Blog Platforms and choosing the Best Domain Name

Your blog domain is the url people will use to access your blog on the internet. The domain for web money is www.illiteratepoet.com. The domain name for this blog was not a very good choice. I have been looking for another one to gradually switch too. When this blog was started I was still learning about domains and blogging and picked the wrong domain for my topic. When you choose a domain name try to pick one which gives readers insight into what your blog is about. For example my other blog The Law of Politics, can be found under a few domain names: usapresidentmccain.com, lawofpolitics.com, and Tillmanslaw.com; all which let you know the blog is about political and legal issues. Also try to use a domain which can be easily remembered, and sometimes the shorter the better. If you use the blogger platform you can have your blog hosted at a blogspot address, but I do not recommend this because you are not investing in a domain you own. Its kind of like remodeling an apartment you rent, you will not get a return on your investment. You build links and popularity to a domain over time through visitors and fellow bloggers referring to your domain, thus increasing it value if you ever want to sell it.

Picking the platform to host your blog is a matter of opinion. I use blogger because it is free and seemed like the easiest to use when I first started blogging. I plan on starting a blog using WordPress or switching one of my existing blogs, because I have heard good things about the service.I like the idea of having more control of your blog, which, I think, WordPress gives you. The top 10 Free Blogging Platforms by the Specky Boy Blog is a good source to help you decide what platform to use. PC world has a good article on blogging platforms too. It is a good idea to do this type of research before starting your blog because readers will identify with your blogs appearance and consent change may run some readers off.

eBay: Another way to Make Money Online

eBay is another way to make money online, and I have been using it for a few years now. Making money with eBay can be easy if you have a lot of the same product to sell. I use eBay more for buying things then selling, but I do sell a few things every few months. I usually wait until I have a bunch of things to sell and do it all at once that way I don't have to be tied down to answering questions and checking eBay all the time. I have a few items listed on eBay now if you would like to check them out they are listed on my about me page here.

Listing completely different things can be time consuming when you first start out. You have to research the best price to start your auction, what category to list it in, and upload pictures. It is not worth it to sell items less then ten dollars unless you are selling many of the same item; at least that has been my experience. If you sell something for $15, by the time eBay fees and paypal fees are subtracted from your total profit you have spent 10-15 minutes of your time for $2 or $3. I have sold a lot of electronics and car parts on eBay and made decent money, but I don't have a constant supply of those things. If you have any questions about eBay or want help on how to start your own auction I will be glad to help or point you in the right direction. I am going to list a few blogs with good information on eBay below:

1. eBay Blog "the Chatter"

2. eBay blogs wiki

3. eBay Strategies - recommended

4. eBay Ink Blog launch in May

Domain Parking with Sedo

I have had domains parked with sedo for about two weeks and I can already tell you for certain I am making more money with sedo then godaddy. Even if godaddy parking was free it still looks like sedo parked domains perform better so far. The same five domains that were parked with godaddy listed in my last parking post have made $6.11 in the about two weeks. Over two and a half months they only made about $15 dollars at godaddy.

The one thing I have noticed with sedo that may be a problem is that tillmanbeach.com has made over $5.00 of that total. I have updated my keywords on the other domains to see if they will get higher earnings per click. It may turn out that it is better to park different domains with different serivices, which is something I have thought about until now. I am going to research which keywords will bring me the highest clicks a little more enlight of this situation.

The appearance of sedo's parked pages is better compared to previous parking services I have used. In conclusion so far I like sedo better then godaddy cash parking, but it is still not making enough money to make dealing with it worth my time. I am going to stick with it and see if it improves in the near future. Thanks for reading and I hope some of the information you find here is useful to you.

WebSite Tech Product Catalog

I have a online store which, I have mentioned in past posts, called WebSite Tech at blakesdomain.com. There are a lot of other stores that are similar to mine, but I don't think there are a lot with the same prices. I am offering the lowest prices possible given my buy rate. If you find that one of my products is over priced or cheaper somewhere else please bring it to my attention and I will see if I can beat it or make-up for the price difference in another way!

