Newfound Names LLC » Domain Development

Geo Domains may Lose LOTS of value

Alan — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:37:09 +0000

People buy GEO domains for two reasons. One is the obvious authority factor by having a domain like ChicagoDoctor.com but the other is because of the huge SEO advantage these names give.

However what if Google changed local results one day and stopped displaying ALL organic results. Well, it seems like Google is testing this as reported by Coverseon here:

http://blog.converseon.com/2010/08/13/google-removes-organic-results-in-local-tests/

This is why learning SEO and development is more important each and every day as if you bank your portfolio on things remaining the same – well, you just might need a life belt after all

Have to love this business

The ULTIMATE LIST for MONETIZATION

Alan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:27:35 +0000

I’m on this run posting about development purely because it really kicks me when I see so many wasted domains with parking pages and the general lack of any real SEO / Monetization presence at industry conferences. My personal opinion is DomainSponsor, NameDrive, SmartName and all these companies should be entitled to one booth and be banned from speaking but hey, someone has to got pay for the free drinks I suppose. There is nothing wrong with parking a domain. It really is a great concept but none of the old school parking companies are doing anything much newer today than 5 years ago – just some prettier pictures and some auto generated content waiting to be banned by Google again.

People like Rob Monster of Epik are trying to take this industry to the next level and that is exciting – Fabulous, Domain Sponsor, SmartName .. Man, its like the Culture Club song that stuck in your head throughout the entire 80′s – sounded the same in 1981 as it did in 1989. Someone should consider writing a theme song for the parking companies similar to this.

As for domain conferences. We need to embrace the fact that owning a domain name is not the end game. Yes, it is for some people and thats OK – but do we continue to cater to ourselves or embrace the world growing around us? After all – we are the people complaining why others do not get it … maybe its because we dont?

I honestly wish the TRAFFIC conference disappeared completely and we all embraced the future rather than trying to sing the same old song again. DomainFest is making headway here while TRAFFIC seems to be dying a slow death. Anyway, thats another story – at the end of the day its only important what I do with my life and not what you or any of the event organizers do.

So where is this incredible list of monetization providers?

You can search for domains right?

By the looks of domain names people bid on at Snap, NameJet and other drop services I do question most peoples ability to even search at all but rather simply follow the herd – clearly evident by the abundance of junk people try to sell (they had to buy these names at some point right?)

However, I do welcome any postcards from never never land when you sell your triple hyphen .info to some for fool for $200,000.

Back to the List..

This is as simple as it gets and the way to find monetization companies outside of Adsense is right in front of you.

Yes. It’s all on one website.

A website that if you spend a day clicking through or highlighting the text of company names (manually searching on Google – its tough, I know – buy a bandaid for the awful pain I am causing your fingertips) you will learn more about who can monetize your domain better than any parking company or TRAFFIC conference will ever tell you.

Its not Rocket Science at all .. the information has been online since the first day you dreamed of developing except no one ever told you.

Here it is …enjoy

List of Sponsors for LeadsCon

List of Exhibitors for LeadsCon

List of Attendees for LeadsCon

Ironically when did any of these people speak at a DOMAIN conference? Hello organizers ….List of

Speakers for LeadsCon

There are 1,000 +/- companies here. Many have lead offerings and understand the lead generation industry as well as you think you do about domain names.

Making money online is hard but for those serious its a lot more fun than looking at drop lists every day after day after day right round right round day after day.

Francois of Domaining.com Retires … Site Shutting Down

Alan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:00:11 +0000

This could be the post one day…. Are you prepared?

I am not someone who lives under the illusion that my blog is popular or anyone actually wants to read what I have to say.

However I am fully aware of the power that domaining.com has to provide traffic to people.

In fact, I would say out of all the industries online domaining.com is up there for being the largest SINGLE feed provider of traffic to industry blogs within an industry using a percentage scale

Ok that was a mouthful so let me put it this way.

The New York Times probably gets 50% of its traffic from MULTIPLE feed providers who highlight their news.

Smaller sites may get 80% of their traffic from MULTIPLE feed providers who highlight their news.

However in the domaining world ….

