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Common site flipping mistakes

by Biggy Fat
20 replies
Hello World. I know I haven't been in the flip game long but I do know how the game goes nowadays. With that in mind, here are some common site flipping mistakes I've seen lately:

1. Auction length of startup sites - DON'T go longer than three days for these! You want a potential buyer to have a sense of urgency. For established and premium, longer auctions are needed because they aren't as crowded as the startup section.

2. Not setting a BIN - Domains don't need a BIN. Sites do! Place an attractive BIN so that a potential buyer won't have to be patient and wait until the auction ends.

3. Not setting a reserve - Again, domains don't need a reserve. Sites do! A reserve gets potential buyers to bid higher and higher until the reserve is met. Of course if you get BINs all the time you won't have this problem. Plus, what if you set the minimum bid at $1 and one person bids at $1 and no one else does? :confused:

4. Setting the minimum bid at or near the BIN - I see this a TON at Sitepoint. This generally decreases bids because not everyone will be willing to BIN. There will be those who just bid at the minimum. Attract EVERYONE, not just those BINers.

5. Not enough detail on the site sales copy - I haven't seen this problem much, but go into every detail on why the site is such a great deal. Make potential buyers see the $$$$$ in their eyes.

That's all I can think of, feel free to add yours.
#common #flipping #mistakes #site
  • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
    Anyone wanna add their contributions?
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    Leaving the default WordPress text there. I've seen the default WordPress blogrolls in sidebars, and once even saw the standard issue 'About' page. Unreal.

    Less obvious unless you look at the source code are the signs of someone churning out HTML sites at speed and forgetting (or not caring enough) to edit the tags properly. The site will be called something like 'Jeez Not Dog Training Again', but the description tag will relate to 'Sick Of The Sight Of Golf'. Sometimes the title tag won't have been changed either, and you can see it in the bar at the top of the screen.
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  • Profile picture of the author CmdrStidd
    Please forgive my ignorance but I am new to the IM world and I am still searching for my niche. You used some terms that I am not familiar with. Please define for me the term BIN as well as reserve. Seeing as how you are talking about bidding, I assume that these terms have something to do with auctions but I do not use auction sites nor do I go to auctions offline so I am lost with the terminology. Thank you in advance for your help and understanding.
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    • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
      Originally Posted by CmdrStidd View Post

      Please forgive my ignorance but I am new to the IM world and I am still searching for my niche. You used some terms that I am not familiar with. Please define for me the term BIN as well as reserve. Seeing as how you are talking about bidding, I assume that these terms have something to do with auctions but I do not use auction sites nor do I go to auctions offline so I am lost with the terminology. Thank you in advance for your help and understanding.
      Certainly, man, I understand. BIN stands for Buy It Now. This basically is the price you set for buyers to get their hands on the site immediately. A reserve price is the minimum price that you want the site to get up to before you're willing to sell it.

      As far as searching for niches, let me get you started with five off the top of my head:

      Acne
      Weight Loss
      Dating
      Make Money Online
      Dog Training

      These literally came out of my rear end, but take those and drill it down to sub niches and search for those keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    BIN means 'Buy It Now', and the 'reserve' is a price you set which you won't sell below. Surf around SitePoint or maybe eBay for a few days and watch what happens to the listings. You'll soon get a feel for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author CmdrStidd
      Thank you both for the info and esp to Biggy Fat for the niche ideas. I will do just that.

      Diana, I have been waiting for your sig to come back from lunch for hours as I have important info to discuss with it. If I were you, I would fire it and get a new one.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetM39482
    Yo Biggy,

    You've named some good ones. I'll add a few:

    1) Not building a list: If you're serious about this business, you'll build a list from the start. 90% of the site flippers I know don't build a customers list. This seriously helps you out in long term, you have customers you can rely on.

    2) Not making backend money: Now site flipping is all very good, but you can make some extra cash on the backend as well. For an example, once you sell your website - people may need more articles. You contact them, and outsource the project, you make some moolah. Similarly, in the email guide I send them after they buy the site (the one that helps them set it up etc) I have some affiliate links leading to various web hosts and that makes me some money. It's small, like $100-$200 a month, but then it's not bad.

    All I can think of for now. I'll come up with some more and add accordingly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
    Thanks for the insights Biggy

    I can relate to a couple of those that I've made in my first couple of site sales. I've got another site I'm building purely for selling, so will keep these in mind when it comes to selling.

    Incidentally, I have a couple of sites relating to affiliate marketing in the UK. Both are .co.uk names. One of them gets #10 position for it's focus keyphrase out of 12billion results. Any idea what the pair of them will fetch on Sitepoint?
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  • Profile picture of the author Lindsay Brynn
    These are good tips that I generally follow as well. Although I haven't used the 3 day rule - I generally go with 7 day auctions and have done well.
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  • Profile picture of the author spriyada
    keep your eye open to the "want to buy" section to see what the customers are looking for
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  • Profile picture of the author solchristopher
    Those are 5 great tips. I have a few ebooks on the subject and they don't focus on the marketing on the website at sitepoint or any other place. Having a great website in a hot niche is important, but you have to make you copy stand out when you put it up for sale.
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  • Profile picture of the author Biggy Fat
    I know this topic is old but I have some other site flipping mistakes I've seen lately:

    6. Ridiculous "Why I'm Selling" Stories: Crap like "I need the money for this, I need the money for that", "I don't have time" or one I saw today "I'm desperate please buy" doesn't bode well with potential buyers. Remember, this is a BUSINESS. They want to buy because they wanna make money, not you. I typically don't include a "Why I'm Selling" in my auctions.

