That aside i am back now and pushing hard to get motivated on some projects with huge potential. Out of boredom while browsing the forums i spend a whopping £20 on wooden play kitchen which imo is a great little buy. It should be easy to improve, make a few quid and sell it on when i get bored of it. A good 320 well spent which goes to show you don’t need a lot of money to get on the ladder so to speak.

I’ve got quite a bit to do over the next few Months before we take a summer break so I’ll be writing about it all here, the main reason for the blog is to motivate myself and try to help/show others that it is possile to make money online, no matter if you want a econd income, a full time job or just a bit of loose change in your pocket.

That’s all for now as i need food!

I’m still recovering from a bout of man flu that knocked me for six but have been working a little anyway, first off the cops and robbers site that disappeared from google came back which is very good news, still no idea why but there you go. I’m really cuffed with that as it’s a good little earner so should increase Octobers income by a few £££.

What Have I Bought?

First I bought a famous persons name which had a site on pretending to be written by them. I picked it up cheap for £270 and it’s making around £4 to £5 a day from adsense and amazon after a 1 hour face lift. I changed the content so it was obvious the site was a fan site to avoid confusion or possible legal action. It does mean though that a £270 investment will or should be made back within 2 Months and from then on it’s all profit. . . Good  result!

I then looked a .org.uk domain names as many seem to think they rank equally well against a .co.uk, I wanna test this properly at a later date but for now I bought lucky ace casino and threw 2 pages up for a start, you can expect 30 by the end of October though. The guy who owns lucky ace poker .org.uk gets good rankings and to be honest the site is a bit shabby, It will be good to see what happens.

Also on .org.uk’s I got pkrcasino.org.uk which is self explanatory, grabbed Grim Reaper Costume to make a site about grim reaper costumes for Halloween etc, obviously. Again it’s just 1 page for now and will grow probably to about a 10 page mini site which should be pretty good. I also got fruitmachineemulator.co.uk which is a nice one with some decent exact match searches.

One for the family is Pizza Recipes where every Saturday me and the kids most likely my daughter are gonna make some pizzas at home and write about it! It’s a bit of fun that could grow in to something awesome, the pizza’s this week were absolutely lovely and it was a nice break away from the laptop!

On to .com domains now and I found SuperBikeInsurance.com and am going to develop this one, that was until someone on acorn was and is looking for names that this fits with perfectly, a bit of a dilemma seeing as I could possibly sell it on quickly for a few hundred profit but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Thats about it for now although September I probably bought another 10 domain on top of the above that I can’t even remember!

There is nothing worse for a webmaster than to check their stats and see low or zero visitors, checking the terms you ranked for in the serps shows you have vanished completely, quick as a flash you think you have either been hacked or has google penalized your site?

The answer could be neither of those two and depending on a number of factors there could be a reasonable explanation for it, this has happened to me a few times now and to be honest I’m still none the wiser despite doing as much research as possible, finding a definitive answer is impossible.

Lets take a look at why it could have happened:

Have you had a google penalty?

The best way to answer this is to ask yourself have you done anything wrong? Have you been buying links or spamming everywhere with your url for example, you need to go to google webmaster central and see if your breaking any of the golden rules before you do anything else.

There you will see hundreds if not thousands of others asking for support in the form with the exact same issues as yourself, I’ve even posted there before and while i did get some help some of the top contributors seem to have a bit of an attitude problem imo.

The fact is if you have done nothing untoward then a penalty is highly unlikely, google is pretty clever and doesn’t seem to impose penalties very often even to those who are on the borderline of black hat.

Why is my site not ranking then?

As i said already I DON’T KNOW – I do however have some theories of my own which I can share.

The Age of Your Site – This appears to be a big factor in serps results, new sites often rank highly for their terms as if google is testing them to see if they get natural links, this to me seems to last anywhere from 3 to 8 Months then suddenly you’re gone!

You won’t be gone forever and sometimes you may have just moved to page 30 of the results, the honeymoon period is over and it’s time to put more work in to your site, add content that’s truly great and build links in a white hat way and you should see it reappear.

Your Inbound Links – I’ve also found that if you have built links too quickly you can vanish from the serps, I suppose it could be seen as bad if your site especially if it’s new gets tons of links from strange places.

A major factor and again this is my opinion is that linking to yourself from your other sites on the same hosting can have a negative effect, I don’t know why this is or if it’s at all true but it seems like it to me! If you have a lot of sites all linking together it can look odd I suppose, my argument would be that if there on topic or related in some way then why not link to one another?

My advice here would be to remove links you have from your own sites and see what happens, remember though it doesn’t happen overnight so be patient.

