I ended up negotiating a sale of two of my prime domain names: FridgeFreezers /co/uk and the singular to a friend of mine who deals in the domain game too. I’m afraid I can’t say the price I sold them for but it was a good and fair amount for both parties I felt, I was actually doing this negotiating while in Asia, I believe it was when I was in Singapore watching the F1 which made that day even better!

Since selling that I also several websites, most of which the domains i’d purchased off people simply by contacting them, both had one page sites on them.

One of them I purchased around 4 years ago for £100 , ended up selling this with website for near 100 times my initial purchasing price which I was pleased with. Another I purchased for around £1000 and sold for around 5 times this.

I recently purchased at auction the domain: CompareHotelPrices.co.uk , I liked this as it does what it says on the tin, has a decent search volume on it and you can tell that in most cases people will either be searching for hotels in general or having settled on one wanting to find the best price, in both cases, dropping a cookie i’m sure will have a good conversion ratio.Anyhow I got a one page custom layout design and coded for me, and i’m simply building this one up with more pages. Hoping to go after a lot of long tail keywords. Do let me know what you think.

In terms of purchases I haven’t bought too much else, I’m in negotiations with a 5 letter .com domain, not my usual generic type but more a brandable one for a new project i’m looking into.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in any joint ventures i’m currently open to looking into some. If your after an investment in a domain I can come in on one or make the majority of it and sort something out.

Starts in Revolutions and some will be meeting earlier for food. Any questions ask on the event or ask me and i’m more than happy to answer them.

Details are on this facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=217880051606627
Hope to see you soon.

I travelled

I took quite a snap decision to go travelling, it was something i’d always thought of but never really considered until around January when I realised that it was the perfect time for me to go travelling, I booked a return flight from Manchester to Bangkok for the end of April and returning 3 months later. That 3 months quickly went by and I extended it by another 3 months.

To put it simply, it was the best 6 months of my life!!! I visited 8 countries, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macua.

My time consisted of meeting some amazing people, seeing amazing history, beautiful scenary, untouched beaches, partying and eating some incredible food.

Highlights: Ankor Wat templates in Cambodia, F1 night race in Singapore, Beaches of Thailand + too many more to mention.

Affiliate work

My affiliate work suffered due to the above, when I decided to go I thought 3 months, i’ll leave my affiliate work to itself, checking emails every now and again, when I put my flight back 3 months I bought a laptop in Bangkok and started to do a tiny bit, I organised a few sales of some prime domains I had and purchased a small number of lower cost domains.It was actually incredibly nice to not work on a laptop for basically 6 months, as pretty much since I was 13 i’ve spent few hours most days either working or reading stuff related to the affiliate work.

My plan

My plans for the future will be up in another post in a few days.

Few photos from my travels - literally have hundreds so just picked a handful

Temples of Ankor Wat

Surfing in Bali

Singapore Zoo - amazing!

Sunrise at Ankor Wat - 8th wonder!

Singapore Night F1 - Unreal!

Backdrop to part of F1

Some of the guns we used in Cambodia

Hong Kong Skyline

Ice Bar in Vietnam

Craziest mountain rd in Laos

Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur

Ostrich ride in Vietnam

Pyramid in Phi Phi - where 'the beach' was filmed

typical thai beach!

Active Volcanoe in Java, Indonesia

Mental waterfall in Laos

Being the only people on the Cambodian Island

Sniper ... COD style

An unbelievable 6 months … anyone who is thinking or even not thinking of travelling … you should seriously do it while you can! (age is not an issue, if you 18 or 50 just do it)

Includes my names:
Highchairs.co.uk & Highchair.co.uk as a pair (with high exacts 200k ish for 4 terms ‘high chair’ ‘high chairs’ highchairs’ and ‘highchair’

HomeCinemaSystem.co.uk (150k+ exacts)

Register and bid online here. http://meetdomainers.co.uk/auction/

Start time: 4.30pm
Auction in : £ sterling

What i’ve been doing

Well, I’ve been chilling out a lot as I thought i’ve been doing affiliate work while in education for about 6 years now and so maybe I should have some time off!

