My Other Blog's a Ferrari : Wordpress or Blogger ?

25 August 2007 - 21:30

My Other Blog's a Ferrari

Is Wordpress inherently better than Blogger ?

Have you ever looked at your blog and thought it looked a bit dull or amateurish ? A bit of a clapped out old push bike compared to everyone else's brand spanking new Ferrari? I have to admit I have and in fact I do all the time. I console myself with the thought that I'm not the only one with a blog put together on the kitchen table!

Some blogs I read just oooooze professionalism - see the recent makeovers of Problogger http://www.problogger.net/ and John Chow http://www.johnchow.com/ - others look like they were cobbled together on a manual typewriter and stuck together with bits of sticking plaster.

This raises the question - does style matter ? After all, if you've got nothing to say then all the professionalism in the world ain't gonna help you. Help !

Well, it all depends on the sort of image you are trying to convey. If the message which you intend your blog to send out is : "Hey I've made a load of money blogging about trivia and vacuity and you can do the same!" then a sharp professional image gives the impression that you probably have made all the money you say you have and so you probably know what you are talking about.

If, on the other hand, you are actually providing people with useful information, like how to cure their bowel cancer, then an old manual typewriter will do just as well.

This blog definitely falls into the manual typewriter category with regard to style, but is also a bit light on useful information ! (That's a slight exaggeration, but I am rather harsh on myself at times).

Well, I've decided to try and do something about it and give one of my blogs a makeover. Hooray ! Well done me.

In my virtual travels around cyberspace and my visits to the abodes of the bloggerati, I have noticed that nearly all the professional looking blogs are Wordpress blogs. There must be a reason for this I reason, so I have taken it upon myself to personally get my hands dirty and delve into the murky world that is Wordpress ! Not here on this blog, at least not yet. This blog will remain as it is, a sort of repository for odd thoughts on the myriad ways there are of making money online.

The blog that I will be re-vamping (at very little expense hopefully) is one of my other blogs - http://www.sharescity.com/ - my financial blog, which actually brings in more money than this 'money making' blog.

I have decided, as an experiment, to run a second parallel financial blog using Wordpress (the content will be slightly different of course as I do not wish to run foul of Judge Google's duplicate content laws). This shall be an experiment to see if it is easier to build up readership using Wordpress or if it makes no difference ! I have named this second improved financial blog http://www.financialmites.com/ - some of you may notice the similarity with a well-known UK financial rag.

It will not just be an exercise in style, but also a study of the various 'widgets' that people rave about that are available with Wordpress and an examination of SEO techniques to see if they are easier to implement than with Blogger. One thing I have noticed already is that there is a Wordpress forum where you can ask questions and hopefully get informative answers, unfortunately that may be because Wordpress is a lot harder to get to grips with than Blogger.

I started work on my new improved financial blog three days ago, (although you wouldn't think so to look at it), and I'm already beginning to wonder if I've done the right thing. Blogger is so easy and intuitive. If you want to change something you click on 'dashboard' and change it! Wordpress seems to be a whole new kettle of smelly fish designed to make life as complicated and frustrating as possible and my brain is hurting already.

It has taken me around 12 hours of fiddling and messing around just to set up the webhosting and download a theme (template). But now I've got the theme I don't like it, so I will probably have to start again. Plus I can't even see how to change the fonts or the title ! The problem is I've no idea what I'm doing and manuals are written by experts so are of little use to nitwits like me.

However, I shall be keeping my loyal readers informed of how I get on and the pros and cons of Wordpress vs. Blogger over the next few weeks and months, as I get to know just how Wordpress functions and I find out if I'm as slow and dull-witted as I sometimes appear.

So, if you've ever wondered whether you should be making the switch to Wordpress or if it entices in more readers than Blogger, or if it is a waste of time and effort, then stick me in your bookmarks or your RSS reader to find out the truth.

From my point of view it would be useful if I had a beautiful assistant who knows all the ins and outs of Wordpress and how to configure and use it. So if there is anyone reading this who can help in this area then please get in touch. I can't promise any money at this stage but we may be able to come to some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement. :-)

Stay tuned for further updates and please leave any comments (whether useful or useless) or suggestions in the comments box. Thank you.

wordpress blogger
blog makeover

23 August 2007 - 14:55

One Tip to Improve Page Rank

Here is my list of one easy tip to improve your pagerank. They say lists are popular and act as linkbait! So, as I'm lazy I've limited myself to a list of one. Make the most of it!

They also say that to improve your page rank you need to get backlinks. So how do you get backlinks and more importantly how do you get backlinks from blogs with a higher pagerank than yours ? You comment on their blogs of course, but you probably knew that already. So how do you know which blogs to comment on ? Read on.

This is the real tip - follow these easy-to-follow steps!

1. Go to this page rank analysis site - Smart Page Rank
2. Type in the domain name you want information on, in the 'check domain' window (you can put your own domain name in - but it will probably be more useful (after you've looked at your own wonderful stats.) to put in the domain name of a big or medium-sized guru blogger)
3. Click on 'check domain'
4. Scroll down to the bit that says 'backlinks'
5. Click on 'Try our new backlinks analyzer'
6. Have a look at the results - glorious or embarrassing ?! :-(
7. Pay particular attention to those links that have a PR higher than your own
8. Tick the box to show the 'no follow' tags (for any posts which have a 'no follow' policy the word 'yes' shows up in the column on the right)
9. Click on any high-ranking link, that does not have a 'no-follow' tag, that takes your fancy
10. You will be directed to their site where you can pick a post and make a spammy comment (only kidding - you need to make a thoughtful and insightful comment on something related to your own site/topic/interest, otherwise the spam filters will probably boot you out and you may get into trouble with goo know who)
11. Repeat until you're sick of it
12. (This is why it is better to have a look at other people's statistics) - you will find places you never knew existed - if you type in the name of your favourite big name blogger you will see what backlinks they've got ( there are no secrets on the web) and you can go pay them a visit (flowers or chocolate are always appreciated)
13. AN UPDATE : I just came across this post on the beautiful Rebblogirl's blog - Rsspieces - about the perils of excessive reciprocal linking, which I recommend as a highly illuminating read Reciprocal Linking Penalties

It is important to make interesting comments mainly on sites that are related to your own topic, as Google is everywhere watching what you do. If you suddenly start getting backlinks to a whole host of unrelated PR7 blogs they might do terrible things to your account. So use a bit of common sense !

pagerank tips
no follow

22 August 2007 - 03:00

Google to Make Money from Youtube Videos

If you are interested in making money online then today’s statement by Google should be of interest, as it will probably open up the way for people to make money from youtube video clips.

