You've read expired domains are good to buy. You've read old sites are good to have. But where do you find aged domains, or domains with pagerank already, or domains with backlinks already?

Cool Tool - Freshdrop.net will help you find these domains.

Should You Buy Expired Domains?

Yes and No. Buy at your own risk.

Old domains are cool because sometimes you can get a cool domain name.

Old domains are cool because sometimes they are already in google's index.

Old domains are cool because sometimes they have bunches of backlinks.

Old domains are bad because sometimes the previous owner did bunches of spamming and bad things with the domain and it will forever be junk to google.

45n5 experience with expired domains

Some old domains I've bought that ALREADY had pagerank when I bought them will sometimes keep the pagerank and will sometimes go to 0. It's a crap shoot really.

However, old domains that are already in google's index when I buy them usually always stay in google's index.

If I'm looking to experiment with a script to see how it might get indexed for instance I might buy an old domain that I know is already in google's index and the googlebot is already visiting just to save some time.

Freshdrop.net

Freshdrop.net is a really cool tool that does MORE than what many tools that charge people to use do.

You can filter by pagerank, backlinks, age, and even more to find the exact expiring domain you want. Plus you can buy the domain from the links they provide.

If you are into buying domain names or ever will be then you might want to bookmark Freshdrop.net.

(via ImNirvana)

Some hate adsense and some love adsense and the majority of us are probably right there in the middle.

For those of you using adsense, what's you adsense strategy?

45n5 Adsense Strategy

Generally on an affiliate site I don't use adsense at first or I put it towards the bottom of the page.

In the meantime I load up the top of the page with affiliate type of links and banners.

If the affiliate links convert to sales then I leave the site as is.

If the affiliate links don't convert to sales then I go heavy on adsense at the top of the page or do a mix of adsense and affiliate links.

Sales trump Clicks

Getting a commission on a sale is always better than earning nickels and dimes.

When I first started I could never make affiliate sales, probably because I lacked patience, and loved adsense because it was instant money.

However after having some faith I would always prefer my affiliate links convert and I can avoid using adsense.

Your Adsense Strategy?

Do you go all out with adsense, stay away, or something else?

Affiliate Marketing is real hard because you only get a small commission from each sale.

You spend bunches of money, time, and energy to send people to buy OTHER PEOPLE's products and you get a small commission for this.

Compare this with selling your own product where you can keep 100% of the profit if you want.

I think affiliate marketing is so hard because you get such a small share of the profits.

The product creators are making the dollars while you are working for peanuts.

But I Can't Make My Own Product

Yes you can!

Certainly you can't make your own big screen tv or camcorder however producing a DVD is easily within your reach.

There are even services like CreateASpace that will handle order fulfillment, dvd duplication, and more.

You can make subscription sites, Amember will help you do that.

You can sell ebooks and digital products. A pdf file is all you need there.

If you can make crafts, or grow things, or make info pamphlets, or make jewelry, or spices from vegetables, or tshirts, or hats, or kits to make solar ovens or whatever other hobby you have, then YES, you can sell things and keep 100% of the profit.

Starting Over Again

If this was day 1 on my making money online journey all over again i would certainly spend less time with adsense/affiliate marketing and focus much more on selling my own products and services.

Will you keep pushing other people's products and making other people money or are you jumping into your own product creation also? Care to share?

I discussed with the wife this weekend how crummy the domain name 45n5 is.

It isn't intuitive how to spell it from hearing it, it isn't intuitive what it means from hearing it, it's difficult to remember, etc.

If you are used to the name it's fine, however when you are around people not familiar with the site it's gets real tiring explaining it.

That got us discussing changing the domain name or other things and inspiring this post.

How To Change Your Domain Name

To technically change your domain name and have all the old visitors show up at your new site you can use a 301 permanent redirect.

When done properly your visitors and subscribers will probably not notice a difference.

If your blog is small it's really quite easy.

Practice Your 301 First

If you are doing the 301 redirects yourself you might want to spend $8 for a domain and practice redirecting a blog their first just to get your feet wet instead of playing with your moneymaker.

Change Your Social Profiles?

If it was as simple as changing your domain name with a 301 redirect I would probably change the 45n5 domain name to something more brandable and that contains human words, however it's not that easy.

Social sites like twitter.com/45n5 and youtube.com/45n5 can't be redirected.

I'm not sure what to do with social profiles when you change your online presence. Do you?

Sell Your Site And Start Fresh?

Another thought is to just sellout and take the money to help start your new blog from scratch.

This would give the new owner your domain, social profiles, wouldn't chance screwing up your pagerank, etc.

However you lose everything, including most of your readers.

I'd consider this option but it would take some serious convincing from the wife which makes me think of transfering the site.

What would you do in my shoes? Pick a new domain for 45n5 and transfer it over or sell it and start new?

Other Considerations For Changing Your Blog's Online Presence?

That's how to change your domain name and some other considerations, what did I miss?

Vacation mode is officially over and posting will resume as usual shortly ;) Thanks all for the well wishes and I'll be digging through emails and responding throughout the day.

Here's some video and pictures we took: Bonnaroo 2008