KHALID

Being an entrepreneur is all about taking calculated risks, but sometimes are calculations are wrong and our investments tumble. This occurs daily in the stock market and building/buying websites is quite similar.

As an entrepreneur we analyse the potential for a developed site or planned idea and the possible return on investment (ROI). However, we cannot control all the forces involved and can become a victim of a tradegy out with our control, for example when the dot com bubble burst.

Thankfully, the internet is a much more stable market place and this is a rare occurance but every day people register new domains or pour their hearts into an idea that aims for the moon but misses, and lands amongst the stars – plodding along but never reaching the top.

If you remember a while ago I was attempting to dominate the “bar jobs” market and registered about 50 domains which were developed into mini-sites, had BarVacancy.com custom coded and spent hours contacting bar/nightclub owners and managers advertising the free site. Similar to Gumtree, BarVacancy.com was purely for the nightclub industry and I thought if I targetted a niche I may do well.

Unfortunately a site like this needs a large marketing budget and I failed. The idea wasn’t a failure though, the sites plod along and makes enough money but I simply didn’t have enough time to pump more energy into it and re-generate it.

Fortunately my hard work didn’t go to waste and I sold the network to one of my frequent buyers who has a similar network that will compliment his purchase. For me it was about cutting my losses and getting out whilst I still could. I could have easily let the names expire or just broken even with Adsense on the sites but they were never going to be winners in my hands – that doesn’t mean they can’t be.

Sometimes you have to admit defeat and yes I lost money but I learned a lot, I gained experience and I am happy I tried. I think there is plenty of potential let in the network especially as it has been left to mature for 6 months and most of the sites have a good Google ranking but it wasn’t one for me.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I managed to raise $1050 this month by clearing out all the sites that I no longer have time to update, including many of the mini-sites that were helping me reach my goal of $100 a day.

I’m moving into a different direction, with exciting new investments and partnering with some fantastic, established domainers/entrepreneurs.

I have managed to bag a few nice .co.uk names in an attempt to become a domain leaser. More on these projects to come in the new year.

I’ve now got two weeks off from my new job and I intend to work hard on ranking some of my new domains.

Good luck with your persuits, have a nice Christmas and a happy New Year!

Khalid.

I’ve been working hard to roll out 5 new mini-sites that will be used to target specific keywords and generate leads. I was lucky enough to capture the .co.uk names for each keyword which was an absolute fluke as the market they target is heavily dominated by domainers and large companies.

Local leads will be used at my new job to ensure I am performing well as a media manager.  Leads out with the operating area of the new company I work for will be sold to an established company that is already doing this but targetting a different product in the same sector.

I cannot mention a lot at this stage as nothing has been set in stone, I have yet to agree a final price per lead and another party may be involved. I am very excited about this venture as the company I will be selling leads to charges £28 + VAT to other companies! This could be a nice micro business!

Stay tuned for updates on the progress of this investment. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending another domainer/net entrepreneur meet-up at a nice bar called Cargo here in my home town of Edinburgh. This event was created by Fraser, another dot com entrepreneur involved in affiliate marketing.

The spread was lovely, the people were very nice and all-in-all I had a nice evening. I got a chance to speak to a few other local folk and it is amazing to see how many different little entrepreneurs there are in the capital. Everyone from web designers, to domains, to affiliate marketers and copywriters were there and it was a great chance to network.

I enjoy picking the brains of others that are like mentors to me as I’m still new at this game. I also enjoy hearing some hilarious domain stories and just how people make their money. I ordered some cool Moo.com mini-cards for the next one so I can pass around my business card this time.

If you ever get the chance to attend these meetings I would encourage you to attend. A few hours of your time can result in a fast track education and some great networking opportunities.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

It has been less than a month since I registered http://www.ukelectricshowers.co.uk but already it is ranking well in Google.co.uk

So far I have spent $419 on backlinks and bookmarking which has been money well spent in my opinion. As time progresses and the domain ages I am hopeful the site will rank better. From my previous experience I know this can take anything from two months to two years, it’s up to Google!

This is my first attempt of ranking a name well with the view of become a domain leaser. The term “electric showers” receives about 40,000 searches per month in the UK alone and I am confident I will be able to lease it. If not, then I’m sure private adverts will ensure a return on my investment.

The domain was registered on November 10th 2008, a little less than a month ago, and has achieved the following ranks…

• electric shower – 46th out of 594,000 competitors
• electric showers – 45th out of 385,000 competitors
• electric power shower – 38th out of 184,000 competitors
• electric power showers – 25th out of 257,000 competitors
• uk electric showers – 5th out of 563,000 competitors

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

November earnings weren’t much different from October, with Adsense still being low (are they crap just now due to the f**ked economy or is it just me?) and the fact I’m not concentrating on mini-sites, I’m letting them mature whilst I concentrate on domain leasing. The breakdown of November’s earnings is as follows…

• Google Adsense: $57.96
• Text Link Ads: $27.53
• Media Jump: $15.48
• Adversal: $3.00
• Total: 103.97 – Daily Average: $3.35

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.