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What is your name? Bill Gates?

Cool; would you like to book a domain like www.bill.gates/ and would you like to publish your retirement plans at www.bill.gates/retire-plans.html?

If you are Bill Gates, you can have it; but you will have to wait until the second quarter of 2009 and you must prove that you are Bill Gates and you have a well established brand name to book that domain.

And it is not a joke. We are moving into a new era - ICANN has approved a recommendation from the global stakeholders to introduce new TLDs to the Internet’s addressing system. And this is what they call the “Biggest Expansion in gTLDs Approved for Implementation“.

This decision is not finalized in one day. It has undergone major discussions and planning for last six years.

However, you cannot have any TLD you wish. You must have an established brand that you would need to put forward as an application to the ICANN (responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers like domain names). Your application and brand equity will be properly evaluated by ICANN before allowing you the domain name. Perhaps, they would try to ensure that, none but McDonald’s get the domain name http://www.mc.donalds/. It is not just about first come - first serve. And to add to this, anyone can place objection during the evaluation process (BTW, ICANN will not be the only decision maker when someone places an objection).

So, those who are planning to earn some more money from domain trading, should be a little bit disappointed (domain trading is a big business and you can still do well from regular TLDs like .com or .net) to loose such a big opportunity.

How much would it cost?

This would cost you a lot more than premium domain names. According to Dr Twomey, it may cost you something around a six figure amount ($$$,$$$) to book such a domain name. And this is not a big deal for established brands.

By 2009, we will have more than just 21 TLDs to fight for. But don’t you think it would make a common man’s web browsing more critical? At present, we have a naming convention and people are used to it. Won’t it be more confusing as far as recollection is concerned? And what if the same name exists for two brands in two countries - which would get the domain name?

Usually, when we hear about a site selling for $100,000 or even $50,000, we are astonished and wish we can earn that much as well. So I was flabbergasted to find out that Consumer Search sold for $33 Million last May 7, 2007 from Blogging Experiment. At first I thought it was a joke until I saw the press release from the New York Times that explains in detail how, why, and where the ConsumerSearch.com site was acquired.

Typically, when you imagine a website worth $33 million, you imagine something unique, eye-catching, and use the latest cutting-edge technology. But looking at ConsumerSearch.com, it looks as if it is the usual “Adsense” website. Also, it looks as if their reviews are borrowed from someplace else. It is hard to imaging how the site can be worth that much until you look into its stats.

The site is basically getting 1.7 million hits per month which is astonishing when you consider that it has no real information on it. It just goes to show that even a simple website like this can generate tons of money. ConsumerSearch.com has been around for 7 years at the time when About.com acquired it.

So the question is does it look like it would take a great deal of effort to build a site like ConsumerSearch.com? Well, do as they do and hire people to write everything for you. They pay writers $350 per category and when you multiply this by 330 (the number of categories in their website). Basically, you need to concentrate on marketing and promotions; if it becomes successful, you

Building a site like ConsumerSearch.com takes a lot of ingenuity though and it is quite apparent that their domain name helped a lot in giving them the credibility they need.

Sources:
The New York Times Archive
Blogging Experiment

There are various Make Money Online (MMO) niches that can benefit from some free advertising. And what better way to generate this kind of free attention than to post on online classified ads that are visited by thousands of visitors on a daily basis. Marketers who sell through the internet can take advantage of online classified boards because these can categorize your products and services accordingly. That way, their services will be viewed by relevant market and there is a high chance that these viewers will avail of the opportunities being offered. 

Meanwhile, marketers who aim to generate traffic to their websites can get divert some traffic from online classifieds as well. Placing their links to these sites can be extremely beneficial but take note that this is only good for the short term since the ads will be taken down sooner or later.

On the other hand, another notable segment that can benefit greatly from online classifieds is freelancers. Web owners are always looking for people with particular specialties including programming, legal services, writing, and human resources. Using online classified boards is definitely one of the best and one of the cheapest ways to make money online.

Some recommended online classified board we recommend include Craigslist, Backpage, GoogleBase, ListSomething, and GumTree among others.

With the amount of information available for your consumption everyday, it is unlikely that you are processing each piece of information as much as you should. In fact, your mind might actually feel fatigued as it gets exposed to too much information everyday. If you are working online, then this scenario is even more suitable for you because there is always the pressure to learn as much as you should in order to stay ahead of the competition.

