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Can You Scale Your Business Model?

Elliot Silver
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17

ScaleWhen I was at AIG, one of the most frequent questions, aside from “what’s the projected ROI on that program?” was “can you scale the program?” If we could do a small test that was successful, it would only be great if we could scale up and have the same success on a greater level. It just wasn’t worth the time and effort doing a particular program if the potential revenue was limited.

I’ve asked the same question about my domain investments, and that is why I have chosen to focus on development. While domain sales is still fairly lucrative, I don’t think it is still considerably scalable to a degree where it will drive constant growing revenue at a multiple of what it is now. I still believe I can do what I do to generate revenue for the foreseeable future, but I don’t think it’s feasible to greatly scale this business model at this point in time.

With domain development, I believe I can scale. On Burbank.com, Lowell.com and Newburyport.com, I can either keep them as tourism-heavy websites with information about the city, or I can follow Shaun Pilfold’s model on Kelowna.com and become the source of information for my respective cities. Yes, it costs money to scale and I am not ready to make the financial and time commitment yet with my sites, but it is possible to scale in that manner.

Likewise, my mini site building strategy is also scalable. Perhaps it’s not easily scalable if I continue to build them on my own because of the time constraints, but there are great development companies that focus on mini site-type websites like AEIOU.com, WannaDevelop.com, and MiniSites.com that offer a variety of services. Building mini sites is scalable, and the more you build, the better the deals you can make with all of the mini site and development companies.

A couple of dollars a day per mini site doesn’t generate a lot of revenue if I were to look at each site individually, but if I have 100 mini sites that make $2.00 a day, that’s over $50k per year, with very little maintenance. Some websites will make less than $2.00 and some will make significantly more, but you get the picture. If you build websites on strong keyword domain names, you are generally going to drive revenue while adding value to your domain names.

The point of this is that you need to determine if what you are doing is scalable and sustainable. Experiment with different things like I am doing and make sure you can scale if it works.

Finishing Up AthensVacations.com

Elliot Silver
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14

Yesterday, I tried to live blog my development of AthensVacations.com, although with a few breaks and interruptions, it wasn’t as quick as I wanted it to be. I am going to be working on a few things on the site today as well, which I outlined below:

– Adsense ads on the site aren’t relevant to Athens or Vacations, so I made a few changes and added some content to beef it up. Adsense should automatically display ads based on what it thinks the site is about, so I am hoping this change works. Hopefully relevant ads will appear soon.

– I need to create the History page, which I will do at some point today. I use a variety of resources (such as Wikipedia) to get an idea about the history and create a custom page with unique content writing.

– I want to add another restaurant – maybe the Hard Rock Cafe since that’s a tourist spot, and many fans of the chain try to visit every Hard Rock around.

– I want to add a page about transportation and the airport because people presumably want to know how to get around the city and how to get to the city. I will link this page from a couple of pages already on the site, but I won’t add it to the top navigation, as I want to keep that clean and limit the number of links.

– Over the next few days, I will do some link building by responding to Yahoo Answers questions and by finding blogs that have information about Athens and Greek travel. The key is that I don’t want to be annoying and/or post irrelevant responses because people do that here all the time, and it’s frustrating.

There are also a few things I want to mention here because I am sure some of you are wondering:

If I was actually paying myself for doing this, the cost would be much more than if I bought a mini site. I realize that I could have paid a few hundred dollars or less, and someone else could have built the same or better mini site, and I could have been doing other things. However, I like doing this type of thing. It gives me a break from other things, so I don’t mind. If I had a corporate job and was sacrificing time from the kids I don’t have, it would have been a bad move, but I enjoy this and a lot of my domaining activities are automated – or they don’t take up much time.

This mini site may or may not pay off in terms of advertising revenue and earnings. It may or may not sell for my asking price down the road. It did give me a chance to show you how I go about building a mini site, and I really appreciate all of the comments received. These have been helpful to me, and I hope to others as well.

