Flipping sites quickly, good idea?

21 replies
Hi.
So I had the opportunity to obtain around 33. EU domains for free a while back. I know they are not COMs but here in Europe they're getting quite popular.

Anyway, I don't feel like developing them, at least not in depth. So just to experiment I set up quick Wordpress installs on some of them (Simple Scripts - takes around 10 seconds). I managed to sell one site for cheap but it was worth it. The site had basically four articles (from Ezinearticles), Adsense sprinkled around and Amazon aStore. Took me around 2 hours to set up everything and I made approximately $25. Not that bad.

So I figured I could put more work into it and sell it for twice the price, maybe even more.

I set up this site. Took me longer - 3 hrs but the next site will take much much less time because I found the perfect plugins for everything and I know how to tweak them.

I wanted to hear your opinion. I know it's not passive (I also know that the domain I have is trademarked, so possible trouble but that's why I'm selling it). Also I wanted to hear your opinion on pricing - is $60 too low? The price doesn't include hosting or anything but it does include the domain, they also have no traffic.

The targeted customers would probably be
A, domainers - nice way to have customized parking and additional revenue if they decide to promote the site (via Fiverr gig etc)
B, people starting out with IM or looking for ways to start up their own business (it's set up so they can just replace the Amazon stuff with their own, write their own articles...)

What are your opinions on my actions?
#flipping #good #idea #quickly #sites
  • Profile picture of the author osekdomains
    Bumping it.

    Somebody give me opinion on it. Is anyone experienced in this area on this forum?
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  • Profile picture of the author hassan007
    I have been a flipper, but according to my knowledge people are not interested in buying sites that don't earn or those who have no earnings to the date of selling....

    So for getting a good price your site must be doing good in the market.....
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    • Profile picture of the author osekdomains
      Originally Posted by hassan007 View Post

      I have been a flipper, but according to my knowledge people are not interested in buying sites that don't earn or those who have no earnings to the date of selling....

      So for getting a good price your site must be doing good in the market.....
      Of course that was my first thought. However I obtained the domains with no charge and each site was done rather quickly.
      Also I didn't use Flippa to avoid their fee and sold one domain+site on ebay-kind-of site.

      I've been lurking around NamePros forums and even domainers aren't looking into parking anymore and are interested in sites with traffic. Looks like the difference between domainers/marketers is less and less nowadays with both camps wanting sites with traffic and revenue.

      How do you usually proceed? Can you tell me more about your methods that lead you to sell such a site? How do you monetize, create traffic and how much time do you spend on each site?

      Thanks for answers!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Petal
    I have seen many flippa sellers spending hours on sites which have no traffic or revenue and not selling them. Remember flippa charge $19 for listing the site and I think 5% success fee. The worst thing is spending so much time working on the site and not selling it. Then your charged a fee.

    Try to get traffic and make revenue to the sites if possible.
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    • Profile picture of the author frankl
      Originally Posted by Ross Petal View Post

      I have seen many flippa sellers spending hours on sites which have no traffic or revenue and not selling them. Remember flippa charge $19 for listing the site and I think 5% success fee.
      Or a minimum of $10. So if you sell your site on flippa, your cost is a minimum of $29. I don't think it's worth the effort if you can't sell the site for a minimum of $100
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      • Profile picture of the author osekdomains
        Originally Posted by frankl View Post

        Or a minimum of $10. So if you sell your site on flippa, your cost is a minimum of $29. I don't think it's worth the effort if you can't sell the site for a minimum of $100
        That's the initial price I'd like to sell them there.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    In the long run, unless you want to continue to make little sites with no traffic or revenue continuously, it is more profitable to concentrate on a bigger payday by offering sites that you've been promoting and have traffic and revenue.
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  • Profile picture of the author sammib01
    The answer is easy: no traffic + no revenue = no value

    You must get traffic and income from the site then it has a value. If you are going to do flipping it is a hard business but it pays if you do it right.

    I bought a site that was over 14 years old with a page rank of 4 I pushed it but never intended to sell it. I have had some good offers but it makes me good money every month so why should I sell???

    Make your choices count and research the keywords and SEO competition well using good programs like Market Samurai or Traffic Travis before making decisions this will save you money in the long run. And never forget there are professionals out there that make a living flipping so stay on your toes so they don`t step on them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Dunstan
    I sell sites on flippa all the time. None of them have any traffic or claimed revenue. I act as a middle man. I buy them for $30 (plus $19 listing plus $10 success) and then sell them for more at auction. I average $110 per site in the 23 I have sold, and that includes one that only went for $6, which was an anomaly!

    I think if your listing is good enough, and your supprt is good enough for the newbies who will buy, this is a viable model. It has to be one that takes you no time though, or you will be working for nothing!

