SiteFlipU - A Marketing Master Stroke
You don’t need a paid subscription to the blog flipping blueprint – if you assess what the savvy owner of SiteFlipU has done, the blueprint is right in front of you. A marketing master stroke:
- Whip people up into a frenzy over the glamour of site flipping via a blog/forum
- Push affiliate products at them in blog posts
- Create a membership site that will entice blog readers to pay a subscription for
- Get them to push the membership site as affiliates
- Sell the site based on all that revenue. Reputation + proof of site flipping prowess naturally soars
Note that lifetime subscriptions to the membership site were sold. This is all good news for the seller because if no more subscriptions are sold, the old seller keeps the cash, but the new owner takes on the burden of keeping those old subscriptions happy. Win win - for the seller!
Reasons For Selling?
What possible reasons could there be for a shrewd business person to sell such a profitable site? Here are some possibilities:
Lack Of Material
I don't think there's enough material to sustain this business. There isn't that much information with which to supply a whole membership site about site flipping.
The Return On Investment Is Not High Enough
I imagine a lot of hard work went into creating the membership site. Weighing up the investment in time and money against the return may have meant that this was not a worthwhile endeavour for the owner.
Initial Spike Is Now In The Past
Typically, membership sites like these receive an initial flurry of activity around the product launch date and then die. It's possible that the flurry has been and gone and there is no longer any substantial money to be made out of this business. It's always a good idea to sell whilst on the top of a spike as the perceived value of the site is at its zenith.
The Business Model Is Flaky
The owner puts forward the idea that flipping sites can be a business. That's the dream that this whole blog + membership site is built on. If, however, the perception is that you can't make a business out of flipping websites, then nobody will buy a subscription, and maybe people will stop dropping by the blog. If the owner inadvertently demonstrates that flipping sites is not a viable business then siteflipu and the blog flipping blueprint will crumble. Better to get out before it's discovered that you can't run a business on this model.
Lifetime Memberships
From the membership site landing page:
WHAT IS THE BLOG FLIPPING BLUEPRINT?
It’s a course designed for the sole purpose of teaching you how to break into the lucrative world of site flipping. The Blog Flipping Blueprint is a site that will be updated regularly, as new information becomes available. You’ll always have the best, most accurate, and current information in the industry.
The Blog Flipping Blueprint is the best of both worlds. It’s a membership site, so that means we will constantly be upgrading the course with new content, and fresh material. However, instead of paying a monthly fee, it’s been set up as a one time payment for your convenience. Now you can learn at your own pace, and never have to worry about how you are going to come up with the membership fee for the next month. This course was designed around you, why would the payment structure be any different?
Lifetime memberships trouble me. $11,000 worth of sales were made for lifetime memberships before the owner decided to sell. Should there be any refunds, I'm not sure out of whose pockets that money will come. The new owner's? That sounds like a big risk to the buyer. The worst case scenario is that the site sells for $32,500 and then the new owner is hit with $11,000 worth of refunds if things go pear shaped.
Another interesting thing about the way that the current owner has played this is that although he has sold those $11,000 of memberships and the money is now in his pocket, it is the new owner who will take on the commitment to service those lifetime memberships. Genius. That's like owning a building company, taking money for 100 building projects - up front - and then selling the company on to somebody else after having done only a month's work. The new owner has inherited the work commitment that the previous owner has already been paid for.
Getting paid in full for lifetime memberships is a really good strategy if you plan to sell in the near future. It makes your profit look very good in the here and now and for that reason may increase perceived value in the eyes of potential buyers. Also, you are getting paid in advance for work someone else will be doing.
The quote from the sales page indicates that the course will require maintenance from the new owner as it is a "site that will be updated regularly, as new information becomes available".
SiteFlipU sold this morning for $32,500. Good luck to the new owner and their efforts to find enough material to satisfy a lifetime membership!
There's an interesting thread here that discusses the idea of site flipping as a business model. The discussion turns, at post #17, to the subject of siteflipu and its application of this 'business model'.
