I currently use GoDaddy as one of my primary domain name registrars and several months ago I heard about the GoDaddy VIP program which offers a few perks such as a dedicated account manager, lower domain name renewal costs and improved security etc. I thought these benefits would be worth the effort to go after a VIP account so I set out on my quest to gain VIP access. As you may have already guessed, I was successful in my quest and what follows is the tale of my journey:
How I got a GoDaddy VIP account:
Like many things in life, you never get what you don't ask for so all I did was simply call up GoDaddy and lead with, "I heard GoDaddy has a VIP program, can you get me in it?" I was transferred to another person to discuss it more at length and they said that I was a potential candidate based on my domain spend; however, I was a little bit lower than what they usually require to get in. So as soon as I heard her start to say I didn't spend enough to get in I pulled the trick I had up my sleeve by sharing my sob story:
Nearly 3 years ago I had a social engineering hacker gain access to my GoDaddy account. Long story short I was able to regain control of my domains before he was able to take them; however, it taught me some valuable lessons which I shared in a follow up post on 9 ways to protect your online assets.
So after I spent some more time persuading the rep to let me in, she said it shouldn't be a problem but that she would get back to me with an answer 48 hours later. Sure enough, 2 days later I was in and introduced to my GoDaddy VIP account manager.
Sadly the VIP access isn't as wonderful as I had hoped (no free drinks, no free privacy on domain name registrations etc.) but any time a domain is initiated to be transferred out of my account the account manager has to confirm it with me first which is a great last chance security step. Overall I like GoDaddy as a domain registrar even though every single time I purchase a domain name I have to navigate through a labyrinth of upsells just to buy the domain name alone and privacy (which is why more experienced internet marketers tend to hate them).
In either case, I spend about $5,000 a year or more on domain names at GoDaddy (if I include premium aftermarket names) and although I don't know the exact number GoDaddy requires customers to spend to gain access to their VIP program my assumption is that if you're above that $5,000 mark you should be able to get a VIP account. Just lay on your persuasion skills and a little charm and try it out. In this business you have to hustle for what you want. Like I said before:
You never get what you don't ask for.
In my next post I'll show you how I used this philosophy of hustling and making requests that most people never go through with to go on a test drive with a $120,000 Tesla Roadster Sport. Don't worry I'll get back on topic soon, but for those that look closely you can see how this attitude and philosophy is useful to employ when working with internet marketing.
Spoiler alert: The car was fast. 0 - 60 in 3.7 seconds fast... I'm still drooling.
Tagged: GoDaddy VIP
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Last week I did a review of the PHPzon pro plugin which allows you to easily insert products from Amazon.com on a Wordpress blog in a stylized format. I gave the plugin a favorable review and I've already installed it on several of my websites. I also mentioned that two of my Twitter followers would be selected at random from today to win the $79 plugin for free and here they are:
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Tagged: phpZon
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This is part 2 in my case study on the Five Figure Niche Network. I will cover how I research and buy keyword domain names in this segment. See Part 1 Here.
Finding the right domain name:
In my attempt to build a network of niche websites that earn five figures of income every month I need to first start by buying domain names based on specific niches I wish to build websites around. I prefer to only choose topics that I care to research and write about so that if I decided to write the content it will be more enjoyable; however, this time around I want to try and outsource most of the writing (which I'll cover in a later part to the case study). In either case I prefer to buy keyword rich domain names if I'm going for niche websites as my goal will be to rank for the keyword that is within the domain name. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
If I want to build a website that focused on Cotton Candy Machines what do you think would be the best domain name to build a website on for that topic? How about cottoncandymachines.com or cottoncandymachine.com? Duh. The reason for this strategy is because search engines give a ranking bonus to exact match keyword domains (Main TLD's only so don't go buy .mobi and other worthless crap extensions). Now before I get too far ahead of myself let me determine first if people on the internet actually search for cotton candy machines to see if it's a worthwhile niche to pursue...