    I also use it to generate buyers to my list. My site buyers sign up to my list as part of the deal, so that they can access my help-desk.

    Paul Dunstan
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  • Profile picture of the author costi
    So to get profitable, usually sites on flippa sell fro 6 to 12 month revenue, your site should make between $1.58 and $3.16 per month to break even, whatever you do more is profit. Of course it sound easy but in fact it's a very hard process where you have to work a lot if you want to achieve something.
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  • Profile picture of the author eac07740
    Have you thought about selling the websites as a group instead of individually? This may generate more interest leading to a higher purchase price.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kal Sallam
    Membership sites do very well, earning membership sites that is Offcourse.
    It's not too hard to get a membership site earning a 100 and flipping it for a
    Thousand.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoeRockefeller
    For a couple quick flips, it is possible to earn a little money, but in the long run its not a solid flipping strategy.
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  • Profile picture of the author dragtastic
    if you dont have traffic and are not making money then I would try to sell them on forums or maybe even ebay. Try building up PR and selling links - then think about selling developed sites

    Flippa is great for sites that make consistent revenue.
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  • Profile picture of the author osekdomains
    I sell sites on flippa all the time. None of them have any traffic or claimed revenue. I act as a middle man. I buy them for $30 (plus $19 listing plus $10 success) and then sell them for more at auction. I average $110 per site in the 23 I have sold, and that includes one that only went for $6, which was an anomaly!

    I think if your listing is good enough, and your supprt is good enough for the newbies who will buy, this is a viable model. It has to be one that takes you no time though, or you will be working for nothing!

    I also use it to generate buyers to my list. My site buyers sign up to my list as part of the deal, so that they can access my help-desk.
    That sounds like viable model although I don't really feel like devoting my time for the support, not unless there's higher margin. But it is interesting - what kind of auction do you use to sell bought sites?

    The answer is easy: no traffic + no revenue = no value

    You must get traffic and income from the site then it has a value. If you are going to do flipping it is a hard business but it pays if you do it right.

    I bought a site that was over 14 years old with a page rank of 4 I pushed it but never intended to sell it. I have had some good offers but it makes me good money every month so why should I sell???

    Make your choices count and research the keywords and SEO competition well using good programs like Market Samurai or Traffic Travis before making decisions this will save you money in the long run. And never forget there are professionals out there that make a living flipping so stay on your toes so they don`t step on them.
    I agree with you. I have one website that I'm devoting my time to develop already (but not necessarily to sell it). Yes the value is not that high but again - there's a keyword rich domain included plus everything is set up for the new owner. Some people can easily spend 5-10 hours setting up site like that if they don't know what plugins to use etc. I'm offering them the whole package for reasonable price.

    I'll be populating rest of the domains with sites, they will have republished content so far unless I'll have more time to create something unique. Two more questions:
    A, How would you go on creating content? I think it would take me super long time to add it to 30+ sites. Should I hire a writer (saw Fiverr gigs for 300 word articles) and spin it?
    B, Is there a way to create mass backlinks without being junk? By mass I don't meand thousands but maybe 10-15 quality links for each site (300-450 total for 30 sites)
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Dunstan
      Originally Posted by osekdomains View Post

      That sounds like viable model although I don't really feel like devoting my time for the support, not unless there's higher margin. But it is interesting - what kind of auction do you use to sell bought sites?
      I outsource the support as soon as the sale is done. I only answer questions about the sites during the auctions. I outsource back to the creator of the sites. He does all the transfer too, and this comes as part of the cost I pay for the site.

      In terms of auction - I use a 3 day auction and have no starting bid or reserve.

      Here is an example of a sold site, and auction listing.

      https://flippa.com/2738956-wow-seo-b...-sale-500-week

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author derek.ang
    Haven been flipping websites successfully recently. market is bad, filled with unreasonable buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author denisjor
    Some good information here...I was thinking of selling some of my sites that have been sitting dormant as well...but thinking of doing something a little different, let me know if this is viable?

    I would like to get a hold of someone that is very proficient with selling websites through Flippa and splitting the cost and sale.

    I have 5 websites that I would like to sell now. Do you think this would be a good way to go?
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  • Profile picture of the author Gerald Arno
    Banned
    The key is in finding economic buyers for your websites.

    From personal experience, it's a lot easier to sell websites that are monetized and have rankings in Google.

    In your case, you need to watch out for people who are in need of such websites which might be difficult.

    People prefer to buy websites with rankings and revenue, rather than some random sites.

    You need to be great at presenting value and return on investment. If you can do that, you should be able to sell a wide variety of websites and products.
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  • Profile picture of the author DomainMagnate
    For flipping best to have some revenues first, at least for a few months. Buyers aren't usually interested in sites with no revenue, especially on flippa.

    If you have some decent rev figures you can expect to sell it quickly though
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