Most domain industry blogs I would guess receive 50 to 75% of ALL their traffic from a SINGLE feed source depending on your blog and excluding thedomains.com and that little guy high above Central Park -)

Even if its not 75% – its at least 40% since almost none of these blogs have any kind of substance for minor or highly searched topics, are not indexed in Google news (again, excluding MHB, the likeable guy with the funny bull riding helmet site and of course the news sites like Domain Name Wire)

Whatever the number is its high – drastically high from a single source.

I am sure some people who thought they were “famous” and all of a sudden lost a feed only to be banished to the bowels of Google since their site wasn’t famous at all – just had a link on domaining.com

My point here is have you even optimized your own blog or just rely on the power of some really powerful feeds that you believe just wont go away.

What if they did?

Your voice is only as powerful as your followers.

SEO is not just a way to make a money but its also a way for you be less reliant on single sources for readership and build a following of people who want to find your blog – not stumble across it since you just happened to be the headline of the day.

For those who know me I hold nothing back in my opinions about the lackluster support of development in this industry by some of the people who talk about domains.

When you hear a domain is worth xx and surely with a little development you can make 5 times x on your money … who are you listening to? You be the judge of that here – All I will say is knowledge comes from experience – not sales.

On the other hand there are many people who are legends in the development business but can you name them? Why not … you own domains and want to develop? Seems like you have been spending too much time reading domain blogs

2010 is not like 1999 when it comes to developing.

People are not hiding as much as they used to. Public information is easier to find and people understand there is so much information available that they are more willing talk (excluding the secrets of course).

In all our industry blogs I can not name one who actually focuses strictly on speaking about people who have developed domains. Not regurgitating domain sales but a one or two article per week success story with articles about people who bought domain names and developed them with success. Success is defined as a lot more than seeing 6 blocks of Adsense ads and a compete score of 86 visitors a month. Fusible is the closest thing we have to do this and they do a good job but we need something a lot better to attract more outside money and industry street credit.

Instead of a blog with domain sales listings, Adsense ads, hosting ads, auction ads etc.. from all over the place – how about a single site with true stories about development, SEO tips, articles from SEO people etc. Essentially a domain success / SEO blog.

Question: There is no money in this idea?

There can be if you have a plan and do it right. Quality content and design is rewarded with quality visitors and opportunities (many times outside of just the purchase of an ad). Plus unless you are MHB or that pretty purple tie guy there is no money in your current domain blog anyway.

Think about … give up something that’s not making money to do something better … gee, what a conundrum you face.

Question: Why don’t I do it?

Maybe I will when my son goes to college. He is almost 5 now so odds are the opportunity may still be there.

Remember, I’m not a hater – I’m a pure believer that this industry needs to grow by people who understand development and domains. A couple weeks ago I was informed of a meeting next month by a national reporter to talk about “the future of domains”. The invited and confirmed list of this included many of the biggest domain owners out there.

However when I saw the list (and even though some of the people I consider friends and are well known in this industry) I looked at the list and said….. Even if I was invited, I would probably skip the meeting as only one of them had any experience in development.

Just one.

This is a great business for buying and selling domains but most people do not want to be brokers or sellers – they want to do more. So how do we embrace the future of our industry …?

Talk to those people who do more than just buy or sell or any meeting about “the future of domains” is going to end like this …

“Lots of good domains to buy, how much you think I can sell this for?

Top 25 SEO Blogs – SEO Bookmarks You Need

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:24:58 +0000

Let’s do another article while I am stuck waiting to speak with a client overseas. I have always insisted that any domainer serious about development quit reading domaining blogs and spend more time reading SEO blogs so why not give you some homework.

My SEO knowledge is derived from 10 years of experience yet I would be a fool to think I know it all. Many Many people know much more than I do so in the wake of my own advice I realized that chanting this mantra is not doing any good without providing a list of some resources (where I promise you no longer have to listen to people trying to sell you a watch after a list of domains

So with due credit to DailyBlogTips.com for making this list easily accessible (and reminding me about a few forgotten ones) below is a list of 25 valuable resources about SEO development. There are many theories by people who dream and many people that do. Your job is to find common elements by people who have proven projects and that’s where the real SEO knowledge will come.

If you want to dream listen to dreamers – if you want to produce listen to producers.

