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Update on WannaDevelop Websites

Elliot Silver
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9

In September of 2009, I wrote about the development of four websites, using Mike Cohen’s WannaDevelop.com for the project. Almost everything I do with my business is either a test or is in response to a test I’ve done, and I want to share the results of this test. Cohen’s company developed DubrovnikVacations.com, JerusalemVacations.com, EasternCaribbean.com, and ParabolicSkis.com.

Since the first article, I sold EasternCaribbean.com and ParabolicSkis.com, so those traffic results are not included below. The two sites I still own did not receive much (if any) traffic before development. I also only used one Adsense code for the two sites, so the revenue number is combined for both. The results from the last 12 months (October, 2009 – October, 2010) are below, although per Adsense TOS, I am not posting the number of clicks or the exact revenue number.

DubrovnikVacations.com
Total Traffic: 1,467 visitors
Average Monthly Traffic: 122 visitors

JerusalemVacations.com
Total Traffic: 1,423 visitors
Average Monthly Traffic: 119 visitors

Approximate Total Revenue (can’t disclose exact # due to Adsense TOS): $70 – $90

As you saw from the initial article, the cost was $99 per 5-page mini site, and I did not add additional content . I also didn’t do any testing of Adsense placement, which would have been smart had this been a bigger or more important test for better domain names.  The total revenue also includes a couple months with EasternCaribbean.com, which ParabolicSkis.com was never monetized.

All in all, I think the traffic numbers are pretty decent considering that traffic was non-existent at the start. Could I have done more with these two domain names? Of course, but they would have been at the bottom of my development list and probably would have earned nothing. I could also convert these into more comprehensive sites, but I will probably wait for a buyer to come around.

Did I yield a good return on this $200 investment (not considering the price of the names)? I think I had a decent first year return since I didn’t spend money promoting the sites, although the revenue has not yet paid for the development. The % return is strong compared to the stock market, but of course stock investments are liquid where you can get your initial investment back and I don’t know if i could get my investment back.

Later on I will post some advice about mini site development that I’ve learned over the past year. I’ve tested several different providers and done some on my own, so I think I may be able to offer some insight.

Great to Work With a SEO Expert Like Bill Hartzer

Elliot Silver
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11

I’ve always been reluctant to work with a search engine optimization expert. I’ve basically stuck with the free SEO analysis tools found throughout the web, which has been helpful to a degree, but it’s certainly not the best way to have the best possible SEO on my websites.

The primary reason I’ve been hesitant is because I am concerned that the advice and recommendations that are given would be too complex for me to understand, or they would be far too expensive to implement, especially when considering the potential reward for doing them. It doesn’t make sense to pay for a professional SEO review if you can’t do what’s needed to help your website.

I’ve known that Bill Hartzer has been a SEO expert for quite some time, and I’ve even used his help on a small project in the past. However, I recently worked with him on one of my websites, and I was very happy when he gave me some good recommendations and SEO tips that were understandable and actionable. He was thorough and thoughtful in his replies to me, and I knew he wasn’t simply cutting and pasting advice given over and over. I really felt that he took the time to look through my site and see where it was lacking.

Bill is also a domain investor, and he knows how domain investors tend to think and act. His help has been very appreciated, and if you need to consult with an expert SEO guru, Bill’s your guy.

PS: This is NOT a paid post. From time to time, I like to write articles about people who have been helpful to me and may be helpful to you.

ActingCoach.com: Now Developed Thanks to WhyPark

Elliot Silver
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33

I bought ActingCoach.com several months ago hoping for a quick flip. I posted it for sale on forums, and I also received a few inquiries from end users (from the parking page), including one nice (profitable) offer. I passed on that offer hoping to receive more from another end user company, and when a better offer didn’t materialize, I decided to get back in touch with that acting coach to see if he was still interested.

As it sometimes goes, the acting coach who made the offer had opted to buy another name in the interim, and he wasn’t able to buy ActingCoach.com when I came back to offer it to him. Se la vie. In light of this, I decided I would develop it, although I wasn’t willing to spend the same amount of time (or money) it took to build my other directories.

In lieu of a full development project, I opted to work with WhyPark and the company’s new DomainApps offerings. I used the   directory option along with videos, Twitter feed, and article feed, and I incorporated it all with a customized template in similar fashion to DogWalker.com. You can either pay $200 for them to build a custom theme, or you can probably pay a bit less at a place like eLance and select a designer to build one for you (give the designer one of their templates to use the code for the WhyPark modules).

Because I had WhyPark customize the design for this project, the site was put together by Craig Rowe and his WhyPark development team, using the interface and tools they have for everyone to use. If you (or your designer) has any trouble setting it up, I would think Craig and his support team can help… it’s one of the nice things I’ve found about working with the company.

I also worked with Acroplex, LLC (better known by many as Acro) to create the site’s logo, which gives it more character. For a relatively small investment, a logo like this can make a world of difference. I also worked with a copywriter found on eLance to add custom articles, and the plan is to continue adding articles. It’s an inexpensive way to drive traffic to the website.

To market the new site, I intend to reach out to the same acting coaches and companies that opted to not buy the domain name. I will see if they’d like to be listed on the site for a small monthly fee. I know the market is smaller than DogWalker.com, but I paid less for the domain name than DogWalker.com. I also know the market is competitive, and acting classes are expensive.

One of the best things about this and working with WhyPark is that I can use this template on future directory development projects, which was what I first said when I learned about the new Apps. Having a good website is important, but being able to scale my business is more important. Additionally, unlike my WordPress-based websites, I am not responsible for data management, security updates, or plugin updates with my WhyPark site, which relieves me of a big burden.

