$368 Per Month, 0.00 Hours Work, ClickBank Site, Since 2005, FAST SALE!
http://www.macramelovers.com/
Sold at Public Auction
$8,400
Bidding History: 29 bids- Started:
- Tue, Feb 2, 2010
- Completed:
- Mon, Feb 8, 2010
Website Statistics and Collected Data
Site Visibility
| Google PageRank | 0 |
|---|---|
| Alexa Rank | 2,765,530 |
| Links in Google | 2 |
| Links in Yahoo! | 144 |
Domain
| Registration Date | 19th Jul, 2005 |
|---|
Compete Stats
| Compete Ranking | 2,371,628 |
|---|---|
| Trust | 2 |
SEMRush Stats
| SEMRush Rank | 0 |
|---|---|
| Keywords in Google | 0 |
Site Content
| Possible Copies Found | 27 (view) |
|---|
Description
Niche: Macrame - Market Leader
Revenue: US$350/Month NET
Yearly Revenue: US$3700 NET
Revenue Streams: Clickbank
Email List: 12,600 Active Leads, 12 Original Emails In Auto Responder Sequence
Visitors: 5000+ Uniques, 8,000+ Visitors per month
Required Work: Zero Hours!
Proof Of Earnings: Screen Shots & Video to further prove claims in this auction are correct.
Website Business Includes: 4 extra aged domains, 6 Squidoo Lens PR 2, Blogger Blog from 2005 PR 1
I pay the Flippa Success Fee: You don't pay a cent
Why Sell? Childhood macrame trauma leads to complete inaction on my behalf - watch video & more below.
The Full Story
I created this niche website business in July 2005 as part of the Thirty Day Challenge program. Which was my entry point into Internet Marketing (I now teach Internet Marketing and have the highest regard for Ed Dale the originator of the 30DC).
It offers a "One Stop Macrame Shop" ebook and bonuses - all downloadable only via Clickbank. I am also on the CB Affiliate Marketplace. My product sells for $37.77.
I chose it in a field that I know well. The whole story on the website is 100% true, even though I use a pen name. I did indeed have a Macrame Business as an 8 year old (and I wish I could say that was a few years ago! ;-) ).
Unfortunately I had a family situation arise which to an 8 year old was very traumatic and it impacted on my joy of doing Macrame for pleasure or for profit. And I swore never to 'knot again'.
Fast forward to 2005 and I thought it might be a nice niche to explore - and it was a winner regarding traffic and sales. However all of the old emotions returned regarding the subject and I did the unthinkable as a full time internet marketer - I did nothing with it. I just left it sitting there. I couldn't feel any joy working on it.
So from 2005 until now - it's sat there, and fortunately for me, just earned money. Built on it's authority and got into the first page or organic search for many of it's main keywords.
This website business, no thanks to me, gets over 4,500-5,000 unique visitors a month! (you can see these figures on the screen shots and video I provide). Imagine how easily you could leverage that traffic to get more sales?!
As the Marketing System is proven. It works, it has for 5 years, and does with my doing zilch.
It makes on average around $320-$350 a month, even though I do absolutely NOTHING!
The most I do, is I go to Aweber (I do have an auto-responder series I set up in 2005, with 12 emails) where I have 12,600+ subscribers and I get 8-12 a day through organic traffic.
I press copy of FOUR emails for a promotion I run 2-3 times a year from late 2008. That action would take no more than 5 minutes. So possibly to be exact you could say I spend 15 minutes a year on it!
Here's the other thing - I am the MARKET LEADER, with a FIVE YEAR history and presence in that market. Or rather YOU could be the instant MARKET LEADER and do something with it to get in the TOP THREE in Google organic.
It's absolutely doable! I know this - as I do it in my other niches. I just can't bring myself to, in this one. My bad - your opportunity!
AND
It doesn't stop there - I have a Macrame Blog - set up in 2005. My last post was in 2007. I get traffic via that as well. And it has a Page Rank that hovers between 1-2, and my last post was 2007!
Imagine what result you could get if you posted regularly?! Another source of Traffic.
AND
It still doesn't stop there. I also have 6 Squidoo Lens based on my top keywords. You can see the array of them here:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Samantha_Jenkins
5 of the 6 Lens have a PR of 2. One has a PR of 1. I do nothing with these. I get additional traffic via them as well.