I will add anyone who makes a purchase at my online store between now and June 1, 2008 to my discount seller list for the remainder of the year. I do not make any commission from domain sales for those on my discount seller list, but it is my way of saying thanks for giving us a try. I am also going to write a review in the future about Website Tech and how it has worked in terms of a way to make money online. I have added links to products we offer below if you would like to take a look. Thanks.

Domain Names
New domain registration
Transfer a domain to Website Tech
Register or transfer large quantities
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Search
Backordering domains
Monitoring domains you own
Monitoring domains you don't own
Domain name masking/forwarding

Domain Services
Business Registration
Protected Registration
Domain For-Sale web page
Get your domain name appraised

Web Site Builders, Hosting Options & Tools
Hosting, Virtual Dedicated & Dedicated Servers
Easy-to-use site builder
Keep site data and transactions secure
Extended Validation SSL Certificates
Photography & images
Create an online store
Create a Blog or Podcast
Add advanced site statistics

Marketing & Productivity Tools
Search engine optimization
Create and send emails to visitors and customers
Personalized email
Online organizational calendar
Send faxes online
Online storage
Federal copyright protection for site
source code & artwork

Link to Website Tech HERE

Sedo Domain Parking vs Godaddy Cash Parking

The final chart and graphs showing my earning for these five domains when they were parked with Godaddy are below. I am going to include a date range that can be compared to Sedo parking when the time comes.
I transfered five of my domains to Sedo from Godaddy cash parking today. I was paying more then I was making to have my domains parked with Godaddy. I transfered keoweeboating.com, tillmanbeach.com, thenextgold.com, scfacebook.com, and blaketillman.com. Sedos sign up process and parking service was easy to use. I still have a few domains with godaddy I will be transferring to Sedo soon I'll keep you updated!

January 1st, 2008 - March 15th, 2008

BlakeTillman.com $2.22
Keoweeboating.com $2.78
ScFacebook.com $2.01

TillmanBeach.com $3.94

TheNextGold.com $4.26

Worth it ? Cash Parking , Domain Parking

I have a few domains I have not had time to do work on myself, so I decided to put them in cash parking with godaddy. I have had some of them parked for more then a month now. I am including a link that shows my revenue over a month. Premium cash parking with godaddy cost $9.99 per month, keep that in mind when looking at the graph. From my experience so far parking a domain with godaddy is not a profitable investment. I am still researching and looking for people with a different experience. Put a page, blog with adsense, or anything other then parking to increase your domains value if you have the time. If you are going to do nothing with the domain, maybe cash parking is better then nothing. I think forwarding your unused domains to your website or blog is a better way to advertise then parking is in terms of bringing a profit. If you don't agree with me please post a reply and let me know why.

UPDATE: Forwarding your domain is not necessarily a better thing to do then parking it unless the domains are alike.

Experimenting with Domain Names

I got interested in buying my own name as a domain name which lead to what I am into now. I bought my name then researched domain names a little and decided to buy a few more. Then I decided to test my luck making a little money on the web. I am going to update this more on what I am doing and how it is going soon. I couldn't decide where I wanted to go with this blog, so I decided to use it as a journal on my Internet investments and store I have set up. If it turns out to be a good deal hopefully someone else will read this and have the same experience, if it turns out to be a loss maybe I saved someone from another Internet scheme. I am going to list the domain names I have bought. Most of them link to a parked page right now, but I am supposed to be earning a percent on the ads listed on them.

scfacebook.com

keoweeboating.com

Blake Tillman

thenextgold.com

www.extremeeverything.com

www.tillmanbeach.com

These are a few some domains I have purchased since writing this post:

upstatepressurewashing.com

scwashing.com

motoxdomain.com

tillmanslaw.com

lawofpolitics.com

vprudy.com

mapcapt.com

Those two are parked with godaddy cash parking. I also have started another blog on usapresidentmccain.com.

I know there are plenty of people who know way more then I do about all this so don't take this as advice. I am learning myself and I will appreciate any advice given to me. I am going to try and customize Blake's Domains , my store, as I learn more about web pages. I am trying to come up with ideas for web pages I intend to build too. Hope you either get a good laugh out of this blog or learn something with me.