New way to earn money - buy websites and flip them (!)

[Clinton]

According to a Sky news interview with Dave Slutzkin from Flippa.

Apparently, you need only $1,000 ...and Flippa even checks the revenue for you (if it's an Adsense site).

[Thomas]

Simple as that!

[Kay]

This thread should have been started in the "You couldn't make it up" department. Gee, is it a quiet day for news or something? It's almost as bad as the BBC's "Click". (Not my favourite TV programme.) What on earth possessed Sky to take a has-been business model and parade it as being "news"? Money must have changed hands somewhere.

[Nidec]

When you know that paid subscriptions wasn't part of Sky's original business model it makes it easier to understand how they may have also missed something as obvious as site flipping.

[daveslutzkin]

This thread should have been started in the "You couldn't make it up" department. Gee, is it a quiet day for news or something? It's almost as bad as the BBC's "Click". (Not my favourite TV programme.) What on earth possessed Sky to take a has-been business model and parade it as being "news"? Money must have changed hands somewhere.

Money changing hands? That's a pretty ridiculous accusation. They wanted to talk about it, our PR people put me forward for an interview. That tends to be the way the media works.

[Kay]

Hi Dave and welcome back to EP. Good to see you here again.

Money changing hands? Sorry, I've no idea what bees were buzzing around my bonnet when I wrote that. (I'm sure I must have had a reason but if I did I've forgotten it now.) Therefore, I apologise and retract that statement (until or unless I can remember why I said it). I dunno, maybe I thought it was a Flippa publicity drive or something. But just about everyone has already heard of Flippa.

The OP still stands, though. It's a bit silly of Sky to run a news item about flipping as if it was something new. It's not new at all and it's not news. You guys have been in the business for years. Here on EP, quite a large number of new forum members start with an introductory post telling us that they want to get into website flipping. Even you would agree it's not news, wouldn't you?

Yes, I know how the media works. If they have a slow news day, they have to make "news" out of something. I don't expect you've seen the BBC World TV programme called "Click". They come out with all kinds of amazing revelations in the same way as Sky did with that one.

Since you're here and have addressed my posting, any chance of you replying to Clinton's point?

Apparently, you need only $1,000 ...and Flippa even checks the revenue for you (if it's an Adsense site).

[Clinton]

But just about everyone has already heard of Flippa.

The OP still stands, though. It's a bit silly of Sky to run a news item about flipping as if it was something new. It's not new at all and it's not news.

I doubt Flippa is as well known as that, Kay. Even among webmasters, a large percentage would never have heard that name. I often come across folk in technology who've been running websites/servers since the last century who don't even know that some people buy and sell websites far less knowing about a recent three year old startup marketplace.

Besides, Flippa's publicity has usually been to draw people into buying websites, people to whom the idea would not have normally occurred. They put comparatively very little effort into attracting the sellers of quality web properties. Interviews like the one with Sky fit the pattern. "Come to Flippa, take your wallet out, buy a site, make money". At the moment, given the drop in percentage of sites selling at Flippa, it would appear that this is the right group for Flippa to be targeting.

[daveslutzkin]

Even you would agree it's not news, wouldn't you?

These days it's hard to tell what actually is news, as opposed to newstainment, but I agree with Clinton's following point that plenty of people who might want to know about Flippa still don't realise we exist - hence PR.

Since you're here and have addressed my posting, any chance of you replying to Clinton's point?

I'm not sure what reply it requires? We verify AdSense earnings and have done so for almost a year. We'd love to verify earnings through more sources and we're actively working on doing so.