I have been registering and developing websites for a while now. I started my first site in 2000.  At the time I was a flight instructor and had asked one of my flight students where he registered his domain. He told me, “Discount Domain Registry.com.” I really didn’t look around, get reviews or ask any questions. I just went there and registered. At the end of the registration the site prompted me to use their partner, Successful Hosting.com, which I did. Now I have to say, before I go on, that Successful Hosting tech support has been awesome!
In a lot of way registering and hosting sites becomes very habitual. I mean that by, you tend to use the same service companies again and again because each site is a little different and there is a slight learning curve with some of the technicalities. You tend to get used to one particular site, even if it isn’t very good.
I’ll make this short….I am now in the process of moving some 20+ sites to a new host and domain service.  I wish I had really reviewed good domain registration services and hosting providers before picking the ones that I did. I am now moving to Host Gator after hearing some pretty good things about them and their prices / support.
Lesson:
Please choose your domain service and hosting providers carefully
I was checking my email today when I saw I had a very short email that said, in short, “Please see the attached letter”, “Thank-you” and from the “Law Offices of….”
Oh, that can’t be good. As I continued reading I found that I had just been sent my first cease and desist letter.
To quickly bring those who may be naive about what a C&D letter is. A “Cease and Desist” is a letter drafted usually by an attorney directed toward a recipient (that’s me) asking him (or her) to “stop” or “cease” certain specified action. In this case, it was asking me to stop an apparent trademark infringement and copyright violation. Apparently I have a website that sounds very similar to another popular website in my niche that provides a very similar service.
The letter that I received was long winded and verbose but I’ll summarize what they were asking me to do:
1) Stop my website
2) Turn over all my profits
3) Transfer my domain
This is the funny thing. I went to my Adsense account to find out how much I had to turn over, and noticed that ALL my profits from this domain were: $5.78. Did they want that in a check? Money order? Wire Transfer?
I’ll be completely honest here, I kind of knew, deep down this might have been coming. I mean the domains did sound VERY similar AND the websites did provide a very similar service.
In my defense, there were some KEY differences between the two sites. One, was that the other site actually had business, traffic and made that owner money. My site, on the other hand, had no traffic and has made me, yep you guessed it, no money. The other defense I have is that I own a lot of domains and website similar to the one in question that stretch across MANY different niches.
I have decided to play nice (see my post about karma) and give in to the requested demands. I have moved the website now to a new domain. I’m sure it’ll take me a little while but I my traffic will return. It won’t take long for it to trickle in 2 or 3 a day, just like it was doing before. If they want the $5.78, I’ll guess I’ll give it to them but it seems awfully inefficient.
Lesson: Do a little research before starting any business, especially if it is online. Pick a domain carefully and it might not hurt to consult a lawyer if you have some questions about the legality of it.
So I followed my own advice from the previous post (take a break occasionally) and during the past few days I have been thinking quite a bit about my internet business and why I haven’t yet achieved the results I want to.  This thought process actually started by thinking about some of my skills that I have learned so far as an internet marketeer. This is in no way is bragging (most of you, I’m sure, can do these things):
- I can custom design a web page using CSS and HTML
- I know how to capture, edit and create videos
- I know how to create custom graphics and animations using Photoshop
- I know how to use the google map API
- I know how to register and host custom domains
- I know how to install and configure Wordpress, vbulletin, Joomla, etc
- I can create custom ebook and software covers
- I know about Adsense, Adwords, affiliate programs, clickbank, etc.
In short, I have realized that I have all the skills and tools necessary to be a very successful internet marketeer. So why am I only experiencing light success instead of the GREAT success I am hoping for?
This is the realization that I have come to and I hope it can benefit those who read this. I am not achieving the results I want to because I lack:
1) Action: Instead of just learning I need to DO. As I heard recently from Russell Brunson, I need to “Ready, Fire, Aim!” Instead of “Ready, Ready, Ready….” Maybe some of you are in the same position I am. You have had a website idea for weeks, months or even YEARS that you have been sitting on and it has never come to fruition. Maybe an eBook you keep talking about writing but never do. JUST DO IT!!
2) Vision: I have many great website ideas (another post about that someday) that honestly, all could make me money. Each of the domains (well…not ALL of them) have the potential to make some cash. The problem is I have never truly had the singular vision of what exactly I want to do.  Do I want a string of successful blogs? Do I want to run niche mapping directories? What do I want to do? In order to be great you have to know where I’m headed.