Have you been hacked? – This happened to me and i didn’t even see it at first, go to google webmaster tools and fetch your site as google bot, have a look and see if anything looks odd. My own site had hundreds of links hidden to sex sites and that’s what caused it to disappear. Somehow they added code to the htaccess file and that’s what added the bad links.

I removed the links and requested a resubmission and within a few days it was back in the serps.

Don’t give up!

Most important is not to give up, keep adding high quality, unique and compelling content to your site. This will not only show google your site is serious but also add value for visitors, at the end of the day google is supposed to give searchers the best results based on what they are looking for, if you have an exact match name that may or may not help but content is where the battle is won or lost.

Best Resources:

Without a shadow of doubt the best information about the subject is a forum discussion where JohnMu and RedCardinal gave free advice and help to a struggling webmaster who was very frustrated. You can see the thread here and make sure to read it all as it is pure gold.

This site solves the problem and i had a calculator made which enables people to input the odds of the horses and it works out their winnings for them, simple, useful and effective!!

The way to make money from this site is obviously to give away free bets and bonuses that the visitors will like. I know who the audience is so that’s pretty easy, all i need to do now is negotiate a deal with a qualify bookmaker to offer a bonus simply too good to miss and bingo that’s it. I’ll probably go for a cpa deal on this (cost per acquisition) so every player who takes the offer should see me bank around £100, not bad really.

Anyway, the sites design is simple and the calculator is on the home page where it’s easily accessible, it still needs a couple of things added to it but in the main it’s ready for people to use, a fast way to work out lucky 15 bets is simply looking for a lucky 15 calculator.

Still More Work To Do.

Obviously if that was the site complete we’d all be doing it, there is still a lot of content to add and a load of links needed to help the site rank for it’s main keyword, it’s in at number 7 at the moment and had some traffic but all that needs vastly improved. It will be a gret site in around 6 to 8 Months I’d say, making money and ranking where it should be = number 1

It’s pretty much a perfect example (or will be be) of what a mini site should be, it does exactly what the domain name and title suggest and does exactly what the visitor wants in super quick time. Once again I’ll stress that if a site is useful people will use it!

Until next time, take it easy.

Anyway, I was taken aback by a long running thread on how to make a domain earn £1 a week which was full of useful information and some not so useful, many people had links to their sites that they had made for the purpose of trying to make the elusive £1 but most seemed to have given up, this is very, very common.

Inspired by this I have decided to do the same to hopefully show how easy t is, I gave some of my own advice in the thread about keeping it simple and so on but the most important piece of info I stated was to make the content “useful” and if possible use a product type domain which always helps make money.

So next week I’ll be building a mini site with the aim of making a pound a week ( for any us reader that’s about $1.40 ) just to see if it’s possible and how long it takes, it may be a silly challenge but i like challenges of any kind anyway.

Is It Worth Making £1 A Week?

Not really if that’s your only web site, you have to remember the forum in question was Acorn Domains and most are “domainers” not developers. For these guy’s some may have hundreds if not thousands of domains many of them great just sat there gathering dust. So why not make some money from them?

In my opinion a domain with content is worth more than a domain, an aged, indexed domain is more valuable to a developer. It should take about 4 to 5 hours to build a decent mini site using wordpress and if that all it takes then £1 a week = £52 a year not that bad for 4 hours work + you’ve added value to the domain and made it easier to sell.

Imagine if you’ve got 100 domains, that’s £100 a week for doing nothing, and all the time increasing the value of your domains as they age, get links and make money, once you get the hang of it you could put 3 up a day so in a Month you’ve got almost 100 sites up, made them more valuable and making a return.

Anyway, that’s enough waffle for now I’m thinking which domain of my own to use or whether to register one that’s available to make it more of a challenge, either way I’ll update on my progress in the £1 a week challenge” doesn’t sound very impressive but should be fun.

My way of describing it is simple: You Have an Idea and Act On it!!!!

That to me is what sums up an Entrepreneur and separates them from the rest of society, they are not afraid to take risks and do something about all the crazy ideas in their head. Some, in-fact most will fail, but a true Entrepreneur will just think of something else.

Everyone has ideas but not not very many people are willing to do anything about it. I personally can think of nothing worse than having to get up at the same time each day, go to the same place each day, work the same hours each day, it’s just not something i can handle. The freedom of being an Entrepreneur especially online is one of the biggest benefits, a break away from “norm” if you will.

It’s not even all about the money, the freedom is amazing. I can work when i want (this is being written at 1.45 am) and from wherever I want, I can use a mass of resources online that I couldn’t afford to hire direct, coders, programmers, writers, designers, anything you want is at your finger tips.

