WebmasterForums.com

WebmasterForums.com is for sale http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322017 Site is worthless, but it's all about the domain of course. Ugh. I want it. Somebody buy it for me please. Consider it an early Christmas gift..

Jon and Tyler's Secret Project Commences

A few weeks ago, Jon and I both announced in our blogs that we were teaming up on a project together. Today we have finally been able to get started on it. I'm talking to Jon's programmer right now and we're setting the blueprints out for the project. I will release this much though, since I had mentioned it in a comment before - the site *drumroll* is poker-related. The project will also do really well, or not so well. But if it does really well, well, maybe I'll catch a flight to the UK and have a beer with Jon... (seriously). Anyhow, that's it for now.

Sitepoint Proposal Draft Finished!

Ahhhh thank God! I had the task of writing up a professional Proposal Draft all formatted and correctly presented, for the upcoming Sitepoint kit I've been commissioned for. However, I kept putting it off day after day, as I was either too tired, lazy, or busy. Anyhow, after only having around 90 minutes of work on it previously, I sat down today and worked hard on it for a good 5 hours, and send it back to the Managing Editor on time, exactly 1 week from commencement. Feels good to be done! We'll see how/if they like what I presented...

Poker Sites on the Rise

After hiring a person to act as Tournament Organizer, the special relationship with TitanPoker I'm setting up for PFO, and the secret project Jon and I are teaming up on (there's your first hint people; it's poker related), which will be integrated with PFO, I expect to make $10,000 a month from my poker sites soon. Hopefully this will make me match my goal of $10,000 a month (on average) by Sept '06. This is very scary though, as right now it doesn't look like I'll make anything near that goal; my ad revenue income hasn't been increasing by much. HOWEVER I have 9.5 months left, and ad revenue should fare better once DF gets a bit more developed, once Jon and my secret project is launched, and also because I keep on increasing PFO ad prices due to popular demand and site traffic increase. Many advertisers book for 6 or 12 month slots, and as a result, I don't see the 'updated' prices until their campaigns expire, you know? So as old advertisers expire, they either renew with the higher prices, or they don't, and another advertiser takes their place instead. The point being that there will be some spikes throughout the year in terms of ad revenue I sell privately. For example, March 06, if the ads that expire in that month all renew, they would have to pay $3600 if the prices were the same as when they originally paid them. But since I increase the prices, to simply renew, they would have to pay around $8000. That's more than a 200% ad growth rate. This is why I take my 'daily' average and 'monthly average' from the past 6 months combined as an average, divided by 6 months, instead of just estimating how much I usually make each month, since there is deviation. ANYHOW, I know im babbling, but long story short - I expect a bit of a 'golden period' to come out of my poker site(s) very soon.

Hired some Help

I've just finished 'hiring' my friend Melissa who currently does site reviews for me on PoFo in return for cash to handle stuff for me on two of my sites. So I will now have a: Promotions Director on MoVa, to handle all the major movie studio stuff we get, and a Tournament Organizer on PoFo. If things go well in the future as a result of this, I'll increase her pay. I'm not sure how well it will do for MoVa, but it should do quite well for PoFo.

Fish.com

As per DNJournal: http://dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

"Afternic.com sat at the head of the table after announcing the $1,020,000 sale of Fish.com, the first 7-figure domain sale reported this year. "

This gives me hope for my domain.. maybe it will sell for over a million..

Moderator for DF

I've appointed a moderator on DF.com - which is badly needed. As a bit of history, he moderates 4 forums right now, including TAZ (TheAdminZone), enjoys webhosting, linux, and domain stuff. He runs 4 websites, and has been moderating for about 3 years now. Been working out some special deals/tournaments/etc. with manager from TitanPoker.

