A Flip and a Flop - some reasons why a flip can fail

[Clinton]

Came across this blog post today from someone called Mike Roosa. Don't know the guy, but thought this post was interesting.

He set out to make money via creating a site and selling it in Flippa. So he did. He created the site and bought articles for it, created links, signed up at various niche forums to get links etc., etc.

He then listed it on Flippa.

And got a top bid of ... just $50.

In the blog post above he investigates some of the things he did wrong. What can you add?

[flipfilter]

Nothing but that the honeymoon is well and truly over!

There's an equally interesting post on Flippingawesome - http://flippingawesome.com/for-39-pe...ppa-losing-it/


Justin

[[Edit: Part of this post split to a new thread - by Clinton on 24th May]]

[Clinton]

Interesting link, thanks Justin. The blogger says:

Is it just us or are Flippa sales not what they used to be? We recently listed some pretty awesome sites with auto posting features, custom themes, etc… but despite a few bids – no sale.

And LukeMoulton from Flippa replies:

I suspect that the honeymoon for start-up website builders is over. Buyers are looking for more value – they want traffic, some PageRank and backlinks. Even a small amount of regular monthly revenue can do wonders for sale prices.

Duh! There's no life in that model? We've been saying that like, since, forever, dude

I just had to take time out to put together a scathing comment at flippingawesome.com blog post. Take a look at it if you get a chance. It concludes

But the bottom line is still the bottom line and, quite frankly, any business model that relies on conning people (whether mischieviously or ignorantly) into believing there's easy money to be made from these sites, deserves to fail.

That includes Flippa.

[petertdavis]

Nice post Clinton. It's just so funny seeing them try to blame anything and anyone except themselves. What's that old saying about input equals output?

[benitez17]

I find it pretty amusing that the same people who are the first to make a positive comment about site flipping on all of Luke's Flippa blog posts hyping up these startup sites are now claiming that it was obvious that cranking out turnkey sites and selling them for hundreds of dollars (or at all) was a short term trend.


I feel bad for the people who bought in to the hype and did things like quitting their real jobs to flip sites, but I won't miss the crappy listings or the echo chamber of people patting themselves and each other on the back about their awesome new business model that creates value for no one but themselves.

[petertdavis]

Dunno who those guys are that jump to be first to make positive comments on Luke's blog, I'll assume you're not talking about me because I hardly ever comment on that blog. I'm not so sure I agree about the trend being over either, rather I'd say that's getting overly saturated with sellers. More sellers + same amount of buyers = lower prices. And, I don't think anyone should feel sorry for them either, as with any business on the web it's adapt or die. There are still buyers out there. I've even bought a few of those just-thrown-together-yesterday blogs in the past few months. The ones I bought were because I like the domain, though, but for the seller that was still a successful sale even if I just deleted the site and put the domain into my domain portfolio afterward. The people who quit their jobs to flip sites just need to innovate. So, the shit they sold yesterday isn't selling, they just need to make better smelling shit.

[flipfilter]

I just had to take time out to put together a scathing comment at flippingawesome.com blog post. Take a look at it if you get a chance. It concludes
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I can picture you typing that with a Bollywood villain like smile on your face

I'm reading a lot of posts and comments along the same genre.

Anyone else here feel like the residents of a quiet town who had a major influx of tourists pass though for a while .....and now they're finally leaving?

[Clinton]

More sellers + same amount of buyers = lower prices.

Exactly. Flippa worked out that formula ages ago and that's why they've been putting so much effort to "creating" more buyers. And since the smart ones wouldn't buy into the hype they, and their cronies, concentrated on getting more gullible n00bs into the market.

I'm reading a lot of posts and comments along the same genre.

Where else, Justin? Anyone we'd recognise?

<going away to find out about and practice the Bollywood villain smile> ::

[benitez17]

Peter, I was not referring to you for the exact reasons you stated.

[flipfilter]

Possibly, but I'd be never be forgiven for telling tales

I'll let Google do the snitching

(p.s. if you've never seen a Bollywood Villain you'll be happy to know that they're traditionally several times more evil than your regular Hollywood Villian)