How to Earn $20,000

[soggyindo]

I'm enjoying the "What would you do with $500,000" thread that's happening here.

I thought we could try the other way around. Instead of ideas on spending money - how would you all earn a given amount of money?

Say $20,000 a year.

From domaining/ developing/ parking/ hiring out services to domainers and developers. It has to be domain related, in some way.

You're starting today - and without much resources - for instance money left over from a modest pay packet.

Let's assume a basic level of web knowledge too - ie. you know about backordering, basic website building, and you're not a newbie evaluating names.

What would your strategy for most easily earning that $20,000 figure?

:gl:

 

[wussadotcom]

Use related ads program to generate daily income.

 

[soggyindo]

I would break it down something like :

2500 USD per month : 2500 x 12 = 30,000 USD

Lets assume the business expenses and other things adds upto 10,000.

Till there is 20K profit.

This is for developers and service providers.

For domainers they might have to invest more. So their calculation might be something quite different. But yet it is not that tough to generate 20K profit and that also in 1 Year

Yes one more thing. In Business you might not even see 20K for first year.

It has happened to me. But when you see yourself after 3 or 4 years. You will know how far you have came. Counting an average of amount per year will show you how you have managed to flip money, websites, etc.

some great responses and strategies to get to that $20,000 mark.

no one's mentioned brokering - has anyone had success at NP?

Nick I like your breakdown on specific figures. What method is your pick for the above - services, development, flipping sites/ names?

 

[-REECE-]

I don't think brokering would be doing all too well at the moment unless you really are one of the top dogs.

Many, if not most of those who call themselves "domain name brokers" do little more than post the domains they're brokering in domain name forums and spam the heck out of uninterested endusers.

I'm sure the real brokers are still doing okay, however the newbies with 6 months in the biz trying to play domain name broker are probably having a tough time at present if their idea of an enduser is another domainer.

D2D sales are way down.

some great responses and strategies to get to that $20,000 mark.

no one's mentioned brokering - has anyone had success at NP?

Nick I like your breakdown on specific figures. What method is your pick for the above - services, development, flipping sites/ names?

 

[Keral_Patel]

Nick I like your breakdown on specific figures. What method is your pick for the above - services, development, flipping sites/ names?

I have again another broken down version of 2500 for 1 month.

Website revenues which includes PPC and Ads sponsorships.
Services which includes ongoing SEO projects and Development projects.
Freelancing, not much nowadays but used to be a major part in past when the above things weren't settled as I wanted them to.

I always believed in not to put all my belongings in one boat and travel the Atlantic :D

Thanks.

 

[snoop]

I just read mindless's post, to me this sounds like very good advice. I would reccommend reading it several times or even printing it out for later reference, I did.

 

[larryharlow]

1. Stay away from parking.
2. Stay away from adsense.
3. Pick only one domain and develop.
4. Keep it up to date.
5. Get direct advertisers
6. Add some CJ.com ads.
7. Buy visits.

 

[soggyindo]

^ great thoughts as always reece. i agree it must be tougher than ever to push names.

although, too, i think it would be easier selling others' names somehow than your own - you have more objectivity with pricing, and it seems much easier to be more 'pushy' (in a good way) with someone else's names. you know how good they are, and you can act accordingly.

I always believed in not to put all my belongings in one boat and travel the Atlantic :D

lol. when the iceberg hits you have plenty of options to choose from, eh

@larry: this thread is pulling all sorts of wisdom out of the woodwork! wise words. what sort of numbers are we talking about, how many sites, time etc to reach a $20,000 figure?

 

[-REECE-]

The one thing I'm always worried about with brokers is that most of them have their interests ahead of yours.

What I mean by that is that if you tell the broker you'd be happy with $5k for your domain, how many domain brokers are going to turn down a $5k enduser offer guaranteeing them a payday? Would it even be ethical for a broker to turn that down, you having said you'd be happy with that?

Meanwhile had you been in the broker's shoes, you might have turned it down, feeling you could get more out of the enduser.

No doubt some brokers really do put their clients first, however most seem to only be in it for their commission.

^ great thoughts as always reece. i agree it must be tougher than ever to push names.

although, too, i think it would be easier selling others' names somehow than your own - you have more objectivity with pricing, and it seems much easier to be more 'pushy' (in a good way) with someone else's names. you know how good they are, and you can act accordingly.



lol. when the iceberg hits you have plenty of options to choose from, eh

@larry: this thread is pulling all sorts of wisdom out of the woodwork! wise words

 

[Pred]

The one thing I'm always worried about with brokers is that most of them have their interests ahead of yours.

What I mean by that is that if you tell the broker you'd be happy with $5k for your domain, how many domain brokers are going to turn down a $5k enduser offer guaranteeing them a payday? Would it even be ethical for a broker to turn that down, you having said you'd be happy with that?

Meanwhile had you been in the broker's shoes, you might have turned it down, feeling you could get more out of the enduser.

