Domain name

Tips & Advice to help you make your decision on Domain Name

Businesses today need an online presence in order to compete. Many people turn to the Internet when looking for contractors and suppliers. Having your own website can make it easier to be found and having that website tied to a domain you own improves your chances.

You can customize your domain name to reflect the name of your business or some key feature associated with it. This will insure that search engines find you and rank you high on search result pages. The closer you are to the top of a search, the more hits your site will receive and that can translate into more profit for you.

Before you decide to purchase a domain name, do some research. Compare the costs of different domain hosting sites. Check out the features they offer. Then come up with a unique and easily searchable domain. Next you'll need to make sure no one else owns that particular domain. If it's available, you can buy it, set it up and have your suite up and running in no time. Business.com can help you achieve this with resources and links that you can use to learn more and find domain hosting and naming sites.

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How Bloggers Make Money Blogging

Make Money Blogging

Do you want to make money blogging? If you do – you’re not alone. More and more bloggers are finding that blogging is a profitable medium. Whether it be to earn a few extra dollars a week to feed their coffee habit, or making enough money to stop them having to get a part time job to get through college, or whether they’ve got it to a point where they are able to make a full time living from their blogging – there are tens of thousands of bloggers who make money blogging.

How to Make Money Blogging

In this page I want to share some information for beginners on how to make money blogging. For a very quick and broad visual intro – check out this Make Money Blogging MindMap which visualizes just SOME of the ways bloggers make money blogging.
First – let me start by sharing my own top Money Making Methods (updated regularly) but below that point you to some great resources and teaching on how to increase your income from blogging.
What follows is a quick summary of my main income streams from blogging. Before you read it though – keep in mind that every blog is unique in how it can make money. Some of the following income streams will work on some blogs a lot better than others – the key is to experiment with as many as possible and see what works best for you.
The following income streams (from a number of blogs) have helped me to earn a six figure income each year for the last 5 years from blogging. I’ve ranked them from highest to lowest.
I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more (here’s why) I continue to use AdSense with amazing effect on my other blogs. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design). I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.

2. Affiliate Programs

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs – most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own (but which certainly add up).
These include recommending quality products like these here on ProBlogger: Thesis WordPress theme, Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program and How to Launch the F*** out of your E-Book (and others) as well as some great products on my photography blog including 123 of Digital Imaging, David DuChemin’s amazing Photography E-Books and Mitchell Kanashkevich’s great ebooks.
The great thing about many of these programs is that they are of such high quality that they sell themselves and I am being emailed from readers who sign up to them thanking me for the recommendation!

3. E-Book Sales

Last time I did a wrap up of how I make money blogging this category did not exist for me – I didn’t really have any of my own products to sell at all. However in the last year or so I’ve released 3 E-books – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog,The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography and Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos. While these products all only sell for under $20 they certainly add up and some months this has been my biggest category of income. The reason they were only ranking at #3 in the last month was that I didn’t do a product launch (I wrote about one launch which brought in $72,000 in a week here). This is an income stream I see growing as I add more E-books to my range (expect 3 in the coming few months).

4. Continuity Programs

This is another newer category for me but one that continues to grow.
A continuity program is a site where you earn a recurring income from people who subscribe to a service you offer.
For me this includes two sites – ProBlogger.com and Third Tribe Marketing. Both programs are membership sites and generate monthly income from the thousands of members that they have as a part of them.

5. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

Private ad sales directly to advertisers have fallen for me in the last year (they previously ranked #3 on this list). This is partly due to a change in my own focus but also partly due to the economy as it is. I should note that this area does vary a little from month to month depending upon the campaigns we’re asked to run – we’ve had a couple of months where it actually ranked #2 in the last year.
This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a campaign or two atDigital Photography School.

6. Chitika

Chitka continues to be a great performer for me on my blogs. They traditionally have worked best on product related blogs although theirPremium ad units now convert well on a larger range of blogs.
While I’ve focused a little less on Chitika in the last 6 months (mainly as I’ve released my own products and moved a little away from advertising) they do continue to perform well where I use them and over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars – as a result I can’t recommend them enough!

7. Amazon Associates

Amazon’s affiliate program has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it – however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (in fact it’s now earned me over $100,000 since I started using it). Christmas time (and the lead up to it) is a particularly good time for Amazon – last December it would have ranked #2 on this list.

8. ProBlogger Job Boards

The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. These job boards now bring in over $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are so low maintenance to run. They also offer a service to readers and add value to the overall blog.
The only problem that I face with the job boards is that there are so many bloggers looking for work that the demand for jobs far exceeds the supply. On the good side of things is that advertisers are reporting getting amazing quality of applications.

