"Discussion Around The Buying And Selling Of Internet Businesses And Websites" - Making Money Online

Run a business with $10

Clinton — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:41:30 GMT

An article I came across today talks about how you can run an online business with $10 and a bit of time investment.

He describes how to open a Google account, start a blogger.com "site", register and map your custom domain with Google Apps ... and away you go.

Quote:

You're off and running with a complete, cloud-based business infrastructure that you can customize and administer from any browser with one Google account and password. As you begin to experiment with more online content, your master Google account connects you to a host of other useful products like YouTube, Google Voice, and AdWords -- all of which can easily be integrated on your site, and all "live under one roof," so to speak.

For $10 and a bit of DIY time investment, this is a small business web solution that's certainly worth experimenting with

Article

What do you think?

ePassporte in trouble?

Clinton — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:36:00 GMT

If you're making money online you probably get paid by bank transfer, Paypal or something like ePassporte. If your sites are poker / other gambling / adult sites, there's a high chance your affiliate programs pays into your ePassporte account.

But the ecommerce-journal site has a disturbing report on ePassporte. Troubles seem to have begun, unfortunately, on the 2nd of the month by when most webmasters received their payments for the previous accounting period and their accounts were full of cash.

Quote:

Meantime, many users who post their comments on numerous Internet forums are looking to withdraw their money from ePassporte wallets via bank wire. Still, some of them even doubt that it would work for all, because if driven by panic all users start withdrawing their funds, ePassporte will have nothing to do but to act like all other scam services and disappear with a message posted on some blog saying: �We will come back, it was massive DDoS attack! Wait, your money are in a safe place!�

Link

Adwords is an unreliable source of traffic to base your business on

Clinton — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:30:24 GMT

News on the street is that a lot of Adwords advertisers are upset at Google's latest display of autocracy.

Stories here and here.

Respectable Adwords' advertisers want to play by the rules, but it seems the rules aren't clear and Google nukes them even if they follow the rules to the letter. No explanation, no appeals process.

Quote:

It�s not about the product. It�s about the idea of �BRIDGE� page or what they are deeming a bridge page. If you are selling your products on Clickbank� then under this guide, you are using a BRIDGE page which Google will suspend you for. If you use PayPal� then you are using a BRIDGE page which Google will suspend you for. If you are using Google Checkout� then you are using a BRIDGE page which Google will suspend you for.
Do you see how crazy this is?

Not that long ago there were previous waves [1 | 2] of banning at Adwords

I've argued elsewhere that sites too dependent on SERPS for their traffic are very high risk even when they are high quality sites with solid SEO behind them. Is reliance on Adwords - the central plank for many affiliate, ecommerce and multi-million dollar businesses - an even higher risk than relying on SERPS?

When buying sites should we adjust our multiples downwards for any site that gets more than a tiny percentage of traffic from Adwords?

Adult Traffic

BritishARMY — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:56:32 GMT

Hi all.

Long story short I bought a domain many months ago. I didn't develop it and just let it sit. Well, I decided to search the domain on the Google keyword tool and it gets 12,000 EXACT searches per month (global). I was shocked. The things ranking in the top 3 positions are somebodies MySpace and a whois search. My domain is a .net. I suspect the people searching this are looking for porn as the name is similar to another porn site... anyway I have decided to get it ranking in the first position. Will be easy because there is zero competition. My question is, what will be the best way to earn from this traffic (if I get any). If Google's keyword tool is correct I could potentially get 6000 visitors per month to the site, which is quite a lot. What do you guys reckon?

I'm going to set it up and see what happens, if any traffic comes in. Will be interesting.

Has anyone tried the domainerincome.com beta?

Clinton — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:56:35 GMT

This site and their press release

They say

Quote:

Domainer Income helps domain name investors evaluate, buy, sell and monetize domain names.

Domainer Income provides key metrics for the millions of domain names it tracks each day, as well as extensive domain name portfolio management tools, providing domain name investors with a complete solution for investing in, and managing, their domains.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Domainer Income is operated by privately held company, Kikabink International Pty Ltd.

Anyone tried it yet?

Any good / bad experiences with affliate marketplaces

Darren — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:53:07 GMT

I'm looking at various marketplaces right now and wondering if anyone endorses/avoids certain marketplaces. Some of these vendors provide turnkey/branded sites for you to host, is there any reason to avoid these?

Seeing U.S. Advertisers In Google If You're In The UK

hooperman — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:56:38 GMT

I may be the only one who didn't know this, but just in case there are other, I thought I'd share my find.

If you're in the UK and search using google.com, the Adwords ads displayed are usually for UK companies targeting the UK audience. If you're trying to find U.S. advertisers whose products you want to sell as an affiliate, this can be a real pain. Most of my traffic comes from the U.S. so my guess is that customers will feel more comfortable with prices in $ than in �.

