FP - Site Flipping vs. Internet Marketing

[jclarke]

So do you consider site flipping a part of internet marketing or not?

In my book internet marketing is actually promoting/selling something online, such as websites that sell ads, training products and so forth.

Selling websites on the other hand doesn't involve much of marketing per se , apart from crafting your sales pitch but then again even the sales pitch includes mainly factual data about the site.

Based on this, is it wrong to categorise site flipping as a sub-niche of internet marketing?

[Bryan]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

You're bringing out a very good point indeed. I've personally never thought of site flipping as a "sub-niche" of IM, but I guess for many people any activity that generates income online is IM.

Actually, the main problem seems to be the term Internet Marketing. When people say internet marketing they actually mean internet *business* - and if we change it around this way then both adsense sites and site flipping fit into the same group.

All in all, I do think it's a bit wrong to label flipping as a sub-category of internet marketing, but I don't mind it at all as at the end of the day I don't care the slightest what's it called or how it's categorised as long as it makes me money!

[iMontie]

As a long-time web designer, new found site flipper, I don't plan on telling people I do "IM"

Actually it's much easier to explain to people how you make your money when you're a flipper, rather than a rich craigslist poster/spammer etc. lol. and much more respectable in my opinion. I will simply tell people that I design and sell websites... and the conversation will end there lol.

[happyfrancis]

Well in my own opinion, if we are going to define internet marketing in its broadest sense it is buying and selling products and services over the internet. Now, if we are going categorize each part of internet marketing this would include e-commerce, white hat , affiliate and lead base marketing and others.

Flipping would be a part of internet marketing because in order for you to sell your website generally you have to market it over the internet employing different internet marketing strategies to improve the website you are selling and to expose your intentions that you want to sell your website .


any more ideas?

[Thomas]

I think I've always described myself as an IMer even though I mainly just flip sites. A lot of elements with IM (such as SEO) fall into skills that are helpful to be able to flip sites. My opinion has always been that the better your IM skills, the more likely you are to be a successful flipper. There are other skills that aren't usually associated with IM, such as negotiating, but all in all it's all online so IM isn't a bad way to categorise it.

Our plan with FP is to help improve everyone's knowledge of IM and site flipping, which in turn will increase your income across both. As far as I'm concerned, if you are good at marketing, then you are bound to be successful flipping sites.

[J1218]

Thomas and Happyfrancis basically said what I was going to say. There is marketing that's involved to get the sites established with visitors and earning revenue, which is crucial if you're going to sell it for a good price. I suppose if you just built a startup site and tried to sell it, then that wouldn't be classified as internet marketing, but if you do all of the SEO work or PPC or however else you drive traffic, and then you monetize the site, that would be part of internet marketing.

Also, when you list a site on Flippa, you are technically "marketing" the site to other prospective buyers.

[b005t3drsx]

I think Thomas has a good point. There is a huge grey area between the two. Skills that are essential to either are important to both. But in my opinion you need both. I think it you want to make it in this business you need both methods as a part of your business strategy.

[imported_Jack]

well for me site flipping is different from internet marketing. Flipping skills is more complicated since once your are assessing a website, you have to assume variables (variables derived only through experience and knowledge) if that website for sale is worthy to invest upon. If you decided that the website for sale has healthy potentials then that would be the time you would apply your internet marketing skills. From this, I would say Internet marketing skills is only a part of Flipping Websites.

[Shezboy]

Each has their own opinion and it doesn't really matter how you categorize the subject, it all comes down to earning/making money by means of the internet. If you sell a website via Flippa or sell it on an offline deal you're still making/earning by means of the internet. If the internet was taken out of the equation then they'd be no website to sell.

What name you choose to give this is your own choice. At the end of the day, as long as you're happy with what you do and the money you make by doing it then why worry about the label use to describe/explain it?

[GreyWolf]

I think really Bryan pretty much hit on it when he said he just thinks of it as an Internet Business. I think a lot of people use IM interchangeably with any online business, but that's probably not the most correct application of the term. In the offline business world marketing, services, suppliers, etc. would all be considered different business subniches. All of those subniches actually use marketing practices in the operation of their business, but Marketing is also a business model in itself. If you apply that same structure to online business then Site Flipping uses marketing practices in it's business operation, but isn't actually a Marketing business itself. Site Flippers might do their own marketing or hire it out to a Marketing business, but there actual business isn't marketing.

Just having an online business isn't what makes someone an Internet Marketer, it's whether you do the marketing yourself that makes you one. If you build an online business but hire everything out then you're just a business owner, the people you hire are the internet marketers. If write an ebook and sign up as a vendor on CB, you aren't an Internet Marketer, but the affiliates that sell your ebook for you are. If you try marketing your ebook yourself as well then you're an internet marketer.

I think in the end though it doesn't really matter if your business is an Internet Marketing business or not. If you use marketing techniques to make your sales, then you're an internet marketer.