So in my last post I decided I would try and focus on developing a few sites and get them ranking in Google, and this is exactly what I’ve been trying to do. One thing I observed is that getting a new website ranking well takes time, and Google seems to prefer ranking older sites above newer ones. So with this is mind, I have decided I would concentrate on sites I have that are at least 6 months old. This limited the amount of sites I could work on, since most of my sites are only 3/4 months old, but now that I have these in the pipeline I will be able to work on developing them further and ranking them in a couple of months time.
Cheap Fragrances
One of the sites I decided I would work on would be Cheap Fragrances, I registered this domain in August, and quickly put a one page site up. My intention was to create a price comparison site for perfumes & aftershave using the price tapestry script. However development of this got delayed as I couldn’t work out how to intergrate the script with wordpress due to my limited coding knowledge. However last month I discovered a wordpress plugin had since been developed for price tapestry which made the set up easy- even for someone like me! So I started to develop it again. I had this site ranking number 11 a couple of days ago for the term Cheap Fragrances, however at the time of writing this, it seems to have disappeared, but I am confident it will return (hopefully higher) if i can build a few more links to it.
Sex Toys
Another site I decided to work on developing was one in the Sex toys niche, I purchased this aged site in December where it was ranking number 10 in Google for it’s keyword, and have since got it ranking number 4 for it’s main keyword, and number 10 for another. With a little more work, I hope to get this ranking 1/2, where hopefully i’ll get even more traffic coming to the site, and with affiliate commissions reaching as high 20%, and valentines day fast approaching, I hope it can earn some more money too!
Hotels in Bath City Centre
I wasn’t looking to purchase any more sites for a while, as I have enough domains and websites to develop. However when I saw this for sale at the price that was being offered, I knew it was a bargain, and had to have it! I purchased it last week where it was ranking bottom of page 2 on google for the term Hotels in Bath City Centre, & since then I have already got it to the top of page 2 by doing a couple of link exchanges. Hopefully with a few more links, I can get it to page 1.
Thought I’d give a quick update on my affiliate marketing and domaining activities, think it’s time I gave this neglected blog some much needed loving! Since my last post, I have started a full time job, which has eaten away a lot of my free time, but I am continuing to develop new sites and have been acquiring and (trying to) sell domains.
What am I doing now?
I am currently testing the water in a niche, and I am in the process of developing mini sites, and getting them ranked well for their keywords. However it’s fair to say I have lost a bit of focus, and have found myself with lots of half developed sites. So I am now trying to finish a website before I move onto the next, but it’s easier said than done!- I get too excited about the prospect of the next website 
. I do realise that focusing on one niche has its risks, and once I have completed my mini sites I will look to build a few more sites across other niches to diversify my income stream, and reduce this risk. Once I have done this, I plan to focus on the sites that are earning, and will cut out the deadwood.
A few things I’ve learnt
I have learnt a lot from all the helpful people in the industry, so thank you to everyone that has helped me out, and for your words of support & encouragement, you all know who you are! Below are some of things I have learnt from my first hand experiences.
Ranking in Google is a long term strategy
I naively thought that getting hold of an exact match domain meant that ranking highly in google was going to be a piece of cake, how wrong I was. It still requires a lot work and effort, and I’ve realised it’s going to take some time before I see results. However it is rewarding to watch your new site start to crawl up in the search engine rankings, and the pennies (hopefully lot’s of £’s soon) start to slowly roll in.
Selling domain names is easy
To be honest when I sold my first domain for £300 after registering it at a cost of £7, I thought it wouldn’t be too long until I sold my first one for a £1000+. However my first domain sale still remains the highest amount I have sold a single domain. Since then, I have sold a few domains that I didn’t think were too great, and this gave me the chance to reinvest into some that had more potential. I quickly learnt that selling a domain isn’t actually difficult at all, in fact it’s easy! If you lower your price enough, chances are someone will buy it. The hard part is selling it for a high price. So instead of selling my best domains, I am now focusing on either developing them, or holding onto them until someone makes me an offer I can’t refuse.
Outsourcing
To be an affiliate marketer requires a range of skill sets, and writing is my weakness (as is coding). I can spend hours in front of the computer and only write a few crappy lines! So I have now decided to get someone else to do it for me. This frees up my time so I can focus on other aspects of website development.
New Year’s Resolution
I’ve thought about it for a bit, and I’ve finally decided on my new year’s resolution- 1366 x 768. Apologies for the poor joke! But really my new year’s resolution is to carry on what I am doing and to carry on developing sites, focusing on one before moving onto the next, and to also buy fewer domains! I hope 2012 will see me start to make a decent amount of money from affiliate marketing, and one day i’d like to do this full time.