Enjoy … I added ViperChill.com myself. It’s a new one for me but lots of good tips from the few emails I’ve read.

Disclaimer – if you find SEO sites boring, would prefer to read about domain sales OTHER people are making or refresh domaining.com every 10 minutes then either (a) enter rehab (b) double check if you even like the internet and (c) realize you’re not a developer

How to get Backlinks – SEO / Monetization Advice

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:31:33 +0000

Since my last post was popular and seemed to open up the eyes of many domain owners on how to monetize websites outside of Adsense or parking a page lets get down to backlinks.

The number of backlinks to a site from trusted and relevant sites gives great weight to a websites organic search ranking. For those old timers who have wonderful one or two page websites with NO fresh content and NO plan for developing links but rather just taking advantage of a prized placement in Google’s organic search well – the success of your website is essentially a time bomb waiting to explode (sink is the more appropriate term). One day you will wake up and see how Google has crushed you to the bottom of the rankings and then you will complain, contest and even grumble how Google screwed you over.

Without a solid plan for developing fresh content and building backlinks you might as well just be quiet, collect your check and try to find a buyer while you still have traffic. In SEO terms you are about as relevant as a dinosaur.

Real developers love the old timers – Why?

Because they are just waiting to be outranked. In fact, we love you more than the WebMD’s and Expedia’s of the world because without your first page ranking the SEO job would be a lot harder to do.

So how to get backlinks.

This is the true second stage of development.

First, you can buy links

There is no way I am going to list or even hint at companies that sell backlinks. The buying/selling of links is a red hot topic and one Google continues to try and challenge. It’s extremely hard to calculate one type of link from another however the pure concept of link popularity is based on organic links. Links from people who like your work enough to link to it – not those who have paid for self promotion.

What I will talk about is the value of links from time tested human edited directories. Google currently gives great weight to sites listed in Dmoz, The Yahoo Directory and others as these directories manually approve sites using quality Google has considered trustworthy and relevant from the dawn of time.

Do you have a Dmoz.org listing? I bet 99% of new developers do not yet when it comes to human directories dmoz.org is the gold standard for getting in. Its free and the Dmoz editors are inundated with listings to review but once you get in it is a solid link and will almost always boost your rankings.

A list of some of the popular human edited directories where you can submit your url are listed below. Most require a one time fee while others have a free submission option.

Dmoz.org

note that Dmoz actually has a great forum for webmasters at – http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/ – You will need all the tips there to get in!

There are lots more but find them yourself

Of course, Google places a different value on all of these but all of them have some kind of value and ironically are priced somewhat in line with how we view the important of each one. Some of these directories will stand the test of time while others may become less relevant but while the Google ranking mystery still gives weight to them its certainly worth looking at for serious sites you are developing.

Backlinks without Payment

How to get backlinks without payment?

The best answer to this is the same kind of answer you would receive if you asked a real estate professional how to get the best deals. “Ask around, cultivate relationships with the people who have access to information” they would say.

This is the same principal to apply when building backlinks to your website. Your website is not some kind of design project where you simply hope people will come by spurting out 1000’s of backlinks across random networks – your website is a business and your business needs to embrace the community already established.

Let me give you a perfect example.

Do you own a personal finance site?

Can you name 20 other personal finance sites that DO NOT begin with MSN or The New York Times?

If the answer is no and you have already started your backlinks plan then dude, scratch your current plan and start over.

Visit this link

http://www.wisebread.com/top-100-most-popular-personal-finance-blogs/

This is a super list of some of the most popular financial blogs around by a top 5,000 site Wisebread. A site by the way that takes guest writers

http://www.wisebread.com/guest-post

Google the terms “top 100 _____ sites” with your category of development in the space and find the small and large players in the community. Develop relationships, comment, join the forums, invite these people to write an article, ask the owners if its ok to quote an article without asking for anything in return (this time), buy a small ad and/or simply become a name they know.

Submitting guest articles is an incredible way to get good organic backlinks but I warn you based on 75% of the comments I see around most of you can’t spell nor have any kind of artistic talent (lets hope those people are just parking names) so before submitting any article run it by someone you know. First impressions count heavily as everybody and their dog wants a backlink from the poplar blogs and no one owes you anything – even if you have a pretty domain.