All of this can absolutely be yours!
If you are the successful bidder you will receive EVERYTHING!
So you will receive the main website - what we call "the money page" And all other webpages associated with this domain and everything associated with the business.
The Squidoo Lens are yours!
The Blog is yours!
The Mailing list is yours!
The Clickbank Account is yours!
The One Stop macrame Shop Book and Bonuses are yours (at the risk of stating the obvious :-) )
Everything to do with the business is YOURS!
So you will receive a complete online business package that's good to go now.
I'll even offer my consulting services to you, if you are newer into Internet Marketing. As I know what I could and 'should' be doing - I do it to great success with my other businesses. I just don't with this one - for reasons already explained.
Those consulting services will be outside the sale of the Website and can be agreed upon between us.
Other than that I am happy to wipe my hands clean of the business - just to remove the emotional albatross it does represent to me.
So I DO want to sell. I want a FAST SALE. I will not let it go for an undervalued price. As 'bad' as I have been to this business by ignoring it. I still know it's value.
I am open to ANY questions you have of me. I want to be transparent.
If you would like a private link to my video that will verify all I say here, and more - then please contact me here in the comment section, and I will send it to you.
Here are the links to the screen shots I have taken:
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MacrameCBAccount.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/Jan2010MacrameSales.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/NovtoJanMacrameSales.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/NovtoJanMacrameSales2.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MonthlyTraffic.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MonthlyVisits.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/SearchEngineBreakdown.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/SquidooLensmaster.jpg
Again, if you would like a link to the video - I do want to keep it for genuinely interested bidders. Please leave a comment here with your contact details and I will email you.
I am also happy to make myself available for any questions you may have.
We can talk on the phone, skype or via email. Whatever you prefer.
And I am happy to provide references from some of the top Internet Marketers, if you are concerned if this is 'too good to be true' and if I am legitimate (last time I pinched myself it hurt! :-) )
Finally - if you are a serious bidder and want to verify my stats further. I can offer you access to my Control Panel in my Host for you to view them (it's got a security system so that the hosting part is protected).
Hopefully that is transparent enough for you.
And it will be a case of best bid wins! :-)
Revenue Details
For Jan 2009 - December 2009 NET Profit was $3733 from NO TIME put into the Business!
Here's some screen shots that show sales for this month (not completed, and last 3 months)
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MacrameCBAccount.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/Jan2010MacrameSales.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/NovtoJanMacrameSales.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/NovtoJanMacrameSales2.jpg
Hosting & Aweber is attributed to my other businesses which are proportionately much bigger.
Example: $10 a month hosting for 30 domains - would mean $3 a month for my Macrame Business. So $36 per annum hosting.
Aweber mailing list $49.95 per month. Macrame takes up approximately 30% of that. So that would be $15 a month - so $180 per year.
So if we were to be exact $216 annual expenses. Truthfully I include those expenses within my other niche businesses.
PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA COMMENT SECTION HERE FOR LINK TO VIDEO TO VERIFY REVENUE
Traffic Details
Uniques per month (from last 13 months): 4789
Visits per month (from last 13 months): 8174
Proof of Traffic Screen Shots:
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MonthlyTraffic.jpg
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/MonthlyVisits.jpg
Traffic Sources:
Mainly Organic - 90-95%
Affiliate - 5-10%
Approx 80% from Google
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/SearchEngineBreakdown.jpg
Here is proof of the size of my Aweber Mailing List and Customer Mailing List (so opportunity for BACK END SALES!)
http://www.carosmile.com/Macrame/Awebermacramelist.jpg
PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA COMMENT SECTION HERE FOR LINK TO VIDEO TO VERIFY TRAFFIC DETAILS
Does this auction violate the Flippa Terms and Conditions? If so, please report it.
Comments 28 public, 0 deleted
If you were logged in you could post a comment.