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Tagged: domain name acqusition, featured, keyword research, niche network
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Disclaimer: I paid for this plugin and was not paid to write this review; however, I do have 2 free copies of this plugin to giveaway (see contest details below). If you're interested in having me review your product, service or website see my advertising page.
phpZon Pro Review:
phpZon Pro is a $79 premium Wordpress plugin from the folks over at phpBay. phpBay Pro was their first plugin created back in 2007 to display products from eBay with a wide variety of display options. In fact, the few thousand dollars I've made from eBay's Partner Network has all come from clicks on ads I was displaying through the use of the phpBay plugin. So as you may have guessed by now, phpZon is a similar plugin that instead interfaces with Amazon.com's database of millions of products to display product information much like how phpBay does. It can pull in an image of the product, the average star rating, a partial or full description and a whole slew of additional options. Here is an example product running on this blog from my Amazon wish list
that no one has yet to give me (*clears throat* ... twice).
You know you're going to get a different kind of superhero when you cast Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role. And Iron Man is different, in welcome ways. Cleverly updated from Marvel Comics' longstanding series, Iron Man puts billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (that's Downey) in the path of some Middle Eastern terrorists; in a brilliantly paced section, Stark invents an indestructible suit that allows him to escape...
You can set the number of items you want to display based on a keyword OR you can also just display one specific item using the ASIN number. To display the above product I simply clicked the phpZon button from within the post put in the ASIN number of the product and it's done.
Because the information being pulled in is styled via a template file from within the plugin it's also very easy to adjust any elements such as the font size of the text. In my case, I increased the font size a bit, made the sale price field a clickable link and adjusted the style of the product description with a few easy changes. Overall the plugin does require a few more steps to set it up such as inserting some Amazon Associates info to provide proper tracking. You also need to copy code into your .htaccess file if you want to take advantage of the SEO URLS option to display the product URL like I've done above (hover over the link above to see what I mean), but there is an extensive manual included which shows step by step how to set everything up if you need help.
phpBay also let me know there is another version underway with even more features planned and because all customers get lifetime support updates there's no need to worry about buying this version only to have a new better version come out later.
Overall Impressions:
I've installed this plugin on nearly every niche website I created and I'm certain using this plugin on my various blogs will help improve earnings. As I've said before, one of the worst ways to make money with Amazon Associates is to simply use Amazon.com ads. By using this plugin you can display product information in a nice way without looking like an Amazon.com ad which is key. The use of the 'More Details' button and Making the image clickable are two of the ways I discussed in my past post on how to improve your Amazon Associates earnings so it's nice to see the functionality already built into this plugin. If you mention products on your blog than I highly recommend you buy this plugin and implement it. In fact, Wade - the creator of the plugin - hooked me up with a 20% off coupon code for anyone that wants to buy the plugin or the phpBay plugin (it will work for both). It will only work if you click here to use it: E907DB07EB There is also an option to buy both the phpZon plugin and phpBay plugin in a bundle for $99; however, the 20% off coupon will not work with that bundle. Click here to check it out.
Want to Win the Plugin for Free?
Wade has given me two copies to giveaway and I'm going to make it very easy for you to win one. All you have to do is follow me on Twitter. In fact, I only have about 80 Twitter followers as of this post being published so you have pretty good odds. Follow me on Twitter here and in case you want to be ready for the next contest I run you can sign up for my newsletter below as the next contest winners will be drawn from there:
The winner's will be selected in 7 days and I will post their Twitter names on this blog. I'll give you 48 hours to contact me before I pick a new winner(s). So be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed in case you don't want to miss the announcement.
Tagged: giveaway, phpBay, phpZon
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This is the second month I've documented my income for 2010. As I mentioned before, these posts aren't meant to brag at all (many people make WAY more money than me) instead I'm trying to use this as a means to help motivate myself to reach my goal of $150k in 2010 while at the same time keeping me publicly accountable. There was a time I couldn't even afford to pay for my dedicated server's $200 a month cost with the money I made online so it's been a long and arduous road. In any case, I believe what I share in these reports will help other internet entrepreneurs so I'll continue to post them along with the steps I'm taking to improve earnings in each respective category I make money from. I am also willing to help out others that ask questions. I respond to every blog comment as well as personal emails. With that disclaimer in place, let's move onto the earnings continued after the break:
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Jeremy has reopened the doors to his Shoemoney System today. The last time it was open he sold out all 500 slots in under 24 hours. This system is geared mostly towards beginners looking to get started making money on the internet, so if you don't have any experience at all (or you have been struggling to make money online for a long time) I'd highly suggest you at least try it out. Worst case scenario you can use it for 60 days and then get your money back.
