Flipping Websites

The Art of Buying and Selling Websites

Authenticating Domain Ownership

When it comes to buying or selling any website regardless of whether or not it is to flip, one of the most important first steps is to verify who the website actually belongs to. This can be easier said than done these days thanks to services such as DomainsByProxy, but it’s actually a relatively straight forward task if you know what you’re doing.

The first thing you need to do is to check the WHOIS registry. One of the best things to do is to use Domain Tools. Domain Tools lets you find out the three most important things about a domain name being the current owner, previous owners and also any recent changes in web host or name server.

You might be wondering why it’s important to know these details, and the truth is it’s ordinarily not but when it comes to buying a website, you need to take every precaution to make sure that what you’re buying really does belong to you. The consequences of buying a hacked website mean that you lose out on your money, and in a few weeks you possibly get taken to court.

By checking the name server history on a site such as Domain Tools you can verify that the domain hasn’t been pointed elsewhere. If you see that the domain name has just recently changed ownership or the DNS server has changed, make sure to query the owner as it could be a sign that the ‘owner’ isn’t quite who they say they are.

One of the best ways to ensure a safe transaction is to be thoroughly vigilant. These days there are numerous websites becoming victims to hack attacks. If you have any cause for concern, then don’t go ahead with the sale. If the domain does look authentic and the owner appears who they say they are, also be wary that you may be buying from a disgruntled ex or someone with a grudge against the real owner. Use an escrow service for anything that’s going to involve money and most importantly before you hand anything over, make sure to see some evidence on paper.

Lastly, trademarked domain names are an important issue. If you are about to buy a website that has a domain name which uses another companies trademark, no matter what the seller tells you, you are breaking trademark law and the most likely reason the site is up for sale is that the previous owner has already been issued with a cease and desist letter, alongside an order to delete the domain name.

Copyright law states that any domain name using a company’s trademark belongs to that company. Facebooktips.com is a violation, microsofttips.com is another violation, and googlesucks.com is another. Make sure to check these issues first, and if a domain appears to be a trademark violation, don’t buy.

Buying a new website isn’t as hard as it sounds, and whilst you do need to be constantly vigilant, the best piece of advice we can give is to make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into. Once again, the golden rule here is that if it looks too good to be true, chances are it really is.

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Essential Tools in a Site Flippers Tool Box

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Essential Tools in a Site Flippers Tool Box

When you start flipping sites, you need nothing more than a willingness to succeed and some entrepreneurial skill. The secret isn’t so much in being an expert in website design or SEO it’s in knowing how to develop an idea. Like anything, a little knowledge goes a long way, and when it comes to site flipping there are a few essential tools that can both save you a lot of time and also a lot of money.

SeoQuake – SeoQuake is actually a Firefox extension that is without doubt one of the best SEO tools and also coincidentally, incredibly useful for checking the sites vital statistics on Google, Yahoo as well as MSN. It can also tell you how old a website is as well as give you other information such as Alexa Pagerank which is useful in gauging just how popular a website actually is.

Domaintools.com – is a tool that can be used to check up on a domain name to see who its current owner is as well as any previous owner information, and so much more. It also gives a brief rundown on SEO history and other facts which can be useful in determining the value of a site.

Archive.org is a great tool to check how old a site is and also what the previous versions looked like. You can really go back in time with this tool, as it mirrors almost every change done to a website.

Aboutus.org can be a useful tool when looking for more information on a site. It’s generally a good place to look for information on large volume sites as this is like the Wikipedia of websites – people can post comments and other things about a site on Aboutus.org.

The tools you need to start site flipping really are quite basic. The list above is a very small one, yet it is also infinitely powerful, and some of them such as Google and SeoQuake are great tools to use in order to give you an idea of how much your site is actually worth.

Google tools are amongst the most powerful and the list can be broken down into keyword tools, analysis tools and stats tools. If you are building a website, then it’s important to use an accurate statistics package and Google Analytics is one of the best in the industry.

When it comes to flipping your website, one of the best places to go to is flippa.com it’s the most popular place to sell websites these days and you can use it to check up on everything as well as a get a really good idea of how much your site is worth.

When it comes to selling, flippa.com takes a 5% success fee, but it’s worth it. They have successfully sold sites from $10 up to $600,000 and all without a problem. In our opinion, it’s the single best resource for buying or selling any website.

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How To Protect Yourself From Website Flipping Scams

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Protect Yourself From Website Flipping Scams

As flipping websites has become infinitely more profitable, more and more people have joined in on the bandwagon. Sadly, not all of them are selling legitimate web sites. Some may simply be stolen, others may be completely fraudulent. Simply paying money for a website may not even guarantee that it’s yours! So to ensure your absolute safety whilst buying or selling flipped sites, make sure to follow our guidelines below.

Google is Your Friend – The golden rule when conducting any sort of online transaction is to check the person out online first. This could involve searching for their name or e-mail address on Google; it’s surprising how much it can reveal. Make sure to do your research so that you know the person you’re selling to or buying from is legitimate.

Check WHOIS Information Thoroughly – If you’re buying the site make sure to get the URL off of the seller before you go through with the transaction. Visit a site such as http://www.who.is and double check that the registrant is the person who is selling. If it’s not then you may be buying nothing but thin air.

Always Use an Escrow Service – When it comes down to the final transaction, if you sell without an escrow service you always run risk of being stolen from. Whether it’s your site or your money that gets stolen, PayPal do little to help, and in the case of bank transfer it’s next to impossible to get them reversed, so use a reputable online escrow service to give both parties piece of mind.

