RunningShoes.com: from $150 to 700k in 5 yrs

DNjournal.com reports that RunningShoes.com sold for $700,000 making it the year’s biggest sale.

To add to the news reported by Ron Jackson, this blog can report the domain name sold for a measly $150 in 2005. Isn’t that amazing!

From low 3 figures to high 6 figures!

How is Local News Related to Your Success?

Watching the local news, that’s a great use of your time, presented in a one hundred percent problem format.

No one watching the news cares your sale numbers are up, or that Wendy got a promotion, or that Jordan got straight A’s on his report card. Good news does not sell; therefore it’s omitted.

Rather, what you get is distorted, negative information about two or three percent of the people affecting those who view it in the worst way. If you watch an hour a day of problems, everyday for years, you become problem oriented.

Do you think local news adds or detracts from your sales skills? How about your business skills? How about your life skills? The news is popular because most people that watch it lack focus or direction, or are miserable and looking for something or someone more miserable than they are – I guess to make them feel better.

Still think the local news is important, How many of you can look in the mirror and say “I’m successful today, I am where I am today , because of the local news.”

Here’s a wakeup call: Let’s say you have been watching the news for half hour a day for the past year. That’s 7.5 full 24 hour days you spent watching problems. In five years that’s 38 full 24 hour days . In terms of a 40 hour work week, that’s 23 weeks every five years.

Now imagine the possibilities if you diverted that energy in a positive direction. Imagine what you could do with that time, and accomplish in that time, if you put it to productive use.

As a quick example, if you instead spent just 15-minutes a day reading and learning about a topic of interest, in one-year you could be an expert in that topic and help your business, or family.

Which do you think is a more powerful use of your time: Watching other people’s problems or investing in yourself and creating plans and solutions for you or your business.

The next time you say “I don’t have enough time” substitute the phrase with “I don’t choose to spend my time in that manner.” It’s closer to the truth. The real truth is you’re not investing your time in the most important people in the world – You and your family or your own business.

Take your hour a day and convert it into a positive action or learning for yourself, your job, your business and your family. At the end of the year, you will have captured more than 15 full 24-hour days building your future.

Reprinted with permission of Adam Dicker

News Served On Your Plate, 24X7

Is it a Good Idea to Use WordPress vs HTML?

Personally. I much prefer standard html sites vs WordPress sites. However, with that said, I must say a well designed WP site certainly can look great and be successful. Blogs and forums in particular do extremely well using WordPress where richness of features and live user interactivity are highly desired features, but with that said, I still like HTML vs Woprdpress by far for making “regular” (non-blog non-forum) new sites.

After working for years with regular html before using WordPress at first I found the WordPress learning curve to be huge and taking vast amounts of time. One of the toughest aspects was the look and feel of a WP site which is difficult to control and tricky to modify vs much easier to change html sites. Heavy spam or bot posts of WP sites are also a negative issue which is always looming but that is not a big problem involving standard html sites.

In addition, I do not think WordPress security is that good judging by some WP sites I know being hacked in the past. Speaking of security, the ongoing need to frequently update the version number is also an unwanted hassle, especially since the automatic upgrade capacity can and does sometimes fail.

In fact, you always need to worry your old WP version may not be fully compatible with the latest version and if not your site will go down when the upgrade fails and the old site will then stop functioning due to the upgrade failure. Been there and done that too. Even backups are a big hassle since there are extra steps involved to copy the data base but with standard html the database can be easily copied using simple FTP at the same time as regular htm files, with no other steps needed.

As far as search engine optimization is concerned I suspect WP and HTML are roughly equal in that regard. However, with that said, it’s much easier to do search engine verifications with html sites since it can be quite confusing trying to determine where the needed search engine verification codes are inserted into WordPress sites (because of the .php file names and confusing directory and folder structure, but with HTML and .htm files that’s all quite basic by comparison.

In my opinion, a big reason WordPress is so popular are the vast numbers of people who say they are WP programmers and designers (it must be easy to become one), or sell products that only work with WP, including many web-developer special offers and Clickbank products. Recently I decided to NOT buy several excellent sounding new developent site offers and programs since they were offered or designed only for WordPress and I was reluctant to add more WP sites no matter how good the offer sounds.

