Start Over Challenge

[geb9696]

I am not sure if this is the right section for this post but I am going to put it here because I think it has the most to do with Traffic Monetization. Here is what I am going to do. We constantly have new domainers come to Namepros and ask if it is to late to enter into the domaining game. I am going to try my start over challenge.

Here is the challenge

See how much money I can make using nothing but Namepros and Sedo over the next 7 days.

The Rules

1. Start with this challenge with zero start up capital. I will be starting with nothing in order to see if it is possible.

2. Capital Expenditures will be deducted from and cash earned. If I make $10 writing an article and then spend it on a domain the total profit will be 0. One week from today(Next Sunday 7:30 Eastern Time) I will be totaling net income and adding in total assets and coming up with my total net gain. Assets will be valued at purchase cost.

3. I will not do anything illegal or against a company's TOS.

4. I will only be able to use Namepros and Sedo in order to make money. I was originally going to limit myself to Namepros but I need a parking company. Being how this is supposed to simulate someone starting completely new I am using Sedo because anyone can join and park names there.

I will be updating this thread as I go along. I am hoping making it a public thread will keep me motivated. I am very interested to see how this all turns out. We shall see what I am able to do in a week(ends 7:30 Eastern Time next Sunday). Wish me Luck!

 

[Brad|E]

I have to say, this is one of the most interesting, entertaining ideas/threads I've read in a while. Geb, your rundown of day 1 highlights some of the important decision processes and research aspects accompanying registering a domain that is a) clear of trademark violations and b) potentially profitable.

Rep added for your ingenuity. I look forward to reading more.

Best of luck.

 

[geb9696]

Update Day 2

Well the todays result were a bit harder to value as opposed to day one were I made a lump sum of money. Today I went away from article writing and decided to see what I could find in the way of domains. As a recap for so far.

Going into day two I had $19 cash and one domain.

So Day 2

We will start with the parking stats thus far. The Name has recieved 5 Visitors with 1 click. It did take Sedo some time to update the keyword but I am going to assume that the CTR will stay around 20%.

Total parking earnings to date- A whole 9 Cents and while not going to earn us a ton of money at that rate the name will make reg fee on the year but one day is not nearly enough data.

Today I spent mainly researching and looking at for available names that I believe I would be able to resell. After doing my research I found a name that I felt felt good about registering. It is a name that if I was not restrained to just trading and parking domains I would develop a website on. When looking to buy names that I plan on reselling I always ask myself if I would develop a site on the name. If I can not immediately say yes then I wont buy the name. I found I name that I like and I regged it. The name cost $4 so I am now down to $15 in cash.

My plan for the rest of the day is to find more opportunities to build bak up my cash reserves. With only $15 in cash I am extremely limited to what I can buy. I am shooting to get to atleat $50 in cash. I have decided to look into possibly registered a name that has recently dropped and used to be developed.

 

[Sleepys]

I think that it is good that you don't reveal the name/names while this project is going on, so that people can not interfere. I do hope that you will reveal what names you purchased after it is over.

Where did you register a name for $4.00?

 

[geb9696]

I will reveal the names at the end. The reg fees will all make sense then.

 

[geb9696]

Update For day 3,

Overall today was not a very productive day as I had to travell for a few hours and it really killed my ability to do anything. I did some more posting and was able to make another $5. This brings my cash total back up to $20. After reading around the boards I decided to register another name. The name cost $8 to reg. So I am down to $12 in cash.

I really liked this name and immediately after buying it I decided that in order to make more then just a few pennies from Sedo I would forward the name to an affiliate site. By doing this instead of parking the name I am now able to market the name. This provides me with an chance to drive traffic to the name. In order to do this I have decided to persue article marketing.

Now I realize that many people are going to say that this is getting away from my orginal challenge. I disagree because I still am only using services that are free and anyone can sign up for.

Now for the Parking Update
The typo name the I have parked at Sedo recieved 2 visitors and got 1 click for 9 cents again. While a better ctr then yesterday I am afraid that this was probably not the best way to invest my capital. Overall parking earnings 18 cents.