WhyPark takes $1.00/month for every paying directory client.   I charge $5/month so that’s an 80/20 revenue share, but I have the ability to charge whatever I want.   Depending on sign ups, cancelation rate, and the competition, I will probably play around with the listing cost as the site gets more traffic.

For those who are interested and want to track the success of this site, here are its current SEO rankings (I’ve had a coming soon page up for a little over a month):

Acting Coach: #24 Google #10 Bing
Acting Coaches: #93 Google #113 Bing

I would not endeavor on a project like this if I owned a name like GreatActingCoach.com, ActingCoaching.com, or some other non-exact match domain name that would be difficult to rank in search engines. I chose ActingCoach.com because this is a profession that advertises online (competitively) and people are searching for acting coaches every day.

Disclaimer:

WhyPark is an advertiser on the RSS feed of my blog. The company did NOT ask me or pay me to post this article. I am NOT making any additional revenue if you or anyone signs up as a result of this program or builds websites using WhyPark. I am posting this disclaimer because it seems there are always going to be people who think there is nefarious intent with positive blog posts.

Potential Problem with Paypal Subscriptions

Elliot Silver
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22

I’ve had a good amount of success with DogWalker.com, and there are around 250 paying advertisers on the site right now (maybe more). Nearly all of them pay annually using a Paypal subscription, which is connected to my company. As every business owner knows, recurring payments can be an important revenue stream (just ask Domaintools, Apple, and every other company that employs auto-renewal subscriptions).

Perhaps due to the website’s success or the fact that it’s a very good domain name, DogWalker.com has been my most inquired about asset. Offers from entities ranging from dog walkers to large companies outside of the domain space have inquired about buying the domain name and website. As with everything I own, there’s probably a price for which I would part with it, so I’ve thought about the feasibility of selling the website.

The Paypal account I use to collect payments is associated with my company, and it is attached to bank accounts, email addresses, and websites that aren’t related to the DogWalker.com website. I’ve searched, and there doesn’t appear to be a way for me to automatically change the billing/subscription email account for the current advertisers without having to get them to re-subscribe.

Herein lies a big problem. If I were to sell the website, the buyer would have to contact all of the advertisers with auto-renewing subscriptions and have them sign up again on a different system. It’s not the end of the world, but as my experience tells me, the cancellation rate could be significant, and it would wipe a considerable amount of recurring revenue from the books in the future.

If you build a website and use Paypal or any payment collection service, make sure it’s independent of your other websites, email addresses, and separate entities. If I end up selling the website, it will be a process to convert the current advertisers.

I am fairly certain that I am going to spin off this website into its own entity in the near future, and it will have a separate bank account, payment account, and be completely independent of my other businesses. Had I known that I would have this many advertisers in less than a year, I would have done this from the start. I have also learned that there are tax advantages to selling a business rather than selling an asset of a business, although that’s not something I am entirely familiar with yet.

Special Birthday Deal at ThemeForest

Elliot Silver
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1

I am a big fan of ThemeForest.net because the WordPress and website themes they offer have made my life easier and they’ve saved me a considerable amount of money. My developer emailed me a few days ago to let me know that the special birthday offer its parent company (Envato) has annually is now running.

I received an email from Envato a couple of days ago announcing the offer, and if you are a developer or a domain owner who wants to develop, you should have a look at what it includes:

“The bundle includes a $50 MediaTemple hosting voucher, five blog and website themes, five Flash and Unity3D files, six code packages for CSS, JavaScript, WordPress and PHP, seven motion graphics projects, sixteen PSDs and vector files, three CG models and textures, six royalty-free audio files, four Tuts+ Premium tutorials and a $10 voucher for Rockable Press. When you buy the bundle and open it up for the first time, you’ll be amazed at the value inside!”

You will basically receive templates, files, and other packages that would ordinarily cost hundreds of dollars individually. However, if you order before August 24th at noon, the entire package costs just $20. To put that into perspective, I paid $32 alone for the Los Angeles WordPress theme a couple of weeks ago.

Check out the Envato Birthday Offer to see everything you will get.   This is an affiliate link, but I will earn something like a dollar a sign up, so no big deal if you don’t use the affiliate link. I think it’s a great deal and will be ordering a package. I don’t know how I will use it yet, but I am sure I will find a use for it in the next year.

Bahamas.CO is Launched

Elliot Silver
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32

As I had hoped, version 1.0 of Bahamas.CO has launched, with a few days to spare. The website was built on WordPress, and I opted to use a heavily modified template due to time constraints (I needed to have the site launched by August 20th) as part of the .CO Registry’s Founders Program.

The template modification was completed by my web designer Mike McAlister of Six One Five Design, who has done the majority of my design work for the last three years. Usually he builds my sites from scratch, but he knew I was under the proverbial gun on this project, and he jumped in to make the necessary template modifications. For those that are curious, I used the Los Angeles template available on ThemeForest.net (affiliate link) for $32 out of the box.

I also previously mentioned that the logo was designed as part of a contest on 99Designs.com, and ironically the winner of the contest was Theo Develegas of Acroplex. Not only was it my favorite logo, it was also voted as the favorite by you guys, which is always a good thing to see.

I had around 40 articles created by a writer I found on eLance. I added all of the articles, found photos on iStockphoto.com and Flickr, and I coordinated the photos and articles. I still need to do a bit of internal page linking in the next few days, to better enable people to find the pages.

For the next couple of months, I will monitor the website, work on SEO, add articles and photographs, and see how it performs in the search engines. With some extra work, the traffic will grow, and I will begin to work on phase two, integrating a hotel and activities booking engine. In a few months, I will update you on traffic stats and the all important search engine stats, which will be interesting to me (and probably you) because of the .CO domain name.

Until then… thanks for reading.

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