Too Lazy to Blog From Scratch? Purchase One from Sitepoint
written by Anthony Dinh
Before I built DiariesOfABlogger a little over a month ago, I contemplated the possibility purchasing an established site that was already generating some decent traffic and revenue, but just needed that extra little boost from a wide-eyed and eager newbie blogger like myself to pump new life back into it. You’d be surprised, but there are many blogs out there that have been abandoned by their owners due to personal issues, new business ventures, lack of time or simply because the owner just lost interest. Also, many blogs are built by serial domain flippers with the intent of making a quick sale a few months down the road. Whether you opt to build one from scratch like I did or decide to purchase an established one, here are some things to consider in weighing the pros and cons of each:
Advantages
- established traffic and RSS readers
- already generating revenue
- indexed and ranked
- aged backlinks
Disadvantages
- requires a lot of time and effort
- design not exactly the way you want it
- domain name not to your liking
- takes time to index and get ranked
- possibility of getting sandboxed by Google
- takes time to establish loyal RSS readers
After doing a bit of research, I stumbled upon Sitepoint. Not only is Sitepoint a marketplace where webmasters come to buy and sell domains, but it’s also a great resource site for web developers, offering an array of books, web kits, articles, scripts and training videos. The domains listed for sale range anywhere from just a few dollars to 5 figures. Some of the more notable blog acquisitions that have transpired within the past few months include MomsCashBlog, JohnCow and BobMeetsWorld. GamerzReviewz and DebtConsolidationBook, owned by blogging heavy weights JohnCow and Garry Conn, respectively, are two upcoming blogs that will be listed in a few weeks once the Cowpetition winner has been announced. If you’re leaning more towards purchasing a mature niche blog rather than starting from scratch, I would recommend you check out the following affordable sites which have great potential that are currently up for sale at Sitepoint. If you want an even bigger head-start, they also have a Premium Sites section with sites boasting higher page views and income for those of you with deeper pockets.
Description: This Small yet growing community is running on phpfox. The site was custom skinned for the tattoo theme. Also, I purchased a vbulletin license and integrated it with phpfox. The site gains visitors/members without any advertising, however I’m sure that with the right advertising (on places like tattoodles or others) that this place could grow exponentially.
I just recently emailed about 60-70 tattoo artists to start the process of link swapping. So far a few have agreed. But the opportunities are endless.
Established: Sat Sep 30 2006
Page views/month: 45,000
Monthly Revenue: 10
Revenue Sources: Adsense
Google Pagerank: 0
Uniques/Month: 1,200
Price: $1200
Description: USAblogger.us is an automated internet business blog, launched on December 28, 2007, This automated site grows rapidly without advertising. All new feed items are banked and stored for life! USAblogger.us was built with Wordpress system that allows complete control of the website. We are including the unique website with complete ownership, all source files, the outstanding domain name (free transfer with godaddy) plus hosting which is paid until December 31, 2008!
The website is outfitted with google adsense ads and CJ ads. This website is being sold as a turnkey business, therefore treat as no/minimal revenue and traffic.
Website Launched on: Dec 28, 2007
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Created on: Nov 2, 2006
Domain Expires on: Nov 1, 2008
Revenue Details: We estimate $10 to $150 in revenue with ZERO marketing. The site could earn $500+ per month with only 5 referral hosting signup via the link in the header.
Price: $249
Description: I’m selling this site because I have no longer time to update it. Site is not monetized, but I think there’s a huge potential with adding affiliate links to the products reviewed.
More information upon request.
Revenue Details: There’s only text-link-ads currently on the site and it has been there only a few weeks.
Traffic Details: 92% from other sites, 7% from search engines. Good rankings for keywords like funny gadgets, weird gadgets.
Price: $2000
Description: I want to sell this site because of this 2 reasons
- I don’t have time to update it every day
- I need money
I guarantee this site can bring more revenue and has very good potential. I can also provide screenshots.
Established: Mon Apr 30 2007
Page views/month: 6,000
Monthly Revenue: 120
Google Pagerank: 4
Uniques/Month: 3,000
Revenue Details: site currently makes money from the banners sold on the site.
Price: $1225
This is just a small sample of what’s out there, but if you really take the time to look, you will surely find one that falls within your niche. Many of these sites have great potential and are very interesting with great content, a loyal user base, high page rank and are already generating some revenue.
The reason I ended up building my own site is because I’m very meticulous and particular in nature, so I needed to have complete control of every aspect from beginning to end. Also, personal satisfaction and knowing that I did it myself was a big driving force. I wanted the challenge of being able to build a blog from scratch, generating traffic and eventually earning money from it. I accepted the fact that it was going to take some time to establish a loyal user base and the possibility of even getting sandboxed, and I was willing and prepared to put in the long hours that it would take to nuture DiariesOfABlogger into a thriving money making machine. Whether DiariesOfABlogger ultimately ends up succeeding or failing miserably, at least I will know that I was in control of my own destiny.
