IT.COM

How to Earn $20,000

NameSilo
Watch
Impact
71
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:
 
Last edited:
0
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
With all the uncertainty in the economy today, I'd probably go with development and that's what I'm working on right now. Maybe do a bit of domaining so I could get some nice direct navigation domains to develop -- other than that, I'd go with development.
 
0
•••
nice start reece - this is going to be good!

do you mean you'd trade up some hand regs (because you're starting without much capital) - to be able to afford some direct navigation domains?

i take it you're talking .coms (direct navigations) - which would be quite pricey?

or do you mean keyword-rich SEO names, in other extensions?

----

my 2c worth:

• I'd find a skill I could offer busy domainers (development, writing, etc) at a cheap cost.

• Use that money earned to find the best, keyword rich domains that are exact matches of medium-high search terms (.com, .net, .org or .info). Ideally they would be memorable domains also for resale purposes.

• Develop original content and promote socially (social bookmarking, forums etc) and also do basic SEO.

• Place the sites/ names on sedo, with stats, at a premium but still reasonably priced. re-invest any profits, or sell if you get a good offer.

• Rinse and repeat.

I'd also grab any bargains i might see in my travels for resale, but play to a "quality only" rule. Pay the highest you can afford to to get the best names.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
I agree with Reece that development could earn you more than parking. but I really don't know how to develop a money making website.

is it by turning your parking sites to a mini wordpress sites or something else like BANS or Whypark?

I would be glad if fellow namepros members can give some ideas
 
0
•••
Wordpress is a great platform. Some of the top domain blogs gross $1000+ /month, yet some of them only have 1 post every 2-3 days and some of them have other people do most of the posting for them still! Imagine how much that works out to per hour :)

Of course they're good at what they do and that's why everyone goes to their site, however I'm sure most people here are an expert at something and could develop a loyal following if they shared their knowledge in that area.

henrysim said:
I agree with Reece that development could earn you more than parking. but I really don't know how to develop a money making website.

is it by turning your parking sites to a mini wordpress sites or something else like BANS or Whypark?

I would be glad if fellow namepros members can give some ideas
 
0
•••
seo+domain development for me, let's say we have a scenario something like you offer to develop domain owned by owner, owner doesn't have experience in developing only flipping, buying and selling domains. you offer to develop it making their domain(s) as either forum, blog or directory, then you turn it over to them when it's developed and fully listed/seo'ed on google.com/yahoo.com, and you charge minimal fee of U.S.$200/month you agree to develop it for 3 months, you have to get like 10 clients a month to top your goal and add some more.
 
0
•••
I do have houndres mice keywords rich domains (most are nets and orgs) but it is a hard work for me to develop them since I know little about coding etc.

So my sttrategy is different to yours. I am going to sale my long ket-words domains asap cheap them buy more short domains.

The current market price for domains are dropping, esp for 4L.coms, 3C coms, and even LLL.coms. I will use all of my availbale funds to buy these kind of short domains while they are cheaper now, and waiting for the economy back in 2010 or so

I am sure my investment will get a good return by that time
 
0
•••
weblord said:
seo+domain development for me, let's say we have a scenario something like you offer to develop domain owned by owner, owner doesn't have experience in developing only flipping, buying and selling domains. you offer to develop it making their domain(s) as either forum, blog or directory, then you turn it over to them when it's developed and fully listed/seo'ed on google.com/yahoo.com, and you charge minimal fee of U.S.$200/month you agree to develop it for 3 months, you have to get like 10 clients a month to top your goal and add some more.

nice plan!

but would there be benchmarks for the clients, @ $200 a month? (there's a big difference between a shoddy quick site and a 'deeply developed' and promoted one...) If you can solve that it sounds a good one.