But scanning through many articles a day and absorbing none of it may even be worse because it is simply a waste of time and effort. You need to prioritize. You should determine your goal, your purpose, and your niche in working over the internet. Once these aspects are determined, you need to prioritize these aspects. These means you should first look into new information that are relevant to your needs and business before you look into other information. That way, you will get the kind of information that is most beneficial for you.

You can utilize some tools that will enable you to get these kinds of relevant information. The first is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs and websites. The content will be delivered right at your “doorstep”. Meanwhile, you also browse through some available add-ons which can update you on the latest news and developments in the industry you are interested in.

A lot of people inevitably want free stuff and free advice but what they don’t realize is that sometimes, paying for a particular advice may end up benefiting them over the long term. This is because when a fee is charged, a person becomes accountable for his own success. He wants to recover his investment in a coaching program as soon as possible so he implements what he has learned immediately after the training. Most people don’t put value on something that has been given for free; it follows that if you get free advice, you won’t take immediate action because you won’t actually lose anything if you don’t.

As you can see, paying for coaching or training actually has its benefits. When an expert or an internet guru charges you for something, it does not mean that you should feel bad because you “lost” some money. Instead, think of the fee you paid as your investment. You are paying for valuable advice which can lead to your success if you properly implement it. Take note though, that there are also scam artists out there who claims to be a guru. It is important for you to choose an expert who is well-established in his field.

Only a small number of people actually compress their PDF files. This is because even though PDF materials are increasingly becoming popular on the web, PDFs are still designed to provide high quality output that leaves little room for speed. In fact, even PDF files that are specifically designed for the internet is weighed down by change histories, unnecessary fonts, and unoptimized images. It is important to note though that optimizing these files will improve display speed, save bandwidth, shrink the file size, and help stop user frustration. So how exactly can you optimize your PDF files? Below are some basic guidelines to get you started:

Don’t Use Refried Images

If your graphic needs to be included as bitmaps, prepare them with minimum dimension and maximum compressibility. Take note that inserting compressed JPEG files into the PDF and then distilling them might create “artifacts” because of recompression. It is recommended for you to use back and white images instead of the colored ones so that you will be able to use newer JBIG2 which is great for monochromatic compression.

Use Vector Images

As much as possible, you need to use vector-based images for files that will normally be turned into GIF files. Vector images will scale properly and their mathematical configuration will take up less space compared to bitmaps. Similar to bitmap graphics, you can also compress vector images; you need to use the ZIP compression in PDF to do this.

Minimize Your Fonts

For small PDF files, your font size will have a significant effect on the overall size of the file. Try to limit the number of fonts on the document.

Flatten the Forms

Acrobat forms can actually take up a lot of space. The new Acrobat 8 Pro has a feature that can flatten the form fields: Choose Advanced > PDF Optimizer > Discard option. Remember that flattening the forms can make the form option unusable and the form data will be merged with the page. You also have the option to combine refried PDF files with old form pages to develop a hybrid file. In addition, if color is not required, try converting the file to grayscale.

Using these basic tips will help you get a more linear and compact PDF file that loads faster.

I just read about someone who’s trying to make 5,000 sites in a year (found via SEO Book). His goal is to make a dollar a day with each site. If he can accomplish his goal, that’s a cool $5,000 each day.

Obviously, building 5,000 sites in one year is an extreme number for most of us. The webmaster in the above post has a staff of 300. Many of us don’t have any staff members, much less 300. But this story got me thinking. How many sites should you focus on?

I’ve written about this before. And my conclusion was to build as many sites as you can without losing quality. However, I’ve come to believe that in today’s online world focusing on one site is the most profitable business model.

Online Business Models

I’ll state my reasons for choosing the one-site model later in this post. For now let’s look at the evolution of internet business models. I got these concepts and pics from John Reese’s 6 minute video, It’s All About Authority.

In the beginning, online business people realized they could make more money by dividing their efforts on multiple sites. Instead of focusing on one site, they built other sites that linked to their first site.

Next, they tried crosslinking between their sites. This proved to be more profitable than the first model.

Then, they thought, “If crosslinking works with a few sites, what would happen if we built more sites?” So, they built huge networks of crosslinked sites. This made them even more money.

However, in the last year or so, the internet business landscape has experienced drastic changes. Because of these changes, the one-site model is the best.

What Changes?

Reciprocal links are dead.

Actually, they’ve been dead since 2005. You can build 10 sites and crosslink them all you want, but those links won’t count for much. Also, Google penalizes sites with too many reciprocal links.

