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Archive for April, 2010
4-fashion.eu (and more) on Flippa from Nicus
Apr 29th
Sometimes a seller and their sites are so blatantly a ripoff it just makes me wonder…
IS THEIR FLIPPA LISTING SOME KIND OF JOKE?
Take Nikus for example. He is selling a couple of “established websites”:
- www.4-fashion.eu
- www.4-electronics.eu
In his listings he boasts the profit potential of both sites and actually claims they are currently profiting. For example, the listing for 4-fashion.eu claims that there is a monthly net of $2000+. Yes, $2000. Of course this kind seller only wants a measly $3500 for the site, because:
I need money to develop other projects. My website needs a new owner who can handle the sales volume with a new merchant account. I have no good alternative since Easter is so close. I hope to get a good price for this website so i can focus on other business i’m working on.
Do you notice something? He claims he needs the $3500 for this site to get money to develop his “other projects” and references Easter. It is after Easter. The reason his mention of Easter is still there is because this is a re-listing. But it does beg the question — by now he should have more than the $3500 additional in his pocket from the site earnings itself… Shouldn’t he?
The bottom line is that nobody, in their right mind, is going to sell a site netting $2000/mth for $3500. WHY WOULD THEY?!?
But seriously, this guy almost leaves me speechless. Is he even TRYING? Or is this listing a joke?
Nicus, stop trying to scam people — you aren’t even good at it! If you want help making an HONEST living online, contact me.
invictus7 (Atlas Enterprises) Now Selling Junk Traffic Sites
Apr 29th
Well, if this guy (company) couldn’t get any worse… They are not selling more and more junk traffic sites on Flippa. While in the past they sold mainly worthless PPC sites, now they are selling junk traffic sites as well! What is a junk traffic site?
SITES THAT USE UNSCRUPULOUS METHODS TO SEND TONS OF (USELESS) TRAFFIC TO OTHER SITES.
The main method for this is “auto-surfing” which this undoubtedly is… Websites pay people to have their browser refresh rapidly to different websites in order to (falsely) inflate their traffic. So, although they can claim it is a “legitimate visitor”, it is in fact not one. It is simply someone who’s browser is being sent on autopilot from site to site. Does this traffic have any value? NO! Well, it may have value to a scammer who is trying to make the website they are about to flip look like it has amazing traffic – BUSTED!
So, there is no doubt that “Atlas Enterprises” (Invictus7 on Flippa) is just reselling auto-surf traffic. Since it is obvious the site being sold, in this case “TrafficKoala.com” obviously doesn’t generate this amount of traffic itself. No folks, autosurf traffic sales is a scam — and so, in the case of traffickoala.com you are buying a scam from a scammer. So, if you bought this site, YOU would become a scammer by default… EECH!
Friends, be careful out there! Flippa is a great online marketplace, but as long as the practice of “website flipping” is encouraged you are swimming with the sharks!
blobby selling cheapdirectorysubmission.net on Flippa
Apr 23rd
Wow, where do I begin with this “established website for sale“?
This guy is selling a “directory submission service”. In other words, he is selling a service that will SPAM the internet for anyone hoping to improve their visibility online. What is ironic about this site is that both the website sale and the service are scams!
First off, you are NOT going to make any money with this website. It is a cheaply built, wordpress site with nothing there to hold any water. It is JUNK in it’s purest form. The seller boasts that it is #3 on Google under the terms “USA Directory Submission” and #5 under “Cheap Directory Submission” — whoopity do! That should be good for 20 – 30 visitors per month.
Secondly, the service offered is a complete sham. Directory submission!? Here is the twig… Chew on this for a while, I think it will make sense to you…
WHAT VALUE WILL THE SEARCH ENGINE GIVE TO A LINK ON A SITE THAT JUST ACCEPTS ANY WEBSITE SUBMITTED TO IT!?
In other words, it is obvious that “directories” that are being submitted to just take any submission and post the link. Therefore, WHAT QUALITY can they be? I mean, for real!!
This service is one that will do any buyer more harm than good. SPAMMING the internet with your URL is not something the Search Engines (or anyone else) likes. These “directory submission services” are trying to sell you on the idea that SPAMMING THE WEB is a good idea. That Google and other big players LIKE IT.
