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GoDaddy Reseller (WildWest) Consolidation Post

Paul Zannucci — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:16:45 +0000

So I’ve made a few posts about the GoDaddy WildWest (don’t ask me why) reseller program and intend to make some more as I start my new trial of the product, but it looks like most people just read the original review and don’t see the rest of the material that’s been provided (not that it is critical material in all cases, but it is updated); therefore I’ve decided to create sort of a centralized consolidation post. Newcomers probably still won’t see this, but for those who enjoy following the trials and tribulations of attempting to make money with the GoDaddy reseller program can bookmark this page and follow the updates from here.

The original review including some useful comments from readers: GoDaddy Reseller Review

This first update: GoDaddy Reseller Update

The second update: Reseller Update # 2

Most recent update: Reseller Trial Closed (Sort of)

I think that if there is one thing overall that I would have you know about this program it would be that you need to maintain a sense of sanity when thinking whether to try this or not. If you can’t afford to try it out but think you might make your money back quick, you better think again. This is not an easy way to make money. It takes time, trial and error, and patience; and still there is not guarantee that you will succeed. If you can throw out the money and think this would be fun to try, go for it. On the other hand, if this is your desperate attempt to get grocery money, you’d be just as well off buying 200 lottery tickets for all this will do for you in the short term unless you already have a clientele ready to go.

Basically, just use caution.

Do Follow Comments

Paul Zannucci — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:18:22 +0000

Okay, so I finally approved a backlog of comments. For the purpose of being a pleasant web host, I have a DoFollow policy for comments. While most blogs automatically set themselves to not report links out from visitors, I find it more neighborly to let your links count. All I ask is that you be polite, on-topic and linking to a site that isn’t a scam, pharmaceutical, gambling, etc. Those I chuck into the great trash can of cyberspace.

Thank you and happy linking.

General Update

Paul Zannucci — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:52:37 +0000

So I’ve finally had my first problem with Host Gator. As it turns out, they need a “valid” credit card in order to keep your account active. I’ve never heard of such a thing! Anyway, as soon as I complied with this unreasonable demand, they kindly turned the site back on, and we’re back in business as smooth as ever. Despite this obsessive need for payment, I still recommend Host Gator as the far and away best shared hosting company out there. You can read my full review here: Best Shared Host Host Gator Review.

Or you can just hop over to Host Gator and start your trouble-free, super fast shared hosting by clicking the banner below:

Speaking of things that don’t work because of my general incompetence, my one year trial of the GoDaddy reseller program came to an end, and I didn’t make any money at all. Why? Because I didn’t do anything. I set up the site and let it just hang out for a year. Nevertheless, I’ve come up with a plan for how we (the interested reader and I) might be able to make such a thing work, and I’ll divulge that in an update soon. Whether I’ll actually try it out myself or not, I haven’t decided. Want to make a run of it on your own? Here’s their link below. Despite one year of complacency and losing $200 in start-up fees, I still think there’s good potential there.

Speaking of GoDaddy, they now offer cloud computing starting at $99 per month. I haven’t tested it and don’t have any intention to, so try at your own risk. You’d have to have one hell of a website to need cloud hosting. I don’t have any of those, and since it is my policy not to artificially stress the servers I test, I don’t think we’d get a realistic result from my using it. If I ever have a site that’s getting 20k plus unique hits a day, maybe I’ll put it over there and see what they can do.

One thing is for certain about GoDaddy, and that is that is that they have the very best system for finding domain names. Even when I haved a site that will be hosted elsewhere, I use GoDaddy to find the name I want.

From the horse’s mouth:

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a Web address, such as godaddy.com, that is linked to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). When someone types a domain name into a Web browser, the requested Web page displays.A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (godaddy.com). The most common top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .WS. These TLDs have certain guidelines but are, for the most part, available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.

The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot — “godaddy,” in this case — is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the “readable” part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.

Blogging From Your iPhone

Paul Zannucci — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:55:29 +0000

Busy and need to blog on the run? That’s not a problem if you have an iPhone. In fact, just to prove a point (and in keeping with the philosophy of this site to test everything before doing a review), I’m blogging from my iPhone right now. Of course, I had to spend several weeks testing other things on my new phone first, like half-a-dozen racing games and a couple first person shooters (I never claimed to be a mature geek).

WordPress makes it pretty easy by having their own free app in the app store. Sync your blogs to the app (an easy enough task), and suddenly you can do everything from writing new posts and pages, complete with pictures, to moderating comments. Of course, thumb typing isn’t optimal, but you can get remarkably decent at it if you practice. Among the problems with the WordPress app are a general instability, which encourages me to save my work compulsively, and the lack of a spell checker, thus giving you plenty of artistic license…uh, lisence…uh, licence…ah, who cares…to spell with the left side of your brain,

In fact, attempting to find a reasonable facsimile of a word processor with spell check included is a rather daunting task. Finally I settled on something called ZenTap, which not only includes a spell checke but also a very intuitive system for letting you pick words from a list as you type, which speeds you up when typing longer words. It also lets you place various punctuation marks between the keyboard and the reading screen, which also helps to speed you up.

Another app that is more fun than helpful for Internet entrepreneurs is made by GoDaddy. Like everything else made by GoDaddy, the thing the app does best is advertise GoDaddy and make them money. You can shop for, and manage your, domain names. Browsing for domain names is something of hobby of mine, so I find that fun. The only other useful thing you can do in the app would be the ability to check any of your GoDaddy email accounts.

