Author Archives: Admin

Story: I Once Sold a 12 Character Domain for $500

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So many people have been wondering what I have done that makes me worth following online, and that’s really a hard question to answer. I fell into my position with Jacob and Bloggy Network thanks to being in the right place at the right time, and my new job with Splashpress Media is all about the connections and impressions I have made over the last two years.

One thing I will talk about today though is how I sold a twelve character domain that had no keywords for $500 US dollars.

Before I was a teenager, I enjoyed super hero movies, and one of my favourites was Phoenix from Marvel’s X-Men. She was very powerful, and also a very conflicted character. I empathized with her and also thought the alias was very interesting. The myth of the Phoenix was also very powerful and interesting to me.

I took on the name Phoenix as my own personal symbol online, and used it in pretty much everything I did. Even my first websites created on Geocities used my Phoenix code name in one way or another. As I grew up, I finally decided to get my own domain name, and I registered Phoenixrealm.com.

I worked really hard on that blog, and as I continued to grow up, I felt less and less like the “Phoenix” name suited the online persona I wanted to portray. So one day, I decided to sell the domain. Not the content, or anything else. The domain didn’t have any keywords really, nor any other major marketing points. It was a personal blog about my life, and my work online. From time to time I would post a smart article about something I was passionate about, but I was taking that content with me. I figured that I might only get a bit more than the registration fee on the domain, but I tried to talk about all the great things I had done with the site. The traffic I had brought in, the back links, and even my Technorati rank. Anything I could do to make the domain seem valuable.

Thankfully Gary, a great guy, saw the site and what it could be used for and decided to purchase it for $500. He turned the site into a great SEO blog which is still around today. I moved on to DavidCubed.com, and continued to write about my life and everything in it there.

While it might be pretty common place to sell a domain for three figures, I doubt too many domains without keywords usually do so well.

The lesson you can all learn here is that value really depends on the buyer. If you can find a buyer and can convince them of an items value, you will make more money than those that just continue to lower their prices to please buyers.

Originally posted on November 7, 2007 @ 9:51 am

My Problogging Setup

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Computers

Desktop
Antec Sonata 2 Computer CaseOddly enough, the system I use the least is also my most powerful. My desktop computer was put together by me, and includes an Antec Sonata II case, Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor, two gigabytes of DDR2 ram, and 750 gigabytes of hard drive space. I use a wireless HP keyboard, a super cheap Logitech optical mouse, and have a reasonably decent 19-inch Samsung LCD. I have both Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista on this computer, and I spend about equal time in both operating systems now.

Laptops
MacBook ProI have two laptops, though one has become my wife’s more than mine. I have my MacBook Pro which I do almost all of my work on, and then a IBM ThinkPad T43 which I check out web development work using Windows XP. The MacBook Pro was purchased just before the most recent update in its specs, meaning mine is a 2.16GHz model with a single gigabyte of ram. Of course I use OS X 10.4 on the MacBook Pro, but I hope to update to Leopard as soon as certain important things are fixed.

Camera

Canon PowerShot S1 ISMy camera is a few years old now, but it is one of the first free gadgets I received from my blogging work with Bloggy Network. It is a Canon PowerShot S1 IS and provides me with a whole 3.2 megapixels of resolution, and a 10x optical zoom. What I like most about it is its movie mode, which allows me to still use the optical zoom. I would love to upgrade to the S5 IS which has an 8 megapixel sensor, and 12x optical zoom, but that’s still a rather pricey endeavor, and my wife would like me to puchase something more compact and portable next time.

Podcasting Microphone

Samson Q1UFor the myriad of podcasts I do, I have my trusty USB microphone, the Samson Q1U which I ordered off someone on eBay. It is a very professional feeling microphone and works really well for podcasting. For the most part, any sound degradation you hear in the podcast is usually due to my incompetence as an audio editor.

External Drive

Something that too many people forget to do, especially bloggers, is backing things up. I would be lost without my data, and I am pretty religious about backing up my desktop and my IBM laptop. I haven’t yet got into the habit of backing up my MacBook Pro yet, but that will come when I upgrade to Leopard.

I currently use a nGEAR external 3.5″ case to house a 250GB Western Digital IDE hard drive. It was a fairly cheap option and works well for me. I can remove the drive and add another one whenever I need, unlike some of the prepackaged drives you can pick up from the hard drive manufacturers.

Leisure

Nintendo WiiTo help me unwind or just to keep me happy, I have my two consoles, the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. I consider these to be some of the smartest purchases I have made, despite also being the most tempting distractions.

I can load up a game on the Xbox 360, get some frustration out, and then hit the computers for some more blogging, or WordPress work.

Do You Need All This?

Of course you don’t need all these things in your blogging setup, but I highly recommend getting some good equipment if you plan on doing this long term. There is nothing worse than the computer freezing and crashing in the middle of a post, horrible audio quality in a podcast, or a cranky writer not adding anything valuable to the web.

I highly recommend having a laptop, especially if you want to move around. I find moving to different locations in my house, or outside my house can quickly and easily refocus and refresh myself.

What is your blogging setup? Let me know, and the best response will earn a 125×125 pixel advertisement for the rest of November (please let me know if your comment should be entered into the contest, end date is the seventh of November).

Coverage
Check out the great post about the contest at My Blog Contest and Contest Beat.

Originally posted on November 3, 2007 @ 5:27 pm

Selling Your Readership

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I have to admit that I find it a bit sad that so many make money online bloggers are taking the easy way out by selling their blogs, some well before their time for some quick cash due to the fickle market valuing such blogs at what I consider to be a fairly incredible rate.

