Where abandoned Web sites go to get a second chance

Flippa is a place where, unbeknownst to most, dying Web sites turn for a second shot at life.

Aside from Hipster Runoff, whose bids are now up to more than $11,000, Flippa also just sold ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com -- the wildly viral, mildly vindictive project of Aussie Matthew Carpenter, who grew tired of the site after only a few days. Also on the auction block: PetsPage.com, SeedandGarden.com, and the tantalizing LatestCelebNews.net. “Essentially the same principles of real estate investment also apply to Web businesses,” Flippa's Business manager Luke McCormack explains. There are different types of investors on the site, of course. But when it comes to abandoned sites like Hipster Runoff, many are looking to “buy something old and neglected that [they] can easily improve -- then work on growing and building it back up. Think buy and renovate.” Those trendy renovations, the digital equivalents of granite countertops and couples’ vanities, often include the same set of things: a deeper well of content, to draw eyeballs and clicks; a search engine optimization strategy, to pull more traffic from Google; better or more advertising programs, to harvest money from the site. There’s no saying what will become of a site once it’s auctioned off.