MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

The Death Of Site Flipping

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Probably all of you now know the term “Site flipping” as it’s had its growth late last year up to the middle season this year. During it’s growth over a hundred info products teaching people flipping started to come across and it seemed like everyone wanted to get on that bandwagon immediately.

And as of this writing the hype of site flipping has really seemed to plummet. Death of site flipping mania? Probably yes, not in the sense that no one is making good money anymore with flipping websites and blogs. Death in the sense that probably people have realized it’s not really as easy as counting numbers and hence they moved on a completely different thing now.

I don’t know but I think the business model really became saturated (with noobs) when its growth skyrocketed. I mean the ratio on seeing a new startup site get listed on major marketplaces is just astounding, as if the potential buyers are dumbass stupid business people. Obviously what happened was that people created tons of startup sites only to get stucked on their  own server after some time. That’s the problem when one doesn’t have an idea of running a website properly.

So that has what happened. It’s funny to think these people are selling startup sites they boast to become ‘profitable’ YET they themselves couldn’t monetize it. I’m not ranting but I just think people need to learn first before jumping into ANY business model.

Too late to profit then from this business model? Naah, the whole point in this article is that people may have somehow realized site flipping is MORE than just installing wordpress on their sites and cranking out cheap dirt articles (and saying its SEO’d!). I am no site flipper myself although I have sold good websites in the past few years and my piece of advice is that, just try to put yourself in the position of your potential buyers. Are you gonna buy the crap out of that site? (be honest!)

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Comments

  1. The site flipping market is definately disappearing.

    The reason for this is that the standard formula (Domain + WordPress + 10 Unique Articles) simply doesn’t work anymore. When there was the surge last year, too many people tried to use that formula, so to compete they had to lower prices. Eventually, the prices become so low that it’s not even worth doing it.

    However, site flipping is not dead, you just need to make it so your website is better. Try adding in a product and getting some revenue. My friend Akhil makes thousands by doing this. He creates a product, gets an awesome design and then gets loads of affiliates. Sells loads of copies through the affiliates, then sells. He makes thousands of dollars.

    I guess that’s proof that site flipping is still well and truly alive, you just need to be smarter! 😉
    .-= Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Starting A Blog =-.

  2. It’s still alive, you just gotta step your game up and destroy all the people doing the same boring shit on the market. Which is easy.

    Course, I’m biased as hell, but profits per site I sell are more than they were six to eight months ago… which is always a good thing.

    Long time no read of this blog btw. 😉

  3. I believe the initial business model of site flipping is still alive and well to those who know how to do it. There are plenty of noobs out there who have no idea what their sites are worth and are willing to let go of them for fairly cheap; these deals are the basis of site flipping.

    Start up/cook cutter/turnkey sites are what’s saturating the market and what the noobs and scammers of the online world turned to to make a quick buck.
    .-= John Uy´s last blog ..I was Wrong to Doubt you Pacquiao =-.

  4. Simon and Jason have a point. The best sites to sell are the sites that are profitable and popular (in as much as they have visitors). So the rubbish sites are dying their death, but there will always be a market for quality websites. Lucky for those who crack their own magic formula.

    Dan
    .-= Dan Harrison´s last blog ..Optimising Buttons – did you benefit? =-.

  6. It’s more of the death of noobs who promise a lot yet deliver too little. Site flipping really is big. But only to those people who really can handle serious business to serious buyers. Selling a decent membership site for one can single-handedly rake in a lot of money. Better for site flippers to shape up, or get out.
    .-= Liane YoungBlogger´s last blog ..Your YoungBlogger is Officially Back! Plus, We’re Now Page Rank 3 and I’m Giving Away Free Backlinks! =-.

  7. I agree selling start up sites is getting harder but like you and others say you just have to up your game.

    I took a break for a few months due to noob saturation but I can see they will be gone soon so have jumped back in and am pushing myself to offer more quality for buyers.

    I’m going to be working on original products, sites with traffic/revenue and startups to cover all corners of the market.
    .-= Forest´s last blog ..Sell Your SIte For More – Great Video Tips =-.

  10. hey welcome back Jason. 🙂 That made sense to me. I’m never a site flipper but I think that statement is something that noob flippers must get. I think the problem lies also on the info prods about site flipping because most of them are teaching the wrong mindset (w/c is the quick flipping of startup useless sites).

  11. To be honest everytime I look at a marketplace (Flippa for example), I really get pissed off because of that same boring stuffs I see on it. You’re right tons of cookie-cutter sites are thrown their w/hopes of getting bought.

  12. Totally right. The problem with most flippers is that they use same strategies to build the same kind of rehashed types of sites w/c just pollutes the marketplace

  15. ey thanks. 😀 uhm, i paid every subscribers $0.025 for subscribing? lols! Thats probably the glitch in the plugin I am using I think.

  16. The problem with blogging overall, once a particular system has been seen to be profitable, everyone duplicates it with the hope of making a killing. I guess being original is scary for most as it’s not a tried and tested way of doing things…in the long run, there is return in site flipping if you’re going to offer value on your site to the buyer.

  19. I don’t know why site flipping is such a big deal anyway. If you are skilled enough to raise the value of a domain then you should be making more money than you would make if you flip sites (I’m talking of long term passive earnings here). I don’t know about you guys but I only flip sites that don’t make me money. I don’t do it to make money. I do it to reduce cost and to trim down the sites I handle. Why continue flipping sites when you can make money semi-passively/passively through the sites you own?

    I just don’t understand the site flipping business at all and I think a lot of noobs are being scammed into thinking that this is a sustainable long term online business. For me it definitely isn’t because you will stop making money once you stop creating new sites.

  20. Sherwin…really depends on who you are. What if making sites is truly what you do and churning out a high quality well branded original site is a matter of 12 – 20 hours labor. As a veteran web designer I find the potential mind boggling and the little experience I have with creating and “flipping” start-ups has been fantastic. The earnings can even become somewhat passive putting the right pieces in place (I’m not there yet, still grindin’ but its so worth it).

    A day old site with absolutely no traffic, earnings, or promotion still has real value if you create a top-notch site and/or product. It can easily be worth $xxx – $x,xxx and yes buyers are willing to pay it on a regular basis. Leave the marketing completely up to the new owner or start a viable marketing blueprint and increase your asking price.

    When you provide a quality foundation the success or failure of a start-up business is up to the new owner and is nothing new in the world of commerce. Even if your making 1k a month from a site if you don’t keep up your marketing efforts the site will eventually earn little to nothing anyway.

    If the buyer is an IM guru then they can hit the ground running with zero product development time. The noob buyer looking for a free lunch may be disappointed but they can still make money with it, they just gotta hire an IM guru and wait.

  21. I heard about site flipping few months ago and the person who told me explained that how much money anyone can make without doing any hard work, but when I realized the whole process I came to know that how difficult it is to bring traffic on such websites. Its a totally dead concept and I amazed that how people managed to make big money with such concept. All the SEO part is disappeared in website flipping concept. I mean no keywrd, no worthy articles, no regular updates, no traffic surge. How could any concept would work in this scenario.

  22. I’ve been running my own website for years and learned design, SEO, and what little marketing I know on my own. I thought I heard of every conceivable scheme available online, but this is the first I’ve heard of “site-flipping.”

    When people were getting the unlimited website packages some domain hosts provide, I thought they were doing it for SEO purposes or real genuine business purposes.

    But to flip ’em? Gee whiz…guess I’m glad I missed out on that trend.
    .-= Jacob Godwin´s last blog ..Search Engine Rankings =-.

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