Google has come up with a format for showing ads. on Youtube. Advertisers will include Warner Music Group Corp., Twentieth Century Fox, and BMW Google said today.

Google has already got a pile of money but it looks set to get another pile (buy shares in Google ?) Visitors watched 1.8 billion clips on youtube in May alone, which represents 22%t of videos watched in the U.S..

Back in March Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that discovering how to sell ads on YouTube was this year’s ``big project''

Ads will appear in a semi-transparent strip on the bottom fifth of the video screen, but not on all the videos. They will start 15 seconds after the video has started, as people don’t like waiting for ads to finish before the video starts and often close the video if they have to wait. This way they don’t have to wait but they still see the ad. Google spent three months testing the format and found this was the least disruptive.

Users can close the ad. if they like or if they are really masochistic they can click on it to see the whole thing!. Most people just let it run. Ads will be displayed on music videos and on some user-generated content.

Google claims the new advertising model is 5 - 10 times more effective than other advertising formats on youtube.

Investors were worried that Google had thrown away $1.65 billion when it bought youtube, but it seems that maybe Google knew what they were doing after all.

“We have tried a lot of formats [and this is] the most interesting and the most respectful of the user community,” said Google’s director of media platforms, Eileen Naughton.

Initially the new format will be restricted to “partner” sections of the site, sponsored by advertisers or professional content providers.

But eventually it will be rolled out to the whole of the site.

I predict more money coming into Google’s coffers and more Internet users devising ways of making money from youtube videos!

So if making money online appeals to you then this may be the right time to start investigating youtube seriously.

Maybe bloggers will be able to get a cut by showing other people's youtube clips on their blog?

youtube ads
google money from youtube
make money online

21 August 2007 - 17:45

Malware Attacks on Parked Domain Names

Source :Parked Domain Trojan Attack

A parked domain, for those who don't know, is a domain name that is not being used by the owner, but is being parked free of charge with a parking company. Ads. are placed on the home page and the owner and the parking company receive a payment each time someone clicks on one of the ads. To see just how big this business is see my earlier post You Wanna Be a Domain Name Millionaire ?

Parked domains are apparently being targeted by malware authors intent on 'world domination' i.e. they want to create a network of compromised 'zombie machines'

The parked domain targeted was NameDrive, which is, although I didn't know it (I must admit I don't know everything), one of the top 200 websites in the world. Around 100 domains were pointed to an "ad server" containing Trojan downloader malware.

Due to the fact that this malware ad server was one step removed from the common pattern, the attacks, which started in June have only recently been detected, the majority of the domains are .de or .nl domains.

NameDrive is working with ScanSafe to discover the exact mechanism of the attack, which is still being investigated.

Delivering malware via infected ads is not new but using parked domains appears to be a new development.

This a bit disturbing and you have to wonder how it is done. It also needs to be sorted out, as the implications for the advertising industry are quite enormous. If you can pick up a trojan by clicking on an innocuous ad.for life insurance or whatever, then advertising is in big trouble.

malware
parked domains hacked
namedrive hacked
trojans on parked domains

21 August 2007 - 17:17

Build Your Blog Readership with Zookoda

Need to build your blog readership ? Then Zookoda could be just the service you are looking for.
For bloggers, regular posts are essential to attract new readers and encourage people to return. I have noticed that every time I take a couple of days off posting, my regular reader seems to stop visiting me for a while.

With Zookoda email marketing once you post a new article, an e-mail is sent automatically to inform your readers of your new post. Creating professional, graphical emails is easy, all you need to do is enter your feed (RSS/Atom) address, choose the e-mail template you want (or create your own if you prefer). You can also include images should you so wish.

If you're happy with the design, you just pick a time for the broadcast to be sent, either by entering a specific time and day or alternatively entering a recurring time and day so that your broadcast can be sent out each day, week or month.

Zookoda also offers real-time reports to kepp you up-to-date about your email success and your visitor habits. Their reading habits, not their personal habits!

Zookoda does not replace blog feeds, but it provides an alternative. It gives you more control, allowing you to proactively update your readers about your new posts without waiting for them to check out the feed.

The Zookoda servers are described as being "as secure as can reasonably be provided, and are housed in a state-of-the-art secure facility." Your account is password protected and Zookoda does not sell or share your information or any data you enter.

So if you are looking for a way to increase your readership and create loyalty check out Zookoda, it also has the advantage of being totally free!

18 August 2007 - 20:00

China Bans Unauthorized Reincarnation

Source : MSNBC

Nothing to do with monetization or making money online I'm afraid, but too crazy to let pass without a comment, particularly as I am a closet Buddhist. If you made this stuff up and put it in a film people would say you were nuts.

China, a totalitarian and so-called atheistic state, much given to censorship, human rights abuse, putting anti-freeze in toothpaste, and lead in the paint in kids' toys now, no longer content with persecuting Tibetans, has decided to ban Buddhist monks from reincarnating without government permission.

The new law, which comes into effect next month is described as "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation" as it lays down the procedures governing reincarnation. It sounds like something from a Kafka novel but the Chinese are apparently deadly serious.

