Category: Web

Internet Real Estate Fix & Flip Overview

The Dancing House in Prague Ah yes, the real estate fix and flip. What better way to make bank than by buying a cheap fixer-upper, fixing it, and selling it for a tidy profit?

But you know that already. What you may not know is that you can do this with web sites too. Yea. Web sites.

Here’s a quick overview. The formula is somewhat similar to fixing and flipping traditional real estate. The word “property” is interchangeable here; it could mean a house or a web site. Both are essentially real estate properties. One just exists on land while the other exists on the Internet.

  1. Evaluate the property

    Assess it’s current value (pageviews, unique visitors, search engine rankings, market strength, revenues, expenses, etc) and potential for growth (new market opportunities, ways to increase visitors, ways to increase search engine rankings, ways to increase revenue streams, etc). Unlike traditional real estate, there aren’t many fees involved in purchasing a web site. There are only transition costs, such as getting access to their servers and related accounts.

  2. Purchase the property

    Sites like the SitePoint Marketplace (the largest place for buying and selling websites currently) and VentureBoard allow you to browse what’s for sale and offer a bid. Just like in traditional real estate, hot properties get scooped up fast.

  3. Fix the property

    This can involve a wide range of activities, depending on your expertise and the property you purchased. Some may just need a boost in search engine rankings (which is where SEO and SEM come into play). Others need more innovative marketing techniques (like SMM or viral marketing). You can also do things to increase revenues (raise site fees, add additional revenue generators, etc), decrease expenses (lower server or content acquisition costs, etc), or increase quality traffic (better marketing, customer retention techniques, etc). Hopefully you had an idea of what to do before you purchased the property.

  4. Flip the property

    Put it right back on the SitePoint Marketplace or VentureBoard.

There’s a ton of stuff that goes into properly evaluating and fixing a web property. Similar to traditional real estate, there’s even a whole industry around teaching you how to do that. Mind boggling. And potentially quite profitable too, if you want to get into it. Even though the barriers to entry are low (any ole’ shmuck can do it, even you!), it’s still a relatively young industry and may have room for more players.

So what are you waiting for? Go fix and flip!

Top 10 Ways to Deal with Information Overload

My brain hurts. There’s too much to keep track of on the Internet. Blogs, ezines, newsletters, forums, news sites, mailing lists, social networks. It’s a wonder my head doesn’t explode on a daily basis. What’s a busy web geek to do?

Here are ten ways I can think of to deal with information overload:

  1. Read only the top stories highlighted on Techmeme.
  2. Put all the blogs and news sites you want to read on Google Reader and ignore everything else.
  3. Rely on your geekiest friend and get all the top news from him or her.
  4. Read a news aggregation service like Yahoo! News or Google News.
  5. Read only News.com and miss out on all the hype on new companies that may change the world.
  6. Read only TechCrunch and hear about hyped-up companies that may not exist a few years from now.
  7. Read only The Onion and attain a higher understanding of life and the world.
  8. Read only this blog and attain utter nirvana and pure bliss (tee hee).
  9. Move to Alaska and learn how to ice-fish.
  10. Shut off your computer and go for a run outside, you lazy bastard.

How do you deal with information overload?

Getting the Cheapest Deals on Priceline.com

Priceline.com and BiddingForTravel.com I’m all for saving money. How about you?

That’s why I squealed like a schoolgirl in front of Justin Timberlake (ew, I can’t believe I just typed his name; I have to wash my keyboard now) when I heard about BiddingForTravel.com.

BiddingForTravel.com is a forum where members list the their winning Priceline.com bids for airlines, hotels, and rental cars. Friends tell me it’s best for hotels though. This means you can find out about how much you should bid for a particular hotel (or class of hotels) and be reasonably sure you’ll get it.

And guess how much this information costs? My favorite price: free!

Without this information, you might pay more on Priceline.com than is really necessary. If you try to bid on a hotel right now, a suggested price range for each class of hotels will be given to you. However, these ranges are generally higher than a what those hotels will really accept. And even after making your bid, Priceline.com will warn you to increase your bid to better your chances.

Why, Shatner, why? Aren’t you here to help us save money?

Of course, you could just as easily enter in too low a bid. All of us would love to pay $10/night for a midtown hotel in Manhattan, but it ain’t gonna happen. So that’s where BiddingForTravel.com comes in.

Here’s how it works. Say you’re going on a trip to NYC and want to stay somewhere near Times Square. You can:

  • Browse the forum

    For instance, you can look under the NYC hotels section and go through its hotel list, which includes reviews and previous winning bids.

  • Search the forum

    The search box is sort of buried in the middle and uses Google’s search engine. Pretty simple to use once you spot it.

