Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

For those of you who don’t know, BlogCatalog.com was recently sold over at sitepoint marketplace forums for a whopping $40,000. The site itself is one of the biggest and best directories for blogs around, very well known, the name itself is very brandable and worth a bit.

On top of that the site makes $1700 a month on what I would consider very very very minimal ad placement. Someone could take the traffic blog catalog sees and turn it into a very profitable service without ruin the clean look. An entrepreneur could do this and do it well.

$40,000 / $1700 = 23.5 months earnings. Are blogs going to be around for the next two years? Chances are very good. Could the new owners expand blog catalog to offer more services to bring users back, increase new traffic and use a better monetization scheme to make more money that $1700 a month? Definitely.

And I didn’t even mention that the $1700 was purely from AdSense. AdSense that’s placed on average, one time per page!

So what can we learn from this recent website sale and transaction. Well, by the small case study I’ve provided above you can see several things, some of which I point out in my recent buying domain names article. The person who bought this site bought a lightly monetized site, with huge potential. They bought it at a relatively low earnings multiple considering the outlook that blogs are here to stay. No matter who says the blog bubble might burst.

I haven’t even mentioned the biggest part of buying blog catalog. Not only do you buy the biggest blog directory you also buy what amounts to a ginormous and very focused email list. Everyone who submits to the Blog Catalog needs to give their email address. Now I just google searched my gmail and noticed that I only recieved emails from the time that I submitted. That’s it.

You have to see the potential in other aspects of websites. Forums, directory submissions, blogs and sites with lists like this, all of those can be monetized from so many directions. You just have to be creative. The new owner could put together a sweet eBook, like the “AdSense is Dead” eBook, that I imagine really didn’t say a whole lot to help you make more from (sorry I didn’t read it so I can’t do a great review.)

You can also use that new list to launch other websites, products, and more! By buying a site like that you open up so many more possibilities by giving you a huge audience. You have to try and see all the possibilites that a website acquisition could bring you.

I would imagine that it completely depends on your application but while I tinker with my blog layout I’m also considering what the best design is for different optimization routes.

I’ve recently displayed my disgruntled-ness over text-link-ads.com, mainly why aren’t they selling as well as others. I chalked it up to, after snooping the TLA listed pages, to the fact that it seems pretty random which blogs get more links than others.

Some people have commented that I sold another link, and you can see that yes it’s true. But I must confess, I sent out about 15 emails to people that I noticed bought links on other sites until I finally got one to bite. And trust me it ain’t price, I’m still at the cheapest in TLA.

But I digress….

The real reason for writing this post is to consider and look at what others do and how well they’re TLA spots are selling as well as other factors in selling more space and over all giving the professional blogging look.

The first blaring difference between blogs that sell a lot of TLA space and my blog is that they have their ads in a single sidebar on the left-hand side of the page. Some examples are Flee the Cube, Blotrepreneur, Problogger. OK, the last one really isn’t fair.

But I ask you this is there something to a single left-hand bar?

Will I gain more advertisers? does it look cleaner? I’m not sure, I’ve played with both and dig the two-bar righty but I’m no optimizing wizard and would rather not re-invent the wheel. Which brings me to the fact that b5media, weblogsinc, and Yaro over at Entrepreneurs Journey all have double right-hand sidebars, but….

They have traffic too. I like the way the double right looks. It puts your content up front and center in the viewing path but does it hurt your bottom line?

As I mentioned I’m no expert, so I’d love your opinions?

Blogs are great, that we know. They organize information and personal stories chronologically and in categories. They are relatively easy to develop. You really don’t have to know anything about the Internet or about coding to even get one started. Heck you can set one up, throw some ads on it, write your life story, and make money, for free! (Minus of course the painstaking hours it takes building content, and even that you can find for free at places like wikipedia and article sites.)

But blogs can be so much more than just a place to easily organize your life story that people may or may not want to read. If your building a news resource, unlike newspapers, your readers have the opportunity to comment right on your article in real-time. There’s essentially not waiting for the “write to the editor” editing process. Those people that write on your blog post in real-time can become your community.

But what are you doing for your community in return?

First off, hopefully you’re providing some sort of useful writing, be it inspirational or entertaining, or just providing some inside knowledge you have to help them build a skill they’ve always wanted to build. This is the first step to giving back to a community that may or may not be giving back to you.

But you can do so much more than just providing useful content.

