Revenue Domains: Reader Questions: Wordpress Optimization

Last week I released a series called “Revenue Domains” (you can find those video posts easily by simply searching this site for revenue domains. In this series I focus on ways of acquiring revenue producing domain names on the cheap. If your just getting started in domaining these types of domains can either make (if you have them) or break (if you don’t) your business as the revenue they generate on a monthly basis can help offset the cost of domain registrations. Heck they might even put you in profit!

Ted Sudol from Seed Pod Media sent me an email with lots of questions about this method, we both agreed that posting a reply here could further benefit others. If you also have question simply leave a comment and I will post a response when time permits (usually within 24 hours).

Reader Question: Revenue Domains, Additional Wordpress Optimization And Methodology

Hi Brian,

I’m continuing to add some contents, categories and posts. I looked at the plug-ins but I don’t see one that will ad the ebay actions to the page.

PhpBay – This is one of the best purchases I made during 2007, for the price (less than $40 bucks) you really can not go wrong. This plugin pulls in ebay rss feeds with your affiliate url inbedded into the links. What I like about this plugin is that I can easily create a new website that is rich in content (google loves content) and supplement that content with ebay listings.

Another plus of this plugin: The images that are pulled from ebay can be “mod-rewritten” so the code reads as if the images are located on your sever. This is also true for the ebay affiliate links – they are cloaked which helps with ranking in many of the search engines today.

Wouldn’t you want to match the categories you make to the categories ebay uses?

No not at all in fact – your goal is NOT TOO mirror Ebay. But to create a unique website resource for users of the internet. I like to come up with my own categories based on what people are search for and other relevant themes that relate to my topic. Check out the Adwords Keyword Tool for some great keyword ideas. These can be used for category creation as well as for “wordpress post” ideas.

In the area where my site says blogroll and shows some of the defaults you have resources which are basically links to other sites. Is that what I should be doing too linking to other sites. How do you do that - do you just put their URL in you site, or do you need to ask permission, or is it an exchange of links- you post theirs on your site if they post yours on theirs?

Yes, I like to use the “blogroll” section within the wordpress admin area to link to well ranking relevant sites that are topically themed to my site. The first thing I do is delete the links that are already their, they are all to “wordpress” resource sites. So lets say I was create a site about “snowmobiles” …hey it’s snowy and cold up here in Minnesota! I would then search Google for snowmobiles, used snowmobiles, snowmobile stunts, snowmobile videos, ect …

I would then link out some of the sites I found helpful and informative, remember I am trying to build a real site, with real content that will be helpful to my site readers. If they can’t find it on my site maybe they can find it on another.

I really don’t worry about “asking for permission” most site owners are more than happy to have other sites linking to them. Also note this is NOT a link exchange, I am simply “linking out” to sites within my niche. I usually will add between 8 and 30 outbound links to my blogroll.

What is the relative importance of inbound and outbound links. If you have inbound links you have other people on other sites coming to you. If you have outbound links meaning you are linking to an outside website aren’t you sending traffic from your site to another? If there is a reciprocal agreement its an advantage to both of you. However if you just have outgoing links is the only benefit that google looks at you as a more important site because you have these links?

Links are extremely important online, they represent how websites and the people “behind the sites” interact within one another. Could I be sending traffic away from my site that does not make me any money? Sure, in fact I am sure I send a lot of people away from my sites. However I am building these types of sites for the long haul. I believe that if I have quality content, that is unique and people find valuable my sites will continue to rank well for years and years. So yes, I might lose a few pennies today. However I believe that Google looks at site linking very carefully when their “automated machine” scores sites and ranks them.

How do you think the Google bot (a machine that scores websites based on math and internet linking) would rank a site with content that is not available else where. That links out to other sites within the same niche and is also getting links from other sites? My bet is that Google would value this type of a “set up” and reward it with traffic. This is my thinking and to data over the last 12 months new sites launched in this manner have all done quite well.

Does the plugin that you use to ad the ebay actions set up the pages like BANS or is that something I would set up manually?

Ease of use is quite simple with phpbay – however since your building a site with wordpress it takes a bit more time. I will also say that I would be willing to bet that sites based on wordpress and created using my method would generally rank better than a bans site. Don’t get me wrong – I love bans. But because it is so easy, and so fast to build a website many people will simply “button push” to create a site and will not spend the time to create a “unique site” with bans. For this reason I feel wordpress is a great way to start creating these sites.

You mentioned that there were some other plug ins that I should be using. What are they and where would I get them?

Searching google for “wordpress plugins” is an easy way to start. I use and recommend:

• Head meta – for meta description
• Seo Title Plugin
• Php Bay
• Auto Social Poster – easy way to get inbound links from social sites. Set it up once for forget about it, each new post you create on your site will get bookmarked in major social sites.

I watched your video on getting domain names on the cheap and had a question. You said that it doesn’t matter if the domain name has numbers or hyphens. I see some domains with hyphens that have huge type in traffic but no links or web records. I’ve read that you shouldn’t look at domains with hyphens or numbers - or at least that they will have very low value. Why do you think they are a good choice?

Go through and watch the entire series again – the bottom line is that YOUR NOT buying expired domains on the value on the domain name alone. Instead the goal is to acquire names that have the potential to rank well in the future. This is covered in depth (including what to look for and what to buy) in parts one and parts two of this series.

If I understand you correctly you recommended putting up 1 page site of content and applying all of the SEO techniques - and then letting it sit for a while to see what develops. Why would you do that rather than putting up a BANS site.

I use this method often on sites that are based on niches that are not product based, usually services that people pay for. I go after niches in areas with lots of online advertisers fighting over web traffic, this helps keep the cost per clicks (and adsense payouts) higher.

When I first set up a few of my sites I had the google adsense sites at the top of the site above the fold. I found my google adsense income was always only a very small percentage of the ebay affiliate profits or profit from other affiliate programs. What have you found? That’s why I moved my google adsens to the bottom of the page and other affiliate links to th top. Have you found the google adsense ads to be a good money maker?

Each site will vary quite a bit with adsense, often times one site will do quite well with adsense and another will not make much at all. It often depends on the types of people visiting your site, is your site based on video games? I would images this type of audience is quite savvy online and knows adsense ads when they see them – however a site targeting say “mail order” has proven to have a high CTR with adsense.

Bottom line: test it out. Start with adsense and ebay. Let it ride for a period of 6 weeks and then take a look at your stats and adjust.

What other affiliate programs do use or recommend that either have a higher profit or higher conversion rate?

If your just getting started I would choose one program and focus on it for a while. Right now I am focusing on ebay, some amazon.com and other contextual ad programs that are similar to adsense.

Do you recommend any of the RSS to blog scripts?

Yes, however it is important to grasp basic seo before jumping into these types of tools online. They can be quite helpful, however most people get lazy with them which means they create sites based on other content from across the web. Most on these types of tools later -

Thanks in advance for your help,
All the best
Ted
www.hotdotauctions.com
www.seedpodmedia.com