It's worth mentioning that the video he's using on his landing page converted the best across all the variations he tried the first time he opened the doors to his system. So if you're looking to sell an info product online in any niche try to look at the elements he incorporated into this video (i.e. establish reputation quickly and build upon it using big names in the industry i.e. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo it's also worth noting there is no pause button). I'm working on an info product completely unrelated to internet marketing and used the video he has on his landing page to help me format the way I plan to run the video for my product. In either case, I met Jeremy at Elite Retreat last year and know he's obviously the real deal when it comes to making money online. So if you are a beginner looking to get started, his system is at least trying out for the first 60 days because of the money back guarantee.
Check out the ShoeMoney system here
My income report for February will go live shortly and I'll share the results with you then.
Tagged: Shoemoney System
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Over the past several months I've been acquiring a plethora of domain names with the intent to develop them into various niche websites. During the course of this domain acquisition period I never focused on buying names for one specific niche - instead I just focused on buying names when I knew I was getting a good deal AND when I could see there wasn't too much competition. What I want to do is to build a network of highly targeted niche websites that are able to collectively generate over $10,000 per month on a consistent basis. I believe this will be a very difficult goal to accomplish, but if I can break $10,000 per month with websites I rarely need to update (or never) it will be another way to diversify my earnings and generate more much needed capital to further grow my business.
I have several parts planned for this case study and will share details as to how I buy domain names, pick niches, build websites, outsource content creation, do link building etc. along with the challenges I've faced with each facet of building a profitable website. I will also share income figures and more specifics so that it will help provide some context into what I'm doing. Moving forward as the income level for my niche network of websites begins to grow I'll separate it out on my monthly income reports so that you can see what income is generated from the blogs, websites, forums etc. that I actively work on and contrast that with the more passive income.
I'll have the first part of the case study next week which will cover domain acquisition strategies. Hopefully this sounds good to you, and if it does be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or email updates) and you should also follow me on Twitter
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In early January I shared that moving forward in the new year I was moving domains from ChrisGuthrie.net to my new home here at MakeMoneyontheInternet.com. Some people are afraid to move their blogs because they aren't aware of what might happen to their rankings and traffic. If you garner significant amounts of search traffic to your blog it may not be worth the risk to move (feel free to contact me email and I'd be happy to share some advice if you're contemplating a move). In my case the search traffic I was receiving was from just a few key phrases and people searching for the name Chris Guthrie which is not searched very often so I decided it would be worth it to make the move to my $X,XXX domain purchase of MakeMoneyontheInternet.com.
Results:
I was very surprised that after only 2 weeks my rankings in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) had entirely recovered for the few keywords I ranked for such as my name Chris Guthrie and free private registration. I meant to write this post earlier in fact, but I wanted to be sure the rankings had fully recovered before sharing the data that my blog move did in fact work:
It's laughable that I couldn't surpass the Vanderbilt professor Chris Guthrie who ranked first, but 3rd position was the highest I was at before. It's also funny that about the only other keyword phrase I ranked for was free private registration, which was based on an article I wrote showing a loophole in GoDaddy's private registration system. I've already recovered my 1st place position for that keyword:
I had just a few keyword phrases I was watching, but the fact that I've already recovered for these two keyword phrases should indicate the move went smoothly in Google's eyes. Keep in mind I used a different computer / browser to search these phrases to avoid Google's personalized results but I may still be seeing different data than you are so feel free to comment below on what you see.
How I Moved My Blog:
I mentioned this in the first post, but for the lazy readers I'll just tell you here to save you the click. Basically I just followed the steps on this excellent guide by Yoast; however, the 8th step didn't work in his guide for me so I used the .htaccess code mentioned in this guide to complete the move.
Note: You can't change the URL of your Feedburner address. If you do, that requires everyone to resubscribe to your blog which obviously would be one of the worst things you could possibly do. So that's why my Feedburner URL is still like this.
Wrap Up:
Have you ever moved a blog before? If so how did you do it and how long did it take for you to regain your place in the SERPs? I'll be sharing more case studies on blogs, forums and websites I own so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or RSS email) and follow me on Twitter
Tagged: move wordpress blog
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