Welcome to Flippa!
Posted on June 21st, 2009 by Dave Slutzkin
The SitePoint Web site trading Marketplace is now Flippa.com!
From this point on all established websites for sale will be listed for sale on Flippa.com. The SitePoint Marketplace will still exist for advertising your services and general webmaster classifieds — in fact we’ll be announcing more news on how we plan to develop that part of sitepoint.com real soon!
Introducing Flippa.com
Flippa has been in beta for a couple of weeks, so we hope you’ve had a bit of time to get used to it and understand how it works. If not, we recommend that you have a quick read through the following to find out more about this exciting new site and what it means for you…
Why move to Flippa.com?
The SitePoint Marketplace has outgrown its tab on sitepoint.com. For this marketplace to remain the #1 location for buying and selling web sites, and for us to properly service the needs of our buyer and seller community, it simply had to have its own identity – it had to be set free from sitepoint.com. Once you’ve had a chance to look around the site we’re confident that you’ll agree it was the right move.
How much does it cost to use?
To sell your site on Flippa it will cost you $19 for the listing, plus a 5% success fee. The success fee is only payable on the successful completion of your listing. It will never be less than $10 or more than $499. The seller ultimately gets to decide who pays this fee (the buyer, the seller, or split between them 50/50). All listings show the success fee component and who is responsible for paying it.
What’s a Private Sale listing?
Private sale is a fantastic new way to sell your web site. Just like a private sale in real estate – you list your site for sale, people view the listing, and decide whether to make you a private offer. Offers are confidential, and accepting one finishes the listing. You can also counter offer if you wish. In short a private sale is simply a private negotiation between the buyer and seller. Private sale listings typically last longer than an auction, and give you more privacy and control than a typical auction listing.
What happens if my site doesn’t sell via auction?
You’ve got three options at that point. If you do nothing, your listing will continue to run only it be changed to a Private Sale listing (for FREE!). Should your auction not be successful this gives you a chance to attempt to sell your site to the unsuccessful bidders. It also means you get more air time on Flippa.com. Another option is that we offer you a half-price re-listing of your site as an auction. And of course, you can always end the listing if you wish.
What about currently running auctions?
For auctions we migrated over from sitepoint.com we’ve pushed the end date of every open listing forward by two days, to make sure that no-one’s disadvantaged by the move. Of course, if that’s not what you wanted, you can select the “Complete and End” option on your listing page.
All listings which have moved over exist under the same conditions they were listed under on sitepoint.com, so no success fees are payable on those listings.
Where have the categories gone (e.g. Established Sites, Premium Sites)?
Categories have been replaced by the Filter system, which you’ll see on the Buy Tab on Flippa.com. There’s Preset Filters (with names the same as the old categories), but the important part is that buyers can create their own filters to better target listings they’re interested in. The buyers therefore have total control over how they classify and find your site.
Will my trust reputation, feedback, login, and history all be carried over?
Yes, all that information and more will appear on Flippa.com. We want you to continue on trading at Flippa with minimal interruption or inconvenience – your data will be there waiting for you. Your login won’t change either for Flippa.com.
Why can’t people see my listing?
Probably because you haven’t verified ownership of the site. On Flippa, every site for sale must be verified. This makes for a more trustworthy marketplace, which helps everyone.
Why can’t I bid or comment on Flippa?
Probably because you haven’t verified your phone number. Every participant on Flippa needs to verify their phone number. Once again, this makes for more trust across the site.
Is Flippa a new company?
Yes, Flippa.com is a new company, but it’s owned and ran by the same people who bought you sitepoint.com.
What now?
If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask. You can also take a look at our previous blog post announcing the beta launch here:
http://flippadotcom.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/welcome-to-the-flippa-beta/
Other than that, head on over to Flippa.com and start trading.
Comments (31)
Comments are closed.
June 22, 2009 - 7:43 am
Sitepoint was a much better Marketplace than Flippa. Will not return.
June 22, 2009 - 9:40 am
Way to screw everyone over on the fee structure. Glad I sold my site right before you changed. You have no right to 5% of our hard work just for letting us list on your site.
There should be a maximum fee($100), I know personally I won’t sell anything worth more than $500 on flippa knowing now that it will cost me 5%. That would mean my recent listing would have netted flippa $160+. $160!!! I always felt like I was getting ripped off when I paid $70 just to list it, but now its based on the sale price?
