Buying Websites Through Flippa

1. 75

   gitachudposted 10 years ago

   I have been thinking of investing in an already established website through Flippa. Many offers look very attractive but some look questionable.
   
   How does someone verify all the details a seller gives such as earnings and traffic?
   
   How can you verify that you are not buying a poisoned chalice of poor quality back-links and Google policy violations (for Adsense)?
   
   Has anyone here had any experience buying from Flippa?

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   1. 92

      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know a lot about the CONTENT of a website, but the domain name is important.  I was selling highlighter tape (which I thought I invented) and decided to buy the domain name highlightertape.com thinking it would drive people to the sight - which it did!  I got tired of selling and shipping rolls of highlighter tape which I had purchased from the manufacturer, so I "closed up shop" and sold the domain name for $3000 after having it appraised by Sedo.
      
      I understand that this is not your question, but if there is appraisal of domain names, there might be an appraisal of the whole website.  Actually I do think that is taken into consideration in the appraisal.   It might be worth it to have the domain name appraised anyway.
      
      I am selling our old name "windmillworks.com"  soon because we used that name for my business which was supposed to be a Don Quiote reference to the movie "Man of LaMancha" (dreaming the impossible dream) blah da de blah.  (It's not really a great idea to have a company name at the end of the alphabet AND that has NOTHING to do with your product (We create educational software learning games).  So when I get everything off that website, I'll sell that name.  It's appraised at $600, so I'll see what I can get.  I'll whip up a page that a new user could use with windmill motif and hope that someone will like that name. 
      
      Try Sedo.  They used to be connected to 1 and 1 which I really don't like.  Godaddy has domain auctions, so they might be another lead for you.  Best of all, hopefully, some writer here on hubpages will actually KNOW what they're talking about and help you out. 
      
      Very Interesting concept you're trying.  Cheers, Billie

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I've never tried it, but the good sellers on Flippa do publish their Google Analytics and other data, and when you list you have to give Flippa your details so they can verify that data is genuine.

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