Claimed Traffic
| Page Views Per Month | 8,171 |
|---|---|
| Uniques Per Month | 4,787 |
Claimed Financials
| Gross Revenue (per month est) | $368 |
|---|---|
| Net Profit (per month est) | $368 |
| Warning: The seller has provided estimates (read more) | |
Monetization Methods
| Advertising Sales | No |
|---|---|
| Product or Service Sales | Yes |
| Affiliate Income | No |
Site Uniqueness
- Content is claimed to be unique
- Design is claimed to be unique
Seller
Attachments 3
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Macrame Niche Business For Sale
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Jan 2010 Sales
jpg file
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Macrame Click Bank Account
jpg file
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Monthly Traffic From CPanel
jpg file
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Monthly Visits from Cpanel
jpg file
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Nov-Jan Sales
jpg file
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Search Engine Split
jpg file
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Squidoo Lens
jpg file
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Aweber Mailing List Numbers
jpg file
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Web page
jpg file
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Web page
jpg file
Tags 4
Contextual Help
- The winner of this listing will be required to pay a 0% success fee to Flippa.
More Information ^ - Ownership transfer is safest when using Escrow.com (more information)
Seller also accepts payment using: PayPal ^ - These attachments have been added to the listing by the seller to give extra information to potential buyers ^
- The seller has added these tags to the listing to describe the site ^
Hi Caro -
I was wondering about Copyscape reporting so much plagarism. Has this site been ripped off or something?
Thanks,
Mary
Hi ya Mary,
Thanks for the question, as I was thinking of adding it to my main copy myself! I got a start when I saw that Copyscape number! I went and checked the links - and it's Affiliates who choose to copy and paste parts of my sales page into the entities they create to get an Affiliate sale.
All the sales links are in tact. So they are just being 'lazy' but not dishonest. I get my commission off the sale as I should and they get theirs as they should.
With IM, whilst I teach others to always create unique content when you are setting up a marketing system. The key if someone duplicates your content, is to out market them by building more backlinks to your main website and therefore building your authority.
So short answer is - it's not really an issue. And it's good to know people are choosing to be Affiliates - there's also an opportunity to train Affiliates to do a better job promoting this product ;-)
Best to you
Caro :-)
how are you going to transfer over the email list in aweber as you have other niches on your account?
what is you bin price, if you're looking for a fast sale?
from the limited amount of work you put in this site, i'm sure some people will definitely just copy steal your niche that you've already announced it to the world.
Jules
hi there .. send me the video please ..
Hi Carlo (I remember you from 30DC), how much traffic comes from squidoo? Are the links back to the site organic (I mean other sites just liking to you without you asking them to)? Please send me video too, thanks.
Can you send video proof and let me know what your BIN is - if any. .
Please send video proof and BIN
First up the response to Jules1108,
I have spoken with Aweber directly. It is common practice to transfer full lists from one Aweber account to another. No leads would be lost in the transfer.
I am not announcing BIN prices as yet.
I have 5 years worth of credibility in this niche. The days have changed from worrying about being 'stolen from' as it is about becoming a Market Leader and then name that heads the niche being recognized in that niche. Which this business is in this niche.
I do not come from a place of fear about things, and I also set myself up properly so that if someone was to make a wrong move as you suggest, I would put a legal force onto them.
Any serious business professional should be doing that in all honesty (just as you need to have an accountant) - and I have not had to use such legal force in the 5 years I've been in IM, if I needed to, I wouldn't hesitate.
Caro :-)
HI JosieSnail,
About 40% come from the Squidoo Lens.
Backlinks are obtained when you link to another website's webpage. I have received links from Affiliate activity as well. So they provide a link to my page. Checking backlinks is open to all - you just need to go into Yahoo to do that. Let me know if you want instruction on how to.
This business is for someone who sees the opportunity and is prepared to put work in, like backlinking with high PR sites etc, as you could be making a lot more from this business if you put time in - which I haven't.
I actually put the video on Youtube - so you can watch it via the link above.
Caro :-)
PLS PM reserve. thanks
Hi Caro, can you PM me the reserve. Thanks
Awesome 30DC video's by the way!
Hi Caro,
Three questions if I may...
1) Would it be possible to export the email list as a CSV or something as I don't wish to use Aweber.
2) Can you give the winning bidder copies of the email texts (sales copy) that you have used successfully in the past?
3) Will the winner have exclusive access to the mailing list, or will you also continue to use the same addresses for other purposes?
Thanks
Hi again Caro, how has traffic from Squidoo lenses performed over the past 12 months? Growth or slump or steady? Can you give some details? Thanks.
Hi, can you please PM the reserve. Thanks!
Just to answer the questions above.
I will not be sharing the reserve - it defeats the purpose of an auction. :-)
With the List - yes I can export it to CSV no problems. Then it is up to you to find an alternative list provider who will not automatically put you on double opt-in. Which for most internet marketers is a deterrent in moving email providers.
