The Best Place To Buy And Sell Websites Is Not Always Flippa
Last year I sold my Netbook Reviews website in a deal worth over $100,000 and I discussed how to sell a high end website in my post sale blog post. In that post I mentioned why I used a website broker to extract more value from the sale of my website property. The main reason why I prefer to use a website broker for higher income generating websites is because they have access to a higher level clientele than the typical Flippa buyer (aka people and companies with a lot more money than you and I). They don’t want to sift through piles of garbage listings to find the gold nuggets, so that’s why they use a broker to act as a filter. The broker’s then typically charge buyers 10% of the sale price.
Why Flippa Is Not The Best Place For Selling $100,000+ Websites: Example
In my blog post from last year I said that I knew that my website sold for more than it would have on Flippa.com and today I want to show you exactly why I know this to be true courtesy this majestic website currently listed on Flippa – How To Get Rid Of Stuff. Yes I just said majestic to describe this website, because of the sheer simplicity and genius of this website. HowToGetRidOfStuff.com is a simple content website with an article for every type of “how to get rid of” complaint you can think of like (how to get rid of acne, how to get rid of carpet stains etc.) combined together all of the articles help contribute to the 1.7 Million page views per month and over $20,000 per month profit that this website generates (genius right?).
Why This Website Should Not Be Sold On Flippa:
Check out the comments on the website listing and you’ll see the people that are asking questions have spent only a few hundred to a few thousand dollars buying websites on Flippa (only one commenter had spent $51k at the time of posting). Do you think that these “buyers” could even afford to buy a website that’s making more than $20k per month when most of them haven’t even spent half of what this website earns every month?
The seller is wasting his time answering questions from people that could never afford to buy his website. In fact, they’re probably just trying to figure out how they can make a similar website by asking as much information from the seller as possible about how it makes money (After doing an SEMRush search it’s obvious that it just makes money by ranking for various “how to get rid of style articles”.
This is precisely why I chose to not list Netbook Reviews on Flippa.com
How Flippa Could Combat These Problems:
I don’t want to be seen as hating on Flippa without offering my advice on how to fix the problems, so if you’re listening Flippa (first don’t get pissed at me, I still love you) but here is my advice:
Solution 1. Hire your own team of website brokers to handle these higher end clients with $100,000+ plus websites (or at least set the bar at $500,000+ websites).
Solution 2. If you don’t want to hire your own team of brokers, than just flip these listings to existing brokers to sell them on your behalf for a cut of the commission. Admit you can’t service the high end of the market at this time or more eloquently tell buyers that you can help them extract more for their listings via one of the partner brokers.
Solution 3. Here’s another solution – allow the people that list their websites to keep the listings available to only Flippa buyers who’ve spent $X of money on Flippa. This final solution probably won’t really work well because there probably aren’t enough buyers who would meet the criteria to see these premium listings (not enough yet at least).
I still really appreciate what Flippa is doing for the market because the more people that get into buying and selling websites the better valuations I can get on my own websites. Eventually the higher end investors will make their way into the market in much larger numbers and they’ll bring along some more money to invest as well.
I still recommend Flippa as a great place to sell websites under the $100k mark I just think things could be better for the higher end sales.
Want To Learn More About Buying And Selling Websites?
If you’re on my newsletter stay tuned for some cool news for those of you that want to learn more about how to really buy and sell websites. As I’ve said before, I will be opening an in depth coaching program on how to buy and sell websites. I partnered with a team of website brokers who’ve sold millions of dollars worth of websites to help create the content and to help with the live coaching webinars we plan to do for members. We’re opening that up this month and it will be much more hands on and step by step focused than anything else I’ve done so we will have an open / close date.
Sign Up To Be Notified Early Here
PS. Let me know what else you’d like to hear about my public website purchase case study. I’ve already covered how I bought the website, my plans to increase the income and then how I more than tripled the income. I still have more work to put into improving that website but what else would you like to know?
Tagged: buying websites, Flippa, Netbook Reviews, selling websites
Got something to say? Click here to reply
Hi Chris, that sounds like good advice. Maybe what flippa needs is a competitor that offers a better service? Thanks to your 10 day course I have made my first effort to purchase someone elses website. No news yet but I think you are on the right track creating a course regarding website purchases. Especially if they have already done the hard yards to get a good ranking without any thought of monetization.
Thanks again,
David
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Hey David,
I don’t think that another competitor can come along and displace Flippa. They handle the lower end well, my online complaint is that they don’t to the upper end as well as I’d like.
Chris
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I agree with your analysis of Flippa not being the best place to sell a high end website. Why don’t you start a niche site that caters to selling high end websites? Your existing relationships with brokers would help a lot in that venture, I guess.
