Desperate Website Flippers - Why your websites don't sell?

by dmarze
14 replies
There was a lot of talking about website flipping here on warrior forum last few days.

People where looking answers on a questions like:

Why my sites don't sell? Is market saturated? Are there to many website flippers?

My friend sold quite a few websites on sitepoint marketplace in a past year. What he did with great success in the PAST is this. He created good looking blog or website and then filed up that website or blog with PLR articles. To build one site from scratch, he spent no more than one or two hours. Then he just put site on the sale at sitepoit. Almost all of his websites went for BIN (buy it now) price in two days, sometimes in hours. But, everything has changed in the last two month.

He complained, that he hardly sells his sites and nobody puts BIN on his auctions anymore. I asked him what is reason for that in his opinion. He said that recession or market saturation is his problem. After some talking I realized that he is still making same sites in the same niches like he did a year ago.

And here is the big problem. It is not recession or market saturation. He just doesn't build sites that people want and look for. He builds sites which he thinks people are looking for.

Did you know that more than 70% of website flippers never sell their websites or they get a lot less than they ask for.

When they make few sites and don't sell them, they go around screaming that website flipping doesn't work anymore and they go onto their next great idea. Believe me flipping websites still works and there is nothing wrong with website flipping market.


So, what did they do wrong?
  • They created wrong type of content sites
  • They put wrong price on them.
  • They didn't research the market.
Many of website flippers build a website and they don't know exactly what type of websites are selling and for what price, they just assume that someone would buy their great website.

Wrong way!

What they should do, is to spend ten minutes going through the auctions that other flippers are selling on sitepoint or any other marketplace, and they could easily figured out what kind of sites are selling and for what price.

It is so simple!

Before you go and spend time creating your website, you should visit market and see what websites and for what price are selling. Then you should create your website.

Stop building websites until you don't know what people want. What do people want? If something is selling, then you know people want it.

Here is what you should do it:

1. First go to sitepoint market place and spend there around thirty minutes. Search for sites that were sold in the last few weeks. On sitepoint market place, you can see what kind of sites were sold and for how much.

2. When you already know what kind of sites are selling, decide in which niche you will build your new website.

3. Go to Google free keywords tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and search for around 20 keywords with not too big competition. Don't go for general keywords like "weight loss", look for long tile keywords like "how to lose belly fat" (these are just examples)

4. Write 20 quality and unique articles or get somebody else to write them for you.

5. Search for good looking and simple blog or website template.
6. Make unique header image with your logo. You can do it online for free.

7. Add articles to your blog or website. Don't forget about basic SEO

8. Add few great images to your website.

9. Promote your website. (social networking, forum marketing, ezinearticles...)

10. Monetize your website with your own product, affiliate products or adsense.

11. Get some back links. Here at warrior WSO section are few great offers on how to do it.

12. Get at least few sales. It is not necessarily, but It will help you to sell your site in no time

13. Write great sales letter and put your site on auction.

14. Wait for a buyer.

If you do all the above, you should sell your site at BIN (if it's reasonable) price.

You can also keep site for few months, make some money with it and then sell it for even more money.

I know that you already heard all this many times before. Flipping sites is not rocket science. Anybody with basic computer skills can do it. You have to realize that this is not "push button" business and if you want to be successful, you have to put some hard work into it. If you are willing to do it, you can make a lot of money with website flipping.

Believe me, if you build websites the way I described above you will never have a problem with recession or market saturation. Your websites will sell like hot cakes.

Don't worry about competition until you sell unique and quality websites. There are always more than enough website buyers for good websites.
#desperate #flippers #sell #website #websites
  • Profile picture of the author Jon Alexander
    it has got harder recently, but if you 'age' a domain with some nice new unique shiny content, and let it build a few backlinks, and gain a little revenue history, then in about a year you'll have no shortage of buyers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Desmond Ong
    Hi marze,

    One of the greatest and underrated tip to make sure your blog sells = USE PREMIUM THEME.

    This is what I do, purchase the developer's license of the theme. (around $200 at most) Then, make 5 sites with that theme and sold them all for $40 profits -- I made back my money!

    Of course I won't waste my time with $40 profits.
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    • Profile picture of the author jjpmarketing
      Nice list of website flipping tips. The key to remember is a little research can go a long way. If you half ass flipping or anything else for that matter... you will get half ass results.
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    • Profile picture of the author koolphoto
      dmarze. Your formula is good. Actually it is quite common and has been written about over and over again. Will it work. For some yes. For many probably not as well as they are led to believe. Why? Because no one puts their own unique spin on the formula.

      I don't know why Website Flipping is the term everyone uses. I always thought website flipping is buying a site, maybe a little rundown or forgotten then adding value and reselling. I do some of this and am fairly successful. You just have to get a feel for what sells and what doesn't. Otherwise, creating a site from scratch is in my opinion not flipping.

      As for creating sites from scratch, I have sold sites with plr and content that wasn't unique. It just really depends how the site is presented. I also use all types of Wordpress themes. From the Premium themes to the free themes. What I do on all my sites I sell is I try to customize the theme to make it look somewhat unique. I also add lots of graphics. And, you need to test. I have had sites that didn't sell with one theme, but when I changed the theme it sold for BIN almost immediately.

