Marc Ostrofsky - Get Rich Click

Here is a piece about Marc from his website -

I had some issues with my emails not getting through to Frank which delayed the process, but I finally got it sorted with some help from my mate Ron Jackson from DNJournal.com who passed on some messages to Frank on my behalf. Thanks a million Ron

Ron did a brilliant cover story article about Frank on his blog back in 2007 which you can read here – http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/december.htm

Frank is a legend in the Domain Name industry and very nice guy to boot.

For someone who achieved so much in a smaller amount of time than most other domain investors, he is a true champion of this business.

Frank’s blog, Seven Mile (named after the beach where he lives on the Grand Cayman Islands) is by far one of the best domain name blogs out there even though he only posts once a month or so but when he does it is true gold. If you have not read it make sure you put on your list of “must do” items.

Anyway, that is enough from me! Get stuck into the podcast.

Enjoy

Only half of Australian small businesses have a website and of those businesses that have a website, less than a quarter of them feel they use their website and the Internet well enough to get a real tangible dollar benefit from it.

Achieve More Online is part of the Federal Government’s $14M Small Business Online program. The program will help small businesses, particularly those in tourism and professional services – get online and achieve more.

You may already have a website and want it to work harder for you. Or you may be looking to go online for the first time. Whatever stage you are at, the Achieve More Online program has 7 small business specialists who will show you, in simple steps, how to improve your online presence to ultimately put more $$ in your bottom line.

1 day hands-on workshop, 12 locations across WA and NT

In just 1 day, you’ll learn the 8 fundamental building blocks of a successful online marketing and website strategy and have a complete action plan to help you put that knowledge to use.

The 7 small business owners and specialists in their field will show you how to use the Internet to promote your business and create a website that works to deliver real dollars to your bottom line.

From business planning through to optimising your site for search engines and simple online marketing tools, everything you need to know about developing a better online business will be delivered to you in an interactive workshop and 1-to-1 mentoring sessions where we will help you solve your business’ specific problems.

At the end of the 1 day workshop, you’ll understand the 8 building blocks of a well balanced, effective online marketing plan:

• business plan, target market & purpose
• website design
• content building & copywriting
• graphic design & layout
• website imagery & photos
• website traffic generating tools such as pay per click advertising (PPC) & search engine optimisation (SEO)
• website promotion & relationship building tools such as Twitter, Facebook & other social media
• and the often underutilised and powerful email marketing tools you have at your disposal

All it costs is just 1 day and $49

In just 1 day you will have a complete action plan to create or upgrade your small business website and all for only $49.

You’ll know the right steps involved, and you’ll have a smart detailed action plan to get you started. You can contact us for follow-up support if you need further help or guidance throughout the program.

Want more information or to register?

Workshops commence in June across several locations throughout metropolitan and country WA and the Northern Territory.

Visit our website www.businessbalance.com.au/sbo for more details and to register online or alternatively fill out the attached form and fax it back to us to secure your place.

If you have any questions please phone us on 1300 856 274.

We look forward to helping you get the most out of being online.

This is an Australian Government funded initiative under the Small Business Online program

Ed,

I just returned from Maui Hawaii, 100+ customers from a dozen countries face to face and palm to palm for 3 days. It was immensely energizing to
shake everyone’s hand and hear war stories and spend time together.

In that conference room you heard every kind of story you can imagine. There were people there who literally made a million dollars last month. There was probably somebody who LOST a million dollars last month. I have no doubt.

I know of one guy who was literally down to his last twenty dollars. A trip to a pricey seminar was his last wing and prayer. There were many businesses that have grown 400-500% in the last 12 months.

Welcome to the knife fight, to the rough and tumble world of being an entrepreneur. A universe of extremes. Work hard. Play hard. High highs. Low lows. Humiliation. Exhilaration.

When I moved from Nebraska to Chicago 17 years ago, there was a part of me that somehow just needed to flee safety and comfort. In pursuit of action and adventure.

Nebraska is a safe, genteel, polite, nonthreatening, mannerly place. And… it’s kinda boring there. I don’t have very many customers from Nebraska.
It’s just not a “Planet Perry” kind of place.