I take it you mean about 40 clients a year = $24,000

:bingo:

namelinker - you're the first one to mention selling domains as a strategy. i like your long view with LLL's etc, too.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
that's why i mentioned specifically forum, blog and a directory.
i think blog can be developed lower.
forum will have it's real active members posting regularly.
directory will accept human regular submission regulary.
blog will have content, i'll even write the content for them.
it's hard work I know.
just to justify the U.S.$200 for it.

all have same denominator - all needs a lot of TIME and I have plenty of it, since I stay on the internet my whole life.

clients will appreciate it since they're paying for the time that they don't have and they will have enough time to care for other things, that's the plan and in the process of promotion pr will be increased.

I guess I have tried it enough on my own sites myself to try it on another person's site.
 
0
•••
I started developing domains as well since domain parking
is crap and end-user sales are kind of slow.

Made few wordpress sites.
About to start developing site selling how-to videos using Joomla.
 
0
•••
This is an interesting question.

I would have to go with my instinct and say this

Invest in a name that your passionate on or have an interest or even as a hobby. I pick passion.

Having a passion is what makes a success I feel. Sure you can hire a web coder and say do this and do that for this name. Passion makes you happy, know your doing something productive each day.

Now having said that I would make into a website weather it be an eccomerce project or or few mini sites with many niche markets.

My first year of domaining sucked. Learned from it and moved on. Realizing in 8 years being in sales how much I hate it and I'm not to happy.

09 will be the turn around story for me and I begun my foundation of web properties.

Good luck everyone. Wonder what others say. Weblord brought up many good issues.
 
0
•••
jeffoverman said:
This is an interesting question.

I would have to go with my instinct and say this

Invest in a name that your passionate on or have an interest or even as a hobby. I pick passion.

Having a passion is what makes a success I feel. Sure you can hire a web coder and say do this and do that for this name. Passion makes you happy, know your doing something productive each day.

Now having said that I would make into a website weather it be an eccomerce project or or few mini sites with many niche markets.

My first year of domaining sucked. Learned from it and moved on. Realizing in 8 years being in sales how much I hate it and I'm not to happy.

09 will be the turn around story for me and I begun my foundation of web properties.

Good luck everyone. Wonder what others say. Weblord brought up many good issues.

i couldn't work out if you or i wrote this!

:lol:

so glad i picked domains around interests also - now sitting on a linked network of 70 - 80 sites i'm interested in.

here's to 09 as being successful site maintainers - not just frantic site developers!
 
Last edited:
0
•••
0
•••
Develop. Pick something you're interested in and blog about it, build traffic and a fanbase, and create a way to make money from the site -- subscriptions and merchandise will work.

Chances are, you're not going to sell/flip $20,000 in strictly domains unless you get very lucky from contacting several end users directly.
 
0
•••
about 120 clients per year x U.S.$200 = U.S.$24,000
and since you deal with mostly domainers who have no time to develop, it will be a repeat order once they're satisfied, come to think of it, development+SEO, other SEO expertise i've seen is offering U.S.$200++ just for SEO

soggyindo said:
I take it you mean about 40 clients a year = $24,000

:bingo:

namelinker - you're the first one to mention selling domains as a strategy. i like your long view with LLL's etc, too.
 
0
•••
First off I can only state what I have experienced and it may not work for everyone. But here is the process I would use:

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.

Using this I now have developed domains that make XX to XXX range per month and also still have more passive X to XXX domains parked with traffic that has shown to be stable.

I find a mix works best. You would not want a stock investment in all one stock, same here, hedge your bets with a mixed portfolio of developed generics and traffic domains, AFTER generating revenue with traffic domains first.

I am sure someone will point out a flaw, but its worked for me. I am now cash flow positive on my expensive domaining habit and used a portion of the proceeds to buy the car I have been wanting:)

That said, I still work for a living but have learned working smart and not hard on the domaining front has paid off.

Hopefully no secrets revealed the domaining gods will shoot me for.
 
0
•••
that's where my services comes in.

that's the beauty of domaining even if you reveal a method, still it will work uniquely with you, i think you have some tricks off your sleeve that's yours to keep.

mindless said:
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.

