Archive for Domain Names:

An Update on Borrowing Money

My last post questioned what you would do if you had to borrow money to boost a marketing campaign. After listening to some advice I held off on radio promotion and opted to promote Edinburgh Taxi offline. Face to face marketing gets peoples attention, especially when you’re standing in a bright yellow t-shirt handing out plastic business cards. Yes, plastic – they don’t tear or bend, but they’re bloody expensive!

At this point I should mention I shelled out a lot to buy a card printer and consumables but people have been snapping the cards up so it has been a worthwhile task. The credit card was used but I know I can pay it back. No risk = no reward.

I’ve avoided posting about the success of my taxi partnerships as I’ve been focusing on making them work, but I’m happy to announce things are going well. If I could sum it up without getting into specifics, the money earned on a monthly basis from Edinburgh alone is in the low four figure range. This is a great achievement on a geo domain name and some offline marketing but it hasn’t been easy. Whatever I earn, and more, goes back into the business to generate more custom.

People often think that I sit behind a desk and the money rolls in; try saying that to me at 5am after standing all night in the cold with a couple of pr staff! I work day and night on my projects and radio advertising is still on the “to do” list but I’ll need to hammer the telephone number into people’s heads and get a few more thousand calls before I ask for that invoice!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

Joining the Single Name Domain Club

If you’ve pinged KhalidsLife.com recently you’ll see I’ve moved over to Khalid.co.uk

I’ve been asked not to publicise the acquisition or purchase price due to the sensitive history of the name so I’ll refrain from going into detail. The name was formerly owned by Khalid Hanif who sadly passed away.

I am happy with the purchase and although I think I paid over the odds, I feel it was justified as I know it will be used for a good cause.

Expect to see a few changes around here soon!

Profitable Website For Sale

Good Morning All,

CrossTrainers.co.uk is now sold. Thank you for all the interest. I apologise if I did not reply to your e-mail, the site was sold extremely quickly.

Thanks,

Khalid.

Do you own any geo’s?

I was looking over my collection of domain names the other day as I have a few sitting doing nothing. Well, quite a few to be honest. So, I’m being pro-active and trying to monetise them, at least until they catch on and I’m offered something substantial for them.

At least 80% of the names have ranking websites, however I’ve never approached anyone to advertise on them. So, I got off my arse and made a few contacts with people I know, and as they believe in what I do, I’ve got some deals setup. There’s nothing life changing in these partnerships, however money is money!

I know the likes of Yell and uFindus have bought up a large proportion of keyword and geo names, and the money they charge to rent the minisites on them is extortionate! They have the infrastructure to do this on a massive scale and the sales staff to ensure it is profitable. If you run a business chances are they’ll have phoned you offering it for just £xx per week…I would charge that for a month!

So my little geo-jaunt has me working on partnerships for Edinburgh Taxi, Edinburgh Nightclubs and Edinburgh Hairdresser mainly, as well as continuing my day job in the double glazing market.

Happy days, we’ll see how it goes. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Two Ranking Bicycle Websites for Sale

UPDATE – SITES NOW SOLD!

Exact searches for “downhill bike” as of January 2010 – 49,500 Exact searches for “downhill bikes” as of January 2010 – 22,100

Website - Customised wordpress theme - 75 downhill bikes/frames with url masking - I have 100 unique bike for descriptions for the new buyer to add to the site - downhillbike.org.uk included in sale - Site is built on wordpress

Rankings - 7th for “Downhill Bike” and “Downhill Bikes” - 3rd for “Downhill Bike Frames”

Unique Traffic - February 214 - March 747 - April 1022 - May 736

Earnings

I’ve completed ignored this site since setting it up and actually have 100 unique descriptions of suspension forks that I will give to the buyer.

Since the site made the front page last month and remained there it has made the odd sale, see below…

Free Site

TriathlonBicycles.co.uk which ranks 2nd for “triathlon bicycles” and receives around 300 uniques per month (assume no revenue) is included in the sale for free.

Notes - Buyer is responsible for moving site over to his/her hosting - Buyer pays Nominet fee - Payment via BACS

Price Offers above £500 welcomed. No BIN set yet, please bear in mind these are two generic names so do not go below £500.

UPDATE – SITES NOW SOLD!

Two Fantastic Websites for Sale!

Good Morning All,

I’m doing a bit of trimming to my portfolio again and this time I’ve got two new yet established affiliate sites for sale for the price of one!

