Where to find profitable websites for sale

[Giles]

The Title says it all - where do you think is the best place to find profitable websites for sale?

Obviously there is Flippa, but that is so crowded it seems to be hard to find a good deal.

Reading: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/general-business-discussion/31502-how-buy-ferrari-20k.html makes me want to get my toes wet and see what I can find.

Feel free to PM if you don't want any good sources becoming overly public :eusa_clap:

Cheers

 

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[eslater]

You may want to check out Find Websites for Sale and Find Domains with FlipFilter While I havent used it myself I was told about it by someone that thought it worked well.

If you do give it a shot please let us know your thoughts.

 

[snowbank]

I just started doing this this year, and have told a number of people exactly how I was doing it. 0 of those people have made a purchase with that info. It has very little to do with where to find stuff, and more to do with how hard you want to work.

"Either you're slingin crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot." Nobody wants to work for it anymore.'

Giving value before getting value is one of the most beneficial things you can do as an aspiring entrepreneur. Everyone just seems to be waiting to be handed the keys to the bank vault, without putting in any work. There's a million posts on why this is insanely flawed from both sides.

 

[snowbank]

To better explain, the question you're asking will not lead you to the answer you need. You need to put in work to find that.

 

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[JEdwards]

Nobody wants to work for it anymore.'

.

Bunch of lazy people out there...

 

[Giles]

Trust me, I'm working hard. 60+ hour weeks are the usual and I'm loving it! Built up some websites myself and now have 10k put aside to begin buying profitable sites made by others.

I have put in 5 inquiries over the past 48 hours for websites and am ready to buy. No responses to these inquiries led me to ask the question above.

So any guidance to finding motivated sellers would be great.

 

[snowbank]

I have put in 5 inquiries over the past 48 hours for websites and am ready to buy. No responses to these inquiries led me to ask the question above.

So any guidance to finding motivated sellers would be great.

Sure. Put in more offers. When I'm actively looking I'm putting in 100+ inquires/day. If you're doing 5 and then coming to the forum because you haven't found a steal yet you're not going to like what else being an entrepreneur has in store. If I'm doing 100/day when I'm looking and you're doing 5 total, mathematically who will find the better deals?

 

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[snowbank]

Trust me, I'm working hard. 60+ hour weeks are the usual

long hours does not= smart, hard use of time. it can often mean the opposite.

 

[Giles]

Thanks snowbank for some feedback. Thats the sort of pointers I am after.

I buy/sell cars to get capital as well and put in huge number of inquiries. When doing this, 50%+ of people return my calls/emails.

Obviously it doesn't seem the same when buying websites. So I'll start by making more inquiries.

 

[eslater]

Another option would be to find sites that interest you and then do a whois search to find the owner. Then approach them to see if they are interested in selling. You may find you can buy cheaper this way as well.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

Lazy = me.

Hire a website broker, tell them what you're looking for, let them find motivated sellers for a cut of the closing price. You may not find screaming deals, but a lot of that depends on your negotiation skills.

 

[Giles]

I think all humans are a little lazy to some degree. Funny JackEdward said there is a lot of lazy people out there, just 5 mins after I read in his other thread one of the two things he has realized when starting his latest business is how lazy he is nowadays.

Thanks for the PMs to those that have shared insightful advice direct!

 

[Nick]

Flippa is a good place if you know how to look for websites.

- do not look at the most active auctions, as everyone looks at them and the bids are high.
- do not look at featured auctions, as again, everyone looks at them, and also the seller has some experience in the area if he pays for an upgraded auction ---> which means he will sell for big bucks and get all the exposure he needs, so no chance for a steal
- do not look at ending soon section, cause flippa prolonge the auction with 4 hours whenever a bid is done in the last 4 hour, and savvy marketers know this and they use shill bidding so that their auctions appear constantly in the ending soon section.

You do not want to buy from "savvy" marketers if you are looking for a good deal. You need to find normal people selling good websites at reasonable prices. Looking through new listings is a good idea, as well as using advanced search to filter through and find more obscure auctions that others are not looking at, so you can get a good deal.

Another source for buying websites, but at the lower end , is digitalpoint forums.

The best source for buying websites is to find a couple of good sellers and buy consistently from them. Ones you preferably bought a website from, and you saw the traffic and stats were legit, and everything went great, keep in touch with them and ask them whenever they plan on selling websites to shoot you an email. Alternatively, look up the names of the sellers who sold websites that you like on flippa, and get in touch with them, see if they have something else for sale. Most of them are not one shot seller.

Trying to contact people by whois and out of the blue does not work, very low replying rate + most of them are thinking you are trying to scam them as there are a lot of whois contact scams.

I am also buying and selling websites. Sometime when i am low on cash and i put some very good deals for sale on flippa and no one catched them - i mean legit websites selling for 6-7x months revenue. So do not think that all the buyers on flippa are so savvy, that there is no good deals to be made. Alternatively i also found some great deals on flippa. I guess it also depends on the budget and what type of websites you are looking for. I have experience only with info based websites and in the xxx-xxxx$ budget, no ecommerce stores, or anything bigger than 10k.