As ever with the Chinese there appears to be a political, if not totally logical, motive behind their decision. They are trying to diminish the influence of that well-known international troublemaker the Dalai Lama and to further attack the Buddhist religious establishment in Tibet, over 50 years after China invaded and murdered thousands of Tibetans.

The 'logic' behind the decision, such as it is, appears to be that by prohibiting any Buddhist monk not resident in China from seeking reincarnation, the law is de facto handing over to the Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama. This strikes me, however, as being not rational (no kidding), as, if he is not allowed to be re-born in China, he will merely be reborn elsewhere. The Dalai Lama is said to reincarnate after his death as a new human, but the decision as to which human is the new Dalai Lama is traditionally taken by the other lamas. The Chinese should in fact be making it a legal requirement for Buddhist monks to be re-born in China, that way they could control them all from birth!

The Dalai Lama, who is 72, has said that he will not be reborn in Tibet as long as it is still occupied by the Chinese invasion force. The probable outcome is that there will be two Dalai Lamas next time round. One chosen by the Chinese government, the other chosen by Buddhist lamas.

There are appoximately 130,000 Tibetan exiles around the world, so the Dalai Lama will no doubt be born into one of these families.

He might be pleased to know that according to a Gallup poll carried out in 2005, 20% of U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. According to a recent Christian survey 25% of U.S. Christians, including 10% of born-again Christians, say it is their preferred 'end-of-life view'. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.

china bans reincarnation
dalai lama

17 August 2007

102 Ways to Make Money Online

Over the last few months I've read more articles on how to make money online than I care to remember, most of which had some sort of sales pitch attached to get you to 'buy' their secret method. I've just read one such article however that is just what it says it is - a list of 101 Ways to Make Money Online Money Online 101, all for free and in places actually quite amusing. I can't reproduce it here 'cause it's waaaay too long and 'cause he asks people not to copy it, so you are going to have go and have a look for yourself.

It's a long list and all the ideas involve some sort of work, except number 102 which he didn't mention - buy a lottery ticket online ! But they are genuine ideas with plenty of links which provide more detailed information on what is actually involved.

make money online

17 August 2007

Looking for a Job? Check out JumpToJobs

If you are looking for a job in the UK then check out JumptoJobs.co.uk the search engine for jobs . It isn’t a job board in the traditional sense of the term, but a search engine for jobs. It's an innovative new concept that gives you total control over how much you spend to generate traffic directly to your website and jobs through pay per click.

In addition, its advanced technology copies the jobs directly from your site to jumptojobs.co.uk without you having to lift a finger.

You have no administraion work to carry out, you decide how much you spend and you only pay for traffic you receive.

Press Release

JumptoJobs.co.uk

JumptoJobs.co.uk today announced the launch of their innovative search engine for jobs. Their system allows job-boards, recruitment agencies and corporate HR departments to easily deliver very targeted jobseeker traffic to their websites.

The system requires no administration from the recruiter’s because the jobs are indexed from their current location on the internet, JumptoJobs.co.uk simply makes it possible for jobseekers to find the jobs more quickly and easily.

Recruiters have the option to pay per click or pay per application. In each case they can guarantee that they are only paying for results delivered. This removes the risk element usually associated with recruitment advertising where recruiters have to pay for the advertising whether applications are delivered or not.

Pay per click and pay per application are revolutionising recruitment advertising in the same way that they have revolutionised many other types of online advertising through Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other major online advertising media.

JumpToJobs.co.uk’s fanatical account management team will do all of the technical work for the recruiter and absolutely no technical expertise are required to use the system. Comprehensive statistical reports are frequently emailed to the recruiter so that they can easily monitor the success of their campaigns.

Emailed Job alerts and RSS feeds allow Jobseekers to monitor a large number of recruitment websites for all new jobs that match their criteria. This system also offers recruiters an additional advertising opportunity.

www.jumptojobs.co.uk

JumptoJobs.co.uk is a new product by saongroup.com. saongroup.com have more than 10 years experience in online recruitment. The group has job boards in UK, Ireland, China, The Middle East, The Caribbean and India.

www.saongroup.com

16 August 2007 - 18:15

Make Money Online from First Edition Books

When looking for ways to make money online there is no need to neglect some of the more traditional avenues. Not all you rmoney needs to come from Adsense or affiliate programs. In fact it makes sense to diversify and it also makes sense to invest some of your money in areas that will rise slowly over time without you having to do anything about them. For example the art market is booming at the moment.


Unfortunately we can't all afford to buy works of art but there are other areas worthy of attention. My own particular interest lies in Signed First Edition books. Why do I buy first editions ? Well, as one collector put it : "I buy first editions, because I can't afford the second editions!" His point being that a second edition book loses its value and can only be sold on as a second-hand book, i.e. for a few cents or pennies. A first edition book on the other hand will rise in value (particularly if it is signed), so your purchase is actually an investment and you will often get your money back several times or hundreds of times over.

Everyone has heard of J K Rowling, Stephen King etc... and their first editions are highly sought after and therefore very expensive. But there are new kids arriving on the block all the time, at the moment two such are Angie Sage (Septimus Heap : Magyk) and Roderick Gordon (The Highfield Mole or Tunnels as it is now called) - for information about these two rising stars both of whom have just signed lucrative film deals see Invest in the Next Harry Potter and Septimus Heap

A recent survey by Zurich (an insurance company) showed that people under 40 are investing in collectibles - paintings, comics and books, cigarette cards, medals, pre-1950 football programmes and glassware.

Men are more likely than women to invest in collectibles, often finding them in antiques markets. Martin Hall of Zurich said: "It seems that old valuables are the new investments for modern professionals. Our research shows they're more interested in ... antiques and collectables, than any other generation before them."

