Buy existing, established websites for monthly cash flow?

[PJ Pahygiannis]

Buy existing, established adsense websites for monthly cash flow? Has anyone done it?

 

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[Y.B.]

I always wished I bought the sites that used to sell on flippa years ago for 10-12 months revenue. These days most of the good sites are only listed with brokers at 36x multiple.

 

[jockinbox]

I always wished I bought the sites that used to sell on flippa years ago for 10-12 months revenue. These days most of the good sites are only listed with brokers at 36x multiple.

these days most of them are fake

 

[Y.B.]

these days most of them are fake

Yes flippa has a lot of fake numbers. I've even seen documents from professional website brokers where I look at the site and just can't possibly see how the numbers line up. Either I'm way too skeptical or just a lot of fake documentation going around.

 

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[PJ Pahygiannis]

Yes flippa has a lot of fake numbers. I've even seen documents from professional website brokers where I look at the site and just can't possibly see how the numbers line up. Either I'm way too skeptical or just a lot of fake documentation going around.

Yury, how about finding them on Flippa and running them through www.worthofweb.com to see what the website is worth, as well as the revenue/traffic estimates. I just copy and paste the URL from Flippa. Thoughts?

 

[PJ Pahygiannis]

these days most of them are fake

What about the Established websites that are "Adsense verified" on Flippa?

 

[Y.B.]

Yury, how about finding them on Flippa and running them through www.worthofweb.com to see what the website is worth, as well as the revenue/traffic estimates. I just copy and paste the URL from Flippa. Thoughts

You've got to be kidding me right? At least tell me you own the site and this is your way of spamming. At least I won't think you're relying on a tool to give you any kind of value of a business.

 

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[PJ Pahygiannis]

You've got to be kidding me right? At least tell me you own the site and this is your way of spamming. At least I won't think you're relying on a tool to give you any kind of value of a business.

I'm actually NOT spamming AND I do not own the site! I'm an 18 year old college freshmen in MD looking to get in the FASTLANE!

 

[PJ Pahygiannis]

You've got to be kidding me right? At least tell me you own the site and this is your way of spamming. At least I won't think you're relying on a tool to give you any kind of value of a business.

FYI I've been an ENTREPRENEUR my entire life, I ran a profitable fishing lure company for 2 years

 

[Napoolion]

I have been looking into this lately here too. Of course not restricting it with only adsense.

Has anyone found success with it?

 

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[The-J]

http://foreverjobless.com/how-to-buy-a-ferrari-for-20k/

 

[Thriftypreneur]

There's plenty of guys out there who run profitable portfolios of hundreds of sites. Most of their portfolios are comprised of niche info sites that utilize Amazon or Adsense. Spencer over at Niche Pursuits comes to mind. If I recall correctly he's really big on this model.

I've been interested in this model for a while now, but haven't had the time or capital to really make a go at it. As I understand it, you basically act as a property manager for your sites, oversee the outsourcing and managing of content writers, oversee the editing and publication of said content to the sites, oversee and analyze traffic/revenue data to constantly work on adjusting/improve your portfolio and selling off under-preforming sites, consistently be on the look out for new, profitable properties to add to your portfolio (which requires being able to accurately valuate potential additions), etc.

I imagine once you get a system in place for managing a portfolio of sites (while utilizing a VA and outsourced labor) and you're proficient at it, you can make some nice cash by focusing on scaling your portfolio.

The only problem with starting this model is it's near mandatory to have some basic skills under your belt. Things like: a basic understanding of SEO, site design, affiliate marketing, working knowledge on hosting servers for transferring sites and domains, HTML/CSS, etc. Being able to properly evaluate potential purchases is likely the most important as it'll enable you to spot the genuinely good investments among a sea of shady/fake web properties.

Would definitely be interested in hear from anyone who is already doing this and their thoughts on it.

 

[Y.B.]

Spencer over at Niche Pursuits comes to mind. If I recall correctly he's really big on this model.

If I remember correctly, I recently read on his site that he got hit hard by Google because he was using private blog networks and most of his revenue and traffic tanked.

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

If I remember correctly, I recently read on his site that he got hit hard by Google because he was using private blog networks and most of his revenue and traffic tanked.

Not surprising.

