Owner: Financial Lust URL:www.financiallust.com Join Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:08:22 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Musings on my quest to become an internet domain name mogul. Site statistics:Click here
Namepros.com 2007-10-04 13:31:00 One of the most valuable sites that I have come across so far in my quest to learn more about becoming a 'domainer' has been Namepros.com. Namepros is a bulletin board forum for domainers to chat with eachother. My only regret is that I wish I had found this board PRIOR to registering all my crazy domain names so that I could make a more informed decision on things.What did I learn from the board? Well first thing is that a lot of the people who got into domaining did so by purchasing domain names that already had traffic going to them. IE: the site was being used already and they're buying it 2nd hand at auction. This is advantageous because since you've already got traffic coming to that domain, you can fill it with ads and pray that people click on them. With a brand new domain name (which ALL of mine are brand new). The sites are starting with 0 traffic. Take for instance this one (here). I've parked it with ads, but no one's ever heard of that site, so who's going
Registering Domain Names 2007-10-03 10:31:00 Step 1 in acquiring domain names is thinking of a good name that isn't already taken and then actually registering the domain.Thinking of a Good Name:This is the hard part. Basically every normal word in the dictionary is already taken. So then you have to start thinking up acronyms or juxtapose 2 words together that no one has thought of doing yet. Another good source? Slang. Normal words are already taken, but new slang gets invented every day. How do you check if a name is already taken? You can use Whois (here) but they will limit you to a certain number of checks per day. Where else can you turn? A domain registration service will also be able to check for you.Registering Your Domain Name:There are several domain registration services out there. I use Dreamhost. And have had pretty good success with them. They also have a nice referral program. If you'd like to sign up with Dreamhost, use the link (here) and use coupon code "JCKING" for a free lifetime domain registr Read more:Names
The Article That Started It All 2007-10-02 16:01:00 Business 2.0 was one of my favorite magazines of all time. By the time I finished reading an issue, half the magazine was earmarked with articles and blurbs about interesting new startup companies.Some of you may already be familiar with my other blog, The Beantown Bloggery. That has turned out to be lots of fun. The inspiration for that blog came after I read about all the blogs out there that were making tons of money: johnchow.com, engadget.com, perezhilton.com. I wanted my piece of the blog advertising pie. But at the same time, I wanted to create something that would be useful to me (it helps me to know whats going on in Boston) and be useful to the readers out there.Anyway, I digress. The article that I'm referring to was a Business 2.0 cover story on internet domainer Kevin Ham (here). I found it to be very interesting and very inspirational. If you want the short version, here it is: Kevin Ham owns ~300,000 domain names and makes roughly $70 million dollars a year bec Read more:Article
Using Blogger As Free and Easy Hosting 2007-10-12 04:17:00 Like I was saying last time, If you register brand new domain names, they're not going to have any traffic. So, the next best thing to do is to convert your domain into a website. If you don't know anything about website development, the easiest way to do it is to use a blogging service like Blogger
(owned by Google). That's what I'm using to host the Financial Lust blog. It's pretty straightforward to get everything setup. The first thing you'd do is go to Blogger and start a new blog. You'll pick a name and they'll assign you a sign like "yourname.blogspot.com"Then there's 2 more things you need to do:1 is to go to your service that you used to register your domain name (Dreamhost in my case) and set it up so that the domain's DNS settings and create a new CNAME record. Don't worry if that sounds like bunch of gibberish to you right now. Step by Step instructions can be found (here). Or if you run into problems, email your hosting service, and they can help too.2nd Read more:Hosting
Domain Parking 101 2007-10-06 21:19:00 So you've read through some of the articles on Namepros.com, you've registered yourself a few domain names or purchased a few 2nd hand ones that already have traffic (preferred). What's next? Parking
your domains.Here's the wikipedia definition:Domain parking is an advertising practice used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting an under-developed domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a page containing relevant advertising listings and links. These links will be targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor and may change dynamically based on the results that visitors click on. Usually the domain owner is paid based on how many links have been visited (e.g. pay per click) and on how beneficial those visits have been. Like I said in my previous post, the keyword here is "type-in traffic." That's why the more generic your domain name, the better. No one is ever going to type in "pleasecomet
Iphone.com Sold For Over $1 Million 2007-10-22 09:59:00 So the most valuable names out there are generic words. The shorter the better. Because of this, open a dictionary, pick a word, and that domain name is going to be registered already. Take for instance the story behind beer.com. Click (here) to read the history. It was originally purchased in 1999 by the Internet Real Estate Group right (here) in Boston for $80K. They then developed the website and turned around and resold beer.com for $7 Million.Because all the generic words out there are already taken, what's left? Inventing new words. Take the story of iphone.com for instance. Michael Kovatch registered it back in 1995 thinking that it might one day be a useful domain name. Fast forward 12 years and the iphone is now a household name. As a result: Kovatch sold the domain name for over $1 Million. Assuming it cost him 10 bucks a year to keep the name registered, that's $120 investment to make over a million. The ROI on that is amazing. Click (here) for the story.
