6 ms·

Ask HN: alternatives to Flippa?

I'm considering buying and/or selling web sites in the next few months. I already know of flippa.com for that, but would like to know if you tried alternatives that would be less known or more interesting.

JayNeely 16y ago
WebsiteBroker.com is less known, but still gets decent traffic: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/websitebroker.com+flippa.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/websitebroker.com+flippa.co...
tocomment 16y ago
Can you tell us more about your plans? I've always wanted to buy a site for a passive income source but I'm always worried I'll get scammed. Btw if you have a business that makes money from adsense can you deduct buying a new site as a business expense?
- thibaut_barrere 16y ago
  I'm more on the buying side for the moment. The thing is our consultancy (we're 2) is quite beneficial this year and I expect (but might be wrong) we will earn less next year. So I'm looking for sites I could maintain, promote and develop. I understand your worries about getting scammed: I think it's a whole new job, with very specific points to check etc :) I just asked my accountant to see if the buy could be deducted (at least here in France). I assume it will be doable.
  - tocomment 16y ago
    Anyone know if it's deductible in the US? Can you shed any light on the type of sites you're looking at? How do you evaluate them?
prs 16y ago
The forums at digitalpoint are also known to have some decent volume - Not necessarily high-end sites but sufficient for some small-scale website flipping. If you know what you are looking for, contacting website owners directly is a method I recommend as an alternative to online marketplaces. Browsing through flippa and the likes is like searching for a needle in a haystack for me and only once in a while a few golden needles emerge.
- thibaut_barrere 16y ago
  Thanks - this makes a lot of sense and match my impression when browsing flippa, as well :)
photon_off 16y ago
I made a website whose sole purpose is to show you similar and alternative sites. This should act as a nice starting off point. http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/flippa.com/ http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/flippa.com/ Top results are: WebsiteBroker, SitePoint MarketPlace, AfterNIC, and DealASite.
- petervandijck 16y ago
  Tested it with some sites, that works pretty well!
  - photon_off 16y ago
    Thank you :) I put a lot of work into it, but am not getting the traffic I imagined.
    - petervandijck 16y ago
      Time to stop developing (the autosuggest feature is a bit too much I think) and start promoting. Try asking for ideas here :) One idea would be to have some kind of widget I can put on my site. I'd also recommend simplifying the UI, it's a bit overwhelming now. Think Google results page.
      - photon_off 16y ago
        What would the widget on your site do? Suggest other website that are similar to yours? Seems kind of counter productive if your goal is to retain visitors. I've toyed with the idea of making a similarity service for publishers, or perhaps a wordpress plug-in. Moreofit would receive a set of URLs, and you could query it with a URL and receive the most similar amongst the set. I imagine this would be very useful for large sites such as SmashingMagazine, where finding similar articles on keyword alone will fail, and the site is so big that manually digging up related articles would be a pain. Instead, just drop in an iframe or script and moreofit will show a list of n most similar articles from your domain (or set of links).
    - 16y ago
petervandijck 16y ago
Here's what I don't really understand: if a website is actually, for real, bringing in decent passive income, WHY would you ever sell it? Result: only failed passive-income websites are for sale. So why not start from scratch then, especially with the risk involved (site may be banned by Google etc)
- ojbyrne 16y ago
  a. there's no such thing as "passive income" - there's always some effort. b. even if there was such a thing as passive income, it has to produce a better ROI than alternative investments.
  - petervandijck 16y ago
    a. There is such a thing as passive income, sites where the only effort you put in (for years) is counting the money.
    - ojbyrne 16y ago
      I've yet to see an example. EDIT (adding an appropriate - though ancient - quote and reference): "Internet commerce appeals deceptives (sic) to a particularly male fantasy. Guys like the idea that after a short initial period of programming, a computer will tirelessly slave away for them, making them money 24 hours a day. Set up the site, walk away, and watch the money pile up in your bank account. You can feed this fantasy by reading articles in the business press about http://amazon.com http://amazon.com, the perennial poster children for Internet commerce. They set up what is essentially a front-end to a wholesale book distributor's database, and now they are selling books every few seconds. It sounds like they are rolling in money. Well, it turns out that I know some people who work at amazon.com. The customers don't always fill out the forms exactly right. The books aren't always in stock like they should be. The customers send e-mail asking when their books are going to be shipped. So instead of one Unix box and a big vault for the cash, the company has 200 employees sucking all the money out of it. And remember, this is the best that anyone has really done: high expenses and high sales. More typical is an Internet store with high expenses and low or no sales." http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/53002.htm http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/53002.htm
aresant 16y ago
Surprisingly ebay's businesses for sale > websites for sale can be a decent place to search
smallegan 16y ago
It seems like it may be easier to find sites in the market that you'd be interested in buying and then contact the owner(s). Has anyone ever had any success in doing this?
marczphillips 16y ago
Hello, So you know, we have just started listing sites for sale at http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/ http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/ We typically have been dealing with sites that turnover more than $50,000 a month and most of these sales are done offline. We own and operate the CRS Conference (http://www.crsconferences.com http://www.crsconferences.com) sponsored by Google, AOL, eBay which over 1000 publishers attend as well as many website buyers and sellers. Many of the transaction/negotiations happen at/around the Conference. In fact, our next conference is in Los Angeles in January 2011! We also large interactive Nasdaq listed companies + other large networks actively buying domains. These large networks buy 20-30 websites a month. We know these firms personally and hence offer our clients premium access to these very reputable buyers. Unlike many website listing websites, SearchForecast is a business which operates a large technical staff optimizing some of the largest websites in the world (BBC, Harrahs Casino, Deloitte). We also have over 20,000 visitors per month to our AdSense Directory at http://www.searchforecast.com/adsense_directory_index.php http://www.searchforecast.com/adsense_directory_index.php from all over the world which is why we are now listing websites for sale online. We would certainly like to speak with you about your requirements and prefer that we post your site as a free listing on the Marketplace. We will waive the $29 listing fee by using the promo code 2740835 (we have the fee to keep away spammers!) Follow this link to http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/selling-business.php http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/selling-business.php We do take a commission upon completion of the transaction, which is 10% but we offer a unique "Sellers Guarantee" - you only pay us when you have been paid by the buyer. This gives our clients peace of mind. For larger clients that have over $1M, we have lower success fees. We would be happy to match the sellers commission you have in place with other agents. I would be happy to answer any questions and look forward to hearing from you, Best Regards, ________________________________ Marc Phillips CEO, SearchForecast Telephone: 650.530.0895 Cell: 415.606.0900 Email: marc.phillips@searchforecast.com Website: http://www.searchforecast.com http://www.searchforecast.com Skype: marczphillips Twitter:@SearchForecast ________________________________
- tocomment 16y ago
  Thank you for your message. I am currently out of the office, with limited access to e-mail. I will be returning on 9/28/2010. If you need assistance before then, you may reach me at 301-912-9001. Jon Bezos
CorrectTheory 16y ago
I think http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ is the best search engine for finding similar websites. It's hard to distinguish the differences in search engines for finding similar sites for popular websites like flippa.com. I saw all of them returning the similar results except that similarsitesearch.com gives more results than others. http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ generates the best result for smaller websites like moreofit.com. BTW I think moreofit.com has very good UI. Better than any other similar ones I have seen.

