Well the first few days of the year have certainly been busy! The major focus has been on getting the new site for GenMates ready to go! We had a target of being in a position to switch by 10th January 2007 and we achived ahaed of target by being ready to go on 6th January 2007! You can join the flood of other people joining us at GenMates - Your Genealogy Centre.
Talking of Genealogy! I have been in discussion in the last week with a leading figure in the UK Genealogy Community and out of that has been born a sit which is hopefully going to help quite a few people when it launches on 15th February 2007! The internet has opened up the world of genealogy in ways which could not have been envisaged even a few short years ago.
However, all the information that is available is leaving more and more people confused and asking questions about their findings as the thousands of questions that are posed in forums demonstrates. There is a massive opportunity for professional and passionate amateur genealogists on the internet but many of them say that they don’t know where to start. Hopefully Helping The Genealogy Experts will help them!
There seems to be an assumption, in some quarters, that Internet Marketing products can only be sold to Internet Marketers. Over dinner we were talking about websites and one of our guests mentioned that they had a site about their passion for cats which receives thousands of visitors each day. I commented that it must be earning them a nice sum each month. At that point I was met with a blank stare and a “how do you mean?” They were completely unaware of Adsense and Affiliate Marketing and indeed commented “oh that’s only for those work at home types isn’t it?” Over the last few days, I have asked a couple of other people who I know have very successful sites in areas that they are passionate about and have been met with fairly similar responses. None of these are making money from their sites!
I originally created a short report on Adsense at Adsense Success for what I would have thought of as Internet Marketer types. However, my focus with it has changed in the last day or so. “Cat Owner with a website? How would you like to cover the costs of your income and make some additional funds?” - you get the idea I hope? Grab a copy fot he report for yourself if you have a website and are not making the most of it!
We have a number of exciting developments planned in the coming year as I have mentioned in previous posts. The next big one on the horizon is my Group Coaching site for Internet Marketers who want to lift their activity to the next level! That will launch on 1st February 2007.
Finally returning to Genealogy. Our Genealogy Search Center is getting set to launch this week and I will bring you up to date next week.
……very finally if you are looking to buy some great and valuable Domain Names check out Domain Sales - I have three great sites listed there: www.audio-articles.net, www.factafterfact.com and www.thebestonlineproducts.com!
Have a great week!
January 7th, 2007
Let me start by wishing each and everyone of our readers a Very Happy New Year! I hope that 2007 brings you and your loved ones everything you desire and that our world will become a better place in the year ahead.
Those of you who have been keeping up with developments will know that the closing weeks of 2007 presented a fair share of challenges following the crash of one of our main Hosts. However, we have been working hard and all the major sites are now back up and attracting large numbers of visitors again!
One of the things that the collapse of the Hosting enabled us to do, as part of our planning for 2007, was to carry out a complete review of all our online activities. 2006 was a very successful year for us and one in which we explored a whole range of areas and niches.
Plans for 2007
During 2007 we will be focusing on a number of niches in which we believe that we can add real value and will be looking to bring online a number of services that will be useful to you.
We have some great plans for the coming year. We hope that the many hundreds of you who have joined our subscriber lists over the last few weeks and those of you who have been with us for some time will enjoy the ride!
To give you a taste of what we have planned:
Membership Sites
GenMates
The launch of GenMates (The Genealogist’s MySpace) in the middle of 2006 was a phenomenal success with some tremendous publicity across the Genealogy community. We have been talking to our members and have been taking on board their feedback. As a result of that GenMates is evolving! The consensus of opinion has been that whilst they really enjoy the ability to interact with each other and with us they rarely find themselves using the wide range of features available to members. This feedback is broadly in line with what we have been observing over the past few weeks. You can read more about these exciting developments and the evolution of GenMates which will occur on 10th January 2007 by visiting GenMates - Your Genealogy Centre.
Internet Business Creators
One of th most frustrating effects of the Hosting crash was that our plans for the launch of The Niche Marketer’s Coaching/Membership site was delayed. However, I am pleased to be able to advise you that the site will now launch on 1st February 2007.
Those of you who have signed up at Internet Business Creators will already be aware that you will be getting a substantially reduced monthly subscription to a site at which I will share many of the techniques and strategies I use in my Internet Marketing endeavours. In addition the site will provide an opportunity for me to help individuals and for us to explore Group Coaching.
What you will not be aware of is that I intend to impose a strict limit on membership of one hundred people - yes just 100. My intention is to grow a small community of like minded people who can grow and develop together.
Self-Improvement and Coaching Site
As those of you who have been with me a little while will be aware I a passionate about Coaching and Training - indeed it’s something that I spend a lot of my time doing both online and offline.
I have been thinking of launching a site which provides self-improvement advice and Coaching for a little while and in the second half of 2007 we will be launching such a site. I am really excited about the opportunities that will provide and my thinking at the moment is that the site will be limited to no more than 100 people!
More details of that site will become available as the year evolves.
Other Plans
Those of you who are coming here from the various subscriber lists will be aware of the various niches that we are focusing on in the coming year - with one or two more to be added as the year unfolds.
In each of the niches that we will be operating in our guiding principle will be; to provide high quality information in a variety of formats which enable people to make change in their lives in both the small ways and the big ways. We want to ensure that you have access to the latest and most useful information and that is what we will be very focused on.
Other News
Article Directories
Look out for information from us towards the end of the first quarter of 2007 about the launch of a Hobbies Article Directory and also the evolution of Genealogy Articles into an Article Directory! These will be sites at which you will be able to submit your articles for others to read and also use on their own sites.
Choosing Domain Names
Let me share with you some information which seems to be “hot” at the moment!
When I am thinking about a new domain that I want to do something important with I pop over to www.whois.net and have a look in the deleted domains.
Basically I put the main keyword that I am looking at using into the search box and see what comes back. Now sometimes you have to work your way through what appears to be a load of junk names before you find one that sounds like something you might want to use.
When I spot some that I like the sound of I pop over to www.leapfish.com and get a “domain appraisal.” I am not looking for the alleged value of the site (although it’s nice if it comes back with a 3 or 4 figure value) instead what I am looking for is whether the site has existing links within the search engines and also a good archive score.
If I do find some that I want to register I go straight to a domain registrar and get them registered (having done a Google search for any “coupons” for the registrar(s) that I use.) Then once registered, and this seems to be “hot news,” if I don’t have a site to go up straight away I “park” them at Sedo.
I earn a nice little amount each month from those I have parked there - not massive but worthwhile. I must admit I had forgotten to do this with quite a few domains in the last year and have spent a couple of hours over this weekend getting myself sorted with those as well.
Obviously there is much more to the real profiting from the buying and selling of domain names but hopefully that will help one or two people.
So in closing let me again wish you and your loved ones a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year for 2007.
January 1st, 2007