Hopefully no secrets revealed the domaining gods will shoot me for.
 
0
•••
Very true, we always hold something back:)

And yes, your services have for sure came in handy on the names I have developed:)
 
0
•••
mindless - wow man, your strategy sounds solid.... definitely gonna borrow a bit of it and see what i can do with my portfolio!
 
0
•••
mindless said:
First off I can only state what I have experienced and it may not work for everyone. But here is the process I would use:

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.

Using this I now have developed domains that make XX to XXX range per month and also still have more passive X to XXX domains parked with traffic that has shown to be stable.

I find a mix works best. You would not want a stock investment in all one stock, same here, hedge your bets with a mixed portfolio of developed generics and traffic domains, AFTER generating revenue with traffic domains first.

I am sure someone will point out a flaw, but its worked for me. I am now cash flow positive on my expensive domaining habit and used a portion of the proceeds to buy the car I have been wanting:)

That said, I still work for a living but have learned working smart and not hard on the domaining front has paid off.

Hopefully no secrets revealed the domaining gods will shoot me for.
You just revealed the golden goose really.

This is what many hard real estate investors do, or some variation of this. I know that some use the "buy three, keep the best one, then sell the other two" method......then repeat again with three more, thereby amassing an amazing portfolio of real estate properties.
 
0
•••
To be honest, when I wrote the step by step post the mindset I had was, if I had any sort of info when i started in this business/addiction what would it be. The post is the short version of what I wished I would of known.

I will say, no matter how hard you try you will stray and make bad decisions on purchases, BUT that said the goal this "how to earn 20K" thread has to me is to make 20K more than you spend, and it is possible with the method described.

Really no secrets there but you do not see them all in one place very often.

But like everything else, anytime any information is given theres always the worry of creating competition for yourself:)

I keep waiting for the angry PMs.....
 
0
•••
I would sell my sites and get a steady job :(
 
0
•••
mmelen said:
I would sell my sites and get a steady job :(

or you can do both....im in the same boat right now...michigan is killing me and being a small business and retail, just burned out... took on a midnight job for cash flow reasons, doing a few orders a month from the business still and keeping a few small accounts that i do have...building out couple sites as we speak...

the internet is amazing and fun...domaining and ppc parking is not fun for me...would be if i came into the game early or had type in traffic .com name..lol...

many good thoughts by the others...i been doing a pro and con list on a forum and a niche market...think it boils down to finding good moderators, get a few members that follow your passion to post everyday then you have the headaches of selling the advertising... keep going back and forth on a forum issue... tomorrow my thoughts may change, lol.... want things to be in placed by jan 09 and on paper...realistic goals that i can do, not high expectations... right now concentrating on renewing few names, letting a few dump and be cash flow + in 09 starting in feb or march...

these are bad times for everyone right now... right now cash is king...when i tell couple people this they laugh at me and there buying things left and right...i did the fast growth, got burned and now taking each day as a new day..slow and steady....if i get thinking on 10 things its all overwhelming, lol...

may 09 be all good for us!
 
0
•••
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.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
My advice,

-Focus on generating cash flow straight away

-Forget about anything speculative - ie if you are relying on making money by the value of a domain increasing you probably have a good chance of losing money in the current market

-Stick with the common, well known extensions, stay well away from anything 2nd rate, .mobi, .me, .tv etc.

-Consider development as Reece says, make sure your operation is lean, look for the very lowest priced host, wouldn't be spending on development and things like that, do a course and do it yourself. Do not spend a whole lot of money of registering stuff, more than a couple of sites is probably a lot to try and develop.

-Keep a tally of your revenue each money and continually reassess things particularly if isn’t making a profit yet.

-As far as actual domaining goes I would only be considering traffic names and names with definite end-user potential right now (the second one isn't easy so make sure you study this hard if you go down that path and understand the likelihood of getting sales). Other types of names are a liability in a recession.
 
0
•••
Back