My second project, the one that doesn't have a ton of long-term potential, actually grew out of personal necessity. It's a group of tools for valuing websites based on historical website sales. About 18 months ago, when Businesspundit had a pagerank of 7, I realized that I could bump up the pagerank for a really low site just by linking to it. I got the bright idea that I could monetize this by buying websites with low PR, linking to them, waiting for an update, and selling them off. Initially, I bought what the internet marketing community calls Made-For-Adsense sites. These sites have several pages of content or some sort of free tools, but are primarily constructed so that you find them through a search engine and then click on an ad. (Don't confuse these with parked domains that only have ads, they are two different things) Many web marketers set up thousands of these sites. They may only make a few cents, or at best a few dollars a day, but multiply that by 4 digits and you can make some decent money.
After buying and selling several of those websites, I became interested in other types of sites. I bought directories, tutorials, ecommerce sites, and I went through a VERY steep learning curve. The website market is not very liquid or transparent. The seller has a massive information advantage over the buyer, so much so that websites typically sell for 10-12 times monthly earnings, which would be a steal for any other kind of business. But they sell so low because of the risk you take on when you buy a site. I was burned a few times early on, but I stuck to sites in the $100-$300 range, so it was money I could afford to lose and chalk it up to a learning experience. I also did really well with a couple of sites, making some easy money for doing very little work.
As a quick aside, I need to tell an interesting story that I think accurately reflects the stupidity of the average person. If you search for making money online, buy and sell websites, and stuff like that, you will get a lot of these wild pages with red text, yellow highlights, letters that say "From the Desk of..." and always start with "Dear Friend." It's really pretty ridiculous. Well, several months ago I bought one because it sold a video series of How to Flip Websites. The videos won't make you rich, but if you like to write and build simple sites, they really can show you how to make $50-$100 with a few hours of work. Knowing that I was going to build this website valuation tool, I wanted the videos as an add-on, and I wanted the list of previous customers because they are good candidates to sign up at my new site.
I had never owned one of these crazy text sites before, so my first thought was that I would clean it up and make it look more professional and mainstream. But I like to experiment, so I decided instead to put up two new sites - one with a blog format and one built on Joomla with a professional looking business template. I spent a few weeks getting the Google Ads right so they had a good click through rate, then I changed them weekly to point at the different sites. All sites had similar levels of traffic, yet the cheesy sales page site outsold the others 5 to 1. I was shocked.
The other sites came down, and I'm trying to figure out what I can do with the existing site because honestly, I feel somewhat uncomfortable owning it in it's current form. Making money online is all fine and good, but with this site I feel like I'm part of the web underworld. Anyway, if you find the internet marketing world interesting, I would encourage you to check out the extremely funny blog at Internet Marketing Sucks.
More at:http://www.valueontheweb.com/
via-businesspundit
Monday, August 20, 2007
Million Dollor Idea
Evolving Vox got its name from the Dartmouth College school motto, vox clamantis in deserto, which means "a voice crying out in the wilderness." So when Russell D'Souza and Jon Groetzinger heard the cry of dorm residents as they abandoned their furniture each year, the pair took it upon themselves to provide furniture that cuts down on that waste.
"Students don't want to deal with the hassle of putting [furniture] in storage," D'Souza says. "We realized there's a great market for a furniture rental company that provides everything students need for their dorms."
In summer 2006, D'Souza and Groetzinger used their personal savings to start Evolving Vox. They stocked up on dorm essentials: 24-inch flat screens, DVD players, compact refrigerators and futons. Then they created a website to give students a fast, easy way to place orders. Delivery is free.
While D'Souza says many rental companies see the college market as an afterthought, catering to college students was Evolving Vox's key to success. D'Souza, 22, and Groetzinger, 23, adopted the concept of "temporary ownership," reinforcing a sense of sharing furniture with their student customers, the same way they share a college experience. "It's meaningful that peers are buying from their peers rather than from an impersonal rental business," Groetzinger says.
Evolving Vox hit the Dartmouth College campus with resounding success--2007 sales are expected to reach $250,000. The founders have also received a number of inquiries to start similar services at colleges around the nation. Early this year, Evolving Vox branched out to Brandeis University and Cornell University. They plan to expand to 10 colleges by the end of the next academic year.
More at:http://www.evolvingvox.com/
"Students don't want to deal with the hassle of putting [furniture] in storage," D'Souza says. "We realized there's a great market for a furniture rental company that provides everything students need for their dorms."
