New Site: Tokyo Guide
April 29, 2005
I acquired my first established website this week. I completed the transaction through Sedo. They offered fairly good support and it went through fairly smoothly. You can see the site here: Tokyo Essentials.
I am sure many people would see this site and wonder what was I thinking. Well the site has been up for around 5 years and has a lot of good back links. It has some reasonable content that I am too lazy to create and it ranks well in the search engines.
It didn’t have any advertising on it except the affiliate links to make hotel bookings. I thought I could make some reasonable money from it, from just putting Adsense on to it.
I have spent a few hours plastering Adsense on most of the pages, putting in some Amazon links and changing the affiliate IDs to my own account. Over the past 2 days Adsense earnings have been reasonable enough - nothing huge and but nothing dissapointing.
I have started working a much cleaner version of the site using CSS and straight HTML. I am trying to optimize it as much as possible with the little SEO knowledge I have. The site is currently all HTML which makes it to difficult to update in its current form.
I am beginning to get really into CSS. I don’t know why anyone puts anything into tables anymore. With you CSS you can easily say where exactly you want elements to appear on a web page.
Once I have done the clean, I plan to add pages and pages of new content. It will be fun visiting places in Tokyo I have never been to and going to places I haven’t been to in a long time.
China Fund
April 28, 2005
I was just emailed the details of a new China fund started by AMP. They are investing in 25 of China’s leading listed companies via the FTSE/Xinhua China.
Their blurb reads, “The Chinese economy is one of the largest and fastest growing in the world, and with over 1.2 billion people, it’s becoming a powerful economic force. China is enjoying a growth period that is seeing it emerge as one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world.
An investment in the AMP Capital China Fund 2 gives you:
Exposure to 25 of China’s leading listed companies via the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index for as little as $5,000
A capital guarantee from National Australia Bank on 23 June 20111″.
The thing which seems attractive to me is that a 100% investment loan is available.
It seems an interesting option for Australian investors, but you should definitely seek professional financial and taxaxtion advice before investing.
Blog Focus
April 26, 2005
I originally started writing this blog to talk about realestate investing, but in some ways I have diverged to talking about making money on the internet and investing in Japan.
My goal is still to “Retire Young and Wealthy” so I am interested in any way I get there, whether it is realestate, stocks, internet, saving money and so on.
I have lost a little focus on realestate, but I will definitely be looking for my next purchase when I get back from holiday.
For the future? I was thinking of getting into realestate, but I am also interested in developing websites and learning PHP, MySQL, ASP, CSS.
I think my next project will involve both of these interests and I have already been brainstorming ideas.
Travel Writing
April 23, 2005
I have just received my copy of Travel Writer’s Guide. I thought that since I was going travelling to Taiwan, I thought it would be a good way to try and make some money back on the trip.
They have some great ideas on submitting articles to newspapers and magazines. I was only thinking of making a new website out it, but I thought I might also submit some writing to at least one magazine here in Tokyo.
Some of his good ideas are:
- How to convert a single idea into a number of different articles
- Using photos
- How to plan and prepare for your trip
- Interviewing people
With computers, digital cameras a litte bit thought anyone can be paid for their vacations.
Google PR Update
April 22, 2005
It looks like Google has just done an update to website’s PR or Page Rank. If you install the the Google Tool Bar you can see a site’s PageRank.
The PageRank is the importance Google gives to a webpage, using various calculations. For example, backlinks to a site. The value of a high PR is debateable as Google may not be placing as much emphasis on this in their search algorithms.
Anyway this site now has a PageRank of 5! I always thought PageRank was something which was difficult to get, but it seems like Google likes the site. Also having hosted on Blogger which they now own, may also help.
What’s the advantage of a high PR? Your website might appear higher in the search results, which can increase traffic to the site and possibly higher revenue.
The other big advantage is that if you create a new website, and put a link to the new website the PR flows to the new site, just from having a link. It is also important not to cross-link between two of your sites, as this can have a negative impact.
Back links
April 18, 2005
One way Google calculates popularity of a website is the number of links to the site. If someone is prepared to put a link on a site to another site, they view this as a vote of popularity.
Some companies were quick to act so they set up “link farms” where you could buy 200 links to your site. Google are a bit smarter than this, so they now take into account of over what period of time links to your site were created.
Hint: Avoid “buying links” and try to slowly build up links to your site.
Quality, older sites tend to build up these links slowly over time. Thus, building a quality site with content that doesn’t get outdated can increase in value overtime.
You can check link popularity here: Market Leap. Also, look for quality of the links, rather than quantity. A link from Microsoft will have a lot more value than a link from bobshomepage.com.
Make money hint: Find websites in your interest area, particularly older sites, with good content and little advertising. Check out their link popularity, if it is good make an offer on the site to the owner. There are probably 1000s of goldmines out there just waiting to be bought.
First enquiry
April 14, 2005
I got my first email from my ozfudosan web-site. I don’t know if it will result in a sale or not, but it is exciting that someone actually found the site and was interested enough to send me an email.
I have some good information on a new estate in Queensland, Australia. The estate is close to the beach, Great Barrier Reef and many tropical islands nearby. It is being promoted as the next Port Douglas. Please email me if anyone is interested.
Another New Business
April 12, 2005
I am currently in the negotiation phase on the purchase of another new business. I don’t want to give away too many details yet, but it is something I have been thinking about for the last 2-3 months.
I will be spending a couple of thousand dollars of my own money on it, so in some ways there is quite a bit of risk as I really don’t know the full income potential. I am fairly confident I can make money from it, and hope to return the investment within 6 months.
I will post more details when the transaction is finalized.
Travel Ideas and Taiwan
April 9, 2005
I am planning to go to Taiwan for Golden Week holiday. Golden Week is a group of public holidays starting on the 29th of this month. It is my first time to go overseas during this period.
Why Taiwan? Firstly, I have never been there before, it was the only place I could get a ticket to and it can give me a chance to practice my almost forgotten Mandarin.
An estimated 60,000 people will be leaving through Narita airport on the the 29th. I think travel is one of the best ways to clear the mind, to set future goals and think of new ideas.
Some people may think of it as an expense, but I prefer to think of it as an investment. There’s no better way to expand your context.
Rent Mediation
April 8, 2005
The mediation with my property manager and the tenants seem to go ok, with the tenants agreeing to pay an additional $40 each fortnight until their debt is paid off.
If they miss just one payment, they will be served with an eviction notice. From the pictures I have seen of the houses, they seem to keep them fairly well in order and seem fairly settled living there, so maybe they just needed a bit of a push to make their rental payments.