As a test, just ask a WordPress minisite developer, site designer or seller to help with some simple and basic modifications to your old html website and you will likely learn he/she can not do the job, no matter how basic it may be. Been there and done that. In fact, some of the things I wanted a bit of help or advice with from my WordPress developers or designers were real basic which I ended up doing myself, and I am far from being good with programming.

Some Domain Industry Players are Not Doing Well

Well known and veteran domainer Sahar Sarid’s Conceptualist.com website looks like it’s gone. The Conceptualist.com website owned by “Sahar Sarid” for a long tme recently became a simple DomainSponsor.com parking page but as of today it no longer resolves at all. That’s not too surprising overall since there seems to be a somewhat significant down-sizing or shakeout taking place in the industry.

Various industry firms, forums, domain meeting venues, auctions and individual domainers have left the business, are not doing well, or have domain-name related websites which are less successful and active vs a few years ago.

It’s probably mostly the result of large declines in pay-per-click advertising revenues, reduced market liquidity, the economy, combined with market saturation and too many participants (including lots of new players) competing and trying to grab their own piece of the pie.

Here is a link to an interesting 2007 article about Sahar Sarid, a DNJurnal.com Cover-Story.

Kids Are Searching for Surprising Things

Kids search for surprising things online. A report from Symantec and its Norton OnlineFamily service, which allows parents to monitor and manage their kids’ online activities, including Internet searches. The Norton service tracks and reports the children’s Internet activities in real-time so parents can learn about online-content their kids should not be reading or seeing on the-web.

Here are the top-10 search-terms from kids over a recent 6-month period:

P.S. No, search-terms 4, 6, 28 and 89 are not April Fool’s jokes as you may be thinking!

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. MySpace
6. Porn
7. Yahoo
8. Michael Jackson
9. Fred
10. eBay

Other search-terms making the top-100 search-terms include Wikipedia (14), Webkinz (16), games (17), Boobs (28), the Jonas Brothers (47), Playboy (89), iTunes (89b) and and swine flu (93). Who is Fred? He is a made-up character whose YouTube channel has become big with kids.

Many Websurfers & Users Are Not Internet Savvy

An actual example of how many people are not very internet savvy occurred a few days ago when I asked someone (in-person) to go to a website named Example-Example.com but she typed-in ExampleHyphenExample.com and then announced the website did not work.

Quite surprisingly, she actually spelled and typed the word hyphen instead of using a (-) dash character. Even after I explained that a ‘hyphen’ was a ‘dash’ she seemed a bit confused and still did not understand it.

At another time and involving a different person (on phone) I used the word ‘dash’ meaning Example-Example.com but he typed in ExampleDashExample.com, typing-in the word ‘dash’ instead of the keyboard (-) character.

On a somewhat different subject, it’s also true even today there are lots of people who don’t really know the difference between a browser address box and a search-engine box, especially as far as actual use is concered.

I have several family members who always type the website URL including its domain extension in the Google search box, and do not use the Internet Explorer or Safari browser address window (which is of course where the URL should go). When I told them about it they were not aware they should (or even could for that matter) use the browser window.

On a side-note to our readers who run their own websites and study site visitor data, we believe URL’s typed-in the search box do not count as valuable so called Direct Navigation (a.k.a. typeins) but are considered to be (less valuable) search visitors.

We suspect most website owners (even including some experienced domainers) do not understand or realize their actual direct navigation (typein) numbers are a better percentage than their stats program indicates, something many site owners are overlooking that positive aspect with their website stats software data analysis.

Tags:

Overstock.com is rebranding itself as O.CO

Found this on the Overstock.com website this morning. It’s also Super Bowl Sunday, so perhaps not just a coincidence since the .CO extension domain names will be strongly marketed in today’s Super Bowl commercials, making Overstock.com’s announcement real good timing in that regard.

