Business
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on February 27, 2010
Yep, I’m giving these domain names away absolutely free! I have too many of them, and they are beginning to pile up. So it’s time to start cleaning house. So I’m giving them away on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Most of them are with Godaddy. So all you have to do it set up a Godaddy account, then we can transfer them into your account for free. I’m not sure if you can do the same with Domain Discover. Either way, I won’t charge anything for them. The only fee you might have to pay is to transfer them into your account. For the 4 Domain Discover domains you may have to pay around $7 to transfer from them to Godaddy, if you have to. That also comes with a free one year extension. So it’s still pretty much free.
Just beware, at some point each domain name will only be redeemable for a redemption fee + renewal fee. So around $100/ea. As of today, none of these domains are at that stage. All of the ones in my previous post are, though.
Available Domain Names
Expired But Redeemable Domain Names – Domain Discover
Domain Name – exp. Date:
- RateTeams.com – 1/27/2010
- MarinersForums.com – 1/28/2010 - gone
Domain Names Expiring Soon! – GoDaddy
- SeattleSEOService.com – 3/7/2010
- StartEmailing.com – 3/15/2010
- SocialNik.com – 3/24/2010
- SocialNik.net – 3/26/2010
- SeattleSEOCompany.com – 3/27/2010
- SEOShowDown.org – 3/30/2010
- TechPik.com – 3/30/2010 - gone
- TechPik.net – 3/30/2010 - gone
- TechPik.info – 3/31/2010 - gone
- TechPik.org – 3/31/2010 - gone
- ShortSaleForum.net – 4/3/2010
- SeattleSportForum.com – 4/10/2010
- SeattleSportForums.com – 4/10/2010
- SEOmars.com – 5/11/2010
- SEOminars.com – 5/11/2010 - gone
- SEOminars.net – 5/11/2010 - gone
- SEOminars.org – 5/11/2010 - gone
Domain Name Expiring Soon! – Domain Discover
- CellPlanFinder.com – 6/3/2010
Just let me know if you want any of these FREE domain names so we can transfer them into your account.
It would be a lot easier on me just to give them all to one person, but to give more people an opportunity at this free grab bag, I think it’s fair to only offer 1 free domain name each. However, if one domain name has multiple extensions, you can have all of the corresponding domain names too.
I know, some of these names are pretty corny. But that’s what happen when you are up every night until 4 in the morning working on the computer. You come up with a lot of off-the-wall ideas. Kinda like this one. But hey, the late night madness is my loss and you’re benefit; with absolutely no catch!
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on February 26, 2010
I have a few great domain names and a couple of stupid ones expiring soon. In case you are interested. You can either put them on back-order or ask me to recover them for you. Unfortunately they are all expired-redeemable right now, so It would cost me about $100 to recover them. If you want to take a chance you could put them on back-order through Godaddy or another registrar and get them at the normal price when they become available. Or have me recover them for you and transfer them into your name for about $100. I won’t charge you anything on top of what it costs to recover them and put them into your account. So let me know.
Here’s the list:
- seahawksforums.com
- steelersforums.com
- playerrate.com
- rateplayers.com
- newluv.com
I just really don’t need them. I have been offered money for seahawksforums.com and steelersforums.com in the past. I just don’t have time to track those people down again. Those two are somewhat seasonal domains. The exact keywords in the URLs are actually searched for a lot more often during the season than shown using the Google keyword tool right now.
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on February 23, 2010
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it – Google Alerts is a free service offered by Google. Obviously. Google Alerts allows you to set up email updates based on keywords of your choice. You are then notified whenever Google discovers new stories or mentions of the specific keywords or phrases you selected to monitor.
Here are 5 great reasons to use Google Alerts:
1) The Obvious: Reputation Management
Now this might be work for those of you who have common names such as Bryan Smith or Jennifer Johnson. However, if you have a name like mine (Wesley LeFebvre), you can rest assured almost all name mentions are actually about you. Which makes reputation management pretty easy.
2) Industry Research
Another great way to use Google Alerts is to track the latest industry trends, job opportunities, company news, and individual industry leaders. I don’t think these need too much more explanation.
3) Brand Monitoring
If you’re in business, it is always a good idea to see who’s talking about your brand. Whenever someone mentions your brand this give you the opportunity to engage with them. Nearly ever time I mention a specific brand on this blog, a representative from that company acknowledges the mention by either commenting or tweeting my post – depending on what I write. They are obviously using Google Alerts or a similar service.
4) Track Your Competitors
There are several reasons you might want to track your competitors. One great reason is link building. There are some obvious benefits to knowing where your competitors are getting their links from. Some other reason would be to track news mentions, product releases, and new service offerings, among other things.
5) WOW Your Clients
This one is probably my favorite. I read it somewhere awhile back, thought this was a remarkable idea, and I have been doing it ever since. This is such a great way to impress your clients, past or present. Use an important news mention as a great reason to catch up with an old client, which of course, can lead to new business. And what if you impressed one of your current clients by catching a negative mention about them or their brand and offering ways to remedy the issue before they even knew it existed. It’s really simple to set up, and going that extra mile really shows you care. You could even do this for your family and friends.
These are only a few great ways I use Google Alerts. I’m sure there are many others too.
Do you have a creative way you like to use Google Alerts? How about a favorite service? I’d love to hear some other great ideas.
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on February 12, 2010
Do you know how to submit a press release? Well, it’s actually really easy. And if you’re short on cash, there are several free press release websites to help you get started. You probably won’t get picked up by any of the major news sources by submitting a free press release. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still plenty of reasons to do it.
