TechFilipino

Should I start Buying and Selling Domains?

TechFilipino — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:59:11 +0000

One of the meaning of the term, “Domainer“, is buying and selling of domain names for profit. However, my approach was a bit more different, What I did was to focus on web development to profit from domains. Is it really a must that we buy and sell domains? Or are there different ways and means around it.

I was first a web developer before I turned into a domainer, I focused on building brandable domain websites before and just stumbled upon domaining purely from being excited from domains and concepts it could have. Domaining has really sparked my interest and got me really investing my time and money into it.

Is Buying and Selling Domains the only way for Domaining?

As a web developer, I always wanted to prove that I can make it by developing my own domains rather than selling it off to someone else. My point was that I’d rather enjoy passive income in the later stage than buy and sell now, but am I doing the right thing? One of the things about building up a domain into a website is that it takes time (a really long time), you’ll also need to experiment on different monetization techniques to get the right balance to a better income. Basically, it takes TIME to build. While if you look at buying and selling domains, you could flip a domain you bought or registered quickly and get at least twice the money you paid for it (could be more if it’s really that good and you find a very interested end user). Some domainers do both, where they develop some domains and sell some off to others. But what happens now is that most domainers hold a huge portfolio and can’t develop them all and simply sells it off to profit from it, especially if their revenue stream for that is not enough to pay for its renewal fees.

I’m slowly starting to open up myself to learn about selling some of my domains, its hard to keep collecting especially if they can’t even earn their own renewal fees. It can be tough especially I somehow violate the “don’t love your domains” rule for domainers. I’m slowly opening up my mind to it, what do you think?

Lead Generation: Learn Learn Learn

TechFilipino — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:59:28 +0000

Affiliate Marketing is one of the biggest money maker in the internet industry. I’ve been exploring the sales side of things and have generated some revenue out of it. But there are other types of Affiliate Marketing, like Lead generation, which I’m currently trying to learn right now.

Lead Generation is one of the most easy and effective way to do affiliate marketing, you don’t even need the person to buy or spend anything and all you need is to get their personal details. So many people have been making so much, just read this blog post from Facing the Absurd, which he describes how well his lead generation is doing.

I’m learning Lead Generation

Lead Generation has so much interesting campaigns, some are so updated, adding surveys or forms like the questionnaire from Avatar movie which can really attract attention. I’ve started to register some domains specifically for this. What I need is to remove all the PPC in my website (which I’m currently doing slowly). SEO, I learned is very important, adding rel=”nofollow” to links and adding fresh contents to get it up and ranking. I actually like this one the best and I’m taking my time to really learn it thoroughly.

Affiliate marketing is a tough subject but, if done right, you’ll earn a lot. Lead Generation is just one of the simplest ways (for me anyway) to make money in affiliate marketing, and it doesn’t cost a thing to the person filling up.

Brandable Domains can also be a good domain investment

TechFilipino — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:59:37 +0000

Once you get into the domaining industry, one type of domain everyone frowns upon is Brandable domain names. Before I entered this industry, before being a web developer only, my thoughts were brandable domains were the best (thanks to the web 2.0 movement). However upon entering, I realized that brandable domains are crap and stop registering more. But today I realized there are a number of ways which you could use it for.

Brandable Domains were said to be crap as it doesn’t carry as much SEO points like the generic keyword counterparts. Also some brandable domains aren’t easy to remember and spell, people would end up in other websites. But today, I realized that it’s not too bad after all.

Brandable Domains are great! Go Develop!

So why would I say that Brandable domains are great? The most important reason behind it is you’re more likely be off the hook with any trademark concerns. What’s also important is that you’re unique and being unique means that you can register it at registration fee and somehow use branding to get people to remember the domain. With its uniqueness, you’re more likely to end up finding a domain that’s 5 characters long (on registration, could be less if bought of the aftermarket). If SEO is your concern, there are tons of ways around it, it really comes down to how well you know SEO that makes the biggest difference. And the best thing that I found about it is that the concept of the website is flexible, unlike generic domains that you’re limited to pretty much what the generic domain is all about. The key to success for a brandable domain is through development, developing it to become a useful website for other users.

I’m not saying that brandable domains are the best, but if used and developed right, it could definitely over trump a killer generic domain. It takes patience, knowledge in SEO and a great product or service that will carry your brandable domain from scratch to the top.