Domain trust has become a very important search engine ranking factor.

Domain trust is a hot topic in the SEO industry (read here and here). Good search marketers all agree that domain trust is a huge part of Google’s current algorithm. In a survey between 37 search experts about ranking factors, domain trust (the survey called it “global link popularity”) was the 3rd most important factor.

How do you increase domain trust? It boils down to getting many quality links on a consistent basis. As you build more and more quality links, your search traffic will increase exponentially. But you need more links than you think. It takes time and effort to build those quality links on a regular basis.

Here is a graph highlighting the power of domain trust.

Notice how the traffic volume grows exponentially as you increase the number of links. Basically, you will get much more traffic from 1 site with 1000 links than 10 sites with 100 links each.

The competition has increased, both in quality and quantity.

I got this principle from John Reese’s video. More people are trying to make money online. Look at all the make money online blogs. Many of these blogs are less than a year old.

Webmasters are more skilled. In the past, you could enter a niche and be the only webmaster that knew about SEO and link building. Links were easier to build, because webmasters didn’t know the value of links. Today most niches are filled with skilled webmasters. Try getting a link today from a quality site. You’ll have to spend more time and/or money.

Big offline businesses are allocating more resources into online ventures. ESPN, a popular sports TV network, recently hired a full-time blogger. USA Today, a popular newspaper, has 20 blogs. Big book publishers are beginning to publish their content online. Business like these have sites with a lot of domain trust.

How do you dominate the stronger competition? By being more efficient with your resources and being really good at one thing. Focus your content production, marketing, and monetization on one site and you’ll build a strong site that will overcome the competition.

It’s like the all-in poker move. Find a good opportunity and push all your chips in the middle.

The social nature of the internet is growing.

Social media sites are growing faster than other sites. Sites like Facebook and Myspace are changing the way people think of the internet. More people are participating in the social web. This growing audience is becoming used to community-based sites like blogs, forums, and social networking sites.

These users don’t just surf the web for information. They also want a social experience. They want to interact with other users. They want to visit sites with an existing community. If your site is not able to provide a social experience, if your site doesn’t have a solid membership base, it will be considered outdated within a few years.

What’s the best way to build a community-oriented site? Put all your resources in one site, because it takes time to grow and maintain a community.

Think about it this way. Would you rather have 10 blogs with 100 subscribers or 1 blog with 1000 subscribers? I’d take the 1 blog. It’s easier to maintain. You can do less writing and marketing while reaching the same amount of people.

Can I Ever Build More Than One Site?!

Am I saying your should never build more than one site? Not necessarily. The one-site model is the most profitable model today. Yet I understand that we’re humans and we like variety. Building only one site can get boring.

I like John Reese’s principle:

Dedicate at least 80% of your time and resources to your primary website.

You can use the other 20% to explore different opportunities and niches. Also, if you want to juggle multiples sites, it’s best to outsource much of your work.

Conclusion

So, take action today. Think big. Think long-term. Think real business rather than a hobby. Think ONE site.

Pick a niche, buy a domain name, and begin pouring value into it as best as you can. While most internet marketers are juggling too many sites and chasing the latest fad opportunity, you’ll be building a big site that will crush all their little sites.

In my previous post I gave away my weekly business report, which actually is a sheet of paper I get delivered on my desk every Monday morning. Since most of the numbers are generated automatically, an assistant needs to spend just an hour or two putting it together.

But why do I use such a weekly report?

First a little background. At the moment I run seven businesses and own another four big projects. If I was a typical internet marketer I would be overloaded with work. Even trained and experienced entrepreneurs would be. But to keep things profitable you can’t spend time on the details, you have to keep a good overview and have others do the work for you.

Thus I setup a sheet with the highlights of each week in terms of what has been done, what has been accomplished and what it meant to my business. The goal of my businesses, and for most out there, is to turn a profit. So I sat down and brainstormed to find around 5 numbers that are contributing to the profits.

With online marketing they’re almost always the same: visitors, leads, subscribers, paying members/clients and conversion ratio. As James Brausch puts it: the formula for online success is Traffic + Copywriting (Conversion) + Products. From this formula you might also extract the importance of the number and quality of products.

How to create one yourself…

It’s important to keep a birds eye view of your business. You should be able to see all the important facts and sum them up in five minutes or less. It’s the same when you present your company to a person you just met. Be concise, clear and have everything ready for potential clients and even investors or buyers.