Some modern First Edition books can fetch thousand of pounds/dollars/euros. Signed first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling being the holy grail of modern first editions at the moment. Even signed copies of her new book 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' the final Harry Potter have been selling for around $4,000 on eBay (provided you got the right limited edition and it was signed by J K Rowling herself at midnight!).

The modern books that make the most money are those that gain a 'cult following' by authors such as J K Rowling, Christopher Paolini, Tolkien, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett. The trick when it comes to buying modern first editions is either to buy one, preferably signed, from somebody who doesn't know how much it is worth, but that doesn't happen too often, or to buy something that is already very sought after and wait a few years for the prices to rise.

A third strategy is to identify the stars of the future who are currently unknown. A signed Harry Potter bought in 1997 for a few pounds is now worth several thousand (providing it is still in good condition). Similarly a signed copy of the true first edition of Eragon is now worth around $1,000 or more.

Tips for identifying future stars

• Look for new authors publishing their first novels


• It is better if the book had very few copies printed in the first edition i.e. a couple of thousand or even better a couple of hundred, this makes them scarce.


• The book needs to be able to generate a 'cult following' and/or become a Hollywood film (e.g. Eragon - look for the edition printed by Paolini himself - at the moment they are already worth between 1 and 2,000 USD)


• A self-published book that is subsequently published by one of the major publishing houses e.g. Shadowmancer, or Eragon again


• Books that develop into 'series' e.g. Lemony Snickett or Cornelia Funke or now Angie Sage


• Modern books are worth a lot more if they are signed by the author (unfortunately there are lots of fake signatures around)


• At the moment it is the kids/teenager fantasy, magic, mystery, adventure dragon genres that are the most popular (far more collectable than books by 'proper' literary authors )


• An author's first novel will usually be worth more than his/her second, third, fourth, fifth etc...


• The novel must be the First Print (sometimes called the First Impression) of the First Edition - beware : people advertise all sorts of rubbish as first editions, you must make sure it is the first PRINT which usually (99 times out of a 100) means it must have the number 1 in the print line on the copyright page

There is a wealth of information on the Internet about first editions. A good place to start buying them is Ebay, just make sure the seller has good feedback, read the description very carefully and check it is a First PRINT of the First Edition. Also make sure the book is in excellent condition, i.e. no marks, scratches, bumps, stains etc...

Comments and suggestions very welcome. Have a nice day !

first editions,make money investing in books,angie sage,septimus heap,magyk,roderick gordon,brian williams,tunnels,highfield mole,harry potter,jk rowling,deathly hallows

16 August 2007 - 03:35

Which are the Most Popular Blogs ?

Have you ever wondered which out of all the blogs in the blogosphere is the fairest blog of all? Well I have, and so I asked my magic mirror. Well my mirror didn't tell me anything I don't already know, i.e. I'm way too old, but fortunately somebody must have heard my request because eBizMBA has just very kindly caclulated which are the 30 most popular blogs around.

According to eBizMBA the existing blog popularity-ranking services rely on just one piece of data to calculate their rankings. This can be based on either RSS feeds or a traffic-ranking service. eBizMBA decided therefore that to obtain a more accurate picture they would need to combine data from several sources.

So they used a combination of Inbound Links from Yahoo Site Explore, Alexa Rank, and Compete and Quantcast U.S. Unique Monthly visitor data. They also decided to exclude blogs that form part of a larger non-Blog site, such as Google Blogs (that may explain why your blog is not in the list - or mine :-) ).

I am surprised, however, not to see big names such as Problogger or John Chow on the list. The blog ranked number 30 is www.dumblittleman.com, which I'd never heard of before and which has an Alexa ranking of 24,227 (which is not a high as either Problogger or John Chow) and has 31,846 inbound links, although according to Blogjuice calculator - Blog Juice Calculator - both Problogger and John Chow have more links than DLM. So eBizMBA's top 30 still seems a bit arbitrary.

An interesting list nevertheless and if you want to have a top-ranking blog all you've got to do is have a good look at the thirty blogs, pick one you like and do likewise !

The 30, with all the details are -Popular Blogs :-

and without all the details they are :-

1. Gizmodo.com
2. TMZ.com
3. engadget.com
4. LifeHacker.com
5. HuffingtonPost.com
6. PerezHilton.com
7. Gawker.com
8. Kotaku.com
9. treehugger.com
10. arstechnica.com
11. boingboing.net
12. TechCrunch.com
13. AlterNet.org
14. AutoBlog.com
15. DailyKos.com
16. Defamer.com
17. Wonkette.com
18. Mashable.com
19. joystiq.com
20. searchengineland.com
21. icanhascheezburger.com
22. downloadsquad.com
23. CrooksandLiars.com
24. GigaOM.com
25. SmashingMagazine.com
26. postsecret.blogspot.com
27. AListapart.com
28. littlegreenfootballs.com
29. ReadWriteWeb.com
30. dumblittleman.com

I will certainly be taking a closer look at the blogs in the list, as I have never heard of most of them.

Any comments or suggestions are very welcome.

thirty most popular blogs
ebizmba
alexa rank

11 August 2007 - 18:25

How to Block-Preview Adsense Ads. on Your Blog or Website

If you have Adsense ads. installed on your website or your blog, it goes without saying that you are not allowed to click on them yourself. You may, however, be itching with curiosity to see just what it is you are advertising, or on the other hand you may wish to block certain ads. if you don’t like them or if you think the amount paid per click is a bit on the low side.

Fortunately, Google have thought of all this and they provide an AdSense Preview tool to let you see what ads are, or may be, displayed on your website or blog.

This Preview tool displays the ads. in a preview box and lets you click on the previews to see where they go.

There are also options to allow you to view previews of formats and colour combinations or choose between 2 different preview formats, or a box with 12 ads. at once.