Auction Details
Link to sitepoint auction
Popular Site Flipping Membership Site & Highly Reputable Site Flipping Blog
$$$ Hot Selling Membership Site Made Over $10,000 Last Month! $$$
* URL: http://siteflipu.com/
* Established: Wed Apr 30 2008
* Monthly Revenue (USD): 10,202
* Listed: Today 14:48
Description:
Just to specify, so that there is no confusion... I am selling TWO (2) sites as a package deal. One is a free blog that I use as a promo tool (SiteFlipU.com), and the other is a paid membership site that sells at $97 for lifetime access (BlogFlippingBlueprint.com).
Thanks for stopping by my auction. I am giving one of you an opportunity that's so good that you'd be foolish to pass it up. I have THE most popular blog on the subject of Site Flipping and a newly launched membership site. The two combined made over $11,000 last month alone, and I have done ABSOLUTELY NO OUTSIDE MARKETING. All sales were made from the blog itself, or from the 160+ affiliates that are pitching this product.
The Membership Site
BlogFlippingBlueprint.com was launched October 1st, and since that day it has seen over $11,000 in sales. That sounds impressive enough, but it gets better... the site has received no marketing on my end, except for a couple of posts on the blog that I'll be offering up with this sale, and a single newsletter that I sent out to my 300+ subscribers.
With a little marketing, this is a 20-30k A MONTH site, without much of a problem. I put all my time and energy into creating it, and I honestly don't have the desire to do the marketing. Even without marketing, it's averaging 4 sales a day! That's over $350 in your pocket, every single day... now imagine what it would do with some marketing. Just a few mentions in a newsletter, or some paid advertising and you are sitting on an absolute gold mine. This site has made a decent amount of cash already, so I hesitate to use the word "potential", but the small amount it's made so far is nothing compared to what it would do in the right marketers hands. I have no doubts that this site could make double or triple what I've made, every single month.
There is no hotter topic right now in the make money online world, than site flipping. It's growing like no other niche, and it's your time to cash in on it's popularity, and my hard work. Both of these sites were created from the ground up, and everything in them is 100% unique.
The landing page, and the membership site are both running on WordPress, and using a plugin that allows you to create membership sites. It has been extremely stable so far, and I cant' see that changing in the future. What an easy way to create, edit, and profit from a membership site, all while having the ease of use, and functionality of WordPress.
Speaking of the landing page, it was 100% hand written by me, and it converts at about 6.5%. For every 100 visitors you send, 6.5 of them will convert! The landing page gets compliments regularly, and I'm quite proud of the way it looks, and even better, it's high conversion percentage! You can view the landing page for the membership site here... Order.BlogFlippingBlueprint.com
I know what you may be thinking... I have to be a site flipping expert to run a site like this... but it's not true! The course is already done. You'll only be responsible for bringing in new members. I'd also prefer to stay on as a mentor in the forums (for free of course) so that I can answer questions, and generally help out with the technical side of site flipping. I'd be willing to do this for free, because I am committed to ensuring that the members within the site succeed. I have a lot invested in them, I want to make sure that I'm doing all I can to help. So, you don't have to ask if I'll stick around... I WANT TO, and I'll do it for free. Now, my free offer includes me providing guidance and such to site members who ask forum questions, not creating new content or attracting new members.
I'd be glad to do all I can to help out!
By the way, the site is set up through PayDotCom to manage it's affiliates. Some have asked why I didn't make this a recurring monthly membership site, and the simple answer is because I planned to sell it. Selling something with recurring memberships would mean that the members would have to sign up again, and that's not something anyone would want to take a chance on. Since launching it this way though ($97 for lifetime access), it has received a ton of praise from the blogging community. They definitely like the one time fee over the recurring membership, but you could always change it if you'd like.
Key Stats
* Alexa -166,309 (pretty impressive for a site that's less than 30 days old!)
* Members -118
* Revenue - 11,793 (Overall) - 10,202 (After fees and affiliate commission)
* Affiliates - 161
The Blog
SiteFlipU.com is THE leading blog in the Site Flipping niche. This is the free version of the paid site basically. It has helpful tips and tricks, but the real gem is within the pages of the membership site.
