Entrepreneurs-Journey.com Down-To-Earth Advice For Bloggers and Internet Marketers

Over the weekend I attended Ed Dale’s 30DC Coming Home three day event in Melbourne.

Ed Dale, if you don’t know him, is one of Australia’s most well known and likable Internet marketers, who adds a uniquely Australian flavour to the industry. Currently he is most well known as one of the founders of the 30 Day Challenge, an introductory program that aims to take any person from absolute beginner to making their first few dollars online, and beyond, within 30 days.

Ed also has a rep for website flipping, having earlier in his career sold his website portfolio for $5 million dollars. He then moved on to teach how to build niche sites with Frank Kern using the “Underachiever Method”, which focused on creating small sites that each earned a few hundred dollars a month, and then pumping out as many of them as you could.

Ed is one of those types of people who likes to keep up to date with everything and anything going on online, with the eyes of a marketer and a geek. He’s constantly talking about the future before it gets here, and it’s clear this is a passion of his more so than a business interest – he just likes to geek out on technology, marketing, social media and the web, but always refers back to how it could be used to make money.

The seminar on the weekend was by far the most relaxed event I’ve been too, led by the TubbyNerd himself (Ed) wearing his sandals, shorts and geeked out shirts. This wasn’t a formal seminar with suits, or people attempting to keep up professional appearance or sell you anything. It was a bunch of experienced guys and girls coming together to teach a bunch of up and comers how to make money online, in the format of a casual conversation. Just how I like it

What Are We Talking About

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These are the first two of the videos I’ve put together for my trip to New York City. It was an awesome week spent walking, eating, walking some more and then eating again. It gave my body a break from the computer, which was needed after a busy few months with Blog Mastermind.

Ed Dale Interview

This video is from when I first landed and went straight to the 30 Day Challenge meet-up, which coincidentally was organized for the same time I was in the city. Ed Dale, a friend and fellow Aussie from Melbourne is the leader of the challenge and I captured this interview with him outside the meet-up venue, which as you can see was quite noisy, apologies for that.

Ed and I had some laughs about the likelihood of the American version of Kath and Kim succeeding (car accident was Ed’s words), plus we learn about how Ed become a well known Internet marketer and why he continues to work despite having made millions online years ago from his website sales.

Times Square

In this second video I head out to the streets of New York and wander into Times Square, which is always spectacular at night.

I speculate in this video how well the billboards convert as marketing tools and wonder whether a billboard with Blog Mastermind plastered on it would do very well. Look out for the cookie from the Roxy deli as well.

I’m off to New York City tomorrow for a holiday. While there I was thinking of holding a meet-up for my readers, but I just got word that Ed Dale and his 30 day challenge people are meeting on Wednesday, so I’ve decided to head to that instead – and you’re invited!

If you want to meet me and say hello to Ed Dale and his crew too, we’re meeting on Wednesday night starting 7pm.

Full details are on the 30 Day Challenge blog.

I remember my first website sale. I made $13,000 Australian dollars selling a website that I had built from scratch myself. That sale was a big windfall for me and a moment I won’t forget because it was the first time I saw the real potential of online property investment.

Since that sale I’ve gone on to sell more than $150,000 USD in websites. Some of the sites I built myself, investing my own time and sometimes money, while others I have purchased and then sold for a profit at a later date.

I’ve never lost money on a website investment, although I have bought some sites that were not big money spinners – I got out with pretty much the same as I went in with. When profits are made though, the worst I have done is double my money.

Long Term Investing?

On the Internet you might call what I do long term investing since most of the sites I bought were sold no earlier than 18 months time. The websites I built myself take as long as five years to reach the point of sale, although I could have sold earlier for less or held on longer for more.

The best return on investment from a flip (a site bought and later sold) was 1,000% – 10 times the money I put in. It took a little over two years to do that. Another trade was a set of sites I purchased 18 months prior that brought in a little over double my initial investment.

In the offline world, returns like that in 18 and 24 months would be considered exceptional and certainly not standard. If a share portfolio or investment in physical property returns 20% a year you are doing well.

The world of the web is different. Everything is changing fast, yet with so many websites and so many people online, the size and potential of the market is tremendous. There are bargains out there all the time and as long as you don’t screw up what you purchase, simply allowing a site to grow organically can result in significant profits, if you are prepared to wait.

Flipping Part Time

I’ve never focused all my energy on buying and selling websites, which is why I haven’t done that many trades. Most of the time I work on whatever my main business projects are at the time, but I keep my eyes on some of the website trading forums to see if bargains come up.

When a site matches my criteria, I act fast with an offer, do some basic due diligence and if all things go well, make a deal. I miss out on more sites than I purchase because other people out-bid me, the site sells before I find it or due diligence convinces me to pass on a particular site.

As a result of buying websites purely as a side project, I’ve focused on a certain type of website and made sure I have people working with me who can help with the activities I don’t have the time to do. You definitely need to be careful if you want website flipping to be a part time job, it can quickly suck all your time, especially if you choose the wrong type of site.

Criteria for Part Time Website Flipping

Here’s some advice from what I have learned in the previous years flipping websites part time.

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I’ve mentioned before that I derive some of my income online from websites I have purchased – forums in particular – that bring in a steady stream of passive revenue.

It’s not a huge source of income for me (about low four figures at the moment), but given the return on investment – you can buy a website and earn back your investment cost within 12 months at most (usually closer to 6 months) – it’s hard not to take advantage of all the amazing opportunities currently available in the online real estate world.

Dominiche

Ed Dale became famous as an Internet marketer because of his amazing story of selling 38 niche websites for 5 million dollars. He’s gone on to make over 9 million from website trading and it’s pretty clear Ed knows how to make money from buying and selling websites.

Ed, along with his friend Frank Kern, created a program called Dominiche, which teaches people how to replicate their system for locating, buying and profiting from website real estate. Earlier this year Ed joined the team at StomperNet and it appears that Dominiche came along with him.

Presently Ed is producing a series of videos introducing people to the world of buying and selling websites as part of the relaunch of Dominiche, this time brought to you by StomperNet. I just finished watching video number 8, where Ed explains how sometimes it’s better to have little money when entering the web property market.

Yaro Quits Blogging

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