I was recently tipped off to a great idea over at Flee The Cube about showing off your top commentors and letting their html links, if they choose to provide one, be linked through their names. Although I couldn’t get the widget he used to work on my blog I was able to track one down via Google that does essentially the same showing of top commentors.

What this does is encourage your readers to leave feedback and comments and build a dialogue after your posts by providing them with great Google juice from the link and also traffic juice if you receive enough hits on your site.

Of course at first you’ll need to have some commentable posts that people care to read and leave feedback on. However, once you get going, and enough people are inclined to leave feedback on your blog and read your posts, and leave more feedback, you’ll begin to see conversations within your post comments that may or may not pertain directly to the post. Either way, it allows thoughts to flow and it provides your readers a service.

And you can do even more for your readers….

Not only can you show off your top commentors by giving them good visible link spots, you can also join a service that is really beginning to take off in the blogosphere. It’s called My Blog Log and it helps you automagically build a community around your blog.

Some of you may have noticed recently in the far right sidebar I’ve added a box that displays pictures of people who are “Recent Readers” of Board Shorts and Business Suits. Those pictures are of people who also have My Blog Log accounts and profiles. Every time they visit my blog their picture gets moved to the top. If they view it enough times they are automagically added to my My Blog Log community of readers.

Or, even better, they can join my community by going to my profile at My Blog Log and joining right away. Something I encourage all of you to do.

By having people join my community they’ll then have it noted on their profiles that they are in my blogs community giving me just one more opportunity to attract a visitor to my blog. In return my readers get their profile and thus a link to their profile in the top every time they visit.

Lastly, don’t be a spectator!

What I mean is don’t sit around and watch your readers leave comments. If you do they won’t stick around very long leaving comments. They’ll read what they want and peace out. Of course if you have a massive amount of traffic your readers will just leave comments to get a free link back to their own site. If this was the case you probably wouldn’t be reading a post about building a community.

So comment back. Even if the comments aren’t directed towards you. Join the banter. The great thing about blogs is there’s a relatively easy to get a hold of person on the other end of all the writing and if you make an appearance in your comments section people will feel a connection, no matter how small it is, and want to come back. They’ll feel you care, and you should care!

Blogs are expanding from just an easy way to organize and publish content to a way to build a community on the web. You don’t want to get left behind so help build your community by using the free tools that people make available to you. You’ll be happy you did.

Previously I posted about the best blogging cartoon ever. It was a great cartoon from Family Circus and still ranks pretty high.

Here’s another that I just got via email from a friend who scanned in their daily calendar cover from The New Yorker.

Decide for yourself which is the best?

OK, this is really nothing compared to the big boys and girls out there in the blogosphere but I had to share my excitement. I haven’t had many huge milestones in the blogging world, although I’ve made progress, so I have to take each one with a bit of joy when I hit them. 

This week was a good week as I’ve found a few new ways to promote my blog network and I’ve been able to align better where I want to take that network. I’ve also been working on this blog by focusing more of the effort on what I’m trying to accomplish. Become a true entrepreneur.

With that I’ve hit really two milestones this week. One, I’ve averaged over 200 Unique visitors a day for the past week, and two I’ve finally reached 100+ RSS subscribers. Although that subscriber number is always in flux, hitting it once is surely moving in the right direction.

One of the main reasons this site is getting more traffic (aside from the obvious stumble phenomenon) is because I’ve focused more on providing something useful for my readers, rather than solely reflecting on what I’ve done. My most recent 5 Part Series about Buying and Selling Domain Names has been picked up by several people, dugg, and has provided me with a lot of traffic. Sure I’ve let the cat out of the bag on a few things I do to make a great return, but I’ve provided something useful and that is what brings readers in and keeps them.

I’m really taking a liking and learning about SEO and site promotion and I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned as I go along so be sure to look for more helpful series.

Ever since I started hiring bloggers to blog for Blogtown Press I’ve been focusing my efforts on promoting and marketing the blogs within the network. I thought blogging was time consuming!

Marketing and promoting blogs consists, in my mind, of two groups. You want to gain readers, and if you’re in it for a monetary payoff, you want to gain advertisers as well. Gaining ground in both of these areas is a very time consuming job and you’ll need a lot of patience to see it through.

When I first started out blogging I had one blog, this one. I exchanged links by asking doing the usual: contacting like-minded bloggers with similar content and asking, no, begging, for link exchanges to promote my blog and boost Google Page Rank (PR). I did good for about two months and then it got really old. Once it got really old, my traffic got really stagnant. And it kept that way until about 2 months ago when I hired on some other bloggers and have been able to focus the bulk of my efforts on building traffic and gaining advertisers.

