Making Money From Site Flipping? Still A Hot Topic?

[Clinton]

I wanted to start a thread to attract comments from people in site flipping, people regularly flipping sites for money and those writing about flipping sites (like peterdavis).

But that's likely to attract some flak from the anti-flipping brigade (like 3Six).

So I thought I'd post this thread first before I start one to seek out the opinion of the self-proclaimed site-flippers (Michelle?) and find out what they do, if they really do make money beyond a small compensation for their time, and whether they see a future for it.

Brief Google searches for site:Flippa.com Flipping type terms suggests there are hundreds of listings mentioning flipping. Some may have been about different subjects altogether and just mentioned the term, but the large majority seem to be selling flipping ebooks, flipping networks, flipping memberships, flipping courses.

Interestingly, Flippa's blog has "Website Flipping" in the title.

There was a Sitepoint thread not too long ago on this flipping issue where the old siteflipu.com topic came up. But some claim the buzz has died down. Is that the case or are you still coming across a lot of talk about flipping?

Flipping Up or Flipping Down?

[hooperman]

I think I still see site flipping membership sites being sold on Flippa. It's hard to say because I tend to filter them out unconsciously. I get the feeling that there is less talk about it than there used to be, especially compared to when siteflipu was hot. Maybe with all the posts in this area on the Flippa blog there might be a resurgence?

[3Six]

I voted for hasn't changed because though there are only 13 results using Flippa's internal search for "flipping", there are numerous results for making money online and many of those involve flipping even if they don't use the term.

Mind you, 13 results for live auctions featuring flipping is 13 too many.

[Clinton]

Obviously, what's not hot is voting on whether it's a hot topic

[Michelle]

So I thought I'd post this thread first before I start one to seek out the opinion of the self-proclaimed site-flippers (Michelle?) and find out what they do, if they really do make money beyond a small compensation for their time, and whether they see a future for it.

Clinton I'm not 100% sure what you want to know. "...and find out what they do..."
I build sites and sell them.

"...if they really do make money beyond a small compensation for their time.."

Whatever compensation an individual receives for their time will be considered small or otherwise relative to their circumstances. For my circumstances, yes I do make money beyond a small compensation for my time. Small compensation would be working at McDonalds for minimum wages. Anything above that is beyond small compensation. I've worked for some serious money during my career but I've ended that career to stay home with my children. Any money I can earn without leaving my home is a bonus. Everyone's circumstances are different.

I read a blog post recently where the author suggested selling sites at Flippa for $50. A few people commented that it wouldn't be such a great idea given the cost of the fees at Flippa. The author pointed out that to me, the amount of money earned might seem small but for people in some countries it would be considered a lot. I admit when I've seen sites selling for $50 I assumed the seller had a well oiled sales funnel that made the small return from the actual flip 'worth it'. But perhaps the seller is in the Philippines making a small fortune in context to their circumstances.

"....whether they see a future for it."
In my opinion, yes there is clearly a future for it.

There was a Sitepoint thread not too long ago on this flipping issue where the old siteflipu.com topic came up. But some claim the buzz has died down. Is that the case or are you still coming across a lot of talk about flipping?

I don't have time to follow all the threads and blogs that discuss site flipping but from what I do see it does still seem to attract quite a lot of interest. Even on blogs where the author might not normally talk about site flipping...when they do the posts are popular.

[3Six]

Michelle, when it comes to site-flipping, 99% of the talk out there is from scam artists promoting this as the new gold rush. That's what I've got a problem with. As long as nobody loses money as a result of a con I don't care whether they make $5 or $5M. We've discussed this numerous times in Sitepoint and have seen examples there of how these crooks operate. One or two of them even tried to defend their crooked claims in threads. They genuinely believe they're doing nothing wrong!

