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View Full Version : EXCLUSIVE: Jon's Webmaster Challenge



Jon
03-07-2006, 06:44 PM
I've decided to post this exclusively to WebsitePublisher's forums instead of my usual ones, so that people can start pointing to it. I will only place news updates about the project here.

I am currently in the midst of one of my largest projects ever. My goal is to have over 1,000 brand new websites on autopilot by Jan 2007, earning monthly revenues strictly from CPM and CPL ads.

Now with that said, I am going to make one site for everyone to see and learn from. We'll use it as a training tool for webmasters on what they should and shouldn't do. How to properly optimize a site, steps to take in the beginning, middle, end, and how to keep maintenance up on it. I won't be putting so much energy into promoting it, instead I will use the site as a dummy site to test lots of new methods on, sort of as an open book for everyone to see. Hopefully we will all be able to learn from it and you'll see first hand how a site goes from zero to hero. Maybe we'll take a vote on what types of new marketing/promoting methods to use on it every so often, just to play around with whatever is out there.

When I have more time in the summer, that's when we'll start on it. I will give people access to traffic stats of the site so we can monitor everything, and I will give limited revenue stats to reputable people so they can verify the earnings.

Please note: All profits from the site will be donated to 2-3 non-profit organizations that send our troops in Iraq care packages, because they need the help and support more than we do.

Chris
03-07-2006, 06:48 PM
Neat idea, and ambitious venture. 1000 new sites in less than a year. 3+ a day?

Jon
03-07-2006, 06:50 PM
Neat idea, and ambitious venture. 1000 new sites in less than a year. 3+ a day?

Well not 3 a day, but some weeks over 100, others nowhere near it.

KLB
03-07-2006, 06:51 PM
Well I'm curious to see this unfold. It could prove very informative.

agua
03-07-2006, 06:57 PM
Kewel - I'm looking forward to this one...

Does CPL mean "Cost Per Lead" ads?

Chris
03-07-2006, 06:58 PM
Well not 3 a day, but some weeks over 100, others nowhere near it.
The most aggressive I've been was maybe 10 a day, but that didn't last long. Ran out of datafeeds.

How do you even fill so many sites? Is it to the point where you're not even promoting one program with one site, but rather one product from one program with one site?

Cutter
03-07-2006, 07:03 PM
Sounds good, are you single handedly making these sites?

Masetek
03-07-2006, 07:17 PM
This is going to be very interesting to see this one pan out

Jon
03-07-2006, 07:24 PM
The most aggressive I've been was maybe 10 a day, but that didn't last long. Ran out of datafeeds.

How do you even fill so many sites? Is it to the point where you're not even promoting one program with one site, but rather one product from one program with one site?

All of the sites will be made around one type of service for users. It shouldn't be very hard to have a custom cookie cutter site be made, and then just make small changes to each one to keep up the uniqueness.. I really don't see it being a major problem to churn out. I'm just glad I'm not the designer on the job :lol:

Jon
03-07-2006, 07:25 PM
Sounds good, are you single handedly making these sites?

Well, I'm single handedly going to finance them.. But when it comes to design and programming, I'm about as useful as a 2 yr old kid is to the stock market.

ses5909
03-07-2006, 07:54 PM
Good luck Jon. I look forward to see this happen. BTW.. great cause.

Sean
03-07-2006, 08:21 PM
Great idea! I have a feeling this is going to be very interesting.

OT: BTW, I like the new smileys :nod:

BGray
03-07-2006, 08:40 PM
Freaking great offer Jon! Looking forward to it.

dc dalton
03-07-2006, 09:03 PM
This should be interesting to say the least, I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

FPU
03-07-2006, 09:04 PM
Wow Jon, thanks for posting it here and supporting Chris! :nod:

You are an :angel: man! :wave:

Dan Grossman
03-07-2006, 09:29 PM
I'm subscribed to the thread.

deronsizemore
03-07-2006, 10:16 PM
Sounds great! I can't wait!

