A few months ago I have had a very good month on Flippa, because I was able to make a record month in websites sales.
I reached this record without even utilizing the Advance Flip method for increasing profits.
Yet, on the following month I have made such a huge mistake that I almost lost money.
In this post I want to go over what has happened, so you will avoid my mistake.
So, what has happened was that I have put too many websites on auction simultaneously.
You see, my usual routine up until this point was to list around two websites on auction simultaneously for a 3 days period, and then when those auctions have ended I have repeated the process by putting two new ones.
Yet, after my record month of sales, I have asked myself:
“Why won’t I just double, triple, or quadruple the number of sites that I put simultaneously, and by doing so I will double, triple, or quadruple my income?”
So, that is exactly what I did on the following month.
Instead of putting two websites on auction simultaneously, I have told my employee to put 4,8, and sometimes 10 auctions.
Of course my employee couldn’t handle so much work, so I had to hire 4 more workers to help her out.
The results of listing many auctions simultaneously has been…
Catastrophical, and here are the reasons why:
1) Limited number of potential buyers – there are many website buyers on Flippa, and one group of them is obviously looking to buy websites from sellers like me who are only selling websites without traffic and income, yet this group of buyers is, at the end of day, limited.
No matter how many websites you put on auction, the number of potential buyers who will bid on your auction remain pretty much the same.
After three years of selling Clickbank websites on Flippa I have noticed that buyers who buy websites from me are usually not looking for any specific kind of website.
They don’t care particularly if the website I sell them is about:
How to make money on eBay or if is about how to make money with adsense.
Most of them just want want to have their own website in the make money online niche, and most of them don’t care about the specific method that the website offers to reach this goal (adsense, ebay, blogging, affiliate marketing, etc…)
So, the same number of buyers who are constantly bidding on my auctions just had much more options now.
A buyer who has bought a website from me for $300 in the past because he only saw 1 or 2 live auctions running simultaneously , now saw 10 live auctions running simultaneously, and thus just put a $1 bid or so on each one of my auctions, and thus didn’t experience any serious bidding war.
2) Too many workers – because I have hired too many employees at the same time, I couldn’t monitor their work properly.
They registered the wrong domain names, picked the wrong niches, picked the wrong PLR packages, create the websites wrongly, gave bad customer support, etc..
I really can’t blame them for this, but rather I blame myself for not doing the hiring process slowly.
So, what I want to suggest to you is what I say to myself, and write here on my blog all the time.
Do take chances, but don’t do anything in a rush, and without testing.
You should follow the following steps according to order:
1) Try to put only ONE website on auction, and when the auction ends put another website.
2) Stick to this routine for at least a month.
3) If you are able to make a few hundred dollars of profit by sticking with this routine, try to hire ONE person from the Philippines to replace you (I talk about this in my Outsource Flip training).
4) I wouldn’t recommend hiring more than one person for creating and selling PLR webstites. You can of course hire more people to create for you UNIQUE websites (I talk about this also in my Outsource Flip training).
Thanks for reading, and like always I would love to read your comments below.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Amir for sharing.
That is very helpful information.
Hi Marcia,
Sure, I am glad I could help.
Thanks!
Thanks amir. There are a lot of marketers on the web saying that flipping sites is EASY MONEY, because they want to ssell flipping courses….
But it is great to hear the pitfalls as well as the success stories…..
I plan on putting up a site on flippa soon. Thsnks for your help,
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
Great observation!
There is no such thing as easy money – not offline, and not online.
The only secret to making a great income on Flippa is to:
‘Go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm’ as Winston Churchill said.
Good luck with your auction, and always feel free to contact me if I can be of help.
Thanks for the comment!
As always Amir great advice from you
It may sound obvious but many times we think – if2 is good 4 or 8 will be even better
Keep up the great work
Hi,
Yes, that is exactly what I thought, and after 3 years of selling websites on Flippa I guess I should have known better.
Yet, I will focus on learning from my mistakes to avoid them in the future, and then teach others how to do the same.
Thanks for your great comment!
Hi There
Interesting to see that you admit mistakes and tell what does not work.
I am looking forward to trying to sell websites on Flippa.
It won’t be for a few months as I am comitted to writing three books but
I am collecting information in my limited spare time.
regards David
Hi David,
You are correct by not selling websites on Flippa right now until you finish writing the three books, yet when you do decide to sell websites feel free to contact me if you think I can help.
Lack of focus is one of my main struggles.
Thanks!
I remember one time, you put “buy 35 get 35 = 70 websites” on flippa. Even, I liked them most, as they are all with good domain and are very useful training material. I didn’t bid, as it costs a lot for a bulk for the website cost + ClickBank Vendor Fee + SEO costs and efforts. And it is difficult of handle too many websites at one time. If you separate it e.g. just 1 or 2 for sell, it will be perfect.
Hi Sandy,
I was referring to the number of auctions I run simultaneously, and not how many websites I sell per auction.
You are right, I did test selling 70 websites in one auction, and it didn’t go well.
Thanks!
Don’t try to run to many auctions around the same time sounds like excellent advice. It gives the auction buyer more choices and too many choices usually equals no action because people are not good at making a decision when there are too many choices.
But what about selling two or three websites as a bundle… One auction but 2 or 3 related sites being offered, where each site offered an upsell to the next site. I would think that would do well.
Best Wishes
Carl Willoughby
Hi Carl,
As Sandy pointed out in the comment above yours, I did try to sell multiple websites in the same auction, yet I didn’t get good results.
Yet, maybe it is a good idea (as you suggested) to only sell 2 or 3, and see how that works.
Thanks
Howdy, Amir.
I am sorry for your troubles, but glad to hear about them. It prevents some of us from repeating them.
Now that you know your limit, your next step should be how to improve the income per site you flip. Maximize the higher priced ones and minimize the number of sites that don’t sell for much.
Thank you for your report.
Buck
Hi Buck,
Yes, you are right.
This is why I implement my own training at advanceflip.com, so I will be able to make more money from every website I sell.
I just always need to remember not to rush it by listing too many auctions at the same time.
Thank you very much for commenting.
Amir
So Amir, can you calrify the following:
“Most of them just want want to have their own website in the make money online niche, and most of them don’t care about the specific method that the website offers to reach this goal (adsense, ebay, blogging, affiliate marketing, etc…)”
Which goal?
If most of your customers buy websites in “make money online” niche, how do they intend to monetize them? How can you monetize such websites with eBay (EPN)?
Hi Boris,
Great questions!
1. The ‘goal’ is to make an income online. Many of my buyers don’t care about what they sell (a tutorial about Adsense, eBay, Blogging, Affiliate marketing) in order to reach this goal.
2. The websites I usually sell on Flippa are Clickbank ready websites which sell a single product (eBook / video course), so there is no need for extra monetization. (I talk about this in flipcourse.com) Moreover, I also list the websites on Clickbank for my buyers as a bonus (+ add an optin box with a newsletter to the main sales page). This is in order to get affiliate commissions (I talk about this on advanceflip.com).
So, my buyers don’t need to worry about anything (except for generating traffic).
Thanks for your comment!