You won’t be able to Develop all your Domain Names – a Response to Domain Shane’s Reality Check

TechFilipino — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:59:32 +0000

I follow a lot of people who write in Domaining, as a matter of fact, I see to it that I get thru all the reading list in Domaining every day. One thing that really caught my eye was Domain Shane’s blog post on a reality check that we’re not going to be able to develop all of our domains. This is really a good reality to show all the domainers and those looking to invest in domain names.

Domain Shane’s one of my favorite read because he gives a good realistic view of what he experiences minus the sugar coating (I’m not saying everyone does). He gives the negatives, as well as the positive of being in the domain game. Domain Shane’s recent post has really set a good view of what domaining is.

You’re not going to be able to develop all your domain names!

I absolutely agree to what he has to say, recently I had to learn it the hard way. We all want to monetize our domains, but what we find is that we can only do that if we were to do tons of small minisites which isn’t really going to make so much money. What I saw was that somehow time spent building the website is relative to the earnings of the website (taking into account its a good domain with low competition). I’m considering dropping a lot of domains to ensure that I make the most of my revenues, it’s useless to keep domains that don’t make much money unless its really a good domain with low competition. For those who are looking to start in domain investing, make sure that you focus in a few investments than invest to too many domains that you have no way of monetizing.

That’s what I like about the Domaining industry, people are friendly and they offer really great insights to the industry. So be realistic and focus on a few than get a lot that have no value.

Classipress, the Best Premium Classified Ads Wordpress Theme

TechFilipino — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:59:15 +0000

Most of us domainers have the need to develop our domains to monetize and one of our favorite platform is Wordpress. Wordpress is simply the easiest way to develop and update your website compared to other CMS out there, and the best thing is that it’s free. Recently, I’ve started to spend some money towards premium wordpress themes which look great and can do much more than the ordinary. One of my favorite themes is Classipress, which is the Classified Ads theme for Wordpress.

I’ve tried going around different websites to find another Free Classifieds for Wordpress but most needed so much works and tweaks that it’s not worth working on. Free Classifieds plugin for wordpress looks quite plain and to be quite honest, I don’t see how users are going to use it unless I tweak it and design it more.

– Classipress Classifieds Wordpress Theme –

Classipress is the best Premium Classifieds Wordpress theme

Free just doesn’t seem to cut it, Premium is the best way to go. It only costs $59 for a single license (one website) and $149 for a developers license (unlimited websites). What’s even great is that the script is ready for use, you just got to activate it, fix some settings, add your own logo and you’re good to go. I have started using it for some of my websites like Philippines Property Listings and Buy and Sell of Digital Cameras. What I like the best about it is that when I bought the developer’s license, it entitles me for a lifetime of support and updates (which they’re currently working on a version 3 of Classipress). If you’re a web developer like me, what you’ll also find is that there are so many ways you could tweak and redesign it to make it look less of a Wordpress but a full blown website. I enjoy tweaking themes and it’s really been an exciting process for me.

So far I have yet to encounter a problem using Classipress in my websites, I’ve started promoting them and its getting good feedback. I recommend everyone to check it out and see for yourselves, visit their website here -> Classipress.

How .PH and .COM.PH will be boosted by SmartBro Surf TV

TechFilipino — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:59:43 +0000

One of the biggest problems in developing countries is how internet access will be spread around for everyone to use. Thanks to the 3 main Mobile network’s help, more and more people are starting to get access to the web. But recently, a new product is going to increase more internet users in the country. SmartBro released a new product called SmartBro Surf TV.

Smart telecom have released many products that could increase internet usage, these are products like the SmartBro USB dongle that allows people to connect to the web and offering HSDPA and HSUPA. Their products allow you to surf the web wirelessly while having a good internet speed of a Broadband service.

SmartBro Surf TV

SmartBro surf TV is surely going to increase internet usage a lot. You don’t even need a computer to go online, all you need is a TV screen. Their SmartBro Surf TV package includes a keyboard, mouse, remote control and Smartbro Plug-it device. So this means that a lot of people that can’t afford a computer and have a TV at home can surf the web cheaply. The whole package only costs P4,500 and surfing costs P10 for every 30 minutes. That’s not bad compared to buying a cheap computer at P10,000 and is only half the price.