Michael
03-08-2006, 03:02 AM
Sounds like a great idea! I will keep watch on this one.

Tijmen
03-08-2006, 03:15 AM
Really interesting idea Jon, looking forward to read more about it.

Ben
03-08-2006, 04:11 AM
Sounds good, only one problem. What are you going to call "hero"? A site processing 1000+ uniques a day? Or a site with only 500 or less? This seems an alright idea, just a bit weird if you ask me. Is it like a fundraiser sort of thing, or more like a guide for new webmasters?

chromate
03-08-2006, 05:48 AM
Jon, I think you're nuts! 3 sites a day? Hmm. It'll be interesting anyway. Good luck ;)

bbolte
03-08-2006, 07:22 AM
wow... this will be interesting...

Mike
03-08-2006, 10:08 AM
3 sites a day!? This will be interesting... :)

Torito
03-08-2006, 11:52 AM
I donŽt get it. Seems like the 1.000 sites goal is one thing and the training tool site for webmasters another different thing. Are they related in any way? am I missing something?

Mike Empuria
03-08-2006, 03:01 PM
How can you think of topics for 1000 sites?

MrGeeK
03-08-2006, 04:14 PM
If I had the money putting up 1,000 sites wouldnt be that hard. What would be slightly harder would be putting the right content on the sites.

Remember we are talking about 1,000 almost turnkey sites here, I'm guessing the content will be somewhat different and the template will be, most of that can be automated.

Jon
03-08-2006, 08:15 PM
I think people are misunderstanding my post.

The 1000 sites and the dummy site are two different projects, totally unrelated.

The 1000 sites planned for Jan 2007 are for one of my biggest projects to date. Yes, it's going to cost me a lot of money, but the way I figure it, it's also going to make me more than ever. I don't need to think up 1000 different ideas, because since the 90's, I've been doing that every single day, just writing them down and saving them for a rainy day. Even so, just to simplify it, these sites will be rotating around under 10 topics total, but all for the same cut-throat industry. For all I know this could be my ticket to fame and fortune beyond my wildest dreams, or it could be the beginning to a very expensive downfall, either way, I consider myself a gambling man, but only when the odds are in my favor.

The dummy site is going to be used as a learning tool for webmasters. I'm sorta strapped for time at the moment, but it's an idea that's been on my mind for a while, and I wanted to get it out and let everyone know, that this is what I plan on doing. Showing people, step by step, with a visual tool (the website) how to go from point A to point Z without breaking the bank, and also using it to explore all sorts of ideas. I never thought of myself as much of a teacher, so maybe doing this through unorthodox means will help the greater good of the community. I dunno, we'll see. But I am quite serious about donating all profits to organizations that prepare care packages for US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. I feel as the creator of the project, I should be allowed to pick the non-profit organization too.

That's all there is to it. Any questions on the matter, feel free to post them here (I hate private messages unless I request them).

Ben
03-08-2006, 11:57 PM
You have definately answered my questions. You are quite a guy there Jon. I still don't understand how you are going to do it, but we are talking about the man making 100k a month. Anything is possible.

Todd W
03-09-2006, 04:08 AM
Interesting venture, looking forward to both projects.
Best of luck to you.

Torito
03-09-2006, 06:44 AM
aaaaaahhh, now I get it. I see, I see, good luck then. IŽll be watching you.

CreationNation
03-09-2006, 03:10 PM
Sounds awesome Jon! Thanks for doing something like this, should be cool to watch and learn from.

Fender963
03-09-2006, 04:04 PM
Quick question Jon. These websites, are you planning on adding content via datafeeds or are you paying people to write articles etc...?

Kyle

Sagewing
03-09-2006, 04:49 PM
This goes on and on.. So, what is the concept? :)

bheka
03-10-2006, 09:09 AM
Okay .. Signed up .. subscribed.

When do the lessons begin.

Looking forward to it Jon.

