You don’t want to pay a penny in monthly hosting, right?

You don’t want to pay a web developer $250 (or higher) to build you a single website, right?

Did I mention you don’t want to spend any time producing relevant content for those websites either because you want that included for FREE, right?

Oh, just because you’re on a roll - you want to utilize this free WEBSITE service, their new Premium Ad Feed and have them PAY YOU when users click on any “Related Search” Ads, right?

Am I close? Got your attention? You think I’m lying and I’m full of crap don’t you?

Well at the end of April, Whypark dropped their entry requirements to get this - FREE. AND FREE means FREE. ZERO out-of-pocket expense. No bullshit credit card sign-up that gets hit after the fact and then again when you’re not looking like so many domain services.

Here’s just a few (I have over 500) websites I built at Whypark:

On Telepresence | Register Trademarks | Draft Wireless | Buy e-Book Reader

Carbon Footprint Calculator | Buy & Sell Denver Real Estate | MiFi Resources

They speak for themselves.

No hooks. No gimmicks.

Take the tour, sign-up, build your online wealth, then come back to Where’s Lumpy and leave me a comment or two on how successful you’ve become.

If you need any help getting started, or with custom coding, or anything really, drop me a comment here or to the e-mail below and we’ll help ya’ out - It’s what we do.

- Grow Your Domains
Looky here… People know I have no tolerance for get rich quick schemes, stupid people or bullshit. My work (and websites) stand on their own merit, as I. I don’t push crap that doesn’t work. I paid good money to get my sites built at Whypark over a year ago and back then they didn’t have a Premium Ad Feed and their service surely wasn’t free. It was way worth it then, it’s unbelievable now.

It’s a no-brainer

L2 - off to see the Wizard

I’ll set the stage….

GoDaddy has a new mini-site product out called “Quick Content” amongst others. People (some domainers) are trying to compare it to other mini-site providers like Devhub and Whypark (fat chance).

Seems you have to pay to be part of GoDaddy’s “Cash Parking” program first, then pay another $50 a year to have them throw up some content on your domain you have parked at GoDaddy.

Now get this - here’s the GoDaddy Quick Content TOS Link and just a few of the lowlights:

• terminate Your use of the Services if You have not accessed or logged into it for more than ninety (90) days.
• You may not purchase or generate traffic to Your web site by any of the following methods:

listing on newsgroups
bulk e-mailing
icq postings
chatroom postings
iframes
zero pixel frames
hitbots
clickbots
spiders
cgi-scripts
JavaScript
click farms
advertising the domain name or purchasing advertising for the domain name or any other similar method.

• Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Agreement, in addition to any and all other remedies to which Go Daddy is entitled, Go Daddy specifically reserves the right to:

* immediately suspend any domain names that Go Daddy believes in its sole discretion to be violating the terms of this Agreement;
* charge You a Twenty Nine and No/100 Dollars ($29.00) administrative fee for any and each domain name that Go Daddy believes in its sole discretion to be violating the terms of this Agreement;
* require the forfeiture of any previously earned revenue in connection with the Services, which has yet to be paid;
* deactivate any and all accounts and domains that Go Daddy believes in its sole discretion to be violating the terms of this Agreement;
* provide advertising partners with any and all domain names that Go Daddy believe in its sole discretion to be violating the terms of this Agreement.

That’s just a few….

You have to read the whole thing to get the feel of it.

So in a nutshell…. You can’t drive traffic to your domain, then they may pay you a portion of THEIR ad income, then if you don’t login to your account for 90 days they can terminate you, then if you have bad traffic they’ll flag your domains to Google (deindex) and you have to pay them to do all this for you, and then you have to pay them another $29 each domain when they terminate you! Then when you tell them to shove it and you’re not going to pay them, remember, they already hold your domain Bucko… lol (think easy repo) Did I mention they can terminate your account? (not just suspend the bad domain(s)), lol.

ROTFLMAO!

