Flippa Flips a Switch, and Sells Stop

[prettytoney]

Yeah, it's a good idea, but this change has left my marketing budget flat. If you wouldn't mind sharing it, I'd be interesting in seeing how you do your listings. You can pm it me.

Sure. But it seems like I'm not able to send PMs yet because I'm still new to this forum. PM me, I guess I can reply I just can't start a PM.

 

[shifubill]

By the way, I've dug into the current situation a bit. Flippa got a new CEO in September. On Nov 7th, there was a blog post announcing the price change and saying that Flippa will be shifting focus to the listing of "businesses", where a business is defined as a site that is at least 6 months old and has been regularly receiving a profit. A business listing costs $200, more if Flippa manages it themselves.
According to Flippa support, "established sites" still exist, though I can't find anything on Flippa that mentions this. As far as I'm able to tell, an established site is any site over 4 months old. It doesn't need to have traffic or revenue. Established sites still get free relists. It's not clear if starter sites will continue to exist. I'm not even sure it's possible to list a 4+ month old site now and get a free relist after 30 days. That seems to be the case, but I'm not sure.
Right now, starter sites, established sites, domains, apps, and some other things are classified as "Assets" and cost $25 to list.
It looks like, going forward, the focus will be on businesses, with assets being a larger but less promoted part of the marketplace. The front page and header categories have changed, but basically everything looks the same. Other than the front page, the biggest change seems to be that it's more difficult to get to a search box, and business and asset searches seem isolated. I can see how sales might have dropped, but I don't understand why my sales have stopped altogether.

 

[patadeperro]

This could be a good flippa discussion thread, I sell on flippa as well, but I did not see such a big change, yes there was definitelly a change in the business volume BUT I honestly thought it was the time of the year. now selling an stablisehd site or a site that has revenue is NOT the same than selling a new site, managing a site and to make money with it requires a set of skills different than the ones you need to creat a site, to me the biggest advantage you would have (as a buyer) acquiring a new site was to avoid all the hassle related to the website development if you are not very tech savy or if you simply wanted to generte your PBN.

 

[prettytoney]

This could be a good flippa discussion thread, I sell on flippa as well, but I did not see such a big change, yes there was definitelly a change in the business volume BUT I honestly thought it was the time of the year. now selling an stablisehd site or a site that has revenue is NOT the same than selling a new site, managing a site and to make money with it requires a set of skills different than the ones you need to creat a site, to me the biggest advantage you would have (as a buyer) acquiring a new site was to avoid all the hassle related to the website development if you are not very tech savy or if you simply wanted to generte your PBN.

Do you sell starter sites as well? What type of listing do you use if you don't mind sharing? I put up an auction a week ago, got approx 1000 views in the first 3 days but very few bidders and bids. Since then I'm getting literally 20 views a day which is a joke considering I paid for the featured auction.

 

[MehdiBmm]

I think the problem is much more general, I did put my 7 months old website on premium public auction (the website gets 260$+/m profit and its increasing) and the higher bid I got is 20$ -_-

It was a 15 days auction, and now there's 4 days left for it to end.

My website is established so I don't really know what's the problem lately with Flippa...

 

[shifubill]

Do you sell starter sites as well? What type of listing do you use if you don't mind sharing? I put up an auction a week ago, got approx 1000 views in the first 3 days but very few bidders and bids. Since then I'm getting literally 20 views a day which is a joke considering I paid for the featured auction.

The reason you got so many views initially is because Flippa promoted through email or tweet or just put it on the front page. But that traffic doesn't last long, so now you're just getting normal traffic. There used to be options to stay on the front page longer, but that seems to be gone now. Maybe it's only available to business listings.

As an update, the beginning of the listing process has changed again and it is now apparent that there will be only two types of listings, business and assets. There is no question at the start if a site is 6 months old. It seems there will be no difference between starter site and non-business established sites. The qualifications to be listed as a business are strict, and there is a $200 listing fee. So starter sites and established sites are all mixed up together under the assets category.
Also, it seems that businesses that are websites also appear under Assets>Websites. But only businesses appear under the business category. But I haven't researched this much.
And I still haven't had a real sale for over 2 weeks.

 

[patadeperro]

Do you sell starter sites as well? What type of listing do you use if you don't mind sharing? I put up an auction a week ago, got approx 1000 views in the first 3 days but very few bidders and bids. Since then I'm getting literally 20 views a day which is a joke considering I paid for the featured auction.

Yes flippa seller for dating websites, I have put on sale several websites and easily my income has been reduced in 70% since their changes, I always "just" paid the initial fee ($19) to flip the websites as fast as possible and I had a good return, but now since the change ($29 for the starting sites) even the clients that are buying the sites have decreased, they pay less, take longer to pay you and some of them do not pay at all.

I think the problem is much more general, I did put my 7 months old website on premium public auction (the website gets 260$+/m profit and its increasing) and the higher bid I got is 20$ -_-

It was a 15 days auction, and now there's 4 days left for it to end.

My website is established so I don't really know what's the problem lately with Flippa...

I feel you, the number of visitors have decreased A LOT and since you can't put public omments the activity of the auction decreases as well, I used to pump the sale putting screen caps of the increase in traffic, backlinks, anchor texts of the website and I used to leave a public comment explaining the importance and fuelling the last hours of the auction with public comments, but now they do not allow those comments anymore.

 

[patadeperro]

The reason you got so many views initially is because Flippa promoted through email or tweet or just put it on the front page. But that traffic doesn't last long, so now you're just getting normal traffic. There used to be options to stay on the front page longer, but that seems to be gone now. Maybe it's only available to business listings.

