Not making many money? Check your domain name.
08 Aug
Posted by Papa Bear as Internet Marketing, Losing Money Online
I was on the way to work this morning and was scanning the radio when the nationally syndicated radio show “Bob & Tom” came on. They mentioned something about a URL list and I suddenly stopped my scanner. They had a guest comedian, Gunner, on their program discussing some URLs that really weren’t thought out that well.
- A local car dealership here in Cincinnati has the domain: jakessweeney.com
- A online pen store: penisland.net
- A tourism site for the city of Tahoe: gototahoe.com
Those were some of the ones mentioned on this morning’s broadcast of the show. I did a google search and came up with some more.
- Find the name of the a celebrity agent at: www.whorepresents.com
- Exchange advice with a expert programmer: www.expertsexchange.com
- Find a Therapist at: www.therapistfinder.com
- Need a power generator from Italy? www.powergenitalia.com
- Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com
- Need some IP computer software don’t forget: www.ipanywhere.com
- Speed of Art Designers await you at : www.speedofart.com
Thanks to http://humour.200ok.com.au for their contribution to this list from their page Bad Domain Names
Lesson: Pick your domain name carefully. I’ll be looking over my list for any misspellings. You should too.
Move your website to a new host but forget to set up your default email address
27 Jul
Posted by Papa Bear as Losing Money Online
Here’s a good way to lose readers and active participants in your community and blog. When you move your domain to a new hosting provider, you should forget to set up the default email addresses at your new host. For instance, let’s say your email address for your website is paul [at] imakenomoney [dot] com. You physically move your domain imakenomoney.com to your new host. Change the name servers at your domain service provider and check to see if you blog is able to come up at your new host. If everything is displayed correctly your good to go right?
If you have been wondering why it takes a comment so long to get published around here, that’s why. Because I am trying to manage too many websites, it is impossible to remember all the email addresses at all the different domains I have. It was just by chance that I was going through the default inbox at my new host and saw some bounced emails directed to paul [at] imakenomoney [dot] com! I had completely forgot to set up this address at my new host. Sorry!
So now you should have no problems making comments and getting them approved rather quickly.
Lesson: Write down the email addresses you will have to set up at your new host before transferring service. Even better, set up the email addresses at your new host BEFORE changing your domain name server so you know you won’t lost any email.
Well, at least I didn’t lost this much! ($3,500)
21 Jul
Posted by Papa Bear as Don't do this, Losing Money Online
I’ve posted before about how I spend a lot of money on a Adwords campaign on irrelevant keywords. I found a similar story recently from one of my favorite affiliate bloggers, Johnathon Volk, a “super” affiliate. He posted recently about losing $3,500! Why? Because:
1) He was tired
2) He was tired
3) He was in a hurry.
Apparently, while in a hurry to get to bed (because he was tired) he accidentally sent a recent ad campaign to $45.00 per click instead of the $0.45 he was hoping to.
You can read more about his whopping $3,500 mistake here:
http://www.jonathanvolk.com/affiliate-marketing/my-3500-mistake.html
Lesson: Please don’t rush through your setting up your campaigns (it could cost you) and try not to make big changes when you are boderline unconcsious.
Well, this might be the end to this blog. Eureka! I found a way to make $$ on the internet. You have GOT to check out this link below. I PROMISE you’ll make $$
I’ve never made $$ on the internet until today
Ok, real quick. I just wanted to pass on something I just learned.
If you are starting to get a bunch of funny characters appearing in your self-hosted wordpress blog like  (which was all over my blog). The best way to remove it is to comment out the following lines in your wp-config.php file. You can do it like so:
// define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);
// define(’DB_COLLATE’, ”);
Just a FYI. Seemed to work for me.
Well, my alien abductors have finally decided to let me go and I’m back to blogging about my blogging mistakes on I make No Money.com and yes, a good way to piss off a lot of people who actually like your blog is to blog inconsistently and not make regular posts.
That has to be one of the hardest things about being an internet marketeer. You have to stay at it. Make regular posts and making contributions to the internet community (not just on your own blog).
So seriously where I have been?
Well, my last post says it pretty well. I’ve been spending the last couple months moving all my sites and blogs from Successful Hosting to Hostgator. So far I have been very pleased. It took a while and a lot of effort, but I think long term the payoffs will be well worth it. With all the great competition in hosting, there is really no reason, not to have a good host provider.
The other thing that has been taking up a lot of my time has been upgrading my mom’s blog to Wordpress 2.5. I really really regret having done that. I have had lots of issues with uploading images and media. I know, I know there are fixes out there, but none of them seem to work. I think I am going to have to delete the folders and start from scratch (I’ll keep the content just re-upload the wordpress files).
I have also been working on a few of my own blogs (Askacfi.com) and trying to get them to the point where they actually might make me some money. So far so good…the response has been pretty well on the redesign and people like the new format of the site.
Don’t worry though, I still have lots of great stories about how I have lost money and I’ll be sharing those reguarly with you soon.
Lesson: Make regular posts!