[Michelle]

Michelle, when it comes to site-flipping, 99% of the talk out there is from scam artists promoting this as the new gold rush. That's what I've got a problem with. As long as nobody loses money as a result of a con I don't care whether they make $5 or $5M. We've discussed this numerous times in Sitepoint and have seen examples there of how these crooks operate. One or two of them even tried to defend their crooked claims in threads. They genuinely believe they're doing nothing wrong!

Site flipping as the next gold rush...and PPC, Squidoo, Hub, WSOs, Google S n iper, List Building, AdSense, Membership sites, Youtube marketing, Twitter, CPA, ClickBank domination, Article marketing, Facebook et al. All of these are pushed as the new gold rush by someone or other on any given day not just site flipping.

I agree with you that yes, there are people scamming people big time but there are also legitimate marketers who are willing to teach people what they want to know and charge them a moderate fee for it. We're not all bad.

[3Six]

Michelle, you reckon they are pitched with the same vigour, the same level of aggressiveness, the same degree of hype?

And who last heard of someone selling a program to make $10,000 a month from Squidoo? With site-flipping it's easy to fake the stats needed to make the claim sound credible. Remember the guy in SP who was claiming $600K in a year from siteflipping? He was advertising in SP and even Matt made a post quoting him as someone who has made a fortune from flipping. He did make a pile, it did reach all the way from the bottom of the Pacific to the moon, but it was a pile of horse manure.

I do not doubt there are legitimate proponents - I've had a quick look at your site - and I don't envy their task of trying to shine through the dense fog.

[othelloRob]

And who last heard of someone selling a program to make $10,000 a month from Squidoo?

There are dozens of "ebooks" with at least some focus on the millions of visitors having a Squidoo page will drive to your business
- yet I dont recall ever seeing a sq page in a search result, and of the few "lenses" i've ever seen it has all been meaningless drivel/junk/spam

At least wikipedia has *some* level of quality control, but squidoo seems completely focussed around spams and scams.

As a web host we see the benefits to end-users of people like Michelle who I build sites and sell them. - not everyone who wants some form of online "business" is able to design and build their own - so getting a "jump -start" on the process is beneficial, but I've lost count of the number of times I've known people *really* think that they can buy a site for 500 on flippa and pay off their mortgage and c/card debts in a week ! And 6 months later havent made a penny.

Recently I was asked by a client if We'd remove the adsense code for their website as it's not making any money 5 minutes with the source code showed they'd never actually changed it from when they bought the site, so any income it was receiving had still been going to the seller.

Flipping to me implies buying, improving and selling - I've seen that with some forums, which have changed hands for successively larger amounts of money over the years - but not something I personally have noticed with generic websites.

[Michelle]

Michelle, you reckon they are pitched with the same vigour, the same level of aggressiveness, the same degree of hype?

LOL! Yes and then some! The general hype around site flipping pales into insignificance when compared to some of the stuff I've seen. (You should get out more, you don't know what you're missing.)

And who last heard of someone selling a program to make $10,000 a month from Squidoo?

Only $10,000 a month? No way try $12,901.66 a month; Squidoo is a central part of the plan. (BTW, I am in no way saying this is a scam or indeed that it works, I'm simply showing you the example.)

With site-flipping it's easy to fake the stats needed to make the claim sound credible.

Any stats can be faked for pretty much anything to make it sound credible not just site flipping. With that being said not everyone is a scammer. I read somewhere that 'most' people are good, believe it or not.

Remember the guy in SP who was claiming $600K in a year from siteflipping? He was advertising in SP and even Matt made a post quoting him as someone who has made a fortune from flipping. He did make a pile, it did reach all the way from the bottom of the Pacific to the moon, but it was a pile of horse manure.

Yes I remember.

I do not doubt there are legitimate proponents - I've had a quick look at your site - and I don't envy their task of trying to shine through the dense fog.

I don't try, I just be me: Stick to the facts as I know them; tell it like it is from real experience; over deliver like crazy for anything I charge for and have a genuine interest in helping people succeed.