Flippa Alternative - New marketplace that could make it big?

**Clinton** · August 10th, 2010, 11:32 AM

http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/

Take a look and the page background may appear like a juvenile effort by someone learning HTML (like me)

...or the type of Flippa clone that we see cropping up every second week.

But it's early days and it may be worth keeping an eye on this one.

Searchforecast run an Adsense "directory"/scraper where you can do http://spyonweb.com/ type searches to connect a site owner to other sites via the use of the same Adsense publisher ID (read about their "de-anonymizing").

But they also represent Quinstreet, Internet Brands and other NASDAQ companies making acquisitions of larger/high priced sites. Further, they act as web consultants to big names like the BBC and Deloitte. And they run the Content Revenue Strategies Conference for Adsense publishers (sponsored by Google/AOL/eBay). This ain't your average Joe.

I'm in contact with their CEO. Any questions you'd like to put to him? Any suggestion you'd like to make for him?

**delta4** · August 10th, 2010, 11:52 AM

Suggestion? Like you said they need to update design of site and give some information about themselves.

Also i would not start this marketplace on a subdomain. I would create a brand if they are really serious about this. This way they seem very unprofessional.

**petertdavis** · August 10th, 2010, 02:41 PM

I agree with delta4, but even before that, if there's nothing there for me to consider buying then there's no reason for me to ever visit their site again. It doesn't matter what it looks like, what the domain is, if it's raining outside, etc, if there's nothing of value listed there then I'm not giving it a second look.

**Clinton** · August 10th, 2010, 02:58 PM

That's true, I'll tell them they need to get the listings populated first.

BTW, they do currently buy 20-30 sites a week for the big boys. They don't have a huge database of buyers like some brokers do, but the ones they do have are regular buyers with very deep pockets. I've always maintained you need to have the buyers first before you can attract sellers (attracting sellers/populating a listings page is easy - you can even copy listings made elsewhere to get the ball rolling).

Maybe I jumped the gun a bit and linked to their site before they were ready

but they've invested a fair bit in this and they've got the ability to pull it off so I'll keep in touch with Marc and see if I can get him in here to talk with all of you.

**delta4** · August 10th, 2010, 03:29 PM

I think buyers are here

But if they also are on the market buying sites it means that they must be clear about rules on their marketplace and if they will keep buying there. To tell you the truth i would prefer a marketplace where owner would not be a buyer.

But they have a lot of work to do.

**tvanslooten** · August 10th, 2010, 10:59 PM

OMG...can the background be any louder. You're right...it looks like another Flippa clone - but worse

I agree with what Peter and delta4 have said - you need a good inventory first and I don't really like the fact that they are buyers themselves. I think they have a long way to go to beat Flippa.

Travis

**Clinton** · August 11th, 2010, 06:14 AM

Nobody noticed that they want to list only sites monetised with Adsense?

I don't think they're looking to compete with Flippa, Travis. Even if they took non-Adsense sites, they're targeting businesses, not turnkey sellers.

They may fall by the wayside like so many other listing sites, but they've got the contacts and the big advertising budgets to get established and become the place for mid-market sites.

**petertdavis** · August 11th, 2010, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by Clinton

Nobody noticed that they want to list only sites monetised with Adsense?

I didn't look close enough to notice that. But, to be honest, I prefer to buy sites that are monetized only with Adsense. It's easier to benchmark.

**marczphillips** · August 11th, 2010, 01:26 PM

Hi Clinton, Many thanks for posting our website and starting the discussion. We typically have been dealing with sites that turnover more than $50,000 a month and most of these sales are done offline, often at our CRS Conference (http://www.crsconferences.com) which over 1000 publishers attend as well as many website buyers and sellers. Many of the transaction/negotiations happen at/around the Conference. In fact, our next conference is in Los Angeles in January 2011! We will be happy to post a Promo Voucher for 5 free tickets to the Conference and will liaise with Clinton. Best, Marc

**marczphillips** · August 11th, 2010, 01:45 PM

Hi Travis & Delta4: SearchForecast doesn't buy websites and then on-sell them, we act as the agent.

We have a team of 10 people internally that work with clients such as like Aol, OpenX, Mojiva, YieldBuild, TrafficMarketplace, Reply.com, ValueClick, ADT/DirectTV and other advertisers to find publishers from within our AdSense Directory which features over 420,000 AdSense Publishers and 6 million other publishers globally. We qualify/filter and send emails and outbound phone calls. As part of this business unit, we find websites that want to sell and or our clients wish to acquire.