JayNeely 16y ago

WebsiteBroker.com is less known, but still gets decent traffic: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/websitebroker.com+flippa.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/websitebroker.com+flippa.co...

tocomment 16y ago

Can you tell us more about your plans? I've always wanted to buy a site for a passive income source but I'm always worried I'll get scammed. Btw if you have a business that makes money from adsense can you deduct buying a new site as a business expense?

thibaut_barrere 16y ago
I'm more on the buying side for the moment. The thing is our consultancy (we're 2) is quite beneficial this year and I expect (but might be wrong) we will earn less next year. So I'm looking for sites I could maintain, promote and develop. I understand your worries about getting scammed: I think it's a whole new job, with very specific points to check etc :) I just asked my accountant to see if the buy could be deducted (at least here in France). I assume it will be doable.
- tocomment 16y ago
  Anyone know if it's deductible in the US? Can you shed any light on the type of sites you're looking at? How do you evaluate them?

prs 16y ago

The forums at digitalpoint are also known to have some decent volume - Not necessarily high-end sites but sufficient for some small-scale website flipping. If you know what you are looking for, contacting website owners directly is a method I recommend as an alternative to online marketplaces. Browsing through flippa and the likes is like searching for a needle in a haystack for me and only once in a while a few golden needles emerge.

thibaut_barrere 16y ago
Thanks - this makes a lot of sense and match my impression when browsing flippa, as well :)

photon_off 16y ago

I made a website whose sole purpose is to show you similar and alternative sites. This should act as a nice starting off point. http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/flippa.com/ http://www.moreofit.com/similar-to/flippa.com/ Top results are: WebsiteBroker, SitePoint MarketPlace, AfterNIC, and DealASite.