The blog itself doesn't make a ton of money. It averages near $400 per month, but it was never used as a method of making money online. The sole purpose of this site was to rank for the keywords, and gain a following, so that I could open the membership side of the site. Speaking of keywords, this site ranks on page one for every site flipping keyword or phrase you can think of. It's a promo tool like no other.
Not only is this site great for promotion, it can be a real cash machine if you ever wanted to monetize it. As I said, this was never my focus, but it really could have made more cash had I chosen to do so. I think I only mentioned 2-3 products that I attached affiliate links to. The money made on this site was 100% Hostgator Affiliate sales.
SiteFlipU has been featured in both the New York Times and The Guardian (UK Paper) as an authority in the Site Flipping niche. That means two HIGH authority backlinks for the new owner that will only get better with time. Not to mention, I still get traffic from them and both were published months ago.
Key Stats
* PageRank - 3
* Alexa - 77,774
* Subscribers - 501 (290 newsletter + 211 Rss)
* Average of close to $400 a month in income
* Average of 4-5k monthly uniques
* High SEO value... ranked on first page for keywords that are crucial to promote Blog Flipping Blueprint. Site flipping, blog flipping, website flipping, flipping websites, buying and selling websites, etc. - These move daily, but I'm USUALLY on the front page!
Remember, although the free blog doesn't make much money, it's a WONDERFUL promotional tool. It is directly responsible for all of my non-affiliate sales, minus 4 newsletter sales! I literally have done ZERO promotion, other than throwing up a blog post or two on Site Flip U, and sending out a newsletter to my subscribers. It's almost passive at this point!
I should be at the computer most of the day if you want to talk about this one. You can add me on skype, my username is onemansgoal.
Revenue Details:
All revenue proof is shown in screenshots on the right. Here is the breakdown.
* $10,202 (After Fees) in Blog Flipping Blueprint Sales. Most came from 2 posts on Site Flip U. The remaining few came from affiliate sales and a newsletter I sent out to my small list.
* $2,700 Since May for Site Flip U. 100% of these are Hostgator affiliate sales at $100 a pop. I have never used Site Flip U to pitch products... it's mainly been a promotional tool.
Traffic Details:
All traffic proof is posted on the right as well. I have included screenshots that include the top 25 keywords, top 25 referrers, overall traffic, and traffic from this month only. Also included is a screenshot showing the traffic going to the landing page for Blog Flipping Blueprint.
You’ve got to be kidding! I was reading his blog only yesterday.
Go Bryan!
Don’t you know Bryan can sell ice to eskimos. Calling him a master marketer is putting it mildly.
He is a uber marketing god. LoL. It’s like he has a magic eight ball and can foresee the future. I always knew he would sell BFB, just didn’t think it would be this soon.
And for $30,000 plus. LoL.
>>He is a uber marketing god. LoL. It’s like he has a magic eight ball and can foresee the future.
I know, it sure takes talent to sell such a gold mine for only 3 x revenue LOL
Well I wouldn’t mind making $32,500 on a sale! That’s good going in my book.
If you owned a $10,000 a month business, would you sell it for $32,500? You could make that in 3 months! The fact that there was such a low reserve (in relation to revenue) tells us something about the seller’s confidence in the business model.
I don’t think it would really ahve panned out into a $10,000 a month business, seeing as most of the people who would sign up, HAVE signed up. Its going to be hard marketing for the new owner to get new people in, and keep the following going.
That said, its a very good profit margin for the creator – $10k in sales from the business he started, plus the $32k from the website sale – thats more than some people make in a year!
@Dan: “Its going to be hard marketing for the new owner to get new people in, and keep the following going.”
I agree. Product launches like this usually see the most signups. Selling at this point really made sense. If you were thinking of selling a busness you’d want to do it at the height of its success, and not later on when new memberships start dwindling and it looks bad to potential buyers.
Great idea to take payment for lifetime memberships directly before selling too
Well that is the sheer genius part. Obviously he knew when to flip it. There is an ART to knowing when to hold and when to fold. He knew it was time.
This is why i call him a uber god. I know you know what i mean. He is a salesman. He can sell.
I was actually telling Bryan that he should hold out and sell it for more. He has a pretty good reason for selling (not sure if he’s disclosing it publicly or not) but here’s the way I look at it:
The buyer got a completed course accompanied by a bunch of members, most of whom seem to be really enjoying the course and actually making money from it.
