Bloggings of a Domain Flipper

3 Days of Domain Flipping - Day 3

Okay, it is time for the final installment in my three days of domain flipping. The last site to end April is...

NYCGyms.info

I hope these three days of flipping have helped to inspire others to jump on the domain flipping bandwagon. If not then maybe you can at least find a good gym or club in New York City, or become an expert in genetic testing online!

This entire week I have been on the beach or sitting by the pool down in beautiful Miami Florida. Remember...passive income isn't passive if you're doing work!

Happy flipping - more to come in May!

OnlineTravelTips.info - One Day Left To Claim

So far no takers for OnlineTravelTips.info so I've decided to open it up to bidding. Please send your offers to morgan@thedomainflipper.com.

I'm still confident that selling one of my flips each month is a great way to help new domainers get started with monetized domains. It has also been one of the number one requests made by my readers. It might have been a bit too early for me to release this domain so I might have to table it to a later month. Next month will feature a different domain for sale and OnlineTravelTips.info will go back to the incubator.

So far this domain has received 740 hits this month and generated $1.87 in revenue. This is how all my flips start and usually grow to generate much more in 2-3 months. I wanted to make this domain available to my readers before it becomes too expensive for a new domainer to afford. So email in your offers to morgan@thedomainflipper.com. At midnight Wednesday I'll be taking this domain off the selling-block and adding a new domain for May so this is your last chance to grab the name before it heads into the high $xxx price range.

May 1st will bring a new flip for sale so if you miss-out on this one, there's always next month!

3 Days of Domain Flipping - Day 2

Like I promised - a flip a day for the last three days in April. The flip of the day is:

ClubsNYC.info

I hope everyone is having a great week so far and remember - you too can flip a domain a day!

Another flip to come tomorrow!

3 Days of Domain Flipping

To end April with a Bang I thought I'd debut some of my latest flips. These were all done by TechReform with some of my newest domain acquisitions. Like I've said in a number of previous posts - rather than doing the work yourself you can contract it out and save something very valuable - your time.

I'm in Florida right now, sitting by the swimming pool drinking beer. In the meantime a developer in the Ukraine is working on one of my latest flips, MazatlanMexico.info (not up yet so no need to look). While I sit at the pool my other flips are getting traffic, clicks, linkbacks, and most importantly, generating revenue.

So for the next three days to end April with a Bang I'll reveal a flip a day. So here is the first flip to kick-off the three-day marathon:

OnlineGeneTest.com

Enjoy and stay tuned for another flip tomorrow!

The Diversified Domainer

With so much emphasis on developing domains now I think it is important to take a look at the bigger picture. For those of you who read my blog regularly you know that I have been a huge proponent of developing your domains. At the same time I employee a variety of different strategies to monetize my domains. It's important to understand that development is key, but not the only way to profit from your domains. So how can you diversify your domaining investments?

First I think it's important to qualify who should be diversifying. If you have 20 or less domains I would suggest you develop them all. It is not an impossible task and as I've said before, you don't have to do the work yourself. Think outside of the box and find a way to develop your domains for a low price - try the top domaining forums to find a cheap developer. If you have 50+ domains it is unrealistic to expect that you can develop all of these - this is where diversification becomes important.

So first, determine which category you are in. If you have a large portfolio then this strategy will help you make some money. If you have a small portfolio I'd go the development route and focus on getting traffic to your existing names.

Okay, so I've defined the target audience, now for the strategy. First, pick your top 10-20 domains and develop those. As I said above I wouldn't sacrifice much of your own time as development can be an unbelievably time-consuming process. You can always develop 1-2 yourself but remember, it will be power in numbers that will really make you some money. Now for your first diversification step - parking. Yes, parking is still alive and kicking and should be a component of your domaining strategy. The trick is picking the right domains to park.

Parked domains should be those names that people are usually looking for a specific piece of information. If you parking page has a link matching the keyword they are looking for then you stand a good chance of getting clicks. It's important to use a tool like WordTracker  to pick your keywords. WordTracker can let you see what related keywords people are usually searching for. This is essential for creating an effective parking page. If you know the keyword that your users are searching to get to your page, and the most common keywords they would seek after this, then you will have a much more targeted parking page.