The Colour 'Preview' feature lets you see what new colour combinations would look like on your page. You can select a new border, background, or text colours and these will be temporarily applied to your page, so you can see what the ads. would look like

You can also select ‘geo-targeted location’ to let you see which ads. people in other countries see on your site.

If you see some ads. you don’t like, the Adsense preview tool also lets you display their destination URL of the ads. so that you can block them if you so choose. You may think, for example, that they are advertising something you object to, or you may have discovered that the amount paid per click for a particular ad. is not very gratifying.

Installing the Preview Tool is very easy. To install it you need to go here Adsense Preview Tool read the information and follow the instructions.

Competitive Ad Filter

As mentioned above, Google AdSense also lets you block specific ads.

If you want to block a specific ad. you first need to find its destination URL. To do this you must download the Adsense Preview tool from Google (see above).

Once you have downloaded this tool, go to the blog page or website page which contains the ads. you want to filter.

When you are on the page in question just right-click anywhere on a blank part of the page. A pop-up menu will appear and if you have downloaded the Adsense Preview tool correctly you will see Adsense Preview in the list.

Click on Adsense Preview.

A list of ads. will be displayed. Check the box next to the ad. you want to block and click ‘Show Selected URLs’. The URL will be displayed.

Copy the URL and paste it into the ‘competitive ad filter box’ in your Adsense publisher account and click on Save Changes. (To find the Competitive Ad Filter box, go to your Adsense account, click on 'Adsense setup' then on 'Competitive ad filter').

Allow up to 4 hours for the ads you have chosen to be filtered.

Generally, when filtering URLs it is better to leave the 'www' off in your filter list, as this ensures broader filtering, by which I presume Google means it will filter a site with or without the www.

You can now filter ads. as and when you see fit !

If you found this post useful please consider sharing it with your friends and acquaintances.

adsense preview tool
competitive ad filter
how to block ads
how to preview ads

Sell Your Domain Names For Big Bucks

The domain name cardiology.com just sold for $550,000 - was that bargain or a waste of money ? Well probably a bargain given that in a few years time it might be worth 10 times that and in the meantime it is a very good name for monetization and bringing in mega advertising bucks.

This post is an update re. sales of domain names. I have decided to spend more time working on this aspect of making money online as I feel there is more money to be made in it than in 'pure blogging' , especially for someone who is just starting out.

Domain names are very easy to buy (not so easy to sell but I'm sure that will come) and if you find the right names the potential is far greater than from blogging. Blogging I see as a way to make a steady amount of money, providing you can get the traffic, and a lot of money if you can get a lot of traffic, but this might take time.

Domain names on the other hand are far more democratic. You don't need a reputation or an adoring public, in fact anonymity seems to be all the rage in domain name sales, - all you need is a bit of ingenuity and the willingness to look for good names.

What makes a good name ? See 8 Top Tips for Choosing the Perfect Domain Name - and answer this question, is pcvirus.mobi a good name ?

I came up with this name, which nobody had registered, but wasn't sure, so I asked those knowledgeable fellows over at namepros. I received two answers - one said it was rubbish and a waste of time, the other said it was an excellent name and that I should ignore expert no. 1. !

I personally thought it was a reasonable name but didn't register it as I'd already registered quite a few and thought a .mobi would be a long-term investment too far. The second guy said I should register it and that if I didn't want to then he would register it instead, which he duly did. So, really, opinions are like a-holes, everyone's got one. Now I agree with the guy who registered it, I think it's a good name for the future.

When looking for domain names what I would say, is that you need to go for generic type names e.g. 'insurancequotes .com' rather than the more wacky 'itgrowsontrees .com' - a money site I registered ! The interesting thing about money is that it DOES in fact grow on trees. (It's made of paper). So I still think the name is a good name, just that it doesn't have immediate 'kerb appeal'.

One last point, if you think all the good .coms have gone then have a look at .in or .cn or .tv or .mobi these are names for the future and there are plenty still available. Happy hunting.

And what about cardiology.com ? Well here is

A Selection of Names Sold for the Week July 30 – August 5 as shown at DNJournal

Top of the bunch – cardiology.com which went for $550,000 and the site isn’t even developed, just a parked page. I guess it's got a lot of potential (now where's my medical dictionary ?).

Bald.com went for $400,000

Supplies.com went for $323,530

Chinese.net went for $180,000 – this after chinese.com went for $1.1 million a couple of weeks ago. So does that mean a .com is worth 6 times a .net ? Although chinese.net is a developed site (in Chinese) and chinese.com is just a parked page at the moment.

Ringtones.net went for $175,000 in a non-auction transaction.

Sedo apparently sold Chinese.net at their first live auction on their newly acquired GreatDomains.com site, which I shall be investigating further.

.Info and .org have had two notable successes each with Chinese.info ($37,111) and Mexico.org ($21,000) Of course, .com, as always, dominated with 27 of the 40 chart entries.

Some strange names went for reasonable amounts – which just proves that anything is possible :-

QIK.com - $7,975. SilverWing.com - $5,000 and EnglishIsFun.com - $5,000

YorkiePuppy.com - $3,425 (why ? one wonders)

NewYorkCityShoppingGuide.com and 34DD.com - $2,450 each (so how much for 44DD ?)

An interesting point of note Chinese.info was sold for $5,500 in November 2005 this time it went for $37,111 and Houston.info went for $17,000 compared to $4,000 in April 2004. So 7 times and 4 times respectively, plus they were probably bringing in a fair amount in advertising revenue in the meantime.

So have a good look at the articles in the left-hand column on domain names and see if you can't find some undiscovered gems. It doesn't cost much and it's legal ! Please feel free to leave any comments and/or suggestions. This domain is up for sale too in case you are interested!

selling domain names,monetization,cardiology,domain name auctions,sedo greatdomains

Big Money Domain Name Sales

For reasons known only to the Gods of Software and Cyberspace this post has been moved - we apologize for any inconvenience caused - please click here http://www.netmonetization.com/2007/08/sell-your-domain-names-for-big-bucks.html - thank you.

