Listing teardown · Content site
Teardown: $18.0K Per Month Affiliate Site in the Business Niche (Empire Flippers #95910)
Short answer: a first-pass read of a live public listing, asking $289,139: 0 red, 7 yellow and 3 green flags from the checker's rules. Every figure comes from the public listing page; nothing here has been verified with the seller.
How to read this. Flags are questions to answer, not findings. A red flag means the listing's own figures or text need an explanation before you spend money on diligence; it does not mean anything is wrong. Sellers often have good answers. Listing details can change after the date above.
Snapshot (as listed)
| Asking price | $289,139 |
|---|---|
| Stated multiple | 2.4× annual SDE |
| Average monthly revenue / profit | $18,008 / $10,040 |
| Latest month revenue / profit | $19,097 / $15,841 |
| Payback (ask ÷ monthly profit) | 28.8 months on the average; 34.2 months on the last 3 months |
| Reported margin | 56% |
| Age | about 81 months |
| Monetization | Affiliate, Digital Product, Subscription |
| Owner hours (seller-stated) | 20 a week |
| Top traffic channels | Direct 96%, Organic Social 1%, Organic Search 1% |
Red flags
- None from the listing's public data.
Yellow flags
- Volatile monthly profit (CV 1.05). Monthly profit ranged $1,248–$41,828.
- No churn figure shown for the recurring revenue. Ask for monthly cancellations and renewals for the last 12 months.
- Direct ≈96% of users. Single-channel dependency.
- Traffic up 50.2× within the analytics window. Users/month: first-3 avg 2,482 → last-3 avg 124,679; latest month led by Direct (57%). Revenue did not rise with it.
- Seller reports 20 hrs/week. Above the checker's default limit of 10 hours a week.
- Payment-account transfer has conditions. Listing text conditions Stripe transfer on buyer entity/jurisdiction; subscriber migration may be manual.
- Customer/revenue concentration not disclosed.
Green flags
- The listing shows connected data providers: Stripe, Google Analytics. These reduce, but do not remove, the need to reconcile figures to bank deposits.
- About 81 months of operating history (first revenue 2020-01, per the listing).
- Post-sale support is offered: The seller is willing to negotiate up to three months of support, with a maximum of 20 hours per month.
Questions to ask the seller
- Explain the low months (refunds, annual-plan timing, one-off costs?).
- Monthly logo and revenue churn for the last 12 months (cohort table if possible).
- What is behind the Direct traffic and how durable is it?
- What caused the traffic jump (campaign, bot/untagged traffic, new property in the GA view)?
- Exact Stripe transfer path for my entity type, and how many subscribers failed migration in past tests?
- What share of revenue comes from the top 1 and top 3 customers (or traffic/affiliate partners)?
- Provide a month-by-month P&L for the last 24 months with every cost line.
- What exactly transfers (domains, code, accounts, trademarks, email lists, contractor relationships)?
- Has the business ever had a platform ban, penalty, chargeback spike or security incident?
What to verify
- Ad network and affiliate dashboards (read-only), reconciled to bank or PayPal deposits month by month
- Analytics and Search Console (or social platform) exports covering the listing's 12 months
- Top pages and top traffic sources by share of revenue, and how each would transfer
- A P&L with every cost line, including writers, designers, tools and the owner's time
- Platform-policy history: any manual action, algorithm drop, demonetisation or account warning
- What exactly transfers: domain, content, social accounts, email list
Payback at the asking price: 28.8 months on the stated average profit, 36.0 months if profit is 20% lower, 48.0 months if 40% lower. This is arithmetic on the listing's figures, not a valuation or a bid suggestion.
Seller statements to check against evidence
Quoted from the listing. Each is a reasonable thing for a seller to say and worth confirming with documents.
- “The business has proven its value by enrolling over 2,400 students since its inception and has expanded into a comprehensive educational ecosystem that includes multiple courses, a popular podcast with over 500K lifetime downloads, and an engaged email list of 7,500+ subscribers with double the industry-average open rate.”
- “Recently, the business has shifted focus from one-time courses to an ongoing membership with a stable subscriber base and recurring MRR.”
- “Google Analytics Disclaimer: The increase in page views and unique users shown for July 2026 was significantly influenced by unusual bot-related traffic that the seller identified as originating from Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam, and other locations.”
- “As a result, the geographic traffic distribution and overall July 2026 traffic figures may not accurately represent the business's typical organic audience or ongoing traffic patterns.”
Risks the listing itself discloses: Google algorithmic changes could cause traffic to fluctuate. Due to constant changes in technology, competition, and the market as a whole, the product could become irrelevant. Subscription services require customer service and the ability to stay on top of the subscribers requests.
Sources
- Empire Flippers listing #95910, public listing data read 13 October 2026.
- FirstPass red-flag rules, the 33 published rules used for the flags above.
Related
FirstPass Memo is independent and buyer-paid. Not affiliated with, paid by or endorsed by Empire Flippers or the seller. Informational screening only, not investment, legal, tax or valuation advice, and not an audit. Figures are the seller's and marketplace's, as listed on the date above. If you are the seller or broker and something here is out of date, email hello@firstpassmemo.com and we will correct it.