Google – The Web Marketing Blog

December 13, 2009

The Cease and Desist Letter Saga

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Well, it is over. My best performing domain has been taken from me due to trademark issues.
Just a recap if you don’t feel like reading my first post on receiving a cease and desist letter.

Last summer, my finance website started to take off. I was showing up on the first 3 pages of Google search, and the income was going up along with the page views.

Then the letter came. Apparently, two of the words in my domain were trademarked, and the attorney wanted me to hand over the domain.

I argued, I fought, I asked for concessions, but in the end I handed the domain over. In return, I got nothing.

I might have been able to fight it, but I felt my chances for success were low, and I didn’t want to spend the time or the money. In the end, I moved my blog to a better domain, Money, Debt and Taxes, and now I will just do what I did before to bring it up in the search rankings and build the traffic.

As a result of this I am now much more careful in choosing my domains. I am looking to see if there is any chance that they might be trademarked. I don’t want to lose that much hard work ever again!

September 14, 2008

Updated Google Chrome TOS & SiteMeter Face Lift

Hi, as you all may already know, Kat will be away for a few days. I am here to deputize for her.

First of all, in the last post, Kat linked to a post on Veritable Life regarding the controversial Section 11 of Google Chrome’s terms of service (TOS). For those who have not read the post yet, apparently in the first version of Google Chrome’s TOS, by using Chrome to post, submit or display any content which belonged to you, you automatically also grant Google worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify and publish the same content.

However, on 4th September 2008, barely a few days after the release of Google Chrome, Google has come out with an official statement saying that Google Chrome’s TOS has been updated, more specifically the content of Section 11 has been altered to:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

The updated Section 11 is rather short but it is effective and simple. Internet users can now use Google Chrome without worry. You don’t even need to download a new copy of Chrome, because this updated TOS is retroactive and will cover everyone who has downloaded Google Chrome since the first day it was launched.

By the way, hot off the stove is the news that SiteMeter has completed its migration and it has a face lift in the way site tracking reports are displayed. Site tracking reports are now displayed with Flash. Check out the screen shot on the right.

One of the most noticable changes is that now you can manage all your tracked sites individual accounts under one primary account with only one login and password required. Previously there was no way for users to link several individual accounts under one primary account, users have to keep many logins and passwords and spend a lot of time just to login, logout and relogin to view other accounts. On top of the primary account, SiteMeter users can also receive Stats by email for multiple accounts.

Premium account users can also enjoy several new features from SiteMeter such as Aggregate Reports, Dedicated Path Report, RSS Activity Report and Most Popular Pages report.

SiteMeter is one of the better site and visitor tracking services available. It is especially useful for webmasters whose host do not provide built-in tracking reports and also those using free blogging platforms such as Blogger which also lacks such a feature. If you need such a tool for your website, feel free to check out SiteMeter.

Question(s) of the day: Have you been using Google Chrome? What do you feel about it? What site statistics tools do you use for your websites?

Do you enjoy our post? If yes, why not take a minute to subscribe to The WebMaster Blog?

May 17, 2008

The Basics of Domain Flipping

Domaining or Domain Flipping has been a very profitable business for a number of years, now. It has been going through a bit of a recession as of late, but that’s probably due to the influx of newbies and scammers to the business. As long as you present yourself well, and show that you are not a scammer, then you will have no trouble in the domain flipping business. Also, since everything in this business is done online, after you’ve flipped your first domain, you can be like “Yeah, I make money online!”

Domain flipping is in and of itself, extremely simple. All you have to do is register a new domain that is available, and sell it for more than you registered it more. For a registrar, I recommend Namecheap. Namecheap allows you to transfer funds for a PayPal account that does not have a credit card attached to it, unlike GoDaddy, or some other registrars. As a bonus, I will tell you Namecheap’s coupon code for this month; It’s MAYFLOWERS. Now, what I just explained is the very basis of domain flipping, but it might only make you $1-$30 depending on the domain you get.

If you’re wanting to make more than $30 a pop, they you’re going to have to invest time, resources, and maybe even some money into the business. First of all, people want domains with some sort of traffic. There are a variety of ways you can obtain traffic, but there are two good free options. These two free options are, PPC websites, and StumbleUpon. PPC websites are easy, but they take up some of your precious time, but they are a viable option for the domainer who isn’t lazy, and has a lot of free time. Basically, you click on ads, and/or view other people’s websites in exchange for credits, which you can use to put your website in the site viewer. This will guarantee that people will view your website for at least 30 seconds, and can bring some significant traffic to your website. Most people know what StumbleUpon is, but just in case you don’t know, it is a social bookmarking site, where you submit websites and people vote thumb up or thumbs down and can give reviews when they “Stumble” onto it, which means they clicked the Stumble button which gave them a random website according to their interest. Another good way to advertise the website and get free traffic is to put the link in your signature in any forums you are active in. Now, this link will appear under every single post you make, and if you are active on forums like I am, then that is a lot of links, and a lot of potential visitors.

Putting good original content on your site is also a good idea. This will increase the value of the site, which will allow you to sell the content with the domain to increase your profits. You can hire a freelance writer like myself to write the content for you, or you can save the money and just do it yourself. See Jacob’s post on Hiring and Running Effective Content Writers if you are looking to hire freelancers. Doing it yourself is a viable option in this case, even if you are not the best writer, because as long as it is original and SEO friendly, meaning keyword rich, it will serve its purpose of driving free traffic from search engines. You can also include links to other privately owned websites in your content. The private website owners are almost always curious as to who is linking to them, and will most always visit the site that is linking to them, which in this case i s yours. Even if they just visit one time, that’s more than no one visiting you site. Also, think of how many links you can include in one page or article; that’s exactly how man back visits you can expect from other webmasters, who will be unknowingly helping you flip domains.

Now that you have the domain, and its getting traffic, you’ll need to track it. Otherwise, you’ll have no proof that it is receiving traffic, and you won’t be able to sell the domain for what it’s really worth. I recommend Google Analytics for this, as it is completely free and completely comprehensive. The reporting takes a little while, but you shouldn’t mind because the service you are getting is great, and it’s from Google, so you know it’s reliable. On the subject of selling, there are two types of places I suggest that you sell domains. There are forums such as DigitalPoint and SitePoint, where you can buy and sell domains that are on the cheaper side. Then they are domain auction sites like Sedo with listing fees and commissions similar to eBay. Obviously, Sedo is going to be better for domains that are going to cost more money, where the listing fees and commissions won’t wipe out your profits from your domains. Forum selling and buying is completely safe so long as you are cautious. I got a domain for only $6 on there that I plan to develop and then flip, I just always make sure the person has iTrader, or I have seen them do successful deals before, or hopefully both.

Now that you know everything you’ll need to do to start flipping your domains, go out and do it! Let me know how my guide helped you, and if you have any more questions, I’ll try to answer them.