Traffic Can Lie – A common scam that happens just before a sale is that visitor figures are artificially inflated by sellers who purchase traffic at a very cheap rate. As soon as they’ve sold the site, the traffic disappears and you’re effectively left with nothing but a dysfunctional site. Make sure that you have access to full statistics so you can check traffic and make sure there is a natural looking growth pattern. If there is not, chances are it’s a scam.

Check The Domain Name – Did you know that if you bought a domain name such as Microsoftsoftware.com you’d be at Microsoft’s mercy as to whether or not you’d be allowed to keep it? If you’re thinking of buying a flipped site that features a possible copyrighted or trademarked domain name, then don’t because it’s only a matter of time before it could be subpoenaed and subsequently deleted, along with the website.

Sign a Contract – Before completing the transaction make sure to have some form of written contract which states what’s been transferred and what you’re giving or receiving. That way both parties are protected and you can rest assured knowing that whatever’s been agreed on is also in writing.

Flipping websites is filled with all sorts of problems to be aware of, but given appropriate care, this is a highly lucrative industry where you can make fortunes in just a short period of time. However, the golden rule of life is always if it seems too good to be true, it ordinarily is!

Don’t ever believe anything on faith, and especially when it comes to online transactions, make sure you know exactly what’s happening at all times. The Internet really can be the Wild West, so be careful out there!

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Separating the Good Flips from the Bad

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Separating the Good Flips from the Bad

Site flipping is similar to the real estate market. If you know how the real estate market works, then you can gain a lot if you apply some of your knowledge to site flipping, as whilst the two markets are both distinctly different; they also share a number of parallels.

However, there are a number of factors that you need to be aware of to make sure that when you’re buying a site you’re getting the best value for money.

How much traffic the site gets, how old the site is and how well-established it is are all important factors when looking at sites to flip. If you buy a site that’s just a few months old, then you may be forced to wait until it ‘matures’. Before buying also check to make sure that it’s not just a short term craze which will die out in the next few months but a business venture that has the capability of growth.

Websites cost money – it costs both time and money to flip a website. Before you start to buy a site, find out what’s involved in maintenance and most importantly, how much time you need to spend dealing with support and administration issues. Many of the sites on Flippa are being sold because of the fact even though they are profitable; they are taking their current owners too much time. Maybe it’s the perfect deal if you can outsource the administration or streamline it, but if it cuts into the profit margins too much, then you’re stuck with a site that simply is more hassle than it’s worth.

Not Everyone Can Design – Whilst it’s easy to upload a website and build traffic, there are many out there who need to realize that designing is for designers and programming is for programmers. This presents both an opportunity and a problem as there are countless sites being flipped right now that need a major makeover both aesthetically and programmatically. Take this into account before placing any bids, and ask as many questions as you can before buying.

SEO is not for everyone – A lot websites out there could do ten times better if their owners knew a little SEO. A little SEO knowledge goes a long way, but even so, many webmasters don’t do nearly as much as they should because quite simply, they don’t have the budget to invest in search engine optimization or more realistically, they don’t know what it is. Many of the sites on Flippa for example could easily be made infinitely more profitable with nothing other than a refresh and a clearly defined SEO campaign. After all with visitors comes profit!

When it comes to buying or selling websites, it’s important to ensure that information is accurate so both parties know what the sites worth and more importantly what’s involved in making it work. It’s estimated that only 30% of websites are actually profitable. If you have what it takes to make a website profitable, then you stand to make a great deal as a website flipper.

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Flipping Micro-Sites For Profit

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Flipping Micro-sites For Profit

If you’ve done a bit of research into website flipping then you have probably already found out a whole load of conflicting views and information. The reality is that website flipping is profitable, it works and most importantly – you can flip anything if you can prove to the world it’s worthwhile.

With so much bad information out there, knowing exactly what’s worthwhile and what’s not can be a difficult process. The golden rule for website flipping is that traffic = value. This could mean that single page web sites which are keyword optimized and receive a lot of traffic are actually profitable to sell!

Micro-sites are actually incredibly effective ways to flip websites. Whilst people think that flipping small sites is for small-timers, some of the best website flippers are the ones that are smart enough to do the research beforehand, find an extremely profitable niche and then exploit the search engines by building a site that is laser-targeted, keyword rich and search-engine friendly.

Micro-sites really are the site flippers secret weapon and this is because they make extremely profitable Google AdSense landing pages which when advertised on places such as SitePoint really does get a lot of interest. Especially when you can show that they are already profitable. Let’s face it, anyone would be mad not to buy a website that is already making a fully automated, passive income.

Creating the perfect micro site is all about impact. This means your template for the page needs to be more attractive than normal, because when it comes to building smaller websites, there is limited space for content. You need to fill the gap with an attractive layout and good presentation.

These days, you’d be surprised to hear that a lot of micro sites are actually ran using the ever popular blogging platform and pseudo-content management system, WordPress.

WordPress is a great way to build a micro-site for flipping because it instantly makes site management a piece of cake. Add to the fact that it’s also natively search engine friendly, and you have the perfect platform to build micro-sites that are ready to flip.

When it comes to selling a micro-site it’s all about profit. You need to show to potential buyers that with next to no work, they can have a profitable site which will make them regular money. There are two main types of directly profitable sites; the first are Adsense ready type sites which are designed to get traffic and send visitors through to AdSense, and the second is to create an internet-marketing style micro ste.

There are countless ways to build micro sites and it really does depend on what you envisage as being most profitable. If your experience lies in affiliate marketing, then chances are you can make a potentially profitable marketing site quickly.

When it comes to building micro-sites the secret is to think about your seller and build a site they’d be interested in. Before you start, take a look on popular places to sell so that you know exactly what type of site is profitable and most importantly, how much they’re selling for. Micro sites can be extremely profitable, just make sure to do your research beforehand!