ask shane.org
From Day Job to Dot Com Millionaire
  • Home
  • Daily Tips
  • Traffic Generation
  • SEO
  • Better Conversion
  • Revenue Generation
  • About Ask Shane
  • Contact Me
Daily Tips

Maximize Your Payouts by Laying a Firm Foundation

May 29th, 2008   |   Daily Tips, Revenue Generation

People will always pay more if they’re confident in what they’re getting. That’s true whether we’re talking about advertisers or for the eventual acquirer of your site. Not only that, given the choice of two otherwise identical sites, they’ll always choose the one with greater transparency.

Because of that, there are two free services that I strongly recommend signing up for.

Google Analytics

I know some people who I highly respect recommend avoiding Google Analytics, but I just haven’t found a free solution that does what Analytics does: provide accurate-enough stats and numbers that are widely accepted. You can have the most accurate stats in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one believes them. Stats from Analytics aren’t perfect, but enough companies use it now that it’s becoming more and more an accepted standard.

There are a lot of other free services out there that do a pretty good job, but I haven’t found one I like as much as Analytics. I do use StatCounter on all my sites, but that’s only because I want to be able to see real-time stats. If Analytics was real-time, I probably wouldn’t bother. I know a lot of people who use Site Meter, too, but I don’t like the fact that they spy on your users’ behavior.

Now you may be thinking, “If my web host provides stats, do I need anything else?” Absolutely. Stat programs that work by analyzing your log files can be terribly inaccurate. See “Know What You’re Measuring” for more details.

There are some great paid services out there, too, but those can get very expensive very fast. Unless you’re making profits in the mid to high five figures every month, they’re probably not worth it. (And I’m not sure I personally would switch away from Analytics even then.)

Quantcast

The other free service I like a lot is Quantcast. It’s not perfect, but with more and more people requesting demographic data these days — and willing to pay more to sites who provide it — it’s an outstanding start. Particularly since competing services not only aren’t free, but very expensive.

Like with Analytics, you just add a small bit of code to each of your pages and within a month or so Quantcast has begun to compile a pretty impressive set of demographic data about your visitors — without the behavioral targeting that many would object to.

What If I Don’t Want Transparency?

That’s a valid question. There are definitely times when ambiguity works to your advantage. Sometimes you want to appear much larger than you actually are.

Once you’ve reached a level you can be proud of, though, transparency can help you maximize your revenue by not only earning you a better price than you would get otherwise, but also by helping you win deals over your competitors. That’s why I don’t mind sharing the data on most of my sites.

8 Comments »

Passion is Overrated

May 19th, 2008   |   Daily Tips

Rick Latona wrote last month that you shouldn't get into a business just because you own a good domain. He's speaking mainly to domainers, but the essential point is the same one that you hear regularly across the Internet: don't start a site unless you're passionate about the topic. Until recently I argued that point as ardently as anyone, because life is just too short to spend it doing something that you don't enjoy. However, within the last ...  Keep reading »

2 Comments »

YouTube is Gone

May 3rd, 2008   |   Daily Tips, News & Links

I'm seeing reports around the web now that YouTube is completely down for everyone, but I haven't seen any word as to what's up. Very strange for a major site to just go completely offline like that. Update: Do these strange server names have anything to do with it, or is it just that no one has ever noticed them before? This is the best thread I've found ...  Keep reading »

25 Comments »

Iron Man Review

May 2nd, 2008   |   Daily Tips, Off Topic

Iron ManEasily the best superhero movie ever. I may change my mind later as I think about it, but right now nothing even comes close. I loved just about everything about this movie. I don't want to go into details because I don't to spoil anything about it, but it was absolutely phenomenal. I can't recommend it highly enough.

4 Comments »

Making Money with Domain Names, Revisited

April 25th, 2008   |   Business Models, Daily Tips

I wanted to revisit a topic I first wrote about almost three months ago, How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names. Before I wrote that, and increasingly since then, I've seen public admissions by a number of domainers that the potentials for growth by just buying and holding domain names isn't what it used to be. 75% of domain industry professionals may expect domain prices to increase this year, but even Andrew Allemann from Domain Name Wire ...  Keep reading »

1 Comment »

The #1 Thing I Learned at Elite Retreat

April 22nd, 2008   |   Daily Tips

UsThat's my wife and me to the right just a few hours after arriving in San Francisco for Elite Retreat, and that photo was taken at almost exactly the time that she asked me a question that started giving me a whole new perspective on things: Are you having fun? Despite the pained look on my face in that photo, I was indeed having a great time. There was just something odd ...  Keep reading »

