This is part 2 in my case study on the Five Figure Niche Network. I will cover how I research and buy keyword domain names in this segment. See Part 1 Here.

Finding the right domain name:

In my attempt to build a network of niche websites that earn five figures of income every month I need to first start by buying domain names based on specific niches I wish to build websites around. I prefer to only choose topics that I care to research and write about so that if I decided to write the content it will be more enjoyable; however, this time around I want to try and outsource most of the writing (which I'll cover in a later part to the case study). In either case I prefer to buy keyword rich domain names if I'm going for niche websites as my goal will be to rank for the keyword that is within the domain name. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

If I want to build a website that focused on Cotton Candy Machines what do you think would be the best domain name to build a website on for that topic? How about cottoncandymachines.com or cottoncandymachine.com? Duh. The reason for this strategy is because search engines give a ranking bonus to exact match keyword domains (Main TLD's only so don't go buy .mobi and other worthless crap extensions). Now before I get too far ahead of myself let me determine first if people on the internet actually search for cotton candy machines to see if it's a worthwhile niche to pursue...

Keyword Research:

There are paid tools available that offer more advanced features for determining search traffic, but I because I got my start using the free ones I'll show you those instead:

The first one is offered by SEOBook which is run by Aaron Wall and found here. He has a paid monthly training program which I've been a member of in the past, but fortunately his keyword research tool is still free (you do need to register for a free account though)

So what I'd search is simply "Cotton Candy Machine" and "Cotton Candy Machines". The number of estimated searches for these terms is shown below:

I like to go after keywords that are searched around 100 times per day or more (when possible) so based on the data things look good so far. I then like to use Google's free Adwords tool next to ensure the numbers appear to be around the same level and just to get an extra data point:

Make sure you use the drop down menu on the right and change it from the default "Broad" to "Exact" as this will give you an accurate estimate of the number of people who searched that exact phrase which is all I want to know at this stage of my research.

Looking at the above data it should be obvious which is the better domain to go after - the singular phrase Cotton Candy Machine because there is considerably more search traffic for that term. Again, before we get too far ahead of ourselves let's look at the competition for that keyword. The trick here is to go after keywords that not only receive a lot of search volume, but that also happen to have very little competition for (this is often a difficult thing to do).

Keyword Competition Analysis

Doing a quick search of Cotton Candy Machine on Google yields the following results:

(Click to expand)

These are your primary competitors. Now what you need to do is determine how many links these websites have. This will give you a better understanding of how many links you'd need to get pointing to your cotton candy machine website to outrank them (just remember it isn't an exact science). I'll turn to SEOBook again and this time I use the SEO for Firefox plugin.

CottonCandyExpress.com is the current #1 rank so I simply install the plugin, restart firefox and visit the domain name. Here is the data we find:

So they have only 379 links via Yahoo's site explorer, 3 DMOZ Links and 1 Yahoo Directory link which isn't that many links. The domain and presumably the website have been around since 2005 (based on the copyright info in the footer). I believe Google has established a lot of trust for the domain name, but the number of links pointing to the site is so low it is possible that I could outrank them. Keep in mind that any domain name I buy may be put into the sandbox by Google temporarily which means it would be unable to rank for any keyword until after a period of time lapses (many people believe 6 months). So what I'm saying is that even if I were able to buy cottoncandymachine.com which was also registered in 2005, it could still take some time before ranking for that keyword. Well, now that we have researched a keyword determined the competition isn't insurmountable let's go back and see if we can buy it.

Acquiring the domain name:

As expected the domain name cottoncandymachine.com is already registered. Sadly (for myself and you) most keyword laden domain names with any substantial search traffic have all already been registered years ago by visionary domainers. After searching the WHOIS information I can see cottoncandymachine.com is registered to a business called Name Administration based in the Cayman Islands. Based on my domain hunting experience I know this is a domain name owned by the legendary domain name investor Frank Schilling who happens to be notorious for not selling domain names unless he is given an excellent deal. Even then good luck ever getting in touch with someone at Name Administration unless you lead with an email offer of a very high price. So in this case we'd need to look at the .net or .org extension instead or perhaps go for another cotton candy related keyword.