I will continue to build out mini sites. Individually, they might not make a lot of money each, but I am increasing the value of my holdings in this down economy, and when people are spending more for good, revenue generating domain names, these will be competitive.

WordPress Errors or Theme Errors?

Elliot Silver
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2

I was having a few problems on the back-end of my blog for a couple of weeks. I assumed it was because I recently updated my blog to WP 2.8, and although I was kicking myself for upgrading, there wasn’t much I could do. After a couple of weeks, I was faced with other random problems, and it began to get more than annoying.

After my designer was unable to access the admin panel of my blog, and I couldn’t even access it unless I was on my personal laptop, I began to worry. What if my laptop suddenly lost access, too, and I was blocked from my own blog. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but I was lucky to have the help of Kevin Leto, who taught me a trick.

While I had assumed my problems stemmed from a faulty WordPress upgrade, Kevin wasn’t convinced. He had me go into the appearance section of the WordPress dashboard and select the default theme temporarily. Once I did so, all of the problems disappeared, allowing him to determine that the fault was in my current theme coding rather than WordPress.

Once Kevin isolated the problem, he was able to search through my files to find a really small error that was throwing off a lot of back-end functionality and he quickly rectified the error.

If you use WordPress and encounter problems and errors, switch it to the default theme and try to replicate your errors. If the errors disappear, the problem is in your theme – not in WordPress.

Follow Along as I Build a Mini Site

Elliot Silver
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29

This afternoon beginning at 12:00pm noon EDT, I am going to do a small experiment, simultaneously blogging here and Tweeting as I build a website on my domain name, AthensVacations.com. Yes, I listed AthensVacations.com for sale a couple of days ago and it hasn’t sold yet, but I am going to build a mini site because it can only enhance the value of the site. I am still willing to sell the domain name and website for now, but will take it off the market when it starts making good Adsense revenue 🙂

Just a few things to point out first. 1) I don’t know how long it will take because all of them take different amounts of time. 2) I am using a website template my designer created, which can be purchased by anyone on ThemeForest.net (called Bluelight). 3) The logo graphic was created ahead of time by my designer. 4) When it’s done, it will look similar to TobagoVacations.com – same structure. 5) If you have suggestions for the design, post them here or Tweet them @elliotsblog. 6) I will continue to update this with short updates that can be copied in to Twitter.

If you’re interested in following along with the progress – or if you just want to see how long it takes to build, you can check back here. I will time stamp it as I go…   See you in around 30 minutes!

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12:00pm – Creating an account in my LiquidWeb hosting panel so I can share changes as I update the website. I won’t change the domain’s DNS until I have the first page done.

12:03pm – Setting up the template by adding logo and removing previous art.

12:08pm – Changing some of the text on the home page as well as the meta description and title (for search engines)

12:20pm – Trying to come up with two great descriptive sentences about Athens for the home page. Feel free to assist! On TobagoVacations.com, I have “Imagine yourself sitting on a beautiful sandy beach, with the sun shining down on your face and a gentle breeze blowing through your hair. Enjoy a relaxing vacation in the tropical Caribbean island of Tobago. Your body and soul deserve it.”

12:28pm – Setting up the domain name in Google Analytics, which I will add to the template. It’s important that this code is added to each page or Google will record it as another website. Find/change works well.

12:35pm – Getting Adsense code for the site. I have many different size banners/boxes I need to get. I ordinarily wouldn’t put Adsense up right away on a fully developed website, but I am willing to do it on this mini site to monetize it. Down the road I may establish an affiliate relationship with IAN for hotels/travel.

12:46pm – Now a really fun part – searching iStockphoto.com for great photos of Athens. I am looking for 4 great shots of Athens and its attractions. I want people who visit and have different preferences to relate to at least one photo. When I change the DNS and post the first page, you can let me know if I can do better.

