GoldBullion.com.au

[neddy]

GoldBullion.com made it to $25k but didn't meet reserve.

I got a domain broker in the USA to approach the owners after the auction and made what I thought was a decent opening offer. They replied that they wouldn't part with it for under $300,000.

I am new to this site and have read this thread.

My knowledge of monetization from websites is tiny. I can confirm however that a domain name like silverbullion.com.au would be fantastic.

I have been involved in precious metals for some years now and have membership with a number of dealers. Whilst Silver is the cheaper of the two (Gold and Silver) it is bought in much higher volumes in comparison. It is often referred to as 'poor mans gold'.
Popularity in the precious metals sector is building, these are not just my words but take a look at bullion exports, sales figures (perth mint) and ASEs etc.

There has been a reasonable move of funds from stock markets/realestate into the precious metals sector as destabilisation of national monetary policy occurs from more than 1 or 2 governments. There are a lot of resources online that support this and can verify with references.

The only problem that I can see with this domain is the margins that bullion dealers work from, they are tiny and getting smaller due to the growing number of players in the industry. This may limit their desired outlay on a domain name? However as they are dealing with large sums it may be ok.

I wouldnt have a clue on a monetary value, however I am confident that this industry is growing and the domain would likely be used for an enduser being a retailer of bullion products. I am new here and this is just imo but I am currently within the industry with good exposure to a few of the players.

Thanks for your insights mickjohn. Appreciated. And welcome to DNT.

I was made a few offers on silverbullion.com.au last year - they were generated from the "silverstackers" forum. But I chose not to accept as I believe it is a domain with long term earning potential - and I no longer want to let good domains go too cheaply! After all, our market is getting better and better.

I'm very excited about the prospects for goldbullion.com.au. I have a minisite on it now (been up for about a month), and in the last week it just hit Page 1 Google for the term " gold bullion". Unfortunately it is still towards the bottom, but hey I'm happy!

I noticed this because suddenly my adsense spiked - my best day was Thursday when I earned just over $19.

I was approved last week for Perth Mint affiliate program, so next week I'm going to add some product to the site. I understand that the average sale is $300 - and commission is 10%.

All the best.

Cheers, Ned

 

[chris]

The site looks nice Ned, it's a ripper of a name.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[DavidL]

I'm very excited about the prospects for goldbullion.com.au. I have a minisite on it now (been up for about a month), and in the last week it just hit Page 1 Google for the term " gold bullion". Unfortunately it is still towards the bottom, but hey I'm happy!

Who said the EMD bonus was dead!

I noticed this because suddenly my adsense spiked - my best day was Thursday when I earned just over $19.

With no Adsense on the homepage that's actually very impressive. Why haven't you got any there out of interest?
[/QUOTE]

Very nice looking site - ignites the gold bug in all of us!!!

 

[ScottNugent]

I'm very excited about the prospects for goldbullion.com.au. I have a minisite on it now (been up for about a month), and in the last week it just hit Page 1 Google for the term " gold bullion". Unfortunately it is still towards the bottom, but hey I'm happy!

Beautiful design, ultra simple, invokes trust, versatile, easy to navigate, and AdSense fits perfectly!

 

[snoopy]

Beautiful design, ultra simple, invokes trust, versatile, easy to navigate, and AdSense fits perfectly!

C'mon guys, it is MFA, there is no substance in the site at all, sooner or later Google will can it.

 

[DavidL]

C'mon guys, it is MFA, there is no substance in the site at all, sooner or later Google will can it.

Snoopy, don't understand why you think MFA automatically equates to crap?

Nothing wrong with publishing a site with relevant info hoping to make money from advertising.

Newspapers have been doing it for years!

The other thing to note is that most big sites (MFA or otherwise) generally start off small so don't be so dismissive of small sites. It makes sense to start small and then build it up (both in terms of content and traffic) then to go all out at once.

