Selling A Website on Flippa

[mdmostfa]

Hello There,

I'm having a hard time finding a tutorial about selling a website on Flippa. I don't mean a tutorial about how to register and the basic stuff.

I've a 5 months old website with two and half months adsense earning history, the website made $500 from adsense in the last 30 days - PR 4 - 100% Organic Traffic, Doesn't need any work except adding content if the new owner wanted to do. I would like if someone can be kind enough to tell me how to get the best possible price for this website by selling it. I was planning to keep it and add more content but I'm so fucked up in some other projects and need money urgently so I have to sell it. I don't know how much should I aim for especially with the recent google updates.

This is my first time selling a website and I don't know what are the best terms to decide on Flippa, should I put a reserve price, or with no reserve, a BIN or not. This is some how confusing and needs people with experience to tell us about website selling techniques which I believe will be very handy for first time flippers.

Replies are very much appreciated,

Thank You

 

[GiorgioB]

There are lots of threads about this and lots of people who know their site flipping very well. Use the search function and you'll find all the info and other people's experience you need.

 

[TheViceroy]

There are a few key things you want to keep in mind when selling on Flippa. Here are some pointers I have:

- If your site gets a lot of traffic from Google, I would recommend uploading verified Google Analytics, as that will allow buyers to confirm that you are actually getting the Google search traffic that you claim
- If you profit from adsense, get the adsense revenue verified
- Provide honest stats about the site
- Complete the listing, make sure that you have everything filled out
- Choose a smart title that conveys just how much the site makes.

 

[kvmcable]

Not near enough revenue history for a serious buyer. The numbers are practically unbelievable actually. You would need to provide serious proof of traffic and revenue using the Flippa verified system but even then, with such a short history the Flippa verified system takes a 3 month snapshot so if only earning for 2 months the numbers will be divided over 3 months. Same with Google Analytics.

Also most new sites that draw that kind of traffic and Adwords revenue have trademark issues.

The excuse you need money for another project wore out 3 years ago. Nobody has such an urgent need that they give away a reported $500 a month cash cow. You will have your Country of origin working against you with seasoned buyers. Be prepared to prove everything you say about your website.

Personally I think your pitch is all BS. If you can create a new website and in 5 months get it to a PR4, earning $500 a month in Adsense from 100% organic traffic without violating a trademark you're a fukin guru or have some never seen before nude pics of Kate Middleton on your site. Google doesn't just serve up top paying ads on new websites. To generate the amount of traffic necessary for a new website to generate $500 in Adsense earnings is something you should be calling the Guiness Book of World Records with your story.

Good luck but I think you're looking for a fish, not a buyer.

 

[mdmostfa]

Not near enough revenue history for a serious buyer. The numbers are practically unbelievable actually. You would need to provide serious proof of traffic and revenue using the Flippa verified system but even then, with such a short history the Flippa verified system takes a 3 month snapshot so if only earning for 2 months the numbers will be divided over 3 months. Same with Google Analytics.

Also most new sites that draw that kind of traffic and Adwords revenue have trademark issues.

The excuse you need money for another project wore out 3 years ago. Nobody has such an urgent need that they give away a reported $500 a month cash cow. You will have your Country of origin working against you with seasoned buyers. Be prepared to prove everything you say about your website.

Personally I think your pitch is all BS. If you can create a new website and in 5 months get it to a PR4, earning $500 a month in Adsense from 100% organic traffic without violating a trademark you're a fukin guru or have some never seen before nude pics of Kate Middleton on your site. Google doesn't just serve up top paying ads on new websites. To generate the amount of traffic necessary for a new website to generate $500 in Adsense earnings is something you should be calling the Guiness Book of World Records with your story.

Good luck but I think you're looking for a fish, not a buyer.

OMFG, I'm totally flattered now. I will not even argue with you about what you've said about me -Wish you have said more-

But If this BS just happened to be true, and this website owner want to sell his website with the above listed facts and he's able to provide any kind of proof verified screenshots, teamviewer, name it, and that the website doesn't have any trademark issues at all.

