In a world full of billions of people and billions of websites it seems impossible to be unique. Yet that’s exactly what the masses on the Internet are looking for. They want to see or read something that is fresh and new and something they haven’t seen before. If you can accomplish this in one way or another you WILL make money.
I’ve always felt this way but it wasn’t until this past week that I had a “look down, bite you bottom lip, shake your head but nobody is asking a question” moments. I realized that I was sitting on thousands and thousands of unique photos of plants. Plants that I know everything about. I am privy to all the new and exciting varieties and get to trial and photo them before most people even know they are going to be available. Sure there are a few hundred other people that have this information and perhaps photos, but none of them know how to utilize domains and search engines to get them in front of the masses and profit from it. I just sat there and thought to myself. “I should be king of the Internet in the world’s largest hobby, gardening”
DavesGarden.com sold for millions, GardenWeb.com for even more. There is absolutely no reason why I can’t do better than both of those. I don’t know why it took me so long to quit sitting here wondering how I was going to be the next domain millionaire when I have everything I need right in front of me…..every…single…day. I scour through articles and trade magazines looking for hot new keywords to register and all the while I could have been securing names that fit perfectly into my niche. From now on, I am on a quest to be the online gardening KING.
This information and endless supply of photos is going to make Google very happy. These unique photos will undoubtedly rise to the top of Google images when people search for these new plants. And they will. The only two sites that I have created have immediately gone to first page of Google and get 7 pageviews per user. Almost all the users were brought there for the photos. Photos that were different than the other 15 stock shots of the plants provided by the breeder that showed up in the images section. When people search for plants they click on the photos because they want to know height, width, zone it will grow, and most importantly, what does it look like. My sites will provide all that just like the others but with my own photo. A new to the Internet photo. And what keeps others from stealing? I use two methods. One, a simple ask to remove or pay. If that doesn’t work (and it usually does), two, a nice letter to their hosting saying they have stolen material and I will sue them and the site if they don’t remove. I’ve only had to do it twice and both times the images came down. Once, only the image came down, the other, the entire site went dark. It seems like a lot of work to protect a photo but as I said, unique pays and once it’s no longer unique, it doesn’t pay as well.
A lesson for all here. How are you unique? What is it that you know better than anyone else? Whatever that is, take it, attack it. Become the master of it. Kill two birds and take something you love or already do and give Google a reason to love you. They will thank you for being you. They will thank you for original content, fresh photos, and expertise in a world of mass produced junk full of mass brokered out articles and iStockPhotos. I’m going to bank that one site of all new will pay off much better than 10 sites of cut and paste. We’ll soon find out and I’ll let you know how it goes.
ah…
a profit deal.
that makes sense.
Great post. They say “write what you know.” I guess “develop what you know” also applies. You’ll be a lot more motivated to put time and effort into development if it’s a subject you care about. Pickering’s the wedding guy, Braden Pollock is the law and lead gen guy…Shane can be the horticultural king. 🙂
You said it right. I spent a very long time chasing the next hot thing and throwing up countless mini-sites until i got the same epiphany….I started building a site about what I know and do well. Needless to say, that site started paying off bigger than I had expected and it continues to grow to this day. It has even eclipsed my regular income. And the best part. is that everyday I look forward to working on it because its fun…I love the subject matter.
I’m not commenting here anymore ; ) since my insights and me sharing what I do and how I do it cant get a blog comment approval bc I have a site mention in it. NYE is an original looking site and looks 100 x’s better than most CRAP people pass off as legit sites. It’s only going to get better as I upload City Grid Media to it and keep posting 5 unique events per day. I understand your article fully and it makes perfect sense, some people just still don’t get it though. You can lead the horse to water…..
But quality comments like Ratheads are a “go”. Weird….
I can find LOTS of horticultural exact .com’s to hand reg that are great, as you remember, so reach out if you want to outsource some of the legwork of becoming the onlinge garden king.
I’m an up and coming player in this space Shane and can’t wait to get a blog post mention about the small empire I’m starting myself. It’s going down = )
All the best,
MH
p.s.- I honestly forgot to thank you for GirlorBoy.com which MAJOR, MAJOR development is going into right now and is my favorite project for 2012 as of now. This is a geniune thank you, I’ve grabbed a few nice ones off your lists at steal prices (30inchmonitor.com, Howtowriteawill.net, etc….) We’re going to steal market share from thebump.com, parenting.com and related sites. I’m stoked honestly. It’s going to be FRESHHHH. I appreciate you pointing out that drop. Don’t you own a Gender reveal party related site? I may be interested, reach out please @ [email protected]. PS- that guy from FruitWashLabels never bit on what everyone called my “cybersquat”, or else I would have sent you some cash. He’ll come around eventually imo.
Thanks again Shane.
Sounds like B.S.
Going from 0 to $1million is not going to be easy especially talking about plants.
Why don’t you do something with stock & commodity trading. If memory served you were a professional trader. Anyway, good luck Shane. I am just messing with you.
Your words are as good as gold. Oh – YEAH – There you go, talk about GOLD! 🙂
This post sounds very Jerry McGuire- a great moment of clarity- I hope your new site shows you the money!
Mac
Maguire
Good for you Shane, I hope you build something you can be proud of.
It also sounds like a good case study series for this blog!
Do you host your own pictures or load them to blogger or an image site like Flickr or somewhere? Just wondering b/c I have thousands of pictures from a particular hobby already loaded and this would be a great way to utilize them – just don’t want to move them all if I don’t have to…
Also, have you ever tried mixing in a 10 or 20 second video? Seems like you could get a bonus spot on Page 1 with that…
Clay,
Blogger hosts all the photos. Free and you can post as many as you like. Rumor has it that Google has plenty of money. I am thinking exactly like you. Working on doing a ton of videos this spring and summer.