 

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[Giles]

Thanks for your feedback Nick. Helpful post, Speed ++

Sounds like we have the same criteria for websites. You make some good points.

 

[CashFlowDepot]

I think you're asking the wrong question..

Instead of looking for profitable web sites for sale, you should look for domain names and web sites that have
the POTENTIAL of becoming a VERY PROFITABLE web site.

Look for ugly web sites, unorganized web sites, poor traffic web sites that you can TURN AROUND.

I recently bought a web site for $1500 and spend a few hours reorganizing it then paid $37 to get a new header designed, added content, then did some marketing to get traffic and sales for several months. Then I re-sold it for $12,000

There are many opportunities to do the same thing.

To Your Success,

Jackie @ CashFlowDepot.com

 

[mmmoney]

Instead of looking for profitable web sites for sale, you should look for domain names and web sites that have
the POTENTIAL of becoming a VERY PROFITABLE web site.

Look for ugly web sites, unorganized web sites, poor traffic web sites that you can TURN AROUND.

I recently bought a web site for $1500 and spend a few hours reorganizing it then paid $37 to get a new header designed, added content, then did some marketing to get traffic and sales for several months. Then I re-sold it for $12,000

There are many opportunities to do the same thing.

To Your Success,

Jackie @ CashFlowDepot.com

can you please describe how you did the marketing to get traffic and sales

 

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[mcjon77]

Here is a podcast where a guy talks about doing this:

Episode 15 | How to Buy a Web Application | Startups For the Rest of Us

It is titled "How to buy a web application", but he covers websites, as well. Apparently, the presenter has built up quite the portfolio of web sites and web apps that he has either built or bought.

 

[moneymaster]

Selling the sites is where the money is.

I think you're asking the wrong question..

Instead of looking for profitable web sites for sale, you should look for domain names and web sites that have
the POTENTIAL of becoming a VERY PROFITABLE web site.

Look for ugly web sites, unorganized web sites, poor traffic web sites that you can TURN AROUND.

I recently bought a web site for $1500 and spend a few hours reorganizing it then paid $37 to get a new header designed, added content, then did some marketing to get traffic and sales for several months. Then I re-sold it for $12,000

There are many opportunities to do the same thing.

To Your Success,

Jackie @ CashFlowDepot.com

Jackie has it right to find just one website that makes alot of money is not the way to go,the money is in FLIPPING WEBSITES ,it is virtual real estate .

There are over a dozen kind of website flipping strategies some can be done for as little as $50,PM me and I can give you a couple of flipping strategies that are working right now,mobile websites and mobile marketing is the future.

Companies that get into the mobile marketing industry now have been projected to make an average of $20,000,000 a year in the next 10 years you have to get in on it now,many rich internet marketers are investing in this and starting to not focus on their normal marketing methods as they have become outdated and not as effective as they once were.

My company offers free websites to local business owners then we upsell them on mobile website marketing campaigns, have you noticed all the QR code images popping up everywhere on all forms of advertising and TV shows ,movie commercials etc..

 

[Giles]

Thanks to all those that have provided feedback.

Flipping sites isn't really what I was interested in - but if the money is there - will definitely look into it.

Cheers

 

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[Danny]

When I'm actively looking I'm putting in 100+ inquires/day.

Snowbank, how are you contacting the website owners -- email or cold calling?

 

[DeletedUser2]

So this is a big part of my business.

first off, its a process. 5 offers in 48 hrs? are you kidding me? thats not enough.

ok long before I go into active looking mode, I am farming.

that means I tell everyone I know, I go to active conferences of internet marketers, and let people know im a buyer, and that I will pay referral fees.

I plant the idea out there, all the time. and I do it gently. so I don't sound like a walking spam attack.

I developed a process i call 2 sentence marketing.

so even when I start farming, I know it will take anywhere from 1 week to 2 yrs to develop that into a possible lead on a site i can buy.

I also cultivate brokers, and other centers of influence.

I buy in 2 modes.
1. im looking for cash flow that is strategic, and It fits well, with my big picture
2. im looking for the 4 D's
-Death
-Distress
-Divorce
-Debt.
in other words, people in trouble.

1 strategy is for strategic building of a goal
the other is more opportunistic, but can lead to some awesome acquisitions.

I also tend to play a little different level than the 3K or 12K size of site. Im more into the 50K 100K 500K and up size of site. so these types of sites don't usually show up on flippa.

but you need to be planting the idea that your a buyer, that your looking and you have cash, and there is something in it for them if they bring it to me.

I have anywhere from 8-10 sites that I look at per month, as a min. sometimes as much as 20-30. I am pretty quick about the "does it fit in my black box" assessment, and can decide to pursue the deal or kill it quick. That gives me the room to keep the pipeline open

the real trick is, keeping putting deals into the pipeline. then you have a never ending flow of sites to look at.

hope that helps

 

[Giles]

Speed sent zen*******! Was hoping you would chime in. Great info!!! You make some good points.

