Buying a Flipped Website; Need Advice

Dont buy it. Yes they have good sites, but its not worth it, coming into huge debt for a website.

There are other means to make money online.

For your own sake, dont buy a big site.

There are a lot of things to take into consideration!


PBN like anything when they are utilized properly can be a goldmine but sadly


most site owners use PBN for the wrong purposes who knows what this site has done right?


You also need to verify traffic and income before you buy!

Most affiliate sites are injected with affiliate embed links from the sellers, so be careful or you just promoting their affiliate commissions. Also be careful with SEO backlinks that not so natural or spammy backlinks for fast results but will be gone in a period of time after. Most web sellers are web designer or webmaster so you must have basic knowledge about the sellers are good guy or bad guy to flip their sites with true reason why they are selling the sites for.

Originally Posted by BeginnerBryce Hello all. I've been looking at Internet marketing and e-commerce opportunities ever since I got laid off earlier this year. I've since gained a contract for the time being but I would like to get to a level where I'm no longer working for the man. The way I want to go is to buy an existing website from Flippa or Empire Flippers. I wanted to get ownership of something this year or early 2017. I have some questions: 1. Are these brokers good? Any feedback on their processes would help. 2. I would like to purchase a site that has been around a while and is able to prove traffic and earnings better. With this, these are more expensive in the hundred thousands. 3. What would be a good financing source to get these funds? SBA, home equity, business term loan, etc? 4. Some sellers have a note saying they use a PBN. Are these still penalized by Google? 5. In a sale, what would be the impact to the buyer if the site is connected to a PBN that is seller owned? 6. Any additional tips to lookout for when thinking of buying? I have some WordPress experience and have basic Internet marketing knowledge. I'm looking to start out with something passive such as Amazon Affiliate so there are a few sites out there that fit.

I do not have any experience in buying and selling websites despite signing up for Flippa in 2011.

That was also when Google began making relentless changes that caused me and other marketers to change their strategies.

Recently I came across a post by Aidan Booth - having been his subscriber and customer - revealing how his friend and business partner Steven Clayton bought a website for $50K and in turn generated $360,000.

Here is what Aidan said based on his learning from Steven which may or may not answer all of your questions but I hope can be of help to you and others thinking of leveraging upon this method.

I also added my views and experiences as well.

1. Risk

That is what stops people from buying websites.

The high cost.

The reason why most owners - in particular real successful ones - priced so high is because they themselves also want to profit from selling.

In particular websites that have been making them good income for years.

And even if you can afford, can you guarantee that site will remain in favour of Google and continue to attract more customers and sales?

And how do you intend to do that? That is the innermost question you should ask yourself and an expert in this area.

2. Determining What That Website Is Worth

The 2 things that you should consider are:

A. What makes this particular business attractive enough for me to pay the price the owner demands?

B. And how do you figure out what to offer for an online property or virtual asset to make it even better?

3. The Website You Intend To Buy Must Have At Least 1 Year History

Christmas and New Year gifts are especially important when considering retail and e-commerce sites.

As well as other events throughout the year like Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Children's Day, Teachers' Day and others like Easter, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

No matter how skeptical people may be of online scams, chances are they WILL go and buy online for their loved ones come those events.

I do have a site I have been building on since 2013 and making good money consistently since I incorporated all those events and targeted the right group of people I KNOW will buy.

Which I did not reveal since it is not related to internet marketing.

4. At Least $500 In Profit Each Month For The Last 4-6 Months

Besides asking, you should request the seller to produce proof that he is actually making that amount for that period of time.

If he doesn't and still insists he is right and give you a Take It Or Leave It offer, my advice to you is leave it.

5. Consistent Traffic With No Unusual Spikes

If there are, you should avoid the seller like a plague.

Regardless of what reasons he may give like keeping up with Google updates with no other alternatives, chances are he is making a loss and not profits.

The problem is not just with individual business owners but with companies as well whose management decided to sell but 3 months before they put the site on the market, they pad the stats by sending all sorts of expensive PPC traffic to it.

This strategy is not sustainable in the long run due to high expenses incurred.