Although my efforts in both these categories aren’t nearly as “expert” as others claim to be I’m working towards learning all the ins and outs of SEO and the enticement of visitors. Blogging is fun, but watching traffic grow as you work behind the scenes can be just as rewarding.

If you are new to blogging, or old to blogging, chances are you’ve seen a few blog posts about SEO and you’ve probably tried to build your Google search results ranking before. But as I mentioned it can get old really quick. Stick with it! It becomes more and more rewarding the further along you go. Sure you’ll hit some lulls and you’ll probably loose ranking and then gain ranking. Don’t complain about Google screwing you, do something about it and try and figure out why, then fix it.

To help you out I found this great article over at Problogger.net posted by Darren’s guest poster Tony Hung all about how to market your blog. In it he lists and describes 41 ways you can use to market your blog, or website for that matter. Below is a list of my 3 favorites, but there’s plenty more.

1. Spend time to create links and trackbacks - This works, no matter how much you don’t think so, over time, it works
2. Get Your MyBlogLog widget - I just started this one after reading this article, seems simple and automagically gets the word out about your blog.
3. Get Dugg / Netscaped / Reddited / Stumbled upon - Gotta do this one, if you don’t you’ll be left behind.

There are a ton of ways you can market your blog. You just have to trust what you read about SEO and follow through. Doing one or two exchanges is great, but have you stumbled something, join a network, written about someone else’s post, tried to make a friend, participated in forums, commented? You have to do it all if you want to get your blog to the top of the blogosphere.

It takes time, I work on it for literally hours every night. And I’m only now seeing the payoff after 2 months straight. I plan on keeping it up and so should you.

Buying and selling domain names for profit is a rather new mainstream phenomenon. One that has been written about widely ever since the major story in Business 2.0 titled “Master of their Domains”. Although the act of buying and selling domain names for profit has been around. Tons of people, like anything that makes you a quick buck, are jumping in full force.

In this little five part series I have mentioned only one major way you can buy and sell domain names for profit. There are many more ways to monetize a domain name than just parking a name. Although, parking is the least time consuming method to a quick buck. There’s of course building the name with content, playing the SEO game to get your domain and site to the top of the Google Search list. There’s also building a community of readers and contributors, which is rather popular right now with MySpace making all the headlines. There’s also a plethora of ways you can make money on the Internet, buying domains and creating revenue with them, that I haven’t come close to touching on. There’s probably tons that aren’t even thought of (at least I hope so).

Since the bulk of this series is on buying and selling domain names that you park, I’m going to focus on that for right now, and where I think those types of names will go.

In the short-term, 6 months to a year, I think domaining will be strong. Internet users will still type-in names in their browsers, they’ll still mistype some of those names and advertisers will still pay for people to click through on ads placed on these pages. There won’t be an overnight extinction of parked pages.

However, as browsers move forward, these sites, parking pages, which most Internet users not in the parking game have grown to know and hate, will become harder and harder to monetize. One big problem is that browsers might come equipped with fishing, and third-party site announcers. Meaning you’ll be warned that you are being taken to a known third-party site, like a parking site, do you want to proceed. Specifically targeting typo’s

In fact Microsoft has just the service to help you out. Which, being a domainer I hate to promote or even show where they exist, but the service is called Stryder and is written about here.

But that isn’t going to bring the world crashing down on domainers. Of course some of the prices of domains are getting a little out of control. Like any business, if you can’t realize a return from a purchase, ie spending more than you make, you’ll go out of business. The market will take care of itself if it gets out of control. Be it a bubble or just a gradual realization that prices are too high.

The key thing with domain names is how much money do they make and what’s the brandability of the name. If a domain name gets traffic, someone can always find a way to monetize that traffic. If you can show that the traffic, provided by a domain name, brings you money, you’ll be able to put a price on the domain.

I don’t have to send my domain name visitors to a parking page, it’s just the easiest thing to do right now. Eventually, if browsers wise up to the game and people enjoy the popup that asks if you want to proceed to a parked page (I for one would get annoyed and disable the thing), then I’ll find a different way to make money from the traffic.

The last thing that might hurt domainers are laws being passed about trademark cases with typo’s. This could hurt the “big-little” business of typo squatters where the easiest money is. I’m not going to get to far into this one since I don’t know that much about the legalities of trademark infringement on typo’s. It’s a sticky situation with probably more than one right answer.

