Category — Online Niches

I am, by no means, an expert on the subject. Everything stated below are simple things that I have observed about my searching habits, the searching habits of others around me, and my Adwords account. Take my advice at your own risk.

Biding top dollar for Google Adwords will probably bring you the most traffic. However, I feel that one can achieve desirable results in the Pay-Per-Click advertising model with a little creativity and with much less money.

Ever since I started advertising through Google Adwords, I have put in many hours of research, and have been more observant to my own searching habits and of others around me.

Being a bargain shopper, I truly believe that biding top dollar for Google Adwords is not always the best idea, especially when you lack deep pockets and/or your niche requires popular search phrases like “buy domains.”

Instead, I feel that having a clever or humorous ad near the middle of the page can be almost as effective.

When people search Google, typically they are not looking for someone to sell them something in an advertisement. Instead, they are looking for keywords which suggest a solution to their problem.

One thing I noticed about my own search habits is that I usually keep my eyes on the left column at least half way down the page before I even glance at the ads on the right. Usually if I am not seeing what I am looking for in the regular search results I look to see if there is anything of interest in the ads section.

When this happens my eyes are already about three quarters the way down the page and scroll from bottom to top (not top to bottom) on my way up to redefine my search terms. That means that I would see ad number 4 or 5 before I ever found ad number 1.

Since I do a lot of things differently than others, this trend really did not occur to me until I started noticing some of my friends and coworkers had similar searching habits. In fact, I think more people do this than you would think.

The same idea can be applied to web browsing also. Since people do not typically browse websites looking for ads, its safe to say that the ads are not viewed until at least the introductory paragraph is read if not the majority of the page.

If you think about it, if this wasn’t true then ads would have a much higher click-through rating than they do now. In fact, almost everyone would be clicking on ads because they would be specifically looking for them. If it wasn’t true ad biding would be less competitive. You wouldn’t need to bid as much because you would get a good amount of traffic from biding only the minimum.

As I stated before, this method is probably not better than simply having a fat wallet to run your ads. Great ads that appear at the top of the page will most likely always perform the best. However, this method is certainly an option to the rest of us just starting a business while living off of Top Ramen and tap water or just trying to conserve money.

If your looking for a bargain way to get traffic to your site, write a clever ad and place it in a lower spot. You may be surprised with the results.

Adwords, making money online, Adsense, ppc, pay per click, online niche

-E

Will Ferrell Owes His Landlord Rent Money!

The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, Meets Ross The Intern From Jay Leno

Funny Email Forwards: Tongue Twister Joke

Technorati Tags: Adwords, making money online, Adsense, ppc, pay per click, online niche

I never understood why anyone in his or her right mind would spend thousands of dollars on a single domain name.

It just never really made sense to me. I would understand the need for a simple domain name like car.com, if this was still the mid 1990’s where people had to type in a domain name directly. However, with the invent of Google and Yahoo, nowadays it is borderline insane to pay anything more than a hundred bucks for a domain name.

I recently found a published a list of domain names and how much each sold for.

The highest selling names:
cameras.com
flowers.mobi
forclosures.com
mortgage.net
vb.com
sailboat.com
sexeducation.com
creditcards.net
own.com
university.org
hb.com
fun.mobi
credits.com 95000

Thats just crazy!

Hold on one sec for those of you with dollar signs in your eyes! Not to sound pessimistic but you are probably about 7 years too late and lack deep enough pockets to purchase enough good domains to get any kind of ROI.

Now that your back to reality I can tell you that there is a better way to come up with domains.

What really sets domain names apart today is how memorable they are.

I repeat. What really sets domain names apart today is how memorable they are.

How do I come up with a better domain name?

You can either try coming up with a domain name yourself or you can pay a company to do so.

Coming up with one yourself?

Combine two simple words
Take a look at YouTube. Two simple words with the tag line “Broadcast Yourself” which is golden because of its implied meaning and connotation to the words Tube and You.

WordPress is another one. When you think of press you think “publish,” so WordPress must mean that I can publish something.

Change the spelling a bit
A googol is the number one followed by a hundred zeros. Google wanted to organize the worlds information online. So they changed the spelling and Google.com was born.

Use an acronym
Yahoo stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” Pretty geeky, huh?

One of my favorite startups, Meebo, used this method even though its the acronym for an older project that the founders were working on and has nothing to do with instant messaging. “Mouse Exonic Evidence Based Oligonucleotide” in case you were wondering!)

Algoco, the service lets you make money from surfing the web, stands for “A Global Community.”

Still can’t think of anything good and available? Pay people to come up with one.

I’ve done both and have noticed that large web design firms usually charge a boat load for only 2-3 people who work for the company to generate a few domain names for you to pick from. Another rip-off if you ask me.

If you are going to pay someone to come up with a domain name, I would recommend a service like Clever Site Names where you submit a description of your website and a whole community of people generate custom available domain names for your business. Its usually pretty cheap and best of all if you don’t find a domain name you like, they will refund your money.

As you can see, you have many options when coming up with domain names besides paying thousands for a parked domain.

