem to operate with "stolen" paypal accounts..

Originally Posted by counselormom

Where do you all recommend a newbie to sell some websites besides here?

The best would be to list the sites on a couple of places like here, Flippa, DP, Ebay etc and see what works best for you...

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Flippa - Never buy someone else's problem

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