I just received an email from SitePoint Marketplace that they are testing their new marketplace called Flippa.
The first thing that comes into my mind is that SitePoint might be building a marketplace that can counter a phenomenon called ‘SitePoint Marketplace Saturation’. I was wrong.
Let’s go into the pros and cons of the new Flippa:
Pros
- Professional looking seller’s profile page…finally…
- Cool designs
- Easy navigations
- Simple designs
- Easy for buyers to look at ‘Ending Soon’ listings which is great
Cons
- Very difficult to get people to look at your listing
- Same concept with WebsiteBroker.com which means failure
- Difficult for sellers to make their listings stand out
- 5% of website sale can be good or bad…but generally for people like me, it’s bad
- Default front page only features ‘featured listing’ — which means if you do not get your listing featured, there are less people going into your listing to read your listing details
- Stupid name = Flippa.com?
- No ‘Advanced Search’? WTF?
I will update about Flippa when I find out more — but right now, I think it’s a very bad idea from SitePoint.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
You might want to check out the “advanced search” – it’s in the top right hand corner of the BUY tab. You can search by age of site, PageRank, Alexa Rank, Revenue and type of revenue and much more. You can even setup custom alerts and be notified when listings matching your buying criteria show up.
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June 11th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Desmond i think Flippa’s Listing fee is high?
Is sitepoint going to stop marketplace in their forum and moving their sellers and buyers to flippa.com?
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June 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
And to be honest your description is really cool Desmond and is this the cutline theme ??
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June 11th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the article, and I do agree with most of your comments, especially about the listing fee increase and the 5% charge on sold sites…It just seems to me that since the market of website flipping has become saturated, that these guys are looking to take advantage of this by using their customer base to make more money from website sellers!.
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June 14th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@ Matt Mickiewicz – Thanks for pointing that out. I haven’t go through Flippa yet and actually, I am not interested to go through Flippa.
Hate the designs.
@ Mithunv – I think SitePoint is trying to channel cheap buyers and site flippers to Flippa and make their main marketplace (SitePoint Marketplace) to be extremely higher class.
And yes, the listing fees are higher.
@ Harish – Yes, that’s correct. This is a Cutline by Chris Pearson — same guy who made Thesis.
Thanks anyway.
@ John – Haha…I have to agree with you. My second mind is telling me that SitePoint might flip Flippa when Flippa becomes much larger.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hey Desmond I spent a couple hours checking out flippa when it launched.
Looks like there is lots of highly developed sites with multible income stream.
I was able to find many sites with epn, amazon, clickbank and origonal articles for under $300.00.
How can any newbie compete with that. Some of these guys are professional designers as well as being able to make there own tools for epn and amazon. No need to buy a license for bans or phpbay. They also have custom themes and don’t need free MFA templates.
Your Thoughts Please.
Your bookmarked
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June 28th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
@ Bill – Hey mate. Well, regardless of what, I will not flip a single site on Flippa.
It’s the most bullshit-stuff that I’ve ever heard from the SitePoint team.
I suggest you check out news about Flippa at:
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/96022-flippa-com-live.html?highlight=flippa
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June 29th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Mark Harbottle: Co-Founder of Sitepoint has this to say to his paying customers who voiced their thoughts on the new Flippa:
Thanks for all your positive feedback guys. We appreciate it. One thing to keep in mind…
Our buyers aren’t going anywhere. They are savvy business people. They don’t care about the design of the site or the fact the logo sucks (the current logo is a placeholder BTW), they simply get on with the business of buying, and we’ve made it a lot easier for them to do that on flippa.com.
Meanwhile while you all whine and complain about the fees, the design, etc. the smart sellers are listing their sites on flippa.com and they are attracting the majority of the buyer interest. They will also get the added benefit of the PR we’re about to roll out.
So, it’s totally up to you! If you want to come across to flippa and sell your site in the professional marketplace we’re creating for serious buyers, we welcome you with open arms. If not, please do go to digitalpoint. List your site for free and see if the old adage of “you get what you pay for” applies.
Desmond, check out http://sitedeal.org if you haven’t already. With support, this could be a strong competitor. They also have a Store function that I love. The listings are free and I’m already getting some pms about my auctions.
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July 17th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I really do hate flippa to the nth degree. Might as well try the sitedeal . org. Let’s see how things go
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