 

[theag]

I F*cking hate it when I search for some information on a topic and land on these crappy niche sites. I hope Google burns them all down. Nobody needs this useless shit content. Just clogs up the web.

Same for crappy ebooks and kindle books. Thats the new wave coming after niche sites finally start to die down. Probably the same writers. Hopefully Amazon finds a solution to weed out low quality content.

 

[redshep]

The "nobody could believe a good site was that cheap so they didn't bother" anecdote is just that; it's not a model. You can find mispriced properties, e.g., sites that have seemingly hit a ceiling or programmers who built saas apps but are terrible at marketing, but it won't be on Flippa. They're more likely to be on forums, reddit, fb groups, etc.

 

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[redshep]

Hopefully Amazon finds a solution to weed out low quality content

They won't. There's no upside. If you get crap results on Google, that reflects poorly on them because it's their job to provide relevance, so they fight to keep users to sell ads to. Amazon doesn't care. If junk sells, great, if it doesn't, it costs them nothing. The review system is their QC. Amazon has smart people, but their search sucks hard for relevance because it's made to move product not be helpful.

 

[ShadowX]

I have been looking into this lately here too. Of course not restricting it with only adsense.

Has anyone found success with it?

Well I didn't use flippa, I found this guy looking for a quick sale. Reviewed his website was quite decent. So bought it for 1.2k, now it's earning £600-£1200 per month with lot of work put into it.

 

[Stubbers]

I have bought a few sites from flippa or sitepoint as it was back when I was young! And yes they are pretty good source if you choose wisely. Never go for a newish site that's earning well, go for those that have been running for a long time. Read the comments from guys who have high revenue / sales/ purchases as they will be asking prying questions. If the sellers deleting lots of comments be wary!

You have to be very astute as there is a lot of crap on there. You have to wonder why they are selling something that brings in a tidy sum ...

 

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[vinylawesome]

I think when looking to buy any business / website one should always do their due diligence. With this being said here's what Warren Buffet has to say

about buying business's.



"Too often, the words from HMS Pinafore apply: "Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream."

Specifically, sellers and their representatives invariably present financial projections having more entertainment value than educational value.

In any case, why potential buyers even look at projections prepared by sellers baffles me. Charlie and I never give them
a glance, but instead keep in mind the story of the man with an ailing horse. Visiting the vet, he said: "Can you help me?
Sometimes my horse walks just fine and sometimes he limps." The vet's reply was pointed: "No problem when he's walking
fine, sell him." In the world of mergers and acquisitions, that horse would be peddled as Secretariat.

At Berkshire, we have all the difficulties in perceiving the future that other acquisition-minded companies do. Like they also,
we face the inherent problem that the seller of a business practically always knows far more about it than the buyer and also picks
the time of sale a time when the business is likely to be walking "just fine." "

Via: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/1995ar/1995ar.html

 

[PJ Pahygiannis]

I have bought a few sites from flippa or sitepoint as it was back when I was young! And yes they are pretty good source if you choose wisely. Never go for a newish site that's earning well, go for those that have been running for a long time. Read the comments from guys who have high revenue / sales/ purchases as they will be asking prying questions. If the sellers deleting lots of comments be wary!

You have to be very astute as there is a lot of crap on there. You have to wonder why they are selling something that brings in a tidy sum ...

Stubbers,
I've been looking at sites with verified adsense and that are at least 6 months old. Thoughts?

 

[oble01]

I've never bought a site but I've sold a couple on flippa. Both were generating $100-$200 per month in affiliate sales at the time and potential to do MUCH more!

Everything I did was 100% genuine. The listing, the revenue figures, reasons for selling, etc. so based on my experience I'd say although there are some scammers, there are definitely lots of genuine websites for sale by genuine sellers.

I'm guilty of getting excited by ideas, throwing myself into things (building websites for example) and then getting bored. That's exactly what happened with the sites I sold. I built them, made a little profit, learned a lot, then had an idea how I can do something even bigger, therefore I sold the sites to go focus on something bigger.

We can argue that I was foolish to sell but the point I make is people do this all the time so you can get a good opportunity with flippa. Of course, you need to do your homework before buying!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[elad]

About 3 years ago I acquired an anime streaming website with a monthly cashflow of around 3,000USD at the time.