No doubt some brokers really do put their clients first, however most seem to only be in it for their commission.

brokers are normally on a % deal so will (should) try and get max price tho

 

[soggyindo]

brokers are normally on a % deal so will (should) try and get max price tho

i read a thing about real estate agents that would suggest not. i think it was in freakonomics or tipping point...

people instinctively know the mathematical sweet spot price that is the biggest return to effort ratio. it's usually near the lowest price the client they're supposedly working for will accept. pushing the price up beyond that - say earning an extra $1000 for the client - is only going to make them an extra $100 and more than likely cost them the sale. so what real estate brokers do is push out lots of house sales at a low cost. it's the way to get the maximum commission for the least effort.

there was a way suggested in the book to beat this tendency - if you are the seller - i forget what it was now!



i'll add another option to reach the $20,000 figure, mentioned by a fellow NPer. develop 100 sites each earning $1.00 a day. this = $36,000ish. which gives you approx $160 to develop each site.

my take is to spend slightly more than that to get nice sites (for a few dollars more you can get a site that will grow into a real niche dominator, rather than merely a made-for-adsense site). and do it with less sites - quality over quantity. but that's the basic strategy mentioned you can vary to taste.

my other variation is to give 30% equity and 50% of the profits to someone who wants to run/ write the site (i never want to sell my sites, so equity is a strange thing to discuss). writing all those sites can be a nightmare, but with seperate 'experts' happily on each site it can work quite well. there's a busy time when you're showing them the ropes and answering questions, but after it settles down it's a good option.

:lala:

 

[-REECE-]

I'm guessing that was a typo and you meant $1.00 per day -- 100 sites at that would make you the $20,000 after $160/site in development costs.

I think it would probably be easier to achieve 10 sites making $10/day than 100 sites making $1, assuming you have a domain portfolio getting little direct navigation traffic. Mini-sites just don't rank all that well in the SERPs compared to more established sites and it's of course impossible to develop 100 large sites of any reasonable amount of quality in a short timeframe or maintain it without an entire staff!

i'll add another option to reach the $20,000 figure, mentioned by a fellow NPer. develop 100 sites each earning $100 a day. this = $36,000ish. which gives you approx $160 to develop each site.

my take is to spend slightly more than that to get nice sites (for a few dollars more you can get a site that will grow into a real niche dominator, rather than merely a made-for-adsense site). and do it with less sites - quality over quantity. but that's the basic strategy mentioned you can vary to taste.

:lala:

 

[soggyindo]

I'm guessing that was a typo and you meant $1.00 per day -- 100 sites at that would make you the $20,000 after $160/site in development costs.

I think it would probably be easier to achieve 10 sites making $10/day than 100 sites making $1, assuming you have a domain portfolio getting little direct navigation traffic. Mini-sites just don't rank all that well in the SERPs compared to more established sites and it's of course impossible to develop 100 large sites of any reasonable amount of quality in a short timeframe or maintain it without an entire staff!

you got me there. it must have been my stomach talking with 100 sites at $100 a day

:lala:

ditto re less sites making more money each. propping up 100 sites is a good way to go crazy

 

[labrocca]

1) Focus on picking up expired domains with traffic with high PPC terms.
2) Do NOT focus on flipping non-traffic domains. The amount of return per hour of work is not as great as you would hope, I promise..... Go for the big one later.
3) Flip traffic domains after X period of time that do not make over Y amount.
4) Pick up higher traffic expireds with money from flipping smaller traffic names.
5) Hold some parked domains to generate passive income.
6) Start to use X percentage of revenue to develop solid generics.

That's a domainers formula if I ever saw one. Nice.

1. Stay away from parking.
2. Stay away from adsense.
3. Pick only one domain and develop.
4. Keep it up to date.
5. Get direct advertisers
6. Add some CJ.com ads.
7. Buy visits.

Lacks too much and requires a build up before you earn. It appears to have a missing link from 4-5 because keeping a site up to date is no guarantee of traffic which is needed for advertisers.

There are so many methods to earn on the internet. That's why I personally love it.

I do a bit of everything but I am more focused on development. I am looking for that golden site that will make me $100k a year. I will eventually get it. Right now I have 2 sites making me strong revenue. One is mid-high $x,xxx the other is low $xx,xxx.

My biggest suggestion to making $20k is to find something that brings you some success and focus on it. Watch your ROIT (return on invested time) since the internet could suck away the hours of a day and in the end...you can make zero.

As someone said..easiest method is to sell your computer and get a job. $20k isn't much.

 

[kev]

how to earn $20,000?

typos/expired traffic names with high PPC :bingo:

 

[mindless]

My biggest suggestion to making $20k is to find something that brings you some success and focus on it. Watch your ROIT (return on invested time) since the internet could suck away the hours of a day and in the end...you can make zero.

This is really the beauty of the model I try to go by domaining. People sometimes forget that as much as ROI you need to look at ROIT. Its simple and cliche but so true, WORK SMART NOT HARD.

