One of the internet marketing areas I like the most is flipping. I’ve done around $5.5k in transactions on Flippa over the years, so whilst it’s not a main income stream it is certainly something, I’ve found quite useful. So, today, we are going to look at a beginner’s guide to selling and buying on Flippa auctions.
What are Flippa Auctions?
For those of you who don’t know, Flippa is an online marketplace for selling digital assets. These include websites, domains, FBA businesses, and applications. You can find everything from starter websites that are pre-built for you so you can get up and running quickly to established websites that are already bringing in money to mobile games and applications.
What are Flippa Auctions
Flippa Auctions the process you go through when buying an asset from the marketplace. Auctions can last from a day to more than a month. If Flippa auctions are on for more than one month it suggests one of two things, it’s a very expensive site and they want as much traffic or more likely its not worth the bother.
Within the Flippa auction you are presented with all the relevant sales information including Google Analytics verified traffic and AdSense profits. The traffic is very important, adsense less so unless they are claiming that is a large percentage of the website’s income.
If they are showing the verified traffic simply as the question in the comments at the bottom of the page. I like to also ask the seller to temporarily add me to their Google Analytics as read-only/guest so I can review the traffic myself.
Similar to eBay Flippa auctions can have a reserve price on them and many also offer a Buy It Now options as well. If you don’t have this information you can always reach out to the seller and simply ask about them. You can do this via the comments or through private messaging.
How does Flippa Auction bidding work?
Very similar to most places you can place the maximum you would like to bid on the flippa auction and then system will automatically bid up to that limit in set increments when you are outbid. When the bidding process is coming to its conclusion the system will stop any sniping from occurring. The Flippa auction will do this by instigating an additional hour’s bidding whenever there is a bid in the last hour.
What Flippa Alternatives are there?
Flippa isn’t the only website marketplace out there, but I would certainly say it’s the easiest to use. There are some flippa alternatives that are worth looking so you can see what is out there.
Empire Flippers
What I like about Empire Flippers are the different monetization filters. This is an area I think Empire Flippers excels as I’m interested in specific types of businesses. What I don’t particularly like is the filter on price only goes down to $20,000 so you can’t do laser-focused searches if you want to be lower than that.
There are plenty of listings though to drum up your own ideas for businesses. I really like their layouts and the amount of information you are provided as well. It’s very clear and easy to use.
Exchange Marketplace
Exchange Marketplace is more focused on online stores and shows a range of FBA, Dropshippers, and traditional online stores. The layout is neat and tidy, but no bells and whistles like you might see in Flippa alternative Empire Flippers. I think a lot on this website is overpriced.
There are also some delusional people out there with some of the asking prices. The multiples can get crazy. Check out the image below. If you bought that store, based on the stats given, it would take you over 53 months to break even. That said, not every listing is crazy. And the verified stats from tools like Shopify is great.
Indiemaker.co
I like Indiemaker.co as it’s got some different filtering options like social media accounts to look at Instagram or youtube accounts. Decent information on the listing, but not as extensive as some of the others. Good for a browse.
Flippa Success Stories
An example of one of my Flippa success stories was when I bought an established web site in the video games niche. It was a Google News approved site so was getting some visitors, but not a huge amount so there was a lot of potential.
I picked up the website for £1,175 whilst I was on holiday in New York. I hired a news writer and also got stuck in providing a whole heap of news content onto the website. I gave the website a new theme and professional looking logo as well. I added Google Ads and took on a number of sponsored posts and wrote some editorials as well for commission.
A few months later I flipped the site for $2,700. I could have got more. One seller told me they’d have gone to $3,500. This was my first medium-sized sale and I panicked 😊. I should have held out. Also, knowing what I know now I could have monetised it better, but I made $1,525 for little effort.
I’ve also had success via Flippa with selling on domains that I’ve acquired over the years as well as on Sedo.com
Flippa Pricing
If you are buying of Flippa they won’t charge you anything other than the buying price. However, if you are selling then you have to pay for the listing and there are a number of upsells for better types of listings and then Flippa will also take a cut of the final sale as well. You can also get a business valuation using the flippa business valuation bot
Wrap Up – Flippa Auctions
Hopefully, this has given you a good introduction to Flippa. I suggest you get on the website and have a browse around to see if something takes your fancy. I’ve been using Flippa for a number of years now and never had any problems with it. I can quite happily say it is safe to purchase from them. This is not a legally binding endorsement though! I’m not responsible for any losses you may make, sorry! If something feels off, then likely it is.