What would you advice him to do with this website if he needs to get the best possible price for his website in the course of the next 30 days, and how much should that price be?

Notes:

- Please just keep in mind that I never asked to sell the website here and all I want from you is information about how much should I aim for and what are the best terms, twists, techniques to get the best price for my website on Flippa and general information about Flippa that may someone else find it useful.

- I didn't say that I need money for other projects, I said that I'm fucked up from investing in other projects, what I need is money for my self -life expenses- other than that I would have never thought about selling this website which is BTW my first website ever.

Thank You

 

[namepimp]

Is selling on flippa really worth it? Does the revenue consists and persists once a website is purchased? I am seriously thinking about listing some of my websites in there

 

[zebrahat]

What would you advice him to do with this website if he needs to get the best possible price for his website in the course of the next 30 days, and how much should that price be?

Notes:

- Please just keep in mind that I never asked to sell the website here and all I want from you is information about how much should I aim for and what are the best terms, twists, techniques to get the best price for my website on Flippa and general information about Flippa that may someone else find it useful.

You need primarily more time to establish earnings and traffic history with the site, or a willingness to simply accept the low price that the site commands at this point---that IS the best price the market will support. Absent that, hire or JV with a sales rep, who will approach mainly offline parties (who are less saavy about the market price) on buying the site.

 

[mdmostfa]

or a willingness to simply accept the low price that the site commands at this point---that IS the best price the market will support.

How low are we talking about, in my case of 3 months of earnings supposed that I will offer it for sale after one month, Is it too low like 5 multiples 5 X 500= $2,500 or something like 10 multiples of the monthly earnings ?

 

[zebrahat]

The younger a site is, the earnings are more projected than real. After 10-12 months multiplying the earnings is a more reliable timeframe to arrive at a market value, as it's more likely it's earning on its own and has an extended track record. 2-3 months is NOT enough time to establish a multiplied estimate of its current value, as most sites aren't stably ranking until a few months after being indexed, and the earnings may reflect active tactics you are using to generate the income, instead of the site earning passively through SEO.

Will it stay consistent in traffic or income? Not enough time has passed to prove anything. A just created, indexed and newly optimized site is worth only the creation costs (say, $40-80 or so, see the BST section to confirm this range of pricing), plus whatever somebody subjectively thinks the initial month's ranking performance or earnings signify. If the site is padded out well enough (dozens of pages, appearance of good quality, etc), that could help make the case for a bigger price, otherwise you'll have to rely mostly on salesmanship and an offline business type buyer to flip for higher.

 

[mdmostfa]

2-3 months is NOT enough time to establish a multiplied estimate of its current value, as most sites aren't stably ranking until a few months after being indexed, and the earnings may reflect active tactics you are using to generate the income, instead of the site earning passively through SEO.

Thanks zebrahat for your reply,

But please keep in mind that the website after 30 days from now WILL NOT be 3 months old, It will be 5 months old and has 3 months of adsense earning history, all visitors are from Search engines proved by google analytics and another paid stats service.

My website is pretty much like this one:

https://flippa.com/2813220-169-50-last-30-days-2-153-unique-visitors-no-work-required-rank-1-in-google

The only different is that my site earned $495 in the last 30 days, have a page rank of 4, No Trade mark issues and will complete 90 days of earning history in the next month that's when I'm planning to sell it.

So can I get 10 multiples of earning history like the example above? and what are the best auction type to use for such a site? and how to sweeten the deal to get at least 10 multiples of its monthly earnings?

Note: My website is ranked in the first result in Google for more than 10 keywords and gets about 20,000 visitors per month only from search engines Google Analytics Proven. No shady traffic tactics

 

[zebrahat]

You can only reasonably get a maximum of 5 multiples from a site that has only existed for 5 months, if that. It's not just proven earnings, it's sufficient history that objectively justifies the projected value. The 10x projection is a estimate of future average earnings, based on at least the same period of time that has past. At this point, 10x value claim is half proven, and half subjective projection. Again, you can push to convince buyers of the maximum value, but the pitch has to rely a lot on hyping the reliabilty of the future earnings, since they cannot be established from the timeframe to date, to the level it could be established after another 5-6 months.

