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Archive for November, 2010

Today I’ve got a great method that can make you big money by turning niche websites and domain names into easy sales. Sounds like any other sales pitch right? Well I’m not charging :razz: , so sit back and let me know what you think.

The  Costs:

  • Domain Name (~$8) — Buy from 1and1
  • Web Hosting (~$40/yr) — Buy from HostGator

The Benefits:

  • $100-$1000+ per website  sold… remember, your one hosting account at HostGator can hold every site you make!

The payoff and profit potential is pretty clear, and if you do this time & time again you will net yourself a huge profit margin on every dollar you invest. Eventually, your only real cost is the domain names you purchase… and you can grab them for under $10 nowadays.

The Method

No need for fluff material here, let’s get into the ten steps:

Step One: Idea Generation
The first thing that I want you to do is take out a pad of paper and a pen. Take five minutes and think about a dozen or so different types of businesses. This could be anything from a “racing company” to a “florist” so use your imagination!

Step Two: Get Local!
In order to make this profitable and not just like any other domain flipping technique, what we are going to do is add a little local flare to it. Choose one town or local city (think somewhat mid-size like “Detroit” or “Georgetown”), and keep in mind that this doesn’t need to be necessarily where you live.

Step Three: Combination Domain Names
The next move for you to make, and the most important, is to find a domain name combining your business with your location. For example, I could have “GeorgetownFlorist.com” or “DetroitRacing.com”. The hard part is finding names that aren’t already taken,  so it may take awhile for you to manually input combinations into a domain registrar website. One solution is to use software like Domain Name Analyzer (available for free here) to search combos out for you.

Step Four: Adding A Word
Knowing that most of your combination domain names might already be taken, you should experiment with adding short words to get something unique that you can register. Try adding words like “best” or “in” (example: “FloristsInGeorgetown.com” or “BestDetroitRacing.com”)! The software we showed you above can help you combine names and hopefully find a great one.

Step Five: Search It Out
Now we are going to see if we have a winner… go ahead and take the domain names that you just created and enter them into Google. What you are looking for is the ads on the right-hand side — the domain names that have more sponsored links are the ones you should use. For example “Best Detroit Racing” showed no sponsored results… but “Florists In Georgetown” had quite a few, including a local business which is even better!)

Step Six: Registration
Step Six is pretty simple, log into 1and1.com (for $8 domain names) or GoDaddy (usually more like $10, but there are more coupons) to register the domain name(s) that you have selected! :D

Step Seven: Record Contact Information
Now you need to go to each website and grab the contact information for the site’s owner. This is why any kind of small business will be especially good for the method. If necessary, use iwhois.com to figure out who bought the domain name.

Step Eight: Make a Blog for Each Domain Name
You don’t need anything special, in fact it probably won’t take more than 10 minutes if you know what you are doing. With HostGator, you can install WordPress blogs through their CPanel administrative backend with one click.  What goes on the actual website? Just put the names and contact information about the businesses you just grabbed in step seven! Don’t forget to edit out the big store names — if you only put mom & pop stores you will be much better off. The headline and title of your website will be your domain name phrase (i.e. “Florists In Georgetown”).

Interestingly enough, very simplified websites like these will index into Google quickly. It’s not uncommon to see the target phrase in the top 5 for your keyword within the week — but even if it doesn’t get there immediately don’t panic! You can always do some quick article writing or basic marketing to boost your rank.

Step Nine: Send Emails to Prospective Buyers
Good afternoon Mom&PopGeorgetownFlorist.com, I just noticed that you are paying Google to sponsor ads for your keywords. You can boost your rankings even more by buying my website, which is already ranked for your keyword. I’m number 3 and 4 in the rankings and am currently providing traffic to you and all your competitors. Whoever buys the site will get exclusive traffic rights and score better exposure online!

Naturally your actual email should be more formal, but it just goes to show that you really have a great opportunity for all of these small business owners. Be sure to put your real full name, address and email so that they can respond to you… and definitely include unique information about their business in the message so they know you aren’t spamming.

Step Ten: Sell The Thing!
This is my favorite step… just sit back and wait for the offers to come in. Feel free to make other websites in your spare time. I think the whole process start to finish should take around 3 hours, and you can easily make hundreds on every sell if you find a niche that is competitive enough.

If you enjoyed this free tutorial, don’t forget to share it with your friends!
-Jimvesting.com

I just got an email from Hostgator’s sales department detailing an outrageous offer they are promoting for Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). If you’ve been reading, you know that I have been pretty bearish on Black Friday in 2010… but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t deals to be had.