BTW what's your development strategy? What have YOU employed that works? Would be great if you could share your tips on what works not just what doesnt. Thanks

 

[neddy]

The site looks nice Ned, it's a ripper of a name.

Cheers,
Chris

Thanks Chris - it was done for me by a guy in Canada that I have done business with for a few years. He recently offered up a special for just $99 (minimum of 5 sites).
It included the 5 original articles (all put through copyscape and not spun); insertion of analytics, adsense and affiliate ads.

For the price, I'm really happy.

Who said the EMD bonus was dead!

With no Adsense on the homepage that's actually very impressive. Why haven't you got any there out of interest?

Very nice looking site - ignites the gold bug in all of us!!!

Thanks David. Geodomains also asked me the same question about adsense on the homepage. I asked my guy in Canada, and he just prefers to do it that way for his own reasons.
I'm not a tech person; so I'll just go with the flow!

He is going to be adding product to it for me this week, so hopefully it will start to do even better.

Just as a matter of interest, he also did BoutiqueHotels.com.au for me at the same time. Also just a minisite, but one that ranks on Page 1 for the term "boutique hotels"!

 

[snoopy]

Snoopy, don't understand why you think MFA automatically equates to crap?

Nothing wrong with publishing a site with relevant info hoping to make money from advertising.

Newspapers have been doing it for years!

The other thing to note is that most big sites (MFA or otherwise) generally start off small so don't be so dismissive of small sites. It makes sense to start small and then build it up (both in terms of content and traffic) then to go all out at once.

BTW what's your development strategy? What have YOU employed that works? Would be great if you could share your tips on what works not just what doesnt. Thanks

David in my view there is is no future in it. Google will continue to tighten the screws, so anything like this is just a short term way of making money in my view.

With a site like the above, it has a pretty templates, some nice images, an organic ranking & the usual low quality content. It has everything that isn't important and is missing the one thing that is important, a viable business model. Small/large it doesn't matter, the site need to be able to stand on its own two legs, rather than being reliant on the google merry-go-round.

 

[neddy]

C'mon guys, it is MFA, there is no substance in the site at all, sooner or later Google will can it.

 

[DavidL]

Thanks for reply - did you miss this question?

BTW what's your development strategy? What have YOU employed that works? Would be great if you could share your tips on what works not just what doesnt. Thanks

It has everything that isn't important and is missing the one thing that is important, a viable business model. Small/large it doesn't matter, the site need to be able to stand on its own two legs, rather than being reliant on the google merry-go-round.

So you don't think content + ads equates to a viable model, fullstop? How do you explain the success over the years of newspapers, magazines and their more recent counterparts, blogs and online news sites?

On a smaller scale I know many people earning 5-figures on their MFA sites. Only a few of mine do unfortunately.

 

[snoopy]

Thanks for reply - did you miss this question?

I think people should focus on models that do not simply rely on Google proving free traffic, if that is the model, it is bad.

So you don't think content + ads equates to a viable model, fullstop? How do you explain the success over the years of newspapers, magazines and their more recent counterparts, blogs and online news sites?

An MFA site relies on Google for traffic then sells the traffic back, it is a circle, the Google charity. The issues isn't advertising + content, the issue is the traffic source, that is what is being turned off. Google will push these sites down in the the index. They'll still have content, they'll still have advertisers, what they won't have is free visitors.

On a smaller scale I know many people earning 5-figures on their MFA sites. Only a few of mine do unfortunately.

Great, but how long is that going to last? Like I said the issue is it has no future, not whether some can make money today.

 

[DavidL]

I think people should focus on models that do not simply rely on Google proving free traffic, if that is the model, it is bad.

No sorry, that wasn't the question. Here it is again. I don't want negatives - give us 'dos' not 'do nots', tell us what is 'good' not what is 'bad' (if you can of course)

Here's the question again:

BTW what's your development strategy? What have YOU employed that works? Would be great if you could share your tips on what works not just what doesnt. Thanks

Think happy, happy thoughts and try again

An MFA site relies on Google for traffic then sells the traffic back, it is a circle, the Google charity. The issues isn't advertising + content, the issue is the traffic source, that is what is being turned off. Google will push these sites down in the the index.