Obviously he’s not going to be able to sell the course to those same members but as any smart marketer will tell you, once people buy from you they are MUCH more likely to buy from you again.
Also, the new owner could easily take the product off the market for a few months, gather success stories and testimonials from the people currently in the course, and re-launch the course to an even wider audience, partnering up with some different JV partners etc.
The point is, the buyer just purchased a proven business model, a course that people are interested in and profiting from, a list of happy clients, and a blog with 500 or so RSS subscribers that ranks well for “flipping” terms. To be perfectly honest, if I’d had the money I would have purchased the site myself and tried to get an investor interested but wasn’t able to pull it off in time.
Obviously the success or failure of the site will be determined by the new owner but I would argue that the property that was purchased was quite valuable (and I made the same argument to Bryan).
I realize this sounds like I’m jumping to Bryan’s defense etc, but really I’m more interested in arguing against the idea that a membership site such as this isn’t incredible valuable. Ok, I’m done now, sorry for the rambling.
Hey Skitzzo, thanks for your comments.
I’m not sure the buyer did get a ‘completed’ course you know. The sales page promises updates to the content with fresh material, so to satisfy a lifetime membership, that would require more work for the new owner to put in. Not to mention maintaining customer service to those members who have already paid – that Bryan took the money for. To me that sounds like inheriting a lot of work commitment without getting paid for it, and with only the *potential* to sell more memberships.
I think Bryan did right in getting out before it all went a bit ‘Max Davis’
I don’t think that ‘site flipping’ is a sustainable business. It’s can be a way to make a small amount of money if you work for it. You might get lucky and make a big sale by being in the right place at the right time, but a business model that relies on luck isn’t a good one.
On that note, if anyone is making a living solely from ‘site flipping’, please let me know. And I don’t mean just getting lucky with a big ticket sale.
Hey, I can ramble with the best of ‘em!
“before it went all Max Davis” lol I think Max got his money’s worth out of that site but it is sad to see it largely dormant.
In any case, you asked about anyone that is making a living solely from site flipping, and in fact, you need not look any further than Bryan Clark. This sale is a big ticket item but he was more than paying the bills before this on site sales alone.
Also, I’ve had two sales for 5 figures in the last 7 months or so that total what many people make in a year. I guess you can look at it as getting lucky twice but that’s what my new blog (the site my name links to) is all about. In fact, I’m going to be embarking on a 30 day creation and flip that you’ll be able to watch as I do it so in a sense, you’ll be able to see the answer to your question for yourself
I shall add your blog to my “to read” list Skitzzo. Are you planning on opening a membership site or creating an ebook?
Thanks for the info about your sales. Did you buy the sites with the intention of selling them after you’d added value, or were they existing businesses of yours you just decided to sell? Pardon my nosiness!
News flash – this just in. New owner realises the lack of sustainable business his acquisition is built on and tries to sell hot potato: http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/auctions/50827.
Pingback: Siteflipu - The Hot Potato
You make some good points. It should have been a monthly subscription. But I think there’s still gold in those hills. The new owners could market to his email list forever. That is a list of proven buyers. They can outsource the creation of new products. They can branch out into other money making topics. They can start a traffic campaign and increase that list. They just have to adapt the model.
BOT
Hi Bot
Well, the BFB home page has been showing the disclaimer “AN IMPORTANT UPDATE. THIS SITE WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED.” for a while now. Make of that what you will
My mistake Bot, it appears that the new owners have now let the domain expire. I’m not surprised. Also, I wouldn’t be surpriesd if all the ex-members started making worthless ebooks out of the poor content in the BFB.
Cynical, me?
Pingback: Stuff by Paul Brown » How to be a website flipper
Ouch, I can’t believe they let that domain go! That is just painful.
BOT
Pingback: Hey Flippers... Gotta A Question For YOUSE. - Page 2
@flipBOT: The domain is now parked with sedo, so out of interest I enquired about buying it. Stupefied was I to discover that the current owner wanted >$40K for it. And that’s simply for the domain name (not the content/list etc). I withdrew my interest!