As an update, the beginning of the listing process has changed again and it is now apparent that there will be only two types of listings, business and assets. There is no question at the start if a site is 6 months old. It seems there will be no difference between starter site and non-business established sites. The qualifications to be listed as a business are strict, and there is a $200 listing fee. So starter sites and established sites are all mixed up together under the assets category.
Also, it seems that businesses that are websites also appear under Assets>Websites. But only businesses appear under the business category. But I haven't researched this much.
And I still haven't had a real sale for over 2 weeks.

Any ideas about alternative markets beside here?

 

[shifubill]

Any ideas about alternative markets beside here?

Nope. Flippa pretty much dominates the market. I'm hoping this is just a "market correction" of sorts and things will eventually straighten out. Maybe they should spin off their business selling into something like empireflippers, which appears to be the same target market they are going for now, while letting Flippa stay as it was. They probably won't because Flippa has the history and google search ranking.

 

[MehdiBmm]

Yes flippa seller for dating websites, I have put on sale several websites and easily my income has been reduced in 70% since their changes, I always "just" paid the initial fee ($19) to flip the websites as fast as possible and I had a good return, but now since the change ($29 for the starting sites) even the clients that are buying the sites have decreased, they pay less, take longer to pay you and some of them do not pay at all.



I feel you, the number of visitors have decreased A LOT and since you can't put public omments the activity of the auction decreases as well, I used to pump the sale putting screen caps of the increase in traffic, backlinks, anchor texts of the website and I used to leave a public comment explaining the importance and fuelling the last hours of the auction with public comments, but now they do not allow those comments anymore.

Absolutely, I can't comment since nobody did on my auction. I will absolutely not relist it if it doesn't get sold from the beginning, I'll just keep then :s

 

[CoolAdvisor]

Absolutely, I can't comment since nobody did on my auction.

Ask your friend to leave a comment and/or to make a bid under the reserve price.

 

[shifubill]

Ask your friend to leave a comment and/or to make a bid under the reserve price.

I think he means he can't state an opinion about the topic. He's not referring to commenting on Flippa, which is officially dead.

 

[patadeperro]

Nope. Flippa pretty much dominates the market. I'm hoping this is just a "market correction" of sorts and things will eventually straighten out. Maybe they should spin off their business selling into something like empireflippers, which appears to be the same target market they are going for now, while letting Flippa stay as it was. They probably won't because Flippa has the history and google search ranking.

I don't think so man, since empire flippers is focus on revenue generated websites and they even audit the sites to verify the things and I don't know if you have realized BUT the prices in empire flippers are way higher than in Flippa for sites with similar revenue.

I think he means he can't state an opinion about the topic. He's not referring to commenting on Flippa, which is officially dead.

Before you were able to make public comments on the auctions and each comment will send an email to the people interested in the auction, today there is no possible to make any more public comments, they are forbidden.

 

[shifubill]

I don't think so man, since empire flippers is focus on revenue generated websites and they even audit the sites to verify the things and I don't know if you have realized BUT the prices in empire flippers are way higher than in Flippa for sites with similar revenue.

Flippa is now auditing business sites. They even plan to do ID verification soon. I still think Flippa is going to begin going for the same market as empire flippers.

Before you were able to make public comments on the auctions and each comment will send an email to the people interested in the auction, today there is no possible to make any more public comments, they are forbidden.

Yes, that's why I said public commenting is dead. It's not possible for sellers or buyers.

 

[theskyinyoureye]

A lot of sites on flippas were copies of each other and really cheaply made I'm glad they're making it a more quality selling experience.

 

[shifubill]

A lot of sites on flippas were copies of each other and really cheaply made I'm glad they're making it a more quality selling experience.

I sold many many copies of many sites I created cheaply and I told customers what they were getting and they were generally happy with it. I didn't ask what they were doing with the sites but from what I found out, many were just using them as a cheap alternative to hiring a web designer. Some already had traffic and had a plan for the site. Some completely didn't know what they were doing. Some paid me and never asked for the site to be installed. It was a business catering to noobs, and I gave good customer service so I did well at it. There's a place for it, but I think Flippa is reasonably going for customers looking to spend more money.

 

[lightlight]

Having read through the thread, it just came to me that since there are always noobs trying to buy websites, that on its own is a niche market. Why don't a platform be created for that purpose? It may take time for it to get some traction but it will definitely fly. A good example is how konker.io was built as something similar to fiverr and a success was made out of it.

 

[shifubill]

konker.io looks like a poor copy of fiverr with services from better sites like seoclerks, which is full of ripoffs anyway. I'd rather buy from trusted sellers like here on BHW. There have been plenty of people who've tried to start alternatives to Flippa, but there's not enough money in starter sites to make it worthwhile to promote a new site. I think I could make a better go of it to start my own eCom websites selling my sites, but that would be hard to promote.

 

[hero76]

Having read through the thread, it just came to me that since there are always noobs trying to buy websites, that on its own is a niche market. Why don't a platform be created for that purpose? It may take time for it to get some traction but it will definitely fly. A good example is how konker.io was built as something similar to fiverr and a success was made out of it.

I agree, it is similar to the monopoly apple has on cell phones. the common man doesn't want to touch android and there really isn't windows or even a 3rd option. sickening when you think there are 6 billion people on earth with cell phones!

 

[lightlight]

I agree, it is similar to the monopoly apple has on cell phones. the common man doesn't want to touch android and there really isn't windows or even a 3rd option. sickening when you think there are 6 billion people on earth with cell phones!

Does Apple have a monopoly on cell phones? I beg to disagree. Because a lot more phones have Android installed in them and different people use them. If I may ask, where did you get the impression that common people don't want to touch Android??