Flippa is now doing "due diligence" for you

[3Six]

Guys, open your eyes. The reason they keep talking up the PPC costs is to push SEMRush and the reason they are pushing SEMRush is because of the affiliate commissions. In the "due diligence data" they are providing links to SEMRush in the "More detailed information at SEMRush" - those are affiliate links.

[benitez17]

Guys, open your eyes. The reason they keep talking up the PPC costs is to push SEMRush and the reason they are pushing SEMRush is because of the affiliate commissions. In the "due diligence data" they are providing links to SEMRush in the "More detailed information at SEMRush" - those are affiliate links.

I noticed that this morning. I spent some time reading about their ratings and tools to see why Luke felt they were so useful until I saw that they are getting paid to promote SEMRush.

It's just yet another reason not to trust Flippa. I have no problem with them making money via referrals, but it should be disclosed when Luke or anyone else is talking up the product. In that case, it's a sales pitch, not an endorsement.

[Clinton]

The reason they keep talking up the PPC costs is to push SEMRush and the reason they are pushing SEMRush is because of the affiliate commissions.

After my latest comment in that thread, Luke says

SEMrush links are no longer affiliate links. We rectified this a day after the page went live...

Based on the timestamps, they seem to have done it in reaction to your post above

And we seem to have touched a raw nerve with Luke starting an SP thread which quickly got a detailed reply from one of Luke's friends (possible pre-prepared) and even Matt jumping in to comment and defend the "business model" of running a site on free traffic.

I'm not going to bother to comment in that thread to defend the sensible route of not relying too excessively on any one source for your traffic. I love free SE traffic as much as the next guy but a bunch of SEOs and others who benefit from talking up the value of SE traffic (Flippa) aren't the turkeys who're going to vote for Christmas.

[[Thread split to new thread - Is it safe to rely on free traffic - Clinton]]

[benitez17]

Good to hear. I don't like anyone promoting a product to an audience without disclosing their relationship with that business. It really undermines the authenticity of the endorsement.

It's a good thing people like 3Six are around to keep Flippa's tendency to try and slip things like this past their customers in check.