You have completely limited your business now, and I feel that you will see the difference in your revenues. Any serious site selling for thousands of dollars won’t give you 5%. Flippa is doomed to selling small adsense-related sites forever I fear.
June 22, 2009 - 10:46 am
wtf..
the gui here suckss… bigtime. you guys need to change things around and fast.
I have been used to the site for over 2 years and just like that pftt.. wow..lol. Should have waited at least 2 months and slowly progressed instead of killing the website overnight. Oh well..
June 22, 2009 - 10:52 am
Way to go guys, you have just destroyed one of the best site marketplaces on the web! I can already predict that Flippa.com will fail, it’s just a matter of time.
Oh well, I guess this just gives others the chance to start their own marketplace and make it big.
June 22, 2009 - 11:51 am
I hope the GREED that has motivated the fee increase sinks the Flippa ship. June 22, 2009, marks the day I stop using SitePoint. Have fun getting fleeced folks.
June 22, 2009 - 12:18 pm
We’ll be sorry to lose any of you who leave.
I know changes are hard to cope with, but we’re confident that most sellers will stay. Not only do we have the best group of serious buyers on the web, but Flippa’s got the best set of features for both buyers and sellers. And we’ve already explained how our extra resources give us more comprehensive Customer Support than ever before.
But even better, we’ve got a whole raft of development on the drawing board. Great new features which you’ve been requesting, and which we’ve wanted to do, but just haven’t had the resources. Now that we’re on our new site and we’ve got a bit more time and space, we can focus on making it even better for everyone. Suggestions, of course, always accepted – that’s the only way we know what you want.
June 22, 2009 - 1:07 pm
Dave Slutzkin, you can keep dishing out that sales pitch slop, problem is no one is buying it! You’ve clearly lost all touch with your user base.
June 22, 2009 - 3:12 pm
Phone verification is easy – works like charm: you write your number, you have a call, you write code and thats it. Just 20 seconds of your time.
I like web 2.0 touch to this marketplace.
Definetely will be here as often as possible even my budget is very low.
Every new thing at first has big critic from other but after some time everyone will get used.
June 22, 2009 - 4:18 pm
One of the big improvements for sellers is the automatic conversion of unsold auctions into a private listing, which are searchable and stay on the site for 6 months. That’s 6 months of additional exposure to help you make a sale.
To anyone worried about the 5% success fee, you have the option of splitting it 50/50 with the winning bidder, or even making it a buyers premium whereby the winning buyer is responsible for the entire 5%.
June 22, 2009 - 6:28 pm
Fix the design, its terrible. Whoever was in charge of making it should be fired and whoever agreed to use it should have their eyes checked. Yes the features are better but the design doesn’t do anything for a professional marketplace. How can “serious buyers” take the site serious when it looks like it was made by someone who has just heard of “web 2.0″ and wants to make everything round. Also could the site display any less content on the homepage above the fold. The old marketplace was well though out, supported alot of content and was clean.
Flippa looks like it was made for using ajax features with all those tabs and then forgot the javascript. Seems very poorly executed and expected better from sitepoint team. How could they have failed so badly at making a new marketplace.
June 22, 2009 - 7:26 pm
Well, can’t argue with that – Sitepoint does dominate the market with buyers
. We’ll cope, but a 5% just doesn’t feel right. Oh well.
June 22, 2009 - 7:31 pm
haha there were less new listings today than I have seen in a long time. here is what is wrong with the owners/developers of flippa and sitepoint….
Ff they really cared, there would listen. How many people have said get rid of the 5% fee???? Do you know how they THINK they listend? They lowered the maximum success fee from $499 to $498. Can you say LOL. There is no way I’m paying $500 to sell a $10,000 website. Hello???? That is a HIGHER fee than realtors charge to sell a house. And plus, you are not even doing anything to sell my website. Are you talking to the buyers for me? Are you convincing them to buy it? Are you handling the payment? Are doing all the paperwork? If you list my website for me, and do all the work of talking selling, then yes I will pay 5%. But why would anyone want to pay 5% success fee when they are getting less than what we got before? And dont say we are getting more because this site blows.
