Site Flipping University

Just wanted to get a quick post out so that you can all see the two new contestants.  I’d like to welcome them onboard for the competition, and wish them the best.  Good luck to the two of you!

Here are the two new contestants, and their respective sites. (more…)

Well we’ve got some content, we’ve got a theme, and now we should be ready to promote.  Promoting these things tends to be the one thing that scares people silly.  Some think it’s impossible to get a blog to 1k-2k daily uniques in under a month.  I disagree.  If you utilize all the tools at your disposal, it can be a pretty quick process.  A little disclaimer before we start though… some niches, articles, etc perform better on social sites than others.  So if you aren’t getting 1k uniques a day, don’t sweat it… it could be your niche that’s not very social friendly. (more…)

I know a few of you asked me to hold off until Monday to critique your blogs, but if I wait this time, then I’ll probably have to wait next time too… which throws off the timing of the contest.  Everything here is for your own good, and you aren’t being timed.  Remember, the prizes for the winner of the contest are just a bonus.  The important part is that you learn how to do this, and that you become motivated to do it well, and FAST!  The key to making a living flipping blogs, is the quality of your work.  When you start to get better at this, the quality of your work improves, and as a bonus, you get faster at doing it.  If you can flip blogs fast, and also manage to end up with a quality product, you’ll be making a great living in no time. (more…)

I’m afraid the first few days of building a new blog are completely un-eventful.  It’s a lot of the same crap that everyone hates doing, which is why people spend money on these things in the first place.  So if you need a quick checklist of where you should be at this point… look no further! (more…)

I’m actually disappointed with the turnout here.  But I should have figured that it wouldn’t have a huge participation rate due to the difficulty some people have “taking action”.  For those of you that did decide to take the plunge, I applaud you.  I don’t have every contestant on here, because i haven’t heard back from some of you.  But the one’s that are confirmed are…

http://blogfluff.com

http://acthighbrow.com

http://traveltipsdigest.com

http://gogreenlifestyle.net/

http://reggae-artists.com

http://bloggerssearch.com

http://frugalzeitgeist.com/

There are several more, but I don’t have confirmations from them.  I’ll add them as they come in.  Good luck to all of you!

I haven’t posted anything helpful yet, because I want to make sure that I have the contestants in order, and besides, most of you are just tweaking your themes and producing beginning content at this point.  I’ll give it until Friday, and then we’ll start with the good stuff!

Remember, it’s not too late to join, you’ll just be a couple of days behind!

Alright folks, the time has officially arrived.  The Site Flip U, blog/site flipping contest begins in just a bit.  Go get your domain (when it’s time) and get to work

A few tips on domain selection.  You may have heard that it’s important to get a domain with your keywords in it.  The truth is, in this case it doesn’t matter.  The reason you hear about picking a domain with your own keywords is that when people link to you, it automatically includes said keyword.  However, you have 30 days to flip these… so generally you won’t have a lot of people linking to you, you’ll be BUILDING links on your own.  That said, when building links, it’s pretty easy to put whatever keyword you want in the anchor text of your link.  Whether you are using Bookmarking Demon (Highly Recommended!), or commenting on blogs, you can insert your keyword without having to worry about it being in the domain.

Domain Tips

• Less than 15 characters
• Avoid numbers if at all possible (even spelled numbers).  It’s something you’ll constantly have to explain.  For example, with One Man’s Goal.  It’s One… Spelled out.  Trust me, avoid it.
• Descriptive, or at least in the same lateral thinking plane as your concept
• Easy to remember
• The shorter the better
• Never pass up a .net that includes your keywords to go after a .com that doesn’t
• .com’s are always more valuable than .net’s when it comes to auction, but the playing field is getting more and more level between the two.  So try for a .com, but don’t settle for a junk .com when a good .net is available.
• SEARCH!  THEN SEARCH AGAIN!

So how do I choose a domain?

Here are a few tips to get you started on domain name ideas.  Choosing a domain can be downright impossible since it seems all the good ones are taken.  Try these for ideas.