Grant29
03-10-2006, 11:54 AM
Mook- Assuming you are going to be using an affilate program (CJ, AzoogleAds, etc..), how do you track each site indivudally. I know you can setup multiple affiliate IDs, but do they allow you to set up 1000's (as it looks like you will be adding lots of sites).

Thanks,
Grant

Jon
03-10-2006, 11:59 AM
Mook- Assuming you are going to be using an affilate program (CJ, AzoogleAds, etc..), how do you track each site indivudally. I know you can setup multiple affiliate IDs, but do they allow you to set up 1000's (as it looks like you will be adding lots of sites).

Thanks,
Grant

My 1000+ sites is my own personal business venture, I won't be sharing data on that. But to answer your question, the sites will only be CPM based advertising, so I won't really have to worry about keeping tabs on it. I've discussed the possibility of selling exclusive ad spots on the entire network to specific networks too, so that would minimize any concern or creation of tons of new ID's.

For the learning site, depending on what topic it will be, then I'll post updated daily or weekly screen shots of whatever revenue the site is earning.

Grant29
03-10-2006, 12:07 PM
So you don't track revenue on a per site basis? If you do, how do you do it? If you don't, how to you know which sites to drop if they turn out to be a dud?

Thanks,
Grant

peach
03-10-2006, 05:12 PM
So you don't track revenue on a per site basis? If you do, how do you do it? If you don't, how to you know which sites to drop if they turn out to be a dud?

Thanks,
Grant
yeah, how can you monitor and steer 1000 sites?
I mean none of them aren't going to earn money if you don't promote them right?

Dan Grossman
03-10-2006, 07:15 PM
yeah, how can you monitor and steer 1000 sites?
I mean none of them aren't going to earn money if you don't promote them right?

Brute force SEO requires nothing more than building sites and putting them out there. A single link somewhere or a submission to make 'em known. The search engines do the work.

Cutter
03-10-2006, 08:55 PM
The catch to that approach is that Google can nock them off the results in one action, assuming someone notices what is going on.

peach
03-11-2006, 02:39 AM
Sounds really interesting Dan, what exactly are you guys doing?
Are you doing the same cutter?

Torito
03-11-2006, 02:42 AM
The catch to that approach is that Google can nock them off the results in one action, assuming someone notices what is going on.

No, if youŽre not doing anything wrong. What is gonna be the content? are they all gonna be linking to each other?

Cutter
03-11-2006, 11:54 AM
Sounds really interesting Dan, what exactly are you guys doing?
Are you doing the same cutter?

No I'm not

Cutter
03-11-2006, 12:03 PM
No, if youŽre not doing anything wrong. What is gonna be the content? are they all gonna be linking to each other?

Interlinking to push up results is what SE spammers do. Register a few hundred domains, interlink them, when they get banned do it over again. I'm not saying thats what Jon is doing, because I don't know. I'm just saying its not a risk free technique.

There was one group of sites (I think it was a few hundred) that had actual original content but the topics were unrelated. All these sites were heavily interlinked. They were ranking for a bunch of high CPC terms. Within a week or two all the rankings had dissappeared and those sites were nowhere to be seen.

If you interlink a few related sites, thats not a problem. You might get penalized, but I've never heard of Google nocking sites out of the results because of it. I interlink quite a few of my sites not because of SEO reasons, but to drive legitimate targetted traffic between them.

Torito
03-11-2006, 01:20 PM
If you have original content and do a discreet but effective interlinking, like not blatantly linking all of them to all of them and not leaving obvious traces, you should be ok. Original content is a very powerful weapon.

Jon
03-11-2006, 01:28 PM
Seems like there's a lot of speculation going on here..

I'd just like to point out that I personally will not be managing the project. I am having my apprentice do it so he can learn the ropes first hand. As you get larger with any business venture, you take more control over people who work under you, rather than dealing with problems or day to day operations hands on. It definitely makes a difference in the headache department, that's for sure.