I had to reread it it a few times because I just can’t believe it. It’s absolutely, positively the nuttiest thing I’ve ever read!

What a bunch of fucking idiots at GoDaddy!

Oh, here’s a couple of GD Quick Content sites. (hell no, they’re not mine!)

SQLPrimer.com
SEOSynergy.com
DailyOliveOil.com

Unreal. It used to be “what is domaining coming to”, then it was “what’s domain parking coming to”, now it’s “what is domain development coming to”

L2

I saw a free $20 coupon so I signed up a while ago (last year) and finally used the coupon for $20 in free traffic.

Things were sailing along, I had set my max bid to .05 and figured out how to get around the $5 a day minimum so I set that at a buck a day.

No problem - in the middle of the 18th day (over a month ago), I paused the account, and paused all further advertising. I left $1.50 or so in the account. That way I wouldn’t be charged to continue it. I figured I’d take a hard look at the traffic and see if was worthwhile or not (being it was free).

Well nothing’s free I guess. Even though I had paused the account, they kept sending me reminders that my ads were not showing - no problem there, I expected that. I hadn’t finished up my analysis yet.

What I didn’t expect is for them was to charge my CC $35 and turn my account back on without notice or a word to me. I had paused it.

Just got off the phone with Bidvertiser and they say they’re gonna’ refund the unused balance asap ($27), but I have a funny feeling that if they charged my card without approval, they’re not gonna’ do what they say they’re gonna’ do anyway. We’ll see.

Moral to the story, even though I paused my account - these guys charged my card and restarted the ads without any notice and when they felt like it - so be careful.

I’m just lucky I caught it after only $8, it’s been so long I almost forgot I had even used that “free” coupon.

L2

For the next few parts of the series, we’re gonna’ stick to the companies I mentioned in Part I - Parked.com, TrafficZ, Sedo, NameDrive and Bodis. I have many other observations on some parking companies not listed above (and the reasons why I don’t use them anymore) saved for later posts in the series, maybe Part VIII. lol

Let’s get with it, I’ll kick off Part II with my observations on Parked.com.

Parked.com uses a couple different ad feeds that I see. Their primary feed is supplied by Yahoo with a second lower-tiered feed from Ask.com mixed into their ad results. There may be more, but that’s the two I’ve identified.

Parked.com records each unique visitor and click. So it’s not uncommon to see a high Click Through Rate (CTR) because of they way they record their stats. It’s entirely possible (and probable) a visitor will click multiple ads looking for whatever it is they’re searching for. I’ve see some of my domains there carry a 700% and 800% CTR at times. One visitor may have clicked 7 or 8 ads thus the high CTR.

I receive payouts twice a month via Paypal, and their payouts from my experiences are higher than almost all the others most of the time. Revenue Per Click (RPC) depends on your domain and the advertisers that advertise there, but since they record all clicks, it’s easy to see if you’re monetizing your selected “keywords” properly. I’ve changed keywords more than a few times trying to find the “sweet spot” and over a week or so of traffic you can tell by your RPC if the domain is monetized correctly. Lower paying keywords get shelved for higher paying keywords within my niche.

Parked allows all bot traffic unless it either gets out of hand or you request they block them. Now I never understood why somebody would send in a request to block bots. Domains get bot traffic from link directories, blogs, search engines, etc. Why you would want that bot traffic blocked is beyond me. I think all bots are a good thing. They can be a pain-in-the-ass at times, but they’re still a good thing overall. I know I have some domains still listed in a few link directories (from when the domains were developed websites) that get pinged when the directory updates their PageRank listings, or checks to see if the site is still available to the directory. The directories send out a spider that check the header response from the domain. Why would anybody want that to cease? It might be junk traffic, but it’s still traffic in my opinion.

Parked.com also offers a referral program. See that Parked.com image button to the right? If you use that and sign up for Parked.com through that link, I receive a commission off your portfolio revenue. It’s not a cut in pay from your end, Parked pays that to the referrer in addition to what they pay you for your portfolio of domains.

