KhalidsLife.com

In my last post I mentioned I had invested “a few dollars” in new domains, actually its around $140. Each domain costs $10 and I know I can get them cheaper elsewhere but the service at UpBro.com is really good (touch wood!). I intend to build another network and become a website leader in a particular niche, offering content for all the smaller sites linking to one large user driven main site.

I intend to reveal more in due course but I wanted to put a question out to all readers. For a small content site (MFA), how many pages is ideal to rank well in the SERPs? I tend to find 3 pages with 500 words on each but I wanted to know what your takes was. Let me know!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I realise it has been some time since my last post but to be honest not a lot is happening. I am at the mercy of coders once again, two to be precise. One is doing his job well and on time, the other is a week overdue for a $30 script.

As I’ve been kept waiting, my mind has been thinking of new ideas and I’ve invested a few dollars into new domain names. I intend to build another network but that requires a custom coded site too, so back to Rent a Coder for more bids!

I’ll keep you posted in due course. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

After the recent sale of my website network I have some money to re-invest. Bankrolling future operations is now a lot easier for me as I don’t need to wait until pay day to make my next move, I have cash available to input into new projects. Being in complete control is a fantastic relief, and in addition having the money to hire people to do work for you!

Lukily I have a few sites I’ll be churning into sales and adding a little more cash on the pile shortly. I have a few big ideas I’ll be developing over coming months, including offline businesses. Spreading your risks is important and whilst I value the internet as a fantastic place for making money online, I feel putting two much into one domain can be risky.

Speaking of domains, part of my investments will be buying premium names that I can either rent or develop into profitable sites. As the .coms and .co.uk’s are snapped up at rapid rates, I think it would be wise to get a foot in the door and keep a hold of a few valuable names for the future.

I’ll keep you posted on any developments as and when they happen. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

First it was for sale, then it was cancelled…now it has been sold. I got the price I asked for and the buyer got the network with a little extra. In addition to my tattoo network, the buyer got my piercing domains - a new network I was going to start - and my services for the next three weeks. This includes building these sites and backlink building.

In short, we both got a good deal and I am ready to re-invest into something new. The buyer will soon take responsibility for a network earning $300 - $400 per month with the potential to become the largest tattoo and piercing network online.

I am a large chunk closer to becoming debt free and have the buying power to start multiple new businesses. Keep your eyes peeled for my new ventures. And, don’t worry, I still have investments online and more sites to sell in the future.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

The web is a limitless portal of ever expanding new information and media. Thousands of sites go live daily and millions of domain names are registered each year. A lot are copies, some are unique, and the vast majority are put online to make money.

I was searching for a new website idea the other day and looked at a few, well known websites with random names and packed with media content (images and videos). These sites were averaging over 500,000 uniques per month and have a team of writers! These sites don’t rank on the 1st page for their chosen keywords yet they receive more visitors than any of the site’s I’ve ever owned. Why?

My belief is that they provide good quality media and information that promotes word of mouth and natural links. Instead of targetting the 1st page of Google, they are targetting mass crowds of visitors hungry for fresh media that can easily be passed and talked about. In coming weeks I’ll be investigating how they do this in an attempt to mimic it and start my own new website.

Watch this space and good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

It is rare that I get to live a little bit of my dream and wake up to sunshine, read my e-mails with a mug of coffee and having nothing planned. No 6.30am alarm, no rate race and nothing to be worried about. This is the good life, the life I want, the life I will get.

I’ve been researching more keywords recently in an attempt to expand and dive into new areas. Spreaking to a friend yesterday on msn, I was explaining that now I’m mostly registering .net domain names as all the good .com’s are gone. This is quite a scary fact, especially because I generally build then sell sites. The web is quickly being eaten up by hungry webmasters whoring information sites with good domains in an attempt to have hundreds of high ranking web properties that provide stable revenue.

As a result, “Purple” becomes “Purrple”, “Flick” becomes “Flickr” and random names are created like “Wazoui”. Owning a good .com is certainly a worthwhile investment, even if it is two or three words (providing it is brandable). I have a few I’ll be renewing and hopefully developing this year.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I sold Graffiti-Letters.com today in a record 15 minutes. The site was a simple information resource about graffiti and ranked 6th in the SERPs. I put the site for sale on Digital Point and contacted a member who has previously purchased from me - he snapped it immediately.

The site was earning a minimal amount with Media Jump so I placed Adsense on it for less than 48 hours. From 7pm last night to midnight it made $2.51 and with less than a full day today the earnings had exceeded $5.16!

It was a steal for the buyer and I included 4 free graffiti domain names that could be developed into other information sites to form a network.

My reason for selling was a) I want to invest in a new site and b) I don’t have time to develop another network right now. I got $525 that will help me nicely.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I recently read about Centrica investing in Fuel Cell Boilers, a new type of technology that would allow ordinary gas boilers to generate electricity, resulting in free energy for the home owner. The fuel cell boiler attachment has been designed by Ceres Power to fit onto ordinary home boilers and work in addition to the existing unit.

A blog I regularly read, Self Made Minds, is about two successful internet entrepreneurs who buy and lease domain names amongst other things. They mentioned the lucrative business in emerging technology, much like share buying before a company goes big. An example they used was about the fuel cell boilers Ceres Power was developing. I knew if those guys were talking about it then it must be a possible money-maker.

