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!

• BestoftheWeb
• JoeAnt.com
• Hot vs Not
• Yahoo Directory
• Business.com
• Uncover the Net
• Wow Directory
• Skaffe
• Gimpsy

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.

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.

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

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.

Forget about sex.com – some of the most valuable domains in this world surround lead generation. Ask any developer and you will get the most common 5-10 categories as the most valuable.

Insurance, Mortgage, Weight Loss, Finance, Debt and others.

One of the biggest domains sought after by hordes of people over the years has seemed to quietly move to a new owner for a sum that was substantial I’m sure.

If you think I’m kidding lets put it in a parking perspective for domainers. Over $40,000 a month in parking revenue from my sources.

Well, in December the domain autoinsurance.com changed hands from long time owner P Gordon of London, England to what seems to be the owners of OnlineAutoInsurance.com -- InsuranceBroker.com LLC located in Miami Beach, Florida (according to DomainTools and obvious from the DNS change)

This is by far the best domain acquired over the past year in my opinion for a number of reasons – many developers would have sold their soul, their spouse and possibly their pets for this domain.

Congrats and check out the videos.  Looks like they are copying the freecreditreport.com theme for advertising but regardless this is a monster domain and one that will never be available again I’m sure.

My guess – well over $5 million – possibly $10 million if this was a sale and not a partnership.

A drop in the bucket for Allstate, Geico or anyone else but hey – why not spend your money on ads instead of buying your traffic (sarcasm)

Best move of the year to buy this domain imo.

Another domain which was developed but would probably see no more than a couple hundred in auction is ReliableRemodeler.com

According to Quinstreet’s SEC filing

“In February 2008, we acquired ReliableRemodeler.com, Inc., or ReliableRemodeler, an Oregon-based company specializing in online home renovation and contractor referrals for $17.5 million in cash
and $8.0 million in non-interest-bearing, unsecured promissory notes, in an effort to increase our presence within our home services vertical.

Have to love it.

I love hearding stories about development especially with domains most domainers would never bid on. As the mammoth Quinstreet filed to go public more of thier purchases are now public.

CardRatings.com – a site with just under 100,000 visitors a month (not an enormous amount of traffic by any measure) was sold for $10.2 million in an all cash deal.

Read more here

Congrats!

PS. Don’t think your word+ratings.com is worth any more. This is development pure and simple.

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

With online courses, full day seminars and formal certification to show potential employers these SEO guys certainly seem to know their stuff.

Most of us would love to have a domain like seotraining.com as it is just a great name to show the world your seo expertise and build a platform for tens of thousands of people yearning for information on search engine optimization every day but much like many acronyms in this world SEO is not just dedicated to the web.

So if the economy is getting you down but still want a job with a catchy web 2.0 title visit seotraining.com – you might just get another chance to be an SEO expert after all.

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.