Wrap Up:

So as you can tell there are a variety of steps I like to take while researching keyword domain names to buy. Some people prefer to buy brandable domain names like cottoncandyexpress.com instead and build a business from there. I don't think this is a bad strategy and in fact in the long run it can be better, but just remember it is more difficult to rank for a keyword that isn't your domain name than it is to rank for a keyword that matches the domain name i.e. cottoncandymachine.com. So if you're trying to build a ton of niche websites like me then the more help you can get from a quality domain name the better. The downside obviously is that as I mentioned before many of these keyword rich search phrase domain names are already registered, so you have to be prepared to pay out good money to domainers for these types of names.

What do you think of my tips for researching domain names?

This is just the second of many parts to come. If you learned something be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or email updates) and you should also follow me on Twitter. Also, quick reminder to follow me on Twitter because I'll be posting the contest giveaway for the PHPzon plugin shortly.

Disclaimer: I paid for this plugin and was not paid to write this review; however, I do have 2 free copies of this plugin to giveaway (see contest details below). If you're interested in having me review your product, service or website see my advertising page.

phpZon Pro Review:

phpZon Pro is a $79 premium Wordpress plugin from the folks over at phpBay. phpBay Pro was their first plugin created back in 2007 to display products from eBay with a wide variety of display options. In fact, the few thousand dollars I've made from eBay's Partner Network has all come from clicks on ads I was displaying through the use of the phpBay plugin. So as you may have guessed by now, phpZon is a similar plugin that instead interfaces with Amazon.com's database of millions of products to display product information much like how phpBay does. It can pull in an image of the product, the average star rating, a partial or full description and a whole slew of additional options. Here is an example product running on this blog from my Amazon wish list that no one has yet to give me (*clears throat* ... twice).

Iron Man (Ultimate Two-Disc Edition + BD Live) [Blu-ray] List Price: $39.99 Sale Price: $18.49 Used From: $17.98 Average Rating:

You know you're going to get a different kind of superhero when you cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. And Iron Man is different, in welcome ways. Cleverly updated from Marvel Comics' longstanding series, Iron Man puts billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (that's Downey) in the path of some Middle Eastern terrorists; in a brilliantly paced section, Stark invents an indestructible suit that allows him to escape...

You can set the number of items you want to display based on a keyword OR you can also just display one specific item using the ASIN number. To display the above product I simply clicked the phpZon button from within the post put in the ASIN number of the product and it's done.

Because the information being pulled in is styled via a template file from within the plugin it's also very easy to adjust any elements such as the font size of the text. In my case, I increased the font size a bit, made the sale price field a clickable link and adjusted the style of the product description with a few easy changes. Overall the plugin does require a few more steps to set it up such as inserting some Amazon Associates info to provide proper tracking. You also need to copy code into your .htaccess file if you want to take advantage of the SEO URLS option to display the product URL like I've done above (hover over the link above to see what I mean), but there is an extensive manual included which shows step by step how to set everything up if you need help.

phpBay also let me know there is another version underway with even more features planned and because all customers get lifetime support updates there's no need to worry about buying this version only to have a new better version come out later.

Overall Impressions:

I've installed this plugin on nearly every niche website I created and I'm certain using this plugin on my various blogs will help improve earnings. As I've said before, one of the worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates is to simply use Amazon.com ads. By using this plugin you can display product information in a nice way without looking like an Amazon.com ad which is key. The use of the 'More Details' button and Making the image clickable are two of the ways I discussed in my past post on how to improve your Amazon Associates earnings so it's nice to see the functionality already built into this plugin. If you mention products on your blog than I highly recommend you buy this plugin and implement it. In fact, Wade - the creator of the plugin - hooked me up with a 20% off coupon code for anyone that wants to buy the plugin or the phpBay plugin (it will work for both). It will only work if you click here to use it: E907DB07EB There is also an option to buy both the phpZon plugin and phpBay plugin in a bundle for $99; however, the 20% off coupon will not work with that bundle. Click here to check it out.

Want to Win the Plugin for Free?