Here in Chicago we have the Chicago Bulls and Bears. Michigan Avenue and the Gold Coast. The Hancock Building and Navy Pier and yachts and hi-rise condos. O’Hare airport and tollways and commuter systems and Broadway shows and vast urban sprawl.

And gangs and drugs and hour-long commutes and gapers delays and starving artists and the West Side and the South Side and Joliet Federal Prison and crime and poverty and housing projects.

In Chicago, you get it ALL. From the ridiculous to the sublime. That’s why I love it here. My friend, there are some of us who are just BORN to thrive in extremes. You crave the WHOLE enchilada. You want access to the whole box of chocolates. You want the CHOICE to grab that nugget of mystery out of the box and get whatever you get. And reach for another and another.

It’s hard, but it’s better than the SAFETY of having someone else skim off the gourmet stuff and feed you stale 8-month-old Hershey bars. 150 years ago if you preferred the Wild West to a 3 bedroom condo and 3 square meals everyday, you were surely a little bit INsane.

Today, if you prefer the Wild West to institutional mediocrity, it’s  probably the best possible assurance that you ARE sane… that the world hasn’t yet pounded every last ounce of adventure out of your soul.  That you don’t want to sit in a cube under buzzing fluorescent lights and follow the car ahead of you to oblivion every day. You don’t want to gulp down antidepressants and watch TV from 5pm till bedtime.

If you thirst for greater things, if you dream of accomplishing something really big and daring in your life (and I’m NOT just talking about money by the way) then I’m here to tell you, you’re in good company.

If you’ve failed and failed and failed again…. or if you’ve achieved modest success only to have a monsoon wipe out what was so promising…. if you’re constantly dodging the snakes and arrows…. you’re in splendid company. It’s never too late for a comeback.

It may be lonely in your particular corner of cyberspace on a particular Tuesday afternoon, but I’m here to assure you, you’re not the only one. One more thing:

There is no such thing as a great person in history who was a “perfectly reasonable guy.” We’re all a little bit unreasonable, a little shaky, a little insane. And driven by an inner fire that won’t go out. Passion is the fire that lights itself. If you have that Passion, give thanks for it, honor it, and press into it. Harder. Not everybody has it. But you do. And you know it. So write it in blood. Put it in an obvious place so you never let yourself forget it.

The entire history of your life culminates in the present moment, and all the possibilities that it holds. Right now.

Every hour, every day…. …seize the day.

Perry Marshall

P.S.: You’re awesomer than you think you are.

I have learned a great deal from him over the years regarding Google AdWords and my AdWords Consulting business would not be where it is today if it were not for his help and guidance.

Using Google AdWords is just another way of getting targeted traffic to your website and I know many domainers are using it as they get more into developing their domains.

If used correctly it can be a brilliant marketing tool that can bring you instant results but if you don’t know what you are doing it can max out your credit card very very quickly.

If you have not already read Perry’s brilliant book The Definitive Guide To Google AdWords then do yourself a favor and grab a copy as it will save you a great deal of pain and expense in learning the tricks of AdWords.

I hope you enjoy the podcast!

Happy New Year!

Over the past 2 + years since I started this domain names blog / podcast I have had many people email me who know I am a Google AdWords Consultant asking if I can do a podcast on Google AdWords relating to the synergies that it has with domain names. The two go hand in hand as far as I am concerned and a great domain name used in a great, well targeted & written AdWords campaign can be unstoppable if implemented properly.

Perry Marshall

Perry’s eBook  that he co-authored with Bryan Todd  The Definitive Guide To Google AdWords is the Bible for AdWords users and I have been reading the latest 2010 updated 277 page edition which is packed with brilliant examples of how to get the most from AdWords.

Perry is probably best known with his association with AdWords but is a brilliant marketer of which Google AdWords is just one of his weapons of choice online.
If you have never heard of Perry before then I guarantee you are in for a treat and will have access to some powerful marketing tools by following what Perry has to offer.

I will be recording the podcast with Perry early next week, so if you have any questions relating to Google AdWords then please email them to me ed@ozdomainer.com before the 10th of Jan.