They have an easy to use Control Panel (CP) with one “stand out” new addition; the ability to import/export a .csv file with all your domain information. It works perfectly. You don’t have to go through each domain one-by-one anymore, you can build your spreadsheet completely, download it once and you’re done. All domains with one click are now just the way you’d like them, right down to the layouts, keywords, colors and descriptions. I highly recommend building a few domains at Parked, downloading the domain .csv file and see how they use the formatting. Once you see how they format, you can add and subtract all your domain in the file, then download it once and now you’re configured exactly the way you want your domains to be configured and shown. They also allow custom content including pictures, links and relevant information. You can add these modifications to any or all of your domains.

Included in their CP is a fully user customized “domain for sale” notification if you wish. Parked does not act as a broker on any sales (or purchases). You negotiate independently with the other party to the sale or purchase. Since they do not negotiate any sales or purchases, there is no commission owed Parked for any transactions.

Two words. Tremendous support. Email support tickets are answered promptly and courteously. Another plus for all Domainers is that Donny from Parked sits near the “official” Parked.com thread on the Namepros Domain Forum. He is always near and answers all questions sent his way, even the tough ones. The thread is also a great place for anybody (not just newbies) to learn about program changes or to see what other Domainers are doing with their Parked portfolios. There’s a slew of tips and tricks there from some of the domain parking industry pros.

Wrapping up my Parked.com observations; in a nutshell… Parked.com is a great domain parking company with superior support. It may very well be the best all around parking company available.

Next up in Part III - Sedo

L2 Lumpy

I’ll start by saying this three part “partial” review is only on the companies that I utilize. Even though there are many domain Parking Companies out in cyber land, this article will only address the ones I know firsthand and use - Parked, Sedo, NameDrive, Bodis and TrafficZ. My review is not intended to be the “facts” or “Gospel” on Domain Parking Companies, it’s not intended to throw anybody under a bus or raise them to “Rockstar” status. It is merely my observations, tips, quirks, and personal assessment. Take what you will from it, leave the bitchin’ and crying at the door.

Here’s some examples of “parked” domains and their landing pages from these companies: 3gtelepresence.com (Parked.com), ontelepresence.com (TrafficZ), viatelepresence.com (Sedo), telepresencetoday.org (Bodis), telepresencereport.com (NameDrive)

Of the five mentioned - Parked, TrafficZ and Bodis all use a primary Yahoo feed while NameDrive and Sedo use a Google feed to supply their ads. They all use secondary, lower paying feeds to supplement their main feed results.

Recording of stats is different for all companies. Parked and Trafficz show unique visitors within minutes while Bodis, Namedrive and Sedo take anywhere up to an hour to show a visitor.

I’ve noticed that Parked rolls to their “next day” stats at 3 AM EST, Namedrive at 12M EST, Sedo starts their new day at 0000 GMT, TrafficZ at 3 AM EST and Bodis appears to move on at 12M EST. This is when their accumulative stats “change over” to next day stats and reset to zeros.

The CP’s (control panels) for each are all usable, but Parked pulls away from the pack with their slick domain “import, export” function where you can download or upload a .csv file with all your pertinent domain information, right down to the template colors you want to use on any specific domain. Building hundreds (or thousands) of domain names, adding titles, descriptions, keywords, templates, colors, etc. into a spreadsheet, then uploading it couldn’t be easier.

All five have decent and relevant landing pages with nobody separating themselves from the other by any noticeable margin in my opinion.

With their primary feed providers halting once allowed “arbitrage” programs, none of these companies presently allow arbitrage. None allow “paid” traffic either. By “paid” I mean surf sites, or advertising directly to the parked domain on Google Adwords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, Microsoft Ad Center, Bidvertiser, Adbrite, etc. They all do allow previously developed “backlinks” and backlink traffic. None allow new direct links or hyperlinks, meaning you can’t go submit the parked domain to directories, DMOZ, search engine submit, etc. without violating their Terms of Service (TOS).

