In a recent post we touched on  Google Analytics statistics and Bounce Rates. In this post, we have identified a statistical tool you can use to see how your affiliate links are performing. Affiliate marketing is used by most webmasters in some form or other. It might be eBay, Google, Clickbank or one of the many others.

If you are trying to generate a revenue stream with your website and you do not have your own products you can sell others by using an affiliate program like CLICKBANK. If you are thinking about selling a product or if you have an e-book your want to promote… CLICKBANK is a good choice. It has a history in the marketplace and when investing your time into building a successful online business you want to partner with a vendor that plans to be around for the long term.

Now that you have selected your product to market you should consider using a statistical program to track results and performance. Here is a great tool to help you follow statistics generated by your link. As much as some of us hate tracking or reporting, to be successful, it is critical that an affiliate marketer glean results from their links to determine effectiveness.  http://bit.ly/

Filed under: Affiliate, affiliate marketing, link statistics, shorten url, tracking | 1 Comment

You have written all those great articles about your niche and now you want to know where to submit them. Article submission or submitting articles can help generate traffic to your website so take the time to complete the resource boxes (add your website link)  and write a title that will garner immediate attention. Example: “How to Increase your Website Traffic in 3 easy steps”.

Looking for a list of article databases to submit to? Some we use:

1. Ezine Articles
2. Articles Base
3. GoArticles
4. SearchWarp
5. Article Alley
6. Article City
7. Article Set
8. Article Snatch

Some other Web 2.0 sites you can add content to are Squidoo, HubPages and Google Knols.

Filed under: Article Writing, submit articles, submit content | Post a comment

Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of hiring a website developer before they’ve done their homework. That’s the consensus of entrepreneur Stephen Joyce and consultant Jennifer Galley, who both have extensive experience in website development.

Joyce runs Sentias Software Corp., a Vancouver firm specializing in Internet applications for the tourism and retail sectors. Galley has helped numerous clients with e-marketing projects.

They both stress the importance of being well prepared before meeting with prospective website developers.

You should start the process by asking yourself some important questions. What do you intend to do with your website and why? Do you want to generate sales leads, sell products online or handle bookings? Do you expect to generate a measurable return on investment from your website? What is your budget?

Look at other websites and decide what you like in terms of look and feel so that you have an idea of what you want.

Joyce also recommends developing a web plan. “It keeps you focused and serves as a blueprint for your project,” he says.

Your plan should lead you to ask a developer the following questions.

1. How much do you know about my business and the industry I’m in?
Familiarity with your business and industry makes a difference. “If you are in the heavy manufacturing business and the developer has only worked for non-profits, for instance,” says Galley, “they may not be the right fit for you.”
Read more…

Filed under: Programmers, questions, template, website developer | Post a comment

Without a doubt, the most valuable asset a website business owns is their client list, customer list, opt in e-mail list or whatever you wish to call it. This is the key to your online business. Building a loyal following that will listen, trust and take the time to read your posts / e-mail campaigns and decide whether to take part in a promotional offering will determine whether your website business will turn a profit, grow and ultimately be successful.

To build a successful following one needs to Read more…

Filed under: Affiliate, email marketing, lists, software | Post a comment

How relevant is the bounce rate displayed in your Google reporting? My bounce rate is about 50%.

First, let me say Google Analytics is one of the best website statistical programs in the market, it is free and a definite must for all webmasters. Having said that, we are going to pick on one statistic provided which we believe has no apparent value. At the very least, we feel has some weak points. The Bounce Rate statistic. Now the number of unique visitors and the demographics, how they found our site, etc are all excellent. Cannot say the same for the bounce rate…

Your Website Bounce Rate

The apparent formula used to calculate bounce rate is: Read more…

Filed under: Search Engine Optimization, bounce rate, google analytics | Post a comment

We had a number of inquiries regarding the letter of offer we use to approach corporations about a domain name we have for sale. Depending on the potential client or domain name we are attempting to sell, we will use one or two different versions of the following letter:

SAMPLE LETTER

Date

Company Name
Address
City, State, Zip

Attention: [Relevant Contact Person]

Dear [Buyer Name],

Would [Company Name] group be interested in the domain name Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, domain for sale, domain name letter of offer, sales letter | 2 Comments

When you manage a business, you are constantly making decisions – often under pressure. How do you make the best possible decisions, knowing they will have an impact on your company’s future? Is it any different if you manage an online business? The honest answer is no and you will be faced with similar issues a physical store will face.

