Flippa Experience?

Hey there!

I saw nobody had responded and wanted to take a shot.

Full disclosure: We're Flippa SELLERS and offer networks of websites for sale there on a regular basis. You can take a look at our site for more information about what to look for in a Flippa auction, how we build our sites, etc.

1. Make SURE the seller has Google Analytics uploaded on their site and were submitted/verified by Flippa. Additionally, make sure the seller has screenshots of their earnings posted in the auction. (These can DEFINITELY be faked/photoshopped, but at least you'll avoid the scammers that didn't even bother to do that!) You can also ask the seller (after you've made a substantial bid) to usually make a video of the earnings or actually log you in with a screenshare to show you.

2. Plenty of reasons for this, although only some of them are valid. Maybe it's taking 4-5 hours per week of their time and they have much LARGER earners they'd rather focus on? Or, in our case, they don't take up much time, but we need the up-front funds to reinvest in creating many MORE sites, so we don't have to come out of pocket with the investment...selling 1 site might allow me to build 4 more, for example, reinvesting in my profitable strategy.

3. That's tough...our customers would definitely have good things to say about us, but I don't think that would be the case usually. We've been talking quite a bit with one of our buyers through email over the last few weeks and he said his purchase from us was the ONLY thing that has actually turned a profit. He showed me some of the other sites he'd purchased and they were based on strange or unprofitable traffic strategies. (PPC traffic that wasn't profitable, required social media networks, etc.) As I scroll through available auction on Flippa I find QUITE a bit of junk...it's a bit difficult to filter it out.

Check out FlipFilter.com for an interesting way to sort through the junk on Flippa. Stick around and check out his blog...he has some pretty interesting things to say and we read the site regularly.

Thanks for the information but I still can't figure out where to buy a profitable online business or franchise.

Hi...I wouldn't make a substantial purchase of anything that is not a min. of 1 year established. I would ask the owner for a Profit & Loss statement. If they are running a legit e-business, they should be able to produce that information.

I personally sold a site on Flippa for $44k. The business sold a physical product and was 3 1/2 years old. I provided the buyer with a complete financial profile of the business, a letter from my vendor stating that they would continue to work with the new owner and confirming my wholesale purchases, AND I provided a video showing me logging into my merchant account and displaying all the income. I also set-up a phone conversation with the buyer.

Just be careful if someone has only screenshots as income proof.

Best of Luck!

You can get some great bargains on Flippa.

The ideal site is one which is one that is making good profits, despite obviously been badly run. Buy one of those and clean it up, and you can have a gold mine that you bought for peanuts

You can get profitable sites on Flippa, but have to do a lot of research before buying. You need to be able to verify the income and traffic, which is not always easy to do. Some people will post fake income and traffic screenshots.

I recommend using escrow.com and having a period of time to look the site over. Also check the feedback of the seller. If they are new or don't have any feedback, proceed with caution.

Not everyone on Flippa is a scam artist, but there are enough that you need to be careful and do your homework, but that is the case no matter where you buy a site.

Any other credible and trusted places to buy established websites?

I have just recently sold a site on flippa. It was not brining in a regular income but was gaining over 1000 visitors each month and daily subscribers.

I gave as much info as possible and answered any question potential buyers had. For people who where really interested, I ended up making a PDF with screen shots of the traffic stats swell as click banks sales.

So always ask for as much info as possible and just check the site out before buying. Sign up or actually buy the product and see how smooth things go. If it something you are really interested then just keep asking questions as it will be your hard earned money you are spending.

Also as Suzanne says you can use escrow.com for a bit of reassurance especially if it is costing you thousands.

You might be able to find a good business online...but you also risk the chance of getting ripped off by buying something online.

Be careful as I was recently burned and scammed on Flippa. I have made many transactions before and I was foolish this last time around. Be cautious of sellers that require NDA's to be signed to view the URL. The seller was able to scam me through this method and I was foolish to not follow up and request extra additional information prior to the purchase.

All of my other sales/purchases have been flawless, so just use your best judgement, have thorough communication and go above and beyond with a phone call if the purchase is large enough. Due diligence never hurts!