I'll take a quick pause here for those of you who are confused at why I would promote parking if I am a huge domain development proponent. Like any investment domaining is about diversification. While development is the key to my strategy, it is through diversification that you can monetize all of your names.

So you have some developed domains and some parking pages...diversified yet? Not quite. The next diversification strategy I use is blogs. While this is my main blog I have a number of domains that I use for blogging. The great thing about a blog is that they are quick to create, rank well on search engines, and are easy to update with fresh content. For an example of some domains I am employing the blog strategy with take a look at: ForexNightOwl.com or RareWisdom.com. You don't have to update blogs like this every day but just by posting once a month you are creating a website that has fresh content - which search engines love. On top of this you can actually make a valuable resource. I've been Forex trading for a while now and thought it would be great to make a blog tracking some of my best trades. I don't post often but am seeing traffic grow each month. It took a total of about 10 minutes to build ForexNightOwl.com and using a service like Blogger makes it easy to put monetization tools like Google Adsense directly on your blog.

Okay, so you are developing, parking, and blogging, are you diversified now? Almost, but there is still more to go - Forums. Web Forums are a great way to create recurring monthly traffic and fresh content. If you use a service like GoDaddy they have free scripts for creating Forums quickly and easily. You don't need to be a PHP guru to setup a forum. One forum I have recently started is NEDomainers.com for domainers in New England. While this is yet to take-off, over the course of the year I plan to really grow and develop this forum into a web community. Look at forums like DNForum - their advertising costs are unbelievable. Build a community with repeat monthly traffic and you too can charge a pretty penny for advertising.

But wait there's more! If you employ these strategies you will be well-diversified in your domain investments. Some of these strategies don't take much time at all, others are a bit more time-consuming. Remember, the goal here is to spread out your investments across multiple strategies. This way if one works better than another you'll know and be able to put more focus where the money is.

Want to learn even more? Don't forget to read my book and take my audio course!

 

New .info Domains

I've had some great results with .info domains lately. I discovered that if I can get good keywords and put-up a mini-site with real content that people are looking for, they can get some solid traffic. Since GoDaddy is having a sale now - $0.99 for any .info name I thought I'd see what was still available.

Now I don't think .info domains are great to sell right now. They may be valuable in a few years but you never know. What I do know these domains are great for is exactly what the TLD was intended for - information sites. I picked-up these 8 domains today for a whopping $9.52.

Like I said in my previous post, this doesn't mean I am going to now spend the whole weekend locked in a room with a 12-pack of Mountain Dew. Instead I'm paying a company to build these sites for me so I can wear my investor hat proudly with these purchases. Please note that none of these are for sale at this time so I am not looking for offers for these names. Keep your eyes on them though as they turn into some great informational sites.

SpeakerBuilding.info
BuildSpeakers.info
WholeHouseMusic.info
BookshelfSpeakers.info
CollegeRank.info
ClubsNYC.info
NYCParties.info
NYCGyms.info

Happy Flipping and don't forget to Think Outside of the Box!

Work Smarter Not Harder

I read a book before starting college with the title, "Work Smarter Not Harder." I thought it made a great point - sometimes if you take a step back, the solution to your problem is easier than you might think. With the Domaining world officially in what I like to call "Freak-Out Mode" I think it's time we all take a step back.

So what does this mean? It means it might be time to find a solution that does not involve your own blood, sweat and tears. It might be time to think of Domaining more like investing. This means that maybe you don't develop all of your domains yourself. Instead, putting on your investor hat, try to find a company that can develop your domains for you at a price that you feel will not eat too far into your profit-margin when you decide to sell the domain.

This may sound counterintuitive to my previous posts but it's important to understand what I am saying. As a domain flipper I still find that my domains can achieve the greatest value when they are developed into full-fledged websites. At the same time we all know that there are only so many hours in the day. That's why this is a great time to break your domains into different investment timelines. Maybe you have a few names that are already making money with parked pages and could sell for a pretty-penny as-is. Now imagine if you paid someone $100 or $200 to put a simple website on your domain. This website could offer actual product for sale on top of Google Adsense giving more ways to monetize this traffic.