Remember, the strongest backlinks you can have are from sites with relevant content to yours. If you are selling used cars online and have 500 backlinks from domain name blogs it means about as much as a bone does to a cat.

Think relative, think time, think relationships.

Court popular website owners as you would that hot 21 year old girl sitting across the classroom your first day of college. Sweet, slow and always give more than take – Charm is a magical thing.

Check the Backlinks of Your Competition

Yes, its possible to find a crystal ball of all the backlinks associated with similar sites. Try Backlink Watch (painful site but good data) or the Yahoo Site Explorer tool.

What else.

Not tonight.

Take some of this and run with it.

P.S. I have some clients who are interested in exchanging backlinks with site owners however its all about quality. Send me an email if you like – domainrock @ gmail dot com – with a list of sites you could offer a guest post or link on in exchange for another.

I am only going to reply to people I think we can match up as part of SEO goodwill ambassador program that seems to be happening here so please do not take offense if I don’t reply.

Affiliate Programs and More – SEO

Alan — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:58:55 +0000

This article is mostly for domainers who are still learning to develop outside of Adsense. A week or so ago I posted about the basic elements required to have a $2 million property online broken down in number of leads / income generated per day.

As we all know Adsense and other forms of PPC have declined over the past year but developers who have real content with a mix of other revenue sources have continued to see growth in both impressions and revenue.

First of all you need to understand your market. Whether it’s the flower expert / domainer combo Domain Shane who knows more about a Lilly than all of us combined or Morgan Linton’s deep motivation to inspire us and learn about every single topic in this world to conquer the web you also need to understand your limitations and get focused.

(Morgan has no limitations so like a young Jedi he may just surpass you all)

As domainers many people own hundreds if not thousands of names which all sound cool and quite likely the owners know something about the industry but too often when you look at your portfolio you probably feel like jack of all trades and master of NONE – this is human nature – Einstein’s are very few and far between.

The first rule of thumb is define what you are developing or what you WANT to learn about. Passion comes from having love of a topic – SUCCESS comes when you have time to focus on that SINGLE Passion.

This does not mean you can’t succeed at a wide range of things but for each one you need to commit the time. For new developers you need to take the time to focus on one project, the second will be easier and so forth – but without committing time to learn you might as well just stick to flipping domains.

How to find other Revenue Possibilities outside of Adsense?

SEARCH THE ORGANIC and PAID LISTINGS for sites without brand names.

If you’re looking for information on car insurance then odds are Allstate.com is not going to have examples of affiliate programs as they are only interested in selling their own products. Do a Google search for your industry’s main keywords and find popular sites that have advertising realted services you think will match your content.

Although Allstate may not have what you’re looking for a site like 123ABCInsurance.com (random URL) quite likely has an affiliate relationship with a publisher of car insurance ads if they are ranked in the first page or showing in the Adwords ads. This method can be used in any category for finding popular affiliate programs.

In fact, I would say that a LARGE percentage of advertisiers are still playing the PPC arbitrage game with single revenue coming from affiliate programs so click on the Adwords ads you see to find more examples and sources of who people are using to earn income outside Adsense.

THINK ABOUT AD PLACEMENT BEFORE DESIGINING

A lot of first time developers don’t really think about incorporating ad placements other than a 160×600 or 300×250 block from Adsense however quite a number of standard sizes exist.

http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/1421/1443/1452

This is a link to all the standard online media sizes as coded by the Online Advertising industry (yes, there is one – quite likely more popualr than any domainer group – sorry ICA

Most affiliate programs will provide custom graphic work for your website if you show any kind of volume so do not limit the design just to the popular 2 sizes most people use with Adsense – leave your design open for change.

The lesson here is to contact and call companies direct about affiliate programs. Not only will you sometimes score a higher payout but also get the custom content you need instead of being subject to just what the affiliate manager uploaded to a site like Commission Junction.

UNDERSTAND WHAT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS LOOK LIKE

Affiliate programs are more than just links.