Simple, one-word domain names do not necessarily perform better. What matters more is that your website is useful and has a memorable name.

Why do people keep paying thousands for domain names then? The answer is beyond me.

-E

(sources Moniker, Freewebs, Meebo, WebRankInfo)

Technorati Tags: algoco, yahoo, google, meebo, parked domains, domain names, website names, business names, coming up with names

Every time I find an business or website that I have given serious thought to pursuing years before, I put them in folder entitled “Stolen Ideas.”

I suppose I could still pursue the businesses but there are only so many hours in the day. Plus many entrepreneurs have told me not to be the “Me Too” of an industry.

Shouldn’t I be jealous?

As an entrepreneur, no. The only person I have to blame for not pursuing any of the ideas is myself.

I am publishing them to teach myself a lesson and as a constant reminder to act faster when I have an itch.

I think I’ll look to the horizon to position myself in front of the next wave!

My advice for everyone that has a great idea is to act fast!

I am big on travel, in fact it is one of my favorite things to do. I thought it would be a great idea to allow people around the world to meet other people online that live in the area where he or she will be visiting in order to find a place to stay. Many of these websites exist now in the forms of Place2Stay.net, GlobalFreeloaders, CouchSurfing, and TheHospitalityClub although I’m sure there is more.

Postful converts your email into a real letter and mails it for you. My project was called RealMail.

My idea for this one was a peer-2-peer network for trading media (books, cds, dvd), while I have not seen any that allow you to trade anything, I have seen websites that allow you to trade specifics like Paperback Swap for books and LaLa for music.

FindMeOn is a website that tries to manage all of your online identities.
This one was more of a concept that I had back before cell phones were mp3 players and vice versa. My idea was to have a phone that acts as a music player but instead of storing the music on the phone, it would stream it from your home PC. Phling has a product that does just that.

I know gig boards (similar to a bulletin board for the web) are nothing ground breaking but I swear I had the idea way before anyone like 37signals and Lifehacker had theirs. Its a pretty simple concept and the only reason why I didn’t pursue this one is because I figured it would do well on a site that already had a decent amount of traffic daily. That was exactly what I was lacking. After all, you wouldn’t put a bulletin board in a place where no body would see it, would you?

Although this one might not be in the bag yet once I build more traffic on some of my sites, for now it is out of my mind.

-E

YouTube - Saturday Night Live: Sofa King Skit

Technorati Tags: business ideas, stolen, entrepreneur, start your own business

If you think your simple solution to a simple problem cannot be made into a successful business, then think again…

For instance, the expense of taxi fare prices in cities such as New York influenced entrepreneurs to come up with a creative solution. Their business called Hitchsters.com, connects people traveling to or from the airport to share a taxi ride. You even get to select whether you prefer a male or a female.

Have you ever wanted to buy a designer hand bag for a special event but couldn’t justify the cost of the bag for only one use? Your solution may be with a company BagBorrowOrSteal.com who rents out designer bags for either a monthly rate or a one time rental.

Coming up with a available domain names for new websites is becoming more difficult since domain investors buy many of the easy-to-remember domain names, then try to sell them for thousands of dollars more. CleverSiteNames.com worked out a solution for website and business owners to come up with more clever domain names. For a flat, refundable fee, you can list a description of your site or business on the site for others to offer up suggestions of available domain names. If you don’t receive a name that you like, they refund your money.

Ever have a rainy day or rainy month ruin your outdoor business. Worry no more with this company that provides weather insurance to businesses that rely on good weather.
Or you could take this concept a step further like WedSafe.com did, to insure that your wedding day goes as planned, rain or shine.

What if you didn’t get much sleep last night and you have an important meeting today. Need a quick power nap to recharge your batteries and clear your mind? MetroNaps.com has your solution since they offer power naps to professionals in the city.
If you move around a lot but never have a place to store those cardboard boxes,
BoomerangBoxes.com may be just want you need. The company primarily reuses cardboard boxes and disposes of unusable ones properly. It may sound like a silly idea but Boomerang Boxes sales are expected to exceed $750,000.

This young man made a million dollars simply by selling pixels for advertisements on a web site located at MillionDollarHomepage.com. His newest venture, charge $2 per pixel, then give away half of the profits randomly as a lotto.

This company sells large bows for large gifts such as cars.
This novel writer turned her hobby of writing into a successful business. She creates personalized novels where you can chose yourself to be the star of the book.
These real businesses are proof that your simple idea, too, could be worth millions.

-E

YouTube Video - Voted best beer commercial of the year 

Technorati Tags: Simple Business Ideas, Make Money Online, Business Ideas, Cool Business

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a trend of odd but legitimate businesses arise.

For instance, if I would have told my parents that for a living I wanted to sell pixels on a web page or create a million dollar brand with a catchy phrase and no products, I probably would have been institutionalized. Let these crazy stories prove to you that no idea is too unusual to profit from.

Bobble headed toys of famous characters and people

A unique way to notify your friends and family of a pregnancy

Those smiley faced antenna balls

Selling used mannequins

Use your vacation to test out your unusual dream job

Sell cuff links on EBay

Creating unusual party hats for corporate events

A Record Company for musicians who play in subways

CPR dummies for practice on…Dogs?

