For those of you not familiar with Flippa’s tagging system, it simply allows sellers to use keywords, or tags, to describe their auction listings. For example, if a seller is selling a WordPress site he may use the tag “wordpress” to describe the listing. In turn, buyers can search and follow listings by tags.
On paper it sounds like a great system, but unfortunately it has its flaws as I’ve outlined in this article. Even though the system isn’t perfect, it is what it is so it’s important that as a website seller you know how best to take advantage of their tagging system. This article will outline how to get the most out of it as a seller of existing websites and as a seller of startup websites.
Using Tags Effectively As A Seller of Existing Websites
If you are selling an existing website it’s important you know what tags to use to describe your site so you get your listing in front of as many buyers as possible. You are only allowed three tags so you want to choose them wisely. What you’re going to do is visit the tags list on Flippa and sort it by “Buyers Watching.” This will sort the list by the tags most watched (i.e. desired) by buyers. You can click here to see that list already sorted by buyers watching. Here is a screen shot of the top ten most watched tags at the time of this writing:
Let’s say you are selling an established “stop smoking” WordPress blog. What you’ll do is start at the top of the list and work your way down – selecting the top three most watched tags that fit your listing. Looking at the tags list above, I would choose these tags: wordpress, health, and established. I will get the most exposure using these tags!
Using Tags Effectively As A Seller of Startup Websites
If you build websites to flip immediately, then it’s important that you know what types of websites buyers are looking for today. By now it should be obvious how the tags list, sorted by Buyers Watching, can help. In case it isn’t, let me show you how.
The tags listed provides a snapshot of the types of websites buyers are looking for today. Looking at the screen shot above, you can see the types of websites buyers are looking for include: wordpress, ecommerce, autoblogs, adsense, clickbank ready, health, dropship, twitter, established, and clickbank. With the exception of the established tag, all the tags are obvious clues as to what types of websites you should be building to flip! If you could churn out ecommerce sites on WordPress platforms, you’d be striking gold.
The tagging system on Flippa is in its infancy right now so it isn’t perfect but hopefully it will continue to grow and get better. Until then, be sure to implement these strategies as a website seller to get the most exposure for your listings!
