Vic

Your success in this area has piqued my interest as a long-term area for monetizing a site. While you share so many insights on your site, will you be coming out with an eBook to manage the process? Or can I pester you with questions.

I believe in the spirit of competition, so offering something for nothing is not a viable platform for Sitepoint to take. Instead the fee based structure with a commission is a fair remuneration. Those that want free should look elsewhere…besides Sitepoint is the cream of the crop.

Start navigating your way around the marketplace so when you do list a site it’s not so daunting. I’d be more than happy to give you a helping hand too.

Oh and I suggest you keep up with Flippa’s blog, they are making improvements every day and by the sounds of Matt’s comments above and elsewhere, they have a lot more in store for Flippa.com.

Thanks for stopping by.

As a seller the most important thing to me is that buyers trust the marketplace and find it easy to navigate so it’s great to hear your focus is in those areas.

I’m looking forward to the new features that roll out over time.

Congratulations on the move, a change of this magnitude would not be a walk in the park.

From a buyers perspective, sorting through all the listings and finding quality sites to buy has always been the most often heard complaint. I think Flippa goes a long way towards addressing that, with custom filters, and automatic email notifications.

This is just the beginning of the improvements that we have in store, and now that we’ve ramped up the size of our team, you can expect much more frequent feature roll outs. One of the things closest to the top of the list is verified stats via the Google Analytics API which I think will go a long way towards increasing trust.

There is some thought, even from those most upset over the changes, that the previous low barrier to entry was partly the cause of the mountains of junk listings that clogged up the marketplace, most significantly the start up listings. Whether this increase is enough to clean up the marketplace is yet to be seen of course.

It’s difficult for any business to be everything to everybody and perhaps this is SitePoint’s effort at breaking away completely into the higher end of this market, leaving the low end to Ebay, DigitalPoint etc.

You’re right, anyone pretty much could start up in competition and I’ll be one of the first to try it out, competition will ensure that we as users of these marketplaces get the best return on our investment too. Do you have a domain name in mind?

Thanks again for your views.

I have to admit that really high up front fees don’t make much sense to me. It seems to me that Flippa would want the lowest possible barrier to entry, making money only (or mostly) when they help other people make money.

An up-front fee of $20 says to me that their focus is making sure that they get paid. The best business models focus on making sure that the customer is successful.

It is not all clear to me why a company like eBay can be successful with small upfront fees but Flippa cannot.

Having said all that, I would contend that this is not a big issue. Starting up a site like Flippa is pretty easy. If they miss the market by charging too much, competition will appear directly and crush them.

Regards,
Mark

To be honest, I’ve found that there is so much profit in a site that can sell for $200, that a $9 increase and the 5% success fee makes flipping at the lower end still viable. The option to keep the unsuccessful listings up in the private area for six months at no extra charge is really positive too or using the half price re-list, both much better options than we had yesterday.

Like Justin Brooke says, many people forget about good old fashioned workmanship. That’s what needs to go into sites we own and sites we flip. Do that and you’ll be fine. Of course not every listing will be a winner but guarantees are hard to find anywhere.

Marika one thing I suggest you do is set up a form on your blog or on another domain to allow potential buyers to subscribe for early notification of your sites for sale. I’ve made private sales from my list and also received custom orders of which I charge a much higher price. The auction format is great but you know that the money is in the list right? Thanks for stopping by, it’s great to hear your views.