Take unemployment.com – one of the great sites owned by one of the masters of industry in the domain space who I will leave nameless. At first you may think the ad to the left for Stimulus Grants is an ad served by Adsense or something similar but its not. When you click on it you end up at this page

http://www.stimulusgrantapproval.com/

and … remember these words ….

Always scroll down to the bottom of any lead generating page in your industry.

As you can see here there is an affiliate program for grants which seems to provide some really great high quality images for your website as well. I’m not familiar with this program but I do know grant leads pay well and having less Adsense will certainly help with SEO in the long run.

Adsense was never launched with the intention for people to create sites made for Adsense with 3 or 5 units of ads and 100 words of content in total. It was created for additional revenue for CONTENT publishers to earn revenue. You are not a content publisher with a made for Adsense site – you are a spammer and Google will catch up to you, mark my words. Remember, Google’s first and foremost goal is to reward relevant, original and fresh content in the SEO rankings. FRESH is not a one pager that was put up a year ago.

Some of the BEST Affiliate Programs

Insurance

SureHits.com – http://www.surehits.com/

Insurance.com – http://www.insurance.com/about-us/affiliate-program.aspx

eHealthInsurance.com – http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/about-ehealth/affiliate-program

HealthInsurance.com – http://healthinsurance.com/hi/Affiliates/Overview.aspx

Weight Loss

Jillian Michael’s through Linkshare or quite possibly direct – remember, always call and ask them direct if you are a publisher with good and consistent traffic.

http://www.amwso.com/jillianmichaels.php

up to $55 a sign up (tiered schedule)

Mortgage

LeadPoint – www.leadpoint.com – These guys are the best. Not only do some of the most popular mortgage sites around use them (such as mortgageloan.com and leadsteps.com) but they have a number of options such as URL forwarding, complete custom forms, direct form post and more. Payouts are WEEKLY !!!!

Quinstreet.com – These guys are one of the largest marketers in the world yet many people reading this probably don’t know who they are except they paid a $20 million + sticker for Insure.com. Visit this page and speak with them – they do a lot more than mortgage.

http://www.quinstreet.com/who_we_are

HOTELS & TRAVEL

Expedia.com – many of the big travel sites use a simple expedia affiliation located direct at ian.com or expediaaffiliate.com – For example, take a look at londonhotels.com or most all of Federated Travel’s hotel domains to see how one could use this code.

Booking.com – probably the biggest affiliate provider to hotel publishers outside of the USA with still a super strong presence in the USA. One example of a custom display of thier affiliate code can be found on LasVegasHotels.com

OTHER LEADS

LeadPile is pretty good from what I’ve heard (have no experience with them). What I have seen is a lot of thier form code is iFrame stuff and I’m not a fan of iFrame’s for anything.

FOREX

I know a couple people who use the eForex affiliate program and do very well

http://www.eforexaffiliate.com/affiliates/rates.php

DENTAL PLANS

Dentalplans.com offers text links, banner ads, LANDING PAGES and more for your dental insurance domains.

AFFILIATE COMPANIES

Of course, for the newbies the main affiliate companies that offer 1000′s of affiliate programs are Linkshare.com and Commission Junction (cj.com)

Just remember every developer will almost always go through this stage

Stage 1: Website = No Revenue

Stage 2: Website + Adsense = Revenue

Stage 3: Website + Adsense + Affiliate through Affiliate Companies = Revenue

Stage 4: Website + Some form of Text Ads + More Direct Relationships + Some Affiliate Company Stuff = Revenue

Stage 5: Website + Some form of Text Ads + Direct Relationships = Revenue

There are 1,000’s of affiliate programs out there – some good, some not so good so read the affiliate blogs and learn about all the revenue that’s available. Even better spend a few bucks and attend an affiliate marketing conference like:

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

The money spent to attend this conference will quite likely be worth 100 times the cost of any single TRAFFIC conference to people who want to get serious. On the home page of affiliate summit they list over 850 companies attending … 850 !! ….. have there ever been 850 companies in attendance at a TRAFFIC show??

And all of these 850 companies have interest in talking to you about how to earn affiliate income!

You already have your domain … so graduate and move forward.

Good luck to all - there are many more sources but I only have so much time so hopefully this helps some of you.

$2 Million Dollar Sale ..