If you think about it, you know this is not the case. This, in fact, was an issue I just faced when I had to do some SEO repair for a guy who got blacklisted. Please, whatever you do, don’t be fooled into buying this garbage website. And, please don’t try to SPAM the internet to get better search engine rankings!!
TO THE SELLER: If you want to start to make HONEST money online, contact me and I will be glad to help you.
Hurry, Flippa Seller offers Money Machine!
Apr 23rd
Well, it’s another day and there is another seller offering easy money on Flippa. Here is the listing:
This seller (Younicsoft) has been selling “autoblog” sites for a while on Flippa and hasn’t had much success. Which is a good thing, but I do feel badly for him. Most scammers are also victims… I am sure he read some ebook or some website that preached to him how easy it was to make autoblog (auto content / robot) websites and “flip them”. So, he put the advice to work and is passing on the scam; trying to make a living.
This seems to be the trend… Getting scammed, then scamming others. I believe much of it is unintentional. After all, if you read a guide that tells you a quick-and-easy way to make money — and it sounds good — you’re probably going to try it. And, often, they do not cry out “ETHICAL FOUL”. So, it can be an easy cycle to participate in. The “flip a website” epidemic has increased this 10-fold over the past 18 months.
This poor sucker is probably just trying to make money doing what he was told is so easy to do… But, either way, I would not buy one of his “autoblog” websites. They certainly are NOT money machines!!
Flippa Seller Asks “Is My Site a Scam”?
Apr 20th
Here is an email I received from Flippa seller hire_us.
ok…
i am not going to buy the site…
in fact i am the seller…i own the site and have developed it myself bit by bit…
i have also placed it on Flippa for sell…
you have a look and let me know…
do you think it is scam or not?
First of all I want to thank to seller for what appears to be an honest attempt to self-assess his website sale. Now, let’s talk about the website which is being auctioned here.
For a quick and simple answer to the question “is this a scam or not”… No, it is not a scam. But that doesn’t mean it has much value either.
Here are some good points about the site:
- Original Content
- Nice Theme
- Targeted Monitization
Here are some icky points about the site:
- Looks “Thrown Together”
- Poor Layout
Overall, when I look at the sales-pitch on Flippa, this looks like an honest listing. However, I doubt it will sell for much — if at all. It really is a few unique articles thrown on a wordpress site and just doesn’t seem to have too much potential.
To the Seller: This is a nice first effort. But I would work a bit harder on developing something a bit more unique and a bit further developed. Good luck in the future and thanks for working to keep on-the-level!
mudassar450 – King of the Link Directory on Flippa
Apr 19th
Wow, and I thought the guy selling PPC sites was bad…Â Look at this guy selling WORTHLESS link directories on Flippa at a crazy pace.
This guy is buying cheap .info domain names, filling them with his garbage link directory script and then pushing traffic to them using paid-to-surf junk traffic. He then claims their worth at over $5000 each and sells them on Flippa for around $200 or so.
People, you must realize that this is just another Flippa scammer. This guy is just selling these worthless sites to newbies who have no idea what makes a quality website.
I beg you to use this simple rule that you have undoubtedly heard beore:
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT USUALLY IS!!
Sure, this means that sometimes it isn’t…Â But a $5000+ value website for under $500, PLEASE!
Never buy a website from anyone who is shown selling the same “types” of websites over and over unless each one can be seen to be VERY unique.
mudassar450, you should be ashamed – stop using Flippa to scam people. Please stop scamming and contact me. I will help you make a LEGITIMATE earning online.
When the SEO GURUS get you blacklisted!
Apr 15th
A while back I got a call form a long time client of mine who had lost touch. He was building a medical equipment site and was in need of some search engine optimization (SEO) work.
Apparently he had been working on the SEO for a long time and was basically doing it himself. He bought some software that allowed him to submit his articles to thousands of article sites and also some software that would “spin” his articles so that he could write just one, and yet he could post it many times and have it appear to be “original content”.
He also found some other “cutting edge” software that would allow him to post his videos and text to a big network of blogs…Â The end result??