The Impact of SmartBro Surf TV to Domainers

The impact of having a SmartBro Surf TV service will greatly boost internet usage in the country. For us .PH and .COM.PH investors, it will increase searches in search engines and therefore increase traffic to our domains. The more time people spend online, the higher advertising prices will command, domains will increase in value and therefore higher earnings for local domainers out there. I admire what Smart’s doing to increase internet usage and I believe this will dramatically increase internet usage in our country.

Freeway.net.ph – Huge clothing brand with a bad domain

TechFilipino — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:59:56 +0000

In the Philippines, every business wants to advertise in EDSA (Main Road in Metro manila) with a Billboard. Passing by, I can’t help but notice the different domains that each business promotes. One particular domain that has caught my eye is Freeway, where their domain is Freeway.net.ph. I thought it was a bad domain that they’re promoting.

I have huge respects over different clothing lines in the Philippines, they’re multimillion businesses that has a huge budget for different marketing aspects. Freeway is more than a decade old and has established its brand since 1997 and has been a popular brand ever since and has a huge following in the Philippines. What disappoints me is that for such a huge company, why didn’t they do a little bit more on online marketing?

– Freeway’s Edsa Billboard –

Freeway needs to improve their Online marketing

Looking over their website, I can see that they’ve really spent money and time for it. It’s built in flash and has a really great interactive website. However, the domain is simply a bad domain for a huge business. .NET.PH is still something that not everyone is familiar about, a .PH or a .COM.PH would be a much better pick for them. What’s even worse is what I found upon researching their domain:

Freeway.PH and Freeway.COM.PH is not owned by the company. Freeway.PH is supposedly owned by a company in Nueva Ecija under Freeway Motor Sales Corporation; While Freeway.COM.PH is owned by an individual and is currently posting a wordpress blog that has disturbing images and a complaint against a certain High way. For a huge brand like freeway, a lot of the traffic are spilling over to the .PH and .COM.PH and can really damage the brand image when Freeway.NET.PH is not visited.

What I’d recommend to Freeway

They should secure or file a UDRP (if they own the trademark under Intellectual property) to get the domains. Freeway should simply get the .PH, .COM.PH and .ORG.PH to avoid domain squatters from getting the domain and profiting from their marketing campaigns. .NET.PH is still not hugely known in the Philippines, and its best to use what most people want so that traffic won’t be wasted and their campaigns are more effective.

Use Google Adwords to increase traffic

TechFilipino — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:59:33 +0000

I’m sure a lot of domainers out there have found their own gold mine, each focusing on their own topics and subjects that people don’t know about. Adding a minisite can only get so much traffic organically over time, and it could take a while before it ranks nicely on Search Engines out there. What I found was we all could use Google Adwords to boost traffic.

One of the major downers of SEO is that it does take time to get higher in ranking and get better traffic. You’d need to build up the website, add unique contents and get in links towards your minisite to get it ranking highly. All this methods can take time and money. So to start having traffic to your website, you should get it boosted by using Google Adwords. The idea is to pay money and earn more money in return.

Google Adwords can boost your traffic

One of the most important thing to understand about Google Adwords is that there are a lot of opportunities still lurking in this area. For those that monetize using PPC, what is important is that you first go and check with Google Sandbox Tool about how much would you earn per click (CPC) of your domain’s keywords. Next that you need is to setup your own Google Adwords account and set your per click budget to a number way lower than the CPC of your keyword (normally $0.05 is good enough, it can get a good amount of impressions especially if not a lot are advertising for the specific terms). Expect that the Click Through Rate (CTR) can be low so make sure to put that into your calculation.

So to calculate the costing (CTR rate X CPC from Google SandBox Tool) – (Google Adwords Per click Budget) = Earnings per click

I’ve made great money so far, but that’s because I’ve designed my websites to a CTR of at least 5%. I would be spending like $0.30 to $1 per day per website, and would get back $1 or more per website daily. What’s also something I should add is that my websites do also get organic Search engine traffic so I have two traffic sources (SEO and Ad).