Raj´s last [type] ..Creative Ways You Can Rake In Lots Of Cash By Blogging
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I’ve thought of something like that, but the high end deals are most often done with companies and high net worth individuals that the brokers have had years to build relationships and repertoire with. That and I prefer doing my own thing more so than selling for others.
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Hey Chris,
I just sold my first website on Flippa as sort of a test run for some of my higher priced sites. And although I didn’t expect to get much for it anyway, I am very surprised at the number websites with seemingly fake revenue claims (based on the tools I use to evaluate them), with literally no traffic being reported by Compete, Alexa and the like; sell for way more than this established, verifiable one.
https://flippa.com/auctions/2647281
The sales price barely covered the fees. But like I said, I didn’t expect a whole lot.
I like the idea of brokers, but my only concern is giving them insight into untapped niches, and risking building up more competition before they are able to sell it, driving down the price.
Whereas selling on a site like Flippa, I can set it for 7 days, which is hardly enough time to build up any new competition for myself.
Have any comforting thoughts on that?
Wes´s last [type] ..Mad Rush to Create YouTube Videos
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Using a broker they’re more commonly selling larger sites earning thousands of dollars a month and these brokers most often don’t spend a lot of their time developing their own sites. I’d be more concerned about listing on Flippa where people (such as myself) use Flippa to come up with ideas for websites to build anyway.
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Wes Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
It wasn’t the brokers themselves I was concerned too much about, it was the potential buyers they are telling about the sites when they are trying to help you sell them…
Obviously a brokerage was huge help for selling Netbook Reviews, and because of your advice, it’s definitely something I’m going to consider as I start to unload some of my higher priced websites.
Wes´s last [type] ..Mad Rush to Create YouTube Videos
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 5th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Yah, well that’s the other thing. Is that most brokers are talking to people that have a lot more money and are subsequently less likely to spend their time trying to build a copy cat website than the others.
I never sold an website on flippa though I had the opportunity a couple of times, I ended up selling to existing clients for a little less though you never know…
Next time I will surely use flippa no doubt about it, seen lots of good reviews on the matter.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Flippa isn’t bad don’t get my wrong, the point of this post was to just say that it’s not always the best place.
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I’m at the other end right now, looking to buy my first website (I created and run multiple websites now, but this will be my first purchase).
I think maybe the listing should be open to all no matter how much they have spent, but maybe the questions should be limited to people that have spent x amount, but even then if I want to buy your site and I’ve never used Flippa you may miss out on a sale.
I think most brokers will monitor Flippa anyways, so I think the best thing to do is just not answer any questions you are afraid will give away your secrets.
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Chris Guthrie Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Well, my point is that people (like me) sometimes use Flippa to determine which niches are profitable and what to move into. If I’m showing off my $20k per month earning website and some dude that doesn’t even have $10k to spend on a website is asking me detailed questions about traffic reports and income reports that is a problem.
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Jamie Northrup Reply:
October 4th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
I agree with that 100%
Jamie Northrup´s last [type] ..Top 10 WordPress Themes from September 2011
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Hi Chris,
Nice post on Flippa.I have not use Flippa but after reading your post I am interested in trying it.Thanks for sharing your information about it and it helpful alot of readers especially those who are new in this field.
Pete Goumas´s last [type] ..64% Discount – HairHot Review
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Yeah, I figured as much, but it never hearts to be cautious.
Wes´s last [type] ..Mad Rush to Create YouTube Videos
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I’d like to see Flippa get rid of all those crappy pre-made PLR websites that list for $150 that stop investors from taking real listings seriously.
Jerry´s last [type] ..How To Get What You Want
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Thanks Chris for this eye-opening post on Flippa.I have not use Flippa so far but I consider about using it .Thanks for sharing all these information with us.
Nick
Nick Sotos´s last [type] ..The North Face Apex Bionic Jacket Review
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I’ve ended up on howtogetridofstuff.com via google search, and I certainly agree that the webmasters should take a different course than Flippa.
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What’s ironic about this is that Flippa has now increased the cap on the success fee by 400%, from $500 to $2,000, which affects high end websites. Meaning more money in Flippa’s pocket, less in seller’s, with no additional service provided. Personally I don’t think there are enough buyers on Flippa to warrant the fees they charge in the first place, now they want an extra piece of the pie when overall less than 50% of sites get sold — high or low end — and sellers are not getting top dollar either. Just cause you got a $40,000 website doesn’t mean it’s all profit that anyone can just demand more fees ($2,000+) from because of the higher dollar amount involved. I don’t think Flippa’s business model can continue to work the way they are going and sellers probably are just better off keeping and working on their sites, and sell them at top dollar elsewhere.
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Going to one particular website broker without any analysis is just a foolish act… very nice post regarding this
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