THESE SEO TRICKS GOT HIM BANNED FROM GOOGLE
That’s right… He couldn’t find himself anywhere on Google anymore and was completely perplexed. After calling me it only took me a few minutes to see what had happened. You see, nobody likes SPAM and Google is no exception!
Lee had essentially SPAMMED the internet with his articles and his blog posts and the other junk these supposed “Search Engine Optimization” software programs did. this was no surprise to me, but Lee was stunned. What happened?!?
THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF SEARCH ENGINE SUCCESS
…Don’t Cheat on the Test…
What happened to Lee is that he tried to “cheat” his way to the top. He tried to make it “appear” as if his site was popular — with many backlinks, articles, etc… After all, this is what the Search Engine Optimization Gurus had taught him (before selling him their software). They told him *THIS IS THE FORMULA YOU WANT TO FOLLOW FOR TOP SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS* and *THIS SOFTWARE WILL HELP YOU GET THOSE TOP SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS*. And, Lee bought into it hook line and sinker.
Well, after a few days of fixing up the trail of dead fish that Lee had left across the internet. We were able to get him into the top 20 on Google for some of his most competitive terms, such as “Buy Medical Equipment” and “Purchase Medical Equipment”. We even got him up to the top 10 on Yahoo under the term “Medical Equipment” and others… However, with the term “Medical Equipment” on Google we hit another SEO roadblock. And, as it would turn out, it seems it was the fault of even more SEO SOFTWARE.
Yes, Lee’s site had some magical Search Engine Optimization Software installed on it. All it does is basically make your URLS more “search engine friendly” and make your title tags, etc easy to manage. That part worked OK. But, it didn’t explain to Lee how to do it PROPERLY. So, it did was make it EASY to do BAD SEO!
We’re currently working on fixing this problem now and I fully expect to see Lee climbing the search engine ranks into the top potions. But, there is a lesson here for everyone.
DON’T TRY AND FAKE YOUR WAY TO TOP RANKINGS ON GOOGLE
If you want to achieve a high ranking on Google or any other search engine you’re going to have to do it the REAL way. The ETHICAL way. The RIGHT way. You are going to have to start by making your site THE BEST WEBSITE it can be for it’s topic/niche. That is the most important thing… Google doesn’t care how many backlinks you have if your website is garbage! And, the harder you try to “fake your way” to search engine optimization success the further away you’re going to fall. Don’t buy into marketing hype, SEO scams, etc… Start with a good website, then do some REAL promotion to get yourself noticed, and Google will do the rest. It works every time!!
I will update you on Lee’s progress. Until then…
DON’T BUY INTO ANY SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SCAMS!
The Website Flipping Epidemic (and Flippa)
Apr 14th
As you know, much of this site has focused on Flippa.com thus far; Flippa has established itself as the leader in website marketplaces. If you want to buy a pre-built website, go to Flippa.
While Flippa does offer a nice marketplace for buying and selling websites, the problem is their focus on “Website Flipping”…Â Flippa promotes website flipping, as the name “Flippa” implies.
WHAT DOES FLIPPING WEBSITES MEAN?
Flipping a website basically means building a website for the sole purpose of reselling it. As opposed to building one for the purpose of growing it and building income from it. It can also mean buying a website and then reselling it for more than you purchased it for… Much like the old “real estate flipping” that was very popular before the infamous “real estate bubble burst”.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH WEBSITE FLIPPING?
At the core, there really is no problem with flipping a website. If you build a nice unique website and someone wants to buy it — there is no problem with that. The reason I declare the trend of website flipping an epidemic is because of the TYPES of websites often being flipped.
We live in a culture that loves the idea of little work and big payouts. And, it is easy to see why that would be appealing. So, since “little effort, big potential” is a big selling point, many westie flippers will build sites around this very concept. The websites they build tend to have a simple formula.
- Use WordPress or Another Content Management System (Management)
- Use a Stock Theme and Simply Customize the Graphics (Design)
- Fill the Site with Google Adwords, Amazon Links, and other Affiliate Programs (Monitization)
- Use AutoBlogging Software to Fill the Sites with Articles and NewsFeeds (Content)
This simple formula is used in roughly 90% of the sites you see being flipped on websites such as Flippa. Here is the problem…
While this simple formula allows those who are flipping websites what they want — a simple to build website that looks great and offers several profit streams…
AND
While this simple formula gives the website buyer what they want — the offer of little work and big potential…
THE PROBLEM IS IT DOESN’T WORK!