I am hoping that tomorrow I will be able to be more productive as I do not have to travel so I will be able to get some more work done.

 

[nu-money]

This is a great thread, alot of people will learn a great deal from it :tu:

 

[metronome]

ha....I just knew that you could actually just write a post in name pros and get money for it.....or I am missing something?:P

 

[BizBot]

Geb - I am looking for some good original articles on Domain Names for a new site I am developing.

Please PM me to discuss the details if you are interested and if it would be acceptable to the challenge.

 

[geb9696]

Update for Day 4-
Today I focused mainly on trying to sell one of the domains that I bought. I decided that getting the most exposure to the domain would be the best way to go. I decided that it would be worth $5 to have the name listed for sale so this brings my total cash down to $7 dollars. Given the short time period I figured a little marketing would not hurt is possibly getting a quick sale and nice ROI.

Parking-
I am still very unsure about how wise it was to invest in the typo domain in an attempt to make money through parking. Today the name got 1 visitor and no clicks. Not exactly great results. So total parking revenue stays at 17 cents. (Boy am I glad my parents pay the rent)

Affiliate Program/ Article Marketing
While I just started with article marketing I have yet to get any affiliate sales. I do have good news in that my articles are being listed to the article directories that I sent them too. Hopefully I will start to see some revenue from this. I do want to note that one sale will equal over $15 for me so this is very hit or miss on the earnings side. At worst I am building a bunch of backlinks to the name if I later decide to develop the name.

Writing-
Since I spent time trying to sell the one domain I was not able to spend much time writing. I was only to able to make $2 today but I may have articles lined up for the coming days. At this point I am realizing that my writing is one of my strong suits and is the quickest way for me to make money online.

Conclusion so far-
So far I have realized that writing is the quickest way for me to make money online. Probably not the thing most of you wanted to hear but I do believe this is an important thing to address. Being how I have three different methods in which I am trying to make money I am learning a ton about myself. I realize that if I need to make money quickly being paid to write is my best option. I have also realized that finding domains that generate parking revenue is probably not one of my strong suits. I am therefore going to pool my money and buy a name generating revenue. So with the $7 remaining and the $2 dollars I made today I am at $9 total cash. I am hoping that paying for the sale listing will bring about a quick sale of the name. Tomorrow I am going to dedicate completely to writing, whether it be paid articles or articles to submit to market my affiliate.

 

[zenon]

Just out of curiosity, what's the earning potential with the forwarding to the affiliate program?

Great thread, btw.

 

[johname]

So far I have realized that writing is the quickest way for me to make money online.

I thought that on day one when you pocketed $20

 

[metronome]

...................ah, getting 5 views at first day at sedo and actually earning a click on the first day is considered good already,especially at the next day you got 2 visitor and 1 click from em is good too.

the first time I parked a domain at sedo, it doesnt even earn a click at first day lol.

 

[geb9696]

Day 5-
Today was a very productive day as I was lucky enough to come into more writing work. I now have a contract to write 10 articles for a fee of 85 dollars. This is great news me as once I am done writing the articles I will be at $96 dollars and one day left on the challenge. This will mean that I have around $100 dollars to buy a domain with. Ironically this is the amount people suggested that I start with. At this point I think it is evident that if you are willing to put in the time money can be made through domaing but the first stages are often lots of hours with very little return.

Parking Update-
Well on the parking front today was a very good day. I had 3 visitors and 1 click for 71 cents! And people say Sedo has low payouts! Okay I am way to excited about this but at 71 cents a click I am well on my way to that new mansion I was thinking of buying. Sarcasam aside clicks like that are what we dream of. This puts my parking total up to 89 cents. At this pace the domain will absolutely pay for itself. Maybe typos are worth more that I orginally thought. If I was not absolutely determined on buying one name with the remaining money that I make I would be very tempted to experiment with typos. One thing that is really stopping me from this approach is metronome's comment and my past experiance with typos. From what I have experianced it is really hit or miss. I have also learned that you want to target typo names that have high payout per click. The click today really illustrates my point here. One 71 cent click is equal to almost 8 clicks at 9 cents a click. With typos traffic and clicks are always a gamble so I would also go with a keyword that is going to take the least amount of clicks to pay its reg fee.