Overall, I feel the art of buying and selling domain names for profit is here to stay. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, and the only way to navigate the net is from an address. Domain names give you a unique and sometimes brandable address that can make you a small fortune if the game is played right.

Yes Google may be trying to make searching the net without a domain name easier and easier. However, you shouldn’t fear that, they’ll never be able to make it easier than say, typing in Google. There’s too much clutter with all these blogs (guilty) cluttering the search results. Once a users finds a useful resource they’re bound to bookmark it, or type it in again. As long as you buy and sell domain names wisely, you’ll be able to make a few dollars in the business. Who knows, maybe you’ll make a lot more than a few.

OK, so I’m going to let a little bit of the cat out of the bag with this one. My method isn’t rocket science and it isn’t like I’m getting crazy go nuts lucky. Even without the big sale in December that I mentioned in Part II, I would have still made a 76% ROI this year just on month to month earnings.

Note: If you haven’t read the first 3 sections in this series start at the front and and link through there with:
Part I - How to Make Money Buying and Selling Domain Names

On to the good stuff. I use a type of value investing approach to buying and selling domain names. I look for names that people want to offload quickly and are willing to let go for cheaper than if they waited around for the right buyer. With so many domain names out there there are plenty of these that get bought and sold every day, so don’t think it’s that tough to find your diamond in the rough.

I try and follow these basic steps:

1. Reduce Risk by requiring at least 3 months revenue stats
2. Long term outlook and limiting seasonality
3. Limit exposure to potential trademark infringements
4. Buy at a low earnings Multiple

By following these 4 steps I’ve been able to make a pretty decent return in 6 months and so should you.

1. Reducing Risk by Requiring At Least 3 Months Revenue Stats

The main way I reduce the riskiness of the names I buy is by requiring proof of 3 months of revenue and traffic stats or more. Now a lot of names are bought and sold based off of only a months revenue stats. I’m not going to say that I won’t buy a domain name with only a month stats proof, but I try and limit the number of these names that I purchase. (For more on stats see Part II)

By requiring proof that the domain name has had traffic and revenue for at least 3 months you can better assume that the traffic and revenue will continue as such in the future. This is especially useful for typo domains. Since typo domains aren’t really useful without the non-typo domain name, they don’t really hold any “intrinsic value.” You can’t really put a price on it like you could something brandable such as BeachBums.com or something like that.

If you know a domain name has made money in the past you can better predict it’s earnings in the future. This isn’t fool proof as you’ll see with the next section. Some names that are typo’s could come crashing down on you and you’ll loose your initial investment.

2. Long Term Outlook and Limiting Seasonality

If you are buying a type-in and especially a typo you need to look at the staying power of the name. If it’s a typo you need to take extra care that the real name your domain name is a typo of will stick around. There is no set way to do this but if you’re getting into the business of buying typos you need to get good at this. You can do overture traffic analysis, look at the PR, the links, is it in the news, is it membership based, is the membership growing?

These are only a few of the things you can look at but they are the main ones I look at when buying a domain name. You need to come up with a good method to make a reasonable inference as to the domain names staying power (if it’s a typo) or to it’s value as a brandable name.

If the name is a direct type-in you’ll need to usually concern yourself with if it’s a fad or not. Is the name going to continue to be popular and warrant people typing it into their browser? Does the name show up in search engine results near the top? The same can be said about typos as well.

Another similar thing to look at is the seasonality of the domain name. What I mean is does the name only get high traffic in a particular season. You can check that out on Alexa if the site is popular enough. Is it about lodges in a ski town? Do people look for bikini’s all year round? Be careful of these names and be sure to check the dates on the stats you are shown. Sometimes they’ll show you 6 months at a time but for the last 3 months the name hasn’t received any hits because it’s about a small town called Punxsutawney.

3. Limit Exposure to Potential Trademark Infringements

Buying a name like GooglePics.com Might put you smack in front of a C&D letter from those guys at Google, so weigh out what the potential risk you face that the company involved in the infringement portion might want to come after you. Especially if they have a history of doing so.

Check around on the forums and look at how much traffic the name gets. If it only gets a few visitors and is small potatoes the infringed company probably won’t want to waste their time and resources on you. But maybe they will. It’s all a guessing game there. Plus I don’t really know the exact rulings that would occur if you tried to claim that yes Google owns Google put I’m trademarking the whole word GooglePics. Thank goodness for no spaces in web addresses.

Best thing to do is ask a lawyers opinion, or take the risk.