Cheers

Ed

If you have any questions you would like me to ask Johns in the interview then please email me ed(@)ozdomainer.com or make a comment on this post. Cheers Ed

I was fortunate enough to meet Edwin on the first day of the Traffic ccTLDs  conference in Amsterdam and spent many hours talking about domains with him. He is a very switched on guy and has been around the domain industry since the mid to late 90′s and started one of the first ever if not the first website all about buying, selling and investing in domain names called www.igoldrush.com.

Many of you may have seen it of late as it is still around but was sold by Edwin several years ago to its current owners.

One of Edwin’s current projects (of which there are many) is his domain sales website www.memorabledomains.co.uk which lists many of his domains for sale targeted mainly at the .CO.UK domain market.

This is the longest podcast I have done at 1Hr & 16Mins in length. (yes I know I could cut it in half and have 2 separate podcasts, but time is just not permitting on that front) as Edwin has some great insights into many other domain related subjects such as domain development, mini-sites, marketing of domains and much much more.

Make sure you take notes as there are some gems in this podcast for those of you who have your ears and your mind open!

So grab yourself a cup of something, sit down and enjoy the podcast.

Ben picked up the name www.Pay-Per-Click.com.au so we are developing that into a full Pay Per Click services website.

I have been a Google AdWords consultant for 5 years now and it works in well with my domaining business (I like to call it the same dog, just a differnet leg) as they both work at achieving the same goal, more targetted traffic and conversion of that traffic into leads and sales.

Wake up Corporate World Exec’s because if you don’t you will be left in the dust scratching your heads wondering what the hell just happened.

Enjoy!

I then started my consulting business AdWords Marketing in 2004 and have been involved in the PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising industry ever since.

One area of setting up a PPC ad campaign that often gets overlooked is the display URL used at the bottom of the ads.

Google allows a maximum of 35 characters including spaces to be used for the display URL so having the most relevant keyword rich domain name
as a huge benefit when it comes to getting a higher click through rate and quality score for your ads.

I have run tens of thousands of ads on AdWords over the past 5 years and without a doubt a campaign that has the most relevant domain name used as its display URL will kick the ass of the same ad doing an A/B Split test where the only thing that is different in the 2 ads running at a 50/50 split is the display URL.

Let me give you an example where the search term is “Factoring Finance”-

Considering Factoring?
New Free Service Finds the
Right Factoring Finance for You!
FactoringFinance.com.au

vs

Considering Factoring?
New Free Service Finds the
Right Factoring Finance for You!
JohnBrownFinance.com.au

Although the only difference is the display URL, it can make a HUGE difference in the click through rate of the ad just because the URL matches the search.
It has been effective for me 9 times out of 10 over the years. Google has made it much harder in recent times to test different URL’s within the same Ad Group
but I can assure you it is very very effective.

This is another reason to have high quality keyword rich domain name that does not get talked about a great deal by domainers, food for thought!!

Here is what Google has to say in its Google AdWords Guidelines -

Display URL must be accurate.

• Your Display URL must accurately reflect the URL of the website that you’re advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so that users know which site they will be taken to when they click your ad.
• Where you have keyword URLs, these are considered to be your Destination URLs and the Display URL must accurately reflect them.
• The Display URLs within each ad group must have the same domain.
• The Display URL field cannot be used as another line of ad text.
• Your Display URL must include the domain extension, for example: .co.uk, .net or .org.
• If your actual Destination URL link is too long to use as your Display URL, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field.
  Example:
  Destination URL: http://www.TravellingDog.net/toys.html
  Display URL: www.TravellingDog.net

For those who have not seen it yet, Rick Latona has opened up his new forum dedicated to ccTLD’s.

You can fin out more about it here www.cctlds.com , If you join the forum (which is free) feel free to mention
me as where you heard about it from. My forum user name is OzDomainer, look me up when you drop by.

Well it is!