Domain Selling-
So far I have not been able to sell the name that I registered. I am not really suprised by this as Namepros has alot of shrewd buyers and if the name that I bought was worth a ton then they probably would have found it already. Even with no offers coming in a I still hopeful that the name will sell. Even if the name does not sell I do have ideas to develop it later.

Affiliate Marketing-
With the contract I have to write the ten articles I have not had time to write articles for my affilitate marketing. Given that I have not driven many visitors to the affiliate site I have not had any sales. Zenon asked how much could be made through affiliate marketing and to be honest it really depends. From what I can determine if you market the right way 25-50 dollars a day can be done with a decent amount of effort. To make more then that a day you will most likely need to develop a website on the topic and send many visitors to the affiliate. Paying for visitors is also an option but I would be very wary of creating capital expenditures when you do not know the return on investment. With the internet the major plus side is the minimal amount of capital you have to risk to make money. I would be very wary of spending money in order to try to make money unless you know for sure you can turn a profit on the invested money.

For tomorrow I am going to finish the articles that I have to write and then look into buying a domain name.

 

[spinoza]

very interesting challenge. I think you are doing great.
good luck!

 

[unholy1]

Very interesting indeed...

It's always good to see people take up a challenge to make some money from $0...
Brings out the creativity and improves work ethic...

 

[mwzd]

Excellent idea. Hope it will show that there is money online!

You just need to use your core skills to get it.

Have a fav saying - "You'll only ever make money using your core skills, everything else just eats up time for no or low returns."

 

[geb9696]

Update for Day 7
Today was orginally supposed to be the end of the start over challenge. I am going to give my final money total for the purpose of the thread but I do have to say that given the time period of only 1 week I was extremely limited in what I could. Given this fact I am thinking of doing another challenge in a few weeks after I have finals.

Total money made-
Over the course of the challenge I was able to make $120 plus 90 cents from parking. So that brings total cash earned to $120.90 now for expenditures we have $18 in reg fees and then $5 more for marketing on the name I was trying to sell. So overall at the end of the challenge I have $102.90 in cash and 3 domain names. I learned a ton from this challenge. Would I have liked to make more money over the past week? Yes! But who wouldn't?

Like I said before I plan on trying another challenge in a few weeks that will focus more on just domains. I plan on doing that challenge starting with more money and perhaps making it a 2 week event. Overall, I hope that people can take something out of my experiance. I know that the most valuable thing from this to me was not the money that I made but the knowledge that I learned from it.

 

[DnEbook]

fun to read thank you .... realitydomaining.com and realitydomainer.com are both available !!

 

[moby]

Well done, geb9696
Does anyone know or can maybe recommend the names of Article or Marketing writing - Websites ... etc ??

Thanks.

 

[Grassman]

saying it is too late to get in domaining is like saying it is too late to get into real estate. Theres just more competitors, very few get rich quick situations and you actually have to research and do work for your money
:D

and i just got into domain's 3 days ago

nice read, but with the bulk of your money coming from writing doesnt that defeat the whole idea of making money just from domains? unless you include submitting content to others for other domains.

anyway, very good read. it was inspiring

 

[geb9696]

Grassman,
I agree that I did get somewhat off track but it was a learning process. With domains I do believe that members here were right that starting with $100 dollars is a more realistic goal.

 

[Frenchiexno1]

Great thread - rarely do I make the effort to really look out for a thread I really enjoyed but I did this one. I was waiting to hear what the domains you bought were - let us know would be interested to see what you went for!

 

[geb9696]

Domains that I bought
thepiatrebay.org -Typo of thepiratebay.org
Sexyindians.co.in-I really liked this name and with the discount on .co.in I figured 4 dollars well spent.
VegasGains.com-This was the name I used for affiliate marketing