I’m actually pretty excited about what this means. It means a new determination to take action and a new commitment to have a vision for my internet marketing.   Like I said, I’m pretty excited about what the future holds. I hope to change the name of this blog to “I make NO money” to “I USED to make NO money”
Lesson:
Some of my best posts, website ideas and inspiration come when I step AWAY from the computer and not just because I have to sleep. Take a BREAK. Can you remember the last time you went a WHOLE day not checking your blog, email or stats? Go for a run, take a vacation and understand the world will not end if you step back from the computer for a few minutes. You’ll probably be amazed at the fresh perspective you’ll have to your website, audience and subject matter. I don’t know about you, but my motivation for making money on the web is to enjoy “real” life more and not so that I can spend all my time on the computer.
So most of my stories up until now have been about how I make an online mistake and lose some money. This post will be about how I lost money offline and how that applies to losing money online.
It happened easily enough. As I was out and about running some errands, I found myself at location where I could either a) go straight and maybe find a “shortcut” or b) turn right and take the highway to my destination. (”Two roads diverged in a woods and I decided to take the one less traveled by”).
I am a visual kind of guy (aren’t we all) so I thought I would draw you a really crude map to help visualize my point (I used to make maps for a living…can’t you tell):
So I of course decided to take the blue line hoping to find a shortcut. It didn’t work. Just about the time I was thinking, “Wow, I am making great time. I might have found a shortcut”, I see a police car going the opposite direction on the other side of the road. My first reaction is to look down at my speedometer, followed closely by me hitting the brakes and looking in the rear view mirror. When I look, I see the police car making a hard 180 degree turn and suddenly I know that I am done for. “Crap” I say. I start pulling out my insurance card and auto registration almost immediately. Even before I had pulled off the road or the police car had it’s lights on, that is how sure I was of getting a ticket. I, of course, did get a ticket from a very nice police officer who says they had just set up a speed trap to catch people cutting through this road (my shortcut).
Lesson:
Just as “shortcuts” on the road don’t save you time or money well similarly, there are no shortcuts to wealth on the internet. Trust me on that one. Anyone who says they have a faster better way to making wealth online is flat out lying to you. The only person who is shortcutting their way to wealth is the person selling you that “shortcut”. And even what you think will be a shortcut will end up costing you time and money long term while you otherwise could have been on an established proven path lessening the distance to your destination (internet riches I assume).
I recently completely overhauled one of my sites. One of the last parts of the site to get back running was my link list that I had established very early on in the development of that site. This cost me dearly in traffic. The reason I lost so much traffic is because those link partners took me off their links which in turn lost me page rank with the search engines and more importantly partners who trusted me.
I found a commercial recently that pretty well summarized this point and when I saw it, I immediately thought of my link problem:
Lesson:
Be very careful how you treat those who link to you. Especially when they have higher levels of traffic. You should treat them well and make sure the return link to their site stays in a prominent position. If they come check on your site and can’t find their link, good chance they will return the favor.
If imitation is the sincerest of flattery then thanks Gobala.
25 Mar
Posted by Papa Bear as Internet
That original famous saying about imitation being flattery were words written by Charles Caleb Colton. If I believe those words then I guess I should be flattered by today’s events.
As I am trying to build some buzz for this site I have been making the usual rounds of self-promotion (how NOT to self-promote is a different post still in queue) I have made a couple of posts on some of the forums that I visit on the web. One of these was the forum at EasyWordpress.com. That site is run by Gobala. He is better known as “The Wordpress Guy” He has a lot of great material available on Wordpress on how to develop a successful Wordpress blog. In fact, the current theme for this site was created by him. I made a post on his forum (where I am a paid member) directed toward users who might be new to blogging and might appreciate a site where people tell them what NOT to do, like this site does.
Anyhow, this morning I get a bulk email from Gobala asking me to come see his recent post on his blog about his blogging mistakes and how it almost cost him a fortune. So I visited this post:
http://www.gobalakrishnan.com/10-silly-mistakes-even-internet-marketing-experts-make.php
Now, it might be purely coincidental, but a part of me thinks that Gobala saw my post on his forum, visited this site, saw all of your great comments and thought, not a bad idea Papa Bear!
