A Review of Flippa – How to Buy and Sell Websites in 2022

Let’s take a look today, at our Review of Flippa.

Are you at the stage where you are ready to get into the world of digital real estate?

Have you ever thought how do you buy and sell websites?

Flippa is one of the key players to buy and sell all your digital real estate.

My Flippa review will cover everything you need to know regarding the market place for blogs, websites and domains.

In a nutshell, Flippa will help guide you through the process of buying and selling websites, giving you both feedback and resources o do this.

The internet has grown massively over the past 5 – 10 years, and with that so has the opportunities to make money online.

There are endless ways to do this and in this Flippa review we will be looking at the buying and selling of websites.

You will find websites for sale or auction starting as low as $10 but more often than not they will cost a lot more than that.

Having a look through Flippa I would say the average sell price of a website is roughly $4,000.00 – which to me doesn’t seem like a lot taking into consideration the time, money and effort you spend building out that site from nothing.

Who are Flippa and How Does it Work?

Flippa built their brand around being the place to go when you don’t want to rob a bank to buy a web property.

Is this still Flippa in 2021?

We will get onto that inside this comprehensive review on Flippa

I will give you everything I have researched to help you decide if it is the right marketplace for you, how common the scams are, and how to buy and sell real and valuable web property. Flippa works on an auction-style website for the buying and selling of businesses.

These businesses are usually bought through Flippa URLs or Flippa Packages which will include domains with established websites. If you are a seller you will have the option to set a selling price for your business, or Flippa can put it up for auction.

If Flippa can’t get that asking price within a 2-month time frame it will release the seller from any obligation to sell for that price.

Business owners can list their websites for sale and disclose all the relevant information regarding their website and their experience in running that site. All websites on Flippa are listed based on the category and niche they are in.

Selling on Flippa.com

Selling on Flippa is very easy.

The only thing the seller has to do is prove that they own the website, which you can do by simply adding a meta tag front tag, or if that’s a little beyond your skill set then an email from your domain address will do.

Once you have completed that step you will need to write your pitch covering what the site is, why you think its good, and why you are selling it.

Fippa.com wants you to give as much information as you can, looking through their site the quality of these descriptions vary a huge amount from seller to seller.

As a buyer on the Flippa marketplace it is free to enroll, however as a seller you will be required to pay Flippa a commission to list your website or other online businesses for sale.

Buying on Flippa.com

Buyers have a number of filters they can use when browsing Flippa’s available listings.

As soon as they create a free Flippa account they will have access to see the full seller descriptions when they look at that listing.

You will be able to see things like;

• Sellers Description
• Basic Profit
• Basic Loss
• Traffic Numbers
• Age of Website

You can also post comments asking the seller questions that you may have that are’nt included in their initial description.

One of the features as a buyer that I did like, was the ability to request a “Read Only” access to the sellers Google Analytics account in relation to that website. You will also be able to exchange direct messages with the sellers.

As a buyer, once you make an offer and it is accepted the sale enters into something called Escrow and your money is then held safely by Flippa.

Flippa will hold this money until you, the buyer is happy that all requirements and details are as promised. Once you are in agreement with this the money is then released to the seller who then pays a commission to Flippa.

How to Avoid Scams on Flippa

For the last 2 months prior to doing this review, I have been researching Flippa and the more I look at it the more blown away I am at the number of out-and-out scams on the site that are selling like ice in the desert!

People are actually bidding on and buying these websites in the truckloads!

From my research Flippa could easily filter these cams out if they took the time to actually verify the business listings that go up on their site.

This was a driving reason why the team at Motion Invest started a legitimate marketplace for small verified sites where all the sites are 100% legit and verified.

Pro Tip On Scam Avoidance – I found that when I searched sites with earnings between $1.00 and $500.00 per month I found several sites that looked legitimate. I don’t know why but this seemed to be the sweet spot.

In my research I also found their have been a huge amount reported instances where sellers have scammed newbie buyers on their platform.

If you are going to purchase a site through Flippa I strongly suggest you do your due diligence and get verification on all its earning and traffic claims. There are scammers on every platform and Flippa is no different.

If You Can’t Verify the Traffic – Get Nervous

I love my websites to have organic traffic. Don’t get me wrong, social is a great option also but for me that is my 2nd option.

What I like about those two options is that I can easily verify where my website traffic is coming from. I can verify my organic and paid traffic through Google Analytics and Ahrefs to check my rankings. Then with my social traffic I again look at Google Analytics and then check my social channels.

What about direct traffic? Not many people will head to a website by typing in the actual URL. (and yes, direct traffic can be other things, but I am of the opinion it shouldn’t be and is almost impossible to fact check).

You are unable to do anything with direct traffic. It is impossible to verify. In saying that, their would be one exception that I may consider and that would be email marketing.