“Shopping at Overstock.com internationally is about to get easier with the O.co domain. Since the company acquired the O.co domain name in July 2010, Overstock.com has been simpler to access by mobile Internet users. Now, to minimize confusion and hassle while translating the word “Overstock” into other languages, Overstock.com is rebranding internationally and will be known as O.co as of Jan. 2011. This guide will address any concerns you may have about Overstock.com’s new domain.

Q. Why will Overstock.com be known as O.co internationally?

A. In July 2010, .co domain names became available for general purchase, and Overstock.com acquired the O.co domain name in order to reinforce the “O” of the Overstock brand and capture customers’ attention with a short, memorable web address. The short .co domain will also solve translation issues and allow Overstock.com to create a universal logo, brand and web domain name that will be recognizable internationally…”

Click the Overtstock.com® woman on the couch picture below to visit the new O.co® website:

Example of a Cleverly Disguised Hijacking Attempt

Watch out for all the very well done cleverly disguised attempts to get your login name and password to various websites such as PayPal, Amazon.com, your Bank accounts, Facebook, plus email providers such as Gmail, and other sites.

For example, reprinted below is one of the more clever ones making the rounds today, which I am sure could work very well for the hijacker of your account:

“Gmail technology team has recently launched Google web software to protect and secure all Gmail Accounts. This system also enhanced efficient networking and fully supported browser. You need to upgrade to a fully supported browser by filling out the details below for validation purpose and to confirm your details on the new webmaster Central system.

ID:
PASSWORD:
LOCATION:

Note: Your account will be disabled permanently if you failed to provide the details required above within 72hours. Gmail will not be held responsible for your negligence. The Google web Service.”

In 1994 Katie Couric Didn’t Know About Internet

Back in 1994 people like Katie Couric had a hard time understanding or explaining what the Internet was!

Paris Hilton is on new Drooping Eye website

Some celebrities have drooping eye condition like the best known celebity with drooping eye, Paris Hilton, for example. It has been said that Paris Hilton’s eye drooping was a side-effect caused by botched eyelid cosmetic surgery.

A drooping eyelid can stay about the same, become worse over time, or come and go in severity. It can be on one-side, or effecting both the eyes. When drooping is one-sided it’s easy to detect by comparing it to the non-drooping eye. Drooping eye is harder to to detect when both eyes are drooping, or if there’s only a small eye droop.

A drooping eye can make you look tired and unattractive. Drooping eyelids are either there from birth or develop later in life. Drooping eye is not a cause for panic, but you should ask your doctor about possible treatment and cure.

Drooping eyes and eyelid-droop can be caused by misc factors, including strokes (which is what many people think of as its cause when they see someone with drooping eye condition), cosmetic face or eyelid surgery (more common than you would think, ask Paris Hilton about drooping eye), horner syndrome, reduced muscle control from normal aging, out-of-control diabetes, myasthenia gravis, brain tumors or cancers affecting the facial nerves and muscles, or be there at birth due to genetics.

Click-Here to read droopingeye and more about Paris Hilton’s appearance

Wellness and Health should be a 2011 goal

Regular walking and other low intensity exercise is excellent for ongoing Wellness and Health, Fitness, Dieting & Weight-loss, plus Longevity & just plain Feeling Good. Get health-care, disease symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cures from America’s Health Site & Wellness Organization.

Make Health and Wellness your personal health goal for the year 2011 and beyond.

Go-Here for Wellness & Health website

Why Does Bing Make it Difficult to Submit a Site?

If you own or run a website you realize the high value of getting your site listed well in the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!

Often you simply wait for the search engine to find your site which they normally will do from following links and other ways to find and index your website. That passive approach usually will be adequate in most cases but it’s not assured and sometimes your site may not get indexed as fast as desired.

However, it’s not necessary to wait since you can be more aggressive by submitting your site directly to the search engines yourself by using their Add URL feature.

The becoming popular Bing.com search engine and others require the verification code be read and typed in. Bing in particular seems to make it unusually difficult to submit your URL since they use a verification code you need to type in, which is far from easy to read.

Those verification codes are also known as Captcha Images which can be read by a human but not by a computer or an automated system since the characters have misc fonts and text styles, and be displayed in various font sizes.