Recently I’ve started to try my hand at domain trading. For those of you that don’t know what a domain is, it is the name/url of a website, e.g. Google.co.uk, ebay.co.uk etc. Domain trading involves searching and buying domains that you think may be valuable, and then trying to sell them for more. This is something I have wanted to get into for years, but I never really knew how the process worked, and what constitutes a ‘valuable’ domain.
Over the last month, I found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands, and decided to do some more research into domain trading. With the help of forums such as Acorn Domains, and some individuals in the industry (you know who you are), I started to build up an understanding of what type of domains were valuable, and what were not (I’m still learning).
I have since been registering domains in my name, that I would like to develop, or that I thought had the potential to be resold for more. I now have about 20 domains in my domain portfolio.
I noticed that a hot niche to have a domain in at the moment was for Electronic Cigarettes, with ElectronicCigarettes.co.uk selling for £15,000 recently, and ElectricCigarette.co.uk selling for £1,750. I knew that if I could find one in this niche then I could possibly make some money. However as with any popular niche, it’s very difficult to find a domain available to register, as usually they are snapped up by somebody else. After searching for various terms that could be used for electric cigarette, such as ecigarettes, electriccig, etc, it seemed like they had all been taken. However while I was browsing facebook, I saw a status from a friend of mine. 
I noticed that this person was calling them e-cigs, a term I didn’t previously search for. After searching again, I found that e-cig.org.uk was available to register, and after getting a second opinion from Frank Paul (cheers Frank!), he suggested it was worth registering. So after paying £7 to have it registered, a week later I put it up for sale on Acorn Domains, where within half an hour of listing it someone offered me £300 for it. I gladly accepted the offer, and was happy to have sold my first domain. Hopefully I will sell a few more in the future
I have quite a few domains in my portfolio now, too many to list here! If you have found a domain that I own and would like to make me an offer please get in touch.
I know a few people that have finished University recently, and are currently looking for work. I was recently fortunate enough to get a job, and I thought I would share some hints and tips I picked up along the way.
Top 5 Tips
1. Know what you want to do
Now this is difficult, not everyone knows what they want to do, and I certainly didn’t. But it’s good to have a general idea, if you’re not sure what you want to, then play to your strengths.
2. Tailor your CV
When you know what you want to do, you can then start to tailor your CV towards a particular group of jobs. Making sure that you demonstrate that you have the skills and qualities required for the job, bring up relevant modules that you did at uni, any extra curricular activities that you did outside of your education etc. It is important to tweak your CV for every job that you apply for.
If your not sure how to layout your CV check out the links below. I’d be more than happy to send you a copy of my CV, simply get in touch with me here.
Graduate CV Template
Examples of Good and Bad CVs
3. Start applying for Jobs
Now you can start applying for jobs! I didn’t have much luck with graduate schemes, there’s too much competition, and for me, they were a waste of time. I applied for jobs on monster and reed, and this opened the door to many opportunties as these websites are crawling with recruiters waiting to help find you a job.
4. Network
Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know. Think of people you know that might be able to help you get an interview for a job you want. Attend graduate fairs, get twitter and linkedin. I had one recruiter find me on linkedin, and he got me an interview. Also every person you met at uni, friend or not, could be an important contact in the future, Linkedin is a good way to keep in touch. I also got twitter to help me with my job search, I followed lots of users that posted job vacancies.
5. Stay motivated, and keep up the hard work
Finding a job is like having a job, it’s hard work! Getting a job is a numbers game, the more interviews you have the more likely you are to get one. My way of thinking was that every interview I went to where I didnt get the job, made me one step closer to getting one.
You’ve probably seen a link shortened by bit.ly somewhere on the web, but a few weeks ago I learnt a neat little trick to track the statistics of any link shortened using it, wheather you created it or not. Simply by adding a + to the end of the link for example http://bit.ly/r7imX8+ we can view statistics such as the number of clicks, when the clicks occurred & the geographical location of the people that clicked the link. While this feature may be obvious to some, I had been using bit.ly for a while before I knew you could do this.
Welcome to Iamrofe. I’m Mark Rofe (pronounced Roaf), I’m 21, and I’ve recently graduated from University where I studied Business with Law. I am an avid Spurs fan and my interests include Seo, Affiliate marketing and Domaining. Whilst I cannot guarantee that reading this blog will make you as instantly attractive as me (pictured left), I hope you enjoy reading my posts.
