Make Money With a Forum: Sell It

Elliot Silver
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6

From what I’ve heard, it’s often hard to make money from a forum.  Like other websites, the owner of a forum has two options to make money – find advertisers who want to reach out to the same group of people who visit the forum or sell the forum once it’s active and has a strong membership.

From my little experience running a niche forum on one of my sites and also from my participation in various forums, the owner needs to get people to contribute regularly, moderate inappropriate or threatening comments, stay on top of software updates, and prevent spammers from taking over.  It’s a lot of work to manage a forum, and it seems that only the biggest and most successful can really earn a living from advertising.

The second best option is the sale of a forum, but that means the owner needs to find someone just as passionate about the topic to evenhandedly moderate and communicate, while not alienating the members who participate regularly. This person not only has to be passionate, but also has to have the capital to make the acquisition and keep it running smoothly.

It seems to be quite a job to manage and monetize a forum, and my gut says many of the small to medium sized forums, despite being active, aren’t monetized very well.

I just read a MarketWatch press release today put out by a company called Crowd Gather to announce its acquistion of Writers.net, “an Internet directory of writers, editors, publishers and literary agents“, which was supposedly founded way back in 1994 (despite its 1995 Whois creation date). It’s a very good domain name and the acquisition shows there is a market for forums.

CrowdGather owns and operates a network of forums, which may be of interest to those of you managing a forum. According to the release, “CrowdGather has created a centralized network to benefit forum members, forum owners and forum advertisers. CrowdGather provides a highly interactive and informational social network for members, a management and revenue-sharing resource for third-party forum owners, and a largely untapped advertising network for marketers worldwide.”

If you happen to want to sell an active forum, you may wish to get in touch with CrowdGather.

If Go Daddy Is Bought…

Elliot Silver
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27

Godaddy LogoThere have been reports that a team of private equity companies (led by Henry Kravis’ KKR) are in talks to acquire the world’s largest domain registrar, Go Daddy. I’ve been a customer of Go Daddy for about 8 years, and there are some things that I would hate to see changed should a deal be consummated.

Competitive Pricing – Go Daddy has always offered some of the most competitive pricing when it comes to domain registrations. If pricing goes up at GoDaddy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see other companies follow suit. I hope GoDaddy continues to be a price leader.

Executive Accounts – Hands down, GoDaddy has one of the best VIP customer support centers in the business. Their executive accounts group helps clients with a variety of issues, and I know that when I need something from GoDaddy, I can contact my account rep (Brad Larson) and he will get it done.

American Call Centers – With all due respect to my friends in other countries, I like being able to call GoDaddy at off-hours and speak with someone in an English speaking call center. I am sure that you would prefer to speak with someone who speaks the same language as you, and I can almost guarantee that I will speak with a knowledgeable person when I call Godaddy, no matter what time it is.

Racy Advertising – For better or worse, the commercials are one of the reasons Go Daddy has become a household name for many and given an introduction to domain name purchasing. Some think they’re distasteful and others think they’re edgy. Whatever your position on them is, they get people talking and when someone needs a domain name, they are likely to visit GoDaddy.

Event Sponsorships – Similar to the comment above, GoDaddy sponsors things like a NASCAR team to a poker tournament. These events bring domain names to the forefront.

Bob Parsons – He may be a polarizing figure, especially in light of his elephant hunting trip, but Parsons is the heart and soul of the company. He throws big parties every year and does things throughout the year to keep his employees happy. Parsons supports many non-profit organizations and he’s the number 1 vocal promoter of Go Daddy.

Don’t Add Me To Your Email List

Elliot Silver
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7

This should be common sense, or at least common sense to a marketing or public relations agency, but apparently it’s not. Do NOT put people onto email lists that you think might be interested in what you are trying to sell – be it a product, service, or news updates.

In the last few weeks, I must have been added to three or four different email lists for companies wanting to spread the news about gTLD domain names. It’s one thing if a company emails me to ask me permission to be put on an email list (although some would argue that’s spam), but it’s another thing to just add someone and assume they are interested.