1:15pm – Found a few nice images of Athens. Once I resize and add to the home page, I will change the DNS and get set to upload the first page.

1:30pm – Uploaded the home page and css page (which has the code the site reads to know how things should look). About to change the DNS soon so the page resolves to the new site. Please don’t click the ads 🙂

1:40pm – Time for a little break. The DNS has turned over, and AthensVacations.com is now live. In the meantime, please let me know what you think of the home page (small paragraphs, photos, and Adsense placement for starters). I will begin adding content to the other pages when I return…. thanks in advance!

2:15pm – Going to search for hotels in Athens (using Hotels.com and Google) and set the page up like I did with the Tobago site. I will add 3 hotel descriptions that I write, links directly to the hotel websites, and hotel logos. For this, I want to have 1 luxury hotel, a small Athens-unique hotel, and a romantic hotel. This will give more variety and allow the site to cater to different types of visitors.

2:43pm – Apparently there was too many hits coming in or something like that and my blog went down for almost a half hour. It’s back though, and I am back to work 🙂

3:30pm – Working on writing a description for 3 hotels in Athens. I don’t really enjoy the copywriting part of this, but unique content is a key factor in getting ranked for longer tail keywords. Sure, I won’t be listed at the top of Google for “Athens hotels” searches, but if I can get listed for a phrase like “contemporary hotel in Athens” or something less competitive, I will be satisfied. I should have this page done very soon.

3:45pm – The Athens Hotel page is now finished. Next, I am going to work on a couple of the forms, privacy, and disclaimer pages. It’s important to remember that Google requires a privacy policy on sites that use Adsense.

4:05pm – Contact form is done and tested. If you use a template, be sure to change the subject so you can distinguish what site someone is referencing (if you have many mini sites). I also uploaded the disclaimer and privacy. An attorney provided me with the disclaimer, which I use on my other sites, and the privacy policy was created using the DMA privacy policy generator.

4:15pm – Time for a break to walk the dog and give her some attention – she’s been very good today!

6:55pm – I took a nap and played with the dog for the past couple of hours. I went out with a couple guys from NameMedia last night and I am still tired 🙂 I am going to start working again in an hour after dinner because I have a few more pages to build… Attractions, Restaurants, and History. There are also some important development things that I need to do when the content is built. See you in an hour.

8:33pm – Back to work and just searched for photos on iStockPhoto.com (cheap photos with few copyright restrictions). I am also searching for fun things to do in Athens that I would enjoy. Athens Activities page has been completed. I think it’s lacking right now, so I will probably come back to this page and expand.

9:00pm – Simultaneously watching the Pitchmen tribute to Billy Mays, following the Red Sox game and beginning the restaurants page. My struggle with the restaurant page is that I want/need to link to restaurant websites that are bi-lingual with an English site. I am targeting Americans and English speakers with the site, and I want to make sure they are able understand the site where I send them.

9:45pm – Just installed an .htaccess file which provides instructions to browsers (I think). In any case, I did a 301 redirect of AthensVacations.com to www.AthensVacations.com to avoid duplicate indexing. I also created a 404 error page redirect, so if you go to a non existent page, it goes to the home page.

9:55pm – Athens Restaurants page is now finished, but I will probably add another restaurant in a couple of weeks. I also may add a list of “notable restaurants” at the bottom of the page. I will come back to this shortly.

10:15pm – One thing which I will add now – but should be added at the end is a site map. I am going to build a site map at XML-Sitemaps.com, a free sitemap generator. I am going to need to re-do the sitemap once the site is finished. It’s quick and easy to do, and the search engines find it useful.

10:18pm – Speaking of search engines, I am now going to go into my Google Webmaster Tools account and add this website. I will need to add a meta tag so Google knows I own it. Once added and confirmed, I will add the sitemap location so Google can find it quicker and easier. Also, if the site wasn’t listed in Google when I did a search for the exact domain name, I would file a Reconsideration Request, letting Google know I just bought the domain name and developed it.