petervandijck 16y ago
Tested it with some sites, that works pretty well!
- photon_off 16y ago
  Thank you :) I put a lot of work into it, but am not getting the traffic I imagined.
  - petervandijck 16y ago
    Time to stop developing (the autosuggest feature is a bit too much I think) and start promoting. Try asking for ideas here :) One idea would be to have some kind of widget I can put on my site. I'd also recommend simplifying the UI, it's a bit overwhelming now. Think Google results page.
    - photon_off 16y ago
      What would the widget on your site do? Suggest other website that are similar to yours? Seems kind of counter productive if your goal is to retain visitors. I've toyed with the idea of making a similarity service for publishers, or perhaps a wordpress plug-in. Moreofit would receive a set of URLs, and you could query it with a URL and receive the most similar amongst the set. I imagine this would be very useful for large sites such as SmashingMagazine, where finding similar articles on keyword alone will fail, and the site is so big that manually digging up related articles would be a pain. Instead, just drop in an iframe or script and moreofit will show a list of n most similar articles from your domain (or set of links).
  - 16y ago

petervandijck 16y ago

Here's what I don't really understand: if a website is actually, for real, bringing in decent passive income, WHY would you ever sell it? Result: only failed passive-income websites are for sale. So why not start from scratch then, especially with the risk involved (site may be banned by Google etc)

ojbyrne 16y ago
a. there's no such thing as "passive income" - there's always some effort. b. even if there was such a thing as passive income, it has to produce a better ROI than alternative investments.
- petervandijck 16y ago
  a. There is such a thing as passive income, sites where the only effort you put in (for years) is counting the money.
  - ojbyrne 16y ago
    I've yet to see an example. EDIT (adding an appropriate - though ancient - quote and reference): "Internet commerce appeals deceptives (sic) to a particularly male fantasy. Guys like the idea that after a short initial period of programming, a computer will tirelessly slave away for them, making them money 24 hours a day. Set up the site, walk away, and watch the money pile up in your bank account. You can feed this fantasy by reading articles in the business press about http://amazon.com http://amazon.com, the perennial poster children for Internet commerce. They set up what is essentially a front-end to a wholesale book distributor's database, and now they are selling books every few seconds. It sounds like they are rolling in money. Well, it turns out that I know some people who work at amazon.com. The customers don't always fill out the forms exactly right. The books aren't always in stock like they should be. The customers send e-mail asking when their books are going to be shipped. So instead of one Unix box and a big vault for the cash, the company has 200 employees sucking all the money out of it. And remember, this is the best that anyone has really done: high expenses and high sales. More typical is an Internet store with high expenses and low or no sales." http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/53002.htm http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/53002.htm

aresant 16y ago

Surprisingly ebay's businesses for sale > websites for sale can be a decent place to search

smallegan 16y ago

It seems like it may be easier to find sites in the market that you'd be interested in buying and then contact the owner(s). Has anyone ever had any success in doing this?

marczphillips 16y ago

Hello, So you know, we have just started listing sites for sale at http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/ http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/ We typically have been dealing with sites that turnover more than $50,000 a month and most of these sales are done offline. We own and operate the CRS Conference (http://www.crsconferences.com http://www.crsconferences.com) sponsored by Google, AOL, eBay which over 1000 publishers attend as well as many website buyers and sellers. Many of the transaction/negotiations happen at/around the Conference. In fact, our next conference is in Los Angeles in January 2011! We also large interactive Nasdaq listed companies + other large networks actively buying domains. These large networks buy 20-30 websites a month. We know these firms personally and hence offer our clients premium access to these very reputable buyers. Unlike many website listing websites, SearchForecast is a business which operates a large technical staff optimizing some of the largest websites in the world (BBC, Harrahs Casino, Deloitte). We also have over 20,000 visitors per month to our AdSense Directory at http://www.searchforecast.com/adsense_directory_index.php http://www.searchforecast.com/adsense_directory_index.php from all over the world which is why we are now listing websites for sale online. We would certainly like to speak with you about your requirements and prefer that we post your site as a free listing on the Marketplace. We will waive the $29 listing fee by using the promo code 2740835 (we have the fee to keep away spammers!) Follow this link to http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/selling-business.php http://marketplace.searchforecast.com/selling-business.php We do take a commission upon completion of the transaction, which is 10% but we offer a unique "Sellers Guarantee" - you only pay us when you have been paid by the buyer. This gives our clients peace of mind. For larger clients that have over $1M, we have lower success fees. We would be happy to match the sellers commission you have in place with other agents. I would be happy to answer any questions and look forward to hearing from you, Best Regards, ________________________________ Marc Phillips CEO, SearchForecast Telephone: 650.530.0895 Cell: 415.606.0900 Email: marc.phillips@searchforecast.com Website: http://www.searchforecast.com http://www.searchforecast.com Skype: marczphillips Twitter:@SearchForecast ________________________________

tocomment 16y ago
Thank you for your message. I am currently out of the office, with limited access to e-mail. I will be returning on 9/28/2010. If you need assistance before then, you may reach me at 301-912-9001. Jon Bezos

CorrectTheory 16y ago

I think http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ is the best search engine for finding similar websites. It's hard to distinguish the differences in search engines for finding similar sites for popular websites like flippa.com. I saw all of them returning the similar results except that similarsitesearch.com gives more results than others. http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ http://www.similarsitesearch.com/ generates the best result for smaller websites like moreofit.com. BTW I think moreofit.com has very good UI. Better than any other similar ones I have seen.