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How Frequently and How Long Should You Blog?
written by Anthony Dinh
One question we as bloggers have found ourselves asking at one point or another is, how frequently should I blog and how long should they be? This is a subjective question to which there is really no right or wrong answer. Everyone has their own valid opinion when it comes to this matter, you just have to find a balance and go with what works best for you.
Post Frequency
Whatever frequency you choose to blog, just be sure to keep it consistent so your readers know what to expect. At the moment, I myself can only find the time to post once a day during the week, so that gives me about 20 posts a month. Don’t post 3 times one day, then go for a whole week without posting. This erratic frequency of posting will confuse your readers, and it will become a guessing game as to when your next post will be published. You will end up alienating them and they will eventually stop coming. Also, once you get into a rythm, keep it up because once you stop, it’ll be difficult to get back into the groove. Personally, I recommend having no fewer that at least 3 posts sitting in your queue ready to go at a moment’s notice. That way, you can preschedule them for weekend editions, as well as have a safety net for when you can’t find the time to write because when life happens, it’ll be nice to not have to worry. Not only that, it’s a good idea to have posts ready to go for guest post opportunities that may arise on short notice.
Post Length
Don’t bound yourself to strictly long posts or short posts, or set a goal like 500 or 1500 words, etc. Just do whatever is natural and whatever makes sense for the topic at hand. If it’s just a quick random thought that takes only 100 words, so be it. Conversely, if it truly requires 1500 words to properly get your point across, then don’t be afraid that the readers will get bored because if it’s that good, they’ll read it! However, don’t write a book…not every post has to be a masterpiece or doctoral dissertation. If you think the post will be too long to read in one sitting, consider breaking it down to a series of more manageable posts. This will also save you from having to think of new ideas for your next few posts.
Stockpiling for Writer’s Block
As bloggers, we’ll all encounter the frustrating syndrome known as “writer’s block” from time to time, so it’s always a good idea to stockpile your posts for a rainy day, especially when you are in a writing mood and the ideas are flowing. I highly recommend having a notepad or your cell phone with you at all times, so you can immediately record or jot down ideas as they come to you. I know you’ve all had a great idea at one point and ended up totally forgetting about it because you didn’t write it down…I’m guilty of this myself! Even if you wake up in the middle of the night and happen to conjure up a great idea for a post, either get up and start writing while the idea is still fresh, or jot it down on a notepad at the least. You can also start a post in draft mode with a one-liner which summarizes your idea so you can go back and finish it at a later date. Visiting other blogs is also a great way of getting ideas to post about, but remember, use them for inspiration only, do not copy! You can also ask fellow bloggers to guest post on your blog to buy you some time until you can get over the hump. Finally, if you are really desperate for ideas, you can always recycle one of your older posts with a follow-up post by updating it with any new facts, figures or developments, etc. If the recycled post is old enough, chances are, you reader won’t even notice.
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I’m Not a Baby, Get Me Out of the Sandbox!
written by Anthony Dinh
DiariesOfABlogger.com has been up and running for about a month now and I’ve tried just about everything I could think of, but it’s still failing to get ranked by Google. I’ve come to the conclusion that my site has possibly been sandboxed by Google. I know I’m a newbie blogger and that my site logo is a baby, but enough already, get me out of the sandbox…whaaaaa!
Here’s a quick rundown on what I’ve already done.
- about 3 backlinked comments left a day on reputable blog sites
- sitemap submitted to Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com and DMOZ open directory for indexing
- auto ping list enabled
- domain link included on social network profiles (Twitter, MyBlogLog, Myspace, Digg, Entrecard, etc.)
- articles submitted to EzineArticles
- link exchange program with some blog sites
- relevant posts interlinked to each other, and links back to homepage
- H1 tags used on each post
- permalinks enabled to rewrite SEO friendly URLs
- page title formatted to “post title | site title”
Each day, Google is inundated with literally thousands of new sites and it has no way of knowing the trustworthiness of these sites, so in order to maintain the integrity of its index, Google sandboxes these sites until it’s able to analyze and filter out all the spammy sites that are of little or no value. From what I’ve been reading, apparently a site can be sandboxed for anywhere from 3 months to a year, and there’s nothing you can really do but sit and wait…very annoying! 
Hopefully, I will be free from the confines of the sandbox soon so I can run and play with all the other fellow bloggers.
