Daniel Felice

Contest #1: Subscribe and Win US$15

// August 31st, 2008 // 9 Comments » // Contests

I am proud to launch my first contest on danielfelice.com! I have been toying with the idea of a contest for the past month or so, and I have finally decided to take the plunge and give it a go.

How to Enter

1. Get danielfelice.com delivered to your inbox! Click this link to subscribe.
2. Comment on this post with your name and e-mail address.
3. On Wednesday September 10 a winner will be announced and US$15 will be paid directly into your paypal account. If the winner has a blog or website I will add their link to my “Favourite Sites” list on the right sidebar.

Why Subscribe?

1. Get danielfelice.com delivered to your inbox.
2. Stay up to date with “Project Blogger”.
3. You may find some of my posts useful, especially if you are thinking of starting a blog

So for 2 minutes work you could earn yourself US$15 and a free link! Not bad….

Join Now

Hits Down in August

// August 31st, 2008 // No Comments » // General, Project Blogger

As predicted, hits and revenue were down in August which is a bit disappointing after a great July. Hits were down about 40% and I put this down to the lack of posting this month. I was away for 12 days of the month which made it difficult to keep on top of things, so hits have suffered due to this I think.

Revenue was down about 60% month, and for the same reason as above. It takes hits to drive the revenue up, so with hit being so low of course revenue is going to be the same.

Traffic

Hits were all over the place this month. Each day was as unpredictable as the next. As you can tell from the below screen shot, one day hits were good, the next day bad, then they would shoot up for no reason at all, and then the next day back down. I can’t figure it out.

Top referrers were AUDomaining.com.au, DNTrade.com.au and goofblogger.com. The most popular posts being Are .NET.AU’s Worthless? and 5 Ways to Stay Motivated.

Revenue

Google Adsense really pulled through for me this month. It was the only network that made me any money this month, and although it wasn’t much, it saved me from this month being a complete disaster.

I have to look at my affiliate marketing networks and try to figure out what I am doing wrong. I need to find the time for some more research and hopefully implement the changes during September.

So it was a bad month, but it is all part of the journey and the point of Project Blogger. Hopefully danielfelice.com can bounce back in September.

Earn Credit for your Website!

Happy Blog Day!

// August 31st, 2008 // No Comments » // Project Blogger

Happy Blog Day to everyone out there! This August 31st marks the 4th annual blog day – a day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest.

You can find more info about Blog Day at the official Blog Day website, and you can also take part by following the below instructions.

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
   http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2008 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

So here are my recommendations….

http://betch.edublogs.org: This site is a former high school teachers blog based around technology and education. “Mr B” was my computer teacher about 10 years ago and introduced me to website design and IT in general, so thanks to him you are reading this!

http://www.goofblogger.com: Very useful blog dedicated to making money online and domaining. There are some good tips and tricks here, and just general advice when it comes to buying/selling domain names. Ben also runs a contest each month, so you have the chance to win various cash prizes.

http://www.derek-ang.com: Derek’s blog is a webmaster based blog offering tips and tricks of the trade. It was actually this blog that got me started with blogging and using WordPress. I used Derek’s theme for a few months and check his blog regularly for updates.

http://www.dnxpert.com: A great resource for domainers. This blog will keep you up to date with the latest domain news. John also sends out a list of expired domain names if you are a subscriber. Check out his Domaining Manifesto ebook.

http://www.gridcrasher.com: Grid Crasher is a motorsport blog, mainly focusing on Formula 1. You can get some serious daily news here, but I like it for the more comedic articles taking the piss out of the drivers, teams and F1 WAGs.

Happy Blog Day!

Free Cash For Banners

// August 26th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Making Money

I was recommended an advertising network last week that are offering free cash for displaying their banners. The website is Freebies4Webmasters and they are offering £5 per month for displaying three banners anywhere on your website!

If you signup and paste their code on any of your pages within 72 hours of being accepted they will pay you an additional £5.

According to their website all you have to do is…

1. Enter your contact information
2. Tell us which 3 pages of your Website you wish to display the adverts on.
3. Within 24 hours we will provide you with your advertising banner and code.
4. Place these on to your site.
5. Once this banner is on your site you will receive a signup bonus and regular payments from hereon in!

I signed up to the network late last week and as I was away on holidays when I was approved I didn’t qualify for the additional bonus, however from what I have seen so far is it genuine.

You can also earn £10 per friend you recommend to the program, and all this for just displaying three 468×60 banners on your website. The banners can be anywhere on the site and they don’t even have to be displayed on the homepage, so you can hide them on a page if you like so they don’t take up other advertising space. See if you can find which pages I have them on!

Sounds too easy! Sign up now!

August So Far…

// August 20th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Project Blogger

August has been a disappointing month for this blog so far, especially after a great July. Hits are down on last month; however they are still better than June. By the looks of things it’s shaping up to be my second best month in our short 5 month history.

Although second place isn’t so bad, it looks as though this is the first month the blog hasn’t grown. For the past few months the blog has grown at least 100% over the previous month – in terms of traffic and revenue.

Revenue is also down this month, with no affiliate sales to date and only a few dollars from Google Adsense. I have not promoted any products or affiliate networks this month which may be the cause of this, so I sort of expected revenue to be down.

Me being on holidays in the beginning of the month hasn’t help things, and me going away tomorrow for another week also means that danielfelice.com should finish off the month fairly poorly.

This is all part of the journey and the reason why this blogs exists – to blog about the ups and downs of trying to make money online. I have had many ups the past few months, so the downs are bound to catch up with me sooner or later!

Hopefully things will bounce back in September, however all may not be lost as there is still 11 days left of August!

I am off to Spain tomorrow to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Valencia so I’ll be offline for most of the week. I’ll try to log on why I am away to post a few updates but I don’t think anything is going to turn August around – however I could be wrong…

Are .NET.AU’s Worthless?

