Alternative Income with Domains - an Experiment

Recently I've read a few articles about domain flipping. It sounds interesting to me. It could certainly be a way to create some alternative income in an almost passive way. It seems it just requires some research, some domain purchases and some setup. After that, it's just a matter of time and only the effort you want to put into it.

 

Domain Flipping is like Real Estate Flipping. You own a domain, you develop it so it has some value and you sell it for more than your purchase price. There are several ways to go about this:

 

1. Buy a new domain - This is potentially the most work, but the least cost. Most of the good domains have already been bought. What's left are domains that need development. You will have to create some value (traffic) by adding content or just sit and wait and hope your domain name becomes the next hot thing.
2. Buy an existing domain - This could be costly. Most likely it will cost more than the usual $10-20. However, you could get a popular name or a niche name that you want to develop. The advantage of this is that the website could already have content that you modify to bring more traffic and increase the value.

Since I'm not in a position to invest in an existing domain. I have gone with option #1. I figure, I'm a writer, I should be able to develop content. I need to use the skills I have to generate some alternative income streams.

 

For now, I've purchased a domain. It's parked, because I don't have content for it yet. However, I've done some research and found that there are ways to receive passive income from a parked domain, so I'm testing it out. I'm using Adsense for Domains. Adsense for Domains is a Google product and part of the overall Adsense group of products for monetizing your websites. It places Google ads and sponsored links on your parked domain. I can alter the colors of my site and I can add 4 keywords to assist with ad placement, but other than that, I do nothing. I hope that my domain is one that would be entered as a search term, which would make my site appear in the search results. Then I make money from clicks on the ads on the page. This is not something I expect to make a lot of money. I'll be lucky if it makes enough to cover the domain registration. But, something is better than nothing.

 

So far, I've registered my domain with Adsense for Domains, and it's in the process of being verified.

 

I will write more updates on this topic as more developments happen.

Mobile Phone Bliss

I activated a different phone today. I am now using a Samsung SCH-U620. It's one of those TV enabled phones, but I'm not using the TV service. So far, I am very happy! I have a phone that is just that - a phone. No more Windows Mobile freezes and crashes interrupting my communication. I love it. It's simple and clear.

 

I'm keeping my Omnia, though. Already it's become a more productive PDA. Since I'm no longer using it as a phone, I changed my Today screen to be functional as a PDA, and it's already organizing my life better. Great.

 

Mobile Phone Bliss!

Me vs. my Omnia

So, it's now been almost 4 months that I have had this Samsung Omnia.

 

I am throwing in the towel.

 

While I love the device for a lot of reasons, I cannot stand to have my phone lock up because of problems with Windows or the non-phone functionality.

 

I need to make a call when I need to make a call.

 

In the past week it has locked up more than once when I went to make a call or answer a call. I have also had to do a hard reset when I happened to wake up early and I wanted to turn off the alarm clock.

 

It's not worth the trouble.

 

So, I'm taking the phone offline. I will be keeping my Omnia to use as a PDA. Everything else is ok about it, as long as I'm not urgently trying to use the phone. So now what was like an iPhone has become like an iPod Touch. Funny.

 

I will go back to using a phone that is just a phone, if there is such a thing these days.