In summer 2006, D'Souza and Groetzinger used their personal savings to start Evolving Vox. They stocked up on dorm essentials: 24-inch flat screens, DVD players, compact refrigerators and futons. Then they created a website to give students a fast, easy way to place orders. Delivery is free.
While D'Souza says many rental companies see the college market as an afterthought, catering to college students was Evolving Vox's key to success. D'Souza, 22, and Groetzinger, 23, adopted the concept of "temporary ownership," reinforcing a sense of sharing furniture with their student customers, the same way they share a college experience. "It's meaningful that peers are buying from their peers rather than from an impersonal rental business," Groetzinger says.
Evolving Vox hit the Dartmouth College campus with resounding success--2007 sales are expected to reach $250,000. The founders have also received a number of inquiries to start similar services at colleges around the nation. Early this year, Evolving Vox branched out to Brandeis University and Cornell University. They plan to expand to 10 colleges by the end of the next academic year.
More at:http://www.evolvingvox.com/
Venture watch
Kongregate is a niche social community around user generated online flash games.
Kongregate allows developers to upload their own flash games. Kongregate then places a set of community features around each game.
Features are added to each game such as a chat system, where players can chat with each other and the game developers. The social features allow users to tag, rate and comment on the games to provide developers with feedback. Users are also able to create friends lists and set up a profile page with their player stats.
Kongregate generates revenue through advertising and shares revenue with the game developers. Since the launch in early 2007 there are 1,500 games from 750 developers and over 850,000 unique visitors per month.
They raised:Kongregate raised $5 Million from Greylock Partners.
more at:http://www.kongregate.com/
Kongregate allows developers to upload their own flash games. Kongregate then places a set of community features around each game.
Features are added to each game such as a chat system, where players can chat with each other and the game developers. The social features allow users to tag, rate and comment on the games to provide developers with feedback. Users are also able to create friends lists and set up a profile page with their player stats.
Kongregate generates revenue through advertising and shares revenue with the game developers. Since the launch in early 2007 there are 1,500 games from 750 developers and over 850,000 unique visitors per month.
They raised:Kongregate raised $5 Million from Greylock Partners.
more at:http://www.kongregate.com/
How Mommy Made Millions
What: Clothing for newborns packaged as a bouquet for the new mom
Who: Bryony Boxer and Simon Martin of The Baby Bunch
Where: New York City
When: Started in 2006
Startup costs: $250,000
Before visiting a new mom in the hospital, family and friends often get flowers for her or a gift for the baby. Thanks to The Baby Bunch, they can do both at once.
When Bryony Boxer, 33, was pregnant with her first child, she says she noticed a "shortage of products in the market that were gifts for the mom and the baby at the same time." She also saw people becoming increasingly busy and putting less thought into gift-giving. So she and her husband, Simon Martin, 36, came up with a practical, convenient gift idea: infant clothing packaged in the form of an attractive bouquet that could be purchased online and sent directly to the recipient. Offered in various sizes and styles, the bunches include bibs, socks, T-shirts and onesies. The filler flowers, made from wood and paper, can be saved for display, and the gift box is reusable.
"The idea of using everything in it--not just having superfluous packaging--is important to us," says Boxer.
Expanding on its practical, economical and eco-friendly thinking, The Baby Bunch recently launched a line of organic bouquets, which earned the company the 2007 Innovation Award from the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.
Although the couple's 2-year-old son has outgrown the line's infant clothing, the company still has lots of room to grow. Projecting $1 million in sales for 2007, the couple plans to create gift bouquets for other occasions and age groups.
More at:http://www.thebabybunch.com/#
Who: Bryony Boxer and Simon Martin of The Baby Bunch
Where: New York City
When: Started in 2006
Startup costs: $250,000
Before visiting a new mom in the hospital, family and friends often get flowers for her or a gift for the baby. Thanks to The Baby Bunch, they can do both at once.
When Bryony Boxer, 33, was pregnant with her first child, she says she noticed a "shortage of products in the market that were gifts for the mom and the baby at the same time." She also saw people becoming increasingly busy and putting less thought into gift-giving. So she and her husband, Simon Martin, 36, came up with a practical, convenient gift idea: infant clothing packaged in the form of an attractive bouquet that could be purchased online and sent directly to the recipient. Offered in various sizes and styles, the bunches include bibs, socks, T-shirts and onesies. The filler flowers, made from wood and paper, can be saved for display, and the gift box is reusable.
