sites
Monday, August 18th, 2008
at 11:44pm
Over the next few days i’ll be working on two new sites. Both will be blogs, both with a focus on ‘reviewing’ stuff.
I believe both will do well - i’ll just build up content on both of them myself and try to get some writers on board if they want to help out.
Apart from this blog, i generally don’t write on any other sites much. These two blogs combined will allow me to sit down and write about stuff in any spare time i have.
Although i’ll be launching these new sites publicly, i’ll be working on several others you won’t hear me talking about - they’re part of what i’m now calling my ‘jackpot’ network of sites.
At times, it can all get a little overwhelming when you’ve so many domains, so many ideas and so much to do… at the minute, i own 75 domain names - 37 of which i plan on selling.
Only about 10 of the domains are actually developed sites 
and even then i still have more big plans for them (BeerChief, The Leaving Cert are two that spring to mind).
So it’s not easy and at times i have to question whether it’s wise to produce sites on a mass scale like this - why not just focus on one? I think the answer to that is i get bored very easily… i also believe it’s too early in my webmaster career to think like that… i should be testing, failing, experimenting and doing everything i can possibly do to get that crucial experience.
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Friday, July 25th, 2008
at 12:27am
There’s no doubt these past few weeks, i’ve really cranked it up a notch. Looking at my domain names, i’ve bought 10 within the last week. These past two weeks;
I’ve also sold 5 sites;
- imagehostme.com
- stupidrivers.net
- ajaximagehost.com
- sawurl.com
- urldwarf.com
Have two currently up for sale;
- socialwtf.com
- turthdream.com
Failed to sell two:
- snapbone.com
- petprison.com
Plus i’ve developed;
On the design front, i’ve created 11 logos (+1 paid logo which someone requested). I’ve also created 3 unique wordpress themes and several modified templates for all the above sites.
So how can i go from seemingly doing nothing, to becoming a ‘machine gun developer’ (i like that term, just came up with it there!) literally overnight? The answer is i was always working, you guys just never seen it or seen the results of it… you can’t just become a seller, designer, developer etc.. overnight - it takes months and years to build up enough knowledge to pass yourself off as all of those things, i’d still class myself as a novice.
But what has changed is my attitude and work rate. A ‘trick’ i’m using against myself is to ‘pretend’ that each and every site i’m making is a long term project for myself - i’m not selling them. That way, i’ll put the work in. I’ll do things myself. If i do things myself, they’ll be done right.
It’s incredibly difficult to motivate yourself to make 25+ blog posts on a brand new blog in a few hours - especially when you know it’s gonna take time and it’s going to be pretty boring. But that’s exactly what i did today… Now, looking back, it probably means bannedtvad.com will sell for more or get more traffic, links etc… because of those posts (still don’t intend on selling it yet though).
And for the past few weeks - that’s the sort of frame of mind i’ve gotten in to. I do chill out the odd day; as i keep saying it’s absolutely essential i don’t get ‘fed up’ of working online, but most of the time i’m happy building sites or designing if i know they’re for me - or if i think they’re for me.
There IS money to be made online and it IS easy, but it’s only easy if (a) you know what you’re doing (b) you’re willing to work for it.
Ironically the more you earn, the less you work as you can start outsourcing things but in order to get to that point, you need to put in the initial workrate… if that means becoming server admin, designer, coder, content creator, seller, PR man all in one - so be it.
I’ve no intentions of backing off now, if anything i’m only going to increase my workrate more… (if that’s even possible) - my next step will be to start outsourcing content, coming up with designs myself and flipping sites at a faster speed.
The problem with all of this is that it takes money to make money… so in order to get that start up money, i’ll need to keep doing everything myself for my next few sites. I can’t afford to be outsourcing stuff if i’ve no money 
But i’m full of confidence and optimism. I just need to keep pushing myself. Once i’m working hard, nobody, including myself, can complain or question anything.
Friday, July 18th, 2008
at 12:57pm
In total, almost $250 taken in. It’s not all profit though… i paid $67 for a combination of the domain names, sitepoint listing fees and scripts used to power some of the sites.
Still, it’s equal to $183 pure profit. It took me 550 minutes to complete all those sites, or just over 9 hours. So technically i was earning over $20/hour
I’ll settle for that - considering minimum wage is $13.53 
$183 is equal to €115 at present. If i can earn that every week, it’ll allow me to experiment further and start up some new sites… there’s no reason why i CAN’T earn that every week. It all depends on how hungry i am for it and whether or not i have the time for it. Once i get back to college, i’ll not have much time for anything other than this blog and BeerChief.
This week i’ve also designed a few logos and even got socialWTF up and running (just put it live yesterday, even thought it’s no 100% complete). The likes of my 21 cool webmaster resources blog post takes up a huge amount of time researching and drafting up… i even optimized all the images for an anticipated digg effect - it didn’t come 
Then of course i’m constantly talking with people about BeerChief… expect to hear more on BeerChief next week, but the reason you *will* hear more next week is because i’ve spent this week talking with people about getting it ready for v2.
Flipping sites rapidly is an excellent way to generate some cash, but i don’t want to fall in to the trap of doing nothing but that - otherwise i’ve got no long term stability online. You NEED the longer term projects to mix it up a bit and give you a sense of security. That’s my own opinion. Having said that it’s extremely difficult to remain upbeat when you’re not making anything at all from your sites. So these quick flips are perhaps a nice balancing act to keep you working and upbeat, plus keeping you tech skills sharp.
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
at 2:27pm
petprison.com didn’t sell. I slashed the Buy It Now price to just $50 - half of the original $100 i’d wanted.
No bids either. I think there’s a number of things that i did wrong…
- set the BIN price far too high initially.
- set a reserve of $20 - should have been 1c to encourage bids.
- made a nicer template, the current one is unique, but ugly.
My other site, stupiddrivers.net is currently at a $25 high bid - i’m pretty sure i’ll get the $45-50 i need to beat minimum wage
So i’ll try and make petprison.com nicer to look at with a few changes to the template.
I’ll also be putting snapbone.com up for sale later today I need just $40 for it to beat minimum wage.
To answer the title of the post ‘what to do when sites don’t sell’ - the answer is try and try again. Never blame the market, blame yourself. If soemthing doesn’t sell it’s because (a) nobody wants it (b) you didn’t try hard enough to sell it.