Nameboy

Bust A Name

Urban Dictionary (Thanks Britt/AP)

These sites will get you started and help you to find some inspiration.  My favorite combo is Bust A Name, and Urban Dictionary.  I generally don’t find the domain I’m looking for by using these sites, but it gets me on a creative path that allows me to find a domain name without struggling with it for days.

Don’t forget, I need everyone’s Google Analytics and Feedburner info sent to me before you can begin.  Email it to bryanclark82 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Good luck everyone!

Remember, don’t register those domains until after 12 AM Central Time (US).

All those that are officially in the contest, I need you to email me your username and password to your feedburner and analytics accounts that you’ve created for this contest (bryanclark82 (at) gmail (dot) com).  If I don’t have this information by tomorrow, then you won’t be allowed to compete.  I have to be able to track your site from DAY ONE!

There are only a few “actual” participants, with many more watching and practicing from the sidelines.  Don’t ask me why they chose to do this, it makes no sense to me… you are learning to do something incredibly profitable, and winning some wonderful prizes in the process.  Remember, the hardest part about making money online is TAKING ACTION.  I commend the participants for stepping outside their comfort zone and making a huge step towards adding positive cash flow to their business, month after month.

I’ll get another post out by tomorrow, and I want to make sure that everyone here checks in every day for the next 30 days.  I’m going to try my hardest to get useful information out to you EVERY day during the duration of the contest.  Of course, I may take the weekends off, but I’ll still SIGNIFICANTLY up my posting frequency so that I can help you guys along.  Who’s ready?

In just a few short days you’ll be able to register your domain and begin your first flip.  Excited?  You should be.  Once you master the first one, you’ll see how easy it is, and you may just want to do it again!  Or you could become a complete site flipping junkie like me, and make a full-time living out of it.

I’ve received quite a few emails of people who won’t be taking part in the contest, but will be independently following my direction and flipping their sites on their own time.  This is fine people!  The contest was supposed to be geared toward you TAKING ACTION.  Which is often the hardest thing to do.  Even if you have the information, it’s not doing you much good if you aren’t taking steps towards utilizing it.  So, let’s take action!

Before we begin, I want you to consider a few things.  Lay out a basic roadmap of what you are doing, and what you plan to accomplish by doing it.  Example -

I want to start a blog on toe fungus that gets 40 organic visitors a day.  I want to build this up for 3 months and then sell it to someone else who loves to write about toe fungus for $500.

That’s about as basic as this gets… you should have more goals in there, but it gives you an idea.  I always recommend WRITING DOWN your goals, or at least typing them.  It’s much easier to visualize something if you have it on paper.  So before we begin, make a list of 10 things that you’d like to accomplish when thinking of this contest.  Remember, you have 30 days to build a site, list it, and hopefully sell it.  That’s pretty tough… so write down your goals, and feel the satisfaction as you get to cross those things off your list.  Sometimes my list of goals is the only thing that keeps me motivated.  I’ll keep a few separate lists which contain goals for specific blogs I’m creating, overall goals for the month, and long-term goals.  I want to let you in on my goals, and my lists now.  It’ll give you an idea of what yours should look like.  And before you cast this off and say “I’ll just remember my goals”… it’s much more effective to write them down, keep them, and cross them off when finished.

My goal list for the last blog I sold.  Selling price $1,500 - Time 32 Days

• Build traffic to a steady 400 unique visitors a day - Averaging more like 1,700 per day
• Get around 5% organic traffic - Close, got to 4.7%
• Update once daily - Accomplished, mostly… I missed 1 day
• Generate $200 revenue first month - $285
• Attract 100 Rss readers - Oooops.  48
• Sell for $1,800 - Sold… $1,500
• List after 30 days, but before day 45 - Sold Day 32

That’s a sample, and it came off of a real list that I made for the last blog I sold.  As you can see, I didn’t hit every goal, but I achieved or came close to almost all of them.  It’s a great feeling of satisfaction when you get to cross these achievements off of your list.

