Buying a site from Flippa

tony20

tony20

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Do you guys have any tips on buying a site from Flippa?

I'm really interested in buying a site I have my eye on but don't want to get conned so does anyone have any tips on how to go about checking the sites health? making sure its not penalized in anyway, see how is ranking etc.

Many thanks
Tony
 
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I would love to hear what other people have to say about this as well.
 
One easy tip I can give you is to check out the domain listings on here. Check the info that posters provide to make their domain more attractive and check the info the mods verify before they approve the post, some of them also contain the site or service they used to verify this info. Best of luck!
 
Can't be much help really, but BE SURE to do your due dilligence...then do some more..... Was burnt myself some years back. Flippa won't help you with anything when it is later proven clear fraud as they still make their money. Some member here would do the research for a fee. Hopefully someone will give the details. Well worth his fee imho
 
Is this the sellers first sale?
How old is the site?
Is traffic consistent? Are there spikes? Do you have at least 12 months traffic figures?
What is the backlink profile like?
Have you checked wayback machine/internet web archive?
How is it monetized, and does seller provide at least 12 months of reports?
 
W130SN said:
Is this the sellers first sale? No, he's sold one more site and got positive feedback
How old is the site? Site is 8 months old
Is traffic consistent? Are there spikes? Do you have at least 12 months traffic figures? mmmm, so so. It only started get decent but still shit traffic since October. Its been constant since then.
What is the backlink profile like? Very few backlinks. There's loads I can do to this site to make it better put it that way.
Have you checked wayback machine/internet web archive? Great tip! going to check it now!
How is it monetized, and does seller provide at least 12 months of reports?
Click to expand...
No proof, I've asked the seller to post proof but he's not been online since I messaged him. Its only made pennies but its not over priced to be fair.
 
tony20 said:
No proof, I've asked the seller to post proof but he's not been online since I messaged him. Its only made pennies but its not over priced to be fair.
Click to expand...

When you see a jump in traffic 3 months before a sale it can mean that the traffic is fake/low value and that he is just pumping out a starter site aimed at the noob market.
If you think the domain might be brandable then sometimes it is worth having a punt, but the stats you have posted say that the site isn't worth much.
You can pick up numerous sites with similar stats for under $100.
How much content is on the site and is it good quality and original?
It might be worth $100 but I doubt much more, you could easily produce your own site with similar stats in a couple of months.
 
I would ask for a video walk-through on everything, from website analytics to more importantly, revenue numbers. NEVER rely on screenshots because that is easily faked.

Do it live, and not have the seller record it. The video walk-through helps tremendously, but I would definitely perform due diligence on the act of how to perform due diligence when buying a site.

Check out feinternational.com - they have great tips on their site and the team is a solid one.

Disclaimer: I've sold two businesses through them, but they were real transactions that gave me tremendous confidence in their team.
 
W130SN said:
When you see a jump in traffic 3 months before a sale it can mean that the traffic is fake/low value and that he is just pumping out a starter site aimed at the noob market.
If you think the domain might be brandable then sometimes it is worth having a punt, but the stats you have posted say that the site isn't worth much.
You can pick up numerous sites with similar stats for under $100.
How much content is on the site and is it good quality and original?
It might be worth $100 but I doubt much more, you could easily produce your own site with similar stats in a couple of months.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking along the same lines regarding the value. The buy it now is worth I think.

The main thing that attracts me is that its a niche I wanted to get into and its all made for me already! So saving me a lot of time. Having said that, there's quite a bit of work to do to make it just right.
 
tony20 said:
No proof, I've asked the seller to post proof but he's not been online since I messaged him. Its only made pennies but its not over priced to be fair.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to be rude, but if you're here asking for tips on what to research before buying the site, then you aren't an authority on whether or not it's overpriced. If it only earns pennies and there's no proof of any of the stats, there's a lot of due diligence needed on your part before you pay anything over the fee to register a new domain for it.
 
tony20 said:
Yeah I was thinking along the same lines regarding the value. The buy it now is worth I think.

The main thing that attracts me is that its a niche I wanted to get into and its all made for me already! So saving me a lot of time. Having said that, there's quite a bit of work to do to make it just right.
Click to expand...


Well if you think the BIN is ok and take it just as a base site, then it is possibly worth a punt. Just make sure it has no penalties etc.
Also if it is monetised with Adsense, make sure the account is OK and that the site hasn't been banned.
Good Luck
 
Kory1 said:
I don't mean to be rude, but if you're here asking for tips on what to research before buying the site, then you aren't an authority on whether or not it's overpriced. If it only earns pennies and there's no proof of any of the stats, there's a lot of due diligence needed on your part before you pay anything over the fee to register a new domain for it.
Click to expand...

I'm not buying it for the revenue. As I stated above, its a niche I wanted as part of my portfolio and its pretty much a pre-made, and fully stocked site. I have to put my "touches" to it though. i.e. absolutely no on page seo and the placement of his Ads are shocking.
 
W130SN said:
Well if you think the BIN is ok and take it just as a base site, then it is possibly worth a punt. Just make sure it has no penalties etc.
Also if it is monetised with Adsense, make sure the account is OK and that the site hasn't been banned.
Good Luck
Click to expand...

That's the two things I am worried about. Penalties and HIS adsense account... When I change over the adsense code to mine, will that not wipe out any dodgy problems the site may have had?
 
tony20 said:
I'm not buying it for the revenue. As I stated above, its a niche I wanted as part of my portfolio and its pretty much a pre-made, and fully stocked site. I have to put my "touches" to it though. i.e. absolutely no on page seo and the placement of his Ads are shocking.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. Well if the current owner ignores on page and terrible ad placement, the stats are going to be pretty misleading. Best of luck.
 
tony20 said:
That's the two things I am worried about. Penalties and HIS adsense account... When I change over the adsense code to mine, will that not wipe out any dodgy problems the site may have had?
Click to expand...

Make sure that you have a team viewer session where he signs into the account. Some people run Ads from other peoples or stolen accounts just to show Ads running on the site.

There are some sites that claim they can check for bans, not sure how effective they are though.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=is+my+site+banned+from+adsense
 
If the site has ads on it now it is not banned. Even if he did something once his code is off the site you are fine. Not ever sites value is in rankings, some have great marketing plans, some great content, and some just a great concept. You can usually tell by messaging the seller as to how responsive he is to proving revenues and info if he is being honest or not. Pay will paypal so you can dispute it if something goes wrong and make him put any promises in writing in the paypal invoice.
 
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