Back to running your blog, naturally there some disadvantages to the WordPress iPhone interface. All the little formatting options are gone, hhu

Is running a website from your phone optimal? Of course not, but it actually isn’t all that bad, either. And in the business of trying to keep your site as updated and fresh as possible, being able to post from wherever you and your phone find yourselves is a good thing.

In fact, attempting to find a reasonable facsimile of a word processor with spell check included is a rather daunting task. Finally I settled on something called ZenTap, which not only includes q spell checker but also a very intuitive system for letting you pick words from a list as you type, which speeds you up when typing longer words. It also lets you place various punctuation marks between the keyboard and the reading screen, which also helps to speed you up.

Back to running your blog, naturally there some disadvantages to the WordPress iPhone interface. All the little formatting options are gone. You are

Postscript and Recommendation: With the new iPhone OS, spell checking is a standard feature no matter where you are typing. Misspelled words are automatically underlined as you type, just as in a word processor, and by touching the word you are presented with a number of less creative spellings.

GoDaddy Reseller “non-Update” 12-10-09

Paul Zannucci — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:41:32 +0000

People have requested that I update my success, or lack thereof, regarding the GoDaddy Reseller trial. This is just to let you know that, like everything else on this site, attempting to market the reseller site (which because of the contract with GoDaddy I can’t link to from here), got pushed to the side temporarily.

All I can say for certain at this point is that if you do nothing, you get nothing, but everyone probably already knew that to begin with.

I’ve made it past the job that was all-consuming, so I should start some marketing here soon.

What I’ve done so far: So far I have only used Google Adsense, MSN ads and facebook ads to market the site. This has been entirely unsuccessful to this point. I’ve paid for some clicks and gotten no buyers.

One of the issues with running these sorts of ads is that people are willing to pay big bucks to get their ads to the top of these search engine pages, and I haven’t been willing to do that up to this point.

What I intend to do is to market the hosting through article directories and by putting banners up on other sites that I own. If everything goes well, I should start to get that worked on by the end of the month.

I am not, I should probably mention, in any way discouraged. I simply haven’t put the work into it that it needs yet. Now if I start really marketing the site and it still isn’t working, then we may have a problem.

I’ll keep you updated…

If you are interested in starting your own GoDaddy Reseller account, please follow my link below. You get the same price regardless of how you get there, and by following this link you help to support the rather expensive trials that I run with web hosting, reselling, etc.

Back from hiatus and a couple of changes

Paul Zannucci — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:14:55 +0000

First of all, apologies for not notifying everyone that I would be going on hiatus. I had a major job come up and had to devote all of my time to it. While I mentioned on a couple of other sites that I would be going away for awhile, I just sort of went AWOL here.

I do have a number of posts that I need to do as well as updating the continuing trials that I’ve been running. Unfortunately, I haven’t started any new trials, but some of my opinions on the old companies have changed slightly as I continue to use them.

Also, I’ll update my attempts to use the GoDaddy reseller program.

Next trials won’t start until Januay, by the way…

GoDaddy Reseller Update

Paul Zannucci — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:45:55 +0000

So, as I said in my GoDaddy Reseller Review, I have started a trial with them. The cost was $199 per year, etc. and I won’t go all back through that here. I’m simply going to provide periodic updates as to how the program is going. Having finished my first month, this is a good point as any to start those.

Domain Names Sold: 0
Hosting Packages Sold: 0
Total Visitors: 63 unique visitors
Search Engine Hits: 0

So these numbers are not particularly surprising to me. Well, the search engine hits are to a certain extent. I picked a name that people do search for and where there is very little competition, but I, as yet, do not come up in Google when you search for me.

What I’ve tried so far:

I’ve really not overwhelmed the site with marketing efforts. From past experience, I know that in a crowded field with a brand new site that the way to go is slow and steady. So far all I’ve done is left some comments with links on do-follow blogs and written and article that I’ve submitted to various article directories. I’ve also linked to it from several of my blogs, though not this one (terms of service issue). Admittedly, I thought that would at least get on the front page of Google for my weak keywords, but that hasn’t worked out that way.

Still, I’m not discouraged. As I said, I knew that this was no quick sort of thing, and I will continue a slow marketing plan for about the first six months and then pick up the pace a little. Basically, all I have to lose is the $199. If for some reason I can’t start getting business at renewal time, I’ll simply not renew.

In any event, I’ll pop in next month with a similar sort of update.

Click below to see the specifics from GoDaddy’s reseller program:

iClipart Sale

Paul Zannucci — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:38:19 +0000

iClipart is, for a short time, offering one year subscriptions for only $34.95 Just click on the banner below:

iClipart is the largest online provider of clip art. With over 7 million images, you can almost be guaranteed that you will find exactly what you are looking for. Not sure? Well, unlike other clipart providers, iClipart allows you to search the collection and even see the file sizes and how large the pictures are before you purchase a subscription.

Why should you do this rather than buy a clip art collection that you’ll own forever? A lot of good reasons. For one thing, you aren’t going to find this many images on any software you get at the store. For another thing, the interface at iClipart is fantastic. You can quickly find any type of image you want.

But the big thing is quality. iClipart images are, on the whole, incredibly well done compared to what you will find on commercial software and are available in much larger sizes. I just picked one at random, for instance, and the .png version was 1467 x 1236. They also have vector versions, like .eps, available for each picture.

Seriously, I’ve probably tried every clip art provider out there, and these guys are tops. Right now, you can get a full year subscription for only $34.95. Think you can download 7 million images in that time? Of course, the monthly subscription is still available at $19.95, but why? Go for the whole year.