So far I have seen nearly half a dozen blogs jump ship ranging from $2500 all the way up to $10,000. Mark at 45n5.com has come up with a great post, giving basic valuations to many blogs, further inciting people to sell now while the market is hot.

What does this say about the original blogger? How does this make me feel as a reader of these blogs? I honestly feel a little betrayed. Some of these bloggers promised to deliver a product: their knowledge. They have instead decided to sell off their blog leaving me wondering what kind of things I will be able to learn from the new owners.

Every blog sold goes through a transition, whether the old writer stays on for a day, month or year, it eventually changes from what made it great, into something different. Don’t get me wrong, different doesn’t necessarily mean bad, but in my experience, very few blogs improve after changing ownership.

Really what most of these people are doing is selling their readership. They are selling my time on their blog and the value I bring to someone else and the only way I can think to combat this is to take my time back, and place it in the hands of blogs that I feel confident are going to stick around, with their original owner, or at least a trustworthy level of professionalism.

On the flip-side though, I am enjoying that so many people are leaving the race, as it only helps continue my trend at making this the blog about becoming a professional blogger, and making money online.

Originally posted on November 5, 2007 @ 8:29 pm

More of Me Podcasting: TechCanuck Episode 13

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If you liked the Xfep podcasts, which will return soon, then you will definitely enjoy the TechCanuck podcast. It covers all the amazing things going online, and we try to bring it back to Canada as often as we can.

Check out James Cogan and I on TechCanuck.

Talking Points
a) Wireless broadband continues to emanate potential and possibilities with companies like Google lurking. The latest rumor has Google (and perhaps with/others) pursuing an acquisition of Sprint. Could Sprint be the catalyst that leads to a major shakeup in the broadband delivery business?

b) Derek Featherstone, web consultant via Ottawa-based consultancy Further Ahead joins us to talk about the second iteration of the Vancouver-based web development conference he founded as well as some general web standards and accessibility points.

c) ‘Tis the season for another Digg acquisition rumor. Will Digg finally sell? Or is this more PR?

d) Google is in talks with American Idol creator Simon Fuller. What is Google up to? Could GoogleTV be next? Listen as we discuss the possibilities.

e) Closing thoughts.

Originally posted on November 15, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

TNX.net Review: New Text Link Broker

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Overview

TNX.netThere are many different programs you can use to buy or sell links, but the new service on the Internet is TNX.net. They are heralding themselves as the place to buy links and want to become the premiere text link marketplace.

They have a fair bit of competition though, with the popular Text-Link-Ads and other such services pushing their products on consumers.

They also have what will now be an uphill battle, with Google, and most likely other search engines starting to penalize sites that buy and sell text link advertisements as a way to game search engine rankings.

Advertising is the key to getting your message out into the marketplace, and selling advertising makes it easier to devote more time to your blog but is TNX.net a company you should be considering?

What Others Have Said

There have been many posts around the web on TNX.net, and so if nothing else, the service has gotten the buzz of the blogosphere behind it, showing that there is a need for another service such as this.

Here are just a few articles that have mentioned TNX.net:

My Thoughts

I have been a long time Text Link Ads customer, and that is because it was a fast way to make what I considered a fair amount of revenue for the work and time that I had put into my site, and even today, despite all the search engine issues, I highly recommend their product. Can TNX come close to replacing TLA? I am not sure, but I do think that competition breeds invention and will hopefully just give us bloggers another way to monetize our sites.

The Good
Taking a page from Microsoft’s Live Marketplace and other similar systems, TNX uses points, which can lead to a huge disconnect between the amount you are paying and the value of the money you have put into the system. It can be much easier to part with points than with dollars. I think this was a smart move, and not only for TNX, but also for bloggers looking to use this system to monetize their blog. Getting people to part with money can be quite difficult. Hopefully, they won’t realize how much money they are parting with when it’s in point form.

The design is relatively simple, but effective. I would have gone with something even more professional looking, as their competitors have spent a fair bit of time and money tweaking their designs and coming late to the game usually means you have to step beyond your competitors, especially in appearance. I still put this in the good section, because the site is quite usable, and not unpleasant to look at.

The system seems to be rather easy to use, and allows you to focus your link buying on certain sites, by a variety of quality indicators. This can mean that sites with lower rankings might not sell well on this site, or make much money when they do sell links, but it makes it easier as an advertiser to hit powerful sites where your link will be shown to a large audience.

Affiliate Program
If you love to be part of an affiliate program, and are good at getting people to sign up below you, TNX has you covered there as well.

When you refer webmasters to TNX.net, you get 13.3% (as long as your account is active) of all TNX-points that are generated by their websites. In addition, you will receive 5% of all payments, made by referred advertiser.

That can grow to be a large amount of advertising for your blog, or a fair bit of cash in your pocket. Nothing wrong with that, especially since the program continues as long as your account is active. Over time, that can be a fairly nice revenue stream.

My Concerns
Of course, as with any of these programs, you have to do your due diligence and research these companies to death. TNX.net hasn’t been around very long, and so the search engine implications are not yet truly known, but its competitors are having a rough time dealing with Google.

This could mean that by advertising, or selling advertising, on your blog, that eventually you will be manually penalized by Google and if they are a major traffic source for your blog, you could be trading traffic and Google PageRank, a factor in many advertising programs valuation systems, for a few bucks from links.

Conclusion

Whether you check out TNX.net or not, buying and selling text links is here to stay, and TNX is a quickly growing marketplace, and for people looking to monetize their blogs, it is worth checking out if TNX suits your needs.

Originally posted on October 19, 2007 @ 8:38 pm