Ron Jackson has just posted this today – The State of the Industry January 2009: 15 Leading Experts Break Down What Went Wrong in 2008 and Predict What Will Happen in 2009 and it would have been worth reading if it had only been the last post by Leading Expert #15 (you will have to read the article to find out who it is)

DO NOT WASTE A SECOND MORE ON MY BLOG! GET YOUR BUTTS OVER TO THE ARTICLE NOW

It can be a mine field of information to follow and process and if you have tens of thousands of dollars invested then you had better start paying attention.

You could be in for a rude awakening one day when the law or a company that thinks it has the rights to ownership of one of your names comes a knockin!

My mate Erhan Karabardak from Cooper Mills Lawyers based in Melbourne Australia is a global authority in the areas of Domain, ISP & Telco law.

Erhan was a guest speaker at the recent Traffic Down Under Seminar held in Queensland Australia (check out Erhan’s talk on video here)

Now seeing as I am a Pro Reseller of GoDaddy through my website www.DomainNamesJunction.com that makes me a happy camper as I can register them for only $12.99 which over the next year will be a big cost saving exercise when I will transfer my 320+ .IN & .CO.IN domains across to GoDaddy.

Are you ready to grab your share of over 60 million internet users in India?*  *Figure comes from internetworldstats.com

I am in Japan for the last night heading to Malaysia tomorrow for Christmas and home to Perth Australia for New Years.

My family and I have had a fantastic time travelling for the past 7 months and would recommend it to anyone.

I wish you and your families a safe and Merry Christmas & Happy New Years, may 2009 be a great on for you all.

Cheers

Ed
OzDomainer

Perry is one of the best all round marketers that I have ever met and what he has to say in this video is well worth the 15 mins or so it takes to watch it.

Do yourself a favour and check out the video at http://www.perrymarshall.com/bite-the-hand-that-feeds/

I have spoken about my mini-site www.waterpurifiers.in which is being slowly developed over time and is starting to get some great results on Google.

It now ranked number 10 on Google India for the search term “water purifiers“  and is number 1 for many more longer tail phrases such as “home water purifiers“.

The AdSense revenue is picking up and in the near future I should be putting some advertising on the site as well.

So after only 3 months or so being live it is coming along nicely and should only get stronger over time as more content gets added to the site.

I have also launched about 2 weeks ago my site www.solarpanels.in with which I am following the same principals as www.waterpurifiers.in
There is only a few pages of content on Solar Panels as I am drip feeding the content over time.

My goal with these sites is to have JV partners and advertisers as the main revenue source rather than PPC and more than likely get rid of PPC all together, but for now if they make a few dollars a day it helps to cover the cost of development.

I have travelled on many Hi Speed strains on this trip and I thought that it would be hard to top the European trains like the TGV & Renfe Hi Speed in Spain but the Japanese are the masters of this form of travel and it has given me some great content for a site I will be developing called www.travelbytrain.net

The train was 16 cars long and seemed to go forever. When the train pulled into the station there was a whole line of cleaners waiting to get on after the passengers were all off so they could clean the train for the next lot of passengers. I counted on average 4 cleaners (all women) per car x 16 cars WOW! They do a great job as the trains were the cleanest we have seen in 6 months except for maybe Switzerland and as for running on time, we are talking to the seconds in departure timing from the trains I was watching, very very impressive.

The Japanese also will the “Fastest Internet Connection Known To Mankind” award (well at least the fastest we havw had on this trip anyway) with an average download speed of 24 megabytes per second and an average upload speed of 14 megabytes per second. NICE!! (Stats taken from www.speedtest.net)

We have had some fast connections in other countries but this just makes life much easier when you are working on the road building websites, buying & selling domains, talking on skype etc.

It is a spoof video from “Domain Name Dollar Store”

Take a look you should get a laugh, even if you have watched it before!

The funny (& sad) thing is that most of the names in the video are better than most of the drop lists these days.

Cheers

Ed

According to Michael it was the first time that both himself & David had been recorded together for an interview.

Michael & David Castello (Michael on the left & David on the right of photo (Picture courtesy of www.dnjournal.com) are great guys with a huge depth of knowledge on domain names especially when it comes to Geo Domains.

They own through their company CCIN (Castello Cities Internet Network) some great names such as www.PalmSprings.com, www.Nashville.com, www.Acapulco.com and many more which are also listed on the Associated Cities website that they joined back in 2004.

