Archive for July, 2006

I am really pleased I decided to give GoDaddy.com a try. I have been using them to purchase my domains for a while now and I am still wondering why I was paying $35 a year at networkyouknowwho.com when I could have been getting them for less than $10 at GoDaddy.com. That price difference is pretty significant if you are starting out and trying to build a domain name portfoilo. I also just transfered one of my domains to GoDaddy.com a week ago before it expired. I was about to let it run out because I had it at network solutions and didn’t want to pay their inflated prices but I decided to transfer it over at the last minute.

One of the other things I love about GoDaddy.com is the throw in the .net, .ingo, and .biz versions of your name dirt cheap if you want them. I got a .com domain name and it’s .net, .biz, and .info varitaions for an extra $16 last week. That is less than 1 domain would have cost me at some other places. Seriously, check them out if you haven’t.

Hmmmm….Not too sure about this new color scheme.  I may have to work on this.

Well, my new keywords are sustaining their impression and click rates. 20 clicks and I should hit 300k impressions in a couple of hours. This is my very first campaign so I don’t know this for a fact, but I have the impression my click to impression ratio is extremely low. I suppose I am suspecting that since I have said all along my add was very specific about what it was.

I am still working on some arbitrage ideas to try and get my feet wet making money while I work on prioritizing some other ideas. My other projects include a directory, a site dedicated to a specific upcoming MMORPG, and a music related blog. Of course I am also working on this blog and have another side venture starting up involving a “business card” idea. The only problem is I am doing all of this myself; concepts, design, hosting, building the servers to host, programming the sites, and brainstorming new money making ideas. I am not having to spend any money, but I am also using up a lot of time. I am learning a ton doing this by myself though. I can’t wait to look back on this blog in a year and compare it to what I think I know now with what I will know then.

My impressions went from 22,000 to 75,000 overnight with 4 clicks.  This is on the very basic and to the point “Try Rhapsody Free for 14 Days” add. I am very excited to see if that trend continues  because the keywords I added to the campaign yesterday were different than the ones from before.

I added a new campaign today that is using keyword links directly to the vendor landing page.  I know that is not the best idea, but I am simply looking to make some cash while working on the better ideas.  If it does anything I will pick about 4 more ads and duplicate it.  The only problem is it will probably be Monday before Adbrite approves it.

I also finally got a rejection from Adcenter for my first ad there.  They rejected my ad.  I used the same ad at Adbrite, Adcenter, and Adsense but only Adcenter rejected the actual ad.  I haven’t decided what to do about it since it wasn’t big project.  It was like the others I have done so far, just getting my feet wet and learning.

I have done pretty much nothing to advance my internet cause the past 2 days.  Well, I did add a lot of keywords to my Adbrite campaign. I have a couple of hundred or so in there now, but a lot of good they are doing.  10,000 impressions and not a click yet. It seems my Try Rhapsody free for 14 days experiment is drawing zero interest.  I didn’t really expect it to draw a lot of clicks because the ad title is very specific about what it is. At the same time, I expected to also have a low click cost.  My thought was they won’t click on the add unless they want the product.  That may very well be a short cited view though. If they don’t see my add, the add doesn’t have the chance work.  So, with that in mind I am gonna change the Adbrite ad up to get a few clicks going to the ad and see if it actually convinces someone to buy Rhapsody.

I didn’t get a lot acomplished on the sites today but I did add some more keywords to my “Domain with nothing but a content ad” experiment. The campaign is now up to 80 impressions without a click. My ad headline is pretty straight forward though. It says Try Rhapsody Free for 14. I think I will give that a few more impressions before I change it to something that might be more marketing friendly.

On a side note, I have gotta start nailing down a plan for my main project. I sent myself a quote I got somewhere and can’t remember where but it was a good one. “Prioritize Potentially Profitable Projects.” I have been jumping around between ideas and currently have several sites in various stages of implementation. This one is coming along pretty easy since it feels good to unload some of these thoughts. I gotta work on the design here though. I am sure you can tell I am using the default at the moment.

As I mentioned earlier, I have purchased a few domains in the past month. I decided to sign up with commissionjunction.com and put up a relevant content ad on the My Current Playlist domain. I added the link to my site then went to Google, Microsoft, and Adbrite to try and get some cheap clicks back to my page.

I signed up with the 3 services on Saturday July 22nd. Google Adsense was the first campaign to actually go live. They approved everything and I was up and running. Up an running for about 10 minutes before Google suspended all of my keywords because my $.10 bid was too low. This basically boils down to Googles new Quality Score they are giving landing pages. Since the only thing on my domain is the page size cotent add for Rhapsody music service I can’t get cheap clicks fom Google.

If Google suspends your keywords, you have to go in and up your minimum bids. They base their minimum bids on the Quality score of your landing page, Keyword conversion rates, and some other relevent factors. Some of the bids became outrageous. Christina Aguilera jumped up to a minimum of $5.00 per click. So basically the moral of this story is I won’t be getting nickle clicks from Google.

The Adbrite campaign was finally approved Monday the 24th. I have had 15 or so impressions but no clicks yet. I need to add more keywords to that campaign however.

Microsoft still hasn’t approved my campaign so it doesn’t appear they are in a big hurry. From reading on a few forums, this seems to be about the norm for them.

Well, day 2 of the jasonpoteet.com blog was less than productive. When I got home last night and tried to fire up the site, my host was down. It only took them 12 hours to get it back up. I am unhappy it took them that long, but they have been very reliable in the past so I suppose we will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Hi! My name is Jason Poteet and I am setting out to make some money on the internet. I am not new to the internet but I am embarking on some new internet adventures that I hope will turn into a nice career change. I won’t bore you with more back story on me here, I will save that for the About Jason Poteet page. I gotta have something to go there.

For the past couple of months I have been researching new ways to make money on the internet. I have been hitting some really awesome blogs, websites and forums tying to figure out exactly what is out there, how to best proceed and to succeed. I have been literally blown away by the money being made on the internet by some very crafty entrepreneurs and I am planning on joining that crowd. At least I am honest about it though. I am not filling your ears with tales of my love for my fellow mankind and hoping to just make enough money to cover my hosting costs. I wish I had a nickel for everytime I read a webmaster or forum host claim they just wanted to make enough to cover their hosting costs. I am here to make serious money and leave the 9-5 crap to other people. I am betting you are too or you would not be here reading my blog.

My blog isn’t designed to be a “Send me $50 bucks and I will send you my proven strategy” kinda thing. The main purpose of the blog is to really document what I am doing, meet other like minded individuals, and maybe help someone out along the way. Although I reserve the right to change my mind and start charging ya’ll $50 if I think you will pay it.

One of my first spots on the net I started frequenting was John Scott’s, v7n. I started going through his blog and posts on the forums and I was dumbfounded at the things he was getting paid for. Mainly that people would pay to submit their site to a directory. When I started on the Internet around 1992, it was hard enough to get someone to buy a website much less pay to list that site on someone’s directory. It was at v7n I started to understand the current direction of the internet in regards to Google Ranking and Search Engine Optimization. I also started up a few ideas in my head as ways to make money online. I bought me a few domains names (I will save the pain in the ass finding an available domain name rant for a nother post) and started working on some sites. I don’t have any of them really complete yet, but I am working on some good ideas.

Those ideas are what we will get into in the days to come and hopefully be on our way to some good money on the internet.