We've had this discussion before. It's actually in Google's financial interest to turn 'free traffic' (ie organic traffic it doesn't make money from) into dollars by sending it to a site where it can make money such as a MFA site.

Obviously they'd prefer a visitor clicks a direct adwords ad first up but this is the second best solution for a organic visitor.

I'm not saying thet Google reward sites with Adsense in the SERP (although many claim they do!) but they aren't deliberately punishing them either - it's not in their interests.

If the site has valuable relevant information then it stands to gain longterm rankings and traffic - regardless of it's monetisation strategy.

 

[snoopy]

No sorry, that wasn't the question. Here it is again. I don't want negatives - give us 'dos' not 'do nots', tell us what is 'good' not what is 'bad' (if you can of course)

Here's the question again:

Think happy, happy thoughts and try again

I'm tried everything from forums (maybe 3), paid membership sites (a couple), content sites, the only thing I have found that works well is selling the actual product/service that people want. Everything else gets little traction or makes small amounts of money. If the domain is goldbullion.com.au the obvious thing is a site selling "gold bullion", anything other than that is nonsense in my view. If it is toiletpaper.com.au those people want to be sold "toilet paper", they don't want to read articles on toilet paper, if it is monitors.com.au the obvious thing is selling monitors.

Of all the people I've met making money online I'm yet to meet anyone who has really done well from "minisites", "MFA" or trying to giving people something they don't want. The people who say they do that always have some other kind of business offering an actual product or service or they have a day job (for very obvious reasons). If they do MFA, minisites etc, it is just a hobby/sideline type thing.

We've had this discussion before. It's actually in Google's financial interest to turn 'free traffic' (ie organic traffic it doesn't make money from) into dollars by sending it to a site where it can make money such as a MFA site.

If that is the case they wouldn't be constantly hitting MFA sites.

If the site has valuable relevant information then it stands to gain longterm rankings and traffic - regardless of it's monetisation strategy.

I don't think there is any such thing as an MFA site with high quality content, the content is always just an afterthought, full of errors and written by someone with obviously no knowledge of the area other than what they read on wikipedia etc.

 

[DavidL]

You're twisting the argument. I agree with you that you'll struggle to do well with poor quality content or trying to sell something to the visitor they don't want.

I don't see why you keep suggesting that an advertising supported site is necessarily one of these. Look at Gumtree.com.au, Carsguide.com.au for instance.

Also I don't see any evidence of Google hitting MFA sites? They've hit poor content sites, sites with dodgy backlinks and even sites that relied on EMDs. But this was and is regardless of whether these sites were advertising supported or if they really did ship viagra direct to the user. The ads aren't a problem - it's the content!

PS can you give an example of one of your successful sites so we can see what you mean?

 

[snoopy]

I don't see why you keep suggesting that an advertising supported site is necessarily one of these. Look at Gumtree.com.au, Carsguide.com.au for instance.

The topic isn't "ad supported sites", the topic is "made for adsense sites", sites that only exist to try and getting free traffic and monetize it by spitting it back out.

Does gumtree sounds like an MFA site to you? Here is how it is described in wikipedia,

Gumtree is an extensive network of online classifieds and community websites. Classified ads are either free or paid for depending on the product category and the geographical market. Sellers may promote their listing through featured placements on the homepage or under product categories.

Carsguide.com.au I can't see many PPC ads, I think this is classifieds & reviews site. It has some ads but that doesn't look like the main game at all to me.

Also I don't see any evidence of Google hitting MFA sites? They've hit poor content sites, sites with dodgy backlinks and even sites that relied on EMDs. But this was and is regardless of whether these sites were advertising supported or if they really did ship viagra direct to the user. The ads aren't a problem - it's the content!