They also own some catagory killer generic domains such as www.Whisky.com, www.GolfClub.com, www.Daycare.com & www.Bullion.com

Both have a great story to tell and a wealth of knowledge to share for those who are wise enough to listen. So if you have even the slightest interest in Geo Domains make sure you listen to this podcast.

Michael & David also won the 2008 Domainers Choice Award for both the Rising Star and Domain Ambassador categories at DomainFest 2008

Also check out this great video of the Castello Brothers in their Rock Band Michael Seven, you will see a side to them that you may not have seen before (Michael Lead Singer/Guitar & David on Drums). Great stuff!! www.michaelseven.com

Hope you enjoy it.

AUSTRALIAN internet entrepreneurs are raking in millions of dollars a year by spotting the true value of what’s in a name.

The practice of buying up unused names, known as “domain parking”, is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion worldwide — and Australia is seen as a growing market for those with an eye for a dollar.

The Australian Domain Name Administrator (AUDA), the governing body for “dot au” domains, is set to loosen regulations restricting the practice within months, sparking a likely buying boom as a result.

Domainers, as they call themselves, spot generic or popular names that have not been turned into websites and register them for as little as $US7 ($A7.50). They cram them with advertisements and watch as they earn a few cents per hit — big bucks when you have a portfolio of tens of thousands of domains.

Unlike cyber-squatting, where people infringe trademarks and fraudulently obtain internet traffic, domainers say they are supplying people with information.

With two partners, he has built a business around names such as geekwatch.com and bingonight.co.uk — names that receive hundreds of hits through the sheer weight of the billion or so people who use the internet daily.

He now works full-time as a domainer and is auctioning one of his most prized sites, profgolfer.com, which he hopes will fetch him $75,000.

“Enormous money can be made out of parking still in Australia with dot au space, where a lot less penetration has been made than in America,” he said. “It’s as easy as seeing how many times a particular word is indexed on Google then seeing if it is taken or not.”

Click here for the whole article..

I have had the pleasure of knowing James for the past 3 years now and he is truely one of the pioneers in the affiliate marketing industry and a great guy to boot!

James and I talk about his successful Affiliate Marketing business and his Affiliate Marketers Bootcamp training system helping people learn the skill to develop their affiliate websites.

James lists some of the Affiliate Management companies that he uses like www.cj.com (Commission Junction) also the Open Source Content Management System Drupal

One of James’s websites is based around his passion for Shelby Cobra’s and his website www.kitcarconnection.com

Thanks very much for your time James and I look forward to that ride in the Cobra!!

He is in Australia at the moment working on some projects with another domainer and friend of ours Ben Wilks and will be heading back to the UK in a few weeks time. Rob is the owner of www.music.co.uk and others such as www.lol.co.uk, www.webftp.co.uk

In this interview Rob shares his incite into the domain name industry particularly the .co.uk name space. For the links to the websites and tools we spoke about in the podcast please go to this link Domain Web Tools

I hope you enjoy this podcast and if you have anyone that you would like me to interview or a specific topic that you would like covered then please let me know.

In Episode 3 of the Oz Domainer Podcast I will be talking with Australian Domainer Michael Gilmour from Whizzbangsblog.com where we will be talking about his recent trip to T.R.A.F.F.I.C West in Las Vegas and the subject of Transparency that he spoke about at the conference.

I will be interviewing a wide variety of people in the domain name industry and I hope the knowledge that is shared will give value to the listeners.

If you have anyone in particular that you would like me to interview please let me know in the comments section of this or any other of the podcast posts.

Thanks

Ed

This article link by Sir Frank Schilling with my comments attached.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/releases/?contentId=4625

I love the .co.uk domain space and own just over 250 of them. Although I live in Australia I was born in Scotland and am developing a few of the better quality names with some companies in the UK.

I think the survey is very accurate and only makes sense that people have a high trust factor for their local ccTLd.

I know that most of the people I talk to in Australia have a similar mindset for the .com.au.