Wade has given me two copies to giveaway and I'm going to make it very easy for you to win one. All you have to do is follow me on Twitter. In fact, I only have about 80 Twitter followers as of this post being published so you have pretty good odds. Follow me on Twitter here and in case you want to be ready for the next contest I run you can sign up for my newsletter below as the next contest winners will be drawn from there:

The winner's will be selected in 7 days and I will post their Twitter names on this blog. I'll give you 48 hours to contact me before I pick a new winner(s). So be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed in case you don't want to miss the announcement.

This is the second month I've documented my income for 2010. As I mentioned before, these posts aren't meant to brag at all (many people make WAY more money than me) instead I'm trying to use this as a means to help motivate myself to reach my goal of $150k in 2010 while at the same time keeping me publicly accountable. There was a time I couldn't even afford to pay for my dedicated server's $200 a month cost with the money I made online so it's been a long and arduous road. In any case, I believe what I share in these reports will help other internet entrepreneurs so I'll continue to post them along with the steps I'm taking to improve earnings in each respective category I make money from. I am also willing to help out others that ask questions. I respond to every blog comment as well as personal emails. With that disclaimer in place, let's move onto the earnings continued after the break:

Income Graph:

Income Analysis:

Amazon Associates:

My biggest earner of the month again was of course the Amazon Associates program with $4,664.22 at a whopping 88% piece of the pie. This is a drop of about $1,000 from last month, but because February is the shortest month of the year I knew the earnings would be lower. It's also worth noting that because February ended on a weekend and items don't ship out on Saturday / Sunday (so I didn't get credit until Monday March 1st) it's as if February was even shorter. I bought a new Wordpress plugin called PHPzon (from the makers of PHPbay) and I'm experimenting with it right now on a few of my niche websites. From what I can tell it should be able to help me make even more money from Amazon Associates. Check out my article on how to improve your Amazon Associates earnings if you're struggling to make progress with them and be sure to avoid these common pitfalls. My goal continues to be $5,000+ per month earnings with Amazon (even though I fell short in February).

Google Adsense:

Google Adsense was lower in February than January but not by much. I sold more private advertising so I lost a few slots that Adsense had previously been used in so I'm not too concerned about the results. In January I said I was going to spend more time testing and I have already made a few changes that should really improve my earnings on Google Adsense for March. I'm still going to spend more time testing and analyzing ways to improve my Google Adsense earnings through minor tweaks (i.e. color, border / no border) as well as mixing up the placement. My goal for Google Adsense is to reach $1,000+ per month before Q2 and move on from there, but I need to make significant strides to reach that milestone.

Private Advertisers:

This is something I'm constantly trying to push in 2010 and what I believe will be my best chance at succeeding in my goal of earning over $150,000 in 2010. I think that using Private Advertisers over programs like Google Adsense and eBay Partner Network will always provide more money because you're cutting out the middle man and locking people into fixed monthly rates that don't fluctuate. More importantly, if you have a web property that matches up really well with a company that sells a product related to your niche then you can get a solid income stream for 'life'. Last month I emailed a company asking them to advertise on my blog because I believe it is a good fit. This could end up blowing up in my face and damaging a relationship, but I think it's worth the risk. (I'll be sure to tell you how this strategy in procuring advertising works in a follow up post). I truly believe by years end private advertisers could rival the $5,000k plus I currently pull in from Amazon Associates and fortunately this month was the first time I've had an increase in this chunk of the pie.

eBay Partner Network InfoLinks and Misc Earnings

I've decided to remove earnings from InfoLinks, eBay Partner network, Click Junction and other small earners unless I make more than $100 per month with them so that I can save time compiling these reports. I still believe the absolute best way to make money with eBay's Partner network is to take advantage of the Wordpress plugin PHPbay so if you're looking to implement ads on your blog from the eBay partner network I recommend try it out. The price is currently $79.

Wrap up:

So my main focus points for March include optimizing Google Adsense and selling more private advertising space. I currently use OIOpublisher to serve ads on my blogs and I use that plugin to help optimize and test my ad space. Without a doubt it's the best $47 I've spent in this space. If you're a blogger and don't have it yet, buy it.In any case I'm looking forward to next month and earning more than $5,294.95.