Go make a list… what are your goals for this experiment?  Share a few with us in the comment field.

I’ve been busy beyond belief the past couple of days organizing this contest, trying to attract new sponsors, and trying to maintain what little sanity I had prior to all of this.  I wanted to take a quick second to get a post out about a fantastic piece of FREE software that I just found out about. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not a full-time blogger, site flipper, or a web publisher.  I’m a marketer… it’s what I’m good at, and it’s what has been profitable.  Although all of the above-mentioned titles fall into the marketing category, it’s what I refer to myself as when people ask that magic question… “So what do you do?”.

Selling products online is fascinating to me.  It’s like a challenge that I constantly feel that I have to rise to the occassion for.  It’s much different than real-world selling… you don’t get the human interaction.  So, I think it’s a great bit of fun to try to match wits with buyers with only a bit of sales copy, a product, and a dream!  It’s exhilirating!

Well, products are easy to create.  I create ebooks constantly that I resell online in every different niche you can imagine.   Most of these are simple 10 page books that explain how to do something (not online, I avoid the MMO niche like the plague when selling products), and they are SUPER easy to create.  The hard (and expensive) part for me is creating landing pages to sell these products.  I used to have to pay freelancers $100 or more to create a simple html web page because I’m code illiterate.  Well, thanks to a product I found today… I don’t have to pay ANYONE, anymore!

I got this gem in my email inbox this morning and signed up as soon as I watched the demo video.  It’s absolutely free, so there is nothing to lose!  Give it a try, and start creating your own sales pages today. 

Landing Page Creator

I decided to just lay it out on the table.  The month of July is going to be home to a super contest for you guys, and it’s going to be a profitable one at that.  I’m going to walk you through an entire 30 day blog flip, and the goal here is to start a brand new site, have the best statistics, and sell it at the end to make yourself a profit!  You’ll get new articles that will help you along during the entire 30 days.  That’s right, I”m going to hold your hand and walk you through an entire flip, and at the end YOU get to make some cash.  The prizes that will be given away for this contest are just a bonus, the true prize is that you’ll make cash whether you win or lose, and you’ll get to learn how to take a flip from day one,  to SOLD!  It’s impossible to LOSE  this contest… everyone wins!

The biggest part of doing anything profitable is getting started…

So Let’s Get Started!!!

I won’t be taking part in this one, just judging from the sideline.  However, here are the rules that I came up with.

Rules

1. Must be a BRAND SPANKIN NEW domain.  Not a pre-owned, not something that you’ve been aging for a while, brand new registration, and it can’t be registered before July 1, 2008 at 12:01 am Central Time (United States).  This starts everyone on the same foot.
2. Must be hosted at HOSTGATOR, so that each site has the same statistical system (Awstats). Winner will have to let me verify their Awstats against Google Analytics to check for differences (cheating).  It would be much appreciated if you signed up for your Hostgator account through my affiliate link.  Think of it as a tip for organizing this, and keeping track of X number of statistics for X number of blogs.
3. You must register an account at Google Analytics, and Feedburner, and send me the password via email so that I can verify your statistics.  You can change the password after the contest, or just delete the account completely, but you MUST create them for the contest… I’ll be the only one checking, and it’s just to verify stats for the contest.
4. Must be a brand new blog, with no previous content.  You can choose any subject, and any posting frequency that you’d like.
5. You can use any means of generating traffic, but paid traffic is not allowed.  i.e. no PPC, or junk paid traffic.
6. Revenue doesn’t matter, and if it did, it’d be impossible to verify.  So, we’re going with site statistics alone as the deciding factor.

Contestants will be given points based on the following criteria.