Alan — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:49:00 +0000

In only a few short years a $2 million dollar sale happens and changes you overnight. All the work put in was against your parents dreams to attain a higher education from some over rated and expensive school just to get a degree (in some entirely useless subject such as foreign art or gymnasium techniques) but you made more money now than they probably collectively did in their lifetime – all in just a few short years.

You see – that’s the power of the internet and a good domain name.

Sure, you could buy a domain for $200 and flip it for $2,000 the next week but the success is short lived and generally only fuels your fire to keep flipping domains.

However when can you start avoiding the idiosyncrasies of this industry and gamblers high from selling domain names to graduate to the point of this entire industry?

Some old school domainers will blog about traffic names but its sooo short sighted and only defines why the amount of information you can actually extract from some of these people is so limited.

Domain names are sort of like your piece of real estate in this world however very few domain names will ever bring in seven figures for a sale and I can guarantee 99% of people reading this do not own one. What you do own is a pipe dream with your triple hyphen .info.

What’s the $2 million sale?

Well, it’s not a pipe dream.

Very few people know me but those that do understand I have sold more names than probably anyone reading this blog (excluding Mike Mann of course) and have had my fair share of development success and even entered this business as an end user in the mortgage origination industry generating in excess of $100 million in mortgage loans. Granted, I also have a couple failed companies so its not always rosy but I do have the qualifications to give a teaspoon of advice in this industry.

Over the last year I have noticed more and more white noise across the domaining blogs and it’s become quite comical at best. You see – for the newbies – most people who comment on blogs really only have a couple sales, no development to speak of and little real knowledge of the domain industry. These facts are obvious by the blither of commentary across many of the popular blogs. Furthermore, some of the “popular” blogs are written by people as new as you – which sort of negates the whole “professional” viewpoint you need right?

(Obviously there are some great people who comment across the blogs like the Castello Brothers but the ratio seems to be about 100 to 1 for every qualified comment)

I’m not going to criticize anyone specifically as people enjoy one blog or another for reasons which are their own so all I want to do on this USA holiday weekend is simply show you what a $2 million sale looks like.

$750 a day.

Yep – that’s it.

You get a site up and running and enough content where traffic and net income is consistent within a $750 a day range and most likely you have $2 million in your pocket.

Why?

$750 a day income is equivalent to $273,750 in ANNUAL profit.

It’s easy to find a buyer for 7-10 years x income of almost any website generating consistent and verifiable revenue.

7 years revenue at $750 a day is $1,916,250.

Does $750 a day sound like a lot … sure and it is hard work however how about $375 a day – then you got a $1 million site.

$375 is 7 good mortgage leads a day
$375 is 7 good weight loss leads a day.
$375 is 15 good car insurance clicks a day.

You see … it’s not anything that’s impossible to reach. In fact, it’s easier to do than studying for your MCAT.

My advice – and probably my only post this summer is …

If you really want to make money in this industry long term do the following things:

First and Foremost

Filter out the white noise – stop subscribing to half the junk about domain names online and learn about what makes a good one. Do not try to find reasons why ALL domains sell for as much as they do because you only need ONE and almost EVERY domainer has a different theory on every sale. Many times, no theory at all since a large portion of sales only make sense to the buyer.

Secondly

Look at the authors qualifications. Many (not all but close) domain bloggers have never developed anything more than a mini-site. Some have simply paid other people to develop a site and still don’t have a clue about development so head over to the SEO and affiliate blogs once you secure your domain name. Hell, even start in the SEO and affiliate forums to learn what makes a good domain – many of those guys know more about domains than domainers …. Why, because they use them!!!!

Thirdly

Keep your small daily goal alive. The $300 or $500 a day is all you need to bank your million in a couple years. Sometimes thinking about a million dollars seems unimaginable and will beat you down before you ever get started.

A daily goal will make it seem easier and reachable for many of you.

And Finally…

Live life to the fullest – take calculated risks and only take advice from people you trust … not just because they have a fancy blog online. Life is too short – I have had a particular bad year with losing loved ones and having accidents or health problems happen to those very unexpectedly – do not think you will always have the time to do what you want to do so live your dream now. I know it sounds like a cliché but one day I promise you will heed the same advice to people.