DownhillBike.co.uk

Exact searches for “downhill bike” as of January 2010 – 33,100 Exact searches for “downhill bikes” as of January 2010 – 22,100

What I’ve done so far…

- Built the website with a custom wordpress theme edit costing £150 - Added 75 downhill bikes/frames - Ranked the website 5th for “downhill bike” - 214 unique visitors for February 2010 - 343 unique visitors for March 2010

Secondary Free Site…

Included in the sale is TriathlonBicycles.co.uk (+ triathlonbicycle.co.uk domain name)

- 373 unique visitors in February 2010 - 116 unique visitors in March 2010 - Ranks third in Google.co.uk for “triathlon bicycles”

Notes…

- I have 100 unique bike for descriptions for the new buyer to add to the main site - downhillbike.org.uk included in sale - Both sites are built on wordpress - Buyer is responsible for moving site over to his/her hosting - Buyer pays Nominet fee - Payment via BACS - Assume no revenue as these sites are new

I’m looking for £1,000 ono for the website and domain names, which is a fair price consdering the generic names, content and amount of work put in.

If you are interested contact me!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Domain Swapping

I recently completed my first domain swap deal, trading two solar domain names for compare flights, a ranking flight comparison website with a history of traffic and earnings.

I purchased the solar names for mid £xxx, thinking I could perhaps flip them for low four figures (which I had as an offer after the deal was done). Solar is an emerging market and the domains, SolarHeater.co.uk and the plural SolarHeaters.co.uk, were a nice pair.

I am happy with my new flight comparison site, and have already given it a makeover and adding more content as we speak!

I was pleasantly surprised and hope to either shelve the site as a revenue stream or flip it for mid four figures in the near future.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

p.s. a quick shout out for a critical illness comparison site owned by a friend of mine!

Starting 2010

Happy New Year to you all! Starting 2010 with a fresh head after two weeks holiday has allowed me to re-evaluate my position and where I go from here. To be honest, I’m in quite a difficult position and so have decided to try a few different moves in a bid to build my future.

Firstly, I’ve started an geo network of Edinburgh sites including Edinburgh Hairdresser and Edinburgh Taxis. In total I have 15 domains, 10 of which have active websites on them. A few are already on page one and the long term plan is to sell private advertising to local business owners.

Secondly, I’ve sold a few small affiliate sites and started re-doing things properly, with the launch of Bass Amp. I picked this name up recently in a clear out portfolio sale and had a private offer for it within 24 hours of owning it. I think it is a good name with plenty of potential and possible a sale to an end user in the near future. I spent a day manually adding products to ensure there is little copied content from the merchants so I am hoping my sore fingers will be rewarded with some cash on affiliate sales!

Thirdly, I am still running Trout as my main investment with a view of it either providing a decent revenue stream or selling to an end user such as a magazine publication. The site is on target to receive 3,000 unique visitors this month.

Finally, I am negotiating for a few domain names with potential to sell individual digital products (don’t worry not eBooks!). My idea is to then setup an affiliate program  and have people promote it for me. Targetting a niche and offering, say 50% commission, should be quite appealing to affiliates as ppc campaigns should not cost a lot and each sale offers a high return.

Being an Internet Entrepreneur is not an easy task and I’m constantly followed on Twitter daily by “Guru’s” pretending to offer get-rich-quick schemes that anyone can do from home. The fact of the matter is, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it and driving around in Ferrari’s. Hard work, determination, and the ability to learn from your mistakes is what it takes.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Affiliate Mini Site Fire Sale

A few sites for sale in a bid to raise funds for a deposit! Contact Me if you are interested!

Beer Chillers Ranks 4th for “beer chillers” 108 uniques this month

Fire Bowls Ranks 4th for “fire bowls” 110 uniques this month

Hot Dog Maker Ranks 2nd for “hot dog maker” 56 uniques this month (hit page 1 on 15th so you could say over 100 uniques)

Ice Making Machines Ranks 14th for “ice making machines” 30 uniques this month

Assume no revenue as the sites have only been online for about 1 month and quite frankly I’m crap at converting visitors to customers but this doesn’t mean you can’t. For new sites the traffic is there so you just need to work your magic.

I’m looking for £250 per domain and this includes the site (on wordpress) in its current format. Buyer pays Nominet fee. Payment via BACS. Please remember people pay upwards of $250 for mini site creation so these are a bargain considering they are ranked too!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

November 2009 Earnings

November was a quiet month for me with just one £500 website sale and £5 from Google Adsense bringing my daily average to £16.29 or $29.49 at today’s exchange rates. As Christmas creeps in people are less reluctant to buy despite my best efforts to sell a single generic name that does not fit with my strategy.

Whilst December is quiet I’ve had time to plan the future of my trout fishing website and build a number of affiliate and geo directories in a bid to generate revenue whilst Trout.co.uk builds itself up more. I think it’ll take a good 12 months to really make my place in the angling sector and I’m lucky to have a loyal and dedicated team of writers working with me…even if they do cost a lot! It is a real shame most companies just don’t get it otherwise we could work together and do wonders for the industry.

Examples of my affiliate sites include hot dog maker, beer chillers and skydiving experiences. I’ve never been any good at affiliate marketing so I decided to build some geo sites too, including Edinburgh spa, Edinburgh beauty salons and Falkirk electricians.

We’ll see how they turn out. Stay tuned and good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.