Credit Card Stolen

Long story short: Unauthorized transfer on my Mastercard bill. They want me to cancel it so I did. Have to wait 7-10 days in the mail for the new one. Why this is bad: I have sooo many sites and payments I do online with my credit card, and many are set up automatically.. so I hope nothing goes 'down' or anything as a result. I'll also have to 'redo' a lot of things like get PayPal to accept it and what not. ARGGGGG Annoying :(

Sitepoint book/kit

Simon, the Managing Editor at Sitepoint, just got back to me. I will be submitting my 'proposal' for the Entrepreneur/Monetization Kit to him, and virtually 'competing' with others for the spot of 'lead author'. Secondary authors may be commissioned as well to fill in a few chapters/gaps. This will take a lot of time and effort on my end, but I think the residual effects of it (resume, exposure, etc.) would definitely be worth it. Anyhow, wish me luck.

Contract signed

After a boring 2-hour wait, and then a missed-bus-turned-1-hour-walk home, I have the signed contract here. I'm thinking about laminating it, but am not sure if that may void the contract in some way or cause problems if the contract ever needs to be 'inspected' in the future...

Paid staff?

Went to Staples and got them printed out.. well.. they'll be done after 8pm today.. so I'll just pick them up tomorrow before getting them signed. Then I'll get my copy laminated I think :) I also just came up with a good idea a few minutes ago.. My friend online friend Melissa does reviews of the poker sites for me on PFO, and I get them to pay her $100 to do that. Now I think I'm going to hire her as a type of administrative/maintenince worker on a couple of my sites.. MoVa and PoFo... it will be an investment for sure.. and it won't probably yield any short term differences, but long term I think it may help a lot in residual traffic.. The thing is, it'd help me take advantage of many of the things I've always put off because I've been too lazy to do them.. and it'd be great for MoVa... Oh, and Project J is coming along nicely. Got a guy doing that for me, so I don't even have to do it anymore. I'm paying him 20%. La la la.

1.2 Million dollar meeting

He just left. It went quite well. I'm so glad it's over. My printer is broken so I couldn't print them out, but a bit over an hour of talking, we were done. He looked over the contract I made and liked it, only opting to change/add one little part - which was more than agreeable by myself. I will be going to see him on Wednesday; once I have the contracts printed out... my printer is broken.. I'll have to see if I can go to Staples and have them print it out for me from CD on Word...

Contract Update, Project J, and Troubleness

Hey all, Some people have been requesting that I try to 1. Write more descriptive titles, and 2. Write more interesting posts. While I can't guarantee the latter, I will try to work on it, and I should be able to write more descriptive titles as that isn't all that difficult. 1. Contract Update I've started writing the brokering contract - it actually looks quite professional; I'm somewhat proud. The client will be meeting with me tomorrow to look over it and make any changes he deems necessary etc. My printer is broken though (see earlier posts), so I'll just get him to look over it and then I'll have to get him to print them out and then we sign them later or something. Wheee, my first 1.2 million dollar contract... *giggles* 2. Project 'J' The reason I didn't disclose what Project 'J' was, stemmed from the fact that I don't need a lot of other peopel copying me... I haven't had a bite yet, but once and if I do, then I'll reveal what it is so others can have a chance too. But until then, secret secret! Anyhow, it's nothing new... tons of people do it already... but I just think the ROI is worth it in both time and money. 3. Troubleness I responded to one of Jon's blog entries here: http://jonwheatley.wordpress.com/2005/11/12/quick-update/ and I didn't know both Aspen and Nintendo read his blog.. but apparantly they do.. or somebody told them haha.. I don't care though. Some people take things WAY too seriously on the internet... it's kinda sad..

Project 'J'

I've started Project 'J'. Found some nice stuff.. wish me luck!