I'll be giving an update on my Five Figure Niche Network case study this month and I have an exciting new update to my command center I'll be sharing via video blog post later this week. For the gamers out there you won't want to miss it

Jeremy has reopened the doors to his Shoemoney System today. The last time it was open he sold out all 500 slots in under 24 hours. This system is geared mostly towards beginners looking to get started making money on the internet, so if you don't have any experience at all (or you have been struggling to make money online for a long time) I'd highly suggest you at least try it out. Worst case scenario you can use it for 60 days and then get your money back.

It's worth mentioning that the video he's using on his landing page converted the best across all the variations he tried the first time he opened the doors to his system. So if you're looking to sell an info product online in any niche try to look at the elements he incorporated into this video (i.e. establish reputation quickly and build upon it using big names in the industry i.e. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo it's also worth noting there is no pause button). I'm working on an info product completely unrelated to internet marketing and used the video he has on his landing page to help me format the way I plan to run the video for my product. In either case, I met Jeremy at Elite Retreat last year and know he's obviously the real deal when it comes to making money online. So if you are a beginner looking to get started, his system is at least trying out for the first 60 days because of the money back guarantee.

Check out the ShoeMoney system here

My income report for February will go live shortly and I'll share the results with you then.

Over the past several months I've been acquiring a plethora of domain names with the intent to develop them into various niche websites. During the course of this domain acquisition period I never focused on buying names for one specific niche - instead I just focused on buying names when I knew I was getting a good deal AND when I could see there wasn't too much competition. What I want to do is to build a network of highly targeted niche websites that are able to collectively generate over $10,000 per month on a consistent basis. I believe this will be a very difficult goal to accomplish, but if I can break $10,000 per month with websites I rarely need to update (or never) it will be another way to diversify my earnings and generate more much needed capital to further grow my business.

I have several parts planned for this case study and will share details as to how I buy domain names, pick niches, build websites, outsource content creation, do link building etc. along with the challenges I've faced with each facet of building a profitable website. I will also share income figures and more specifics so that it will help provide some context into what I'm doing. Moving forward as the income level for my niche network of websites begins to grow I'll separate it out on my monthly income reports so that you can see what income is generated from the blogs, websites, forums etc. that I actively work on and contrast that with the more passive income.

I'll have the first part of the case study next week which will cover domain acquisition strategies. Hopefully this sounds good to you, and if it does be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or email updates) and you should also follow me on Twitter

In early January I shared that moving forward in the new year I was moving domains from ChrisGuthrie.net to my new home here at MakeMoneyontheInternet.com. Some people are afraid to move their blogs because they aren't aware of what might happen to their rankings and traffic. If you garner significant amounts of search traffic to your blog it may not be worth the risk to move (feel free to contact me email and I'd be happy to share some advice if you're contemplating a move). In my case the search traffic I was receiving was from just a few key phrases and people searching for the name Chris Guthrie which is not searched very often so I decided it would be worth it to make the move to my $X,XXX domain purchase of MakeMoneyontheInternet.com.

Results:

I was very surprised that after only 2 weeks my rankings in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) had entirely recovered for the few keywords I ranked for such as my name Chris Guthrie and free private registration. I meant to write this post earlier in fact, but I wanted to be sure the rankings had fully recovered before sharing the data that my blog move did in fact work:

It's laughable that I couldn't surpass the Vanderbilt professor Chris Guthrie who ranked first, but 3rd position was the highest I was at before. It's also funny that about the only other keyword phrase I ranked for was free private registration, which was based on an article I wrote showing a loophole in GoDaddy's private registration system. I've already recovered my 1st place position for that keyword:

I had just a few keyword phrases I was watching, but the fact that I've already recovered for these two keyword phrases should indicate the move went smoothly in Google's eyes. Keep in mind I used a different computer / browser to search these phrases to avoid Google's personalized results but I may still be seeing different data than you are so feel free to comment below on what you see.

How I Moved My Blog:

I mentioned this in the first post, but for the lazy readers I'll just tell you here to save you the click. Basically I just followed the steps on this excellent guide by Yoast; however, the 8th step didn't work in his guide for me so I used the .htaccess code mentioned in this guide to complete the move.

Note: You can't change the URL of your Feedburner address. If you do, that requires everyone to resubscribe to your blog which obviously would be one of the worst things you could possibly do. So that's why my Feedburner URL is still like this.