Not that there is anything wrong with that. As they say, “There is nothing new under the sun” especially true when talking about the internet. I am not the first to discuss my blogging mistakes or the last. It was just the way things transpired made me say (out loud) “Huh”. Maybe a little credit would be nice. You can at least publish my comments that I have tried to leave (twice). Here’s the thing Gobala, you have 10 items on 1 post about your blogging mistakes, I have a whole website for my mine! (not sure I should be bragging about that)
By the way, for the record, I have a sinking feeling my next post about blogging mistakes will be how you shouldn’t upset people in internet marketing who are widely more successful and popular than you are (like Gobala) but we’ll see where this goes.
I think a part of me was really hoping when starting this site (I make NO money.com) that I was going to focus on discussing my past grievances and blogging mistakes.  I was expecting to do everything right here. This was going to be the site where things were going to go exactly how it was supposed to.   All my content for the blog was going to come from my PAST and not the present because, well…I’m done making major blogging mistakes. Apparently, not so.
I was reading a blog paraody site this evening, “Blog Badly” written by Max Miroff. A very funny blog that I would recommend you check out if you appreciate a great sense of humor. I clicked on his privacy policy link and read his privacy policy introduction where he explains his need for a policy because he “wants (his) right to use Adsense upheld”. Huh? What is he talking about?
So I went over to Adsense.com and typed in “privacy policy” in the Google Adsense help and I learned something totally new tonight. According to the new Adsense terms that I had agreed to at some point, I am supposed to have a privacy policy generated for this site beacuse, “publishers must notify their users of the use of cookies and/or web beacons to collect data in the ad serving process”  Yeah, I have not been doing that. Not just for this site but ANY of my sites and I am pretty sure I have Adsense on ALL my sites. Haha…opps.  I was wondering where my Adsense check has been.
I immediately went to Google and typed in: “Privacy Policy Creator” in Google and the first search result was what I clicked on. It took me to “WebDevTips” which has an online privacy policy generator. This generator allows you to type in your website URL, email and then automatically creates a privacy policy that you can cut and paste in your site. It is nice because it also allow you to choose the option to include if you collect credit card information and will modify your code for that option. So you’ll now notice a privacy policy for this website. Thanks Max for the unintentional tip.
Lesson:Â Actually there are two of them.
- When changes are made to the term and agreements between you and…well, anyone (Google, Credit Card…Wife) it would be advisable to actually READ those new terms and agreements before you click “I agree”.
- If you place Googe Adsense ads on your site, have a privacy policy to comply with those term and agreements that you agreed to when you signed up for the program. It would be a shame to lose such a great sense of revenue (not that I make any money with it, but you might).
There is a great movie that was released in 1997 starring Jodie Foster called “Contact”. In the movie Jodie Foster plays the character of Dr. Eleanor Ann Arroway, a scientist who after years of studying finds proof for the existence of extraterrestrials after they send plans (the “contact”) to build a space travel machine. In the beginning of the movie there is this scene where a young Ellie, played by Jena Malone, is trying to contact her deceased father by using her amateur radio station to call him,
“CQ, this is W9GFO. CQ, this is W9GFO here. Come back?”
The letters CQ is an invitation for any operators listening on that frequency to respond. Like the movie portrayed, it is still widely used in amateur (or “ham”) radio. However, that doesn’t mean you can use it on your blog!
I can’t site a particular time when I have done this recently (I am sure I have) but I was reminded of this fatal blogging flaw while browsing through MyBlogLog recently. You can usually find this callout at the end of a blog post when a blogger is calling for comments, “If anybody is reading this post would please comment, Hello?”
I can’t think of anything that makes me reach for the back button faster than seeing someone desperately call out on their blog for comments or feedback from their readers. That is a good way of saying to everyone, “No one is reading this so it doesn’t matter what I say.”
Lesson: Please leave “C.Q.” for Amateur Radio and Shortwave Operators, not for blogging! If you create killer content then people will respond without any invitation. Right?
Let a drunk guy publish as a guest blogger
19 Mar
Posted by Papa Bear as Don't do this, Losing Money Online
I enjoy the occasional microbrew or craft beer. It’s true. On the weekend it is nice to stop by a local place that carries beer like Shiner Bock, Abita TurboDog, Flying Dog Pale Ale and the like. I’m not saying it’s an obsession just an occasional indulgence. I thought it would be nice to have a little beer blog where I make a post about the beer of the weekend. Just a write up about what I thought about it and maybe a link to the microbrewery’s website.
Now my friend, let’s call him “Bob”. “Bob” likes beer and he knows a lot about microbrews from his personal sampling. So, when it came time to have someone guest post on my blog, the first person I thought of was “Bob”. Maybe I should have thought about it some more….