IMO entrepreneurs are all gamblers in some way, shape or form. They are the ones willing put risk everything for an idea, to try something different and to succeed. It doesn’t always happen that way but when things fail you learn from why and don’t let it happen again.

So that to me sums it up, you need to take a risk or two but the rewards far outweigh the risks, I guess we are all delboy’s deep down, all love to be wheeler dealers, buying and selling, doing deals, after all it’s fun and no day is the same.

What do you think sums up an Entrepreneur?

What is Web Site Flipping?

In a nut shell it’s either building a site and selling it on, or buying an existing web site and either improving it or collecting it’s revenues for several months/years then reselling it again at a profit.

The latter of these two examples above is the easiest to to and requires a little investment, how much is entirely up to you. We look at building a web site from scratch in a later article.

You can invest $100 in an existing web site which has some traffic already and improve it to it’s full potential, earn revenue through various online means such as AdSense, amazon associates, ebay affiliates or any other.

Let’s make up an example of how to flip a site:

John Smith own a web site which makes $5 a month from AdSense and is looking to sell. He gets around 1000 unique visitors to his site which is about mouse traps.

When you look at the site it’s a bit of a mess and AdSense everywhere which as you should know or do now is the wrong approach, people are turned off by  too many adverts and messy sites, what people do want is nice clean, easy to read information quickly and easily.

You buy John’s site for 12 months revenue which is $60, now you can either relax and make $5 a month on your investment which is a pretty good return and remember you always have the site to re-sell if you ever wish.

What you should do however is increase the revenue and clean up the site, add more useful content, this bring more traffic and in-turn more revenue. This is what good flippers do, buy low and increase revenue, sit on the site while it proves it’s new improved income then sell it on for a much higher price.

The key to a good site is a clean look, high quality content and traffic which the first two bring, adverts work bet when they are in-content like this one which could be used on the mouse trap site, the most effective mouse trap available.

You need to see a web site as a physical thing, something you own which has value, kind of like a house, if you get one that needs done up, you can do that and sell it for a profit!

How long does it take to flip a web site?

The answer to this relies on your own skills and how quickly you need your investment back, a lot of people tend to keep hold of their purchases and add to their monthly income, this build you a huge portfolio of money making web sites, but they can take some maintaining.

It’s best to keep them for 6 Months and after making all the improvements which shouldn’t take more than a week (dependant on the size) you should be seeing improvements in earnings and seeing a much better rate of return. After the six months you should have 4 months proof of earnings and traffic stats which are vastly improved from when you bought it, this is what makes the site now valued at more.

The principle is the same no matter if you invest $50 or $50,000, for people newer to online marketing or affiliate business it’s best to start off low until you get to grips with everything.

Were to buy cheap web sites for flipping?

The choice is huge and most web site forums, or domain name forums are a good place to start. Sitepoint.com, dnforum.com are decent. Acorndomains.co.uk is a nice forum mostly for UK sites, basically just google for web site or domain name forums and have a look around.

A great way is to think of a topic you know about, this adds value to a site if the content you can create is of real use to visitors. If you know about knitting google knitting and see which sites look like they have potential but are currently going to waste, get in-touch and see if they will sell. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

How much to pay for a web site?

This is difficult but you should be looking to pay 12 to 18 months revenue for the site, if it makes $50 a month paying $600 for it is a fair price to all concerned. By using your negotiation skills and being able to complete deals quickly you may get some sites for 10 months revenue.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Before making any purchase check the stats and earnings are correct, check out the seller to make sure he’s not a scammer. If you’re buying from a forum member they should have feedback from others or be trusted there.

Web Site Flipping is all about acquiring something with potential, developing that potential, being rewarded with extra income streams and being able to turn a profit when you feel the time is right.

Flipping sites isn’t something I’ve done a lot of, however as I’m pretty addicted to buying domains i quite often develop them and sell them at a later date. The principle is the same and it can be very rewarding in a few ways. You learn a lot about web site development and seo, build up business relationships and make money along the way!

My eldest on who is 13 was at school and jumped about 2 metres over a path from no height, somehow when he landed he completely snapped his left leg in 3 places, an ambulance was phoned and we got a call from the school saying ” He has fallen and we think he’s broken his leg” That’s the only info I had and as I arrived at the hospital 25 mins before the ambulance there was time for all kind of horrible thoughts to cross my mind.

Here’s just a few things I thought about while i paced up and down outside A&E

1. Has he fell down stairs?
2. Has he fell from the science block (highest building in the school)?
3. Are the bones sticking out of his leg?
4. Why is the ambulance taking so long, can they not move him?