10:20pm – I am going to go spend some time with my wife and finish up the history page tomorrow. I am not 100% satisfied with the site yet, and I have a few more additions I plan to make, including videos, other activity options, an airport page, and a couple other additions. Stay tuned – and thank you for following this.

Thinking of Being a Full Time Domainer?

Elliot Silver
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16

I left the corporate world in November of 2007 to focus on my domain investments, and I couldn’t be happier. Although I consider myself a domain investor more than a developer, I have been experimenting with development and learning how to make money from my domain names, in lieu of simply flipping them. Over the past year and a half, I’ve learned a lot about domaining and development, and I’ve tried to share as I’ve learned.

If you’re thinking about starting your own company and becoming a full time domain investor in 2009, here are some things you should consider:

You are going to work non-stop. Every tv show, commercial, email, shopping trip, dog walk, sporting event, night out, vacation…etc will turn in to work for you when you think about things from a domain perspective. You’ll see domain names you like and names you hate, and you’re always going to think about how it relates to your business. I put in 10-14 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week. People may comment about my travels, but even when I am on vacation, I usually work wherever I am.

Whether you are buying names to flip, buying names for PPC, or developing, there will always be current projects and things on the back-burner calling your attention. While my geowebsites have seen some pretty incredible growth, I can’t simply let them lay low. I receive emails with events and press   releases every day, and I do my best to add content to each site daily. My “breaks” consist of writing domain blog posts, testing mini site development, reading about domain news, and making domain inquiries.

You will talk to your friends about domain names until they’re sick of hearing about them. Subsequently, at least one conversation a night will revolve around someone asking you if a specific domain name is available or if a domain name would be worth some money if they register it. Most people you meet won’t understand exactly what you do, but they will either think you are a cybersquatter or a genius. Either way, most people will end up thinking you are lazy and don’t do much, which is ironic.

99% of newly registered domain names are worth what you just paid – or less. If you go all out and register hundreds of new domain names, you’ll go broke quickly. Generally, about 95% of newly registered domain names will not receive any traffic or earn any revenue if you don’t develop them. Once you realize this, you will spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to develop – and there’s no easy solution yet.

Although this business is lucrative, you probably will not consistently earn the same amount of money every month. There are great months and there are not so great months depending on your focus and your domain names/websites. Some months I have several great private domain sales, while other months I focus on development and don’t sell many domain names.

Overall, I love what I do and I love the freedom I have as a domain investor. I’ve been able to build 3 geodomain names into popular local websites that continue to receive increased local recognition each month, I have a domain blog that receives great commentary from people doing the same things I do, and my work doesn’t usually feel like work.

The downside is that there isn’t much easy money and your new boss will probably be much more demanding than your current boss.

When Do You Add Adsense to a Website?

Elliot Silver
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17

I recently received an email from a long-time reader who I have spoken with on several occasions and have done business with in the past who is looking for Adsense advice.   He gave me permission to include parts of his email into this post to get opinions from my blog readers:

We finally launched the websites last week (www.FoodBlogs.com and www.MommyBlogs.com).

We’re not in a big hurry to sign advertisers on FoodBlogs.com yet, as traffic is just starting to build.   My developer suggested I put up Adsense (color matched to the site) as an interim solution.   I’ve heard a lot of positives. I’ve also heard that there are negatives to putting up Adsense ads on a newly developed website.

These are fully developed websites targeted to a very large (yet niche) audience.     We intend to develop them further and grow the user-base and traffic to its full potential.   In other words, we’re in it for the long-haul.   Eventually, we will have relationships with direct advertisers or with Ad Networks.
What are your thoughts on Adsense as an interim solution versus something else.

Would you put Adsense on a newly launched site or hold off? If you would hold off, when is a good time to add your Adsense blocks? How do you balance the “stigma” of adding Adsense too quickly with the need to begin generating revenue on an expensive development project?

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