Just take a look at ever major company, nine times out of ten they submit regular press releases.
Here are several advantages to submitting a press release:
- Shows professionalism
- Could be picked up by a major news source
- Includes a link back to your website
- Will likely get picked up and referenced on several other websites
- Provides exposure in front of an entirely new audience
- Helps with branding
So when should you submit a press release?
- Release of a new product
- Offering new services
- Launching a new website
- Opening a new office
- Establishing a new partnership
- Hiring a new executive
- Offering a new special
See, there are plenty of really great reasons to submit a press release.
Here are a few press release websites to consider:
- prweb
- prlog
- 24×7pressrelease
- free-press-release
Just try to be sure whatever you have to say is truly newsworthy.
Do you have a favorite press release website?
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on January 19, 2010
Recently I was asked for some advice by someone looking to start thier first online business. This person reminded me a lot of myself, because I had no clue what I was doing when I first started online. In response, here are a few things that first come to mind.
You can start a successful online business without implementing SEO. Conversely, however, you’re not going to be very successful online if all you’re counting on is SEO. With that said, search engine optimizing a high-quality website can grow it tenfold.
SEO is still a relatively new practice; one that is constantly growing. So the way one professional defines search engine optimization can be completely different than the way someone else does.
Since I’m writing this post primarily for the typical newcomer, based on my experience, I’m going to assume most people outside of the industry think of SEO as the practice of getting their website top rankings in the search engines, and that’s it. But to me, it is a lot more than that. I’ll explain later. Considering the above definition though, SEO, without offering anything of value, is not enough to be successful online.
Here is a list of the mistakes I made with when I jumped into my first online endeavor:
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I ONLY focused on getting top search engine rankings.
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My first website sucked! It was just a site filled with a bunch of affiliate links and not much content (which you could get away with a little more back then).
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I only thought about the first sale, and didn’t worry about getting visitors to return or give them any reason to recommend me to someone else.
- I spent most of my time researching and chasing what one of my major competitors was doing. Or at least what I saw them doing. I should have been paying more attention to Internet marketing leaders.
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I didn’t start blogging soon enough. You don’t have to blog, but you should at least be updating or adding new content to your website on a regular basis, i.e., your website should always be growing.
- I threw a bunch of money at PPC, directing people to a crappy, poor-performing website.
- I tried to build out multiple half-assed websites, hoping one of them would stick, rather than putting in the work necessary to become successful with the first one.
You can still be successful with an affiliate website, however you need to offer additional value, i.e., a lot of additional content people can use. Perhaps really good product reviews, how-to guides, or a glossary. I think you get the idea.
Today, I think of SEO quite differently than I did in the beginning; I worry about my search engine rankings as well as bounce rate, conversions, unique visitors, return visitors, natural links, popular content, user experience, subscriptions, new customers/clients and of course revenue and ROI. Just to name a few important KPIs.
Starting an online business takes a lot more than what I can explain in a single blog post. Just take your time, do your research, provide great value, and don’t try to monetize too early.
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on November 30, 2009
Do you ever get tired of sitting behind the computer and wishing you had more industry related articles in print to read? I know I do.
If you answered yes, then I highly recommend subscribing to Website Magazine. Website Magazine offers a free quarterly subscription as well as an upgraded paid subscription to their increasingly popular Website Magazine.
The pro membership subscription is offered at $44.95/mo, however the free quarterly subscription is more than enough for me.
Each quarter the magazine covers a a variety of topics from E-mail marketing, PPC strategies, Website Design, to various search engine optimization techniques, and more.
For me, It is really nice to have a hard copy I can bring with me places or pick up when I’m sitting in the living room, and not always have to get behind the computer or look at a tiny phone screen to read some of the latest articles related to the SEO industry.
It’s real easy to sign up for your free subscription to Website Magazine. Just go to their website and fill out a short survey to start receiving your free quarterly subscription to one of the web industry’s hottest print magazines.
You might be surprised to find a lot of great tools, tips, other information and great industry related articles to read.
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on November 18, 2009
Lately it has become very time consuming tracking leads/contacts/opportunities from all of the different sources, and I have been in desperate need of a real CRM solution. The Microsoft Excel/Outlook/Business Contact Manager mess just isn’t cutting it anymore.
So recently I started researching what similar companies were using to capture and track web leads and conversions. In doing so I stumbled across the SalesForce CRM solution, and it appears to be exactly what I am looking for.
After reviewing the features, I decided to sign up for a 14 day free trial of their Group Edition. It is $25/mo thereafter. You can get a 30 day free trial on some of the other editions.
Some of the key features I was looking while reviewing CRM solutions:
- Automatically record web-leads to a database
- Easier way to manage and follow-up with leads in a centralized location
- Custom return URL to allow conversion tracking using analytics
- Way to mass-mail my contacts and/or leads
I am happy to say I think I’m pretty sure I found my CRM solution. Unfortunately the Group Edition doesn’t allow for mass-mailing; however, apparently you can easily export your contacts, then import them into Outlook and do your email broadcast from there. But I haven’t tried it out yet. I could do mass email through their web-based CRM if I wanted to upgrade to their Professional Edition, but overall I think the Group Edition is a better fit for me.
I’ve only been testing it for a few days, however I’ve already uploaded all of my leads and am currently testing an implementation of their web-to-lead form.
I am very pleased with the results so far!
If you are thinking about a new CRM solution, I recommended testing out one of the SalesForce CRM free trials. I’ve barely begun to touch all of the available features here. Just be sure you install the Outlook integration plug-in. It’s great for adding new leads and contacts when they email you directly; that is, if they email you without using the web-to-lead form first.