4. Buy at Low Earnings Multiples

This is the big one. You have to be patient and wait for deals. The easiest thing to do is to get excited and buy a name because it seems like a good deal but you end up buying at a high price and increase your risk.

If you assume that in the worst case scenario you won’t be able to sell the domain to anyone even though it continues to make money, how long will it take to make your money back. That’s the risk of it all. If, at current earnings based off your work in step 1, you buy the domain name at 10 times monthly earnings your risk is a lot lower than if you buy the domain at 20 times monthly earnings.

The risk comes in because you never can be 100% sure that your traffic and thus revenue will stay. The Internet is a crazy beast and a liquid one at best. It moves and shakes on a moments notice.

The best advice I can give you is to wait it out. Buy value. Just look at the return I made if you need proof. I could buy at high multiples, without proof, and without knowing if the name is going to have any staying power, but that would be just crazy talk.

In Part V I’ll be looking at what I think the future of domain name investing is.

Make sure you check out the first two articles in this series:
Part I - How to make Money Buying and Selling Domain Names
Part II - My 65% ROI Buying and Selling Domain Names 

Getting started in domaining or domain name investing can be as easy as going over to your favorite registrar and registering a domain name. But how do you value a domain, how do you know it will make money, how can you get in above the basement floor?

I’ve tried my hat at buying typos, buying what I thought would be good type-ins, and in both cases failed miserably. Unless you have a bit of time for research, or feel as thought you’re a lucky person. Buying domain names like this isn’t going to be the easiest way to enter domain name investing and make money right away.

Bonus Tip: Some might already know this but you can buy massive amounts of domain names (called bulk registering) at moniker.com, and they let you drop the name in the first 4 days for only the $0.25 ICANN regsitration fee. This can be a great way to find domains that make money, typos or type-ins and not spend a lot doing so. I don’t want to spend the time or money doing this but if you got the time, try it out.

Instead you need to search out domain names that already have proven traffic and possibly even proven revenue. To do this you can go to several places. My personal choices are three dedicated domaining forums:

NamePros.com
DNForum.com
DomainState.com

I’ve listed the forums in the order of my preference. Namepros is a great forum that is completely free. You don’t have pay a subscription or membership fee to start posting and dealing with other members in the forum. The second one, DN Forum, is a great forum, but to start a thread in any of the marketplace forums you have to pay a fee. The cheapest fee for this forum is $30. Not bad if you want to get your names to a large traffic very active forum. However, DN Forum will allow you to post in the marketplace forums in response to threads, and also you can PM and deal with users for free. The last forum up there, Domain State, is a good forum, but doesn’t have as much traffic as the other two.

The other forums you can buy names at that are big time are Site Point and Digital Point. These two forums are very very large with many active members but they aren’t domaining dedicated. Therefor, you may be able to find some deals there but there just won’t be as many names as the first three that I mentioned.

How to Buy From the Forums

The way you conduct business at these forums is pretty simple but comes with risk. A user posts a domain they have for sale, listing any traffic or revenue if applicable, and then lists a price or accepts offers. People post questions, post offers, and post comments about the name within the forum thread that was started. This can go back and forth for a while until the seller and one buyer agree on a price or someone can just buy it quickly and end the sale.

Here’s where the risk comes in. Once that is official the seller and buyer usually private message (PM) each other their paypal and registrar information. The buyer then sends the money to the sellers paypal account. Once the payment is confirmed, the seller then pushes or transfers the domain to the buyers registrar account. It’s pretty easy and can happen in less than 10 minutes if you’re quick about it.

How to Reduce Risk during a Transaction

The biggest risk is, what if the seller takes the money and runs? Well, the three forums I listed as domain dedicated have trader rating systems, similar to eBay rating system that allows you to see what users have to say about the seller or buyer from previous dealings. Although most of these ratings are linked to a forum thread so you can look to see if there was a legit sale involved in the comment, the system can be skewed by false trader ratings. It’s up to you to determine if the rating is valid.

Other things you can look at to see if a user is legitimate is looking at the number of posts, the previous posts, how long they’ve been a member, and what else they’re selling or have sold. Most users like to build up their reputation in these forums and don’t like people saying bad things about them.

Another way you can go about reducing or eliminating risk is by using an escrow payment service. These types of services act as the middle man. They hold your money until you receive the domain then send the funds on. That way you can’t cheat the user and the user can’t cheat you. The one downfall to these systems is they usually take a day or three to process payments and most people don’t like dealing with them. Especially for small time dealings of $500 or less. Which most domain names go for. This means you won’t be able to get into a lot of the good deals. It’s up to you though.