There are alot of ways to make 20K but it better not take me 40 hours a week or more to do it. Passive income is your friend

BTW, working smart does not mean you are lazy, it just means you are focusing on tasks that bring the highest reward/gain. Don't confuse the two....

 

[MicroGuy]

Subscription based website using PayPal payments. Think of a monthy service and charge between $4.95 and $15.95. That's the sweet spot from my experience.

 

[mindless]

I have been trying to come up with a nice subscription model that requires minimal upkeep for sometime. The problem is not finding a valuable idea, its finding one that does not require constant love and feeding for the money returned. One of these days though......

I agree completely that is a very nice Holy Grail once I find it.

 

[kev]

Passive income is your friend

:bingo:

Resellers are always going to be interested in names which make revenue, even in dire times like these. names such as LLLL.com, LLL.in and LLL.us, from my experience, have less buyers these days since you need to invest without any passive income coming in while you hold 'em!

Revenue is key

 

[simonj]

1. Stay away from parking.
2. Stay away from adsense.
3. Pick only one domain and develop.
4. Keep it up to date.
5. Get direct advertisers
6. Add some CJ.com ads.
7. Buy visits.

This is kind of what I'm trying to do with VWNG.com . Just one question, what do you mean by buying visits? Do you mean use google adwords?

 

[blaknite]

If I was despirate to make that 20k within say 6 months to a year, I'd use my domains to promote myself. If you need something done I can do it. A minisite developed sure. Brakes on your car, no problem. I'll come over and light your furnace for a few bucks. A talent I have that not everyone does is that I can do damn near anything. I'd probably spend a bit on ppc ads targeting locals looking for a service I can provide. Then all it takes is to do some real work. Of course we are talking the "If I was despirate business plan."

The comments in this thread about passive income are straight to the point and alot closer to how I really try to invest than the above strategy. I work a menial day job that quite frankly doesn't utilize more than about 10% of my abilities. I keep food on the table and the house payment paid. I do no more work than I absolutely have to. Then I spend my time domaining to build passive income on the side. Eventually I won't have to work the day job. This is the "realistic" long term business plan.

I am positive that as a domainer I leave 99% of the money on the table that my investments could make. Nobody wants to do the "work" part, but if I had to have the money the surest way is to turn from bieng a domainer to a domain end user. If you owned a nice plot of land in the big city, you could pave it and sell parking. You'd make a fixed maximum income based on how many cars you can fit. You could also build a shopping mall and lease buildings. You'd make alot more but you would have to invest alot more to make it happen. There are plenty of parking lots in the domain world and if you're despirate for that 20K you only need to pick one and start construction. Just realize that it involves real work. (something I'm not too keen on)

 

[soggyindo]

the biggest "oh yeah" moment for me in this thread is to focus on what is working more. i tend to leave sites that are running hot in order to work on my other sites that not doing so well (in order to get them all into equal shape). it's partly due to personal affection for the lesser sites - for their topics or design or whatever. it's silly all the same - it's perhaps better to get to a full time internet income and play your follies when you have free time.

but - does anyone else have the feeling that they don't want to spend too much time developing, because they know how quickly good names are being snapped up? i know how fast i'm scanning the drops, etc - and imagine thousands doing the same.

partly i've been building up my 'perfect' portfolio of site names before i go fully into stage 2.

or does it never end?

 

[DomainTalker]

but - does anyone else have the feeling that they don't want to spend too much time developing, because they know how quickly good names are being snapped up?

does it never end?

Great point...

Imagine in the real Real Estate world, that we'd built up ownership of, say, 300 blocks of undeveloped land...We're paying property taxes to hold them, but, they are just sitting there earning little, or no, income at all...

...Would we still think its a great idea to spend a lot of our energy looking to buy another 50 blocks of undeveloped land? Or, would we say:'Geez....Enough!!....Gotta do something with what I have'?


I can see pruning, selling & trading the blocks, to improve the quality of the blocks of land in the portfolio....But...At some point, we have to see that Land Banks are okay, but, the energy must turn to building & developing, as the main game, to make it all pay off....


But the acquisition of 'properties'...."does it never end?"....And the obsession with acquiring....Great point...

.

 

[Acquisition]

Even with the economy the way it is, making $20,000 in just 30 to 60 days with a minimal investment is extremely easy to do if you have some common sense.

I'm doing it over and over and over again, and in a shorter period of time, even in this economy.

 

[shockie]

Even with the economy the way it is, making $20,000 in just 45 to 60 days with a minimal investment is extremely easy to do if you have some common sense.

where should i apply my common sense?

 

[dmi]

Learn, develop, wait.

Don't rush in. Take some time to learn everything about developing (from buying a domain name, the development process itself, SEO, etc) and then start. You have to learn which way is the right one, not wander around. Don't make 100 sites right away and hope for a million. Develop one. When it's gets going, develop another one and so on.

Another important factor is time. You have to be patient and be able to wait. If you've done it right, results will come, but you have to give it some time.

Getting to $20,000/year takes time. Nobody can achieve that in months. It'll take years, believe me.