There is as close to ZERO chance of these websites making any money at all. The sites use RECYCLED content and stock themes to give the appearance of a nice, established, niche site. But, in fact, they are just useless placeholders littering the internet with junk. For a good example of this, just check out the sites listed on Flippa under the tag “autoblog”. Here you can see the ugly epidemic in action, site after site with nothing more than nice-looking recycled content.
These sites get ignored for the most part by the search engines. Search engines, like Google, don’t want their results to be filled with the same information. Variety is the key to a good search engine. So, this recycled content is exactly what they are NOT looking for… They do, in fact, ignore it. And, the poor suckers who buy these sites wonder how their beautiful niche sites fail to earn any profit.
Not only do these sites not work, but as sites like Google see more and more of it popping up, they look for a trend. This means that the “trend” of pop-up sites built on easy CMS (Content Management Systems) will cause Google, and other search engines, to start to reject these sites over time — even the LEGITIMATE ONES! The mighty GoogleBot looks and says “most of these sites a junk, therefore I must not give too much credit to any site built this way — it is probably junk too”.
These “website flipping fiends” are rapidly destroying the opportunity that is available on the internet!! They make it harder and harder each day to establish a new website and the bring the day when BIG MONEY will rule the internet closer-and-closer.
Don’t believe me? This is exactly what has happened time and time again on Google. A few years ago, someone could make a good living on Google just by advertising affiliate links… But what happened?? Copycat after copycat filled Google’s AdWords with affiliate links and flooded all the most popular terms. The result? Google banned this form of promotion and ended the direct-affiliate-promotion gold rush forever!
So, I ask of you — DO NOT SUPPORT THE PROBLEM — do not buy or build (or buy-into) any website that promises “AUTOMATED CONTENT” where you can make money on “AUTOPILOT”. Be part of the SOLUTION, not part of the PROBLEM. If you are a website flipper, then buy and flip websites that are UNIQUE and offer quality ORIGINAL content. Sure, some news feeds are a good thing… But not a site that fills up with articles from other sites and is just full of recycled junk! If you buy websites or are looking to buy a website, ONLY buy one that offers a unique property to the worldwide web. Something that is full of original content and original ideas. Save yourself from losing money and save the future entrepreneurs from loosing the opportunity that exists on the internet! Please…
flippingethics.com, chris avell As it turns out, He IS a scammer…
Apr 1st
On April 1, 2010 this email went out to my clients…its look like April Fool joke but you have to keep read everything and see how small joke can turn into reality :
Hello, You are receiving this message if you have done business with "Christopher Avell" (aka "Christopher B. Avell", "Chris Avell") in the past 36 months. The investigation team at 9MG.NET has been investigating Mr. Avell for the past 18 months and has lawfully attained contact records which indicate that you have been involved in either a business investment or online transaction with Mr. Avell in the past 36 months. Please be advised that even if you have not made a financial transaction with Mr. Avell your information could be used for the purposes of identity theft or interstate fraud. We hope that you will assist in our investigation by visiting the case form at http://www.9mg.net/cases/use/CAINvestigation2010/form1.html and following the instructions. Thanks *Nine Milligrams is an independent investigation firm committed to protecting individuals from online fraud and scams. Nine Milligrams is not a government agency nor is Nine Milligrams employed by any government agency.Â
This is what Chri Avell from flippingethics.com have to say on April Fool but ITS TURN OUT HE DIDN’T JOKE he told us a store of his life i found out he own the site flippingethics.com and you can see all about this guy on our site just click on the link Chris Avell or you can read all about his company BEFORE TV LLC he use to “report” to flippa.commmmmm by saying used i ment he still reporting to flippa about other seller that may selling site similar to his site so flippa will suspend the seller account and he cn sell his own websites.
he own 120 domains half of them are actuallywebsites he made so much money out of them and he also have more then 1 flippa account actually he have more then 10 account each one under different name and different IP number.