Fabulous.com Domain Parking 2007-10-21 20:03:00 I thought that I'd share a few findings on another one of the domain parking sites out there: Fabulous.com. I don't have any personal experience with Fabulous yet, but here's what I've found from others:Requirements: 1. They mostly take only .com and .net sites. 2. You have to have at least 50 sites to be accepted.What is it good for? Several people have posted that they have had good experience using Fabulous with gambling websites. I don't have any gambling-themed domain names, nor do I have 50 sites yet in my portfolio. I'm more in the 25-30 range right now. So I guess it'll be a little while longer before I can check out Fabulous and let you know how well it does. Read more:Parking
Domain Parking Revenues So Far 2007-11-02 10:57:00 I read something recently on the bulletin boards that makes domain ownership sound strikingly similar to real estate ownership. Someone suggested that a good first goal for the first year is to aim to make back the $10 that you spent registering the domain.In essence, you want the 'renter' to pay for your mortgage. Prior to doing all this reading, I thought to myself, "$10 in a year per site? That should be no problem." Well, I think I'm wrong. It's going to be a lot harder than I thought to break even.As of today, I have made a total of 62 cents using Namedrive and Sedo. I own 30 domains. It's seemingly quite pathetic. Only $299.38 more to earn before I break even.What's the lesson? There is no free lunch. I'm starting to view domain parking more like a patent than anything else. I own it, so that nobody else can. In the future, when I have more time, hopefully I will be able to do something with my domains, but for now, I'm just going to hold onto them. Read more:Parking
, Revenues
Removed My List of Domains 2007-11-06 12:17:00 You may have noticed that I've removed my list of domains from the left side of this page. Apparently, it is a violation of the Terms of Service for parking services for you to redirect traffic to your parked pages in any way.What does that mean? That means you can't use google adwords or any other such advertising mechanism to drive traffic to your parked pages. Also, this means you can't do what I did and have a list of your domains displayed anywhere.If you get caught, your parking service is within their rights to terminate your account. Live and learn each day.Man, type-in traffic sure is hard to come by. Read more:Domains
Being a Virtual Juror 2007-11-22 22:42:00 Well, I took my own advice from yesterday and checked out both Ejury.com and OnlineVerdict.com. While reading the FAQ sections, I found that ejury says they pay $5-$10 per case and OnlineVerdict.com pays $20-$60 per case.So I'm sure you're thinking the same thing as me - why would anyone ever use ejury? I concluded to sign up for OnlineVerdict and did so. Sign up process is easy. If you're in the legal profession or related to a lawyer by blood/marriage you can't use these websites - sorry.After I signed up, I learned a little more about how the process works. Once you sign up to be a virtual juror, the site will contact you when they have a case for you to review. It's not like they have a bunch of cases sitting there that you can choose from and just spend your off hours working on them. It's a sit and wait kind of game.Since this was the case, now I understand why you would sign up for both services. If you have to sit and wait for cases to spring up, then being a memb Read more:Juror
PayPerPost.com 2007-12-07 23:48:00 PayPerPost.com is a website that pays you to post about certain topics. Each topic has a certain dollar amount assigned to it. So far, I've accepted 5 'assignments' from PPP and I've made almost $80 doing it. Pretty good if you ask me.The Beantown Bloggery (my other blog) has a pagerank of 3 so the range of opportunities I have on PPP goes from about $5 for a post to $15 for a post. I try to stick with posts that are at least somewhat relevant to my blog and pay somewhere between $10-$15.Considering that I'm still only making an average of $2 a day on Google Adsense, getting paid $10 for one blog post is pretty awesome. As your pagerank increases, you'll get higher paying opportunities. They have some topics that pay upwards of $250 per post! Unfortunately, I'm not qualified for those yet.If you're interested, use the link below to join and check out PayPerPost. Note, your blog has to be up for at least 3 months before they'll accept you. Once you get accepted, the fi Read more:PayPerPost