Revenue per click (RPC), referral programs, click counting, two page landers and more in Part II.

L2 Lumpy

I’ve also had a $175 a month cell phone bill. $99 a month unlimited calls, add Internet/text messages plus taxes and it comes to about $175 a month, every month.

I use anywhere up to about 6,000 minutes a month. So to be sure I didn’t get caught with my pants down on overages, I went for the unlimited plan when that came out a year ago or so. Kinda’ pissed me off that I was on a 6,000 minute plan for $149 a month previous and Verizon didn’t just put you into the $99 a month unlimited, I had to hear it in my truck radio driving home from Phoenix to Denver.

But never mind, it is what it is. It used to be over $225 a month, I was just glad it dropped to $175.

A couple weeks ago while reading a USA Today newspaper, I saw an article that said Boost would soon have a $50 a month unlimited calls, unlimited long distance, unlimited text, unlimited Internet, etc. I said yeah, right.

Well they do, and I did.

So now I took 3 steps forward by getting on Boost which the way I understand it they’re (told to me by a Boost rep) using the old Sprint Nationwide Network. I have no issues with that at all. It’s not like a Cricket phone that only works in your backyard.

There’s been a couple things that have suffered though. Mainly, and the only one that somewhat bothers me, is that their four available phones suck at Internet.

But for saving $125 a month, every month, it actually has freed me up to pay attention and drive instead of trying to answer a Blackberry e-mail. It’s forced me to not pull up CNN at the dinner table at a restaurant and best of all - it gives me a little more time in the day because I’m not trying to do all that shit while I’m busy with other stuff. It’s a classic case of a “good” downsizing. Bigger and faster isn’t always better.

It’s been 3 days on this new deal at Boost and I gotta’ say I’m extremely pleased with their coverage. I live up on a hill and I used to have to take all my Verizon calls out in the garage, the only place Verizon seemed to work. All that did is make for a whole lot of aggravation and a increase in my daily smoking habit (since I don’t smoke in the house).

Life is much simpler now. The Internet and emails are back on my computer, and my phone calls are back on my phone. I also have an extra $125 a month. Imagine that.

L2 Lumpy

Well, with this simple modification to your index.php file found in your current theme directory - you can.

Now mind you, if you have a lot of comments, this isn’t for you.  Why?  Because in that case your front page may run down a mile or two of page view with 50 comments. Presently for me, that’s not an issue.

Personally I like seeing everything displayed on the front page. I really don’t like landing on a home page, viewing a post, then clicking the “comments” to view the post and comments on a separate (single) page. I’d rather scroll through the posts and their comments all at one time. Sometimes the comments are better content then the actual post! Besides, by having comments and the ”leave a comment” box right in front of a visitor, I would think folks may be more likely to leave you their comment too.

I couldn’t find a plug in anywhere to do what I wanted, but do not fear, these two little snippets of code are easy to install and get the job done nicely and swiftly.

Here ya’ go:

Find your index.php file inside your current theme directory. This is the file we’re going to edit. Once you open the index.php file, copy the entire contents to a notepad .txt file for backup before we alter the actual index.php file.

So far? Now in the index.php file….

Find this code:

<?php get_header(); ?>

Below it add this code:

<?php $withcomments = 1 ?>

It should look like this now:

<?php get_header(); ?>

<?php $withcomments = 1 ?>

So Far? Almost done….

Find this code:

<?php endwhile; ?>

Above it add this code:

<?php comments_template(); ?>

It should look like this now:

<?php comments_template(); ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Save the file, you’re done.

Told you it was easy. If you run into some problems because you have some kind of super custom altered theme, or it’s not what you thought you wanted - you have the contents of that notepad file you created before you began. Copy and paste those contents back to your index.php file and you’re right back where you started.

Hopefully this helped you, I know it’s exactly what I want for now on this Blog. Maybe since you’re reading this, you’ll leave me a comment? It’s right there below.

