Archive for March, 2008

Negotiating With a Domain Name Stalker

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

In my portfolio of domain names, I have a few good ones that I just can’t ever see myself parting with.  The reason?  They have a lot of type in traffic.  But I’ have a domain name that someone else has wanted for years, and this post chronicles some of my dealings with this domain name stalker.

Every few months I get an offer for one of my domains.  The initial price they suggest is always around $300-$400.  Then I get into discussions with the person and they ask how much I want to sell it for.  I tell them $x,xxx, which I feel is a good value.  They always respond saying the most they will pay is $800.

High Paying and Low Competition Adsense Niches

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

In the forums, I see a lot of people posting how successful they are with Adsense, and soon to follow comes dozens of replies asking what the niche is.  The original poster normally never gives away their niche or only offers a very general idea.  The question is, if a profitable and low competition niche was dropped right in your lap could you monetize it?

I’ve been keeping an eye on a specific forum topic about a supposed high paying site that earns just under five figures per month in revenue.  What is interesting about this topic is that a lot of people criticized the poster for what they believe is impossible.  But on closer inspection, this very simple site might be earning a boatload of money.

Domain Name Parking

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

As Webmasters, many of us have personal projects we would like to work on in the future.  A lot of this work involves the creation of new sites.  There’s a good number of us that have domains just sitting around, begging for our attention.  Instead of letting these domains sit around, let’s look at domain name parking and how it can generate some additional revenue.

Those that are familiar with domain parking tend to have their favorite parking providers.  I’m no different.  I’ve tried quite a few domain parking companies and the revenue earned per click does vary widely.  So let’s take a look at two of the better known parking companies.

Quick Launch Guide Conclusion

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Everything that we just completed really should take no more then an hour and a half.  All things considered, it’s really a small amount of time needed to get indexed in Google quickly.  Plus, we also got the ball rolling for Yahoo and Live/MSN as well.  Now what?

It will take some for your pages to show up in the index.  Established and high authority sites can get pages indexed in an hour or two.  New sites that have little trust or authority can take up to a week to appear in the Google index.  My quick launch method normally gets new sites indexed within 3-5 days, and if you follow the guide your results should be similar.

Free Directory Submissions

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Many Webmasters and SEO professionals will tell you that the fastest way to get indexed is to get some backlinks for your site, and I agree.  In the previous step, we already created two high profile links to your Website.  Now let’s spend about twenty minutes or so submitting to some free Web directories.

There’s a lot of software on the market to submit to free directories.  There are even form filler software titles available.  Let’s bypass the lower performing and most time consuming software options.  Digixmas has the fastest and easiest to use directory submission software around.  The best part is that you can submit to 150 Web directories for free while using a trial version of their software.

High Profile Links

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

In addition to submitting Sitemaps directly to search engines, another great way to be found fast is to get some links on high traffic Websites.

In Websites I have recently launched, I have found that only a couple high profile links are needed to get indexed fast.  And my preferred links come from Digg and Craigslist.

Live/MSN Search Sitemaps

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Live/MSN Search does have a Webmaster Center, and on November 12, 2007 they released Webmaster Tools.  It’s still in Beta, so there are some bugs to be worked out.  Live Search may have bugs?  Ok, I won’t get into that here!

First, you need to gain access to Live’s Webmaster tools.  If you do not have a Live ID, click hereand signup for one.  Once you have a Live ID, go to Live Search Webmaster Center and sign in.

Yahoo Sitemaps

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

To submit a Yahoo Sitemap, first you must go to Yahoo Site Explorer.  At the top of the screen, you will see a sign in link.  Click this link and enter your Yahoo login details.  If you don’t have a Yahoo ID, signup for one by clicking on the sign up text link in the lower right hand part of the sign in window.

Now that you are logged in to Yahoo Site Explorer, enter your full Website URL in the textbox and click on the add my site button.  Your URL will now appear in My Sites.

Google Sitemaps

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

The key to getting your site indexed fast is telling the search engines that your site exists.  The first step in this process is to submit your XML Sitemap to Google.  I will cover Yahoo and Live/MSN in the next part of my Quick Launch Guide.

Quick Submit Sitemaps

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Now that your Sitemap is created, it’s time to submit it to the major search engines.  There are a couple of ways to do this for the three top search engines.  You can basically ping the major search engines or open a Webmaster account.

In this step, we will do a quick submit to Ask, Google, Yahoo, and Live/MSN Search.  Please note that Ask.com does not offer a Webmaster account, so pinging Ask is a must.

To ping and notify the search engines of your Sitemap file, you must add your complete Sitemap URL after the “=” and go to that URL in your Web Browser.  Each search engine will notify you whether the ping was successful or not.