    7. Choosing a bad TLD: .com is the only TLD I ever mess with. It will have to be an exceptional domain for it to be any other TLD. Like if you owned something like dog.net or fish.info, you could sell JUST the domain for millions, and with a site on top of it you'll be swimming in eight figures.

    If you have anymore, add it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Boda Media
    I have sold alot of sites on sitepoint...

    just provide as much detail as you can... and dont sell rubbish.. you need a point of difference.. otherwise... you will not stand out from everyone else..
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  • Profile picture of the author julesbrad
    I have built a basic site to sell (my first one...should I say 'to flip' rather than sell..)

    It is a .co.uk domain and not in a 'desparate' market but something which may be of interest to someone wanting to build a business with a difference.

    The business idea is selling sauces online, which is why I chose the domain JustSauce.co.uk as it seems a very memorable name

    Is this the kind of thing which can be sold ?
    Do you think there would be buyers for such a site on sitepoint ?

    I dont want a fortune for the site as I'm still evry much a nubie and still in the training stage which is why this thread interested me so much.

    Thanks for all the advice already given above
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  • Profile picture of the author BODH
    Originally Posted by Biggy Fat View Post

    Hello World. I know I haven't been in the flip game long but I do know how the game goes nowadays. With that in mind, here are some common site flipping mistakes I've seen lately:

    1. Auction length of startup sites - DON'T go longer than three days for these! You want a potential buyer to have a sense of urgency. For established and premium, longer auctions are needed because they aren't as crowded as the startup section.

    2. Not setting a BIN - Domains don't need a BIN. Sites do! Place an attractive BIN so that a potential buyer won't have to be patient and wait until the auction ends.

    3. Not setting a reserve - Again, domains don't need a reserve. Sites do! A reserve gets potential buyers to bid higher and higher until the reserve is met. Of course if you get BINs all the time you won't have this problem. Plus, what if you set the minimum bid at $1 and one person bids at $1 and no one else does? :confused:

    4. Setting the minimum bid at or near the BIN - I see this a TON at Sitepoint. This generally decreases bids because not everyone will be willing to BIN. There will be those who just bid at the minimum. Attract EVERYONE, not just those BINers.

    5. Not enough detail on the site sales copy - I haven't seen this problem much, but go into every detail on why the site is such a great deal. Make potential buyers see the $$$$$ in their eyes.

    That's all I can think of, feel free to add yours.
    thanks a lot for this coll tips mate.as i am planning to do site flipping.this tips will definitely help me.

    thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Pereira
    1. Running a PUBLIC buyers list... all it allows people to do is check up on your auctions and better you. Also, it's easier to make backend sales if your 'list' is through instant messenger or email, as you can add the personal touch.

    2. Concentrating solely on startup websites. Like everything in life, site flipping will get saturated... some people are spending all their time still flipping the standard 10 article tweaked sites or Clickbank product sites. Do they sell? Yes, but it's harder to sell them than it was a month ago, and as it gets more saturated you'll run out of buyers as they get sick of the same sites.

    People should use startup flips to develop capital and then work on flipping 'proper' websites, with traffic and/or revenue.

    I was going to do a post about these common mistakes on here, I'll post more when I remember what I was going to say
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    • Profile picture of the author BODH
      Originally Posted by Jason Pereira View Post

      1. Running a PUBLIC buyers list... all it allows people to do is check up on your auctions and better you. Also, it's easier to make backend sales if your 'list' is through instant messenger or email, as you can add the personal touch.

      2. Concentrating solely on startup websites. Like everything in life, site flipping will get saturated... some people are spending all their time still flipping the standard 10 article tweaked sites or Clickbank product sites. Do they sell? Yes, but it's harder to sell them than it was a month ago, and as it gets more saturated you'll run out of buyers as they get sick of the same sites.

      People should use startup flips to develop capital and then work on flipping 'proper' websites, with traffic and/or revenue.

      I was going to do a post about these common mistakes on here, I'll post more when I remember what I was going to say

      J
      Yes thats true the market is getting saturating.more and more sellers are coming with 10 article blogs.
      Truth is More sellers,Less buyers

      Jason we were wiating to hear more from u,advice from a real Flipping master
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  • Profile picture of the author Desmond Ong
    I have to agree on Jason's view about running public list.

    Public list never work for me. Every single time I pop an email to my list, there will be about 5 people emailing me or IM-ing me to ask me where I got the designs, where I outsource and some really stupid comments like "Nice site!".

    Here's what I do: I separate two kinds of list. One list is list of buyers THAT REALLY buy from me and most likely already bought from me before. Another list is filled with "stalkers" and "cheapos".



    I preferred to flip privately because I can add the personal touches and well, somehow sites tend to sell much more!
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkWrites
    Some great tips on the mistakes people make site flipping.

    I would say a number of people cut their profits short by not offering follow-up services or products to the eventual buyers of the website. These are now perfect customers for PLR products, ebooks, more articles, blog post databases, hosting, programming, and more, because they have a new website and probably need some more content or features to get the ball rolling.
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