Your quickest earner?

billyrichards · Nov 8, 2011

I'm in the throes of putting together my first few sites and wanted to start a lighthearted thread.

Quite simply, from a site first going live, what is the shortest amount of time it has taken you to make any cash money? I know there are squillions of variables but I've deliberately left my question this vague as I'm not too fussed how you monetised your site or if it was on the Worlds best domain! I'm just inviting any happy, fun stories (however long or brief) that might make me - or anyone else for that matter - smile!

Looking forward to reading your replies,
Billy

Ashton · Nov 9, 2011

My best is I bought a domain, shoved up a wordpress site and 10 minutes later sold it for 3 times the price. Not thousands though, was a high £xxx domain. Have you got one Billy?

Blossom · Nov 9, 2011

I think it was around 2 weeks, for the site I made for the development contest here. It's still not making regular money unfortunately, but I learned a lot from the site; the niche was far too open for a start (or perhaps I just developed it out too much).

I think that Adsense is the fastest way to get money from a site...but how much the clicks are and how much they'll earn you in the long run is a different story. I do like that someone has to just click though and you earn money - there's no fuss about did/didn't it track, will/won't the order be finalised/returned etc.

billyrichards · Nov 9, 2011

Ashton said:
My best is I bought a domain, shoved up a wordpress site and 10 minutes later sold it for 3 times the price. Not thousands though, was a high £xxx domain. Have you got one Billy?

I haven't got any stories in keeping with my original question as I've never designed, built or launched any sites before...... The closest thing I've got would be:-

2nd August 2011 - Hand regged my 1st ever domain
3rd August 2011 - Joined Acorn
8th August 2011 - Sold that 1st domain for a small profit

Got plenty of projects going on at the moment and I've now decided to start a blog. Even though this will take up a big chunk of time, I can see it being useful for keeping my chaotic thinking pattern in check... It's gonna be a mish-mash of content covering all sorts of things from my random analytical observations, views on current events, progress of my online projects and time permitting, a few videos of me covering a few sing-along songs on the guitar!!

I'll post when it's up and running but in keeping with my Acorn, Twitter and Youtube accounts, I'll be blogging from BillyRichards.co.uk

Edwin · Nov 9, 2011

Not a site, but the best "quick money" story was the press release we put out for our upcoming appearance at Internet World 2008. Sold one of the domains listed in it within 24 hours of the release going out, which basically paid for the whole show before we even got there.

billyrichards · Nov 9, 2011

Blossom said:
I think that Adsense is the fastest way to get money from a site...but how much the clicks are and how much they'll earn you in the long run is a different story. I do like that someone has to just click though and you earn money - there's no fuss about did/didn't it track, will/won't the order be finalised/returned etc.

That's been my assumption too and I was thinking along the lines of 2-4 weeks before seeing any reward. I'm also researching a few affiliate programmes for a later date but by then, there'll be a good amount of fresh, unique content to balance everything out.

billyrichards · Nov 9, 2011

Edwin said:
Not a site, but the best "quick money" story was the press release we put out for our upcoming appearance at Internet World 2008. Sold one of the domains listed in it within 24 hours of the release going out, which basically paid for the whole show before we even got there.

Love it when things like this happen! Thanks for sharing

lethal0r · Nov 12, 2011

starting a PPC campaign in 2006. few competitors, very low prices. huge profits in days.

getting into something early gives you so many more opportunities, and its much easier.

Admin · Nov 12, 2011

billyrichards said:
2nd August 2011 - Hand regged my 1st ever domain
3rd August 2011 - Joined Acorn
8th August 2011 - Sold that 1st domain for a small profit

Like it! This is what makes Acorn rewarding for me to run, seeing people making more of their domains with a little help.