If you are reading this blog, chances are you either own a website or you are planning on getting a business/blog started. The web host that I have been using for this website almost since inception has been HostGator, and they have been gracious enough to run promotions with my blog and even offer unique coupon codes. The bottom line is that HostGator is the absolute best on the web, and if you are running a network of blogs it is the most reliable, most affordable and most feature-heavy package in the world.

Black Friday Deals

Details of what HostGator is offering are below, be advised that this starts in a few hours on November 26th, 2010, and will only run until midnight (Central Time)!

  • 80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM to 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)
  • From 9AM to 11:59PM CST OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, we will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING

This applies to ALL Accounts and ALL Term Lengths. So you will have the opportunity to receive up to 80% off of up to 3 years worth of Hosting! That would come out to $35.64 for 3 FULL YEARS! That includes Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting AND even Dedicated Servers! Never before has HostGator allowed the promotion on EVERYTHING including reseller, vps and dedicated servers AND ALL Term Lengths.

Interested? Check out the deals here!

This promotion gives our customers our award winning hosting for as little as:

  • Shared Hosting: $4.95/month AS LOW AS $0.99/month
  • Reseller Hosting: $24.95/month AS LOW AS $4.99/month
  • VPS Hosting: $19.95/month AS LOW AS $3.99 First Month
  • Dedicated Servers: $174/month AS LOW AS $34.80 First Month”

If you’ve ever wanted or needed web hosting, Black Friday at HostGator is literally the best deal I’ve ever seen. Go snag it if you can! ;)

-Jimvesting

The focus of the week ahead is going to be on what happens to the retailers on Friday… the infamous day after Thanksgiving where sales are plentiful and the consumer typically comes out in full-force. With people lined up around the block at your local Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart, everyone tries to get a piece of the action. Heck, even Coca-Cola has made a splash in years past by selling energy drinks and sodas to people waiting up at 3AM to be the first in line.

What’s New This Year?

This year, I wouldn’t expect the results to be very hot. Why? Stores are doing everything that they can to beat competitors on sales — Toys R’ Us, for example, is going to open to Black Friday sales at 10:00PM Thanksgiving night and stay open for 24 hours straight. Similarly, many U.S. department stores have moved their opening times forward by more than an hour.

Is a race for time a bullish indicator of sales? I would argue that it is not. Does opening at 3AM instead of 4AM actually boost sales? I would have to believe anyone out there that early is going to go shopping regardless… you are simply shifting sales that are practically in the bag to earlier times of the day. Anyone who wants to shop on Black Friday is going to get that opportunity — which is why I believe personally that this year will be bigger for Amazon.com and other online-focused shops than it will be for any physical stores.

Where are the deals?
Deal-hunters should check out the web’s #1 coupon site, SlickDeals.net. They have a Black Friday section that I will likely monitor for unique deals throughout the week. If there is something lucrative out there, this site is going to be the first to find it.

What are the Hot Sellers This Season?

I’ve taken a look through some Black Friday ad scans, as provided by SlickDeals.net, and have identified the following list of products that should sell well next weekend. If you are an internet marketer, it would be in your best interest to design campaigns that run off of the success of these consumer products:

  • Mobile Phones (always a big winner on Black Friday):
    • Notables: Samsung Fascinate, Intensity II; Droid Incredible; Pantech Laser; LG Optimus S
  • Flat-Screen Televisions:
    • Notables: Panasonic Viera; Samsung LEDs; Toshiba LCDs
  • E-Readers:
    • Notables: Barnes & Noble Nook; Pandigital Novel
    • I do not believe the Kindle will sell well, they seem to be targeting Christmas and have already dropped their price down to $139
  • Toys:
    • iPod Touch, Toy Story 3, Transformers, Barbie

Conclusion: The trends are light in general this year… and I think unless Amazon unveils a new price decrease for Black Friday shoppers in their Amazon Kindle e-Reader, it is going to be a very bad shopping year across the board. Deals are pretty scarce at this point (was much more active by this point in time last year), and I think retailers are hesitant to drop prices and kill their margins because the buying volume just isn’t there to make up for lower profits. The U.S. Savings Rate is up near all time highs, and the consumer is cautious — I’m bearish overall on Black Friday shopping and believe it will miss expectations.

-Jimvesting.com

20 Nov 2010

Black Friday Trends to Watch

Author: Jim | Filed under: Marketing