Is website flipping still worth getting into ? Is it still a working method ?

People still buy websites. But at the same time, why not build the websites and keep them going instead of selling?

It all depends on your strategy, but overall I would say yes but it does come with challenges especially selling starter sites.

For starter sites gone are days of knocking up a cheap blog every now and then and making a quick buck, you need a solid system in place as well as I believe, most importantly on the back end ie support.

You need to shift sites in bulk because buyers want cheap, in fact they want the world for nothing and they want it yesterday. That's why I said you need a solid back end in place and I would recommend a VA for assisting with after support, because cheap buyers will give you a nervous breakdown and I feel it's getting worse.

For the above reasons I recommend putting the time and effort into established sites, at the very least a few months worth of traffic and earnings so you don't have to deal with the cheap buyers. Once you get this type of system in place where you are working on established sites every few months then I believe it's worth it.

Excellent advice and insights from Dave D. Spot on IMO.

I no longer flip as much as I used to. I can offer you my 2 cents, though.

Before I get down to business.

I flip domains and websites.

I began with location-based websites for small offline business and then I mixed in domain flipping for online and offline business, local and global.

As I matured in the business, I soon covered most aspects.

The most profitable areas in my own case have been low-ticket domain flips (domain registration fee to 3 figure sales) and developing and flipping high-ticket websites that either have income or a high-ticket premium domain behind them (or both).

If you want my opinion on the very best area of the business, it's the latter I mention.

The most important requirements for it to work (in my own experience) boil down to 3 elements:

1. High-end premium domain,

2. The domain must have a great deal of usable potential (neither of these domains are or where mine, but just to explain what I mean by potential: Men.com has more obvious use and potential than XYZ.com, and yet both would be beautiful domains), and

3. You need to deal with buyers who have deep pockets and buying track records and experience.

The "should" and the "is" questions.

Should you get into website flipping? Is it still profitable?

I can't answer the "should" question, but I can say that - yes - it is still profitable.

You have two main types of buyer:

1. Newbie. You have the buyer who is unable to develop and grow the income of a profitable website, and he or she wishes to get a ready-made and working business. Their intention is to bypass the skill and the effort to develop an income site and then operate the ready-made and grown property. These buyers will often run it themselves but a great proportion (IME) will want to outsource even that aspect.

2. Portfolio. Then you have buyers seeking to expand their portfolio with high or potentially high income properties. These are the big buyers with deep pockets. These sales (flips) are always the easiest IME. The moment you plop onto their radar, if the website is perceived as a good one, they will come to you and practically snap your hand off. It requires very little in the way of selling IME. You tend not to get low-balled and these buyers will often want you to contact them for first refusal of other properties in the future.

IMO: there will always be money to be made in website flipping. Reason being, you're adding value that some people either cannot do themselves or would rather not do. You can consider it like the construction business, where you purchase the land, which everyone can do, and then you have your construction crew build a beautiful home, which people are either unable to do themselves or would rather avoid.

You're adding value.

If you want to get into website flipping, what would I recommend?

I'd recommend you reconsider, and grow and keep the websites for yourself. The real money is in high-end websites IME. (Debatable.) If you have deep pockets, can get the right deal on premiums, and know how to develop and grow traffic, then it's a good trade. The other side of the coin is churning out low-ticket websites for pennies and hassles.

The better long-term strategy (just IMO and IME) is to grow your own portfolio. You get a website working (earning, growing, content additions nicely routined) and then you farm out operations (and growth) so that you can repeat the procedure, and keep on repeating. You'll see better long-term profit and you'll enjoy (IMO) far more income stability. The website flipping trade is up and down.

All the best to you, mate.

Cheers,

Tom

I think flipping websites lost its momentum. The way I see it if your website isn't making money, or it doesn't have a good domain name, it will be very hard to sell.

I made my name in the online world flipping websites and even was interviewed by Fox Business News and various major newspapers about it.

