I now firmly believe that one of the easiest and most lucrative ways to monetize a website is to generate leads. Web lead generation is good for everyone involved. Many website owners are struggling to find more lucrative ways to monetize their website. With PPC down in many verticals, owners are now looking for ways to maximize their website revenue. Web lead generation proposes a plethora of potential ways to do so.

Depending on how you generate and qualify the traffic/lead, you may be able to cross-sell one lead into many different arenas, which poses a whole new venue for untapped revenue. Think about it, if you could generate a life insurance lead and up-sell them in the squeeze process to request info on health insurance, you could sell the lead twice.

These are just some random unstructured thoughts. I will be researching this space thoroughly and will post more regarding my findings. Good luck all.

Backlinks, link juice, link love or whatever you want to call it is by far one of the most important aspects to any website’s SEO campaign. There are many other facets of website promotion and SEO, but in order to gain solid SERP(Search Engine Results Page) rankings you will need to obtain solid backlinks.

The very simplified basics of backlinking:

• One-way links are better – Getting a site to link to you, but not link to them. A site going out of their way to add a backlink without an exchange builds search engine’s confidence in the site.
• Two-way links are still good – It’s still helpful to exchange links, but since it’s easy for the search engines to recognize this it diminishes the value a bit. Since the link is reciprical the search engines can assume that both sites did so for SEO reasons.
• Anchor text matters – This is highly overlooked. I have a client right now who has gotten many great backlinks, but the link anchor text are his web address. Sure it helps, but had the anchor text contained keywords related to his business they would be significantly more valuable. An example of this, http://www.realestatearizona.com compared to Arizona Real Estate News. This is a blatant way to tell the Search Engines what the site relates to, thus helping to increase your rankings for those keywords.
• Keep your link building strategy organic – Doing too much of one thing what necessarily look good to to the search engines. Having a good mix of one-way, reciprocal, and even nofollow links are common for a site that doesn’t have an active SEO linking campaign; therefore, a site with a linking campaign should have the same mix. Don’t overuse it, but you can buy links from companies such as .
• Don’t be afraid to ask for a link – Getting links is mostly a manual process and sometimes just boils down to an email or phone call. It usually starts with trying to find a website with a related, but non-competing topic. For example, a real estate agent would want to get a link from a mortgage broker. There are few ways to find websites to pursue backlinks from. The simplest is just doing a search; however, it is also very helpful to use a service such as seomoz.org’s juicy link finder. By providing a keyword seomoz.org will compile a list of the most relative sites.
• PR sorta matters – I highly recommend not focusing solely on PR. While Google Pagerank certainly is an indicator and should be taken into account, it shouldn’t be your only reason for pursuing a backlink. Check Compete.com and if you have an seomoz.org account check to see what incoming and outgoing links the site already has. PR can be faked, so finding out what backlinks the site has will tell you if it’s PR is indeed not real.

These are more technical components to obtaining backlinks, which I will delve into further at a later time. I attended Pubcon a few years ago and they said something I find interesting to this day, “One of the cheapest and best backlinks can be had over a good beer.” I guess what I’m trying to say is that, don’t overlook the great links you can get from the person right next to you.

After trying out nearly every other CMS available I have concluded that I Love WordPress. It ultimately seems strange to me that WordPress is now in use by so many people and companies not as a blog, but as their main website.

WordPress’ original purpose was only to serve as a blogging system, but through open source development it has become by far one of the best website solutions available. I personally use it for most of my sites. Additionally, it’s a great system to use for clients. It has such as simple back-end that even the most novice web user can easily use it. A good personal example is the GD Jiu-Jitsu website. After converting the website over to wordpress Gustavo, the site owner, has easily been able to update the site himself. His previous site was a static ASP site that he struggled to get updated since his web developer went missing-in-action.

WordPress Templates
Templates are another huge reason I love WordPress. I mean come on, who wants to reinvent the wheel each time you create a new site. With thousands of free templates and thousands of inexpensive premium templates, it makes designing a site as easy as uploading the template files

Recommended WordPress Template Services
StudioPress
Theme Forest

WordPress Plugins
Plugins are what make WordPress so amazing. According to WordPress.org there are 6,735 available through the site and many more available directly from plugin creators. Almost any widget you may want to ad to your site is available making site development quick, easy, and cheap. This is what makes WordPress so attractive. I’ve listed several plugins I commonly use and that can be downloaded from the site or directly from within any hosted wordpress install.

Recommend WordPress Plugins

• All in One SEO Pack – This is a must on every wordpress site. It allows you to create unique META and title information. Additionally, it can automate the process as well.

