Long story short: I personally would develop the variants and have one site be the “money site” and the other sites be doorway or reference sites that link to the money site. 301 redirect makes sense if there is existing traffic but odds are not much so you are better off creating something that is capable of being indexed and ranked. … [visit site to read more]

In only a few short years a $2 million dollar sale happens and changes you overnight. All the work put in was against your parents dreams to attain a higher education from some over rated and expensive school just to get a degree (in some entirely useless subject such as foreign art or gymnasium techniques) but you made more money now than they probably collectively did in their lifetime – all in just a few short years.

You see – that’s the power of the internet and a good domain name.

Sure, you could buy a domain for $200 and flip it for $2,000 the next week but the success is short lived and generally only fuels your fire to keep flipping domains.

However when can you start avoiding the idiosyncrasies of this industry and gamblers high from selling domain names to graduate to the point of this entire industry?

Some old school domainers will blog about traffic names but its sooo short sighted and only defines why the amount of information you can actually extract from some of these people is so limited.

Domain names are sort of like your piece of real estate in this world however very few domain names will ever bring in seven figures for a sale and I can guarantee 99% of people reading this do not own one. What you do own is a pipe dream with your triple hyphen .info.

What’s the $2 million sale?

Well, it’s not a pipe dream.

Very few people know me but those that do understand I have sold more names than probably anyone reading this blog (excluding Mike Mann of course) and have had my fair share of development success and even entered this business as an end user in the mortgage origination industry generating in excess of $100 million in mortgage loans. Granted, I also have a couple failed companies so its not always rosy but I do have the qualifications to give a teaspoon of advice in this industry.

Over the last year I have noticed more and more white noise across the domaining blogs and it’s become quite comical at best. You see – for the newbies – most people who comment on blogs really only have a couple sales, no development to speak of and little real knowledge of the domain industry. These facts are obvious by the blither of commentary across many of the popular blogs. Furthermore, some of the “popular” blogs are written by people as new as you – which sort of negates the whole “professional” viewpoint you need right?

(Obviously there are some great people who comment across the blogs like the Castello Brothers but the ratio seems to be about 100 to 1 for every qualified comment)

I’m not going to criticize anyone specifically as people enjoy one blog or another for reasons which are their own so all I want to do on this USA holiday weekend is simply show you what a $2 million sale looks like.

$750 a day.

Yep – that’s it.

You get a site up and running and enough content where traffic and net income is consistent within a $750 a day range and most likely you have $2 million in your pocket.

Why?

$750 a day income is equivalent to $273,750 in ANNUAL profit.

It’s easy to find a buyer for 7-10 years x income of almost any website generating consistent and verifiable revenue.

7 years revenue at $750 a day is $1,916,250.

Does $750 a day sound like a lot … sure and it is hard work however how about $375 a day – then you got a $1 million site.

$375 is 7 good mortgage leads a day
$375 is 7 good weight loss leads a day.
$375 is 15 good car insurance clicks a day.

You see … it’s not anything that’s impossible to reach. In fact, it’s easier to do than studying for your MCAT.

My advice – and probably my only post this summer is …

If you really want to make money in this industry long term do the following things:

First and Foremost

Filter out the white noise – stop subscribing to half the junk about domain names online and learn about what makes a good one. Do not try to find reasons why ALL domains sell for as much as they do because you only need ONE and almost EVERY domainer has a different theory on every sale. Many times, no theory at all since a large portion of sales only make sense to the buyer.

Secondly

Look at the authors qualifications. Many (not all but close) domain bloggers have never developed anything more than a mini-site. Some have simply paid other people to develop a site and still don’t have a clue about development so head over to the SEO and affiliate blogs once you secure your domain name. Hell, even start in the SEO and affiliate forums to learn what makes a good domain – many of those guys know more about domains than domainers …. Why, because they use them!!!!

Thirdly

Keep your small daily goal alive. The $300 or $500 a day is all you need to bank your million in a couple years.  Sometimes thinking about a million dollars seems unimaginable and will beat you down before you ever get started.

A daily goal will make it seem easier and reachable for many of you.

And Finally…

Live life to the fullest – take calculated risks and only take advice from people you trust … not just because they have a fancy blog online. Life is too short – I have had a particular bad year with losing loved ones and having accidents or health problems happen to those very unexpectedly – do not think you will always have the time to do what you want to do so live your dream now. I know it sounds like a cliché but one day I promise you will heed the same advice to people.