6. The Site Should NOT Have Been Sold In the Last 12 Months

If so, then obviously the owner is not doing well and decides to sell early just to make a quick buck.

Again my advice is to avoid him or her like a plague.

With that said, I hope this answers most of your questions.

If you want to start out as an amazon associate then why not pick up "Extreme Review" by Erica Stone a.k.a. sojourn Here is the linke (not affiliate)

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...bonuses.html#1

She shows you the correct way to do amazon reviews and set up a wordpress site. Once you have that going then just head over to warrior plus and look up her name "sojourn" and get some of her other helpful amazon products.

No need to buy a website that might have hidden problems when you can build your own just as easily, and you can put the money you want to invest into better tools and advertising


al

I have sold website at flippa in the past
it is a great platform to buy and sell websites

from my experience the average of website worth is define by 36 months revenew (this is a guideline)

Think of flippa the same way as a casino. Don't spend more money than you're willing to part with if things go sideways. If you find site that makes good money that's great, but you don't want to be in a situation where you spent more than you were willing to to have it flop.

Also do all of your due diligence. If something contradicts itself in the listing - that is a HUGE red flag.

Good luck! I hope you find what you're looking for and sorry to hear about you getting laid off.

As everyone else has already said. Be very careful.
If using flippa, check out the bidders if there are any. You wont be able to see their name but will be able to see how active they have been, such as the total value of their transactions, feedback etc. Also carefully bcheck the sellers responses to questions.

Doing that will give you a feel for what is on offer.

All the best

Thanks for all of the feedback. I think the majority of comments shows I should take my time and learn the entire process. I'll be taking 2017 and diving in trying to my own website and look for monetization methods before even thinking about purchasing an existing site.

I've been looking at some of those e-commerce sites on Flippa, and some of the more popular ones (editor promoted even) are built on the AliExpress dropshipping model, which is flaky at best. Facebook can pull the plug on these sites (with 10-20 day shipping) at any time, not to mention you're not exactly building a happy client base. I could slap one those Shopify sites together in a few days using a tool like Oberlo, and since they aren't getting any organic traffic, the only real value that they have is their email list and maybe Facebook page (assuming the page(s) aren't violating Facebook's TOS).

Not surprisingly, the ads don't say who the dropshipper is which I believe is a huge disservice.

You can easily tell if it's an AliExpress dropshipping site by using a Chrome plugin called Aliexpress Search by image.

The supposedly verified traffic numbers didn't match up with data from Alexa or SEMRush either.

What do normal businesses usually sell for, 0.6 times it's annual revenue? You have to ask your self why somebody would sell a site that's supposedly projected to pull in $250K annually for low to mid two figures.

I could see buying a blog that is in your niche if you're able to independently verify the organic traffic and site authority and you have connections to bloggers who will work for $3 an hour.

Buying a website just takes some common sense. Here are my general rules:

• Don't buy any site younger than 12 months old.
• Don't buy from anyone with a less than 100% approval rating.
• Ask for access to analytics accounts, not just screenshots.
• Get a detailed breakdown on how traffic is generated (ads, social media, etc.).

Residual income is real. If the site made income with little effort, the owner wouldn't be selling, they would want that easy residual income for themselves. If the owner says, "make a lot of money with no effort," he/she is lying. I have 25+ sites. If they make more than the domain and hosting cost, I keep them, even if it's only a $10/month profit. That's free money. Many sellers say something like, "I need the capital for a new project." Again, that's a load of crap. Most sites claim to generate $### per month and they are usually selling for 3X or 4X multiple of the income. (e.g., site makes $200/month and they want to sell for $800). If they really needed that $800, they would just save for 4 months, use the money and then still have the $200/month coming in. It's basic portfolio expansion.

The site might make money, but takes significant effort to maintain (ad management, content development, social media, etc.), probably more effort than the current owner wants to manage.

So, if you get an honest seller, they will give you two reasons for selling:

1. Abandonment. The site has good potential, but it doesn't currently make very good income. They've given up on trying to make it work (usually 6-12 months old).
2. Unloading Workload. The site makes good income, but takes a ton of work. They might have other projects demanding their time, or simply want to free up 10-20 hours a week for family, full-time job.

Be wary, but good luck!