9. Speaking Fees

I get asked to do a lot of speaking and increasingly they are paid opportunities. I’m not able to do as many as I would like (mainly because I live in Australia and most of what I’m asked to do is overseas and I only travel 2-3 times a year) – however in April I did a couple of events and the income was enough to include in this list.

Other Income

In addition to all of the above there are many smaller incomes. Many of these are from smaller advertising programs that I test but none are big enough to really rate a mention here.
The other income stream that there was no actual money from in April was book royalties from theProBlogger Book. These are only paid every 6 or so months (not in April). It’s probably also worth mentioning that authors don’t tend to make a whole lot of money on book royalties – you don’t write books to get rich (unless you sell a lot of them).

Useful Resources for Bloggers Wanting to Make Money Blogging

A lot has been written on the topic of making money online from blogs. There is a lot of wonderful information out there – but also a lot of hype and sometimes dangerous information.
Below are a number of articles that I’ve written exploring some of the different ways that bloggers make money.

Recommended Reading on How to Make Money Blogging

• A Reality Check on Blogging for Money – I don’t like hype – this post attempts to paint a realistic picture of blogging for money.
• How Bloggers Make Money – a post that I wrote in 2005 (updated) which gives a broad introduction to how bloggers make money blogging.
• Making Money from Your Blog – Direct Methods – bloggers make money from blogging in two main ways – directly and indirectly. This post explores some of how they do it directly.
• Making Money Because of your Blog – Indirect Methods – and here’s an exploration of indirect methods.

How to Make Money Blogging from Advertising

• Advertising Optimization – A series of posts on how to optimize advertising on your blog including posts on Traffic, Ad Positioning, Ad Design, Ad Relevancy and High Paying Ads.
• AdSense Tips for Bloggers – an 8 part series of posts that walk bloggers new to Google’sAdSense (the way I make much of my income) through how to use it effectively to make money on their blogs.
• Positioning Your AdSense Ads - a 3 part series on how I literally doubled my AdSense earnings overnight by repositioning my ads
• How to Guarantee that You’ll Never Make More than 0.14 cents per month from AdSense – 10 points to help you earn more money from AdSense
• How Quickly After Starting a Blog Should I put Ads on it? – one of the most common questions I am asked
• 10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Attractive to Advertisers – an Ad Guy tells all

How to Make Money Blogging from Affiliate Programs

• 10 Tips for Using Affiliate Programs on Your Blog – these tips helped me grow my affiliate earnings many times over
• The Power of Getting Readers in the Door at Amazon - a case study on how linking to Amazon can lead to some surprising results
• 9 Reasons Why I am an Amazon Affiliate – Amazon is one of my bigger earners

Other Articles on Making Money from Blogs

• Principles of Choosing a Profitable Topic for Your Blog – key factors to consider before choosing a topic for your blog
• Should I Blog for Money? – before you rush into monetizing your blog – here is a post on whether you should at all

Succes small business

Courtesy of: CreditDonkey

The 10 Most Expensive Blogs Ever Sold

10. WorldHum.com – ($Millions? – Price not verified.)

Site: WorldHum.com

Bought by the Travel Channel.

Founded by Jim Benning and Michael Yessis, WorldHum is a travel-related blog with essays, interviews, reviews, audio, video, and more. Benning and Yessis say on the site, “We started World Hum out of our apartments in May 2001 with $35 and one goal: To publish the best travel stories on the Internet.”

Though they started with $35, as they say, both Benning and Yessis had professional travel writing experience in their background.  Benning and Yessis continue to run the site.

The site’s estimated purchase price is rumored to be in the millions ($6 million?), but we have not been able to confirm that from a reputable source.

9. Freakonomics.com – (Price not verified.)

Site: Freakonomics.com

Bought by the New York Times.

The Freakonomics.com blog was born out of the best-selling book Freakonomics  by writer Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven D. Levitt. As they say on the blog, the book was “a book about cheating teachers, bizarre baby names, self-dealing Realtors, and crack-selling mama’s boys.” In other words, they analyze data and attempt to come up with sound theories that could explain why certain mysterious things in everyday life seem to happen.

The NY Times “absorbed” the blog, put it onto its main domain (nytimes.com), and began sharing revenue.(LA Times ) Information about a cash settlement is harder to come by. The blog ran on the Times site for a number of years, but recently it has been “unabsorbed” (I guess we could say) and is now back on its own domain (though still owned by the Times). Dubner and Levitt still run the blog.

8. Treehugger.com – $10 Million (Verified)

Site: Treehugger.com

Bought by Discovery Communications (The Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, et al).