But I havent completely had time off to be honest as I’m hoping to do this malarky full time for the first time from september onwards, therefore I’ve been working on some projects around and about.

I’ve launched and i’m constantly working on Football Boots which cost me a fair amount of money and so i’m hoping to get it to number one in google in the next 12/18 months. It was on page one but google’s algo change has meant its dropped off at the moment. (If anyone has any sport/football sites etc and wants to do some swappy on some nice links then let me know)

I’ve also relaunched my business site and revamped it. http://www.onlineclick.co.uk which is now looking a bit better.

I’ve got other domains that I still need to launch and work on so i’ll be a busy beaver come september for the next 12 months, although i’m also looking to split it up with some kind of work experience in Manchester (drop me a line if you may have some) in regards to marketing/business.

I’m also working with a charity called Boots For Africa, which give old boots to kids in Africa to play football in, I think it’s an excellent intitive and so i’m going to featre them on my sites, as well as set up collection points around Manchester. You can find out more at there website BootsForAfrica and if you want to feature them on the site or set up collection points etc get in touch with me or them.

Finally i’ve got a few domains at auction at a week on fridays Namedrive domain auction at the Manchester Hilton Hotel. I’ve got Highchair.co.uk and Highchairs.co.uk both in together as a pair. http://meetdomainers.co.uk/auction/ you can register to bid online if your not going.

Oh and apologies for the massive gap in blog posts

It’s being arrange over at AcornDomains see link below, and will have mainly people who deal with domains, resellers, drop catchers etc as well as James from Namedrive whose arranging it and has booked a place in TigerTiger.

More info: http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/ad-manchester/65560-manchester-meet-thursday-25th-march-2010-a.html

Let me know if your coming or fancy it or have any questions.

If your interested please get in touch at the following email and we can discuss rates

I’ve also just finished my tax (yes the deadline was 31st jan) which is bit of weight off my shoulders, although it’s also a massive dent in my bank account! As it was for 08-09 which has been my best year the tax is hefty.

Just thought i’d post this quickly, anyone know what percentage of rent you can put against tax ?

What have I been doing

Well i’ve had exams this january and as this is my last year of Uni they count and so I’ve had a lot of revising to do. Christmas was really good, I escaped to the lake district and rented a nice cottage, the snow made it brilliant to get out and go on walks etc and totally chill without my laptop! Altho the new iphone did distract me a lot!

New year meant a look back at the previous year and look forward to this year, Where i’m hoping a lot of exciting projects are in the pipeline more said later.

I’ve literally just got back from a weekend in Barcelona with 4 of my uni mates and 2 who are over there doing a year abroad, this was a reason to go over to see them and also as I turned 21 yesterday meant I could celebrate turning the big 21 in a different city with some great mates and lots of drinks (including a pint with baileys in it, not v. nice see picture below followed by lots of shots)

The future

2010 im hoping will be a very good year for me. The end of 2009 has been slow in terms of revenue, due to not being able/having time to work on sites, I sold a few and have ploughed a lot of my money into buying generic domain names.

The idea is to build some large sites on them and get them highly ranked, then I aim to either keep them for a few years and keep building more or sell them and start something big! maybe become a merchant etc.

I’m currently looking into finding a flat with 2 mates who still have a year left of uni next year, thus i’ll be working on affiliate stuff full time for the first time ever, I may also look into getting some work experience or do some volunteering.

Anyway with some of the domains Ive bought im excited for the year to come. I should have my first site live on my favourite generic very soon and may just let you all see it

Anyway i’m writing this in the evening and ive had about 9 hours total sleep since friday so im knackered and think im going out tonight as well so I’ll stop writing now and set this to auto post tomorrow (or today when you read this). As i’ve said I’ll try and keep this blog updated again and not let it fall into silence! I’ll leave you with a few photos from my trip to barca!

Anyhow! Some of us are meeting up for xmas drinks

The Paramount (a JD Wetherspoon) on Oxford / Portland Street
Thurs 10th December from 5pm

Anyone welcome

Hope to see some of your there

Thread chatting about it on a4u : http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-marketing-lounge/132832-manchester-christmas-drinks.html