There are strategies you can use to avoid common pitfalls and hone your decision-making skills. Making better, faster decisions will help you take advantage of business opportunities and avoid disappointments. Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, fixing online business, internet advice, Internet business decisions | Post a comment

Nothing can be more frustrating than visiting a domain registrar and finding out the domain name you had inmind is taken or already registered by someone that is a step ahead of you. ” xxxxxx[dot]com is already taken”…  what now?

Your options are to seek and destroy the dude that registered the name, Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, domain name creator, generator, ideas, make words | Post a comment

Continuing on our recent theme of acquiring backlinks?

Back Links

Backlinks or “back links” are links other webmasters provide you from their websites to your website, thus the word back. In our last article post we provided a template to help you solicit a back link or a link exchange with other sites. In this post we hope to provide you some background information on how to figure out how many are directed to your site.

Checking backlinks using Google Search

The old standard way is to type link:yoursite.com into the Google search field, however for more reliable results, type the following command:

yoursite.com -site:www.yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com
(Remember to replace “yoursite.com” with your actual domain name … D’OH!.) Read more…

Filed under: Link Building, back link defined, backlinks, determining number of backlinks | Post a comment

Sometimes you need some help in picking out a niche, a keyword, or a new domain name and you wish to find one that has some search volume. If you’re like me … always looking for an easier way … then here is something that may help.

Go to www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html. This is just one of many websites you can use to see how many people are searching for your chosen topic each month. Simply type in your key word on the left, enter the security code given and click “search”. The number of people searching for your key word each month will appear in the results.

Other similar tools are WordTracker and Google has one as well. Links to all these handy tools can be found in our “BlogRoll” section, which is in the left sidebar or column of our website.

These tools are a great way to find out the potential of the internet market you are considering entering into…

Filed under: Website Tools, keyword tools, resources | Post a comment

Much is said about acquiring quality links to help promote your website and improve your search engine rank. One way of improving your success rate is to submit a good quality letter and by approaching your link exchange partners professionally.

Here is a sample template letter you can use to direct such link exchange inquiries:

Dear Link Manager:  Read more…

Filed under: Link Building, link exchange request letter, reciprocal link letter template | 2 Comments

Elephant Traffic has launched its new online service for direct navigation advertising – offering domainers a risk-free monetization method for high quality, high traffic generic domain names.

The Elephant Traffic service allows domainers to use their traffic for direct navigation advertising, offering the traffic from the domain names to advertisers on a cost-per-visitor basis and re-routing visitors to the advertiser’s site of preference.

The company currently uses thousands of domain names including Ads.com, Fly.com, Paint.com, Laptops.com, Desktops.com, AutoInsurance.com, ArcadeGames.com, Flight.com, and InteriorDesign.com.

“One of the most surprising things about internet use is that 14% of online searches are done by using direct navigation,” said Wei-Hai Chu, CEO of Elephant Traffic. “Elephant Traffic gives advertisers the ability to capture this highly targeted traffic quickly and easily using a streamlined interface.”

The only problem facing Elephant Traffic at this moment, however, is Read more…

Filed under: Domain Parking, domain traffic, parking domains | Post a comment

EPC, PPC, now QCP. Seems like every year some new type of program is generated so us bottom feeders can earn more dough.

What’s Quality Click Pricing?

Until now, eBay Partner Network has paid for sales and leads. With Quality Click Pricing, we will now instead pay affiliates for each click sent to an eBay site. The price paid per click will still depend on the short-term and long-term revenue of the traffic that the publisher drives to eBay, but will now also take into account the incremental value of that traffic to eBay, i.e., whether a sale happened as a direct result of the publisher’s actions. The greater the incremental revenue and the higher the expected lifetime value of the customers an affiliate sends, the higher the EPC and total earnings the affiliate will receive. Earnings Per Click (EPC) will be set daily for the previous day’s traffic.