      For me the things that sell my sites are uniqueness in design, researching what buyers want or are looking for and trying to establish a relationship with my customers to repeat sell to them. I find that a some people who buy a site, buy because it looks pretty, more so than if the content is unique. So if I price a site right I can sell these all the time and they are easy to build.

      I think that the Sitepoint, "Startup Websites For Sale" Section is a crap shoot. Some of the sites sell well while others don't. For me I find my repeat clients who I can continually sell sites to there. And what people want changes from week to week. What didn't sell last week could sell today.

      Then I have aged sites with backlinks, that are making a profit and I sell these to my list of clients for higher profits. Or, sometimes they will ask me to create a site in a niche that they want to get into. I also sell a lot of basic easy to create sites that way.

      Occasionally, I luck out and a few of these sites make pretty decent monthly income. These I keep for my portfolio.

      Bottom line, I think that you need to take a selling formula that has been commonly discussed over and over again on this site, like dmarz's and then add value to it by changing it to fit your own style. And, one of the most important parts is to build a list of clients to repeat sell to.
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      • Profile picture of the author Desmond Ong
        Hi koolphoto,

        The real website flipping is buying cheap, abandoned sites with either contents or traffic or pagerank and then "renovate" them to look good -- and sell them.

        However, over the years, as an established site flippers myself, I have found out that building from scratch rakes in more profits as more site sellers are charging ridiculous price for their sites.

        I was recently over at DP and some guys are trying to sell me sites with NO PAGERANK, NO TRAFFIC with just 5 unique articles and a free theme for $100.

        If I build the sites from scratch, I will just need at most $25 for the articles + $5 hosting + $7 domain name. That's a huge saving if you ask me.
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      • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
        Not to mention choosing the proper domain name...

        The best would be recently expired with some established rank and traffic.

        Or try to snag one cheap off auction, fresh, unripened domains will require some age.

        And don't forget the income streams, add also a free report, autoresponder series, list building mechanism (there are a few WP plugins for this).
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        • Profile picture of the author Desmond Ong
          Thanks some nice quick points there Eric.

          WP plugins are the most underrated ways to raise a site's value. Plugins that enable forums, live chats, affiliate management, autoresponder are worth a million bucks for a site flipper like me.

          Look at it this way, these plugins are most likely free -- and it adds more features that require softwaares or scripts (mostly premium) to add onto the blog.


          Originally Posted by Eric Lorence View Post

          Not to mention choosing the proper domain name...

          The best would be recently expired with some established rank and traffic.

          Or try to snag one cheap off auction, fresh, unripened domains will require some age.

          And don't forget the income streams, add also a free report, autoresponder series, list building mechanism (there are a few WP plugins for this).
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  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    It all comes down to how well you can prove your income. People are buying these as an investment. If you can prove a steady income from your site, then it no longer becomes an "if" your site will sell, but a when and for how much. And if you can provide that income proof, then the "how much" almost becomes a science.

    The desperate sellers of late, think that these buyers are in it for the website, when a majority of them are in it for the income.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      This is what I don't get. I'm not saying web site flipping isn't a viable way to
      make money, but if you're going to put all that work into a site PLUS drive
      traffic to it to make sales in order to increase the price you can get...

      Why not just keep the site and make even more money from it?

      How much more work can it possibly be to generate traffic to it on a
      consistent basis and turn it into a profitable web site?

      What am I missing?
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      • Profile picture of the author Desmond Ong
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        This is what I don't get. I'm not saying web site flipping isn't a viable way to
        make money, but if you're going to put all that work into a site PLUS drive
        traffic to it to make sales in order to increase the price you can get...

        Why not just keep the site and make even more money from it?

        How much more work can it possibly be to generate traffic to it on a
        consistent basis and turn it into a profitable web site?

        What am I missing?
        That's one of my blog's FAQ! lol

        The main reason site flippers like me like to sell websites away are because we don't want to manage those sites! Yes, you hear that right.

        Managing a site carries risk. Your site can be hack or sales figures that you need to maintain etc.

        Plus, site flipping saves you time and provides instant cash.

        For example, during my last vacation, I sold off 90% of my websites and went to vacation with an empty mind -- not worrying anything about my sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Johnathan
    There is a BIG problem with that.

    It is work Most people don't want to work. They want the magical money to fall down from the trees.

    Good post, and I agree. There still is a very big market for website flipping -- but I would say that the days of creating random websites without thinking and assuming someone will buy them and automatically flipping are perhaps numbered, but using your brain and figuring out what is in demand is still strong.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alan Petersen
    Originally Posted by dmarze View Post

    Did you know that more than 70% of website flippers never sell their websites or they get a lot less than they ask for.
    Good tips. I was curious how did you get that stat? Someone do a test or study?
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    • Profile picture of the author dmarze
      Originally Posted by Alan Petersen View Post

      Good tips. I was curious how did you get that stat? Someone do a test or study?

      It is not rocket sience. If you spend couple hours on sitepoint marketplace you will figured out this yourself. You will see that other 30% are sites that are better, unique and somehow different than other sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmarze
    Everything sounds really simple doesn't it when you put it like this.... Find out what people are already buying and at what price and give it to them over and over. Stop trying to tell your customers what they want and listen to them.

    Find out what makes them buy instantly. Find out what makes them hesitate or skip over an offer and then find out what makes them buy without even thinking about it.

    It's all about your offer. Your offer must be correct. You need to have the right website at the right price.
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