I have two issues with Flippa.
The fees have gone up and the types of buyers and sellers on the site have gone worse.
1. I listed my site on flippa for sale and not only was I not able to sell the site or get a single bid; I hardly got any views on that auction.
My total listing views was 22. So if we calculate that my listing fee being $29 and I got 22 views out of it, the total amount I paid to flippa was $1.3 per view.
I am not saying that flippa is bad or anything but they should have a system where they can let a site re-list for no extra cost if that listing gets such pathetic views. They should also have a lower listing fee for smaller niche site.
I asked for a refund and I got the responder type message saying that cannot guarantee a sale and they cannot refund the amount.
Again, I have posted bad sites with worse headlines but never have I got that amount of views.
2. My second issue at flippa is that the buyers seem to get dumber and the sellers are getting smarter.
A) I have seen many listings which state they have made couple of thousand dollars in 2 weeks selling SEO and internet marketing services. What the seller would do is make a PayPal screenshot(fake) showing the earnings and the buyer would just fall for it and buy the website. Yes right. It is so very easy to earn thousands of dollars per week on the internet. This is past now as such listings have reduced on the website auction site.
B) This is towards 1 particular seller who just registers an expired domain puts up fake content on the site and starts selling a ridiculous site stating that it is a gold mine. Let me explain.
The seller would find a deleted domain online and register it. The seller would then make a back dated blog post on that site. This seems just stupid. It is like I register a domain today on 22nd October 2012 and then post on my that website an article on the site showing the date 22nd June 2009.
That is not all. The content that the seller is posting on the site is 100% copied from article sites but the post is made in a tactical way which would fool copyscape. Hence the seller can state that the site is unique and copyscape passed.
Fooling copyscape and posting content on site can be smart and blackhat and it is ok but posting on your auction listing that the articles are written by article writers from Canada and USA is just fooling the potential buyer.
When I happened to post in the comments area about this my comments were deleted. (Obviously if I was the seller I would do the same, but it is flippa’s moderator’s duty to undelete those comments).
NOTHING WAS DONE!
I then reported the auction to Flippa:
“What do you mean you are working with the seller ?
The seller is just fooling everyone and you are still allowing this ?
https://flippa.com/28…. (Link removed because I don’t hate the seller nor do I have anything personal against him) – See here, all my comments are also deleted by the seller. I showed everyone that the seller is just lying by saying he has paid article writers for the content when all content on the site is 100% copied.
I proved it in the comment and all the seller did was just delete my comment and then posted a copyscape image showing that content is unique and all that.
How many times are you get the seller get away with this ?
If it is cool with flippa to allow the seller to lie to their buyers then even i can start selling websites like this…“
Ok. I hoped that either the seller might be temporarily banned or my comments would be undeleted.
AGAIN NOTHING WAS DONE!
I waited for response from the “Flippa Customer Support” but nothing happened there.
A few days later my request was closed without any answer and all I could see was “You have no open requests”.
Seems like flippa is supporting the seller because they are earning through him. I hope that is not true because i reported a few listings in the past and they have taken care of that auction by rectifying false claims or by temporarily banning the seller.
Well, I just hope the buyers over there get smarter.
BLOG POST UPDATE – NOV 1, 2012
After i posted this entry i got an email from Flippa’s operation manager. You can read about our convo below. Not only did i get a credit so i can re-list my site, i also got advice on how i can get more views. It shows they care !
Email exchanges:
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My reply below in bold.From: Flippa(hidden)Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 11:11 AMTo: Me(hidden)Subject: Re: Follow up to concerns outlined at https://www.jimmythakkar.com/blog/is-flippa-getting-worseThanks Ashish.
Responses below. Hope that helps. Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or are not satisfied with the outcome.Regards,AndrewOn 23/10/2012, at 6:20 PM, Ashish H Thakkar (JVW) wrote:1. Auction that did not get views: (hidden)Competition for attracting buyer to start-up sites is becoming increasingly competitive. To this end, its worth ensuring you’ve done all you can with your title and domain to attract potential buyers to your listing page (and get that views number up!).Two ideas that spring to mind if you were to relist:1. Camel-case your domain so users know what it means to say. ie (hidden)2. Make your listing title highlight your core value proposition eg (hidden)I’ve added 15 credits to your account so you can relist at no cost to see if these changes make a difference.Thank you for this. I will re-list using the tips you have given me and see what difference it makes. Do you think the heading is the only reason I got such low views?2a. Listing where my comments were deleted: (hidden)The seller has left your comments with concerns about the content uniqueness and responded to them. While he did remove some of your subsequent posts, potential buyers are sufficiently informed if that is a problem for them. More concerning is the claims around the domain age (ie higher risk of PR drop) and the extrapolated monthly traffic claims off a limited time-window. We’ve since removed the latter from the seller’s remaining listings: (hidden)I do not understand your comment. People are paying for such sites because of valuable content on the site. This is what the seller commented “I personally did not write the articles.
I pay a team of writers I have in US and Canada“But the content on the site is junk. I proved out there that they are not original articles. They are just copied articles from the web. Copyscape is not the only plagiarism checker out there you know.How can a seller be allowed to make false claims?Anyways I will keep reporting auctions which I feel are wrong.2b. Support request: (hidden)This was a major oversight on our part. We’re not in the business of simply shutting down tickets without a response and I apologise unreservedly for that outcome. I’ll be reminding the team on this again as a result of your experience here.Thank you for your time. Do I have the permission to copy paste content from the email on my blog?Regards,ThakkarFrom: Flippa(hidden)Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 4:25 AMTo: Me(hidden)Subject: Follow up to concerns outlined at https://www.jimmythakkar.com/blog/is-flippa-getting-worseHi Jimmy.
Sorry to hear your experience with Flippa was anything short of stellar. I’d love to get some more information to see what we can address the two key points you raised in your post at https://www.jimmythakkar.com/blog/is-flippa-getting-worseFirstly, are you able to let me know ID or URL of the auction that you felt did not receive sufficient exposure?On the second point, would you be able to send me the support ticket ID regarding the issues you raised (and maybe even the auction where you left the comment). I look after the support team and it sounds like we may have possibly missed a few things here.Any information you provide on this will be very helpful in addressing your concerns.Thanks,(hidden)
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