What does this mean for you? Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, affiliate programs, eBay, QCP, Quality Click Pricing | 2 Comments

Why is it when something newsworthy transpires, a new product launch like the WII or the passing of an artist, Michael Jackson, do domainers rush out and register anything related to the individual or product? We (domainers) seem to think www.michaeljackson2009abcxyz[dot]com is worth 10 million dollars. Just visit any registrar and try to find any domain name with Michael Jackson in it…truly bizarre to think someone would actually be able to resell it (www.michaeljacksonblahblah[dot]com) for profit. A quick search on eBay for “Michael Jackson” netted over 22,000 results. Free enterprise, have to love it…but in reality it is the domain name registrars that make all the dough as speculators buy up everything then 95% let them drop a year later when registration is due.

Michael Jackson´s Killer.com 2 Hot Domain US $21,000,000.00 Auction Ends: Monday Feb-08-2010 17:13:57 PST   | Watch this Item

The actual glove worn by Jackson recently sold for approximately $50 K so why would an undeveloped domain name be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Well, the true value of a domain name is what your customer is willing to pay for it. The highest returns are made when you are able to find an end user or someone whom has the intention of developing the domain name. They have a specific need for it to sell their goods and these are usually corporations or businesses. This is your target market! Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, Domain Name Valuations | 1 Comment

MeetDomainers will take place in Warsaw, Poland from September 25-27, 2009. The event offers a variety of sessions covering the legal aspects of domain names, copyrights on the Internet, domain traffic monetization, web development, and more.

“This meeting will be a great networking opportunity and a chance to learn from the best authorities in the field of domain name law, domain name monetization, advertising, affiliation, web development, SEO and more!” said Daniel Dryzek, the organizer of MeetDomainers. “You will be able to meet lots of Polish domainers and company owners as well as specialists and entrepreneurs from other European countries.”

There will also be valuable opportunities for networking, plenty of entertainment, and a live domain auction with .pl, .eu, and .com domain names. There will be Polish to English available at all times.

Visit MeetDomainers.eu for more information.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Filed under: Domains General, domainers | Post a comment

After a four month delay, Mexico’s .mx ccTLD is preparing for a September 1 public launch.

Pre-registration for these names can completed at a variety of registrars with an opening price of $1000. The initial price will gradually decrease (like a Dutch auction) from September 1 to October 31 when it will reach only $35 per domain. Following this scheme, the price for .mx domain names will settle at $50.

Visit www.nic.mx for more information.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Filed under: Register Domains, .mx registrars, Mexico | Post a comment

Oversee.net has announced that Craig Snyder will be the new General Manager of the company’s Registrar and Aftermarket division (Moniker and SnapNames).

Snyder was the CEO of Internet REIT for the past three years where he rebuilt the company’s senior management ranks. Prior to his position at Internet REIT, he co-founded and was Executive Vice President of Marchex.

“Craig has the right blend of experience and knowledge to assume leadership of SnapNames and Moniker,” said Peter Celeste, the Senior Vice President for Domain Services at Oversee.net. “Not only does he understand the industry deeply, he has extensive experience in managing multiple lines of business. Craig is a very strong fit in this role.”

[via PRWeb]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

Filed under: Domains General, domain news | Post a comment

ICANN has sent letters with non-renewal notices to three registars – South America Domains (doing business as namefrog.com), Simply Named Inc. (SimplyNamed.com), and Tahoe Domains Inc.

According to the letters, South American Domains lost accreditation for failing to provide “an interactive webpage and a port 43 Whois service providing free public query-based access to up-to-date (i.e., updated at least daily) data concerning all active Registered Names sponsored by Registrar for each TLD in which it is accredited.” Read more…

Filed under: Domains General, domain registrars | Post a comment

The Domain Roundtable extended auction ended Tuesday night with little fanfare.   An additional 54 domain names sold with a total take of $81,774.   From our observations of the auction proceedings, all but one of the domain names that sold went for the proxy bid prices that were entered before the finale of the auction began.  Since it appeared that no one was bidding up the proxies, many of the NR or lower reserve names were won by the first proxy bids.   In fact 42 of the 54 domains sold went for under $1000.  Bidders that placed their proxy bids in early on this auction definitely had an advantage.    The top sale of the night was Larger.com at $24,800 Read more…

Filed under: Domains for Sale, domain name auctions | Post a comment

The live auction sold 39 out of 76 names (51%) for a total of $499,200 USD, which makes an average price of $12,771.79 per domain. Highest price was contests.com with $380,000. Even though there were some technical difficulties with the video & audio feed at the beginning of the auction all but one of the domains offered during that time sold. Read more…

Filed under: Domains for Sale, domain name auction results | Post a comment