I discovered yesterday that you can see U.S. results in google if you append &gl=us to the URL you get after searching for something. Search for something, append &gl=us and press enter. The Adwords (and organic SERPs) display as if you were in the U.S.

Best way to enter the marketplace

Darren — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:27:17 GMT

Similar to Slim Picky, I too am fairly new to the game. Over the past couple years, I've casually tried a couple things (blog, content site), more for my own experience than anything. I'd like to start getting more serious and I'm formulating some ideas to re-enter the market.

I've done some homework on researching various methods while trying to filter out the crap from all the so-called "experts". Using affiliate-based content sites seems like the most stable business model generating repeating revenues month after month. Am I wrong?

My budget is rather small (< $200)for starting out so, as a starting point, I thought it best to try site flipping in order to raise some capital quickly. I'm a .Net programmer by trade so I don't have any problem getting my hands dirty with site design. I'm OK at creating content as long as I have decent material to work with. And I'm learning SEO bit by bit.

One stumbling block is Niche selection. More to it, finding one that hasn't been done to death. The other stumbling block is finding a site that has the potential for growth. I'm sure finding something on Flippa within my price range with this criteria is next to impossible. I've been lurking in the forum for some time, and I know I either need to look in the SEs or DMOZ for older sites. Perhaps others can weigh in here on some suggestions.

Given my budget, what's a realistic timeframe to turn this around and start generating +$1000/month? Obviously this is a part time gig right now, so hours/week committment needs to be considered.

BTW, whatever happened to Slim? I was disappointed that he never updated his status on the post.

Best Way To Monetize Graphics Sites

tradedemon — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:33:42 GMT

Hi guys,

Just wanted to tap into everyones experience on a particular type of site i.e. those whose content is largely made up of pictures, images and other graphics (text makes up less of the content). e.g. wallpaper sites, art sites etc.

I've personally found adsense doesn't convert the best with these sites and that adding in a combination of CPM banners (due to the high impressions usually associated with such sites) is the way to go.

The problem however is that many CPM networks don't like these types of sites or tend to approve them with restrictions or with difficulty.

Can someone maybe advise on the networks that are possibly more amicable to work with CPM sites and more specifically any other monetisation strategies for said sites.

Oh! The irony

Clinton — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:44:21 GMT

Had an email from someone looking to sell his "make money online" site. He shall remain nameless.

The site has a fair bit of information, reviews of programs etc. I thought I'd list it in BSTE.

We exchanged a few emails with me trying to get traffic and revenue stats out of him. To my question on how much of profit the site is making, his (paraphrased) reply was

Quote:

Not really making any profit yet. But I don't really know anything about advertising. It made �5, but to be honest I haven't been worrying about money at all, more about building the site. I know nothing about website promotion.

I kid you not!

Is Adsense paying publishers less and less?

Clinton — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:02:23 GMT

There are often conspiracy theories about Google reducing the amounts/percentage they pay Adsense publishers.

This blogger has done what I've been meaning to do for a while. He's put together a graph of publisher share extracted from Google's public declarations to the US stock exchange.

Have a look.

Does Google drop publisher share to meet earnings expectations so their stock doesn't lose value? Or is the amount of fluctuations so small it could just be natural fluctuation and could go up as well as down?

text-links-ads.com, does anyone use TLA? Any advice?

Clinton — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:38:30 GMT

3Six complained here about TLA - the text link brokering company.

Since then, I've had the same experience. Their automated system send emails saying they can't find a link on my site when it's plainly there. It's OK if it happens once in a while, but it happens with regular monotony. When an advertiser stops an ad and you remove it, that should be the end of the story, right? TLA will send out an email months later saying they can't find the link and they're suspending all payments for the page till you rectify it. It takes ages and several emails back and forth before it's resolved. That takes time I don't really wanting to be wasting to fix somebody else's faults.

Sometimes a multiple error problem is easier solved over the phone. But TLA are too important to talk with you. They earn several thousand a month from my account, but neither Brock nor Drew will give me a call or give me a number I can call them on.

Anyone else here use TLA? Do you have these problems with them, or is it just some of us?

Set this up as an affiliate site????

Freeman1974 — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:16:49 GMT

Hi

Ive got CheapCruises2013 . com.

(Please ignore the holding site on there at the moment).

'CheapCruises2010' (.com) currently gets around 15,000 exacts each mth, so i bought it thinking ahead - which makes a change for me!

I dont know what to do with this one though...

Having worked in the cruise industry i know i could fill it with unique content and drive good traffic to it but thats where ive got the issue!

If i get set up as an affiliate for different cruise companies, then i can of course send them the traffic but i know from experience (and other official reports ive read recently) that consumers will spend time online researching a cruise but then when they book - THEY TEND TO PICK UP THE PHONE!

Thats obviously not a good thing if you are trying to earn as an affiliate!

What other options do i have other than filling the site with google adsense. Any advice would be great!

Thanks
Thought...should i just sell the domain on and let someone else worry about it?