Yes .com is still king but the ccTLD’s still have a great deal to offer the new domainer that may not have the cash to get into the higher priced .com domains.

I had better stop typing and get some more …

Cheers

Ed Keay-Smith

I can remember when Google started as it was only a few weeks or so after my daughter Sasha was born.

It seemed like a very basic interface at the time and one that has not changed much since then with the very clean lines and one search bar. The thing that I always liked about Google from the beginning was that I always seemed to find what I was looking for within the first three pages where the other search engines it was not uncommon to end up 10 pages deep before I had the desired results.

adwords_marketing_logo.jpg

Google has listed on the US Stock Exchange and has mad Multi-Billionaires from its two founders and many Multi-Millionaires from other stock holders and employees of Google.

edatgoogleplexhq.jpg

So happy birthday to Google, I am sure there will be a large party at the Googleplex!

50 Great e-Businesses and the Minds Behind Them by Emily Ross & Angus Holland who are both from Melbourne , Australia

50 Great e-Businesses Book Cover.jpg

It reviews the history behind some of very well known e-businesses like eBay, Google, PayPal and some of the not so huge or well known ones but still very successful.

The stories of these start-ups is so wide and varied it should give people some idea of what is possible for businesses on the internet.

This book is hot off the press and I am not sure that it is available outside of Australia at the time of this post being written. For more info please go to the the publishers site Random House Australia. It is well worth your time and effort IMHO!

See below for more details from the publisher.

quote.gif

Another book of business case studies – short, sharp and motivational – from the authors of the bestselling 100 GREAT BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM.

Description of book

Creating profitable businesses on the internet is no mean feat and, as anyone who has watched the rise of eBay or Amazon knows, the web has forever changed the way we do business. Now the bestselling authors of 100 GREAT BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM take a look at some of the smartest, most profitable internet businesses operating today, and reveal that whether big, small, local or on the other side of the planet, when it’s web business, it’s a small, fascinating world, with potentially limitless opportunities.

This collection of 50 case studies from around the world offers valuable inspiration, ideas and lessons on the principles of successful internet businesses – from travel (kayak.com) to sex (Danni Ashe), in cyberspace there is a new way to sell everything. The founders of sites like lastminute.com, netaporter.com and collegehumor.com provide lasting lessons on the art of building an e-business success rather than a dot.com bomb. It’s all about web innovation, timing and tapping into those billions of customers.

50 GREAT E-BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM delves into thriving sites in the areas of travel, gambling, sex, retail, blogging, medical testing, financial services, celebrities, astrology and other entertainment. And with fresh updates on Google, Dell, and CraigsList covering all of their innovations, where better to look for e-business advice than from the world’s best?

monte-cahn.jpg

Monte also has a fantastic web radio show on Webmaster Radio called Domain Masters. Monte interviews the top movers and shakers in the Internet Business World from Domainers to Company Owners.

Ed & Perry Marshall at X10 Seminar.JPG

One of Monte’s most recent interviews is with my good mate and fellow Google AdWords Addict Perry Marshall. Perry is one of if not the main reasons I started my AdWords Consulting business AdWords Marketing just on 4 years ago.

About 6 months ago I introduced Perry to Monte Cahn and told him of all the great things that Monte was doing in the Domain Name Industry. Perry contact Monte to do an interview with him which Perry sent out to his Renaissance Club Newsletter which IMHO is one of the best value marketing newsletters around, it even gets snail mailed to me and every second month has and interview CD like the one he did with Monte.

Well just last week Monte interviewed Perry Marshall on the subject of Google AdWords and how to use different Domain Names in the ad copy to test which name creates a better click through and conversion. This is something that I know as a AdWords Marketing Consultant, does not get done by many people at all. It is a very revealing interview and Perry gives away some great tips.

Here is the synopsis of the interview.

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Monte speaks with Perry Marshall about to monetize the most revenue using Google AdWords. is an author, speaker and consultant in Chicago. He is known as The Wizard of Google AdWords and is one of the world s leading specialists on buying search engine traffic. Google advertisers who use his methods generate approximately half a billion clicks per month!

Here is the link for the interview which is also downloadable as an MP3, enjoy!