6 August 207 - 01:30

It’s So Hard Being a Multi-Millionaire

Source : Denver Post

Hal Steger, 51, has more than $2 million in the bank. He has a $1.3 million house that is paid for on the Pacific coast and he and his wife have a net worth of roughly $3.5 million, which, by the way, puts them in the top 2 percent of families in America.

Yet he is still working 12 hours a day and 10 hours over the weekend for 'the company'looking for the big strike ! How detached from reality are these people ?

With $2 million in the bank I would estimate they are getting around 5% interest p.a., which equates to $100,000 a year for doing sweet F.A. as we say over here ! Yet the poor guy feels he isn’t rich enough because the other guys standing next to him in the urinals can swing $10 million in his face ! That must be really devastating for him. I suggest he give his money away and try living on $200 a week.

What’s the point of making money if all you’re going to do is fret and give yourself ulcers because you’re only getting $100,000 a year from the bank for doing nothing.

"A few million doesn't go as far as it used to." Mr. Stegel says. Oh dear how dreadful. Hey Hal give it to me I’ll show you how far I can go with a few million !

Apparently he is not the only multi-millionaire to have such feelings of inadequacy. No wonder shrinks make such good money !

Silicon Valley is full of people just like him. Here’s an idea – move out of Silicon Valley ! Retire ! Get a life !

The reason is that CEOs make tens of millions of dollars a year, a hedge-fund manager gets $1 billion, so a few million dollars is just plain embarrassing !

Gary Kremen has an estimated net worth of $10 million, which puts him in the top 0.5% of Americans, but he works 60- to 80-hours a week because he thinks he doesn’t have enough money. Message to Gary, you’ve got enough ! Put it in the bank and live off the interest ! How do these people get to make so much money in the first place, you’d think a certain amount of intelligence would be required, but apparently not. No doubt it’s all about ‘networking’, smiling at the right people and generally sticking your nose where it's most wanted.

"You're nobody here at $10 million," Kremen says. Dear oh dear is that what it’s all about ? Being somebody ? And I thought it was all about being able to pay the rent and having enough to eat Shows how much I know !

But it doesn't stop with multi-millionaires. Billionaires too have the same feelings. They all feel that what they really need is double what they have got now, no matter how much that is - see my other incisive post about the super-rich and their super-money How Much Is a Ticket to Richistan ?

Perhaps they should start up a multi-millionaires' hardship fund. I'm sure if we all sent them just a few dollars each, and tell them how much we love them and how we'll never let them starve, we might inflate their bank balances and their egos enough to make them feel just a little bit more secure. Now how good would that feel ?

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

hard being a multi-millionaire
silicon valley
steger
kremen

denver post

Savvy Investors are Snapping Up Domain Names

Savvy Investors are Snapping Up Domain Names - Buying Domain Names is Like Buying Madison Avenue 110 Years Ago

Domain names are in the news again. This may not be new, but in my opinion the number of stories around investing in domain names or making money from domain names is increasing.

Almost every week a story appears in a mainstream newspaper or magazine about how much money some people are making from domain names. It is interesting to note that in Paula Mooney’s list of people making money on the Internet - Paula Mooney, the top two - Kevin Ham and Frank Schilling - made their money (and a lot of it - $300 million for Mr Ham)) from domain names. The latest article is by Carolyn Johnson in the Sydney Morning Herald - Domain Name Gold Rush in Cyberland.

According Peter Lanson senior vice-president of NameMedia Inc's domain marketplace in Boston domain names are "a global, multibillion-dollar industry…. Customers need to find your doorstep. A brick-and-mortar business needs an attractive address, and it's no different online."
Money has started flooding back into web businesses. Online advertising has grown dramatically by nearly a third every year for the past three years. Domain names are hot.

NameMedia for example has raised $US100 million and now owns 750,000 domain names plus marketplaces where people can buy or sell names. Domain name trading is a whole industry on its own and imho is set to become even bigger as countries such as China and India get online and start trading in their own names. There are still plenty of good .in names to be bought now but soon a good .in or.cn name will be as difficult to get as a good .com name.

Internet Real Estate Group has a different approach it transforms premium domains – i.e. generic names such as jeans.com, chocolate.com, or software.com - into true internet businesses with content, ads and products for sale.

Sedo.com on the other hand handles over $US3 million worth of transactions every month, seling them in auctions, although in my experience you can wait a long time for any action on Sedo, you are just one tiny speck in a universe of domain names.

DN Journal, has recorded five sales this year that topped $US1 million each - including porn.com, seniors.com and chinese.com.

As Mike Zapolin, a founder of the internet real estate group Zapolin puts it "In real estate, if you built a building and were offered three times what you paid for it in a week, you'd be thrilled. A piece of virtual real estate, on the other hand, may cost a thousand or a million, but bring in 50 times greater return. It's like buying Madison Avenue 110 years ago."

You can look for domain names for yourself at places like domainesite.com and if you find a good one buy it for around $10 see What Makes a Good Domain Name. Then if it really is good you park it and wait (it may be a long wait but it may also prove to be a profitable wait in the long run). For more info. on domain names check out the links in the left-hand column.

domain names
mike zapolin
sedo
namemedia lanson

3 August 22:20

Man Killed by Fila Brasiliero Mastiffs at Ving Rhames Home

Two Fila Brasileiro mastiff dogs belonging to Ving Rhames apparently mauled a 40-year-old man to death Friday.

Sandra Gonzalez from the Los Angeles police department said that the victim had worked at the actor's home for about 2 years and was responsible for caring for the dogs.

Animal services seized 4 mastiffs.

"Two of those dogs appeared to be responsible for the tragic death," Officer Jason Lee said.

Someone called the police at 7:15 a.m. to report a dead body at the actor's home. Gonzalez didn't know who made the call.