I have been registering and developing websites for a while now. I started my first site in 2000. At the time I was a flight instructor and had asked one of my flight students where he registered his domain. He told me, “Discount Domain Registry.com.” I really didn’t look around, get reviews or ask any questions. I just went there and registered. At the end of the registration the site prompted me to use their partner, Successful Hosting.com, which I did. Now I have to say, before I go on, that Successful Hosting tech support has been awesome!
In a lot of way registering and hosting sites becomes very habitual. I mean that by, you tend to use the same service companies again and again because each site is a little different and there is a slight learning curve with some of the technicalities. You tend to get used to one particular site, even if it isn’t very good.
I’ll make this short….I am now in the process of moving some 20+ sites to a new host and domain service. I wish I had really reviewed good domain registration services and hosting providers before picking the ones that I did. I am now moving to Host Gator after hearing some pretty good things about them and their prices / support.
Lesson:
Please choose your domain service and hosting providers carefully
I was checking my email today when I saw I had a very short email that said, in short, “Please see the attached letter”, “Thank-you” and from the “Law Offices of….”
Oh, that can’t be good. As I continued reading I found that I had just been sent my first cease and desist letter.
To quickly bring those who may be naive about what a C&D letter is. A “Cease and Desist” is a letter drafted usually by an attorney directed toward a recipient (that’s me) asking him (or her) to “stop” or “cease” certain specified action. In this case, it was asking me to stop an apparent trademark infringement and copyright violation. Apparently I have a website that sounds very similar to another popular website in my niche that provides a very similar service.
The letter that I received was long winded and verbose but I’ll summarize what they were asking me to do:
1) Stop my website
2) Turn over all my profits
3) Transfer my domain
This is the funny thing. I went to my Adsense account to find out how much I had to turn over, and noticed that ALL my profits from this domain were: $5.78. Did they want that in a check? Money order? Wire Transfer?
I’ll be completely honest here, I kind of knew, deep down this might have been coming. I mean the domains did sound VERY similar AND the websites did provide a very similar service.
In my defense, there were some KEY differences between the two sites. One, was that the other site actually had business, traffic and made that owner money. My site, on the other hand, had no traffic and has made me, yep you guessed it, no money. The other defense I have is that I own a lot of domains and website similar to the one in question that stretch across MANY different niches.
I have decided to play nice (see my post about karma) and give in to the requested demands. I have moved the website now to a new domain. I’m sure it’ll take me a little while but I my traffic will return. It won’t take long for it to trickle in 2 or 3 a day, just like it was doing before. If they want the $5.78, I’ll guess I’ll give it to them but it seems awfully inefficient.
Lesson: Do a little research before starting any business, especially if it is online. Pick a domain carefully and it might not hurt to consult a lawyer if you have some questions about the legality of it.
So I followed my own advice from the previous post (take a break occasionally) and during the past few days I have been thinking quite a bit about my internet business and why I haven’t yet achieved the results I want to. This thought process actually started by thinking about some of my skills that I have learned so far as an internet marketeer. This is in no way is bragging (most of you, I’m sure, can do these things):
- I can custom design a web page using CSS and HTML
- I know how to capture, edit and create videos
- I know how to create custom graphics and animations using Photoshop
- I know how to use the google map API
- I know how to register and host custom domains
- I know how to install and configure Wordpress, vbulletin, Joomla, etc
- I can create custom ebook and software covers
- I know about Adsense, Adwords, affiliate programs, clickbank, etc.
In short, I have realized that I have all the skills and tools necessary to be a very successful internet marketeer. So why am I only experiencing light success instead of the GREAT success I am hoping for?
This is the realization that I have come to and I hope it can benefit those who read this. I am not achieving the results I want to because I lack:
1) Action: Instead of just learning I need to DO. As I heard recently from Russell Brunson, I need to “Ready, Fire, Aim!” Instead of “Ready, Ready, Ready….” Maybe some of you are in the same position I am. You have had a website idea for weeks, months or even YEARS that you have been sitting on and it has never come to fruition. Maybe an eBook you keep talking about writing but never do. JUST DO IT!!
2) Vision: I have many great website ideas (another post about that someday) that honestly, all could make me money. Each of the domains (well…not ALL of them) have the potential to make some cash. The problem is I have never truly had the singular vision of what exactly I want to do. Do I want a string of successful blogs? Do I want to run niche mapping directories? What do I want to do? In order to be great you have to know where I’m headed.
I’m actually pretty excited about what this means. It means a new determination to take action and a new commitment to have a vision for my internet marketing. Like I said, I’m pretty excited about what the future holds. I hope to change the name of this blog to “I make NO money” to “I USED to make NO money”
Lesson:
Some of my best posts, website ideas and inspiration come when I step AWAY from the computer and not just because I have to sleep. Take a BREAK. Can you remember the last time you went a WHOLE day not checking your blog, email or stats? Go for a run, take a vacation and understand the world will not end if you step back from the computer for a few minutes. You’ll probably be amazed at the fresh perspective you’ll have to your website, audience and subject matter. I don’t know about you, but my motivation for making money on the web is to enjoy “real” life more and not so that I can spend all my time on the computer.