 

[ZeroTo100]

Hey,

I’d love to sprinkle a little knowledge on this topic for anyone thinking about getting into online website acquisitions.

Couple of things, Flippa was a great site but then went to crap. However, the company has been working diligently to clean itself up. You do have to be very careful when you buy anything on flippa (or any brokerage site for that matter).

I wouldn’t recommend buying sites to anyone without a deep knowledge of building sites first. Why? There are massive amounts of things that can go wrong from all angles.

Here are just a few things that can go wrong:
- A seller could be trying to camouflage their backlink portfolio
- What are the backlinks and do they have authority?
- Google could be shooting out another panda/penguin style update
- Content could be PLR or even coppied for that matter
- PBN could be used which ultimately could come crashing down on you in the eye of the next Google update.
- Are the backlinks “rented” whereas once you own the site, what happens to them?
- Where is the traffic coming from? Is some random joe schmo pumping traffic to the site from FB Groups? Is it organic from high ranking keywords?

These are just a few – I can go on and on. While we are on it, suppose you find the golden site – THE ONE FOR YOU. What do you think the most important next step is after all your research is done? There’s an old saying in trading stocks “protect your portfolio.” Well, apply that same metric here. Never buy on impulse and always protect your bank. Never, ever, everrrrrr pay 23X+ for a site. You would have to be somewhat ballsy and crazy at the same time to do that. There are just too many variables that can come into play that can ultimately crush you. I knew a guy that took out a loan to buy a site that was deindexed a few months after purchased.

I never understood how a company like Empire Flippers has the balls to look for 25X+ for sites that literally game Googles algo using PBNs. Could you imagine buying a site for 50k, 100k, 500k for a site and 3 or 4 months later you get the title wave?

If you’re utilizing flippa, use it for domain purchases. If you’re looking to buy a site, I recommend looking at other brokers such as Acquitions Direct, Centurica, Quiet Light brokers, FEInternational, bizbuysell, brokers like that. You’ll notice most of the sites on there aren’t some random content sites. They are ecommerce businesses, member sites, a few blogs, and that’s about it – businesses. You’ll never find affiliate garbage on there.

For thriftypreneur – most of those “Guru” IMers (guys like spencer, pat Flynn) all work together. They do massive outreach and planning. They build their sites rankings off of eachothers. No doubt, they are smart guys but you’ll notice they all pump the same IM crap/products. Once you’re hooked, forget it. You’ll be buying IM products up the wazoo and you’ll be in the same place you were yesterday, today.

For theAG – Totally agree with you. Nothing bothers me more than looking for the next showerhead for my new bathroom and stumbling on 5 or 6 review sites all linking back to Amazon. Only a matter of time brother before the street sweeper comes.

Hope some of this stuff helps. Oh one last thing, take a look at the flippa blog that tells you about sites that sold for the most money at auction. They provide the links in a lot of the blog articles. One of the things you’ll notice is when clicking the links, a lot of the sites aren’t even live anymore. Pretty interesting.

 

[Napoolion]

Hey,

I’d love to sprinkle a little knowledge on this topic for anyone thinking about getting into online website acquisitions.

Couple of things, Flippa was a great site but then went to crap. However, the company has been working diligently to clean itself up. You do have to be very careful when you buy anything on flippa (or any brokerage site for that matter).

I wouldn’t recommend buying sites to anyone without a deep knowledge of building sites first. Why? There are massive amounts of things that can go wrong from all angles.

Here are just a few things that can go wrong:
- A seller could be trying to camouflage their backlink portfolio
- What are the backlinks and do they have authority?
- Google could be shooting out another panda/penguin style update
- Content could be PLR or even coppied for that matter
- PBN could be used which ultimately could come crashing down on you in the eye of the next Google update.
- Are the backlinks “rented” whereas once you own the site, what happens to them?
- Where is the traffic coming from? Is some random joe schmo pumping traffic to the site from FB Groups? Is it organic from high ranking keywords?

These are just a few – I can go on and on. While we are on it, suppose you find the golden site – THE ONE FOR YOU. What do you think the most important next step is after all your research is done? There’s an old saying in trading stocks “protect your portfolio.” Well, apply that same metric here. Never buy on impulse and always protect your bank. Never, ever, everrrrrr pay 23X+ for a site. You would have to be somewhat ballsy and crazy at the same time to do that. There are just too many variables that can come into play that can ultimately crush you. I knew a guy that took out a loan to buy a site that was deindexed a few months after purchased.