• 10 Points for each Feedburner Subscriber
• 2 Points for each unique visitor
• 1 Point for each pageview
• 5 Points for each unique visitor from an ORGANIC source (i.e. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.)
• 10 Points for listing the auction
• 100 Points for a successful sale (price doesn’t matter)
• 50 Points for having the MOST traffic
• 100 Points for having the most ORGANIC traffic
• 100 Points for having the most Feedburner Subscribers
• 50 points to anyone who opens a new Hostgator account under my affiliate link.  The proceeds will be split with the winner of the contest.  Pretty good deal right? And it’s $10 a month for unlimited domains, and the best host on the market.

Remember, we aren’t judging on revenue, or how much your auction closes for.  It’s only on building the best blog and then selling it.

The person or persons with the most points will be declared the winner after the official “listing day” on Sitepoint.  The listing day will actually be two days, July 30, and July 31.  If your site is not listed before Midnight on July 31, 2008 (Central Standard Time), it does not qualify for the bonus points for a successful listing, and sale on Sitepoint.  The contest ends on August 8, and the winner will be announced on August 12.

What does the winner get?

Well, we’re still looking for sponsors, so if anyone wants to donate anything to make this contest even bigger, and better… let me know.  This is what I’ll be offering, but I’m sure we’ll get some great sponsors that will step in and offer up even more great stuff.

• 1 Year of free hosting (Value $120)
• 1 Free banner advertisement on Siteflipu for 30 days  (Value $45)
• 1 Free blog review that will be posted on Siteflipu, and completed by me (Value $65)
• 1 Free copy of my Site Flipping Blueprint, (when completed) (Value - Priceless)
• 1 Lifetime membership into my Site Flipping Club, which will be a personal mentor program taught by me, and valued at $47 a month
• 2 Hour free SEO Conultation with a PROFESSIONAL SEO! ($200)
• 1 Free software package including some great tools for Site Flippers ($300)
• 1 Free copy of the Wordpress Dream Theme, Designed by Ben Cope.  Includes installation and customization.  (Value $247)
• 2 Free 125×125 Banner Ad Creations (Value $60) - Thanks To Forest, from The Random Forest
• 1 Free banner ad on The Piss Biscuit
• 1 Free blog re-design (Vaule $900) from The Piss Biscuit
  
• And lots more to come over the next few days.  I have a few sponsors that have already agreed to donate some fantastic prizes, but we’re working out the details… stay tuned!

If you’d like to sponsor this contest by giving away memberships, products, advertisements, reviews, or anything else you come up with… it’s alway appreciated!  You’ll get several links as the contest goes on, and hopefully some extra traffic due to your marketing efforts!

We’ve got some great readers here, and I’m sure we’ll get some people to chime in with some wonderful prizes.  I’m already working on a few others, and I’ll keep you updated.

Remember… this contest won’t start until July 1.  So don’t go register any domains yet.  They won’t count unless they are registered on or after that date.  I just wanted to give you guys a heads up so that you can start planning, and so that we can find some more sponsors.  I’ll update the sponsors, in a post the day or two before the contest starts!

How Do I Enter?

Easy.  It’s a three step process… take out a pen and paper.

1. Subscribe to my Rss feed
2. Post about this on your blog, and link back to this post.
3. Comment on this post and let me know that you want to enter (I’ll confirm via email, so leave a good email address)

That’s it.  Although you’ll get kudos for signing up for my newsletter, registering for hosting through my Hostgator account (Kudos and bonus points!), or for flying me around the world on a private jet and then making a stop at the Playboy mansion.  All those are nice, but they won’t help you win the contest, except for the Hostgator thing, which offers 50 points, and that could be enough to decide the winner.  So, sign up now!

This is a great way to make some quick cash, learn how to flip a blog, and win some fantastic cash and prizes.  What do you have to lose? If you want to enter just post a comment below, and I’ll send you an email telling you what I need from you.

Oh, and one more thing… this post is going to stay in the “featured” section so that it remains visible to new visitors.  If you are checking for post updates, make sure to look below the “featured” section.  And remember, I’ll be providing articles that walk you throught process step-by-step so that you won’t be lost.  I’ll be increasing my posting frequency during the contest, so that I can guide you from day 1, to a successful sale on day 30.  Good luck!