The Bing.com Captcha Image appears to be much harder to read compared to other sites which also require a verification code be entered. In fact, the Bing captcha verification seems so difficult that it makes you wonder if perhaps Bing.com does not really want you to submit your website to their search engine!

Take a look yourself. Try submitting any website URL to Bing.com. Click the 1-11-11 image below to access the Add URL to Bing link:

Skype has acquired Qik.com for $100 million!

We have joined qik.com which was recently purchased by Skype.

•Capture special or spontaneous moments on video using your mobile phone.

•Share the moments live or anytime later with anyone you choose using cell phone live video.

Many Famous Men Are 33rd Degree Freemasons

Been researching Freemasonry lately. One of the most interesting things about becoming a free mason is freemasons saying “a man should never enter freemason fraternity in anticipation of making business connections or for any other sort of professional or monetary gain. If he does, he will be badly disappointed. Instead, he will find a group of like-minded men, who are willing to treat him as a brother and share in a deep and rewarding fellowship with him.

He will find true friends and life-long companions. We expect men who petition for freemason membership to be good but not necessarily perfect men. We know all men have limitations and weaknesses. The freemason symbol pictured below is mysterious to the public as far as what it means and its origin.

Making money and businenss connection is definately not welcome by freemasons. Instead, they say a primary purpose of Freemasonry is the ongoing development of the Mason as an ethical, honest, moral, caring, sincere and charitable man, learning about his own potential as a human being and developing his intellectual and spiritual character.

We just finished a small website about the 33rd degree mason level which I believe is the highest level possible.

Some very famous men have or are freemssona (mostly 33rd degree masons) including: Bill Clinton (Senior Demolay; Newt Gingrich, 33rd Degree Freemason; Bob Dole, 33rd Degree Freemason; Jack Kemp, 33rd Degree Freemason; Storm Thurmond; 33rd Degree Freemason, Colin Powell, 33rd Degree Freemason; U.S. Secretary of State; Jesse Helms, 33rd Degree Freemason; Barry Goldwater, 33rd Degree Freemason; W.D. Gann, 33rd Degree Freemason, Famous Stocks & Commodities Trader; Al Gore, Freemason; and many US Presidents including: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush

33rd Degree Mason

Phone Calls can be an Affiliate Program Negative

For some odd reason the potential phone call which in all likelihood can end-up losing your affiliate referral revenue has rarely been talked about in the past. Not sure why since it’s believed to be a big negative.

I believe a good percentage of potential buyers will pick up the phone and call the sellers toll-free number for more information and when they do that your chance of getting credit for the sale becomes very low. That is especially true with higher priced products and services, where the prospective buyer is much more inclined to call before spending significant money.

He or she may be wondering if it’s a legitimate business and curious to see if a live person answers the phone. Your potential buyer may also be thinking they can get a better deal by calling, and there are other reasons they are likely to pick up the phone instead of using the online contact form or order form (which contains a cookie and tracking ID), such as a desire to authenticate the company, product or service, including frequently wanting to ask questions about the product or offer before ordering it.

When potential buyers call the sellers number, orders are often taken right away over the phone. Or a little later the buyer may be sent an email with an ordering link (not related to you as the publisher), so credit to you as the referral source can easily be lost, thus preventing you from getting credit for the sale.

As a side note, some years ago we believed we had far more referrals than our reports indicated. Therefore, we called seller ourselves and asked how they handled phone calls as far as credit to us as the referral source is concerned. We were told “don’t worry, we always ask how they got our number – so you get credited for the sale.”

Not surprisingly, that turned-out to be false since the next day we called the 800 number on the sellers website and said we wanted to place an order. We actually placed the phone order and at no time during the entire process did anyone ask how we got the number, so receiving credit was impossible.

In fact, the phone call issue is a major reason we have always been somewhat negative about joining affiliate programs. Unless someone can figure out a way to get around this negative issue we will stay negative on affiliate programs (at least regarding higher priced products). I see no good way to avoid this issue beyond getting your own assigned phone number but seriously doubt the product/service provider will agree to assign a special phone number to a new affiliate to better track the referrals.

Product Authentication

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