Wrap Up:

Have you ever moved a blog before? If so how did you do it and how long did it take for you to regain your place in the SERPs? I'll be sharing more case studies on blogs, forums and websites I own so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter

Moving into my first year as full time internet entrepreneur is both a stressful and exciting time. I've decided that I would document my process by sharing my earnings publicly via this blog. These posts aren't meant to brag or anything instead I'm trying to use this as a means to help motivate myself to reach my goal of $150k in 2010 while at the same time keeping me publicly accountable. Besides, I know internet entrepreneurs out there making significantly more money than I do (most of them I met at the Elite Retreat). In any case, I believe what I share in these reports will help other part time internet entrepreneurs looking to make the leap full time and newbies alike. While I personally didn't have the luxury of deciding when to quit my job and work for myself - because I was fired - I am always willing to help out others that ask questions. I respond to every blog comment as well as personal emails. With that disclaimer in place, let's move onto the earnings continued after the break:

Income Graph:

Analysis

Amazon Associates:

My biggest earner of the month was of course the Amazon Associates program with $5,595.79 at a whopping 90% piece of the pie. I knew this number would drop after my record high of about $13,000 in December but I'm really not that upset with the results. Of course more is always better, but shopping months in particular are always going to be huge (just check out my tips on how to improve your Amazon Associates earnings). My goal moving forward with Amazon will be to continue to maintain a $5,000+ per month earnings window.

Google Adsense:

Google Adsense was also cut nearly in half over December's level but I'm not too concerned about the results. One of the big pushes I'm working on right now is in spending more time this month really testing and analyzing ways to improve my Google Adsense earnings through minor tweaks (i.e. color, border / no border) as well as mixing up the placement. I'll of course document this process along with my results so that you can help improve your Adsense earnings as well. My goal for Google Adsense is to reach $1,000+ per month before Q2 and move on from there.

eBay Partner Network:

I've been testing this program out and I think it has some potential to be a solid earner, but again like Google Adsense I need to experiment more with placement, colors, etc. I use PHPbay exclusively to power my eBay partner network ads and the plugin works really well. If you're looking to implement ads on your blog from the eBay partner network I recommend try it out. The price is currently $79.

Private Advertisers:

This is something I'm looking to heavily push in 2010 and what I believe will be my best chance at succeeding in my goal of earning over $150,000 in 2010. I think that using Private Advertisers over programs like Google Adsense and eBay Partner Network will always provide more money because you're cutting out the middle man. More importantly, if you have a web property that matches up really well with a company that sells a product related to your niche then you can often times find a solid recurring revenue stream. You can also petition them for some freebies to giveaway on your website too . Part of why I went to CES was to network and find people at companies I can build a lasting relationship with. This will ultimately lead to me feeling comfortable enough to sell them on the idea of paying for advertising on my websites. I believe by years end this figure could rival the $5,000k plus I currently pull in from Amazon Associates.

Wrap up:

So my main focus points for February include optimizing both Google Adsense and eBay Partner Network as well as selling more private advertising space. I currently use OIOpublisher to serve ads on my blogs and I use that plugin to help optimize and test my ad space. Without a doubt it's the best $47 I've spent in this space. If you're a blogger and don't have it yet, buy it. I may drop Infolinks entirely. At only $42.94 per month it probably isn't even worth the money when web visitors tend to get annoyed by the double underlink ads. Then again, I see them on all the big websites so perhaps people just have to live with it? There are a few other sales here and there that come in during the month and I'll try to do a better job of including those in these reports as well i.e. SEObook. But perhaps I'll set a minimum of a $100 and then if a program doesn't make that amount I'll simply leave it out of my reports. What do you think? Want to see it all?

In any case I'm looking forward to next month and hopefully earning more than $6,231.52. My next post will cover a difficult topic for any self employed person and should be a good read for all - How much should I pay myself? After that I'll give an update to my case study on how I moved this blog from ChrisGuthrie.net to it's new home here at MakeMoneyontheInternet.com (past coverage here).

Earlier this week I shared the top 7 tips I used to earn $41,438.42 with Amazon Associates in 2009. Today I'm going to show you the 7 worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates. I'm using data from over 40 different tracking codes I used during 2009 so that I can show you with actual numbers the worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates.