Personally, I feel that an email request sure beats getting added to an email list, and it shows me that the sender actually respects my time and the CAN SPAM laws in the US.

I also want to add that people should be sure to have an easy opt-out link on the email in case the person decides to opt out of receiving emails from the list. I get enough emails every day as is, and I only want to receive marketing emails that I choose to receive.

Incidentally, one of the public relations companies that added me to their email list not only didn’t have an opt-out link on the email, but also kept me on the email list even after acknowledging my opt out request. This is not a good way to do business, it doesn’t do the client any justice if they aren’t aware of the tactics, and it’s likely against the law.

Registrars: Post .CO Transfer Coupon Codes

Elliot Silver
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54

Over one million .CO domain names have been sold to date in less than a year, which is a remarkable accomplishment for the .CO Registry. .CO domain names were first available to the general public last July, and of course that means there are going to be hundreds of thousands of them up for renewal in the next four to six weeks.

While many domain registrars offered hefty discounts on .CO domain registrations, those special promotions are limited to new registrations and not renewals or transfers. As a result, many domain owners will face the decision of whether to renew at possible double the initial registration fee or whether to let some of their .CO domain names expire.

That being said, I believe there’s an opportunity for a domain registrar or two to earn a larger .CO market share. I recommend that they offer special transfer coupon codes on .CO domain names when done in bulk (to avoid dealing with customer service issues that one-off customers might cause). Make an even better offer when customers transfer and add two or more additional years to

This post may seem a bit self serving, but please keep in mind I have about 10 .CO domain names right now and likely won’t benefit much from it. I do think some readers of my blog might benefit though.

Tip To Get Free Content for Your Site

Elliot Silver
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8

If you operate a single website or more than one, you already know that a big challenge is adding fresh, relevant content to your site. You don’t necessarily need to add articles and information to your site every day, but you do need to add new content fairly often.

I want to share a strategy I use to get content on some of my websites. I like to reach out to my advertisers and ask them to send me a guest post on a topic of their choice related to their business. I emphasize that it will receive good placement on the website, and it will also link to their own website. They can send unique articles as often as they’d like, and I will post them as often as they send the articles.

What has happened is that I’ve received some great articles written by experts that are happy to share knowledge and advice. In return, these experts get exposure on a high trafficked website, and they also receive a back link from my website in return. I believe it’s a win/win for both parties, and it’s something you can and should do on your own websites.

I want to share an example of this with you. One advertiser on DogWalker.com owns a pet care company in San Diego. Just about every month, she emails me an article for DogWalker.com, and I post it ASAP. This morning, I was sent an article about traveling with dogs, and I posted it on the site right away. I also used Facebook and Twitter to share the article with others.

This may not bring a lot of traffic, but it’s a topic that is of interest to vacation travelers right now, and perhaps they will learn about the site when they find the article while searching Google. Perhaps they will even need a dog walker while on vacation and use the services of one of the advertisers on my site. However it’s used, it’s something that will attract visitors to the site, and it didn’t cost me anything to create.

If you’re not doing this yet, I really think you should.

Report Spoof Emails to Go Daddy

Elliot Silver
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7

It seems like once or twice a week that I receive a spoofed Go Daddy email pretending to be the company. Sometimes it’s a fake account update, and more often, it’s a ICANN Whois update notice. The key thing is that the emails say “Dear User,” when Go Daddy always personalizes the email. I suppose someone could easily customize these emails and send it personalized, but the intro is usually the dead giveaway.

Instead of deleting these illegal phishing emails that want me to enter my account information and password, I send them immediately to my account manager, the Go Daddy Legal Department, and the GoDaddy Abuse Department. This allows the company to investigate the source of the spam email and hopefully shut it down ASAP so nobody has their domain names stolen.

If you receive what you suspect is a fake GoDaddy email, you should forward it to abuse@godaddy.com and legal@godaddy.com so they can investigate. Not only will they tell you if the email happens to be real, but you can also help prevent domain theft as well.

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