To manage revenue and traffic we have some custom scripts set up that will send us alerts and where we can check all stats from one interface so that if need be we can see which sites aren't performing as well as they should be, and they will be flagged so we can promote them a bit harder than the others. It's not as tough as it sounds actually.

For those guys thinking about search engines, I have to admit, the sites are not being built for them. If I get picked up, great, if no, fine too. I'm not depending on engines for this project whatsoever, so if you think I'm doing some blackhat techniques, think again. Although, from a BH perspective, that technique can work out very well, but there's no reason to use SO many domains in it. For this project, every domain will be unique in it's own special way, but will be providing a specific type of content service. The beauty of this project is that I will now have a project on auto-pilot that honestly requires almost no real work on my part. Even from a managing persepctive, it's very minimal. But I don't want people thinking that I just came up with this out of thin air. It took A LOT of cash and planning to really launch, and my team of designers are programmers are top notch, so I'm really thankful for having them around. Without real team work, none of this would be possible.

Torito
03-11-2006, 03:02 PM
But I don't want people thinking that I just came up with this out of thin air

Well, it just looks like that. Mainly because you havenŽt clarified the whole project from the beginning. The speculation comes cause you are just explaining some bits here and there as we go. Actually, IMHO, it all looks a bit .. loose.

Cutter
03-11-2006, 03:44 PM
I'll be very interested in hearing how this works out for you. I don't think anyone here has an accurate picture of exactly what you are doing, which has caused some confusion. But there is nothing wrong with that, I don't publicly announce my sites or projects either.

Jon
03-11-2006, 03:57 PM
I can't really reveal much detail until it's somewhat complete. It would be like shooting myself in the foot just to be clear on the idea.

Shawn
03-11-2006, 04:03 PM
I think it's a case of Jon being excited and wanting to give and help this community with his knowledge.

I'm sure Jon will update the thread throughout time as updates and new information becomes available, so, until then, be suffice with this being only the start. Personally, I wouldn't harness Jon's strategy, but I'm interested as to how this will turn out.

Keep us updated.

Robb
03-11-2006, 08:48 PM
Jon, I've followed your success since you started your stats thread at SP, and I wish you nothing but continued success in any of your ventures you go into. I will bookmark this thread and view it on a daily basis to keep up with your winning websites :)

- Robb

Michel Z.
03-12-2006, 01:06 AM
Mook,

I am great fan of you & following your threads which much interest always.
It gives a lot of motivation for my existing projects & brings me new ideas to develop!

I wish you good luck with this thread & with your blogging experience...

By the way, I also hope that you will start soon Part II - Ethics of Cloaking (if it's not here, then on Sitepoint)!!

"Sitepoint thread: The Art of Cloaking - Part I - Ethics of Cloaking"

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338179&page=1&pp=25&highlight=mook-jon

Thanks :wave:

Jon
03-14-2006, 09:30 AM
Mook,

I am great fan of you & following your threads which much interest always.
It gives a lot of motivation for my existing projects & brings me new ideas to develop!

I wish you good luck with this thread & with your blogging experience...

By the way, I also hope that you will start soon Part II - Ethics of Cloaking (if it's not here, then on Sitepoint)!!

"Sitepoint thread: The Art of Cloaking - Part I - Ethics of Cloaking"

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338179&page=1&pp=25&highlight=mook-jon

Thanks :wave:


Yeah I've been meaning to get at least Part II out but haven't had a chance. Maybe when I get some free time to write it out I'll post it here. There are so many goodwill projects I want to do to help out other webmasters, so maybe during the summer slowdown when things certainly do slow down for the most part. I hate to keep pushing things off, but business certainly comes first in my priority que.

rento_himself
03-24-2006, 09:38 AM
Thank you Jon :)

Robb
04-10-2006, 07:58 AM
I'd like to get more updates on this if possible Jon. always interesting in reading stuff you post anywhere.

- Robb