I am a HUGE fan of SitePoint.com. They are one of the top sites online for website designers and programmers, plus they have tons of information on most anything web related. I highly recommend that you check them out, if you haven’t already. I have been a member since their early days and I actually wrote an article for them back in 2001 called, “Turn Your Parked Domains into Profit Machines“. Yes, I was ahead of my time 
Well earlier this year, I read about Website Flipping and thought it sounded like a pretty easy way to make some money, so I gave it a shot. I ended up flipping about 8 sites in a couple months and it was pretty profitable.
I sold all my sites through SitePoint’s Marketplace under the Start-Up Sites category. It was great because it only cost $10 to auction off a site and that was it. If your site did not sell, you would have to pay another $10 to re-list it, but that wasn’t too bad.
Well I guess SitePoint has been pretty successful with their Marketplace so they decided to create a spin-off company called FLIPPA… just for buying and selling websites. They removed those two services from SitePoint and moved it all over to Flippa, so you cannot buy and sell domain anymore on SitePoint.
Now I have not tried them yet, as the pricing structure has changed quite a bit and with the small margins I made flipping start-up sites, I am not sure if it is worth it.
Instead of the $10 I was paying before, they now charge $19 to list a site. On top of that… they have a new 5% “Success Fee” (capped at $498) which you have to pay if your site sells.
Now if I were selling sites that sold for several thousand dollars, those fees would not be as big of a deal, but for selling start-up sites, where you are lucky to get a few hundred dollars (if that), that really digs into your profits. Especially if you have to re-list them one or two times.
Now I am not here to say anything bad about Flippa, as I have not tried them yet. I would love to hear the opinions of those of you that have used their new service, or hear your thoughts on their new pricing structure.
Please leave your thoughts in the “Comments Section” below…
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Curious Little Person on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 9:11 pm
I think that’s way to high a price to pay , when u end up making just a few dollars from a flip. I would say that if u think you’re not going to be make much froma a flip, better stick to sitepoint.com
Cheers
Sandeep
Doug Dillard on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 10:41 pm
Unfortunately, you cannot use SitePoint Marketplace anymore to buy or sell websites… those services have been moved to Flippa.
Deneil Merritt on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 7:03 am
I always viewed sitepoint as a place to buy and sell mid to high end websites. I’m not at that level just yet so I will keep flipping small sites in webmaster forums. I will be using flippa to buy a few websites once I have the budget.
Doug Dillard on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 7:07 am
Deneil… what webmaster forums have you used to flip sites? Any sites better than others?
Sire on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 4:53 pm
I’ve never tried flipping a site yet, but I have given it some thought. You said that you flipped 8 sites. Were these sites that you bought specifically for that purpose or were they sites you already had?
Doug Dillard on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 11:24 pm
Sire.. I believe 7 out of the 8 I sold…. I had already owned the domains and I created some quick custom blogs for each for quick sales. Some the content was brand new and others I used PLR content, as I wanted to test which worked best.
Marketing Business Review on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 11:37 pm
Hi Doug,
I have not flip a site yet, but I were thinking in buying a site in sitepoint. Did not heard about Flippa, looks good. Those margins seems to small to really make a profit, unless you grow really big your site before selling.
Btw, Thanks for your comment in my site.
Luis
Sire on Fri, 3rd Jul 2009 11:53 pm
Cool, what of the PR of those sites. Did they have any and if they did does the PR drive up the value?
Doug Dillard on Sun, 5th Jul 2009 4:51 pm
Sire… They were all brand new sites when I sold them. None of them had any PR at all.
Sire on Sun, 5th Jul 2009 10:33 pm
Thanks Doug, that gives me something to think about.
Asswass on Mon, 6th Jul 2009 8:11 am
Nice website Doug. I didn’t know that there was a website with a market place for selling websites. Nice to know if I someday I want to sell
Doug Dillard on Mon, 6th Jul 2009 8:45 am
Here is the list of the websites I sold. Most were the same template with mainly graphic changes.
http://homebrewguys.com/
http://www.creditmagician.com/
http://www.mrbodybuilder.com/
http://www.thebackpros.com/
http://www.thelawpros.com/
http://www.thedomainpros.com/
http://www.mrorganized.com/
http://www.mrrussia.com/ (These guys bought the site just for the domain name)
Asswass on Mon, 6th Jul 2009 8:51 am
Well then you have a nice business going on don’t you? I don’t know anything about design or programming so I outsource them.
Extreme John on Mon, 6th Jul 2009 3:26 pm
I have a tremendous domain portfolio which is actually scaled back due to a sale of about 200 of my domains a little over a year ago.
I have been considering selling some more domains, even with the fees I might have to give it a little test run. Thank you for the tips.
Doug Dillard on Mon, 6th Jul 2009 3:31 pm
John… back in the day I had just over 3000 domains and have scaled back to about 200 myself. Most… I plan to keep for future use, but I am thinking about selling the rest off. Not sure if I want to do it with Flippa with their higher costs.
Let me know if you try them, as I would love to hear how you do
Good-Luck!
Allan Ward on Tue, 7th Jul 2009 5:57 am
I comes back to whether you feel you’re getting value for money using the Flippa web site. If Flippa gets you in front of the right people (potential buyers), then maybe there’s value in paying a bit extra for the listing. If you pay an extra 5%, but you sell your site for a higher price than you could have elsewhere, then maybe it’s value for money.
It’s a bit like selling a house. A good realtor may charge more to sell your home, but they may also obtain a higher price that more than covers their higher fees.
I’ve never sold a domain before, but looking at the examples you’ve given above, it’s given me a few ideas.
Doug Dillard on Wed, 8th Jul 2009 4:21 pm
Very good points Allan!