Blogging Along

Bit of a bombshell hit me the other week which I won’t go into but god it felt like I had a voodoo doll somewhere and was getting it right in the neck! Hopefully I will sort that situation out before the end of September and can move on with a clean slate. Big black cross next to that individual.

I always say people who want jobs doing for next to nothing and/or haggle on prices are not worth the hassle. Well how true is it with a job I have now, it’s a peanuts job but they want the earth to revolve around them 24/7. Although the extra cash was welcomed I feel like a genie in a lamp who needs to perform miracles.

Setup and Getting into FaceBook, Twitter, You Tube, Vimeo and are seeing results by the way of people viewing the pages whether it be a video or a post but then clicking through to Humber.TV which is a result for unique visitors.

Twitter I use daily, i do seem to be getting on well and are trying not to follow every Tom, Dick and Heather that follows me.

You Tube is a great one as I’m posting RAW unedited video and prviews of video’s that are say 20 minutes long ASAP of me recording them. People are searching for that event and viewing the video but then clicking through to Humber.tv from You Tube which is a FAB way to increase the uniques per day.

Vimeo and FaceBook I only kicked off this week and so need to see results filter through over the coming weeks.

I’ve been building back links up for the site and am hoping that Google takes note and rewards it with a nice PR score and even better search results.

Recently we’ve done a bit of OB (outside Broadcasting) for Howden Show and Hull Pride to name just 2 and just them 2 alone drew in 100′s of extra visitors who wanted to find out more or wanted to see the video we shot. (T-shirts we wear have URL on back)

Just like buses this week I have had 2 calls regarding domains, but never struck a deal with either of them, which was a pity as they both need developing. I’ll maybe follow them up in a few weeks for a final nudge which would be nice to pay for an iPAD.

Latest bash at converting hard work into cash/results is my Hull domains AGAIN I know. I have bought a few 01482 numbers and placed them on a few sites one been Hull Recovery which gets a nice flow of traffic but not much revenue. It’s going quite well as I forward the numbers to businesses (helps to track calls) and hope once shown the statistics agree a small monthly fee, and then multiplied 35+ will a nice monthly income. (fingers crossed)

Final thought for today to self – Get out more, meet and talk to people but you must get an iPAD soon!
UPDATE: I have an IPAD WHOO HOO – If you need help setting one up and your in Hull call 01482 240087 and quote this site!

As for the numbers I bought for sites like Hull Recovery, Hull Taxis etc they died a dealth. When I called they didn’t think they would or was doing any good (call records proved other wise). It maybe that they would be ideal for a new start up who hasn’t got any traffic or exposure, but we’ll see.

I’m always up for registering new domains on most days and use many methods of finding new new domains to register for niche mini sites.

• TV adverts
• Radio Adverts
• Papers
• Magazines
• General generic domains etc

Flicking through my Mrs girly womens mags and noticed an article on a guy wearing Foot Gloves and thought Nah it’s got have been registered by now. Checked out FootGloves.co.uk and FeetGloves.co.uk and BOTH available to register WOW!

Not sure how long this type of product has been out but well worth a registration fee of £7 I thought. To start with I’ve just banged a white blank text only (no design) web site up just to get indexed and up and running. I’m sure it should perform well for it’s key word phrase of Foot Gloves only time will tell and adsense with prove it’s worth whiile.

I did register a few others but will make another post once I decide how to promote them.

Attended a Hull and Humbers Chamber of Commerce speed networking and lunch today at Cave castle (FAB grounds complete with moat) and I realised I need to get out more.

I did use to go to a few networking events but was trying to promote web design and VoIP. Web design is saturated and VoIP people didn’t want to take or trial it.

So out this morning and people I spoke to warmed to the idea of my Humber.TV idea and concept which made me feel fuzzy inside! Also people came up to me and was saying “Are you Mr Humber TV?” again this was a little strange and almost felt like a celebrity 

The Chamber hold a speed networking and lunch every month and WILL be going to every one from now!

On another note with Humber TV Valerie Prentice (our only host) is departing to France for a month and needed a stand in. Jess from Divine Clark PR was very interested as an extra permanent host and bagged 4 interviews next week at £50 a shot for advertising. “Result” I thought and hope she keeps her intro rate up.