 

[mdmostfa]

You can only reasonably get a maximum of 5 multiples from a site that has only existed for 5 months, if that. It's not just proven earnings, it's sufficient history that objectively justifies the projected value. The 10x projection is a estimate of future average earnings, based on at least the same period of time that has past. At this point, 10x value claim is half proven, and half subjective projection. Again, you can push to convince buyers of the maximum value, but the pitch has to rely a lot on hyping the reliabilty of the future earnings, since they cannot be established from the timeframe to date, to the level it could be established after another 5-6 months.

Thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate your time answering my questions.

Thanks + Rep.

 

[mdmostfa]

So can anybody with experience in Flippa advice me about the best auction type to choose for such a site. Should I put a reserve price or not, BIN, 1 week auction or 1 month?

It's my first time selling or even dealing on Flippa so please bear with me.

Thank you for all your answers.

 

[kvmcable]

My website is pretty much like this one:

https://flippa.com/2813220-169-50-last-30-days-2-153-unique-visitors-no-work-required-rank-1-in-google

The only different is that my site earned $495 in the last 30 days, have a page rank of 4, No Trade mark issues and will complete 90 days of earning history in the next month that's when I'm planning to sell it.

So can I get 10 multiples of earning history like the example above? and what are the best auction type to use for such a site? and how to sweeten the deal to get at least 10 multiples of its monthly earnings?

You do realize the buyer for that website got scammed don't you? Check that website today on SEMrush and find it doesn't rank for a single keyword just 3 months after it was sold and the site hasn't changed a bit from the day it was listed.

http://www.semrush.com/info/cartiereyeglasses.net

Look at the verified traffic reports and notice the bounce rate of over 70%. Look at the supposed keywords his organic traffic came from and try to find any of his 28 indexed pages on Google optimized for any of those keywords. Don't waste too much time. That site doesn't rank for any of them.

People that know how Google works can make a bot that can show organic traffic for any keyword phrase or phrases they want. I could show you verified Google Analytic reports saying this very BHW page is getting organic traffic for 30 dog training keyword phrases with a hell of a lot better bounce rate than this scammer came up with (his is 73%).

Maybe we should email the new buyer and ask him how much money he's made in the last 3 months since he purchased this website? I bet he hasn't made $10 from it. Why do I say that? Because

http://www.buydomains.com/EnterContactInfo.do?domain=cartiereyeglasses.net&x=1356677709578

He's trying to sell it just 3 months later. Does that sound like a website owner sitting on a cash cow? The site is a poor MNS at best and not worth $50. The domain has trademark issues and might be another reason it's up for sale. The backlinks are total shit with a trust flow of 3. There is nothing about this website that values it over $50.

I could fill this page with statistics showing this site was a total scam but suffice to say if your site is pretty much like this one I pity the buyer.

 

[mdmostfa]

You do realize the buyer for that website got scammed don't you? Check that website today on SEMrush and find it doesn't rank for a single keyword just 3 months after it was sold and the site hasn't changed a bit from the day it was listed.

http://www.semrush.com/info/cartiereyeglasses.net

Look at the verified traffic reports and notice the bounce rate of over 70%. Look at the supposed keywords his organic traffic came from and try to find any of his 28 indexed pages on Google optimized for any of those keywords. Don't waste too much time. That site doesn't rank for any of them.

People that know how Google works can make a bot that can show organic traffic for any keyword phrase or phrases they want. I could show you verified Google Analytic reports saying this very BHW page is getting organic traffic for 30 dog training keyword phrases with a hell of a lot better bounce rate than this scammer came up with (his is 73%).

Maybe we should email the new buyer and ask him how much money he's made in the last 3 months since he purchased this website? I bet he hasn't made $10 from it. Why do I say that? Because

http://www.buydomains.com/EnterContactInfo.do?domain=cartiereyeglasses.net&x=1356677709578

He's trying to sell it just 3 months later. Does that sound like a website owner sitting on a cash cow? The site is a poor MNS at best and not worth $50. The domain has trademark issues and might be another reason it's up for sale. The backlinks are total shit with a trust flow of 3. There is nothing about this website that values it over $50.