Happy July 4th to the Americans but remember Europeans get a months holiday every year, paid maternity leave, free medical insurance, thinner women, better wine, stronger currency, real cappuccino (in a small cup NOT a bowl), secondary languages that are usually mandatory, cool clothes and more – so have your fireworks but when Tuesday comes you’re all back to work

©2010 Newfound Names LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I am excited to share my first interview from the Affiliate Summit West 2010! My first interview is with one of the most famous bloggers in the world and a personal favorite of mine – John Chow from JohnChow.com! John has been able to make over $40,000/month blogging and there is a lot that Domain Investors, Affiliate Marketers, and of course Bloggers can learn from his success!

I would like to give a BIG thanks to John for taking the time to be on the show! John has been a great inspiration for me and after meeting him in person I am more inspired than ever!

I don’t think a week has gone by that I haven’t received an email from one of my readers asking me how to pick which domains from their portfolio they should develop. Of course if you had infinite time the correct answer would be – all of them…but you don’t so picking the domains with the best potential to generate revenue is key.

When I first started my business in 2007 I developed the names that were the most interesting to me. I used the Warren Buffet approach of investing in what I know. It can be very easy to think that because something is of interest to you then it must be interesting to everyone else! In 2008 I developed a much more data-driven system for determining which domains I should develop. Follow the three steps below and you’ll be able to pin-point the five domains in your portfolio that have the most development potential!

1. Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find-out how many searches the keywords in your domain gets – focus on “Phrase” and “Exact” – write down the number of searches for all of your domains
2. Now find-out the CPC for the keyword or keyword phrase in your domain, i.e. if your domain is buyshoes.com look at what the CPC is for “buy shoes”
3. Take this list and pick out your top five by taking the domains with the highest volume or searches and highest CPC

This is a method I’ve used for a while now and I can tell you – it works! Yes – there are plenty of other metrics you can look at but this is what I’ve found works the best for me. So it’s 2010 – you’ve probably made a New Year’s Resolution to develop more of your domains…but you don’t know where to start – now you do!

Have your own method for picking which domains to develop? Please comment and share!

That’s how much money many of my domains have been making a day lately.  They used to return dollars.  I’ve never been one to complain about parking revenue, I’ll take what I can get.  But at a nickel a day, I think my days of making good money are officially over.  My father always says “nickels add up” and they do, they cover registration ,which is more than most domainers can say about their portfolio.  I first noticed  signs last year, a gradual monthly decline in parking revenue that seemed to lose a few 5 percent a month.  So I made a few moves, moves that seem to be the norm.

1. I didn’t renew the names that had minimal resale value and couldn’t pay for themselves parking.   I have a large five letter dot com portfolio and it’s a tough portfolio to manage because it doesn’t have much obvious value but are some great names.  Names like sello, koosy, happa, hooku, flowo all have little real value but I think they are names that are very brandable,  but then there is no more used word to label junk names than “brandable”. Anything is brandable.  I did drop a few hundred names.  Many of the names never were picked up so it shows they were junk, but others were picked up on drops and some were purchased for a few hundred dollars showing me that I am not very good at marketing.  Then again, put almost any name on a drop and it seems to go for more.

2. Put up a few minisites.  These seem better than parking but I’ve realized that I should have started learning SEO first, instead of doing this all backwards. I presently have 10 or so and it has certainly helped, but too early to see if they can climb the google ranks. I’m presently trying WhyPark but with all the customizations necessary (adding better articles and photos) and the sharing of revenue, I’m not sure I can’t set up my own wordpress site and do the same thing.  I’ve become fairly proficient at setting up a quick Wordpress site but others may not have time.  Whypark is simple and easy, but you have to pay for it.  When you’re making a nickel, cutting that in half makes it tough to buy the big box of Raisin Bran.

3. Straight up development.  As I look back, this is where I should have concentrated instead of flipping.  I HAD some high traffic sites but sold them.  I sold them and bought domain names.  In hindsight, I sold my sites at the high but also bought many domains at their highs.  I have been “doubling down” this year by picking up some high quality names at a discount, well a discount compared to last year.  My focus this year is to get the new sites up.  I’ve hired designers and coders and they’ve already started working.  Some of the sites already exist but the layout is terrible and thus the need for the new sites.  The positive is that they already rank first page of Google for 20 plus keywords and they are $1 to $10 a day sites.  A heck of a lot better than the .05 in parking

4.  Sell names:   I’ve learned that I need to sell names, names that just don’t fit into my niche but have value.  I’ve purchased some names over the years that are nice names, I’ve had for years, and I’m sure I can sell for profit and cashflow.  Two things that are important in business.

