The Schmooze: My two latest domain name acquisitions both went live yesterday. The two sites, SkateboardingEquipment.net and LearnComputerNetworking.com, are WordPress based minisites. 

SkateboardingEquipment.net

This name was brought to my attention via Twitter. Among the many people I follow is Bill Eisenmann of Available Domain Names. Usually once a day Bill tweets about his latest list of available domain names. Timing is everything in life and I was fortunate enough to see his tweet, look at the list of available names, and register this name. Now obviously .net is not as strong as the .com, but there are about 49,000 searches a month for the exact phrase “skateboarding equipment.” That is a lot of searches. Also, the .com name is parked and not developed. I’m hoping with my unique content and seo work, SkateboardingEquipment.net will rise to the first page of the search engines. Though the cost-per-click is not particularly high for this niche, the sheer volume of searches will hopefully offset that.

LearnComputerNetworking.com

I purchased this name via one of the domain forums. Though this name is .com, it does not quite have the same positive search metrics as skateboarding equipment. There are apprximately 480 searches a month for the exact phrase “learn computer networking.” Not a lot of searches…but still some. Expanding our point of view a bit, there are 1,900 monthly searches for the phrase “learn computer”, 49,500 for the phrase “computer networking, and 246,000 for “networking.” If, with some good seo work, I can tap into the searches of those other phrases…I’ll be in business. Working very strongly in favor of this name is that the average cost-per-click is around $5. Since the site has been up, I have recieved 3 clicks and already received a 200% return-on-investment! Now if I can reproduce that for about 2,000 other names…

Making The Sites

As stated above, both sites were made on WordPress. I like using WordPress because I am familiar with it and it allows for great customization. The user-friendly interface allows me to track stats, add and delete content, modify visual aspects, and implement ad units. 

It is hard to put an exact number on how much time it took to make each site. I usually would spend an hour here and hour there working on them. I would give a very general breakdown of the time as follows:

• Picking a Wordpress theme - 1 hour
• Research on keywords - 30 minutes
• Choosing topics for content - 30 minutes
• Writing content (sometimes I outsource this) - 2-3 hours
• Designing and implementing ad units - 15 minutes
• Altering theme code to perfect look of site - 10 minutes - 1 hour

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Tags: Domain names, learncomputernetworking.com, minisites, skateboardingequipment.net, wordpress