1. Do not use Amazon.com banner ads: 5% of total 2009 earnings

Even though I made 5% of my total earnings from Amazon banner ads (which is the same amount as the Buy Now buttons I implemented on my websites) it's important to recognize just how much screen real estate I devoted to their use (most times a 468 x 60 ad and a 300 x 250 rotating ad unit with Google Adsense both above the fold). The reason why I believe these ads perform so poorly is two fold:

a. Web visitors avoid clicking advertisements in general, but I've found the Amazon ads especially tend to convert very poorly (all varieties)
b. The ads Amazon does offer are far too general and don't work well for niche specific websites. i.e. if I was running a site focused on just LED HDTV's the closest ad I could use is one for electronics.

The most effective Amazon ads I did run were carousel widgets and even those performed poorly when compared to the tactics I know work. One unknown trick is to simply create your own ads for products on Amazon; however, you must email the customer service team to get approval before running them (if you want to play it safe that is, which I always tend to do). The ads I did go through the hassle of creating and getting approval for were even more effective than the carousel widgets, but again none of these solutions were as effective as linking to content within posts my most effective means of earning money from Amazon. In fact, as you can see from the last post I earned over 80% of my total income share based on in content related tactics.

More terrible ways to make money with Amazon Associates are continued after the break

2. Do not use an Amazon store: 1.2% of total 2009 earnings

I used Amazon stores for almost every one of my websites in 2009 and linked to the store via the navigation bar on each respective website. I would also link to the store from time to time when new products were made available for purchase. In the store I'd include products that were related to the niche and include both low priced items and high priced items. I'd also customize the color scheme to match the site in an attempt to make the appearance look seamless. So what I'm trying to get across is that I did everything right that Amazon describes for the best results and I still couldn't any money. I wouldn't even waste your effort building a store and instead use the space freed up in the navigation bar to link to "money articles" or categories.

3. Do not display ads unrelated to your niche

This is an obvious tip in my mind, but I've seen new and experienced bloggers alike use Amazon consumer electronic banner ads on their blog about puppies (as an example). At the very least display ads related to dog toys and even then that's not going to make you much money as you can see from my results above. It's all about staying within the confines of your niche if you want to get the best results. Remember, people came to your blog, website, forum etc. for the topic you're covering - that's it! So your readers will respond best to content related to your niche.

4. Do not link to Amazon products in every single one of your posts

You don't want your readers to think the only reason why you're writing something is so that you can sell them on a new product (even if that's the only reason why you're blogging in the first place). Instead you need to mix up the frequency with which you link to Amazon products in your posts. I believe this can vary greatly by the niche you're in. If you're a tech blogger and you cover the latest and greatest products you can get away with doing so much easier than if you're a blogger writing about how to make a living online. Using this blog here as an example, the only time I'll link to an Amazon product is once or twice (max) per month and the only time I would do that is if I was reviewing a book like Crush It! (which coincidentally I'll write a review on as soon as I find a way to get off of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and devote more time to reading).

5. Do not abuse the trust of your readers

Never recommend a product that you yourself would not spend your money on. If you give everything a good review in the hopes of earning more a few sales I assure you that in the end this will hurt you. The more you can build the trust of your readers by recommending great products the better. I've had multiple readers refer friends to websites I own because of the free help I've provided through the content I publish online or via personal email interactions. These situations could have just as easily gone the other way if I tried to earn an extra sale by recommending a shoddy product.

Wrap Up

As you can tell one of the worst ways to make money online is by using the resources Amazon provides. This is why so many people complain they can't make money from Amazon's affiliate program. It would be great to just put up an Amazon store, throw up some Amazon banners and watch the money roll in but it doesn't work like that. I spent a considerable portion of my time optimizing the best ways to make money on Amazon and time and time again across multiple websites the same dismal results showed through with Amazon banner ads and Amazon stores. Beyond abusing the trust of your readers and going overboard with excessive linking - what are some other ways you've tried to make money with Amazon's affiliate program and failed?

If you have any questions or would like me to provide some feedback on your own website feel free to contact me and I'd be happy to help.

If you liked this post please subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter. In my next post I'll be sharing my income from January across my network of websites. I've decided this will be a routine monthly post that helps keep me focused on my income goals, as well as keeping my books together for my accountant