This could turn a domain that currently makes $10-$20 into a website that makes $100-$200/month and offers visitors content they are looking for. The important thing to think about is how much money your time is worth. As a domainer do you see yourself as a developer or investor? While I still do certainly spend time developing sites I've found that as my portfolio grows as does the work that I send to outside companies and individuals. This way my business scales as one cohesive unit.

While I wouldn't suggest spending tens of thousands of dollars paying someone to develop your whole portfolio, I do suggest using a bit of strategy and picking the right domains to develop. There are tons of people all over the Domaining forums (and the Internet as a whole for that matter) that are eager for web design, logo design, and content-writing work.

I like to think of this as with traditional investments. If you have $10,000 sitting in a money-market account making 5%, how much money are you willing to risk in order to double your investment? Some people don't want to risk anything and keep their money safe in a money-market or mutual fund. Others take a little risk and might be okay with losing $500 or $1000 if it means they have the potential to make a whole lot more.

The same is true with domaining. While you might have to take an initial hit in revenue to have your domain developed, the asset that emerges afterwards could be a potential goldmine. In this brave new Domaining 2.0 world it's always important to take a step back, put on your investing hat, and pick a solid growth strategy. In the end, you'll thank yourself.

*** FLIP OF THE MONTH
*** OnlineTravelTips.info is for sale
*** BIN: $499
*** Email morgan@thedomainflipper.com to claim it as your own
*** This offer is made exclusively to Blog readers.
*** A new flipped domain will be available for sale next month.

Domaining 2.0: Welcome to a Brave New World

The most common advice about stock investing is, "You have to be diversified." The same is not true for domain names. It is always better to have a portfolio of great .com's than of great .net's and .org's. As domainers we know that a great keyword .com is as valuable as that keyword can get. The only reason to diverisfy the TLD of your domain is only if the .com is taken (or you own the .com and want to own the other TLD's).

Now let me make it very clear what I am saying here. You should strive to get the best domain names as possible. In most cases this will require diversification of TLD's. If you look at my own portfolio I have a number of TLD's. We aren't all lucky enough to just have great .com domains, so we look elsewhere in .net, .org, .in, etc. There is nothing wrong with this as it would be impossible to have a portfolio of all great keyword .com's unless you're a millionaire. However it is important to recognize that in a heartbeat you would convert all your .net, .org or other TLD's to .com's if given the chance.

So what is Domain Development Diversification? This is a going to be a key strategy in what might soon be called Domaining 2.0. I see Domaining 1.0 as the process of purchasing a good domain name, parking the name, and performing whatever SEO can be done to get the most traffic to your name. In the Domaining 2.0 world parking is a thing of the past and development is king. While we don't live in the Domaining 2.0 world yet, we can all feel it getting closer. Domain Development Diversification means diversifying the way in which you develop your domain names.

As the domaining industry shifts focus towards developed domains, so should your strategies for development. Domain Development Diversification is the idea of using many different strategies with your domains and learning which one's work the best. Divide your portfolio into five different test groups; blogs, forums, mini-sites, information sites and commerce sites. This means turn 20% of your domains into active blog sites, another 20% to forums, etc. This will help you discover which technique works best for you, as well as which will make you the most money. You might have to experiment with some domains and try a few before you really hit the jackpot, but in the end you should have a good idea of which development strategy works the best for each domain.

I am reading a lot of blogs lately talking about how hard the development process is and the time that it takes. By diversifying your development you can use some strategies that can take as little as an hour. Try it! Go onto Blogger or Typepad, make a blog, give it a custom look and feel, and viola...you have created a website for your domain. Use free PHP forum software to put a professional web forum on your page, or just spend a few hours putting together a simple mini-site. You don't have to build a full-blown webpage every time - remember there are other ways to successfully develop your domains.

