Yet another website flipping course

[Clinton]

There used to be a lot of people talking about website flipping and selling products on flipping, running blogs on the topic etc.

Most closed shop or sold their blogs/sites etc. It appeared that there were more lucrative ways of making money (maybe by investing in sites yourself if you know the ropes). That's why, I believe, people like Thomas Smale, Eppie, Travis Van Slooten etc., etc., all got out of it.

But there seems to be a resurgence now. We've recently had threads about the Internet Investment Summit, Internet Tycoon and the link. And today another of our members, Adam of Prosperly.com, has announced to his list that he's starting a course in site flipping. As usual there are tools etc (link) and access to 1-2-1 sessions (as with Internet Tycoon and the like).

Just thought I'd mention this launch here as industry news.

[Thomas]

Pretty expensive at $97 a month, especially seeing as the sales page is so vague. A "real potential calculator" sounds dangerously useless, as well. At least Justin & Kenny at InternetTycoon had loads of content and a reasonable explanation of what you're getting in the sales page.

I've never heard of this guy before. Does he know much about buying/selling sites?

[Clinton]

It uses the forced scarcity model and the latest email to the list says that there's "no need to panic" as he's opened it early to give everyone enough time.

http://www.prosperlymethod.com/open

Does he know much about buying/selling sites?

We know only from what's on his site. He doesn't usually engage in here and take part in discussions/answer questions which is the format that really shows who knows what. But he does have some sensible posts on his site.

[Thomas]

$1997 ain't cheap, and that's just for the "standard" package. He seems to mention SEO a lot, which is always a red flag to me when flipping sites. SEO is probably one of the most risky traffic sources, and with an extremely steep learning curve. It might have been possible a few years ago to rely on SEO, but I think it has been way too unpredictable lately. So many popular sites have been wiped out in the latest updates.

Some of the posts on his blog are okay, but nothing there that would make me want to fork out that sort of cash (obviously I'm not the target market, though).

As a sidenote, I would have thought if you were trying to sell a course for that much you could afford to host your own sales video (it's on YouTube) and make it look a bit more professional (looks like a PowerPoint presentation made in 5 minutes with stock images). You would also expect that he could use a proper merchant account rather than Paypal to process payments.

[KenW3]

$1997 ain't cheap, and that's just for the "standard" package. He seems to mention SEO a lot, which is always a red flag to me when flipping sites. SEO is probably one of the most risky traffic sources, and with an extremely steep learning curve.

I think his focus is on SEO due to promotion of his SEOscheduler.com service. That also 'ain't cheap'.

Adam of Prosperly.com, has announced to his list that he's starting a course in site flipping. As usual there are tools etc (link) and access to 1-2-1 sessions (as with Internet Tycoon and the like).

The WFT video (with four links to prior video) on the Website Flipping Tools at prosperlymethod.com/wft/ is an absolutely glowing endorsement of MarketSamurai.com! The four prior videos were also very educational - Thank you, Adam.

The Website Prospector is very similar (identical?) to the Market Samurai Keyword Research in the program. The video even suggests going to Majestic SEO for data, which is where Market Samurai gets their data The Prosperly Affiliate Sniper tool is the Market Samurai program's Monetization section. There isn't much detail on the Website Analyzer Plus, but site analytics are (of course) available from within Market Samurai.

All in all, as a one-time purchase of an inexpensive program you can own, to help you improve SEO on your sites, and as a way to use the program as a way to find website opportunities, these videos are very helpful in suggesting Market Samurai as a tool. I couldn't have said it better: Go take a good look at Market Samurai for SEO help and for help finding websites to buy. The only thing missing was an affiliate link to NobleSamurai.com

[Kay]

As a sidenote, I would have thought if you were trying to sell a course for that much you could afford to host your own sales video (it's on YouTube) and make it look a bit more professional (looks like a PowerPoint presentation made in 5 minutes with stock images). You would also expect that he could use a proper merchant account rather than Paypal to process payments.

And I would have thought that he could have afforded to hire a professional proofreader too.

You're Satisfaction Is Guaranteed!

Another thing that confused me is this (in the video): "The less people that know about it the better...". In which case, why is he selling it? Cos if he sells it, then more people are going to know about it.

[crabfoot]

You would also expect that he could use a proper merchant account rather than Paypal to process payments.

There are advantages to using Paypal - one of which is that their "merchant accounts" offer better terms than most major banks. Their terms for processing card payments are very competitive, and they do take less commission if you are sending them high volumes of traffic.

Also, people do not pay a premium charge at the bank when using Paypal.
Use a UK debit card to, say, buy domains from Dynadot, and you will find you are charged a £1 - £1.50 foreign transaction fee by your bank, use Paypal and you don't get charged, although the cash comes from the same bank account.

Using Paypal to process your payments is no longer "down market" - they are a real force, and many people have started to use them in B&M businesses. There's no financial benefit to be gained from a merchant account compared with Paypal, unless you get one of those accounts that pays you all the money due, but not until the bank has held back the payment for 90 days or more, or you have sufficient "gravity" to suggest that you will move away if the merchant account provider does not give you a better rate.

Grynge worked the latter threat on his provider a while back and got a better rate, but if you're setting up a new account you get offered a deal that has no advantage over Paypal.