new to site flipping

[MrMidnight]

Hey,

I'm interested in beginning to site flip, I've got quite a bit of money to test with and apparently site flipping is very profitable if you do it right, regardless of the amount of money I have I know that i can lose all my money as i lack the most important thing which is knowledge in site flipping which is why I'm trying to learn as i know that internet marketing is all about knowledge which leads to making money.

Site Buying - I'm just wondering, what are the basics? how much money is needed to begin, how will I know if I can make money off A site?, what things should I be looking for in a site, and what things indicate whether a site is going to be profitable or not?.

As from what I think i understand, this is basically a form of Merchanting? Buying for less and selling for more, or am I wrong and it involves more than just buying and selling, such as improving the websites by increasing their traffic.

Thanks, just need a bit of advice

 

[dcuthbert]

Hey,

To answer your final question first: buying low and selling high is the aim, however as more people have got into site flipping this has become more and more difficult without actually improving the site. To buy a site at a low enough price that you'll make a decent profit after all your selling fees, you need to find a site which is for sale well below the actual value - not easy on the larger marketplaces where you're competing with hundreds.

There is some scope to buy an under-priced site and immediately sell for a higher price - this can usually be done where the seller has a poor sales pitch, either by missing out some major selling points or by not emphasising them enough.

However, in most cases you will need to improve a site in order to make a decent profit. You could buy a site and increase it's value by driving more traffic to it, improving the design, or improving the ad placement to increase earnings.

What to look for - basically, look for a site you think you can improve and make more valuable.
How much you need to start - it depends on whether you're starting at the lower end of the market or higher. You could start with as little as $50 (probably even less) but at that level it's going to be difficult to make any serious cash straight away unless you get very lucky.
What indicates if a site is going to be profitable - basically if it has a poor design and could be improved by easily switching things around, or if the site will be easy to drive more traffic to (eg starting to rank for some keywords, or easy to get social traffic to)

Make sure you do your due dilligence when buying. If a seller claims a site has 3k visitors per day, you need to be able to see where those 3k visitors are coming from - eg is it ranking in the search engines? Is the traffic coming from social media? If a site makes $50/day then you also need to check whether the traffic supports the earnings. Also, make sure the traffic/earnings are likely to drop (eg seasonal)

There are loads of good threads here to get you started, and Bryanon has some good stuff about due dilligence.

 

[MrMidnight]

Wow, great stuff!
Thanks for the very detailed reply, it's helped a lot with my site flipping related knowledge.

 

[webmasterbd]

Hey I have done few flipping few months earlier successfully & willing to team up with you.I dont need your money,we can split the investment if you want to do jv.

 

[kvmcable]

Building websites for the purpose of flipping only benefits sellers that have no issue with fake claims and false advertising. To do it legitimately with real value websites makes absolutely poor business sense.

The amount of work and money it takes today to build and rank good websites makes flipping them a poor idea. Good websites you keep unless you seriously don't want to mess with them any longer and even then it is probably better business sense to run them until they kill themselves. Very rarely does it make sense to sell good websites and if you look at what buyers are expecting to pay for such websites it probably makes even less sense bringing them to market.

If time would allow I could expose at least 80% of the listings on Flippa as false and bad investments. Now if you don't have an issue with ripping ignorant buyers off then flipping makes good sense. If you like to sleep at night knowing you don't need to lie for the money in your bank then flipping websites isn't for you.

 

[MrMidnight]

Building websites for the purpose of flipping only benefits sellers that have no issue with fake claims and false advertising. To do it legitimately with real value websites makes absolutely poor business sense.

The amount of work and money it takes today to build and rank good websites makes flipping them a poor idea. Good websites you keep unless you seriously don't want to mess with them any longer and even then it is probably better business sense to run them until they kill themselves. Very rarely does it make sense to sell good websites and if you look at what buyers are expecting to pay for such websites it probably makes even less sense bringing them to market.

If time would allow I could expose at least 80% of the listings on Flippa as false and bad investments. Now if you don't have an issue with ripping ignorant buyers off then flipping makes good sense. If you like to sleep at night knowing you don't need to lie for the money in your bank then flipping websites isn't for you.

What you're saying is true I suppose but lying has adapted to becoming a part of everyday business, It's needed for becoming successful in a shorter period of time. so I guess most people these days would be able to sleep at night knowing that they've ripped someone off.

But damn, you nailed it I suppose that's what flipping really is.

 

[kvmcable]

Yeah it's anyone's guess where exaggerating the product turns into lying about the product.

People that know much about me know I love KFC. Every time I see a KFC commercial with a bucket full of chicken I say damn I wish KFC really had chicken like that. Then they show the heaping bowl of mashed potatoes that looks like real potatoes but when I go to KFC my potatoes look like they poured them out of a pitcher and I could practically drink the potatoes I receive. =(

I see them hold a Whopper with what looks like a full pound of beef burger with fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes and other condiments on a bun the model can barely hold in two hands. I run through the BK drive-thru and receive a smashed Whopper with barely any lettuce, tomatoes sliced so thin you can see through them and unless they smother the shit with extra ketchup and mustard I can barely stomach it.

My point is the media constantly embellishes products to the point they are flat out lying to consumers and they damn well know it. They don't walk into a KFC or BK and order a meal and shoot the commercial. It's all fake but consumers still by it. The same shit happens at Flippa. Buyer's are shown what they hope to buy but when the open the bag they usually find nothing as it was advertised. I'm not in the position to say what is right and what is wrong. Just calling a spade a spade. Practically all consumer products are marketed with untruths. I picked up some AXE products and I have yet to see a mob of women chasing me with mattresses on their backs. =)

 

[Sblkn]

What you're saying is true I suppose but lying has adapted to becoming a part of everyday business, It's needed for becoming successful in a shorter period of time. so I guess most people these days would be able to sleep at night knowing that they've ripped someone off.

But damn, you nailed it I suppose that's what flipping really is.

Take a look at the stock market, tons of exhegerated claims and values