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Don’t Be Foolish, Backup Wordpress Regularly and Before You Upgrade!
written by Anthony Dinh
As a followup to my Wordpress 2.5.1 Released post, I just wanted to stress the importance of performing regularly scheduled backups of both your Wordpress installation files, as well as your MySQL database since it contains every post, link, comment, plugin and css modification you’ve ever made. For you new bloggers out there who are just joining the blogging community and even some of you seasoned bloggers, regularly backing up your files is a good habit to get into. For the rest of you, if you’ve already implemented a solution to cover your butt in the event of a natural disaster or file corruption, give yourselves a pat on the back! Taking the few minutes required to perform a backup now will save you a lot of headaches in the future when a major catastrophe strikes, and trust me, you’ll surely be glad that you did it.
How often should I backup?
This is totally up to you, but minimally, I would suggest at least once a week. Some things to consider are how often do you blog, how much information would you lose if something were to go wrong, how much of a setback would it be if you were to lose the data, and how would you feel about the loss of the posts that you worked so hard write?
How many backup instances should I keep?
Typically, I think most authors retain 1 instance and overwrite it with each successive instance in the interest of saving space and time on managing multiple copies. What if the backup gets corrupted or is lost, you might ask? I would recommend keeping a copy in at least 2 different locations that are geographically remote from each other using any one of the following formats (flash drive, CD, hard drive, remote ftp/host server, etc.). It wouldn’t do you any good to have a copy at home and one a couple miles down the road at work in the event of a major flood like we had with Hurricane Katrina would it?
How do I address large databases?
If the database is large, you can try compressing it using any of the various file compression tools such as Winzip for Windows based systems, or you can just tarball or gzip it on *nix platforms. Also, if you are running any anti-spam or statistical plugins that are constantly logging large amounts of data, you can opt to exclude these tables from your backup since they are not too important to keep.
How do I automate backups?
There are several methods available to automate backups via cron or scheduling, but regardless of whichever method you choose, I would highly recommend running backups manually once in awhile so that you can verify nothing has “broken” and that your backups continue to run properly.
1. Backing up your Wordpress installation files
Below are the files that should be backed up
• Wordpress Core Installation
• Wordpress Plugins
• Wordpress Themes
• Image Files
• Javascript, PHP, CSS and other scripts
Most hosts backup their servers regularly, but you still run the risk of losing some data if their latest copy is older than what you’d like, not to mention the downtime you would incur while waiting for them to restore your site, so it’s best to put control in your own hands rather than rely on sombody else. You can either use WinSCP or 2Bright Spark’s Synchback to keep a mirror of your site on a remote server or local machine, or you can use FTP or *nix shell scripts to copy the files to a folder on your local machine.
2. Backing up your MySQL database
phpMyAdmin is the database management system of choice used by most website hosts, so I will explain how to backup your database using this method.
• Click on Databases in the control panel
• You may see several available databases, select the one that you created during the Wordpress install
• Only default tables will be listed, you may have other tables if you’re running any statistical plugins or anti-spam software, select only the ones containing your Wordpress data and hit Export
• Check the “Add Data Drop” box, “Complete Inserts” box , “Save as File” box, “None” radio-button for compression, and click Go.
For detailed instructions and additional information, please visit the links below.
Resources:
Skippy’s Wordpress Database Backup Plugin
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Moms Cash Blog Sold - Goodbye Krysti, Hello…JJ?
written by Anthony Dinh
YEP, you heard it here folks! It’s official, ownership of Moms Cash Blog has changed hands, effective Monday, April 28, 2008, 72hrs after the sale was announced. Krysti, aka “Mom”, received over 100 bids and after interviewing a few prospects, she finally settled on a buyer. Although the sale price has not been disclosed, Mom states that she could have made out a little better monetarily, but that finding the right candidate was of utmost importance.The new proud owner, JJ, is a middle-aged woman who has been trying her hands on blogging and making money online since January of this year, but without much success, according to Krysti.
Moms Cash Blog started out as a hobby, Krysti says, but it has evolved into a cash cow in the 6 months that it has been operational. Still an infant in terms of web years, the blog has a Google PR4 ranking, and is ranked at 152,000 on Alexa. Having already established a loyal following, there’s still some great potential for Moms Cash to make some huge profits in the future. Currently, the blog generates a generous income through affiliate links, PPC, Google Adsense, videos and tutorials, to name a few. With this purchase, the new owner will receive 1 year of paid hosting, established affiliate connections and Krysti’s own secret money makers.
The motivation to sell, Mom says, is here daughter who is going through an important stage in her life. I bid Mom farewell, and wish her all the best in her many other online ventures. JJ surely has some big shoes to fill, let’s see if she’s got what it takes to nuture Moms Cash into its toddler stage, or will it languish at the inexperienced hands of its newbie owner and eventually disappear?
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