In the Domaining 2.0 world we need to think out of the box a bit more. Remember, your time is money. If you spends an entire month building a website, how much money are you really making? What is your time worth to you? I'm not saying that you shouldn't put great websites onto your domains. Instead what I am saying is you need to determine which domains to put the most amount of time into. Pick 20% of your portfolio and make it your mission to develop (or pay someone to develop) beautiful, fully-functional, websites on those domains. Now try making a blog for another 20% of your domains, and a forum for another 20%, etc. In the end, you will have websites on all of your domains, some that make you money, and others that are a flop. With fine tuning you can determine the best strategy for each and end 2008 with a portfolio full of domains with websites, and most importantly, revenue.

The Domaining 2.0 world is a whole new beast. As with any transition there are those that will hold onto their Domaining 1.0 ideas, unable to let go of past success. It's like the tech stock bust in the late 90's...nobody wanted to sell their tech stocks - it was too scary! In the Domaining 2.0 world you'll have to get over your fears of development and remember that each webpage shouldn't take a month - there are many different types of webpages you can build quickly and easily. The key is to try different strategies and through time determine which are the best for you. Welcome to the brave new world of Domaining 2.0, and for those still in the 1.0 world it's time to say farewell to the world you once knew.

If you want to learn more about developing your domains don't forget to read my book!

The evolution of your domain

I received a great comment from one of my readers. In the comment, Jamie Parks describes the 8 steps from registration to development. I thought this was a great view of the evolution of your domain so decided it would be great to post it for all to read:

The more I look at the evolution from domain registration to development of web presence, the clearer it all becomes.

1. Register (keyword)
2. Park (direct navigation?)
3. Custom landing page (real sense of ownership)
4. Blog (content control; search engine ranking; traffic)
5. Newsletter (maintain constant contact)
6. Forum (user acquisition; wisdom of crowd)
7. Social Network (participatory; user generated content)
8. Custom webapp (free + go pro mo./fee)

The list really can go anywhere from there. Not every site could stand to have a forum, a social network, or a newsletter but most every site would benefit from having a blog. So there's no reason to not have one.

This is why your post is awesome! Blogs are crucial to every domain's development. Excellent post.

Blogs and Domain Flipping

Blogs can play an essential role in domain flipping and oftentimes give the edge you need to get excellent search engine rankings. It may seem like a simple concept but a blog is by far the fastest way to create a quick webpage. It also happens to be one of the best mechanisms for easily providing fresh content - which search engines love.

So where does a blog fit-in with domain flipping? I've discussed in previous posts about an interim page before you do a full flip on a domain. The interim page is a website that should take minimal time to build, but can start getting the domain ranked in the search engine and begin building-up backlinks. Remember, one of the key facets of domain value is traffic, especially when you can show how that traffic is converted to revenue.

A blog gives you a very powerful tool for making quick interim websites that can serve to get some initial traffic to your domain before you take the time to complete an entire flip. Blogger is one of the best packages for this as it has a very easy-to-use system for hosting your blog on your webserver. This means that visitors to your blog will actually be accessing content on your server and your domain by it's actual name rather than blogname.blogger.com.

Building a quick blog in 30-45 minutes that has strong keyword usage and a way to monetize traffic (Google AdSense is built-into blogger) is a great way to seed your domains with some initial traffic. Then when you complete your flip you'll already have some backlinks, traffic, and hopefully good rankings in search engines for some of your main keywords. This will give your flip legs much quicker than if you were to simply park the domain.

The great thing about blogging is that you can easily update your site once a week, or even once a month to provide fresh content. Pick a domain that is a subject you might be an expert in - that way you can write the blog yourself and feel confident that you're providing quality information to your visitors. Fresh content that is updated on a regular basis is the key to getting repeat visitors.

So for those of your overwhelmed by the thought of flipping all your domains, it might be good to start with blogs. Make a simple blog for every undeveloped domain that you own. In a few months you'll find that you now have domains that are well-ranked in search engines, have some baseline traffic, and will serve as the perfect foundation for a complete flip. It's time to get proactive! Blogs are just one great way you can save time and still provide a content-rich website on your domain.