Flippin’ Fridays : Weekly Posts On Website Flipping
Fri, Aug 15, 2008
What’s A Flippin’ Friday?
As I mentioned a couple days ago, I’m working on ideas for weekly posts that have a theme, and the first one is going to be Flippin’ Fridays, which will focus on my experiences with website flipping.
Some of you already know that I recently took a dive head first into website flipping. I’ve been scouring the net regularly to find useful tips and techniques that will help to increase my flippin’ profits. In the meantime, I continue to flip sites as much as I can to test and apply what I’ve been learning in the process.
As I discover, learn, and attempt to implement new website flipping strategies, I will share them on Flippin’ Fridays and hope that you can benefit from some of my trials and tribulations.
How My Flipping Has Been Going So Far:
Most of my flips are small, but I have an “undefeated” track record of 9-0 as far as making a decent profit. Usually the hourly wage breakdown on them is pretty decent as well, but I have only recently started to precisely clock the time I spend on website flips. Typically the profit is in the $xxx range, but my best to date was a buy/sell that I owned for 5 or 6 weeks and brought in over $2800 profit with minimal time spent on improving the site. I’ll get into more of those kinds of details with some case studies of my experiences in future posts. Today, I just wanted to give you an intro to what’s coming.
What Kind Of Websites Do I Flip?
If you’re totally new to website flipping, it’s important to know that the phrase does not only refer to buying a site, improving it, and then selling it. The term is also used to describe building a website from scratch with the intention to sell it quickly (usually within 2-12 weeks). I have done both, but so far, I have made more % profit from buying existing, undervalued sites and selling them after a bit of “renovation” (traffic, design, etc.).
So far, I have only sold fairly small niche sites/blogs that brought in revenue from affiliate programs (ebooks mostly) and Adsense. Eventually, I’d like to expand into membership sites, forums, and other areas, but for now, I’m comfortable with what I’m doing and would rather continue to learn from flipping the types that have been working for me.
If you’re interested in building some small, easy content sites to test the waters, TheNetFool has just written an excellent article on what you need to do to get started flipping websites with minimal investment.
Am I Planning To Flip Websites Full Time?
I have no intention on relying solely on website flipping, but from my short amount of experience so far, I can honestly say that it appears to be feasible to flip sites for a full time income if you are dedicated to doing so. That being said, putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good thing, and flipping websites will only be one aspect of my game, regardless what the profit is. Earning extra cash flow from flipping short term websites while long term projects mature into passive income is more likely the road I will continue to pursue. The fun part is, you never know what will happen…..but I’ll be talkin’ about it every Flippin’ Friday.
Tags: website flipping
August 16th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Thanks for the mention!
Flippin’ Friday sounds like a brilliant idea. Relying solely on website flipping might be a bit extreme… okay it’s WAY too extreme… but it’s a big money maker that I’d love to see more of. Looking forward to it!
The Net Fools last blog post..Making Money Online… by Being Sneaky? - Learn How to Profit On Ordinary Posts
August 16th, 2008 at 2:32 am
What’s Up Fool??
Yeah, I did say that I’m NOT relyng solely on website flipping, regardless of the profits I receive from them! Unless I work my way up to million dollar, 30 day flips. lol
No problem on the mention. Your site has killer content.
August 17th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Hi Jay,
What do you recommend for payment? Do you use escrow exclusively? I have heard of people getting burned with paypal.
Greg
August 17th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Sweet SuiteJ! lol…you know I’m ready to eat up whatever you’re putting out buddy. I toyed around with a similar idea, about themed days, but haven’t implemented it yet. I’m still thinking about it, but I won’t be covering site flipping as I haven’t flipped a site at all…
Normal Joes last blog post..Tired of this crap man Feedburner stats are wack
August 17th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hi, Jay:
It is a welcome feature. Look forward to your Flippin Fridays. I lost some momentum with my first flip not selling.
But i will re-list it and move on. I’m not giving up. With more experience i will learn and be a solid flipper in no time.
Happy Sunday! Am watching the Chicago Cubs massacre the Florida marlins. It’s bottom of 7th inning and Cubbies came back from a 2 and o deficit, to 8 to 2. I’m so lovin it. Let’s see if they win it. LOL.
Go Cubbies!
Missys last blog post..Namecheap 48 Hour Transfer Sale $5.99 (.com and .net)
August 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
@Greg: Hey Greg! Thanks for coming over.
Ooooh, the old PayPal issue. I’m definitely going to do a post on this, but my short answer is if you want to be extra safe, just go with an Escrow service (Escrow.com, Sedo.com). I’ve been looking into this more lately because I’m preparing to buy/sell/flip more regularly.
All my recent website sales (flips), except one, have been through PayPal. I’ve had thousands of transactions over the years via PayPal and never have been scammed as either a buyer or a seller, so I consider myself very lucky (knock on wood). I do know quite a few poeple who have had buyers reverse the charges on them and steal their site/product. PayPal basically leaves you naked in the cold when this happens.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of buyers who are used to using PayPal and don’t want to sign up and go through the Escrow process for a transaction that’s going to be for a small amount - say under $250. PayPal is a quick and simple process, and allows a buyer to buy it, be done with it, and move on quickly (especially the ones buying up small sites to add to their large network). I suppose if they really want the site though, they will use Escrow if that’s all you accept. I’d like to see statistics on how much it makes a difference in sales.
I use a few tactics to “screen buyers” when I’m selling, and although I accept PayPal, I would always reserve the right to insist Escrow if something seemed fishy.
A good feature on SitePoint is the ability to have a bid sit in queue, allowing you to decide to either accept it or reject it after doing a little digging if you feel it’s necessary.
Doing a little checking up on the buyer before you accept a bid will never guarantee a 100% safe transaction, but it helps if you’re planning to use PayPal.
I have considered going 100% Escrow, but I wouldn’t want to lose sales to small sites because I’m not accepting PayPal. I’m looking for ways around that, so hopefully I can find an answer and share it with you.
I’ll elaborate on this in a future post, so come back!
Cheers!
Jay
August 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
@Joe: Yeah, I figured themed days will help both of us. You know what’s coming, and I can be more organized with this blog. I’m trying to do 4892 things at once, so I need that! lol
@Missy: Happy Sunday to you to. I guess I should start chruning out Sunday Link Luv posts like everyone else and their Mama? lol
Don’t give up on website flipping OR the Cubs!!
Cheers guys!
Jay
August 17th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Nice post, I am flipping sites too but not that often. I start two to three new websites each month then sell them after 3 months or so. I’m looking forward to more Flippin’ Fridays!
Lucass last blog post..Making Money: You Can Never Make Too Much
August 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
@Lucas: Hey, thanks for stopping by! Cool on your flips. 3 months is a good interval to let them mature a bit to get more $$. I’ll have to sift through your site some more to see if you mention your flippin’ tactics.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Hey SuiteJ
Man I have to be honest. I never even heard of flipping websites until now. I can’t wait to read more about it. This definitely looks like one of the sites I’m going to devour trying to pick up tips on making a buck.
Talk to you soon,
T
August 18th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
am in i have already started it few weeks back
but havent getting that much 
narendra.s.vs last blog post..My custom “404 page not found” page Design
August 19th, 2008 at 2:56 am
@T Edwards: Hey T! Cool, keep coming back. Website flipping is something I’m contsantly working on, and actually doing, so hopefully I can give you some decent insight as I learn more myself — even if it’s learning from my mistakes.
@narendra: Hey! Tell me a bit about the types of sites you’re selling! Are you building them from scratch?
Thanks for coming by guys!
Cheers!
Jay