Latest list

Here's my latest list: Merendi ------- Backup time Fix link to badmintonforums Look for domain brokering contract template write rough draft of brokering contract post in 3 forums regarding printer

MovieVault ---------- Add new trailers Add subdomin for redirects Add $5 to staff contest Convert to DF ad page Increase 88x31 price from 36 to 40 increase 125x125 price from 45 to 50

PoFo ---------- Send out newsletter Convert to DF ad page Add 2 items to store

DoFo --------- Send newsletter E-mail sjaguar

BadmintonForums --------------- Change to allow people to view without logging in

Ooooohhh

another good site idea.. but going to bed and tired.. ok.. tyler.. remmeber i thoght of it after the bear hug...

Updates

1. Finished my latest 'work list', I'll write a new one tomorrow probably. 2. Found out DF is getting a hugeass load of page views.. and a crazy pageview to unique ratio... it's getting half a million a month already! Hello CPM? Haha, JK :) 3. I need to buy new printer ink.. at least I THINK I do. Maybe you guys can help me.. I spent many hours with my evil printer.. reinstalled the drivers, downloaded new ones, checked for jams, checked wires, etc. but nothing works.. basically it turns on fine, but whenever I try to print something, it takes FOREVER first to start, then it literally prints one line, takes about 3 minutes, then prints the second line.. continues on and on.. I don't think it's a problem with spooling. The ONLY thing I can think of is that the printer cartridges are either empty (even though they aren't) or somehow the heads got clogged or broken or something and it's malfunctioning.. when I let it try to print for 45 minutes or so, the end result is a page with very faint and crappy inkage.. so do you guys think it's an ink problem? I just want to know so I can just go out and buy more and fix it.. I need it fixed so I can print out the contract for the 1.2 million dollar domain...

Contest

Started a $365 DomainForums.com Posting Competition: http://www.domainforums.com/showthread.php?p=15447#post15447

Ugh

Okay, I'm way too stressed about this.. this is not good

Ugh

Just got off with a client. I'll be meeting him on Monday.. gonna work out the contract.. I'll be brokering his domain for 10%. He wants 1.2 million for it, leaving me with $120,000. I don't think he'll get that - I think it can get 100,000, maybe 200k... but not 1.2 million. Ugh. Anyhow.. hope this doesnt give me a shitload of stress...

omg

AND! "PS – we’ll be promoting your website from this end from now on." That may sound crappy and stupid but.. this is a fairly large book publisher who publishes poker books.. meaning they'll be mentioning PFO and stuff and WHAAAA hahahaha thigns going well. Tyler = New York Times best-selling author?

YAY

The poker book I co-wrote might get published!! "Thanks for the link! I did receive the book proposal, and I hand delivered it to our acquisitions editors. It may take a while for it to get reviewed because we are right in the middle of finalizing our Spring ’06 titles, and they have lots of proposals to go through, but it has gotten good interest! Like I said, we are expanding into the poker/gambling/casino genre."

Blargh!

I finally finished the god damn book review. LOL god that was painful. I definitely need to get cracking on my big 'plans' for PFO.. because other than making it into a goldmine, it will help relieve the stress of doing things like this. Anyhow, thank god I finally sat down and finished it today.. means I can get back to work on more important things..

The Art of Negotiation

The Art of NegotiationBy Tyler Cruz Me: "Well to start, I could get my site reviewer to review your site and have it up on our review page. You would need to deposit $100 into her account so she can play and review the site. Let me know if you're interested..." Him: "I just talked to my boss and he said that we can transfer $20 into her account>ASAP... If she needs another $20, fine. Whatever it takes..." Me: "Sorry, I'm not interested. The $100 is not negotiable - it is our price to have it reviewed for several days and have it reviewed and published on our website..." Him: "I just looked at your review page and am fairly impressed with the detail andfair perspective. The $100 is non-negotiable. I will go get approval,because I do not want to miss out on your site. I like it. I always have..."

Prolly

I'm probably going to be brokering a domain that will most likely sell for around xxx,xxx. I'm getting 10%. It'll be the easiest 10k ever!

Have I started a revolution?