Don’t forget to check out: The “BOMB” for WordPress!

L2 Lumpy

It’s a given that many SEO experts claim you don’t need meta tags anymore the way search engines spider and index a site.  There’s some truth to that, but in world of all things (websites) created equally, why wouldn’t you use them to help separate your site from the millions you’re competing with?  Used properly, they surely can’t hurt, only help your rankings.

Here’s some tags in your header section (between the <head> and </head> tags I consider a must:

title, description, keywords

And a few more I use:

revisit-after, robots, abstract, copyright, distribution, author, page-topic

If you take a look at the source code of www.TelepresenceToday.com, you’ll see the way I use these tags.  Example below:

<title>Telepresence | Telepresence Today, News Articles Information</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Telepresence Today | News, articles and information on telepresence including advice, domain sales, consulting, locations, rooms, rentals and more”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”telepresence, news, network, sytem, cisco, nortel, polycom, hp, hdtv, lifesize, halo, options, 3d, home, work, business, information, telepresence rent, rental, location, sales, site, center, telepresence room, suite, meeting”>
<meta name=”revisit-after” content=”7 days”>
<meta name=”robots” content=”index,follow”>
<meta name=”abstract” content=”Telepresence Today | News, articles and information on telepresence including advice, domain sales, consulting, locations, rooms, rentals and more”>
<meta name=”copyright” content=”Copyright © 2009 - All rights reserved”>
<meta name=”distribution” content=”global”>
<meta name=”author” content=”L II, Inc.”>
<meta name=”page-topic” content=”Telepresence Today - Telepresence News and Articles”>

Every tag has a specific function.

Meta tags assist in the “relevancy scoring” of your page within search engine algorithms.  So a site that has the “keyword”, or “keywords” in the domain name, title, description, keywords and also the actual text on your page will surely rate a decent score. It gets a little more complicated then just having all these “parts” installed, but at least having them present is considered a fundamental piece of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) puzzle.

One note, some developers believe you only need tags on your index (home) page.  I’m not of those, at a minimum I believe in having the title, description and keywords tags on all pages. It takes time, but in my experiences it well worth the time to build them properly.  By properly I mean non-spammy, correct length and relevant to your page content.

Here’s a link to a great free (we like free) tool to check your site meta tags and see your “relevancy” scores:

www.submitexpress.com/analyzer/

More to come….

L2

My weight went from 276 to 205 - I opened up my new motorcycle rental shop.  I was working 20 hours a day getting that put together and when we finally did get it open (May, 2007) I was beat down in everyway.  The burnout video with Master Bike Builder Paul Yaffe (Discovery Channel) on the sidebar was taken at that party.  Went from Lumpy to Limpy LOL.  Old Grizzly Adams (Dan Haggerty) thought I had cancer.  If you look close at the video, you’ll see him helping to referee the contest.

By June, I knew something was really wrong and that’s when I went to see Doc for the first time where we started the “testing” rounds.  MRI’s, CAT scans, the whole enchilada.  And I have to say, more than a few I had to do over because the medical professionals just couldn’t believe the T3 count.

I went to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis in August with Yaffe and the crew and it was just miserable.  Everything was out of balance, everything tainted by the way I felt.  I couldn’t have fun because I was just weak and drained, all the time.  The motor was running 24/7.  Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t do shit.

BUT!  Come September, it started with a radioactive tracer pill.  When those test came back it was decision time.  They had the diagnosis.  Graves disease.

Since there was no lumps or cancer on my thyroid, we decided instead of removing the thyroid glands completely, we’d go the “nuke” route.  Radioactive Iodine 131 on the way.

It took about 6 weeks for my T3 to drop below 500, but it finally did by December.  The T3 target goal was 150 I think it was.

Well a funny thing happened.  Not only was the Radioactive Iodine 131 successful, it was so successful, we went from a Hyperthyroid and Graves to a Hypothyroid.  LOL!