Best CD Out There - Countrywide 5.50% 2007-12-19 14:20:00 I just heard that EmigrantDirect (where I keep my Savings Account) just dropped to 4.65% today. It's down from 5.05% from earlier this year before the Fed started lowering rates.As a result, for the first time in my life, I've put some of my money into a CD. The best rate out there right now is with Countrywide
Bank. Yes I know what you're thinking - Countrywide could go under any day now thanks to the subprime debacle. I am aware of that, but their CD's are FDIC insured and I'm nowhere near topping out over the 100K limit for FDIC insurance.I signed on for a 3 month CD at 5.50%. You can too. More information (here) at their official website.Happy Saving!
E-Rewards Update 2007-12-14 17:56:00 Wow, so about a week or two has gone by since I posted about E-rewards and I've actually earned a significant amount. Whenever an email about a survey comes in, I do them - but usually I answer a few preliminary questions and then I get told that I don't meet the criteria to take the whole survey.So I'm sitting at the Chicago O'Hare airport right now, just did two more quick surveys and decided to check my balance. I have $27.90 in my account now. I'm off to catch my plane, but when I get back, I'm going to try to redeem $15 of it for Borders and go get myself a book. I'll let everyone know how it pans out.Cheers! Read more:Rewards
, Update
Commission Junction 2007-12-11 14:10:00 Commission Junction
is another advertiser that I've been playing with. It's been ok so far, I've made about $90 from them to date. Commission Junction is what they call a "pay-per-action" advertiser whereas other companies like Google Adsense are pay-per-click. Obviously if you're website reader is performing some sort of action, it pays a lot better. For the most part some sort of transaction is taking place. The customer is signing up for a service, or he's buying something. In return, you get a commission.Some of the advertisers I'm currently using are: Comcast, Stubhub.com, and FreeCreditReport.com. It's tough with a blog to convince readers to sign up for something. I think it'd be a lot easier for deal websites like Fatwallet.com where readers are going there to look up good deals on products. These guys are already intending to buy something afterall.Fatwallet is a great example. Look at their cashback directory (here). Assuming for each cashback rebate that t Read more:Commission
, Commission Junction
Fatwallet Finance - CD Ladders 2007-12-24 09:23:00 Fatwallet.com is one of the best sites out there. I've been using it for several years now. Today, I'm going to focus on the Finance portion of the site. I'll talk about the shopping aspect on a later date.You know that best CD out there post that I made previously on Countrywide's 5.50% Guess where I found it? That's right, Fatwallet. Fatwallet is a forum/bulletin board that has gained in popularity exponentially over the past few years. The January issue of Money Magazine even mentions it as one of the best money websites out there.Click (here) for a fairly comprehensive list of the best CD rates available. Using this list, you can make a CD ladder of any interval you want. Don't know what a CD ladder is? I'll explain.Typically, longer term CD's yield better interest rates. A CD ladder helps you get the best rates while still keeping your money fairly liquid. Here's the theory. Open a 3 month, 6 month, and 9 month CD - all at the same time. When your 3 month CD Read more:Ladders
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