The business becomes 100% yours, all aspects. Every single file I have on it, including past sales copy and so forth - anything to do with it - is yours.
The ebook itself cost over $1000 to have written. And there are A LOT of files associated with this business. It's worth pointing out - this is a business, not just a website. It is a business that I have allowed to gather dust and it still makes money. It is a business with A LOT of potential.
Back to the mailing list - you take it OFF me - I GIVE it to you - I have NO access to it any more. I will not be involved in the business in ANY WAY. Unless you choose to employ my consulting services.
As far as the Squidoo lens performances - I have not tracked it in that detail, so if I say yay or nay it's not a response based on fact.
I can certainly say that sales DID increase when I first created the Squidoo lens and they have stayed pretty much consistent. The variations are more around if I run this nifty little promo I do every so often - which YOU will also have full access to! :-)
Best to you all, thanks for the questions!
Caro :-)
Hi Caro,
Couple of questions:
Is the income seasonal? It looks like there were a lot more sales in January than in December? Would you be willing to put together a quick road map for the winner, in terms opportunities of increasing revenue?
Hi Caro, couple of quick questions - first, what keywords do you rank highly for in Google. My apologies if this is in the video, can't watch where I am.
Second, I have to respectfully disagree with revealing the reserve would defeat the purpose of an auction. The reason I ask for a reserve is to make sure the seller doesn't have an insane expectation of price. If I'm going to do the DD on a site which can take hours, I need to know the seller is serious about selling at a reasonable multiple and price. So, for serious buyers who will invest the time to determine a sites true value, a reserve is a key piece of info to know before even doing the due diligence. If I can't learn the reserve, there's no way of knowing my time investment will not be wasted. And, I fail to see how it does defeat the auction format. Once the reserve is met, everyone sees it so either a) the auction fails or b) everyone learns the reserve. I would assume you would hope for the latter.
Thanks in advance. Good luck with sale,
FG
It appears that you rarely make a sale unless you offer the product at a substantially reduced price. That is, I would speculate, when you send out an email to your subscribers and tell them something like, "for a limited time, my ebook is available for $18.xx instead of the usual $37."
is that assumption accurate? From your clickbank screenshots it appears thatosy sales are around $18. (your #8 price). That suggests this is not a hands off site bit rather does not make any money unless you are sending out messages to your list.
Please correct me if I'm wrong....
Hi GW,
I would not say it is seasonal. It is more about when I run that nifty little promo that takes me 5 minutes to press the 'go' button and activate it.
I am happy to consult for someone, that would be at an agreed fee. I will certainly answer ALL questions regarding the business prior and after the sale. As far as helping you move forward, I am sure ideas will come forth from my mouth, as I'm prone to that :p, however to offer a road map is effectively consultation :-)
Best to you
Caro :-)
psambar - that is a sweeping assumption - and one I would say is incorrect.
It makes money each month for the full price with me doing nothing with it.
If I worked on getting more traffic - and I would advise any purchaser to do just that - I am selling this for someone who wants to make MORE money from it. Not from someone looking to do nothing with it. If that is you - I don't think this business is for you. It is truly a goldmine waiting for someone to just put a little effort into it - I put none (except the 5 mins to reinstall the promo offer).
I have tested different price points early on in the piece - in 2005 & 2006. I tested $19.95 (I was 'nervous' as a newbie to put a 'decent' price on it - even despite what Ed had said). I then went up to $27.77. And then I went to $37.77. I think from memory I might have even tested at the same time different price points.
The winning price point by far was the $37.77 - meaning....Ed & Frank were right!!! :-)
The promo I offer, which is strategically tactical (I've always wanted to throw those two words together, as often they are synonymous - so now it's a tautology - I digress) is designed to achieve the result it does. It is something that is wise for any internet marketer in my opinion to have in their bag of tricks.
I should screen shots of January's results - where I just had run the promo - which lead to your assumption, which I do have to politely refute :-)
I would offer that the marketing system as is works well. It is about obtaining more traffic. And with a first page in SERPS doing nothing for the main keywords (or top of the 2nd page for one of them) which it has gotten to by my doing nothing to it - I think it's reasonable to expect you could move up in the rankings VERY quickly (in fact Gurubob kindly reminds me of that ALL the time! :p And he would know being an SEO Guru).