How about someone from Sitepoint/Floppa actually fix what they have done wrong… and go back to the original marketplace… not some new “We are the #1 marketplace for buying and selling websites” with an ugly design, bad interface, and horrible pricing structure. Who cares about being #1. What we want is a genuine service with a good design, great security, and lower fees.
Floppa is like a premium steakhouse selling hotdogs now… but for $498 + your standard $19 listing fee.
So HELLO sitepoint, I’m talking to you. Are you going to LISTEN to your users?????????????????????????????
June 22, 2009 - 7:38 pm
i’ve been a seller for years on sitepoint marketplace, but now that you screwed everything up i’m venturing elsewhere
Did you dream that last night?
rofl @ fees, a good example that when you get dirty rich you want even more
you already know what we want, and we already know what you want(the cash) so why even bother?
June 22, 2009 - 11:13 pm
Congratulations on the launch!
Nice work guys – untold amounts of work went into this launch.
June 23, 2009 - 12:06 am
Seriously,
You guys have gotten way too greedy. It used to cost me $13 to list a site in the Start Up section with bolding. Now it will cost me $24! That is RIDICULOUS! PLUS the 5% success fee? Come on, it does NOT cost that much for Flippa to run.
You guys ARE going to screwed over by a new company which will steal the old sitepoint model.
PLEASE come back to reality, and set the fee structure AS WELL as the look of the site back to how the original sitepoint marketplace was.
June 23, 2009 - 2:38 am
hello,
flippa look like an amateur website, compared to sedo or other big marketplace, you need tu upgrade designe and website look very quickly to save your reputation …
many buyers bids but never pay, so who ll pay success fee??
i think most people here can pay 5% only if flippa for this price can assure escrow service too, that ll be great for buyers and sellers, and you can get thos 5% fees for a real service you assure.
Regards,
June 23, 2009 - 7:23 am
You’re really screwing it for the smaller guys, in the ex-startup section, who were selling sites $70-200. What margin does it remain for us with these higher fees and new ‘success’ fees?
And you say you listen to your customers? Right…
June 23, 2009 - 7:34 am
I have to say the new site is very very very ugly and very hard to use. The way the listings are displayed are terrible. As someone said in an earlier post, the person that made this design should be fired. In my opinion you have hurt the Sitepoint brand by creating a terrible site and forcing it on users overnight and failing to listen to the users of this board who gave you valuable feedback before you launched. It was my daily ritual to go to sitepoint marketplace and scan for sites I wanted to buy. I tried it today and I couldn’t make it past the first page because the site is so hard to follow. You guys said “I know changes are hard to cope with, but we’re confident that most sellers will stay.” You know this is a load of crap. We are mostly web developers and marketers. In other words we are very savvy users, not end users who are just learning to surf the web. When we tell you the site sucks and its ugly, you NEED to be listening. I used to think the sitepoint founders were these bright guys who built this great Sitepoint empire by smarts and listening to their customers. Now, after this marketplace fiasco and this “success fee” nonsense, I wonder if you guys know what you are doing and wonder how greedy you guys are. I want to use this new Flippa but its terribly bad. Its no longer fun to use and this is the main reason I’m currently looking for something else.
June 23, 2009 - 8:02 am
The new fee structure is overpriced. I am now being penalized for actually selling my websites.
You want 5% of my “successful sale” price for doing what, exactly?
Hmmmm…
There is no escrow service? There is no validation of buyers? There is a guarantee that google will index my sale listing within 1 day? haha.. no?
So you want 5% just for being flippa?
I don’t think so.
My suggestion is to remove your new 5% sales penalty, and keep only the listing fee itself. Have multiple categories of sales fees, such as “Cheap websites (low fee), Premium Websites (high fee)” and be content to make decent money off your “#1 listing website on the internet” instead of looking at the pockets of your loyal customer base.
I hate it when a community driven company decides they want to pursue the “company” side of their business more then they want to actually pursue the “community” side of their business which actually makes the company work.
Good luck. I’m going elsewhere to sell my sites. I can’t afford to lose 5% in exchange for absolutely nothing.
June 23, 2009 - 1:20 pm
There is a Bug in Chrome, if you want to see the stats for the bottom listing, it shows only the half…
June 23, 2009 - 6:10 pm
Please please please, get rid of the stinking blue! The site is impossible to read.