Who ever thought an ecosystem in a bottle could be so profitable

Do not let anyone tell you that your business idea is stupid.

-E

How to spot a millionaire 

Technorati Tags: Business Ideas, Stupid Business, Unusual Business, Unique Business, Online Business, Make Money Online

Most websites suck, but many people and most businesses still have one

People pay anywhere from $100 to $20,000 to develop and maintain a website, for which, they will gain little or no return on.

Success of a website usually depends more on the content of the site rather than just the look. Furthermore, getting returning visitors takes more than the “If you build it, they will come” approach.

Most websites suck because they lack a direct purpose

Everyday people put up blind sites that have no direction or clearly stated purpose. That’s fine, as long as you understand no one is going to use your site except for you and that your probably not going to make any money.

Since there is an estimated 80 million websites and on average, web surfers spend less than 8 seconds on a web page before deciding whether to move on or not.

The odds are not in your favor.

Keeping your audience is usually achieved by placing great titles in larger fonts near the top of your page. A clear and concise statement about your page usually decides the fate of your site. This helps with search engine page rank too!

Most websites suck because they lack good content

In other words, if your site doesn’t deliver what it promises in its purpose, people will not find it useful. This may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many websites lack good content (Hint: Get Rich Quick sites that tell you “how to” after you buy their book).

By improving and increasing your useful content you not only increase the chances that people will visit your site, you will also increase the odds that people will read what you have to say.

So you have a concise purpose and you have your useful content, now you need to make sure your content is interesting.

Most websites suck because they are not interesting

Not many people want to read dictionary style writing in MLA essay form. Nobody except your mother cares about what you ate for lunch (unless, of course, you run a food review site).

Good content gets a read once, great content gets a returning audience, hungry for more. So, spice it up a bit. Make it happy, or sad, or compelling - do something to grasp your audience and keep them coming back for more.

Also, don’t be afraid to have a little fun with your writings. It will make it more interesting for your readers and more interesting for you. After all, if your not interested, can you really expect others to be?

Now go on and revise those old, boring web pages of yours!

-E

Technorati Tags: Websites that suck, Websites, Good Website, Best Websites, Content, Entrepreneurship, Get Rich Quick, Web Traffic, Blog, Blogging, Make Money Online

In short, ideas for businesses and inventions come from current problems.

I’ve heard of many entrepreneurs and visionaries who keep a problem log. I’d recommend the same to you.

Anything that annoys you. Anything that can be improved upon. Anything that doesn’t exist that would make peoples lives better or easier. Write them down, read through it, and revise often.

If you are aware with your surroundings, pretty soon you will have so many ideas that you will need to filter the ones that you will attempt to solve.

-E

UPDATE 4/10/07: Check out Trendwatch for Global Consumer Trends, Ideas, and Insights.

Technorati Tags: Business Ideas, Invention, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Problems, Solutions, Problems Log

A little over a year ago I started really getting into listening to interesting entrepreneurial podcasts. Since then I have listened to many excellent speakers and used much of the advice that I’ve learned from the podcasts. However, there are only a few of these entrepreneurial podcasts stand out in my mind in their entirety. One of which is from Stanford University’s impressive collection of Entrepreneurial podcast.

Tina Seelig’s Things I wish I knew when I was 20 is one of those exceptional listens. Tina Seelig is the Executive Director for Stanford’s Technology Ventures Program and an excellent speaker. If you haven’t listened to it, I would highly recommend doing so. Her advice translates well to any old or young professional, even if you never plan on opening up your own business.
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After we finish school and get day jobs, we tend to learn less and less. We no longer have professors filling our head with information and we have no need to study for a test, so we don’t.

Now when I say learn, I don’t mean “on-the-job training” or anything else that is learned from whatever it is you do to pay the bills.

What I’m talking about is beyond that.

I’m talking about learning new things in your spare time. I’m talking about reading a useful book at lunch instead of Entertainment Weekly or researching a new way to do something when you get home instead of watching four hours of television.

Unfortunately because there is no direct reason to study, people often don’t. In fact, many people have a tough time getting motivated to learn something new without it being taught to them. As an aspiring entrepreneur, if you have those habits, you must learn new ones.

As an entrepreneur, you must constantly be on the look out for industry trends and adapt your business or business plan. You must always be looking for ways to improve your self and improve your company.

A good way to learn to learn is to apply it to your everyday life.

Make an attempt each day to learn something new. Push yourself out of your comfort zone a little so that when you start your own business, you will constantly stretch yourself and your business to achieve greater things.

The sooner you start making your life a constant improvement and get comfortable with with unknown, the sooner you will be doing things you never though possible.

Entrepreneurs rock. They are the talk-the-talk people of the world and without them technology and innovation would not exist today. Entrepreneurs are learners and doers. So go learn and go do.

-E

 Common knowledge that everyone should know

Technorati Tags: Learn By Doing, Entrepreneurs, Rock, Continue Learning, Continued Education, Initiative, Read, Industry Trends, Reason To Study