Best to you
Caro :-)
Sorry:
should = shot
And last para - my sentence structure is crap - I mean I am on the first page for the search listings for most of my main keywords. And that is by doing nothing.
And that the focus, I would suggest, is for traffic acquisition via moving up the search listings - so MORE organic traffic. Which I also suggest would be reasonable to expect with some small effort.
Oh truly there is SO MUCH you could do with this (I have SO MANY IDEAS) - I just can't get past my nightmares about what went on when I was 8 - more fool me :-(
C :-)
Hi Caro,
I was about to ask a few questions, but then realized I hadn't watched the video yet, which answered most of my questions, but raised some new ones. Forgive me for my "newbie" questions, just trying to apply some of my new 30DC knowledge to make a fledgling attempt at performing due diligence ;)
So my main questions now are in regards to where the traffic is coming from. I believe you said about 40% of your traffic is coming from the squidoo lenses, so that would leave about 50-60% from SERPS for the website and blog? Running the various keywords through market samurai and using the serp rankings from your video to estimate traffic, I just can't get the math to work out. What am I doing wrong in my calculations?
Also, the serp rankings I'm getting in rank checker are quite different (much lower) than what you show in the video from a week ago. I recall the market samurai people talking about how these vary a bit over time and depending on what servers the data is pulled from around the world. Are these serp rankings you are getting only for Australia?
thanks!
g.
If you did not run any promotions what would the sales on the site be?
On average, what percentage of your sales are full price and and how many are discounted... just a rough estimate.
Would you say that more than 50% are discounted by half price?
Hi gw,
Yes Robert and I checked the SERPS ourselves - and I have all but 'disappeared' - now for newbies this is 'frightening' - they immediately think they have been Google slapped, black listed and all sorts of awful things.
And what we tell people in the 30 Day Challenge, and same applied here, is that when there is activity on a site - maybe a new post, a change to the copy, or increased traffic - like you know, if it's up for auction and a whole lot of people go and visit it ;-)
Then Google will 'side line' you as it reassesses your status.
This is what is happening now. It is not something I worry about. I'd encourage you not to either - whilst I do appreciate it seem confusing or inconsistent - it's just part o the Google Dance we all have to do.
The Rank Checker figures can not be 'fudged' that I showed you on the video. And I do know that it sits pretty consistently at that position - as I often get a comment made from Robert (who I respect so much!) how I am doing so well in the SERPS doing nothing, and that with a little bit more effort I can expect to 'move on up' with ease.
In fact when Robert & I saw this recent 'disappearance' he did make the comment that it might be helpful for me, as Google but reward the site since it's getting so much more traffic.
And with all my niches I work on a Global focus. The majority of sales are in the US.
Caro :-)
ok, thanks so much for the explanations Caro, I think that amkes sense. You are patient in your explanations as always!
Hi diego79,
I honestly couldn't answer you definitively either way. I have no idea as I have not looked into it. It makes a profit doing nothing. If I wasn't doing the promo, I guess I would 'pull finger' and do something else that required minimal effort. I just haven't extended myself that much further.
I would be hoping that anyone who wanted to buy this business was prepared to put some real marketing effort into it. And running promotions is an absolute stalwart part of your Marketing Tool box.
I'd be encouraging you to think about what else you could be doing to get more from the business. And there is A LOT of standard stuff that I could be doing that I am not - that require a bit of set up time and then weave their magic.
Caro :-)
I assume most of your sales are not discounted therefore the clickbank 50% revenue is after affiliate sales right? That would mean the vast majority of sales are affiliate sales too. I just noticed that pattern and wanted to confirm. So do your affiliates have that much higher a conversion rate than your organic traffic?
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your question. You assume wrongly for January. As I point out in my video and also provide two screen shots to show you the whole month. I ran a discount promotion in January for 4 days.
I do have some Affiliate sales - but a small amount overall. In fact for the discount promotion - there were no affiliate sales with that.
I actually believe there is an opportunity to do some Affiliate Marketing to get more Affiliates onboard.
So as a rule of thumb, I would suggest that 90-95% of sales are full revenue to me.
And as I point out in my video - I run a promotion 2-3 times a year. And January was a time I chose to do it. That is why in the video I show the overall results for the 3 months - Nov-Dec in Clickbank.
Best to you
Caro :-)