I could fill this page with statistics showing this site was a total scam but suffice to say if your site is pretty much like this one I pity the buyer.

Hey buddy, Just cool down.

Neither the man who bought that website wasn't scammed nor the 16 bidders who bid on the auction were assholes to be scammed by fake stats. The website was sold about 3 months ago by a famous online blogger (mikefrommaine.com) among many other sites he successfully sold without scamming any one, the fact is that the website that was sold in the auction were hit in the last google exact match domain update like many other websites for many other people, the buyer had just bad luck to buy an exact match domain that were hit after a week or so in the last update.

If you just took 2 minutes to check the auction you would have saved your time and this topic from your post

The seller said in the auction

Rankings for website (09/04/12) for the term "cartier eyeglasses".
#1 in Google

Don't you think that any bidder or even anyone curious about the website have checked google to see if the website already ranking as the seller claimed or not? Isn't this easier and more logical to check before checking any picture claims?

There were 16 bidders on that auction that were ready to pay money for this website, for god sake what makes you think that you're better than them?!

Just cool down buddy, I said before I'm not trying to sell anything here to anyone, and I will never reveal the link of my website here on BHW even if it was on a PM. So please either add a value to this topic or save my time and my eyes from reading such posts.

Thank you.

 

[avi619]

You should go to meathead1234 if you want to sell your site. I never sold a website, but everyone here knows about meathead and his Flipping Enterprises. I really think you should contact him.

 

[kvmcable]

So can anybody with experience in Flippa advice me about the best auction type to choose for such a site. Should I put a reserve price or not, BIN, 1 week auction or 1 month?

It's my first time selling or even dealing on Flippa so please bear with me.

Thank you for all your answers.

List it low ($1) with reserve in the range you're looking for. You can change the reserve at any time before it's reached, same with BIN price. Pray you get 30 bids before you get to $200 and the kids and tire kickers can't bid anymore so you're on Most Active page quickly. I won't go into the 3 best times during an auction to catch a buyer but you want those low and early bidders.

List it for 30 days, make 12-20 screenshots proving everything you say. People are lazy and although there is a Due Diligence link you'll find many buyers don't know what the hell all that shit means. You write your copy detailing benefits referencing the attachment that corresponds. E.G. aged and valuable backlinks with good trust flow show screenshot of MajesticSEO with link numbers and trust flow. If you have good anchor text variety then you cut that picture from MajesticSEO and add as attachment with your copy explaining it a bit. On and on with each positive point you can muster. Don't over-do any single point but you need at least a dozen positive points with attachments backing your text.

The point is although experience buyers know the tools to trust they might be lazy. You bring all those statistics to the listing rather than have them leave the listing looking for them. Some won't trust your screenshots but when they do their own research and find your shots are accurate you gain their trust. The lazy ones have everything at a mouse click and you kept them on the page to place a bid. ;-)

Use verified Analytics and Adsense but again veterans know they can be fooled. Be prepared to do teamviews if the price gets serious. Be prepared to send full analytic reports to potential buyers. If you have something to hide the veterans and competitors will find it.

Be prepared for competitor interference, Flippa marketplace isn't that big. There are just a dozen or so big wheels and lots of noobs. My clients, 6 of them, each earn triple digits a day there, sometimes 4 digits. They have no mercy when someone steps in their turf, steals their copy, jumps in their niches or mimics their strategies. Just forewarning you a bit. Don't mimic bigger sellers or you'll find yourself in a shit-storm before you get started. There are lots of tricks to knock off competitors that make mistakes. Read Flippa's TOS a dozen times before listing. The veterans have it memorized. If you break a rule you can be damn sure your competitors will notice and most likely report your ass. There are no friends when battling for the same money and Flippa is losing market share dramatically. In the last month they've gone from 2000+ listings to less than 1200. Some of this from the Holidays but most of it from poor performance - IMO. Almost half of the recent sold auctions closed at less than $100. Half of those less than $50.