I never understood how a company like Empire Flippers has the balls to look for 25X+ for sites that literally game Googles algo using PBNs. Could you imagine buying a site for 50k, 100k, 500k for a site and 3 or 4 months later you get the title wave?

If you’re utilizing flippa, use it for domain purchases. If you’re looking to buy a site, I recommend looking at other brokers such as Acquitions Direct, Centurica, Quiet Light brokers, FEInternational, bizbuysell, brokers like that. You’ll notice most of the sites on there aren’t some random content sites. They are ecommerce businesses, member sites, a few blogs, and that’s about it – businesses. You’ll never find affiliate garbage on there.

For thriftypreneur – most of those “Guru” IMers (guys like spencer, pat Flynn) all work together. They do massive outreach and planning. They build their sites rankings off of eachothers. No doubt, they are smart guys but you’ll notice they all pump the same IM crap/products. Once you’re hooked, forget it. You’ll be buying IM products up the wazoo and you’ll be in the same place you were yesterday, today.

For theAG – Totally agree with you. Nothing bothers me more than looking for the next showerhead for my new bathroom and stumbling on 5 or 6 review sites all linking back to Amazon. Only a matter of time brother before the street sweeper comes.

Hope some of this stuff helps. Oh one last thing, take a look at the flippa blog that tells you about sites that sold for the most money at auction. They provide the links in a lot of the blog articles. One of the things you’ll notice is when clicking the links, a lot of the sites aren’t even live anymore. Pretty interesting.

Hey there,

Thanks for the great post. I have been selling websites on Flippa. I am making turn-key email marketing services. You can definetly make money with them if you nail marketing.
However I am looking for an auction site other than Flippa. I just don't like that they take 10% off the winning bid. Even if the buyer doesn't pay you, you still have to pay the "Success Fee" to them, unless you want to go through painful dispute process...I lost one site like this.

Do you know good place to sell for sites under $1000?

Thanks man for making that post

 

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[ZeroTo100]

Hey there,

Thanks for the great post. I have been selling websites on Flippa. I am making turn-key email marketing services. You can definetly make money with them if you nail marketing.
However I am looking for an auction site other than Flippa. I just don't like that they take 10% off the winning bid. Even if the buyer doesn't pay you, you still have to pay the "Success Fee" to them, unless you want to go through painful dispute process...I lost one site like this.

Do you know good place to sell for sites under $1000?

Thanks man for making that post

Apologies but flippa is probably the better "auction" houses for websites. If you're looking to sell a site that is generating low monthly profit, you may get some luck utilizing one of the brokers I listed above. If you're doing new sites and selling them on their "potential" then use flippa starter sites. There's always EBay but I highly doubt you'll find any buyers as most in the market flock to flippa to scope the scene.

 

[Napoolion]

Apologies but flippa is probably the better "auction" houses for websites. If you're looking to sell a site that is generating low monthly profit, you may get some luck utilizing one of the brokers I listed above. If you're doing new sites and selling them on their "potential" then use flippa starter sites. There's always EBay but I highly doubt you'll find any buyers as most in the market flock to flippa to scope the scene.

Haha, alright. Then they have total monopol and can act like they want with me. At least it motivates my lazy a$$ to really work on keep building my own business, rather than a quick way out.

Thanks.

 

[nitop]

few tips for someone getting into site purchases:
what i do is i find sites that have recently sold on flippa for top dollar ( 20x-30x multiple ) , search on google to find related sites , and sign a option contract to purchase the site for a much lower multiple ..

i then try to find their competitors and try to sell them on the potential of a site acquisition as a growth strategy .. if i am successful, i just flip the site and pocket a few 1000$ profit for brokering the deal..

at times, if i cant find a buyer , i purchase the site , do seo using my pbn network , increase list size to increase value of site , and then list it on flippa , for a potential sale ..


p.s : never buy a site from a brokering platform unless you are super sophisticated , the best deals are not listed on flippa..
also find sites that u can add value to , i mean do seo, cro, list building etc..
hope that helps..

 

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