If I saw a site that claimed to own a huge email list I would want to see that list in a video showing me that list and verification that it is for the site listed for sale.

How Does a Website Make Money Without Selling Anything?

You don’t need to sell anything on your website for it to become a valuable asset on Flippa, just as long as you have some form of monetization in place.

Monetization could be having an online shop, having memberships to exclusive content, or selling ad space. There are many websites that make money from Affiliate Marketing. 

Affiliate Marketing is where the website owner signs up for a program and is given an Affiliate Link. When someone visits your website and clicks on that Affiliate Link to make a purchase that program will pay you a commission. If you are unsure of what Affiliate Links are I have gone in to detail regarding this in “Making the Moolah”

Google Adsense is another great way to have your site earning money without selling anything directly from it. You can strategically have Google place ads within your website which you get paid for when visitors view them.

While some people swear by this method, I am not a huge fan as it can definitely distract viewers from you actual site and can at times make your website look very spammy!

Who is Flippa Best For?

While Flippa does cover its own niche, it does have a lot of scams on its platform. If you have deep pockets I would probably recommend Empire Flippers and if your pockets were endless then Quiet Light Brokerage would be my recommendation.

So, if you don’t fit in to either of the above two I mentioned, where does that leave you? Looking through Flippa and doing the research over the past 6-weeks or so I think Flippa is OK to sell your site on.

As a seller you will have to pay a subscription and a fee when you sell your website which you will need to remember to cancel otherwise you will continue to pay the $15.00 per month.

As a seller Flippa has a ton of buyers and I really mean a TON! As a seller you will need to prepare yourself for a heap of time wasters.

Anyone can message you on Flippa and comment on your website listing. This can lead to trashing you and bringing up invalid concerns (something I saw a lot of while going through Flippa). Over and over again you will be asked by buyers to verify the same metrics which can definitely test ones patience.

You will definitely be paying a lot less on Flippa than you would on the higher end brokers, however you will also be working a lot more.

Selling your site is very labor intensive compared to the higher end brokers, but they really won’t be interested in talking business to you unless your website is earning at least a few thousand dollars per month, and usually more.

How Much Does Flippa Cost?

As Flippa describe, “A success fee is payable when you sell and this is calculated as a percentage of the sale price.”

Depending on what you are selling their are also fixed price listing fees which will vary depending on what it is you’re selling.

All of their pricing packages can be found on their website Flippa.com and are also shown in the image below.

Flippa Pros and Cons

Flippa Pros:

• The largest online business marketplace.
• Very Easy to Use- Flippa will guide you with your sale from start to finish.
• Flippa provides buyer protection.
• Tips, tricks and articles available on their website.
• Auction model as well as a buy now model.

Flippa Cons:

• Flippa sales commission % is higher than most others.
• The auction model can create high risks for both the seller and the buyer.
• Very hard for first time sellers to get the best price.
• Restrictions on how much a website can be bought for.
• A lack of privacy for sellers – Buyers are given access to your sites earnings.

Would I Recommend Flippa?

Being totally honest with you I would have a hard time recommending Flippa to buyers. From what I have seen their are far to many scams on the platform for me to sleep at nights saying that you should use it!

Let me put it this way, if one of my family wanted to buy a site through Flippa, I would tell them to do 1 of 2 things:

• Save a little more money for a broker like Empire Flippers.
• Or for a friendly budget option head over to MotionInvest where they sell good quality inexpensive websites that have been fully verified.

For me, Flippa definitely doesn’t pass the “My Family Test” and for that reason I definitely don’t feel comfortable in recommending it to any other buyers.

The Final Verdict – A Review of Flippa

If you are someone who is looking to sell your website on Flippa then this platform is at best OK. However, I most definitely wouldn’t recommend buying on Flippa unless you have a ton of experience.

Besides from having to filter out the listings (ad their is a mountain of them), and verify a whole heap of stuff you will most certainly need very good knowledge of what it takes to be successful in internet marketing.

What is my final verdict on this Flippa review?

Unless you are an advanced buyer I would definitely not recommend Flippa, especially for someone just entering the online world and looking to build a website out

If you are looking for more Affiliate Marketing tips you may want to check out the Wealthy Affiliate Community where they have over 2 MILLION members always willing to give you their tips to success.

I strongly encourage anybody interested in affiliate marketing to complete the Wealthy Affiliate training program and use the tools and resources to build your first affiliate marketing website.

To put it simply, it’s the best, most user-friendly platform on affiliate marketing that I am aware of. If you’re serious? Invest in yourself, and you will be well on your way to success.

Any/all links on this site may be affiliate links, and if you make a purchase through one of them, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full affiliate disclosure here.

If you have any questions let me known in the comments or you can hit me up on email at mark@theretiredaffiliates.com and I will be more than happy to help.

Mark

CEO and Founder of The Retired Affiliates