When the ambulance did turn up the back doors came down and I saw him with no colour in is face at all, an expression of pure shock and fear. We were taken to casualty all the time I was trying to keep him calm and do what I could to make him feel safe.

Once the doctor came round he cut his trousers to reveal the leg and although no bones were on show it was pretty obvious how serious the break was. Some morphine and gas and air was used to help him with the pain, consultants came and went, phone calls were frantically made and all the while a 13 year old was being the bravest I have ever seen him or anyone else for that matter.

Once he was pretty stable a weird feeling came over me, i started to sweat my left ear started ringing and everything sounded funny, i was about to faint i assume, a new feeling but guessed that’s what it was, i sat down beside him and soon got back to normal. I think it must have just been all the pressure and relief rushing over me when i realised he was at least ok despite the bad break.

I won’t go in to a lot of detail but a few hours later a back slab was being put in place which is a half cast supporting the back of his leg, now there was 4 people doing this and the doctor held the broken section and was trying to manipulate it i to some kind of position which would help avoid the surgery they had been scheduling for later that night. The pain must have been awful and to see the way the leg moved freely was sickening, again he was just so brave and I was trying to keep him comforted while probably looking a very pale shade.

Anyway 5 days later we were back at home and resting, I bought him a new ps3 slim for his room even though we have one downstairs which the kids share. The whole thing made me realise just how much I care for him and how strange it was to have loved and protected him while he was younger, watch him grow in to a young man and then suddenly be so much like a child again.

It was something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy and something I hope and pray never happens t our family again, you feel so helpless as there is nothing you can do except be there and support them in anyway you can. Now starts the recovery and I do feel really bad for him now as a full length cast is hard to move around, It will be a long time off school which he will like i guess.

I could write forever about this and mention everything that happened, the 5 nights in hospital, the doctors and murses, the cleaner who was excellent but I won’t. All i care about now is the fact he is home and on the mend.

Well that was my week last week and the most pain I have ever felt without injuring myself in anyway. I’m starting to get back in to work now and aiming to bu a bigger house, all this has also made me think we need more room and more rooms!!

Yours Sincerely

Online Del Boy

I figured there must be plenty of poker affiliates looking for some great poker themes so I made my own list.

Top WordPress Themes For Poker Affiliates.

These are my top wordpress themes for poker affiliate sites, let us know if there are any good ones I have missed out!

1: Flytonic Dealer and Highroller Themes

Flytonic is this is the home of 3 themes which I use A LOT on my poker affiliate sites, they are a bit more pricey than most but believe me they are worth every penny. There is a custom backend to list poker rooms, review pages, blog pages, table listings and a load more.

They have Highroller theme in black or blue and the Dealer theme. I’m not sure which I like the best really, the look of Highroller with the features of the dealer theme would be Ideal (Please Thomas) – Visit Flytonic Themes

2: Spades Poker WordPress Theme

A sleek design and some really great features, I’ve only used this theme once but it ws easy to use, has some great features for integrating twitter and a site listing widget in the side bar. It looks very professional and performs very well. See the Spades theme for yourself.

3: Studio Press Themes

These themes although not poker or casino specific make excellent looking and very well laid out poker affiliate sites, bonus sites, strategy sites or blogs. There very easy to customise and seem very seo friendly. I’ve used loads of these themes before they became studiopress they were known as Revolution themes which I still think is a better name!

There’s plenty to choose from so something to suit everyone – Studiopress themes

I discovered shopperpress after searching for a simple solution for an affiliate store and since then I’ve raved about it to other web masters and affiliates non-stop. In my eyes this is the best solution for a quick online shop, if your selling your own stock, being a drop shipper or simply putting your keyword domains to good use shopperpress does it all.

For affiliates you can import items and products straight from amazon and ebay with just a few clicks, you can customize the theme easily to fit your product lines. For store owners it’s really simple to add products, you just write about the product as you would a normal blog post, include some custom fields for images, price etc and your done.

One of my newer sites which I’ll discuss further at a later date was born when looking for other niche ideas for a web site, prams came to mind and one brand in particular was Hauck Prams which are a big name and growing business here in the UK market. Follow the link to see my hauck prams store which was set up in about 45 mins. I Will be using it for drop shipping but for now most of the products are imported from amazon while I get the site ranking and test demand , all the images and descriptions are done for you automatically.

The shopper press online shop solution is available FREE, it’s hard to believe but you can get it for absolutely nothing, if you’re serious however and want the extra features buy the V.I.P version as it comes with support and more themes and features than the free one. It’s only about $79.99 or under £50 anyway.

Check out the shopper press web site for more and see for yourself how you can have an online shop and start selling your items online.