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An environmental blog started in 2004 by Graham Hill, the blog “was entirely virtual and was managed from various cities around the world including Barcelona, Bangkok, Buenos Aires and New York,” as Hill says on his LinkedIn page.

According to TechCrunch, at the time of the sale the site had an Alexa ranking of 5,395. As of this writing, its current ranking is 3,343.

(Source: TechCrunch)

 7. Celebrity Baby Blog  (Price not verified.)

Site: Celebrity-Babies.com

Purchased by Time and now hosted on their domain People.com (People Magazine).

With a sale price estimated to be in the millions, celebrity-babies.com (now found at celebritybabies.people.com) was founded by Danielle Friedland.  The site is, of course, about the babies of celebrities (not babies who are themselves celebrities … in case you were wondering). At the time of the sale, the site was attracting approximately 720,000 visitors a month and getting 6.9 million pageviews.

(Source: TechCrunch)

6.  Deadline Hollywood Daily – $5-15 Million (Estimates vary wildly – Semi-verified)

Site: DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com

Bought by Mail.com Media Group.

Originally under the domain DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, now under the domain Deadline.com, Deadline Hollywood Daily is a showbiz blog started by showbiz journalist Nikki Finke to report on movie and TV news, awards, etc.  Finke’s blog, unlike many on this list, was a one woman show.

The prices reported on this sale vary wildly. According to the LA Times, someone knowledgeable about the deal said there was initial cash (“a low seven-figure sum”) and a deal that would see Finke stay on staff five years for “millions” more and a share of the ad revenue. … Not a bad gig.

(Source: Poynter)

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5. Bankaholic.com – $15 Million (Verified)

Site: Bankaholic.com

Bought by Bankrate.com.

Bankoholic is a financial blog started by Johns Wu. Wu’s blog, like Deadline Hollywood Daily above, was a one man show. He provided information and advice on credit card offers, money market accounts, savings accounts, and more.

At the time of the sale, President and CEO of Bankrate Thomas R. Evans said, “Bankaholic is ranked high in natural search for both deposit and credit card keywords. We believe their organic traffic will increase our deposit and credit card revenue, and with a high composition of free traffic, will help to improve margins.”

(Source: TheNextWeb)

4. Ars Technica – $25 Million (Verified)

Site: ArsTechnica.com

Bought by Condé Nast.

Ars Technica (which is Latin for “Art of Technology”) is, you guessed it, a site that publishes technology news and reviews

Started by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998, it was designed to be “the best multi-OS, PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while … having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible.”

The current website describes themselves this way: “… we specialize in original news and reviews, analysis of technology trends, and expert advice on topics ranging from the most fundamental aspects of technology to the many ways technology is helping us enjoy our world. We work for the reader who not only needs to keep up on technology, but is passionate about it.”

(Source: CrunchBase)

3.  PaidContent.org – “North of $30 Million” (Verified)

Site: PaidContent.org

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Bought by Guardian Media Group.

PaidContent.org is a blog about new media founded by journalist Rafat Ali. Its objective, as Ali says, is to “chronicle the evolution of digital content that is shaping the future of the media, information and entertainment industries.”

The site’s “About” page says, “Our belief is that in the near future, all media will be digital media, and we are helping define sustainable business models and innovation within this sector.”

(Source: AllThingsD)

2. TechCrunch.com – $30 Million (Verified)

Site: TechCrunch.com

Bought by AOL.

If you are interested in the tech field, then no doubt you have heard of TechCrunch (and very well may even visit it daily). Founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, it concentrates on technology companies and news, often with an emphasis on interesting start-ups.

Michael Arrington and AOL just recently parted ways a few weeks ago. You can read about the split (and get a confirmation of the price) from source link below.

(Source: NYTimes)

1. ConsumerSearch.com – $33 Million (Verified)

Site: ConsumerSearch.com

Bought by About.com (which is owned by the NY Times Company)

ConsumerSearch was started by Derek Drew and Carl Hamaan in 1999. It is unique in that it doesn’t actually publish its own reviews of consumer products, nor does it allow visitors to post reviews. Instead, it scours reviews from reputable sources and then reports back. In other words, it reviews reviews … if that makes sense.

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As they say on their website:

We Simplify The Complex

1.      Collect the best reviews

2.      Analyze their picks

3.      Recommend what to buy

(Source: NYTimes)

So there you have it: The 10 Most Expensive Blogs Ever Sold (that could be verified or semi-verified by a legitimate source). But not every blog sale has to be for millions to make it a good one. Any blog sale is a good one if the blogger wants to sell.

Now it’s your turn. Can you list any decent blog sales that you’ve heard about off the top of your head? Heard of anything in the thousands that you can confirm?