// August 19th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Domaining

There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days over the quality of .AU domain names being listed for sale at the various .AU marketplaces. The .NET.AU extension has particularly been slated on online blogs, forums and even the aftermarkets themselves.

I tend to disagree with the comments being generated on these sites, especially in regards to the .NET.AU extensions. I believe that ALL domain names are valuable and worth something to someone, you just have to find the right buyer for it.

Obviously LLLL (letter-letter-letter-letter) domains are worth more than say LLLL-LL or whatever combination you want to put together, however that does not at all mean that the domain with the hyphen in it isn’t not worth something to someone, and should not be listed for a sale due to its type and quality.

To a domainer a domain name with a hyphen in it may not be worth anything – however not all domain names that are listed for sale are going to be brought by domainers. I think a lot of these domainers think that their entire domain portfolio is only going to be purchased by a fellow domainer.

The real and intended reason for a domain name is not for resell purposes. The purpose of a domain name is to identify that domain name with a particular company, business or brand – whether it is a .com.au or .net.au.

I have always been of the belief that a domain name is only worth what something is willing to pay for it, no matter what the extension. The domain name can be anything, with any extension and if a particular person or business finds that a particular domain name represents their need then they are a potential buyer.

Therefore I tend to think that any domain name listed for sale has the potential to be sold. It does not have to be a premium domain name, although they are worth more, that generates some interest. If a domain name identifies itself with someone’s need then it may be worth them spending some money to acquire it, whether it has a hyphen, letter, number or whatever.

The .AU marketplace is only still very young and I think these marketplaces cannot afford to be too particular in only listing domain names that have the ability to sell for the big bucks as they are only going to turn new users away from listing their names for sale.

Do you think .NET.AU names are worthless? Do you think all names have the potential of being sold?

The Art of Juggling

// August 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Project Blogger, Projects

It has been a very busy month so far and the extra time I have spent on my other project, NameSeek, has meant that I have not spent as much time I would have liked on building this blog.

With me taking a few days off at the beginning of the month, and then the time spent developing the new NameSeek layout; it has meant I have not been able to dedicate as much time to danielfelice.com. Hits have suffered this month, and the same goes to the revenue earnt.

Hits are on track to be down on July, and the revenue the site is going to make looks to be our worst month yet, unless things dramatically pick up in the second half of the month.

Most of my time has been spent on NameSeek. Over the past week or so I have re-designed the site as well as added over 2300 new domain names. Work has been busy and I am about to go to Spain for another 6 day holiday which is going to mean I won’t be blogging for a few days unless I can find the time to write a few posts and schedule them to run while I am away.

As I have a full time 9am – 5pm job, the time I can spend on my online projects is limited. I have about 2-3 hours quality time of a night to split between two websites – and soon to be three. I also have a girlfriend who requires some attention each night, which is only fair. At the moment it is a bit of a juggling act.

If I can blog daily I would be happy. But that is not all that has to be done in order to create a steady online income. I have spent no time on researching new money making ideas, which has meant no new ways of making revenue this month and therefore less to blog about. I have also not even been able to search for new advertising campaigns.

So how do I juggle my time between my online projects? I have been spending more time on NameSeek as at the moment I see it having more potential, even though the blog has made me more money. The next few months will be exciting for NameSeek, and at the moment my time is required in order to keep it on track. Within the next few months it should be running it self.

However this does not mean that I am going to be giving up on this blog. I am still going to aim to post daily if I can, and when I am away this week I will have to make sure I have a few things prepared. I have spent a few hours this weekend doing my research for a few posts I have planned this week.

How do you juggle between your websites? Do you spent more time on the one that is more successful? Or do you work on the one struggling in order to improve it?

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Current NameSeek Showcase Domains

// August 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Projects

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WordPress 2.6.1

// August 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // The Internet

For those of you using WordPress you should have noticed that there has been a “maintenance” update released for WordPress 2.6. If you are currently happy with WordPress 2.6 there is no need to run the update, however it does fix the following bugs.

Styling of the admin for right-to-left languages is much improved thanks to the efforts of the Farsi and Hebrew translation teams, and a mysterious gettext bug caused by certain PHP configurations is now fixed. For IIS users, 2.6.1 fixes several permalink problems. Image insertion problems in the Press This feature experienced by IE users are also fixed. Of note to everyone is a fix for a performance bug in the admin where those with a lot of plugins would experience slowness on some pages.

So if you feel the need to download the update, you can from here

Importance of Networking

// August 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // The Internet

Since I began my online projects I have joined numerous forums and networking websites, creating relationships with people from all over the world who have the same interests, goals and online dreams.

These relationships are important in the early stages of your blog or website – not only from the traffic point of view, but also in terms of advice and ideas. For example, if you are a member of a blogger forum, then most likely those users are in the same position you are, or have been at some stage or another.

It is great to share ideas with people who are in the same position as yourself, and it is even better to know what other people can do and how they can help you. At first you might not know it, but at some point in time you are going to you are going to come across someone who can help you in more ways than one.

Over the past two weeks I have met a few people online who have managed to influence a few big decisions I have had to make, and one of those people may have opened up numerous opportunities to me – not just online but also in the “real world”.

The point I am trying to get across is – network. Be sociable online just as you would in real life. In life there are many people who can teach you a thing or two, and with the growth of the internet over the past decade or so, there are now even more opportunities to take advantage of.

There are thousands of opportunities the internet can create, and there are also thousands of people online who can create those opportunities for you. You never know who that person with that weird nickname on some random internet forum can do for you. They might have that something you need and you might have something they need. Together you might be the perfect business partner and just because they are “online” doesn’t mean they can’t offer you the same opportunities someone in the real world can.