Happy July 4th to the Americans but remember Europeans get a months holiday every year, paid maternity leave, free medical insurance, thinner women, better wine, stronger currency, real cappuccino (in a small cup NOT a bowl), secondary languages that are usually mandatory, cool clothes and more – so have your fireworks but when Tuesday comes you’re all back to work

Google Taking Over Lead Generation – Bad News for PPC and SEO

Alan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:13:02 +0000

Ask anyone using the Google Adwords program and you will quickly find many people building businesses around the success of their PPC campaigns however unlike how Rome wasn’t built in a day Google can crush you overnight.

The latest change to the Google search results for mortgage related terms such as “mortgage rates”, “mortgage calculator”, “mortgage loan” and more show Google comparison ads in the #1 spot. From the dozen or terms I searched for Google is # 1 across the board.

Not only does this Google self serving ad bump out 1 of the 3 available positions usually available above the organic search results (btw where can I can get a radio button and 4 lines of text for a Google ad!) but it really kills lead generation in the mortgage industry unless you are a company willing to provide rates, a good faith estimate, APR information and more (see results below)

Most lead companies generate leads through forms and usually come with a small disclosure reagrding APR and fees should it be required however posting this information online with what seems to be a required phone number also (if these ads are in fact available through the adwords platform at all) then its much more transparency than most people want to share. In fact, when requesting multiple quotes this is not information you can provide becuase a lead generator is matching clients to providers – not usually offering or publishing offered rates. Of course, the battle for the # 2 ad spot (really # 3) still exists however having Google take over enough space for both the first and second ad this should really bring down many CTR’s for mortgage related terms.

The New York Times wrote about this back in September involving a lawsuit file by LendingTree with regards to the technology Google is using behind the mortgage comparison service.

For domainers this doesn’t mean much since many have not purchased a single PPC ad however for developers who built out PPC campaigns based on historical click thru and conversation rates it may be time to start modifying your business plan … again.

18k Visitors and 70k year – Why the Web Rocks

Alan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:46:43 +0000

Every year people come up with great ideas to make money online which do not involve parking and these stories should inspire all.

The million dollar home page was the original money maker and one that has tried to be repeated many times over (with no such luck) however with the advances in social media since the early days more and more people are selling their souls for the right price

I have to give this guy lots of credit though – iwearyourshirt.com

From his site the system works like this

“In this up and down economy I’m outsourcing my wardrobe (namely shirts) to corporate america and you! I’m going to wear a different shirt for 365 days straight in 2009, take multiple pictures throughout my day and blog about it. Days are sold at “face value” so January 1 is $1 and December 31 is $365″

Doing the math that is $66,795 a year just for his shirt.

Lose your job and start a business wearing a T-shirt to work – sounds like a dream job to me!

FANTASTIC use of the web, viral media and a good hearted way to embrace your humor since I’m pretty sure some of these shirts have to be funny.

Bruce Marler had a great post about discussing ways to grow the domain aftermarket to end users so I highly suggest you read the article and 50+ comments here since if this guy can sell 365 shirts a year to corporate America then maybe we should all really think our approach to end users instead of complaining about it.

PS. Next year there are 2 guys with 2 shirts !! No information yet if he will sell ads on his boxers for the ladies but I highly expect a premium package to be added should this idea continue to work lol

1 SEO Guy who Google will Crush

Alan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:44:42 +0000

I have way too many bookmarks so my way to find the Google Adwords tool is archaic (type it in the tool bar over and over every day) but today was worth the humor.

# 2 sponsored link was …

I will not even link to this site since it does not deserve a link and will never understand how anyone would drop even a $1 for SEO services from someone that has (a) Google in their domain name and (b) a website that many 10 year olds could design better before they brush their teeth in the morning.

Granted – they may be SEO wizards but highly, highly doubtful in my book so be careful, if you’re looking for SEO services. Please do not fall in the trap of hiring somebody who from the very start has shown disrespect for the TM laws of domain names. Odds are there are some black hat SEO tricks in their wizardry which will only come back to bite you in the ass.

Find a reputable firm like SEO.com, listen to Bruce Clay, read SEOmoz.org and many others, your lessons will be a lot less expensive in the long run.