Focus on Making Great Contents for Minisites – Hiring Professional Writers

TechFilipino — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:59:19 +0000

One of the biggest mistakes that I believe I made when developing minisites is that I focused less on the actual content and spent more time on other things like designing a website. But now I realized where I missed out and have started to focus on making better and unique contents that I believe has started to get me ranking better.

In SEO, they say content is king and that’s what’s important especially for a minisite to rank well in Search Engines. Yet not a lot of people focus on contents (I’m personally guilty of this), I’d focus on designing the website and adding ads in while I should’ve been more focused in writing contents.

Professional Writers can add value to your minisite

Also, one thing that I realized is that Search Engines somehow account for how much people appreciate your website. Those minisites that used to rank well for me that are not appreciated by readers have dropped off from the Search Engine rankings while the ones that are great continue to rise between the ranks and is now getting more traffic than I could have imagined. It does take time for it to grow or to fall, and you have to be patient to know how it will go.

I’ve started to go back to some of the minisites that are doing well and hired a professional to write for me. It’s important that there’s a market that searches it and a good website design and content that would welcome them to spend more time and click on the ads. With that you’ll get a good number of traffic and you’d do well in SEO.

Make money with domain names – Domain Monetization Strategy

TechFilipino — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:59:33 +0000

There’s a large variety of domainers out there, each having their own domain monetization strategy. But as we all advance and with the market moving up and down, each of us has developed our own ways to increase our revenues. So here are some of my own domain monetization strategies.

I was reading Morgan Linton’s post on his domain monetization strategy which really got me thinking on what do I do to monetize my domains. I contacted Morgan before for some advice and there I found out that I’m actually doing the same thing as what he’s doing now except that I’m lagging a few years. I was somehow happy that I’m not the only one doing this strategy and it shows that there’s a good future for it.

Domain Monetization Strategy

In Morgan’s post he mentioned 3 important things, Fresh Content, Affiliate Marketing and Patience. I totally agree with him on those 3 points, what’s really the most important for me is that we should understand that domaining is not an overnight success type of business, it still takes time to get it ranked and get the decent traffic that we all want. What I also do want to add is to learn SEO well, I had to learn SEO from scratch and that it has been the biggest traffic and therefore revenue maker in my strategy. Whether it is building internal and external links or adding fresh unique contents, it is important that you understand it well. PPC would be a good start to monetize a domain and to learn affiliate marketing, and use that to learn and to get into the affiliate marketing scene more easier. That’s how I built my basic understanding in affiliate marketing and I’m starting to hit sales that I wanted. Selling a domain name still haven’t crossed my mind yet, I’m still partly a web developer and I believe in making websites that could do well than selling it off to someone else.

The best thing about domaining is the passive income it creates, you simply sit there and wait for the money to start rolling in. But to have that, you got to have a strong portfolio and a good amount of traffic, that can only be achieved if you’re patient and work hard today to build up your future.

TechFilipino

Should I start Buying and Selling Domains?

Is Buying and Selling Domains the only way for Domaining?

Other Articles you might also like:

Lead Generation: Learn Learn Learn

I’m learning Lead Generation

Other Articles you might also like:

Brandable Domains can also be a good domain investment

Brandable Domains are great! Go Develop!

Other Articles you might also like:

You won’t be able to Develop all your Domain Names – a Response to Domain Shane’s Reality Check

You’re not going to be able to develop all your domain names!

Other Articles you might also like:

Classipress, the Best Premium Classified Ads Wordpress Theme

Classipress is the best Premium Classifieds Wordpress theme

Other Articles you might also like:

How .PH and .COM.PH will be boosted by SmartBro Surf TV

SmartBro Surf TV

The Impact of SmartBro Surf TV to Domainers

Other Articles you might also like:

Freeway.net.ph – Huge clothing brand with a bad domain

Freeway needs to improve their Online marketing

What I’d recommend to Freeway

Other Articles you might also like:

Use Google Adwords to increase traffic

Google Adwords can boost your traffic

So to calculate the costing (CTR rate X CPC from Google SandBox Tool) – (Google Adwords Per click Budget) = Earnings per click

Other Articles you might also like:

Focus on Making Great Contents for Minisites – Hiring Professional Writers

Professional Writers can add value to your minisite

Other Articles you might also like:

Make money with domain names – Domain Monetization Strategy

Domain Monetization Strategy

Other Articles you might also like: