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Flipping websites is quickly becoming one of the top business models in the Internet Marketing community. The idea is simple and comparable to the off line business of Real Estate Flipping. You buy a piece of property, in this case virtual property, you add some value to it, and you resell it for a profit. And whether you build and sell these websites or buy them for their income potential, it still all comes down to one thing - money.
If you've gathered up the courage to jump into the site flipping arena, you've probably hear about, or even experienced, a site called Flippa. They are an online auction service that specializes in virtual property - websites, blogs, membership sites, domain names, etc. You go through a simple sign up process with them and then you can buy and sell whatever you want.
Their auction system is similar to eBay's in that you pay a listing fee, you can set time limits on your auctions and you can set minimum bid amounts and reserve limits. They even have some semblance of a feedback system in place to rate buyers and sellers. But that's about where the similarity ends.
During the entire process of listing a site, accepting bids, selling the site, and collecting the money/property, they only have 2 verification points, and both are a little shaky. Their first verification point is when you register. They send a code number to your telephone and you have to enter it online to be accepted. That way they know that you really are the Easter Bunny! Duh! Their only other verification point comes when the seller enters the listing for their property. Sellers are required to upload a file to their website so Flippa can verify that they actually own it. It's important to keep in mind that there is no verification procedure for buyers other than the telephone point.
This is the point where Flippa and eBay part ways and conducting a transaction on Flippa now becomes a Free For All. Carpetbagging sellers will tell you their site has thousands of visitors a day, 10,000 backlinks and 100 articles floating around cyberspace. A quick check on the domain name will show you that they had the site less than 24 hours! I kid you not! This happened to me! I sold a site at this online auction and stated in my listing that it was a brand new site with no traffic and no sales. Not 24 hours later, the buyer re-listed the site, using my own listing content, copied and pasted word for word, and stated that he had $50 dollars in sales a day and had already established back links with the 100 articles he had published! Where were the Monitors during all this? And this is just one example of the plagiarism and slight of hand that occurs on Flippa on a daily basis.
I don't even like to think about some of the comments I've seen on the listings at this auction site. Scammers like to watch for sites that are getting bids. Then they swoop in like vultures and start tearing you to pieces in the comments. Sure, you can always delete those comments. But they has chosen to show when you delete them. And if you do, you run the risk of looking like you have something to hide. And their attempt to copy eBay's feedback system is just...well...FAIL! Sellers are motivated to leave good feedback for the buyers in the hopes that the buyers will return the favor. Buyers have no motivation to leave feedback. Case closed.
Their method of ending an auction is frustrating for buyers and sellers alike. Just as you think the auction is ending, someone places a last minute bid, so they extends the auction by another 4 hours! Their explanation for this is that it allows other bidders time to see what the current bid is and if they want to beat it. All this does for me though, is force me to move on. If an auction is never going to end, what's the point of hanging around?
According to the stats that they list on site, they processed sales in excess of $110,000 within the last week. For a site that does that much business, you'd think they would have better control over the final transaction, the part where money and property exchange hands. But they are not concerned if either party in the transaction is ever satisfied. They got their money from you when you listed the site. In the end, it's up to the buyer and the seller to work out the details and transfer the funds and the property. Filing a dispute with Flippa if one of those parties does not comply often results in a vague answer, IF you get an answer at all.
In my opinion, there should be a better way of handling these on line virtual real estate transactions. Site flipping is becoming too popular for shoddy sites like this to continue taking our money and running. Ther are other auction sites available, but they're even worse than Flippa. But I've noticed lately that there are an awful lot of sites listed with not so many bids. A lot of sites aren't getting any bids at all. Are the buyers getting smarter? Or is it the sellers who are getting smarter? I think it's the QUALITY sellers, who have had enough of the shoddy business practices at Flippa, finding better ways to conduct their transactions, and they're taking their QUALITY buyers with them. I think Flippa better either step up or step out!
If you've gathered up the courage to jump into the site flipping arena, you've probably hear about, or even experienced, a site called Flippa. They are an online auction service that specializes in virtual property - websites, blogs, membership sites, domain names, etc. You go through a simple sign up process with them and then you can buy and sell whatever you want.
Their auction system is similar to eBay's in that you pay a listing fee, you can set time limits on your auctions and you can set minimum bid amounts and reserve limits. They even have some semblance of a feedback system in place to rate buyers and sellers. But that's about where the similarity ends.
During the entire process of listing a site, accepting bids, selling the site, and collecting the money/property, they only have 2 verification points, and both are a little shaky. Their first verification point is when you register. They send a code number to your telephone and you have to enter it online to be accepted. That way they know that you really are the Easter Bunny! Duh! Their only other verification point comes when the seller enters the listing for their property. Sellers are required to upload a file to their website so Flippa can verify that they actually own it. It's important to keep in mind that there is no verification procedure for buyers other than the telephone point.
This is the point where Flippa and eBay part ways and conducting a transaction on Flippa now becomes a Free For All. Carpetbagging sellers will tell you their site has thousands of visitors a day, 10,000 backlinks and 100 articles floating around cyberspace. A quick check on the domain name will show you that they had the site less than 24 hours! I kid you not! This happened to me! I sold a site at this online auction and stated in my listing that it was a brand new site with no traffic and no sales. Not 24 hours later, the buyer re-listed the site, using my own listing content, copied and pasted word for word, and stated that he had $50 dollars in sales a day and had already established back links with the 100 articles he had published! Where were the Monitors during all this? And this is just one example of the plagiarism and slight of hand that occurs on Flippa on a daily basis.
I don't even like to think about some of the comments I've seen on the listings at this auction site. Scammers like to watch for sites that are getting bids. Then they swoop in like vultures and start tearing you to pieces in the comments. Sure, you can always delete those comments. But they has chosen to show when you delete them. And if you do, you run the risk of looking like you have something to hide. And their attempt to copy eBay's feedback system is just...well...FAIL! Sellers are motivated to leave good feedback for the buyers in the hopes that the buyers will return the favor. Buyers have no motivation to leave feedback. Case closed.
Their method of ending an auction is frustrating for buyers and sellers alike. Just as you think the auction is ending, someone places a last minute bid, so they extends the auction by another 4 hours! Their explanation for this is that it allows other bidders time to see what the current bid is and if they want to beat it. All this does for me though, is force me to move on. If an auction is never going to end, what's the point of hanging around?
According to the stats that they list on site, they processed sales in excess of $110,000 within the last week. For a site that does that much business, you'd think they would have better control over the final transaction, the part where money and property exchange hands. But they are not concerned if either party in the transaction is ever satisfied. They got their money from you when you listed the site. In the end, it's up to the buyer and the seller to work out the details and transfer the funds and the property. Filing a dispute with Flippa if one of those parties does not comply often results in a vague answer, IF you get an answer at all.
In my opinion, there should be a better way of handling these on line virtual real estate transactions. Site flipping is becoming too popular for shoddy sites like this to continue taking our money and running. Ther are other auction sites available, but they're even worse than Flippa. But I've noticed lately that there are an awful lot of sites listed with not so many bids. A lot of sites aren't getting any bids at all. Are the buyers getting smarter? Or is it the sellers who are getting smarter? I think it's the QUALITY sellers, who have had enough of the shoddy business practices at Flippa, finding better ways to conduct their transactions, and they're taking their QUALITY buyers with them. I think Flippa better either step up or step out!
About the Author:
Flip Diva and Deschain are fed up with Flippa and they're not going to take it anymore! They invite you to visit them at their new site, Sell It With A Blog, where they're taking Site Flipping to the next level! Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
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