The victim was apparently found on the front lawn, and according to Lt. Ray Lombardo the man had bites and scratches "which appear to be dog bites."

Rhames, 46, was not at home when the attack happened, she said. The actor bragged to Time magazine in 2001 that he had "eight Fila Brasileiro mastiffs _ the national dog of Brazil, also used by U.S. Marines in jungle warfare."



The Fila Brasileiro has large bones and loose skin. Males are generally between 65 and 75 cm (27 - 29.5 in) high at the shoulder and weigh at least 50 kg (100 lb). Females are slightly smaller and generally 60 to 70 cm (24 - 27.5 in) tall, and at least 40 kg (90 lb).



The Fila Brasileiro is an excellent estate guardian. It does not conceal its aversion to strangers, and are not disqualified from the shows for showing aggression to the judge Their faithfulness to family and friends is legendary.



The Fila needs a confident owner to curb the breed's natural aggression towards strangers. It is not well suited to busy households which have many guests. Such aggression is instinctive in Filas, so much so that the Brazilian breed standard advises show judges not to touch the dog.


Filas generally do not attack for no reason, but they are not friendly with strangers.

Filas love and bond strongly with their immediate families. They live to protect their loved ones, including children and other pets. They do not readily accept strangers and need an extended introduction period to warm up to others they do not know. Some will never warm up to any stranger.




ving rhames
fila Brasileiro mastiff
fila Brasilero mastiff
dogs attacked

4 August 2007 - 01:55

How Much is Your Domain Name Worth?

Have you ever wondered how people arrive at a valuation for a domain name ? Chinese.com has just recently sold for $1.1 million. So how did they arrive at that valuation? Usually it is a multiple of the earnings the domain brings in each month, ranging from 5 months earnings to 5 years earnings ! There is an excellent little game that tests your skill at valuing a domain name compared to the price it actually sold for :-

http://game.namebio.com/

There is also an excellent article by Dan Warner, COO of Fabulous.com - in which he says

"Domains that use common generic language to communicate clear descriptive ideas are very effective. These domains have higher click-through rates in search engines when users are looking for related phrases, and the language used to construct the domains clearly identifies the type of website represented."
You can see the whole article here :-

http://dnjournal.com/articles/aftermarket/warner-valuation-factors.htm

domain name valuation
fabulous
deleted domains
namebio

4 August 2007 - 01:50

Where to Find Deleted Domain Names

It can be a good idea to buy domain names that previously existed but that may have not been renewed for one reason or another. These domains may already have a number of regular visitors or a page rank, so if you are looking to make money from them you already have a headstart.

Domains that used to exist but have been deleted can be found here http://whois.net/ just type a word in the 'deleted domains' window and it will show a list of all deleted domains containing that word .

deleted domains
whois
pagerank

2 August 2007 - 22:50

Domain Name Sex.info up for Auction

Sex.info is up for auction at Sedo - it's up to $155,000 at the moment but the reserve hasn't been met yet. There are 10 more days to go. You can follow it here - Sedo

By way of comparison, in 2006 Sex.com sold for $12 Million and sex.net sold for $450,000
So my guesstimate, given that .info is less valuable than .net but that prices have gone up since 2006, is somewhere around $300,000.

Could be an interesting auction to follow, but I won't be bidding on it. :-)

Updates :

Aug. 2 - 10 a.m. NY Time - up to $185,000 - reserve not met
Aug. 11 - 5:43 a.m. NY Time - up to $202,000 - reserve met !

2 August 2007 - 22:00

More Big Money Domain Name Sales

There have been some more impressive domain name sales reported at DNJournal this week - Domain Sales.

From 23 - 29 July 2007 the following domain names were sold.

lips.com ................................... $135,000
note.com .................................. $115,000
forest.com ................................ $110,721
coed.com ................................... $ 88,240
laptop.net .................................. $ 40,000
wick.com ................................... $ 33,000
securityequipment.com .......... $ 29,420
heirlooms.com .......................... $ 29,420
mortgages.mobi ....................... $ 25,000
webalerts.com .......................... $ 22,224

These are just the top ten, there are dozens more, for the full list you need to check out the DNJournal site above.

The sites above are not even developed websites, just domain names which are parked with a parking company and which bring in revenue via adsense ads.

At the moment I still haven't managed to crack the 'secret' of selling domain names. It feels a bit like some sort of secret society where people in the inner circle exchange names for large amounts of money (millions in some cases). You feel like shouting out "hey I've got some cool names too!" Maybe you have to pay some sort of entrance fee to get invited in ?

The one thing about domain names though is that there is an infinite number, so you can have a lot of fun playing with words to see what you can come up with. Recently I've been registering .in names (.in is the country code for India - India is a big place! Population over 1 billion, the middle classes all speak English, and they are rapidly developing a high tech industry so I do believe this is a very good time to get in on the ground floor, there are still plenty of names to be bought - I do my buying through answerable.com who so far have been OK without being great, but they have the advantage of being cheaper than other places)

There is an excellent 5 part article about domain names and domain name parking on Erik Vossman's blog, which gives the lowdown on how you go about it Making Money Buying and Selling Domain Names

There is big money to be made in domain names, as I described in a previous post about Kevin Ham - You Wanna Be a Domain Name Millionaire - and one day I hope to make it ! :-)

Please feel free to leave any comments tips or suggestions.

money from domain names
kevin ham
sell domain names
dnjournal

2 August 2007 - 20:21

Beware Infected PDF Files in E-mail Spam

For the full article see here : ZDNet

Be extra vigilant about e-mails you receive which contain PDF attachments.

Messagelabs reported on Tuesday that PDFs made up 20% of image-based spam in July, up 10 % from June and it believes spammers are using the PDF format because it more easily bypasses antivirus and anti-spam filters, and that users tend to trust the authenticity of a PDF.