Admin

BREWSTERS · Nov 12, 2011

Couple of weeks ago I reg'd a co.uk domain and sold it on Acorn for low £xxx in under 45 minutes...and the buyer got a bargain.

cc976a · Nov 12, 2011

I remember a while back seeing a name on a very public 'just dropped' list - the name dropped, I picked up and sold it same day for low £xxx

Didn't have a buyer in mind at the time (i just posted it on here and A4U) I just liked the name - seems someone else did too!

billyrichards · Nov 13, 2011

BREWSTERS said:
Couple of weeks ago I reg'd a co.uk domain and sold it on Acorn for low £xxx in under 45 minutes...and the buyer got a bargain.

Nice work!

I've hesitated about trying to get a quick flip on here a few times. I wondered if there would be any "that's only just been registered for a few quid" thoughts that might put an experienced domainer off.... I may just try this!

cc976a · Nov 13, 2011

billyrichards said:
Nice work!

I've hesitated about trying to get a quick flip on here a few times. I wondered if there would be any "that's only just been registered for a few quid" thoughts that might put an experienced domainer off.... I may just try this!

Personally I've never had a problem with this. If you've owned a domain for 1 year or 1 day it's yours to sell.....you may have grabbed a new trending exact or a name relevant to someone's industry not considered before, which may be valuable to someone else.

Repetitively registering crap FTR and continuously trying to flip for £x,xxx may get you flamed but if not, not a problem in my book

Edwin · Nov 13, 2011

cc976a said:
Repetitively registering crap FTR and continuously trying to flip for £x,xxx may get you flamed but if not, not a problem in my book

It's all about diamond-to-coal ratio, I think. If people post 20 just regged FTR name for sale threads and 19 of them are £0-to-regfee names, then people are going to flat out stop looking at your sales threads (especially if they're refreshing the site using "New Posts" which makes it super-simple to see who's started what thread in what forum).

On the other hand, if you pick your battles very carefully and limit yourself to the "diamonds" then there's no reason why recently registered, "fresh" names shouldn't be posted for sale AND find an audience.

BREWSTERS · Nov 17, 2011

billyrichards said:
Nice work!

I've hesitated about trying to get a quick flip on here a few times. I wondered if there would be any "that's only just been registered for a few quid" thoughts that might put an experienced domainer off.... I may just try this!

Every day I look at probably 7000+ mostly dropping names. From that I end up with a list of 4 or 5 that I want to buy.

While doing this I also come across the odd FTR name that is actually worth reg'ing - probably 3 per month. It's not a viable business model. If you set out to find a FTR name specifically to flip you could soon get demoralised I should imagine.

billyrichards · Nov 20, 2011

Thanks for your reply and yep, 100% agree, although my original comment wasn't very clear.......

I've got too many projects (and potential projects) lined up already and I've considered letting a name or 3 go to help keep things ticking along. It was those I was referring to but since my 1st reg was only August this year, they're all pretty fresh still!

Always good to hear the cautious side though so thanks again.

BREWSTERS said:
Every day I look at probably 7000+ mostly dropping names. From that I end up with a list of 4 or 5 that I want to buy.

While doing this I also come across the odd FTR name that is actually worth reg'ing - probably 3 per month. It's not a viable business model. If you set out to find a FTR name specifically to flip you could soon get demoralised I should imagine.

accelerator · Nov 21, 2011

cc976a said:
Personally I've never had a problem with this. If you've owned a domain for 1 year or 1 day it's yours to sell.....you may have grabbed a new trending exact or a name relevant to someone's industry not considered before, which may be valuable to someone else.

+1. If you can't attempt to flip a domain at Acorn, where can you? This is a domain trading forum after all.

Rgds

retired_member21 · Nov 21, 2011

I could probably set record for lowest earner? (one of my sites YTD)

Merchant: Yahoo Bingo
Registrations: 122
Total Commission: 0.73 euros (rev share)

max99x · Nov 25, 2011

Back few years ran a PPC campaign for about 7 days before it got uber competitive.

First day it made about 100 quid, got better each day till it was making £1000 profit per day... then it ended! booo