"The idea of using everything in it--not just having superfluous packaging--is important to us," says Boxer.
Expanding on its practical, economical and eco-friendly thinking, The Baby Bunch recently launched a line of organic bouquets, which earned the company the 2007 Innovation Award from the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.
Although the couple's 2-year-old son has outgrown the line's infant clothing, the company still has lots of room to grow. Projecting $1 million in sales for 2007, the couple plans to create gift bouquets for other occasions and age groups.
More at:http://www.thebabybunch.com/#
Are you born with the entrepreneurial spirit or can you acquire it?
Are you born with the entrepreneurial spirit or can you acquire it?
With £180m earmarked for enterprise education in the UK, a new poll by leading qualification provider NCFE has revealed that 62% of people in education believe that you can create entrepreneurs in the classroom.
National awarding body NCFE carried out the survey, asking colleges, training providers and students throughout the UK if they thought that enterprise could be taught.
The web-poll at www.ncfe.org.uk asked “can you teach entrepreneurship?” 62% of respondents said yes while 38% said no. The results mirror the increase in requests for NCFE’s enterprise qualifications with candidate registrations increasing by 49% in July alone.
David Grailey, Chief Executive at NCFE, says:
“Enterprise is a hot topic in business, politics and education so it is important we develop the nation’s entrepreneurs via education. We are seeing a significant growth in the number of colleges, training providers and students taking these courses so it is important that they are delivered by staff and institutions who believe in them, and that students see them as beneficial.
“NCFE is committed to developing high quality qualifications that really do make a difference to students’ enterprise skills and awareness of opportunity.”
NCFE qualifications deliver flexible, vocational learning and help individuals with innovative business ideas to progress to the next step. They have also been used to support a number of self-employment initiatives around the country.
The qualifications cover many key aspects including understanding and exploring enterprise, planning and carrying out an enterprising project, evaluating projects and self development.
Enterprise is becoming a higher priority for both the Government and education providers, with Gordon Brown announcing in the recent budget that a further £180m will be spent over the next three years to continue funding enterprise education in the UK.
more at:http://website.ncfe.org.uk/
With £180m earmarked for enterprise education in the UK, a new poll by leading qualification provider NCFE has revealed that 62% of people in education believe that you can create entrepreneurs in the classroom.
National awarding body NCFE carried out the survey, asking colleges, training providers and students throughout the UK if they thought that enterprise could be taught.
The web-poll at www.ncfe.org.uk asked “can you teach entrepreneurship?” 62% of respondents said yes while 38% said no. The results mirror the increase in requests for NCFE’s enterprise qualifications with candidate registrations increasing by 49% in July alone.
David Grailey, Chief Executive at NCFE, says:
“Enterprise is a hot topic in business, politics and education so it is important we develop the nation’s entrepreneurs via education. We are seeing a significant growth in the number of colleges, training providers and students taking these courses so it is important that they are delivered by staff and institutions who believe in them, and that students see them as beneficial.
“NCFE is committed to developing high quality qualifications that really do make a difference to students’ enterprise skills and awareness of opportunity.”
NCFE qualifications deliver flexible, vocational learning and help individuals with innovative business ideas to progress to the next step. They have also been used to support a number of self-employment initiatives around the country.
The qualifications cover many key aspects including understanding and exploring enterprise, planning and carrying out an enterprising project, evaluating projects and self development.
Enterprise is becoming a higher priority for both the Government and education providers, with Gordon Brown announcing in the recent budget that a further £180m will be spent over the next three years to continue funding enterprise education in the UK.
more at:http://website.ncfe.org.uk/
Live Blog Traffic Feeds
FEEDJIT has two awesome free widgets that don't require any registration. Just cut, paste, and you're all set. With FeedJit.com these site owners can cut and paste a widget to see where the last 100 visitors to the site are located. There is also a widget offered by the site which is a live arrival and departure report, which will show who is on the site, where they are from and exactly what time they enter and leave the site. FeedJit.com is absolutely free and obviously prides itself on quickly correcting any bugs that people inform them of; on their site it shows that they have corrected a few within the first few days of launching the widgets and the site encourages its users to report any problems so they can fix them ASAP.
more at:http://feedjit.com/
more at:http://feedjit.com/
HubSpot software tracks leads in detail
HubSpot Internet Marketing Software
HubSpot is an Internet marketing software platform that enables your company to get more leads from your website by driving more prospects to your website and converting more of them into leads. HubSpot software tracks leads in detail, automatically producing useful lead profiles so you convert them to customers more effectively. HubSpot is web based, does not require any IT staff, and is designed to be used by a marketing person, not a techie. Learn more about HubSpot Internet marketing software.