• Twitter Widget – Makes adding your twitter feed a breeze. Just install, set your username and how many tweets. So much better then messing with the javascript manually.

• Feedburner Feedsmith – Feedburner is rapidly becoming a standard for promoting almost any feed. As with almost any Google service, Feedburner is free and highly useful for any site that posts are actively utilized.

• Tubepress – Adding a single video to your site from Youtube is pretty easy, but adding your playlist or search feed is a hassle. Tubepress makes it simple by allowing you to specify one of your playsists or create a predefined search then display in gallery format all the videos. This is a great way to get users to hang out on your site. I used this heavily on Grappling Academy.

• Featured Content Gallery – A very pretty way to add featured posts to your site with a related image. You can check out an example of this on Real Estate Arizona.

• Redirection – Another must. If you every change your post structure it will automatically add a 301 redirect to the new post. Additionally, any latent links that you may not have manually created 301 redirects for it will try to match to an existing page and forward the visitor. This plugin is especially useful if you are migrating your site to wordpress or changing the domain of the site. I’d recommend reviewing the Plugin Page for all of the features.

• Google Sitemap Generator – Takes all the pain out of creating your sitemap. The sitemap can also be used for Yahoo SiteExplorer and Bing Webmaster Tools.

• WP Google Analytics – Adding the Analytics code manually isn’t that hard, but the nice part of this plugin is that it will tag all outbound links with referrer info. This way its possible to track where visitors go. Additionally, it will remove any traffic from logged in users, which is helpful so you don’t skew your stats.

• WP Super Cache – Any database driven site can be a victim of slow load times. Super Cache will make a static HTML page cache, so the site’s load time will be decreased significantly. One thing to be aware of is that if this is active and you make changes it won’t necessarily be visible if a cache has been made. So if you plan to work on the site, I’d recommend disabling it until you complete your changes.

There are obviously tons more WordPress plugins to choose from, but these are a standard set that I install on nearly every WordPress site I manage.

WordPress Conclusion
I used to deal with so many people that would try and use Joomla or some other obscure CMS, so I hopefully can convince some more folks to use the best (yes I know it’s a superlative) CMS available, WordPress. Many hosts such as DreamHost provide users with a 1-install as well. Good luck with your web endeavors and should you need any advice or guidance please feel free to contact me at lee (at) dotinvesting.com.

One of the biggest challenges in building a new website is the content. In the past the technical part of a website provided many challenges. Now with WordPress and the other content management systems available, it’s nearly eliminated that issue.That said, there is still one major challenge to any website, CONTENT! Even the coolest looking wordpress template is nothing without great content to put in it.

This is the #1 reason why I recommend anyone starting there own web ventures start them around what they know. Many people who start building domain portfolios get stuck in the “Domain Lottery” mentality and buy on short-term trends or speculate to heavily. I’ve always been a proponent of buying domains around what you know. However, at some point it will certainly make sense to expand outside of your knowledgebase.

You’ll have a few content options:

1. You can utilize a content service such as Text Broker. They provide contract writing services. You can pick up 350-450 word articles for $8-$10. I had them write an Arizona Home Loans article for my website Real Estate Arizona as an example. I’m typically pleased with their service and you can always request a revision if you’re unhappy. The best part is they have a large number of writers, so getting one that’s able to write on a topic related to your site is  not difficult. Also, as a security to duplicate content, the article gets ran through CopyScape.

2. Write it yourself. This is a great idea if you’re following the Dot Investing strategy of investing in what you know. If that’s not the case and it’s on a topic you have limited knowledge in, then this could present some problems. First, you’ll have to gauge your writing ability and be realistic about it. Second, you’ll most likely do your research online, so you’ll have to be careful not to create duplicate content.

3. Use a content partner. I recently set out to develop a site for grappling and brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques. Granted I do participate in brazilian jiu-jitsu, but I realized I had limited knowledge and having a content partner would help insure success. I handle all of the technical and he handles all of the content organization and writing. Like any relationship, communication is key, but I feel in the end we will have a way better product relying on each others strengths.

After about a month’s worth of work we created Grappling Academy. We’re still in the midst of adding some of the content, but are nearly done and overall I’m quite happy with the end result. Take a look and of course, please let me know what you think.

Grappling Academy

So what I’ve realized is that tapping the very people you interact with on a daily basis may not be a good idea. The reality is that you’re an expert in something and so is the person next to you. Use what you know and what they know to make a great site. Not only that, but then you don’t have to explain how to setup a website for free anymore

Benefits to Media Selling

• Minimal variable costs associated with selling ad space, whether text or image.
• Media selling  could potentially introduce possible partnerships and/or synergies with other non-competing companies.
• Control of which advertisers are published unlike PPC.