This made me realise I need to up a gear with the whole Humber TV game and am now on the look out for more willing people to help out on a short term volunteering basis (hope to pay on invoice for their time ASAP). Wanting people who see the potential of the concept, are willing to stick with it and help out how they can to make it work/grow.

3 days till D day, D been DOG! “WOOF WOOF”

Adsense has nicely increased daily which is nice and aren’t sure if it’s with me adding new content on a few or just people looking on-line more leading up to gardening and getting out weather.

Needed to raise some funds and sold a few domains in the past week which in one way wish I never as I let them go for peanuts but altogether made a nice tidy sum to help out. Tried to sell my scuba gear too but think it may be harder than I think due to testing etc.

Signing off and catching some Zzzzzzz

Web development is a big chunk of our revenue and are finding that clients havn’t the time or getting round to finishing a site in the time scale set out. This all delays payments, clogs cash flow, and work scheduling that possibly limits more work capacity.

So when we have schuduled in a job to add content or finalise a site that doesn’t happen we’ve been buying up domains and creating mini/micro sites with affiliation links from places like Affiliate Window and Google Adsense. Generic items or services are great ones to develop as they don’t usually hold any trade mark issues.

A few of them so far that we’ve built, some very simple and some a little more effort:

• Anaerobic Digester
• European Camping
• Wormery
• Anti-gravity boots
• Black Dress
• Weather Station
• 3D LCD HDTV
• Yorkshire Beds

We actually own nearly 900 domains

All developed, in development or due to be developed.  They should in time provide the revenue stream to balance out our revenue income from been mostly from web development for clients.

As mentioned in another blog this is similar to the GEO Service/product mini sites where your homing in to a niche or focused area, rather than a full on shop or every type or gadget etc.

So the long of it is, we’re using any spare time to create mini niche websites to:

1. Create a website on a domain we own so it’s not just sat there gathering dust
2. Indexing the domain in Search engines adding value to the domain if resold
3. Growing the site, again so it’s indexed but could become a possible mini site for a company in that area
4. Gaining monthly revenue from adverts like Google Adsense and Affiliate Window which will increase as it climbs the ratings
5. Producing a mini site that could be sold to a company in that area or is wanting to do business in that area
6. Creating company assets

If your finding having a few mini sites or extra exposure interesting, give us a call and see if we can help you you never know we may already have a domain/minisite already setup.

01482 240023

I started out in buying domains at the beginning of 2007 with 123ABC co.uk from a drop, where someone had let it lapse and didn’t renew it.

Over the 2 years of buying domains, developing some and selling them on has had me thinking at stages

AM I MAD? Will it ever pay off?

In the early days when I was buying rubbish domains and not really doing much with them, yes, I did think OMG I’m addicted and am never going to get a return.

I turned to trying SEOing a few of them, which I had great results for Google rankings and Page Rank. So in  nearly 3 years I’ve chomped my way through at least a 1000+ domains. On the flip side have made many £xxxx’s too, and increasing more so now I sort of understand from Affiliation and selling domains.

To get a domain to earn,

1. It’s reg fee back
2. It’s hosting cost back

Is a good feeling, knowing what ever money comes in after that, is pure profit or at least in exchange for any extra time you spend on it on development. I now have 3 accounts with (cheap) Blue Host which allows me to have upto 300 domains, with a WordPress install on them.

Limitations are in place with them like I said your limited to a huge 100 Mysql Db’s but also your file count, as I found out the other day with an email from them…..

your file count is ideally 50’000 but MUST be below 200’000!

100 WordPress Installs = 80’000+ files with no plugin’s, no theme’s and no content/pages and so over the 50’000 straight away! But hey ho fair enough as I cut back what I can to keep below the 200’000.

Back on track with my plans….

Latest plans are all based around local mini sites like HullPrint.co.uk, I started in Hull as it’s my local city and am now moving to the other larger cities by population.

• Birmingham
• Leeds
• Glasgow
• Sheffield
• Bradford
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Bristol
• Wakefield
• Cardiff
• Leicester
• Belfast
• Brighton

Out of the 200 Geo domains I have, if 50% of them perform ok and bring in at least £5 per day through Adsense and Affiliation

I’ll be a happy man!

I’ll keep you posted, but just a snap shot of todays earnings from just 4 of the GEO sites that are performing ok.

• Site 1 = £6.43
• Site 2 = £1.11
• Site 3 = £0.46
• Site 4 = £0.34