 

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[s_sherrell]

Can you give some more insight as to what you want to do with a site you buy? You want to run CPA offers, sell your own products, adsense, other? You are going to have to look for undervalued sites you believe you can get more profits out of. If I were you I would first start with a niche you really know can make some money. Then look for sites in that market.
Another thig you can look at is finding a site with a nice product you feel you can monetize better that the current owner. Most of these people do not want to sell. However, you can simply offer to pay them a licensing fee to use their material as you wish. Just a variation if you are looking to get a product you can sell. Again not sure what you are wanting to do exactly.

 

[justinuk]

Hi all,

I came here after seeing my site mentioned through Google Alerts (thanks Eslater). Sorry for arriving to the party so late, but I seem to have the slowest Google Alerts ever (Today I received news that they found Bin Laden!).
I've got some insights which I hope will be useful to anyone starting out, as these helped me massively when I did. Apologies if I repeat anything that might have already been covered and I'm unsure if I can post links with this being my first post, so you may have to google some bits.

1) If you want to buy at auction, then Flippa tends to be where it's at, but there are other promising sites appearing like Rouper dot com or for higher value sites (+ $10K) you can try the sites of the brokers listed in the resource section of my Blog. BizBuySell isn't a broker, but you'll often find hundreds of broker listed businesses here too.

2) The previous fad was buying low and selling at value a few weeks later (flipping). This will still work, but now with the popularity of the industry it's more about buying solid businesses at value, adding strategic 'scaffolding' to boost their value / multiple, and selling above value but usually after you've gained some revenue and / or traffic increase history.

3) Flippa is good for some sites and bad for others. I would tend to stay away from sites with the highest (advertising, finance lead gen, evergreen digital products) and lowest multiples (legal file / video sharing, mp3 sites, wallpaper sites, tech blogs).

The sweet spot with Flippa is finding sites in the middle that are performing below potential and adding 'scaffolding'.

Sites in the middle (in terms of average sale multiples) include
- Ecommerce (especially where it's based in a specific non us country and currently holds stock)

- Evergreen Clickbank products where the owner has never done many sales (due to not recruiting enough affiliates and / or poor SEO) where the rights to the product are included with the sale.

- Sites with a high RPU (revenue per unique) and low traffic, but check the profit margin is healthy too.
Scaffolding refers to about 15 techniques that are guaranteed in most situations to improve a site's value. I won't go into the full list but it includes Building a mailing list, diversify revenue sources, diversifying traffic (no one wants to rely on Google!), building continuity and several others.

It helps to know your numbers when doing analysis - check out the PDF attached for an explanation of the key ratios.

4) Try to avoid WSO flips, where the owner develops a product, usually in the IM niche and sells the hell out of it in the most popular forums (showing massive revenues) then sells it a few months later. Sometimes, you'll find good products but often the best sales channels are already exhausted.

5) Keep an eye on my newsletter I write for Flippa - the A-List, as it breaks down some of the highest valued sites each week. You can sign up through your Flippa control panel (resources).

There's also a new member site about to launch called Internet Tycoon which has a lot of incredible info and training on the topic.

6) Finding sites that aren't for sale has recently become a hobby of mine (I have no life). There's a post on my blog (flipfilter dot com / blog) on finding sites for sale by owner, but like Snowbank has said, it's mostly about the numbers.

Here's a few bits that I've found recently

- You can make a professional (Good Morning, I'm from X corp and we buy sites) or personal (Hi, I've been trying to buy a site in this niche and came across yours) style of initial enquiry.
Personal opened a can of whoop-a$$ on professional with a (currently) 35% higher response rate.

- The main problem I'm trying to overcome is price shoppers - people who have no intention of selling but just play along to see how much they could get for their 'baby'. I get around this when people ask how much by explaining that I usually offer X times net monthly profit, but this amount can go up or down depending on XYZ factors. This has the benefit of 1) Getting potential timewasters an answer without taking my time and 2) Letting them know that if they want an accurate price I'm going to need a lot more information i.e. they'll have to waste their own time.

As my 'x' is quite low, I think I lose some genuine people at this stage, but a little more research should help.

I currently use some custom software that allows me to manage about 200 enquiries a day, semi automated so my numbers at the moment (I've just started using it last week so these may change) look like (approx)
100 cold enquiries -> 60 responses -> 40 request more info / valuation -> 4 realistic price offers->3 potential purchases.

This is after the probably 200 or so sites have been filtered down (by the software) to give me that initial 100 cold enquiry list so without it, you can probably see the average person has to put in a LOT of work to make this work, but it is worthwhile. Some sites I've bought in the past (manually) for less than £1000 have gone on in just a few months to make double that in monthly net.

Sorry for the brain dump, but I love to see this industry spreading to non tech places and hope this info helps.
Justin

View attachment Web Specific Ratios.pdf

 

[Giles]

Thanks Justin! Exactly the answer I was looking for. I have had a good read of your site over the past few weeks, you definitely know what your talking about!

:eusa_clap:

 

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