I was ready to purchase a related domain well before their post but I held off as I wasn’t sure. After reading their post I knew it was a good investment and so I managed to grab www.FuelCellBoiler.net

I wish I could have bagged the .com or .co.uk but I was too late. My plan is to rank it in Google then lease it when fuel cell boilers become readily available. This is a new type of business I am going into, and if it doesn’t work then I’m sure I could sell the name.  I have a few other domains that may become profitable in a few years, this name is my priority though as I’m sure Centrica will push to launch this product as soon as possible.

What do you think of my domain purchase? Was it a wise business investment?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

The Rise and Rise of Kortaz.com

When I first began building sites for profit and dabbling in ppc revenue methods like Google Adsense, trickles of income began coming my way. My problem is that I become wrestless, I don’t like to wait. That trickle could become a stream, then a river and so on and so forth.

I wasn’t prepared to wait, and my first network of sites were sold for $50 each.

A lot of learning has occured since then and I now follow strict personal rules when considering selling a site. I plan for the future, I think about the short and long term gains and I don’t sell until I am sure I either need the cash or want to exit the market.

Proxy traffic is considered “trash”. Proxy users are generally people who want to bypass school filters, view adult content or get away with playing their favourite arcade game at work. The only company willing that offers good revenue and is willing to allow placement of their ads on proxy sites is Google Adsense, a network which I was banned from about a year ago.

Aside from Google, there’s Adversal and Adbrite, but both offer low payouts. Adversal did provide a few extra dollars per month for their non-intrusive pop-under ads so it is a network I’d recommend.

Getting a little off track, I bought Kortaz.com for $15 simply because I liked the name. Kortaz was originally a big site divided into smaller sections, including an arcade, funny videos feed, proxy and image host. The idea originally came about when I saw arcades making, say $10 per day, a video site $20, a proxy $5 and so on. I thought about combining them to create one large site that would generate revenue through each section.

Unfortunately it was difficult to market without a big budget, I hadn’t really thought it through properly, but being a businessman involves learning, so I’m glad I made the mistakes.

Knowing I could profit from proxy traffic, as I did by building and selling SneakOnline.com for $750, I turned my sites back to the trash nobody wanted (apart from us profiting proxy webmasters). I was bored with a proxy site as you couldn’t do much in the way of earning money, so I thought about a proxy listing site.

I didn’t want one of these topsites nobody visited, so I managed to find a free script that offered something more unique - a links lister with sections and a hit counter for each link. The only change I made was to randomize link orders. Kortaz, the web proxy list was born.

Originally I offered free placements to all and a few lucky people were “Featured” (premium placement) for free. A link back to Kortaz with the anchor text “web proxy” was always required on the homepage if you requested a free link.

As the number of submissions and backlinks grew, so did traffic. The hit counter beside each link, along with a few testimonials, was proof to webmasters Kortaz provided great traffic, all for $6-$10 per month (I changed the price to attract people during difficult times).

I managed to profit here from two things. The first was that links rotated randomly so each featured and non-featured link got time at the top of the pile in their own sections. Secondly, there was some negative press about the biggest proxy listing site, proxy.org, using bots to imitate traffic and click on Adsense units of sites listed on the site.

However, as the site grew, so did the problems. The script was designed for heavy use and would max out after 2,000 outbound hits, I couldn’t integrate automatic Paypal payments and so on. I managed to hire a great coder for $50 who developed the site as you see it today using a free web template (why waste money if you don’t need too!).

The new design was rolled out and I put some contextual advertising and Adversal popunders on it, afterall it was “trash traffic”! I managed to get the stage where the site was earning around $150-$170 per month. It was doing well and I had a small money-maker on my hands.

Traffic was excellent, with the site ranking first in the SERPs for “Web Proxy” and on the first page for a number of other terms. This was simply due to the high number of relevant backlinks accumulated over time (slow but steady link building).

My reason for selling - I needed cash, I have student debt and bills to pay. I was sad to see it go.
I decided to list the site on Sitepoint.com with a price tag of $2k. I didn’t think it would reach this because nobody likes proxy sites but I was surprised it was sold within 48 hours. I think I could have gotten more but you learn. I think the strongest selling points were the SERPs positioning and the private link sales, i.e. no reliance on an ad network.

Building, establishing and maintaining Kortaz.com was one of the best experiences I’ve had online. I turned a domain name into a profitable website, I learned about SEO and link building and I tasted success.

One man’s dirt is another man’s foundations and Kortaz.com was exactly that. The owner didn’t want the domain and a lot of webmasters don’t like proxy traffic. I took two negatives and turned them into a positive - all in under one year.

I hope you learned a little from this story, good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

My work related trip to London was good but I am extremely tired. I reckon, over 2 days, I’ve had about 10 hours sleep, which can’t be good! I was kept awake by copious amounts of caffeine and the iratic drivers that plague the congested London streets. Seriously, drivers are genuinely crazy in that city, it’s like real life dodgems!

I arrived home around 7pm and was glad to back. My boss was kind enough to give me tomorrow (today as it’s past 12) off which means I can enjoy a long lie and a three day weekend.

In short, I’m tired…but I’m still thinking about new investments. I visited my friend this evening who has started his own record label. He is in talks with major music companies about record deals with some of the artists he manages. As I have “insider” knowledge, even simple details like their name, I was thinking I could use this to my advantage - buying domain names.

You see, If I bought unsigned band “Oh-My-God-We’re-A-Band.com” and they became signed and successful, suddenly my $10 investment may turn into a domain worth thousands. And if I chose to keep it, creating a fan club with plenty of infomation about the band could provide a nice little return in revenue…providing people liked them!

What do you think?

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.