

Website traders get rich quick - bootload
http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/website-traders-get-rich-quick/2008/07/31/1217097391233.html

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babul
I still think reason stories like this make the papers is because they are so
rare. Yes, it sounds easy, and get rich quick, but the graveyard is full
others not so fortunate.

Turning any business around effectively still requires skill and knowledge of
the market and methods.

In a way, this article reminds me of other I read of people that buy poorly
advertised items on eBay (poor description, no pictures) and turn them around
for profit simply by putting up more detailed information and high quality
images.

Essentially anyone can do it (low barrier to entry etc.), but the difference
between those that do it well and make good money and those that can't/don’t
really is often down to persistence, practice, more practice, and yet more
practice, and in many cases fortunate timing. The fundamental lessons of
flipping houses, flipping websites, or flipping any commodity seem to be the
same.

I wonder how this can apply to flipping start-ups.

~~~
greyman
In the Internet landscape, sometimes there were opportunities literally lying
on the floor. Remember domain names? Anyone could buy a good .com name and
make a fortune few years later, without any business model. Later, there were
expired domains with high traffic...people just discovered them, picked them
up and made a fortune again.

The point is, that there were finite number of such opportunities, and this I
think applies to this article as well.

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mrkurt
I'm really cynical about the numbers SEO people and internet entrepreneurs
give to reporters.

There are a few missing pieces as well. Sure the dude bought a website, but
how's the rest of the business being run? It's not just a "website", it's a
whole store. They're going to have inventory to manage, suppliers to deal
with, etc, etc.

It's possible they solved the inventory problem by letting their suppliers
drop ship things, but there's still quite a bit of effort required for
something like that.

~~~
steveplace
I read the article earlier and the picture with it had the guys who bought the
bird cage site with about 5 big ass birdcages in the background.

I guess they're doing their own inventory.

 _Edit:_ This article was linkjacked (i.e. stolen) from the nytimes. Here's
the link: <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/technology/29flip.html>

The picture and the birdcage are there.

~~~
bootload
_"... This article was linkjacked (i.e. stolen) from the nytimes ..."_

No just reprinted in a local newspaper and fully attributed. This is no
different to physical print newspapers reprinting articles from foreign
newspapers. Individual newspapers don't have access to every piece of news.
They also reprint material to place their own advertising. Though you might
have thought Sitepoint being a Melbourne based company, "The Age" would have
printed the story and not the other way around. Reading through the entire
article the majority of the content is US based companies using this idea to
make money.

Is "NYT" simply reflecting the "make money" signal New York emits? It might
also explain why "The Age" hasn't bothered and why Melbourne is the
"Artichoke-end" of the Startup world.

------
jonmc12
Check out <http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/> \- it has a bunch of websites
for sale.

I went there after reading NY Times article a couple days ago.. its the
largest such marketplace. "$729k in websites sold in 18 months". All and all,
kind of cool, but still an emerging industry. Reminds me of domain names a few
years back. If you can code well, you can probably make a lot more money
selling sites to clients who have money.

The opportunities I saw: 1) Buy a site that has traffic existing
customers/visitors (will cost 1-3X profits). This could be a way to validate a
product/service idea, and then make it better. 2) Build scripts for websites
that you can license repeatedly for $200-$1k.

~~~
josefresco
I've shopped for and sold a web business on the SitePoint marketplace (went
for around $3K), and it's a fairly decent way to make money.

Many people operate by building quick affiliate based sites, growing traffic
and then selling it with "proven income" to someone for 1-3K 6 months (or less
time depending on how good you are at driving traffic).

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jwesley
I like the article, and it certainly got me thinking, but it understates the
level of skill required to revamp a poorly done website.

To make that type of money flipping sites, you need to spot the right
opportunities and make all the right improvements: programming, design,
copywriting, marketing, SEO, and optimizing the conversion process.

Anyone with the ability to do all these things well deserves to make money.
I'm also skeptical that finding a buyer who can pay 6 figures is as easy as
posting to SitePoint.

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hgielrehtaeh
With something like this, I feel like if it has hit the papers, it's too late.

Better luck next time.

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nreece
>> the latest wave of entrepreneurs who, like the day traders and real estate
investors before them, are looking to make a lot of money without much effort.

The article pertains to a different breed of online 'entrepreneurs', called
salvagers.

In the 'ground-up' startup world, the reality is not the same. It's not as
simple as it sounds. Building a startup and running it profitably is equally
difficult (and self-satisfactory) as running a brick-and-mortar business.

Btw, here's the original NYT article:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/technology/29flip.html>

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adrianwaj
I am surprised there aren't more hackers here openly flipping sites in this
manner, especially the most entrepreneurial ones. Maybe it's a hacker's best
kept secret. Forget coding from scratch, angels, VCs and team members, just do
the flip.

~~~
dpapathanasiou
_I am surprised there aren't more hackers here openly flipping sites in this
manner_

I think it's because of two factors, as the article mentions:

" _Creating the value, though, is the tricky part._ "

and

" _The average selling price of Web sites on eBay was $78 last month._ "

~~~
adrianwaj
but I mean hackers can do a better job than that.

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tx
So this is "Hacker News"? i.e. site for HACKERS to hang out?

Where stories about weight loss, Hollywood-grade entertainment industry rumors
and get-rich-quick speculators routinely get voted up to the top, while kick-
ass Rails API documentation site I submitted yesterday was not even noticed.

What's next? Britney's next pregnancy prediction?

~~~
ConradHex
The site is for entrepreneurs, mainly. As such, this article is completely
relevant.

Maybe Rails isn't that popular here. (Personally I'm not crazy about it.) And
Rails docs aren't really "news", are they?

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jobeyonekenobi
So out of interest, what do you think is the proportion of people who really
know what they are doing vs the wannabes?

I think that those of us with our collection of domain names are going to see
an exponential increase in value over the next two quarters. The question is,
how bothered are all of you about the impending Get Rich quick rush.

~~~
rationalbeaver
So far the Get Rich Quick crowd seems to have focused their attention on the
website marketplace sites like SitePoint, which drives up sale prices for
those who are willing to find sites to sell in other (smarter but harder)
ways.