Of course it is the content, the issue with the content is it just stuff written for the purpose of displaying ads next it. Like I said it is always low quality content with these sites because the content is just written by someone who looked it up on wikipedia.

Made for adsense = content written for adsense.

I don't think it can be any clearer.

PS can you give an example of one of your successful sites so we can see what you mean?

I'll be posting a couple of sites up for critical review today.

 

[DavidL]

Gumtree was made to make money from ads.
The ads are Adsense.
Therefore it was made to make money from Adsense.
MFA by the literal definition

Carsguide was made to make money from ads
The ads are Adsense.
Therefore it was made to make money from Adsense.
MFA by the literal definition

Don't be so naive to think the gumtree or carsguide owners were just performing a public service. They want to make money from ads, period. And, guess what - they deserve it! Good luck to them - good content useful sites why shouldn't they make money through Adsense on the side?

Same with Ned's site. If he provides some quality info on gold investment, tips on investment, historical prices etc etc then he deserves to make some money on Adsense too.

This is rather ironic being in the same post:

Like I said it is always low quality content with these sites because the content is just written by someone who looked it up on wikipedia.

...Here is how it is described in wikipedia...

 

[neddy]

the only thing I have found that works well is selling the actual product/service that people want. Everything else gets little traction or makes small amounts of money. If the domain is goldbullion.com.au the obvious thing is a site selling "gold bullion", anything other than that is nonsense in my view.

I mostly agree with you Paul.

But the fact is I had this parked, and if I was lucky, I made a few bucks a day. So when the offer came up of doing a minisite for $99, I decided it would be much better than parking. (And so far that has definitely proved to be the case).

Initially I would have some adsense, and then I would apply for the Perth Mint affiliate program so I could actually offer and sell some product (without stocking it). That's in the process of being added this week.

If the domain starts earning some good regular commissions, then I'll be happy. A mate of mine owns the site australiancoindealers.com, and he does really well with Perth Mint.

But my ultimate business model is to one day get one of the actual traders out there to acquire the domain. That's what I do best.

 

[snoopy]

Gumtree was made to make money from ads.
The ads are Adsense.
Therefore it was made to make money from Adsense.
MFA by the literal definition


Carsguide was made to make money from ads
The ads are Adsense.
Therefore it was made to make money from Adsense.
MFA by the literal definition

Gumtree is a classifieds site, Carguide.com.au I think is the same + reviews. Next you'll be saying ebay is MFA. Do you think ebay is MFA?

Don't be so naive to think the gumtree or carsguide owners were just performing a public service.

I never said they are doing a "public service", they are "selling a service". There is a real business model there.

Same with Ned's site. If he provides some quality info on gold investment, tips on investment, historical prices etc etc then he deserves to make some money on Adsense too.

This is rather ironic being in the same post:

I think it is typical MFA quality content and I think the model is weak. It doesn't matter what anyone "deserves", the question is how long will it last, I think it is short term because it is 100% reliant on Google and in my view it is the type of site they are trying to rank lower. Time will tell on this. Let's see where it is ranked in a year.

 

[DavidL]

Gumtree is a classifieds site, Carguide.com.au I think is the same + reviews. Next you'll be saying ebay is MFA. Do you think ebay is MFA?.

Oh please... Ebay makes it's money through listings & item sales, I'm sure you know that.

Carsguide and gumtree make their money through Adsense. They create content (through car reviews, how-to articles, user listings, shopping.com.au feeds etc) and then plaster ads all around it hoping some people click on them.

Just like Ned is doing with his site but obviously on a much bigger scale.

I'm sorry that these latter two don't fit in nicely to your own personal twisted definition of a MFA site but, I'm afraid to tell you, they precisely fit the literal definition.

 

[theseoconsultant]

I'm sorry that these latter two don't fit in nicely to your own personal twisted definition of a MFA site but, I'm afraid to tell you, they precisely fit the literal definition.

I agree! Sorry Snoopy, but I think you might be due for a coffee.