I have had a couple of requests to document the develop of domains so I’ll try and do that with netbooks and notebooks, my first job was to buy them which I have done, tick.. Nothing much to explain there, sent emails negotiated deals and both were bought this month in early December.
Next job has been to get them indexed and found so I added a link to them from a post on here, a sig link on a forum and my main pc site pcs.co.uk in the footer, also in a couple of the posts on PCs that relate to netbooks or notebooks as they are very relevant. I paid one of my writers to do a good explanation of what they are and what to consider when shopping for a netbook or notebook, this is even more relevant for netbooks being new to the market so they both have a homepage with some good information on them. Each article cost me $30 so apart from the initial capital on the two domains so far I have only spent $60.
I also added an amazon store so that if visitors did want to purchase they could buy from a company that converts traffic very well and has a good choice, while in some ways I bought at the right time in others I was a bit late to the party. Getting the domains in December meant I pretty much missed out on the Xmas sales however I did sell some, Netbooks.co.uk sold 16 items of which 6 were actual netbooks so a bit of commission due.
Buying at the right time means that I was lucky enought to get the deals done in time before the next guy came along and thought about buying them, therefore I received the offer to buy one for £5k and not the previous owner, phew! I also caught on to a surge in traffic as popularity and interest grew. While notebooks looks on the face of it to be the better domain netbooks gets the traffic. Both sitting around the same place ranking wise on page 2 in google.co.uk
Netbooks has achieved 1800 visitors and getting over 100 per day now while notebooks is doing 10-20 visitors per day.
I’m not worrying about rankings or traffic at present, I have only had them for a couple of weeks, stage 1 is to add value, buyers guide done!
Next will be to add a bit more content, looking for some comparison charts between the main models with advantages and disadvantages, again these are costing me $30 each and should add useful value to visitors and in turn help the site grow and become more valuable to readers and hopefully in turn more link worthy so that’s it for now, will come back to these as and when I work on them and document results.
Nice! Have you guys seen the script you get with the affiliate review foundry? There is a nice little comparison script too in there that would be good for these sites!
This is not an affiliate link (but perhaps it should be) 🙂
http://www.reviewfoundry.com/ebook/
Here’s to a great 2009!
Jason
Urgh, I hate sales pages. Why do they always have a pitch? Present me with the facts, I’ll make a decision.
Taking action is the key to all of this.
You toke action and made a wise business decision. Therefor you will reap the benifits 🙂
btw, been reading a few of your other blog posts and there amazing!
It’s unbelievable you get that traffic just in few weeks. Great Job!
buchin’s last blog post..Epson Stylus Photo RX650 User Manual
Personally I don’t like Amazon Astore. Because you can only buy the products specified by the webmaster. I experienced many times, visitor also buys many unrelated products and that is not possible with Astore. You will loose commision. I once made more than €100 commission from unrelated products with one visitor.
Scott, if you want to do some link exchanges on a few sites, let me know. I avoid paying for links where I can, so prefer to do trades with people I know.
Dan
Dan @ PowerDosh.com’s last blog post..Link Exchanging - Lazy Man’s Waste of Time
Scott,
You might want to check out this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/dec/24/psion-netbook-threats
Seems Psion (are they still around) are after people using the term netbook. 🙁
Yes I have seen that John, so far all based on one site’s alleged screen shot (which is getting a lot of backlinks)
I can’t see that this would pose much threat. Firstly, someone already owned the domain for quite a while, and would have been threatened themselves. Second, they have absolutely nothing at all to gain by worrying about this site.
Justin Cook’s last blog post..What is Google’s new SearchWiki?
“they have absolutely nothing at all to gain”
Not true, what they gain by suing anyone using the trademark is the continued right to use the trademark. In other words if they fail to sue they loose the rights to the trademark.
John’s last blog post..Start A Property Business - Now?
Odd your domain would be the obvious target to start with…
I’m not sure how far they’d get however as it seems they (Psion) have allowed the term to become common use.
Unfortunately, Psion do still have legal rights in the name and I am sure Scott would not relish a legal fight if it came down to it (Psion will have deep pockets).
I am sure however that Scot is well aware of the situation and will keep a close eye on developments - useful (or planned Scott?) to have the notebooks domain as an alternatve
Sigh… you’ve surpassed my 100 visitors a day on SoLinkable in only one month… I have so much to learn in terms of traffic building. But at least I’m enjoying doing it 😀
I was one of the people asking you on explaining what you did to rank well so I am very happy to see you starting these posts.
I have a question regarding the writer that you use. Where do you find someone that will create great articles and not just rubbish (even at $30)?
Mikael Rieck’s last blog post..Case 2008 afslutter året i fin stil
Through my Sitepoint advert Mikael. A few duds but one guy does very well researched pieces and I am using him for a few more now, certainly a bit of luck needed there to find someone good.
I was afraid you were going to say something like that 😉
Just looking at the drop lists, and netbookmart.co.uk is currently available.
Dan
Dan @ PowerDosh.com’s last blog post..A round-up of 2008 and plans for 2009
With around 200 domains I would only really be looking for short sharp descriptive generics now Dan, need to focus on improving the overall quality if I was to add any more.
Hi Scott. I was actually providing it for others who might want to enter the netbook market. 🙂
Dan
Like Scott I got on the netbook bandwagon, registering a handful of domains just before Christmas. They’re currently parked but include comparenetbooks.co.uk, as well as ones ready for the international/US market such as comparenetbooks.net, netbookmini.com and several others.
I welcome offers from domainers with the knowhow to develop them as price comparison/ affiliate stores, in return for which I am offering 50 percent of profits + 25 percent of any resale on each domain.
Scott, if you’re reading and like the sound of the latter offer (i.e. half of profits + a quarter of resale) I’m a writer and could produce original content (regularly updated) if you were prepared to handle the rest, i.e. hosting, link-building, collecting commissions. It might be worth designing the stores so they serve products from multiple providers rather than just Amazon? Like this one does: netbook-store.co.uk
I agree with you that the netbook market is set to explode next year and beyond. I read somewhere it’s predicted to be worth £20 billion a year by 2012. My domain names aren’t quite as hot as the generics in your portfolio, but nevertheless have the key criterion of containing the relevant keyword. If you’d like to partner with me to get the sites live, I’m happy to agree to 50% commission + 25% of any resale if or when we choose to sell. I’m a professional writer so delivery of well-researched SEO content will be inhouse.
While I’d prefer Scott for his background with pcs.co.uk and track record, anyone else reading with a similar ability to get affiliate stores-cum-price comparison websites built quickly, indexed and making money is welcome to come in with an offer.
Ta,
Michael
michaeldawsonhall@gmail.com
Yup sitting on a Domain is the way to go then slowly building natural back links without it being SPAM! is the key.
Stick a blog on it allways helps but you have to maintain and know the subject matter!