What Were the Ten Best Selling Sites on Flippa in 2014?
2014 was a crazy year for site flipping, but what was it that captured bidder’s imaginations and sent them into a bidding frenzy?
Understanding this gives you a great edge in assessing the current market to see where the profits are.
Luckily, I’m on hand to show you insights from the ten best selling sites on Flippa in 2014.
10. easydealbuilder.com – $57,1000 – May 2014
EasyDealBuilder
At no. 10 is easydealbuilder which was a software building site sold by ‘online expert’ Mark Lyford and built by Simon Hodgkinson and Jeremy Gislason.
The first thing that stood out in this listing was the site’s huge sales figures of $250,000 in less than 18 months of business. That’s the same as a top of the range Ferrari. And who doesn’t want one of them?
It was striking to note from the comments, though, that the seller came under attack from another Flippa member for their claims.
Perhaps it was this that put a seed of doubt in some bidders’ minds as the the auction ended at a bargain price.
9. photographers-seo – $60,000 – July 2014
Photographers-SEO
The auction for photographers-seo proved there’s still plenty of room for a unique niche.
The niche was that of SEO for photographers. A membership system gave users access to ebooks, videos and forums which are vital in an age where Instagram is huge.
Unique visits were modest and around the 2,500 mark, but the revenue was high with an average of $4,500 per month. Sure beats working shifts at McDonalds, right?!
However, the auction didn’t manage to raise quite as much as it perhaps should.
Edanzer – the seller – limited the auction to US citizens only due to concerns with the transfer of the site’s PayPal account and proof of the site’s statistics was limited.
8. squarefootage.org – $61,600 – April 2014
SquareFootage
Squarefootage showed what a simple site and listing can achieve.
A calculator for working out square foot sums may not be very rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s revenue from AdSense proved very tempting to 8 unique bidders.
Plenty of proof of the site’s claims were confirmed and the listing couldn’t be accused of using filler. As a result, the seller – electronicage – found themselves with a nice final sale.
7. parishotels.net – $62,000 – May 2014
ParisHotels
Just edging into 7th position was parishotels which was a curious yet vague auction.
The main appeal for this auction appeared to be in the domain name as parishotels.com sold for a huge value some time ago.
Part of the deal was also for 22 beta domains, one of which the seller – allovoyages – claimed had a bid of $5,000 waiting for it.
Little info was given about where the monthly profit of $2,100 came from, but the seller – allovoyages – implied that it was from affiliate and advertising streams.
If the stats were true then it was a bargain, but I, personally, would have wanted more solid proof up front before bidding.
6. parkingspots.com – $65,000 – August 2014
ParkingSpots
Parkingspots was a great idea and really well made site, but the listing was a frustrating one!
There’s nothing sweeter than finding that last parking space, but imagine the stress you could save by pre-booking it.
However, the seller – webpark – wasn’t entirely transparent with their revenue stats. Or even what their tie-up was with the site where you actually paid – parkingpanda.com.
And the lack of confirmed analytics was troubling. And an Alexa rank of more than 9 million?
The bidding, though, was even stranger. Two high bids came in before the ‘buy it now’ price of $65k was activated.
Parkingspots is still active, so if it was actually sold, let’s hope it picked up for the buyer’s sake!
5. socialnewsdaily – $90,000 – May 2014
SocialNewsDaily
At the halfway mark was socialnewsdaily, a unique news site which used social media data against their news stories.
With over 700,000 page views comfirmed by Google Analytics in the month prior to listing, it certainly appeared to be a great listing. However, I was slightly alarmed by the lack of engagement shown by an 83.5% bounce rate.
The site revenue was valued at around $3k per month, but, oddly, their attachments showed a figure of half that in the month prior to listing.
Nonetheless, the huge traffic – shown to be steadily growing – was very tempting to one bidder who hit the ‘buy it now’ button to seal the deal.
4. sauceworld.com – $99,724 – November 2014
SauceWorld
There’s nothing like a hot sauce to set the senses alive apart from, maybe, a near $100k bid for your site!
And that’s just what chuckedog got with his site which promised to deliver the hottest sauces known to man.
I was really impressed by the honesty in the seller’s listing. Hard evidence was provided in screenshots and coupled with detailed info about outgoings.
Chuckedog also gave a great site history which told bidders what had worked, what hadn’t worked and where the site’s future lay.
With a regular profit of around $4,500 it was the perfect site to spice up your revenue.
3. coolspotters.com – $100,000 – September 2014
Coolspotters
The first 6 figure sale in our list was achieved by coolspotters.com and showed that style really sells.
By showing where to get all the products being sported by celebs, coolspotters aimed to make the gap between Joe Public and celebs that little bit smaller.
Having been in business since 2007 meant that the site had built a loyal crowd and pulled in at least 800,000 visits each month.
Profits were healthy at around $5,300 per month and written details were given regarding where this came from.
The figures certainly looked healthy, but it was a little worrying that no hard proof, such as screenshots, to back these up was provided.
And why did the seller – fanzter – avoid answering any of the questions in the comments?
The bidding history, however, showed that someone wanted a serious slice of the fashion market and used the ‘buy it now’ option to secure it.
2. inflatablessuperstore.com – $121,000 – January 2014
InflatablesSuperstore
2014 got off to a great start for the seller tldrental with a huge sale for their inflatables site.
With a ready made business to go and monthly profits of between $8,500 – $40,000 it’s easy to see why it was such a popular auction.
Traffic for the site wasn’t massively high, but engagement levels were higher than average which showed people were heading to this site with an order in mind.
The listing itself had everything that an interested bidder would want: figures, great communication, videos, site history, business plan and even the promise of being put up in a hotel!
The final sale figure was buoyant and great business.
1. wholesalebatterysupply – $149,5000 – September 2014
WholesaleBatterySupply
Finally we come to the biggest Flippa auction of 2014 and must congratulate the seller – uptikinvestments – for bringing home such a huge sale.
Another readymade business, wholesalebatterysupply’s niche was in ensuring customers always had plenty of power for the devices.
Profits were giddy and ranged between a cool $20k – $37k a month and video proof helped to back these claims up, so bidders were seriously tempted.
The seller also offered an extra 30 days post sale support to make sure the transition phase was as smooth as possible.
The nature of the business and it’s running strategy was explained very well, so it’s no surprise the ‘buy it now’ button was soon hit.
Looking Back
The biggest sales of 2014 saw the top sites making their revenue purely in product sales and offering a ready made business ready to ship goods.
Sales has always been king, so this should come as no surprise.
Nonetheless, advertising and affiliate programs were also well represented and maintain their importance.
One thing that really irked us with some of the listings was a lack of real honesty. If this factor had not been ignored then I suspect some of the figures in this list could be much, much higher.
