Yesterday I started implementing “Tell A Friend” scripts on some of my websites. My goal is to add this script to all my sites. You can see which one I’m using by clicking the link above.  If you’d like to see an example of this script in work, visit Tebow Zone and click the “Tell A Friend” link at the top of the right sidebar.

What this script does is pop open a small window that lets your site’s visitors quickly and easily send an email to their friends recommending the web site. There is no need for the visitors to open their email. It’s all done in the script. Currently there are slots for up to 3 email addresses, but with some hacking you could probably add more. There is even a place for the visitor’s to add their own comments. You can try it out on yourself on the Tebow site and see what the email looks like.

We all know word of mouth marketing is some of the best marketing you can hope for. First of all it’s free, and second.. it’s highly targeted. I have already seen several uniques come in from yahoo/hotmail accounts to my websites because of the “tell a friend” script.

Not only does it provide you with new visitors, but it also enhances the user’s experience. People like sharing cool things, and this script gives them a very fast and easy way to do it.

Maybe I’m just crazy, but I could have sworn like 2 or 3 years ago you could actually go to a webmaster forum like Sitepoint, Namepros, or Digitalpoint and find a quality site for sale. Now, Sitepoint does have a Premium site sale section, but either the websites are $70,000 or they’re scammy sites anyways. Where have all the quality websites for the little man gone?

I have a few theories. One, webmasters who build quality websites just aren’t selling them anymore. Or sites are being sold privately. Seeking out private buyers and sellers ensures that the visitors to the website will be unaware of a sale. This is ALWAYS a good thing. I sold a site once, and as soon as the members found out, they all started spamming the forums cursing me and saying that I’m a sell out. So, now I firmly believe that they less a visitor to your site knows, the better.

Quality sites are extremely hard to build from scratch, so I can also understand why webmasters might be reluctant to let them go. That’s why all you see for sale on webmaster forums are proxies, made for adsense sites, auto blogs, image uploaders, and other crap.

If you’re looking for website ideas. Come up with a way for buyers and sellers of websites to be connected for quality site sales, and for people on the outside to not know what website is being sold.

A wiki is software that allows registered users or anyone to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize the content of a website, usually for reference material. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. Anyone can make a wiki about anything.

Getting Started
There is an entire list of wiki software for you to choose from. Pick the one the best suites your needs. I like MediaWiki the best. It’s widely used and free.

Chosing a Niche
Pick a niche that interests you. Try to think of something that other people will like to contibute to. Also look for a topic that doesn’t already have a wiki. One of the wiki’s a visit often is Complete Mass Effect. It has everything about the video game Mass Effect that you can think of.

Building Content
If you’re an expert on the subject, then go ahead and start writing the content yourself. If you aren’t then browse forums and websites about your wiki niche to look for information. Use forum threads as article titles. It’s a great way to start building categories. Once you have a lot of categories, people may be more inclined to contribute.

Marketing a Wiki
If you have other websites about the same niche as your new wiki then this will be a lot easier. Just promote the wiki on those sites. If you don’t, then you will need to rely on the standard website marketing concepts. Link building, content, social networking promotion, forum signatures and word of mouth.

Once you’ve got that going, just sit back and wait for the search engines to index you and you’ll be getting traffic in no time.

I’m sure you’ve heard a hundred times that content is King or that you must have unique content if you want to rank high in Google. I’ve probably even said it before on this blog. But today I’m telling you that it’s all a lie. Sites with zero unique content can still rank high in Google.

Take a look at this Brady Quinn fan site (not one of my sites). The entire front page of information is composed of reworded content from Quinn’s wiki page. The owner of this site just changed a few words here or there. But read through it… it’s the exact same content and nothing unique at all.

Then 90% of the rest of the content on this site is syndicated news from sites like Yahoo Sports or Cleveland.com. None of those syndicated articles are unique either.

This site ranks #2 in Google for “Brady Quinn”. He probably gets 500-700 uniques/day during the offseason and 1,500 or more uniques/day during football season. So how does he rank so high for a competitive keyword with zero unique content? LINKS! The site has a lot of links pointing back to it.. and these are links from unique IPs (I checked).

So there you have it. It’s not ground-breaking news. Links are more important then content. Next time you’re stuck and your site won’t rank any higher… stop adding content to it and start adding links.

Starting a website from scratch sucks. The more I get involved in making money online the more I’m beginning to realize it’s all about acquiring websites in a marketplace rather than starting one from scratch. Unless you have other websites that can fuel a brand new one, then there is no advantage to starting from the beginning other than cost.

Almost every website I have owned that is worth a damn has been one that I’ve purchased. And I’m not just talking about buying a website for keeps, I’m also talking about flipping. Buying a website that needs a little work for a cheap price, and then flipping it a few months later for big time profits after you fixed it up.

Starting a site from scratch is so much harder then just buying one that already has traffic coming to it. Let someone else do the dirty work for you. Keep your eye out for good deals in the marketplace and don’t be afraid to just email website owners and offer them something for the site even if it’s not listed for sale.

I rarely browse the non-marketplace forums at DigitalPoint, but this morning I found myself looking through the business section and stumbled upon a thread titled “why do you want to make money online?” A very interesting question. It made me stop and think about what my reasons are. Before I get into my own, I’m going to post a couple of responses from the forum members.

GrAveTzT said:

“I want to make money online because I don’t like my job or working in general. The working world is tough because there are so many people that I have to watch kissing butt or manipulating their way to the top of a company while I work like crazy. Good workers do not get anything in return. It’s the cute girl or some talky person who gets ahead. Its a horrible thing but happens everywhere.”

Nickswift said:

“so i can sit at home in my underwear.”

Toytown said:

“I do not have the capital to open a brick and mortar location yet. I want to be my own boss. I want to work doing something I am very passionate about.”

Chathura said:

“I am a married person. I have one child. I am working as a document controller. But cost of living is very high. So earning are not enough. So i need to make money online.”

So I wonder what the percentage of people who make money online for a living is vs. the number of people who make money online just for supplemental purposes? It’s clear though that not everyone makes to make money online just for financial freedom or they hate work a “real” job. Some people just want a little bit of extra cash to support a family. Or maybe just fun money.

Right now, I want to make money online so I can continue to live my current lifestyle. My online earnings do not support me. I do not need this money to pay my bills and buy groceries. I use it for savings and stupid luxuries we think we need. I feel similar to toytown above. I want to open a brick and mortar store someday and do not have the capital for it. I want to make money online so it can fuel other business opportunities.