That's my contribution but there's much more than this before making serious money on Flippa. Others can assist or you'll have to learn the rest like many did, trial and error. That will get you a good start.

Good luck.

 

[kvmcable]

You have more confidence in the integrity of Mike than I do.


Mike advertised "This site was created April 13, 2012 and has earned a steady income since July. It has not been affected by the Panda or Penguin updates."

Damn it just got affected after he sold it. How could that happen from a professional? Sorry but Mike knew exactly what happened. I bet you could research most of his sold property on Flippa and find similar results. That site had nothing going for it from the time it was sold. I guess that 70% bounce rate looks normal to you also. I bet he sold it as soon as he saw it got hit and before analytic tools updated.

Good luck to you, but in my world there are absolutes and only small risks, probably because I work with reality and facts. That buyer got hosed by Mike the guru.

There isn't even original content on that pathetic MNS site. Look at that CopyScape information. Seriously that's guru work? I guess I got a lot to learn.

Good luck anyway, I hope your site doesn't leave another Flippa buyer cussing the site.

 

[mdmostfa]

You have more confidence in the integrity of Mike than I do.


Mike advertised "This site was created April 13, 2012 and has earned a steady income since July. It has not been affected by the Panda or Penguin updates."

Damn it just got affected after he sold it. How could that happen from a professional? Sorry but Mike knew exactly what happened. I bet you could research most of his sold property on Flippa and find similar results. That site had nothing going for it from the time it was sold. I guess that 70% bounce rate looks normal to you also. I bet he sold it as soon as he saw it got hit and before analytic tools updated.

Good luck to you, but in my world there are absolutes and only small risks, probably because I work with reality and facts. That buyer got hosed by Mike the guru.

There isn't even original content on that pathetic MNS site. Look at that CopyScape information. Seriously that's guru work? I guess I got a lot to learn.

Good luck anyway, I hope your site doesn't leave another Flippa buyer cussing the site.

I don't trust Mike or take anyone else words as granted, Personally I doesn't even like him. It's just the point that you said the seller is a scammer and I'm pretty sure he wasn't, The site was ranking in the 1st result for the term "cartier eyeglasses" as he claimed in the time he was selling the website and after being sold which BTW it wasn't his only website, he used to do that and sold tens of sites through his website before he got burned in the exact match update.

Many so-called gurus got totally fucked up in that update from google, check this 14 page long thread on BHW with so many online marketers reporting being hit in the update.

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...eir-exact-match-domains-disappear-google.html

The buyer had a bad luck, It just happens. I read that because of this exact match update and the result that many website buyers like the one who bought the above website got fucked up from google after buying micro niche websites, the time now is the worst time to sell MNS and that no one can get a decent multiple monthly earnings that such sites were able to achieve before that update. and as I said I would have never thought about selling my website now, probably I would have waited for at least 6 months of stable earnings before thinking about selling it, or maybe I wouldn't have sold such a site and built many others around it. But the urgent need for the cash is the only reason that forced me to think about selling it now thus, I'm trying to get as much information about selling websites on flippa so that I can get the best possible price from it and I really appreciate anyone who adds value and information for me and for other members.

 

[mdmostfa]

Thank you kvmcable for your wonderful post. there're some points in your post I'd like to know.

Pray you get 30 bids before you get to $200 and the kids and tire kickers can't bid anymore so you're on Most Active page quickly. I won't go into the 3 best times during an auction to catch a buyer but you want those low and early bidders.

What do you mean by the 3 best times during the auction? and who are the kids and tire kickers?

Others can assist or you'll have to learn the rest like many did, trial and error. That will get you a good start.

I can't take chances right now so It would be better to let some one who has experience and reputation to sell the website in a professional way better than me and take a percentage from the sale, I checked meathead123 but he have some criteria which only exist in the high end websites. So do you know brokers who are selling mid range websites for a reasonable percentage or commission?

I really appreciate your answers. Thank you