Posts Tagged ‘sites’

10 Dec 2008

Global Changes

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Although the world is faced with it’s own problems and faces massive changes, ‘global’ in this context, refers to my network of websites.

You see there’s a big shake up in the blogging world and it’s called wordpress 2.7. You guys don’t ‘see’ wordpress, but without it, this site wouldn’t exist and i probably would never have gotten in to this whole webmaster thing. I certainly wouldn’t have come 2nd in an SEO competition without it ;-)

WordPress 2.7 allows auto installation of plugins, quicker navigation, rapid fire / handy links all over the place which saves me time plus it’s visually much more attractive to use.

This new version of wordpress will probably inspire me to re-jig all of my sites and put together some sort of ‘umbrella’ plan to keep them all updated and under close control. It’s a bit like the wild west at the minute. 3 servers at 2 different hosts, 50+ domains spread across 3 or 4 registrars… it’s do-able but i just need to manage myself with an iron fist.

Leaving Cert

Theleavingcert.com continues to pull in traffic without any effort at all. It’s a Google magnet and gets 50+ unique visitors a day from Google alone. That probably warrants a complete redesign and more upkeep. And that’s probably what it’ll get. I could sell it but that would be no fun, plus this is the one site that has sentimental value to me as it was my first ever site.

BeerChief

Whilst BeerChief is still under the knife, the BeerChief blog is not and i’m well capable of upgrading that myself. It’ll undergo a complete redesign with a heavy emphasis on multimedia. Expect a magazine style theme and some ‘made for social media’ content.

Jackpot Network

My jackpot network is still a jackpot according to Google’s statistics so not only is this a very stable niche, it’s also a really easy one to top it would seem as i have some sites ranking highly on Google without any content at all :twisted: For these sites i have the design in place – it’s perfect in terms of SEO. I just need content and wordpress 2.7 will allow me to speed that process up a bit which may inspire me to work harder.

Chrome Guide

This is a site i fired up overnight and it’s still pulling in traffic. I plan on hanging on to it and adding more content, not high on my list of priorities though… Google chrome itself is not worth talking about until they start adding plugins – then it starts to play hardball with Firefox.

Landmark.me

This site has great potential but it’s only an idea at the minute. Simple idea, relatively simple to put together but it will require several hundred dollars to get off the ground. I think it’s a winner and it’ll probably be on my list of priorities for 2009.

Sacked.me

I now have an idea for this and now that this recession is kicking in, ‘sacked’ is a term which seems to be growing in popularity :smile: At the time, this was an excellent domain i got my hands on, looking back on it, probably THE single greatest domain name i’ve ever bought / owned. Another one to watch in 2009. We still don’t know the value of .me’s but dictionary words are always valuable no matter what extension.

My Alloys

Myalloys.com will be a social network revolving around alloys / cars etc… i’ll probably have a crack at this myself with my experience from BeerChief. It’s a good name, nice niche site and the sort of site i’d be reluctant to sell if i ever get it going.

Holiday Ratings

holidayratings.com is a decent name and something needs to be done with it but i’m not sure what. I’ll probably sell it as a quick flip though once i do come up with something for it.

Ground Rage

groundrage.com is a pretty simple concept. Unfortunately the platform i had intended using has become unstable and ‘dodgy’. I put off developing it earlier in the year, although i did come up with a logo for it. It will probably just become a blog now but it should still work well.

Other Stuff

The above is more than enough…. it’s over 30 sites combined. Maintaining one is a challenge in itself. One question people ask is why i don’t just focus on one project, one site, one goal at a time – it seems like a sensible thing to do.

Whilst that may get things done quicker i like the ability to float from one project to the next knowing full well i’ll never complete everything. It means i’m continually working on something and if i get fed up with one project, i can just move on to the next and vice versa.

Once BeerChief is complete, it’ll be a massive weight off my shoulders and not only can i start the promotion work on that, but i’ll have more time to get other projects off the ground, using my experience with BeerChief to speed things up.

18 Aug 2008

two new sites launching this week

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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 :mrgreen: 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.

25 Jul 2008

what’s my secret?

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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;

  • bannedtvad.com

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.

18 Jul 2008

$183 profit this week

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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 :mrgreen:

I’ll settle for that – considering minimum wage is $13.53 :cool:

$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.

10 Jul 2008

what to do when sites don’t sell

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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.

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