The malware is not actually in the PDF but in the web links within the document. A victim would have to click on a link within the PDF to become infected.

You have been warned ! Take care and have a nice day.

nominet
pdf files spam
malware infection
messagelabs
attachments

State of the Domain Industry According to Nominet CEO

2 August 2007 - 19:45

Nominet CEO Interviewed about the State of the Domain Name Industry

The future of the domain name industry in the UK and throughout the world is healthy according to "The First Woman of Technology" Lesley Cowley the CEO of Nominet the UK domain name registration organization, in a video interview with ZDNet. But .mobi has more genuine potential than .eu at the moment.

To see the video you need to go here : - ZDNet

The Main Points she makes are :-

• there are 6 million users of .co.uk
• these are increasing at the rate of 140,000 each month
• the rate shows no sign of slowing and has increased from 5 million to 6 million in one year
• more smaller businesses and individuals are getting online with their own domain names
• own domain names are portable
• businesses are registering .eu for brand and trademark protection not for genuine business reasons
• there are not many .eus in real use
• that may change over time but not at the moment
• the same is not the case for .mobi which is quite different to .eu - people are bidding for .mobi names not just protecting their brands
• about various scams that exist she said legal action has been taken, but mainly it is up to people to apply a bit of common sense and not pay out money willy nilly to people asking for 'fees' etc...

nominet
domain names
lesley cowley
scams
zdnet
mobile domains

1 August 2007 - 16:20

Make Money Online by Giving People What they Want

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what people want online and to be able to offer it to them for a fee (or free of charge if you don't need the money) ? People get what they want, you make money, life is perfect !

Well, it seems we do know what people want online. I did a search on Google for "What do people want online ?" and it came back with 1,440 pages. Not an enormous number but still more than enough. The problem is, however, they all seem to be repeats of the same page !

The highly popular page in question is an article written by Jay Conrad Levinson "probably the most respected marketer in the world" as the hype would have it.

So just what is it that, according to the article, people want online ?

JCL based his article on two studies, one by Zatso, the other by the Pew Research Center.

The answer he came up with is that, contrary to expectations, we don’t just wander about the Internet in some sort of befuddled cyber-daze hoping to find something useful, we are actually much more organized and goal-oriented. Well done us !

It turns out that we want two things : - information and contact with other people.

The Zatso study shows that, after e-mail, reading and getting news (I would include information in this) is the most popular online activity. This came as a surprise to me, as I would have thought that ‘entertainment’ preferably with videos and pictures was top of the list. However, this is what we do :-

• 33% of survey respondents said they read news online every day
• local news is of most interest
• 75% said they wanted news on demand
• nearly 66% wanted personalized news.
• they also wanted to be able to control the news they saw, not have it foisted upon them by a TV channel or newspaper. Control seems to be important. So put your ‘target audience’ in control.

The Pew Research Center study showed that when we aren’t doing our e-mail :-

• 50% of us are buying stuff and services,
• nearly 75% are searching for information about hobbies or future purchases
• 64% visit travel sites,
• 62% visit weather-related sites (my other half is constantly checking the weather!)
• over 50% do educational research,
• 54% are hunting for data about health and medicine.
• 47% regularly visit government web sites
• 38% research job opportunities
• 33% play games online,
• but, despite the stockmarket being ever more open and transparent only 12% said they traded stocks online.

So what can we do armed with these statistics ? If you are reading this post it is presumably because you are looking for ways to make money online. So, as your readers will be goal-oriented consumers, you need to make sure you make their seeking easier. Give them the information they want, or need, in as clear and concise a manner as possible.

At the same time avoid useless flashy add-ons, people (i.e. us) want straightforward information and straight talk, that allow comparisons to be made .

People are on the Internet to fulfil a need. That need is either for information or for friendship/companionship. This is demonstrated by sites such as Techcrunch or Plenty of Fish a totally free dating site financed by advertising, which apparently brings in between $5 and $10 million a year, or Dog Breed Info a site with info. about dogs (how predictable), which earns around $238,000 a year. For an up-to-date list on how much people make online and how they make it (which may give you some ideas on a possible niche you could exploit) check out Paula Mooney's List of Blogger Salaries

Personally I have a stockmarket information blog - Shares City (although given the low number of people trading online I may need to re-think that strategy) and, due to my recent experience with the weather and the floods in my street (see pics here - Floods in Britain 2007 ) I am considering starting a weather blog.

So choose an area where you think you can provide information (possibly from the list above and it would seem sensible to find one where the market is not already saturated), check out the competition and go for it !

How difficult can it be ? Good luck. Any comments and/or suggestions are most welcome!

make money online
zatso
shares city
squidoo

1 August 2007 - 03:00

Chinese.com sells for $1.1 Million Dollars

If you have any domain names you are considering selling then you will be interested to learn that the domain name Chinese.com, which at the moment is just a parked page with godaddy.com, has just been sold for 810,001 euros – i.e. $1,120,008 at today’s exchange rate.

That makes it the 5th highest sale reported so far in 2007 and the 6th one above 1 million dollars. Four six-figure sales were also completed, including the highest .info sale ever reported - Travel.info at $116,000.

NewYork.info was purchased by Jian Wang for $70,000 in a private sale. This is the third time NewYork.info has changed hands since January 2004 when it was sold for $28,086. In September 2006 it was re-sold, for $46,392. Now, it has risen to $70,000. Wang also bought Science.info in another private transaction, paying $30,000 for that name. Just over two years ago, Science.info was purchased on Ebay for just $3,272! So somebody got a good return on his/her investment !

Resume.com just sold for $300,000. Spices.com sold for $220,000 and Psychologists.com for $160,000.

So if you’ve registered any good domain names lately you might want to consider turning them into cash. For the full list of recent sales from $1,000,000 down to $1,000 have a look here : DNJournal

domain names
chinese
sales