5. Get most of my names to one registrar.  It’s soooo much easier to manage that way.  I’ve lost a few domains because they were borderline names that I didn’t move and shitty registrars like melbourneit.com charge $25 a year.  It’s amazing how hard some of the registrars make it to manage your domains.  Getting them moved is like trying to keep Oprah at a consistent weight, impossible.

I’m very excited about 2010 and it should be a good money maker for me.  I’ve made as much as XXX,XXX domaining in past years.  This year it was low XX,XXX and that just isn’t enough but it’s still nice extra cash.  Now that I look at it, maybe my Dad was right,  the nickels do add up.

Related posts:

1. How I Made Over .02 Cents a Day With My Domain Name
2. Reflections on My First Rick Latona/Traffic Auction
3. Love Em or Hate Em Sedo Still Rules

Today I found a surprise when I looked at my Adsense account – a domain of mine, FitnessGames(dot)us had made $31.48 and that’s as of 1:45 PM – there is a whole second half of the day ahead! While this has been one of my consistent money-makers it isn’t making $30 a day…until now! So of course I’m suspicious at first (as you always should be) so went-over to Analytics to check-out where the traffic is coming from. Much to my relief I found the traffic is all coming from Yahoo search – specifically the term “fitness video games.” I went to Yahoo and typed in the search string and there I was – on the first page, third from the top! In fact I’m outranking Shop.com and PriceGrabber which means my site is now in a very valuable slot!

Just today I’ve received over 1,200 pageviews! So what happened here? Well, given that Christmas is getting closer by the day and Wii Fit is a hot product, people are looking for fitness games – and of course they’re searching online. I picked-up this domain around the time the Wii Fit came-out however it isn’t until now that the trend has literally exploded and my rankings along with it! A domain that was making me a reasonable income is now on-pace to make around $1,000 in the next month if this trend continues! Yes – it’s only day one but I have over 120 domains of which around sixty are on the first page of Yahoo or Google and the day they hit is always the beginning of something big.

Now am I just going to sit-back and collect the money? Not yet! When a domain gets to this point there are lots of little tweaks I apply to make sure I am maximizing the revenue the domain can provide. As I said I make thousands of dollars a month domaining, not tens of thousands, but every time a domain like this strikes gold I get one step closer to my goal of making five-figures a month with domains. Mark your calendars, December 14th is the day I got one step closer! This same experience has happened to me around sixty times…how many times has it happened to you? If not feel free to have my company design a site for you – we have great prices and put a big focus on SEO and Monetization so your sites will rank well and generate revenue!

On October 23rd I launched H1N1a.us – an information site about the H1N1a influenza. To be clear this is not a site filled with junk – it is an information site with actual useful information that is factually correct. All of the text on the page has been thoroughly fact-checked and I have received numerous emails from visitors thanking me for making a clear and useful website!

I just checked today and H1N1a.us is now the #1 result when you search on Yahoo for “h1n1a virus” and “h1n1a”. I’m fairly certain this just happened today as I do check these search terms fairly regularly.

This clearly shows how you can register a domain and in under two months have the site ranked in the top slot in Yahoo. My company has been doing this for two years now and I think we’re getting better with each domain we develop. With over 120 domains developed – many of which rank of the first page of Google or Yahoo for our targeted search strings I think we’re on a great course!

Last year we sold a .info site that we hand-registered for $0.99 for a few thousand dollars after getting the site to rank on the first page of Google. Obviously with these kind of rankings, strong traffic and revenue quickly follows. Since this looks like the first day for H1N1A.us it is too early to see the traffic rolling-in so I’ll report back after we have a few weeks behind us.

The key for us has always come down to one thing – CONTENT! They said it at the Affiliate Convention over and over – Content is King. We learned this early-on and great content coupled with some solid SEO techniques can really pay-off. The key is picking 3-5 keywords to target and doing your best to rank well for those keywords.

It feels good to build sites that help people find the information they are looking for and finding the hot trends is a lot of fun! We’ve got a few strong Christmas-trend domains running right now that I’m not ready to reveal yet – hey you have to keep some of the good stuff to yourself…right?

If you want to see another domain we’re getting strong traffic and revenue from – do a search on Yahoo for “stimulus check” – StimulusCheck.us is the third from the top only being outranked by the IRS themselves.

As I’ve mentioned I’m writing a book due to be out in June of 2010. This will be a real book (not an eBook) and will detail every single technique we use to get our domains ranked the way that they do. So for everyone out there developing domains hoping to strike Gold, just stick with it – patience and perseverance does pay-off!