I created this blog only to fulfill the requests of many people who have followed my 'story'. And now? Now there are dozens of 'copycat' entrepreneur blogs sprouting up everywhere. One of the first I saw was Jon's, at j0n.org. But this didn't bother me at all, since first off he told me he was influenced (inspired is too strong a word here) by mine, and secondly since he should indeed have a blog since he's a very accomplished entrepreneur; you don't get nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year by Sitepoint for nothing.. But then, I started noticing more and more popping up: http://gethinoakes.blogspot.com/ and http://www.guk6kk.blogspot.com/ for example, and many many others. Now, I don't mind, in fact I feel kinda cool that I may have started a little small fad. Jon just told me of some new ones that popped up: www.j0e.org www.j1m.org www.nick1.org Which are really copies of his since they are on Wordpress and using numbers in the names. This isn't to say that ALL web entrepreneur blogs are decendants of this one - of course there are others, I'm not THAT nieve, but it's still interesting to see all of them popping up.. I only wish these people would make them more interesting. Set a goal and try to attain that goal and keep records of what you're doing with your site(s), etc. Hmm, I dunno why I'm ranting..

It has been signed.

Jon and I just signed the agreement form - here we go! We even have domain now :)

Tiredness

Hmm.. wow I'm getting tired.. gonna go back to bed soon. I had a bit of a discussion with Jon and his right-hand man Matt, told him my secret idea and he really liked it. So we're probably going to team up and get this going - we will work out the details later on. That'd be cool, it'd be a Tyler and Jon conglomeration - something I always wanted to do. Anyhow, I know this site/idea has great potential. It will be tricky programming, but it's certainly feasible. In other news, I'm also about half-done my latest 'work list'. Zeeshan helped me with a mod_rewrite/SEO thing I'm doing. Mmm.. very tired. Gonna go now.

OMFG

It's currently 1:51 a.m. I'm typing with one eye shut. Why? Because I literally just jumped out of bed about 50 seconds ago while in a very comfortable sleep. And I mean very comfortable. See, I just bougtht new bedding yesterday:

And it was extremely comfortable and I was sleeping well, but I somehow remembered this hugeass website idea! I jumped up and here I am now, writing it down, because I have to. What is this idea? Oh, I can't tell you of course. But to remind myself here's a hint for myself (It's been done before by that guy but you can do it 100x better). Okay, so basically, yeah, it's been done once before that I know of, and it requires some advanced knowledge of scripting, coupled with programming. However, I believe the potential of such a site to be MAJOR, and once the site is done, it's done, and will be instant success. I dunno.. I'm gonna have to talk to like Jon now to maybe discuss something.. maybe sell my idea to him or something. I have an idea in mind already actually :P But OMG, hugeass moneymaker idea here.

Sold another one

I sold another domain: resented.net for $40

That brings my total domains sold now to 2, with a total of $90.

My initial cost was: $158.40

So I've made back 56% of my investment already, and I still have 20 domains left.

I'm actually hoping to sell the rest as a package, then I'm not sure what I'll do with all the profit from this little excursion. It's just a tiny bit of pocket change, but I'm going to probably reinvest it again. Maybe by purchasing domains that are for sale, then reselling them again; as these will be of higher quality than before. It'd be nice to keep doing this and then end up with 5 figures. That'd be a neat little thing, since I'm recording it all. Just show how easy it is to make some extra cash doing little webmsater things on the side like this.

Sitepoint contacts Tyler

I just got a message from the Managing Editor at SitePoint, asking if I'd like to be involved in contributing to their new kit, which is aimed specifically at webmasters with content sites who want to imrove their revenue from advert networks or affiliates. I replied back, and also recommended Jon, as I was asked for any other recommendations. So, that's cool. My greedy side talking now, it'd be nice if I'd be compensated somehow - I understand royalties are out of the question, but perhaps a free kit or something would be nice. Or banning powers. That could work too ;) Hmm... am I becoming a writer? I just finished co-writing a few chapters of a poker book and a 40-page pitch letter to publishers, and now this... hmmm..... Hehe.