Considerations
The most important consideration is that ad sales will result in traffic referrals. Some of the traffic may be traffic that would have converted in another beneficial way depending on the site type. Website ads also can increase exit and bounce rates. As a result, stats monitoring will be extremely important in order to make any necessary changes to the program’s offerings.

Possible Client Sources

1. Self managed – This requires marketing directly through the site(s) as well as the active pursuit of relevant advertisers. One inherent benefit is having a greater role in advertiser selection. Additionally, a self managed ad program provides greater price control and the ability to charge “retail”.
2. Media buying companies – There are companies that buy ad space. In essence it’s  a “wholesale” market. This is done by determining ad locations and selling the space even though there may not be an immediate advertiser. The media company would then select advertisers to be placed in those locations. The benefit is not having to allocate resources to create and manage an ad program.
3. Ad markets – These are setup by various companies and allow you to post available inventory and allow advertisers to purchase and negotiate ad space. This is potentially very valuable and shouldn’t be overlooked. This is typically available in conjunction with ad management software.

Ad Management

2 recommended solutions:

Statistics and Tracking
Statistics and tracking are a critical part of any ad program. The ad management solutions listed above will handle this, but using another stats system is critical, such as Google Analytics. It is important to persistently review of exits and bounces that could be related to the ad program. This will allow for an increase or decrease of the ad spots and their locations.

Recommended Program Milestones

Setup
• 1 -2 weeks to setup ad manager and get initial inventory added.
• 2-3 days to implement ad space and tracking
• 1 month of direct sales

Review
• 1 week review period to determine program changes
• 1-2 weeks to implement changes

Maintain
• Once a month a report should be created to review overall program success and implement necessary changes.

I emailed SnapNames on July 16th as I could find no way to sign up for their affiliate program. At that time I got this reply:

“Good Afternoon Lee,

We are launching a new affiliate program very soon.  I will add your email to my notification list.

It’s going to be announced with a big splash!

Thank you,

Jonathan”

I emailed them again on September 13th and it just so happens that they were/are planning to launch it this week. I haven’t heard any news about it, so I’m still waiting on the “splash,” but if you’ve been waiting to sign up you can do so at http://www.essociate.com/sites#snapnames. One thing that I think all bloggers would like is a good RSS feed for domain listings, but after testing out a few of the feeds I wouldn’t suggest using any.

Here are the details I received from their support.

“Good Afternoon Lee,

Yes!  We are rolling it out this week!  Thanks for following up!

Hello Lee,

I am really excited to offer you a membership in the SnapNames Affiliate program!  As the leading domain marketplace, we get our customers the domains they want.

From Expiring & Dropping to Bargain Brand-able & Generics to Premium Domains – they are all available on SnapNames daily.

Here are just a few reasons why SnapNames is the best domain aftermarket:

-SnapNames is the pioneer and leader in the expiring and dropping domain industry

-And, now, the destination site for Moniker’s Live Premium and Extended auctions as well as daily market for privately held domains

-Your referrals can choose from up to 1 million domains daily — all the good ones are not taken!

We sell more domains on a daily basis than all marketplaces combined ~ up to 1,000 domains daily!  Bottom-line, your referrals will find the best selection of aftermarket domains in terms of both quality and price.

Our Affiliate program is powered by the patented Essociate Virtual Affiliate and Affiliate Builder software, the new program provides user-friendly online tools to track and optimize your SnapNames.com campaigns.

• It’s trusted: 100% leak-free network with online reporting, encrypted links & sub-campaign tracking.

• Easy-to-sell: Choose from a robust selection of media rich campaigns including banner ads, sliders, peels, RSS feed, search widget and more.

• We are here to help: Proactive account managers are available to help you optimize campaigns and conversion.

• Most importantly, great payouts: 20% for new customer referrals and 5% on existing customer referrals over 90 days (payouts based on net proceeds).

It’s easy to get started!

1- Please visit http://www.essociate.com/sites#snapnames

2- Sign up online by completing the form

3- You will quickly receive an on-boarding kit, which includes your custom code containing your affiliate tracking i.d., a selection of banner ads and implementation instructions

4- Get Paid – payments and reports are sent monthly (min payout is $50)

We look forward to making money together.  Please contact let me know if you have any questions.

Let’s get started!

Best Regards,

Jonathan”