Let me say this….  the motor went from 120 to zero in 3 months.  I went from not being able to sleep more than an hour (2 at best), to sleeping 18 hours.  I went from having to hit the head a dozen times a day to going once every 3 days.  My hands went from uncontrollable shaking and tremors to rock solid and steady.  My weight also started to climb back.  By December I was back to a solid 250 and strong.

By January I literally couldn’t move so Doc ordered more tests.  My T3 went to absolute zero.  I have to laugh because it was the craziest thing that has ever happened to me physically.  I’ve broken bones from football, titanium plates at C5, C6 and C7 from head butting fools, L4 and L5 S1 have been operated on but I’ve NEVER, I mean NEVER been down for the count.  This T3 at zero damn near knocked me out.

Well, guess what.  Since I now had Hypothyroidism (opposite of Hyperthyroidism), Doc started me up on 50 mcg of Synthroid (T3).  A month later progress, but not enough so he upped it to 125 mcg.  A couple months later, still not enough so we’re at 200 mcg presently. Theoretically we still need to go up from there as my T4 is out of whack now and probably could use another 100, but Doc doesn’t like prescribing more than 200 mcg.

So here we are in the present - January 2009.  200 mcg daily for a Hypothyroid, my weight’s back to 270/275 and my strength is back to where it was before we began this wild ride.

I feel good, although if I forget to take these damn pills (or a couple times took’m twice), I get a little crazy days later.  I’m not complaining though - life is good again.

Hopefully somebody afflicted may read this, and hopefully this post may help you as you move through the process of treatment.  In the end, life’s gonna’ do what life does, how you react to it is what matters.

L2 Lumpy

 

Here’s a few pictures of the transition into Graves disease and again after treatment (cured).

I worked 7 years in odd jobs from driving semi’s to becoming a Nuclear Material Transportation Coordinator and Supervisor of Trucking at a well known former weapons plant near Denver, Colorado.  Climbed around, handled, counted, transported, carried, etc. radioactive contaminated shit for every one of those workdays.

6 years after I left ”Rocky Flats“, I woke late February 2007 a healthy 276 lbs with just under a 450 lb. bench press, 2 short months later - 205 and couldn’t even press my fucking pants….

70 pounds?  60 Days?  You’re kidding me right?

Oh, I heard it all.  From being called a “crack head”, to get off the cocaine and meth, to “do you have aids”?  “What type of cancer is it?”

Well it was called Hyperthyroidism, raising well past the level of “Graves Disease”.  And no, I’m not going to fucking die and yes, I’m over it - cured now with ironically, more exposure to radiation.

Amazing how life can just motor along with no issues whatsoever, then out of the clear blue sky, wham! - hit you like a ton of bricks.

I knew something was wrong because I couldn’t sleep, was a nervous wreck and had way too much energy.  If you had seen me you would’ve laughed your ass off.  I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  Mr. Spazzzzz….  I just thought it was the “pressure” of starting another business ya’ know?  The timing was coincidentally perfect.

Well I also got lucky too.  I happened to find the best Endocrinologist that ever lived.  Great doctor.  Smooth, thorough and overall just a great guy.  After tests, test and more rounds of tests he determined it was Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease.  I had to keep going back for testing because they thought somehow there were mistakes taking place.  Nobody had ever heard of a T3 count being “greater than” 2,000.  They thought the tests were hosed up somehow.   The scale they measure human T3 goes to 2,000 and my T3 was somewhere between 2,000 and “infinity”.  Swell.  What makes the Graves disease from the Hyperthyroid is the T3 hormone level.  Below a certain point, it’s Hyperthyroidism, above that certain number - Graves disease.  One of the marks that happens quite often in folks with Graves disease is the “buggy eyed” look.  Some get those buggy eyes, remember Marty Feldman?  He had Graves.  Lucky for me my eyes were just on the edge of noticing that symptom - I went from Lumpy to Buggy….

To be continued….

L2 Lumpy