It is not as easy as it used to be but you can still flip websites and make very good money if you know what you are doing. It all comes down to finding a website that clearly is not making nearly the money it should be based on its ranking. You can usually buy that website for far less money than it is really worth because the owner is not making the profits he really could be making. Then, you tweak the site to help it reach its potential. Usually, we can make great gains by advertising better, too.

Yep, very well active and worth taking a look at. I recently did a brief research on this stuff - buying and selling websites that do well and then flipping it off to potential buyers. Looks like there is still a market for it now that that there are billions of websites here. Of course, you should start with sites like Flippa, Empire Flippers, BuySellEmpire, etc. who are the best in the game right.

The money involved totally depends on the type of websites you deal with. Traffic, existing model of business, and revenue are the top metrics you should look at.

It's definitely a niche sector but there are a lot of local players as well. A quick Google search should give you enough data to start. Hope this helps.

Is anything still worth getting into? Don't mean to come across as rude or arrogant, but my point is that it's not possible to answer that question without more information from you. It's kind of one of those "how long is a piece of a string" questions. It depends.

Is website flipping good if you are looking for scalable and stable income to the 7-figure per year mark? Not in my opinion. Can you make money/profit in it? Sure, but if your goal is to build a stable business off of it, I might look elsewhere.

The biggest money made in the mainstream flipping space are people building Amazon and Shopify businesses over the course of several years and then selling them for $1-2MM+, but that is more of an exit strategy than a business in and of itself.

The only problem with Flippa is the customer service- its terrible.
I sold over $15,000 worth of starter sites a few years ago, all was going well.
Then one morning I was banned for life. Flippa had uncovered an old account I had from 4 years ago that I never used... apparently your not allowed to have two, even though it was not used. I appealed and appealed and earned $15,000 which is a lot of commission for Flippa... banned.

So beware!

Better ways to make money online.

Here's a question to ask yourself that no one has mentioned:

"What are you good at doing and what value can you add to your sites you plan to sell?"

• Are you good at doing market research so you know what products and services are in demand (your site's niche)?
• Are you good at web site creation and development?
• Are you good at finding and creatively choosing domain names?
• Are you good at SEO and web site promotion?
• Are you good at driving traffic to your web sites?
• Are you good at conversion and web site income generation?

You see, to me the real question is whether you can actually add value to the web sites you create. And by value I'm not including "cookie cutter" mass produced sites that are all alike.


If you can add significant value, then I think you might be able to make some money flipping sites you develop. Even so, and as others have stated, probably the more sensible approach is to first build some sites for yourself and get them receiving targeted traffic and generating revenue.


Once you've done that, then you can decide if the effort you've put into your site vs. the amount you can get for it makes sense.


This is all about YOU and what you can do to make a profit. Just because others have profitably flipped web sites doesn't necessarily mean you can do the same! What you bring to the table is unique.



Steve

I know a guy that is a mega flipper... he scours the web for old, big sites that get tens to hundreds of millions of users per month despite not being optimized according to his liking. He then finances the site, implements his optimizations, and either keeps it in the portfolio or lists it for sale if its valuable enough. We're talking some huge names you've definitely heard of. I don't see any reason why you can't do this yourself.

Just know that YOU have to go do the work and find these sites, don't expect something you find listed for sale on Flippa for $5k to be a gold mine. You have to search through the endless sea of websites out there until you find ones that you believe you can improve with your skills, and then approach them. If they refuse to sell offer a to be a consultant to improve their revenue (the site would have to be a pretty reasonable size for them to afford this).

When it comes to domain names you can easily flip a name on godaddy, and make a profit. That is what I have been doing. Get a nice domain name cheap and flip for 4 to 10X more. There is less risk involved this way and you still make a small profit.

You can then start bootstraping your income into better domains or even set one or more aside and grow it the way you want.

Always work upward.

Why not create the sites yourself or outsource the site creation and then sell on Flippa. Just pick a starter type site on Flippa in a niche that sells well.

If you genuinely enjoy flipping and have loads of fun doing it you will have success over the long haul. All about your energy and clarity more than anything else.