Oh and you might want to look at it at 1900×1200 fullscreen.
June 23, 2009 - 7:00 pm
I’m sorry to disrespect the designer, but the design is just….bad. You all are in web development, sell books on it and have a top forum on the web. Why in the world would you all agree to this design? It really looks like a joke.
All-in-all, the smaller sellers have to list their start-up sites higher to make a little profit and the premium/established sellers aren’t going to pay you $500. So expect to see more higher priced junk.
Please go back to the drawing board with all of this. I see no benefit but just bigger profits for Flippa.
And don’t even get me started on that domain name….you should sell it to Sea World.
June 23, 2009 - 8:29 pm
Well, well, well…
Lots of people are flippa-ing the bird to Flippa. And I’m tempted to do the same.
I used to come to SP daily because of the marketplace, and, since I’m already there, read some articles and reply to some threads. It’s a loose-loose situation for you guys – I won’t be around Flippa like I was on old marketplace, and won’t visit SP – there are other places with good forums and articles.
Success fee? Good luck with that. You might as well call it FIASCO Fee.
I can see a new featured article on SitePoint – “How to F**k Up a Perfectly Good Thing”.
Bummer…
June 23, 2009 - 8:36 pm
A bidder has been lost due to sitepoint/flippa migration… http://flippa.com/auctions/69970/High-Ranking-Domain-Name-Forum
I’m a little shocked at how negitive the comments are here on the new Flippa and fee structure. With good service, often comes cost to maintain it and handle the liabilities that are involved with being responsible for it. I guess there is always room to complain about it, but what is the point.
June 26, 2009 - 7:07 pm
This sucks. Flippa sucks. Bring back sitepoint marketplace. I will not sell here anymore
August 12, 2009 - 1:02 pm
What happened to sitepoint.. I wanted to read an old sale thread, now it 302 redirects to flippa.com index that ticks me off a little bit.
September 12, 2009 - 5:35 pm
Wow, I am so over flippa right now. So many of the above posters are right. U guys are really sticking it to the little guys.
Unless, your selling a site for 5,000.00 and up, it’s no benefit to a Seller to use the Flippa site. What used to cost me $20.00 to list a site now can cost me up to $50.00-$100.00+ to sell a site, since they usually have to be listed 2 and 3 tmes to even get a Buyer! Click on the ‘Just Sold’ tab and you will see that a majority of the sites that did sell that day had been listed multiple times before the close; meaning more fees and money for flippa. Greed!
You guys said the new site would drive prices up, they are plummeting. All you have to do is a search on sitepoint sales from a year ago to now and you’ll see.
I’m in grauduate school and this was a way for me to supplement my income as I’m putting myself through school. You guys are eating up so much of my profits with the fees and relist fees, I probably will have to take a semester off.
Thanks for being so corporate about it all… you guys are looking more and more like Ebay every day… and I don’t mean that in a good way
June 22, 2009 - 9:43 am
I just now have seen that there is a limit of $500. But really, that’s still worth nothing to me. You guys don’t deserve $500 for making someone pay to list a website for sale. I’m sure you could run flippa on a VPS without much trouble, so I don’t see why you would ever think your profit margin should be that insanely high.
June 22, 2009 - 9:17 pm
Remove the ‘success fee’ – absolute rip off and it will only drive away potential sellers and buyers, not to mention increase prices!
Almost doubling the “listing fee’s” plus adding a “success fee” and then open a new website that is not completed/fully tested…this Is not a good business practice.
I read sitepoint blogs and you mention:
If It’s not broken, don’t fix It.
You should say:
It’s now broken, how can I fix It.
We will still list on sitepoint/flippa, but not near as much, just because of your pricing structure.
It will pay-off in the long run, for us to find another website marketing alternative…
Well good luck on your new venture, sitepoint/flippa.
I hope you will get back to the real world of website marketing.
~ A Concerned Sitepoint Seller
June 23, 2009 - 12:18 am
Just had a quick look at the new site – I like it. I hope your long time customers can handle change. Good luck with it.
June 22, 2009 - 9:51 pm
“I’m sure you could run flippa on a VPS without much trouble”
Dear Sir,
Lol.