Most of all you’ll need to determine if the seller is legit. It can be tough to do but you’ll get better at it as you go along. Also these communities are pretty good at looking out for one another. All three of the ones I mentioned have warning forums and I was once in a bad dealing and was able to resolve it. I’ll talk about that later.

Valuing Domain Names 

Valuing a name is all about what it’s worth to you. If the domain name is a type-in you may end up paying a lot for a name that doesn’t receive any traffic or revenue. The reason being is that if it’s popular phrase, catchy phrase, or very brand-able domain name a lot of people might want to buy it and push the price up. Buying these domains isn’t really what I’m in the domaining game for. I like to buy names that already make revenue. Guessing if a name is going to bring traffic and money later on is what speculators do. I’m looking at a more value based approach.

To value names that claim to already make revenue you’ll need to consider several things. First off, the seller usually posts what the revenue and or traffic of the domain name is. They are most likely required to post this per the rules of the forums. They are also usually required to link a screenshot of the stats or requested via PM to provide a screenshot.

Screenshots are all different looking, based on what parking site the seller uses, and you’ll have to get good at determining a good one from a bad one. I like to see a screenshot of the daily stats if possible, and to reduce the risk of a name having large traffic spikes I like to see a couple months worth of stats. Of course these screen shots are jpegs or gif files and can be easily manipulated in paint or photoshop so you’ll have to get good at seeing a fraud. However, as I mentioned in the previous section, these forums are good at spreading the word on a fraudulent seller.

Some sellers have also become accustomed to simply copying and pasting stats into threads via which can look confusing at first like this:

Thu, Dec 21st, 2006 US$ 1.30 58 13 % 22.41 US$ 0.10 US$ 22.41
Wed, Dec 20th, 2006 US$ 0.10 63 10 % 15.87 US$ 0.01 US$ 1.56

But actually isn’t too bad and usually comes with an explanation as most parking sites list their stats in a different order. This one happens to be from namedrive and lists the day, the revenue, the visitors, the clicks, the CTR, the CPC, and the RPM. You’ll get used to these formats and be able to quickly spot the parking site the name is with.

Some people won’t give you screen shots, or won’t provide copy and past stats like those above. They’ll contact you via PM or sometimes post and not be reprimanded by the forum staff for not providing info. Personally I try to steer clear of these people. I need proof of what I’m buying.

Once you have the proper information you need to value the name. To each their own and you can pay what you’d like for a name. I’m going to get into what I try and pay later but most of the time sellers look for a multiple of the proven monthly earnings. The multiple can be 5 times or it can be 100 times. It’s just what you’re willing to pay for the name.

Some things to think about when determining your multiple are, how long will the name be around, what’s the chance for growth, and how long are you willing to wait until you make your money back. Some people can wait a few years. I’m impatient and cannot. I’ll be talking about how I determine my multiple in Part IV.

Sedo, Moniker, and other Domain Marketplaces

You can also buy domain names from places like Sedo and moniker. These are mainly aftermarket spots, meaning people use the sites to sell names. They usually park the names with the site and then enter a price that’s viewable by the public. A price that they’re willing to sell the domain name for. If you browse through these listings you’ll notice that some of the prices are rediculous. But if you need the name, you gotta pay the price.

Since what I’m showing you assumes you don’t need the name, you probably want to steer clear of these domain name marketplaces. But don’t throw them out completely. There is always that diamond in the rough that someone is just dying to give away. 

December was a pretty good month but could always be better, much better. With 11 of my blogs over a PR3, I still have only one link sold from text-link-ads. I recently wondered why my text link ads aren’t selling, and took most of the comments to heart. I adjusted my blog and tried to re-align some things, while not losing content, but being more focused and more advertiser friendly. We’ll see what happens.

While that’s great for this blog, I have 11 PR3+ BLOGS THAT CAN’T EVEN GET INTO THE PROGRAM. I’m not the worlds best monetizer of websites (I’m learning) but I don’t think getting into the program should be that hard.

OK, enough belly aching. Onwards to the earnings.

Adsense - $65.02
Namedrive - $88.50
TLA  - $8.55

Total - $165.07

This total was slightly down from last months internet earnings of $204.85.

Other earnings from around the blogosphere:

 Nothing Ventured - $25.82
One Dollar a Day - $865.90
Building My Empire - $207.45
Internet Cashflow Guy - $445.64