4 Comments »

How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names

January 28th, 2008   |   Business Models, Daily Tips

When I started writing this, my first sentence was "The time for making easy money with domain names has passed." It didn't take me long to realize, though, that there never really has been any easy money in domains. Think it was easy to invest $70 each for domains back in the mid-90s when no one could really be sure at all that the Internet was going to be as life-changing as it has proven to be? Think it was easy ...  Keep reading »

14 Comments »

Elite Retreat Will Change Your Life

January 24th, 2008   |   Business Models, Daily Tips, Revenue Generation, Traffic Generation

Elite RetreatAfter a hiatus of several months, the guys behind Elite Retreat have thankfully announced a new Elite Retreat for this April in San Francisco. If you're entertaining any thoughts whatsoever of someday quitting your day job, I simply can't recommend this conference highly enough. It changed my life, and I have no doubt that it will change yours, too. Nowhere will you get the one-on-one time with this many true experts. ...  Keep reading »

9 Comments »

Cloverfield: Worst Movie E-V-E-R

January 22nd, 2008   |   Daily Tips

"If I ever see JJ Abrams, I'm going to punch him in the gut." - My friend Keith, with whom I just saw Cloverfield Here's my Daily Tip for today: stay far away from Cloverfield. Cloverfield Movie PosterWalking out of the theater, I half expected there to people outside handing out t-shirts that had SUCKER written on the front and I PAID TO SEE CLOVERFIELD on the back. It was that bad. I suffered through the ...  Keep reading »

11 Comments »

2 Quick, Easy Ways to Stunt the Growth of Your Blog

January 12th, 2008   |   Blogging Basics, Daily Tips, Traffic Generation

Child Drinking CoffeeDeveloping a sense of community among your readers not only helps your readership grow faster, but it also keeps people coming back more often. I realize, though, that some of you would rather only your mother read your blog (and through a feed reader no less), so for those readers I'm excited to present two quick, easy ways to make sure your blog grows very slowly. Don't Respond to Comments This one works great! ...  Keep reading »

8 Comments »
More Daily Tips »
 
Subscribe

RSS Don't miss it when something new is posted! Get all the posts sent to you automatically by using the RSS feed to subscribe via email (I never see your email address) or in your favorite RSS feed reader.

News / Links

YouTube is Gone

I'm seeing reports around the web now that YouTube is completely down for everyone, but I haven't seen any word as to ...

WordPress 2.5 Image Upload Error

Wanted to give a huge thanks to Deepak. After updating to WordPress 2.5 several days ago, I only today tried to upload an image for the first time. ...

How to Value a Website

Great post today by the new owner of Blogging Experiment on "What I Look For When Buying A Website." It's an outstanding look at all the elements of ...

More News »

Most Popular Articles
  • Delayed Posting is a Beautiful Thing
  • How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names
  • All You Ever Need to Know About Blogging
  • Elite Retreat Will Change Your Life
  • Cloverfield: Worst Movie E-V-E-R
  • How to Value a Website
  • 2 Quick, Easy Ways to Stunt the Growth of Your Blog
  • Are You a Millionaire Kind of Person?
  • When You Shout, EVERYONE Hears You
  • I Made $1,486.70 an Hour Last Year
Top Commentators Recently
  • Goran (3)
  • peter (1)
  • Kelly (1)
Recent Readers

Great Things Elsewhere

These are all things that I've read in Google Reader and used their Share function to publicize. As I read things that I think you'll be interested in, I'll share them and this list will update automatically.

  • Whois Does Not Establish Domain Name Ownership
  • Unwritten Google Webmaster Guideline: Don't End URLs in .0
  • Satan is on My Friends List...
  • Domain Parking’s Future: No More Long Tail
  • Adam Smith’s Definition of Productivity
Support the Site

If I've helped you out, please spread the word by telling your friends and spreading a little link love. And if I've really helped, hey, feel free to buy me something from my Amazon wish list.

Twitter
  • @patrickaltoft I've always used StatCounter,and have been trying out Woopra lately. It's interesting. 1 week ago
  • @Trent_Armstrong our church mac has the same mysterious problems. In other news, I can't tell you when my Vista machine last restarted ;) 1 week ago
  • Making a note to Twitter more, now that I've noticed that @avclark is following me. 1 week ago
  • @shoemoney HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. How much fun would it be to get to be a pro wrestling bad guy? 1 week ago
  • New blog post: Major Google Rankings Change This Weekend http://tinyurl.com/5uxuvk 2 weeks ago
  • More updates...

Ask Shane.org is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).