Coming from a background in real estate and using the internet to showcase my properties, I knew that duplicating something similar to showcase my domain names was a must. Seriously, if I do not showcase my domain names how will buyers know they are there? Where do I direct my potential buyers and how do I keep their interest?

Creating only a domain portfolio site does not mean it will generate traffic or that people will buy from it. The whole “build it and they will come” does not apply for this. At first, I integrated a blog with my domain portfolio. This gave people a reason to visit my site on a regular basis to see what new adventures I was getting myself into. At the same time I created an identity for myself, while putting my domain names in front of customers and earning their trust. Speaking of trust, I hope you know by now that earning customer trust is very important when it comes to sales. Buyers are smart! I promise you they know when they are being taken advantage of. By integrating my portfolio with a blog I was able to mask the sole purpose of the site which was to sell domain names.

For those that have been with me since the beginning, you know I am talking about DomainSubway.com. I have since converted it to a domain portfolio only because my primary blog, this one, takes all of my time.

Here’s a tool I used to build my domain portfolio. It’s a  free script that you can download here. The owner has put a lot of hard work into the project, so of course feel free to leave a donation for them. If you are somewhat web savvy you can have a blog with an integrated domain portfolio up before the end of the day. If you are not, let me know and I can have someone on my team do the work for a fee.

Take the above information and apply it to any product. Blogs are a great resource to help build not only web traffic, but a brand and trust.

You have spent a countless amount of hours working on your site and the last thing you want to do is steer visitors away. Make sure that all links, ads and images leading away from your site open in a new window. By doing this it makes the site visitors come back and have to consciously make the decision to leave your site.

Why I like this personally as a reader…
When I go to a site and click on a link that opens up on the same page instead of in a new window I, more often than not, wind up not going back to the original site I started at. This will especially happen if I get hooked into what I’m reading about and have to click through several pages. When I’m done reading the extra pages I normally wind up closing out the window. If I remember to, I will type in the original site address and start over. Other times I just don’t feel like going through the hassle of starting over, so I don’t. This means the original site I started out at just lost me – not forever, but for that time.

When I go to a site that allows me to click on a link that opens up a separate window, I always get back to the original site. The original site is left open. You only have to close out the extra window. I go right back to what I was originally doing because it’s still right there in my face.

Below are two very popular services that I use. Both services create links that bring visitors to their sites. Well, that’s not what I want. I don’t want my visitors to leave. Here are examples of how I have made these services work for what I want.

Vimeo.com
I use Vimeo to showcase my videos. They offer both free and paid accounts. The paid account which is $59.95 per year, allows me to remove their branding. Besides the removal of their logo the paid account allows me to turn off the options for comments and favorites, both of which would bring my visitors to their site.

Vimeo has a great widget that would allow me to showcase my videos with tiny thumbnails on my blog. Although it’s a great feature it has a flaw, it would take my visitors away from my site. Instead I have created something similar by adding thumbnail images of my videos in the middle of my site. I then take those images and link each one to the appropriate blog post.

Flickr.com
To showcase my pictures I use Flickr. There are tons and tons of widgets/plug-ins for Flickr. If I would have used the plug-in that they provided it would have brought my visitors to their site to view my images. Instead I did a lot of research and found a plug-in that will embed all of the images on my site. Here is that link. Of course it opens in a new window.

Recycled content is when a site owner takes content from another location, usually rewords it and posts to their site as if it was their own. This practice is most used for mini-sites and blogs.

Is this practice ok?
Within reason, yes.

Mini-Sites
I have several mini-sites that I have definitely done this with. A perfect example would be a poker site of mine.  The site provides information on how to play games like Texas Holdem and Omaha. Using my site as the example, there are only so many ways I can write an informational piece on Texas Holdem and make it understandable.

Blog
I am sure I have used this for news, again, how many ways can you report the same story. I cannot say that I have used this for my blog articles. I may get an idea or believe something to be useful to my readers by visiting other blogs. In those situations, I will normally test out what I have read and create a new article based on my experiences.

I have two words for those that recycle content, public domain. Public domain is a term for intellectual properties not owned by anyone. The full definition is way to long, visit Wikipedia for the full version. From what I was recently told anything written before 1923 is considered public domain. You can actually take an entire book written before 1923 and resell, reword, retitle or anything else you want and call it your own. Before using this technique please do your own research, I visited a site called copylaw.com.

The number one challenge for any blogger is their ability to write quality articles on a consistent basis. Sure it’s easy enough to throw some words up and call that a blog post but that provides zero value and will more than likely cost you readers.

I myself have found it a struggle to make the time to blog. Not that I don’t enjoy writing or have the information to pass along but more so because of time. My old method of blog writing was to wake up, usually around 11am and think of a topic to write about for that days post. I would find myself  halfway through an article and realize I’m not giving myself enough time to write or research everything needed. The last thing I want to do is put out a garbage post. I would delete what I had so far and tell myself I will write later tonight and post it for the next day. That just does not work, at least for me.

My new plan…
Some days I feel better than others and to be honest I’m not in a mood to write every day. I have come to realize the days I’m feeling in a funk, it is better not to write. What I have decided to do from this point forward is to write several posts when I’m feeling great. This actually does a couple things, it assures top quality articles are being produced and will also save me time throughout the week. Instead of writing an hour a day I may spend four hours in a single day and write posts for the entire week. This may or may not work for everyone. My blog is more personal, it’s about my experiences trying to make money online, blogging and domaining. For others your blog may revolve around reporting the news, something I rarely do nowadays. I have no urge to report the news on a daily basis. For those of you that do though you have to report daily. When a new story breaks you have to get it online before the other guys do. Instead for myself what I have thought about doing is posting a recap of that weeks news. More than likely I’ll do it in a video blog and capture all of the headlines from the week.

In closing, if you are in the mood to write then just keep writing. Don’t limit yourself to writing one article, write multiple articles and save some for a rainy day.

Do you consider your blog a business? I do, although I thoroughly enjoy this it is still a business that needs to produce income.

One of the essential elements of owning a business is branding. Today I want to specificity discuss branding a blog.

I’m going to share what I believe to be two different aspects of branding.

Brand
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

It is my belief that I have achieved this with Chef Patrick. Something catchy, unique and easy to remember. It is to the point now where people call me Chef or Chef Patrick, which by the way I am not a cook.

“Sellable” Brand
The ability to take a brand and package it for sale.

The main ingredient for creating a brand is a domain name. As I have already stated I believe I have achieved a brand with Chef Patrick but, I have failed in creating a SELLABLE brand. I would essentially have to find another Patrick to sell my blog.

When picking your domain name I want you to seriously take into consideration your future plans and possible goals. If creating a brand, something sellable then do not use your personal name. Take into consideration what your main topic will be and find a domain name that matches.

Just to give you a few examples…
If you are wanting to create a domaining video blog then go with something like DNVideoBlogger.com. It sends a clear message that if you come to this site you are going to see someone video blogging about domain names. Passionate about trains, how about LocomotiveNews.com. Maybe you love celebrity gossip, CelebrityBlabber.com is a perfect fit.

By the way I do own the example domain names so if you are interested in one just send me an email.