Find out what the most important numbers are in your business besides the actual profit. See where your sales are generated and keep track of it. Regularly meet with others to brainstorm ideas to test. Have your outsourcers keep an agenda of what they’ve done and what the results were.

Then put it all together on paper. Preferably one or two sheets of paper. As soon as you have to use more, it takes more than 15 minutes to read and remember. At that point you’re losing focus, which results in less profits.

Create one for your own businesses right now and start using a spreadsheet to compare previous results. Excel or OpenOffice Calc are two great programs to do this for you. Of course you have to set aside time to update and review your numbers, so take one set hour a week to do this - so you can never forget it.

From our readers comments I’ve seen that most like to hear from about the experiences from bloggers, than actual informative content. It’s a fact that people like stories more because they can relate to them, their imagination is put on overdrive, so to speak.

In my weekly business report I go over the changes and improvements implemented in my business. For a handy overview of my ‘online marketing’ business you can download the following ‘mindmap’. It gives an detailed look inside my sales funnel and marketing process. It’s highly recommended you make something like this to keep track of all your sites, projects and sales.

Then comes the actual report. It contains the key numbers needed to have a vital business: leads (subscribers), sales, paid members and conversion ratio’s. Focusing on these numbers, I don’t get overloaded by lots of details and can easily see where by business is floundering or where it needs improvements.

The Statistics

6 active coaching clients (+1)
787 Systematize For Profits members (+23)
27 Daily Brilliant Ideas members (+1)
4 active copywriting clients (+1)
230,451 people on email lists (+11,186)

Retention ratio membership sites: 6 months (+1)
Conversion Ratio Systematize For Profits: 7% (-0.5)
Conversion Ratio Daily Brilliant Ideas: 3.5% (+1)
Copywriting Deals Conversion Ratio: 4% (-)

What That Means…

Two weeks ago I increased the price of my coaching from $97 per month to $497 per month. New clients are still coming in and also respect my time more. Increased price equals increased perceived price. Next to the extra income it also gave me more free time and less worries, since I fired the two troublesome clients I had left.

My membership sites are still going while I don’t heavily promote them. It seems the new members come from some old forum and blog postings. This shows it’s really valuable to be featured on a good blog with lots of traffic. It took me ages to get on there, building a relationship with the owner - but eventually it all paid off.

A new SEO campaign has been launched, and if it works it will generate even more members thru natural search engine results. It the numbers climb with more than 20 a week it’s contributable to the SEO campaign.

The new headline for the lead capture page didn’t do so well, conversion ratio for that page dropped slightly. Instead of the usual *FREE* before the headline, I removed it. Immediately I saw the time spent on the page drop from 1.1 minute to just 14 seconds. However the new headline for the Pop-In, which now includes the words ‘instant delivery via email’ worked out great. People like instant and easy (via email).

I’d appreciate your comments and suggestions for future posts. Tomorrow and the day after I have planned some interesting posts about more experiences from my business, how I manage it and improve my headlines.

It was the late Napoleon Hill with his ‘Think And Grow Rich’ to introduce this secret that introduced this concept to the masses. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, still many haven’t read his book or after reading it, applied this secret.

This secret is a mastermind group.

Unlike you hear from so-called internet marketers who form joint ventures and a close group of friends, a mastermind is pure business and not meant to be ‘fun’. It’s aimed at producing results for the participants and that’s the only reason people should come together at such a meeting.

After applying the secret of masterminding I’ve found great successes, hidden money in my business and utilized strategies unheard of in my industry to instantly crash the competition.

The true power lays in how the group is build and how meetings are done. Building a group isn’t like bringing a group of internet marketers together and have them talk about marketing on the internet. It’s about bringing successful entrepreneurs, consultants and advisors together that all work in a different industry, on a different type of work or job.

The moment you fill your group with those kind of people you have many different minds to tap into. Many entrepreneurs or marketers think the same, so you need to find the people who think differently from you.

Next to that it’s all about what you do during a meeting…

Here’s my personal success formula for Mastermind meetings: first open the meeting with a small motivational speech. Try to include some results from participants in it, and give thanks to everyone that contributes. Then present the main case. One participant who’s business is in desperate need for improvements. Work this out as a case study and take at least an hour to give advice to this person. Afterwards open the table and give everyone five minutes to discuss one problem with the whole group.

By keeping control of the meetings you also control the outcome. Every meeting you should help one participant, and in turn they will feel obliged to contribute. Never forget the principle of ‘you can only reap what you’ve sow’.