Hubspot.com assists its clients in driving more people to their websites through search engine optimization and other tactics, then tracks in great detail the leads thereby creating lead profiles and better understanding who the target market is so they can be focused on more through the advertising. The site boasts recommendations from CNN Money and is testimonial-rich from users. There is a blog that goes along with the service to interact with others and ask questions about how to utilize the service in the best manner possible.
More at:http://www.hubspot.com/
HubSpot is an Internet marketing software platform that enables your company to get more leads from your website by driving more prospects to your website and converting more of them into leads. HubSpot software tracks leads in detail, automatically producing useful lead profiles so you convert them to customers more effectively. HubSpot is web based, does not require any IT staff, and is designed to be used by a marketing person, not a techie. Learn more about HubSpot Internet marketing software.
Hubspot.com assists its clients in driving more people to their websites through search engine optimization and other tactics, then tracks in great detail the leads thereby creating lead profiles and better understanding who the target market is so they can be focused on more through the advertising. The site boasts recommendations from CNN Money and is testimonial-rich from users. There is a blog that goes along with the service to interact with others and ask questions about how to utilize the service in the best manner possible.
More at:http://www.hubspot.com/
OGGtours are opensource audio guides to the world's most interesting and offbeat destinations
OGGtours are opensource audio guides to the world's most interesting and offbeat destinations. Anyone can contribute to the development of an OGGtour by adding text or audio comments from right within the OGGtours blog.
An OGGtour can then be downloaded and loaded onto an iPod or Mp3 player to provide a self-guided tour of any available travel destination. You may also listen to OGGtours on location if you have a web-enabled mobile device such as a Blackberry, smartphone, iPhone or compatible GPS device.
The tours can be downloaded to an iPod and mP3 player and accessed through, if you have a GPS enabled device you are able to access the OGGTours.com from those devices. The service provided is totally free however they request that you sign up for a free box.net account that expires in 14 days, and surely they hope you decide to keep the service and pay the applicable fees. OGGTours.com is open source so anyone is free to contibute what they want to the site.
More at:http://oggtours.com/
An OGGtour can then be downloaded and loaded onto an iPod or Mp3 player to provide a self-guided tour of any available travel destination. You may also listen to OGGtours on location if you have a web-enabled mobile device such as a Blackberry, smartphone, iPhone or compatible GPS device.
The tours can be downloaded to an iPod and mP3 player and accessed through, if you have a GPS enabled device you are able to access the OGGTours.com from those devices. The service provided is totally free however they request that you sign up for a free box.net account that expires in 14 days, and surely they hope you decide to keep the service and pay the applicable fees. OGGTours.com is open source so anyone is free to contibute what they want to the site.
More at:http://oggtours.com/
Social Network For Financial Set
MarketWatch.com, a division of Dow Jones, has launched a MarketWatch Community where users can create profiles and share information, as well as suggestions, with one another.
All stories can be tagged by the users and will be added to the community tag cloud so that members can find the stories related to the subjects that interest them. You also have the ability to just look through the latest stories and see which ones other users found the most worthwhile by glancing at the five star system.
Like any blog or news aggregator today, you can leave comments on the stories and discuss the happenings of the day, but with the financial leaning of the site, you never know what sort of pointers you might pick up. Also along those same lines, you can make fantasy stock picks: the better you do, the more points you score.
The site is live now, but it is unclear if this is the exact site that was rumored to be coming from a combination of Dow Jones and IAC as far back as March. It is difficult to believe Dow Jones would be involved in two such sites, but odder things have happened.
More at:http://www.marketwatch.com/
Via-Mash
All stories can be tagged by the users and will be added to the community tag cloud so that members can find the stories related to the subjects that interest them. You also have the ability to just look through the latest stories and see which ones other users found the most worthwhile by glancing at the five star system.
Like any blog or news aggregator today, you can leave comments on the stories and discuss the happenings of the day, but with the financial leaning of the site, you never know what sort of pointers you might pick up. Also along those same lines, you can make fantasy stock picks: the better you do, the more points you score.
The site is live now, but it is unclear if this is the exact site that was rumored to be coming from a combination of Dow Jones and IAC as far back as March. It is difficult to believe Dow Jones would be involved in two such sites, but odder things have happened.
More at:http://www.marketwatch.com/
Via-Mash
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