  • Ask for “Bidding assistance”

    This is where you post a message asking for help in getting a particular bid. Before you do that though, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with their posting guidelines.

Even though the site looks like a rainbow got drunk and threw up on it, it’ll save you both time (from entering in a bid too low) and money (from entering in a bid too high). That makes Priceline.com and BiddingForTravel.com a pretty damn awesome tool for thrifty travelers.

UPDATE 2/21/2008: A buddy just told me about a similar site called BetterBidding.

How to Negotiate: Tips for Yahoo!

This had me howling like a crazed hyena. By Shpigler the Shark, whose motto is, “Listen to me and you’ll get far in business and life! Trust me.”

  • Tip #1: Discuss each part of the company separately
  • Tip #2: Use the iPhone strategy
  • Tip #3: Show him that he has no other option
  • Tip #4: Use the right body language
  • Tip #5: Be cool when you talk about numbers
  • Tip #6: Shpigler is always here for you

Will Yahoo Say “Not!” to Microsoft?

Microsoft + Yahoo! I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors by now:

After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” Yahoo, [a person familiar with the situation] said. It also doesn’t account for the risks Yahoo would be taking by entering into an agreement that might be overturned by regulators…

Yahoo’s board believes that Microsoft’s is trying to take advantage of the recent weakness in the company’s share price to “steal” the company. The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share, the person said.

$40/share, eh? If you go the route of splitting Yahoo! (YHOO) into itty bitty pieces, one analysis pegs the sum of Yahoo!’s parts as $38/share. From that analysis, $40/share sounds like a fair premium.

The question on everyone’s mind, however, isn’t whether or not the price is fair. It’s whether Yahoo! is trying to up Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid, or defend itself from being absorbed by the Borg.

On one hand, you have Peter Kafka of Silicon Valley Insider writing:

This is a smart move. It will be interesting to see whether Yahoo’s letter to Microsoft contains the same $40 language, as this would obviously make the message not a “rejection” of the bid but merely a price negotiation. We suspect Yahoo won’t put the $40 language in the letter, but in any event, they have just countered Microsoft’s bid.

(His colleague Henry Blodget, agrees with his own in-depth analysis.)

And on the other hand, you have Kara Swisher of All Things Digital writing:

But Yahoo is going to need a lot more than Google if it really wants to stay independent, as I believe it actually does. While some will call this a negotiating tactic to get Microsoft to give it a few more dollars above its $31 a share offer, it is not simply that.

Yahoo’s top execs and now its board are making a swing-for-the-fences effort to keep it out of Microsoft’s hands.

(Even the Wall Street Journal article that first broke this rumor mentions that “Yahoo has taken ‘poison pill’ provisions to prevent an unwanted takeover.”)

Wow! What a battle!

My personal prediction?

Yahoo’s got Sue Decker, an up-and-coming executive (or perhaps, CEO?), and a new CTO, Aristotle “Ari” Balogh. Yahoo’s got a lot of major shareholders, especially institutional holders, to appease. And Yahoo’s got Jerry Yang, whom I’m guessing wants to say “Not!” to Microsoft.

That’s a mixed bag, at best. So perhaps a compromise will emerge. Gazing into my crystal ball, I see Jerry’s sagging shoulders as the Board agrees that even though they’d prefer not to sell to Microsoft, they’re going to ultimately do so, if they can get a good enough premium. Hey, everyone’s got their price. Especially major institutional holders.

In other words, when you’re a public company, you have to share ownership with lots of other entities (people and organizations) who are providing you with their financial power. In exchange for that financial power is some degree of control. So even if you disagree with those entities, if enough of them band together, they have the power to decide your fate.

(I know, I can be a cynical bastard sometimes.)

UPDATED 2/13/2008: Here’s another analysis that arrives at a somewhat similar conclusion, though the author says so much more eloquently than I.

Jerry Yang’s Big Decision

Me and Jerry Yang I don’t envy the decision he has to make. Jerry Yang, I mean.

I’ve been closely following the news of Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo! (YHOO), since I’m an ex-Yahoo! and still have a lot of friends & colleagues there. While endlessly discussing and analyzing this news, I began to wonder what must be going through Jerry’s mind.

Let’s take a step into Jerry’s shoes. Back in college, all the geeks were in a tizzy over Mosaic and this thing called the World Wide Web. So, along with your buddy David Filo, you create a master index of sorts called “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. Suddenly, the Web opens its academic doors to allow in commerce and corporations and capitalism, oh my. You decide to incorporate—and the next thing you know, you’re surfing on a peak of $475/share and are one of the world’s richest people. Your momma sure proud of you now!

Then the wave crashes. Your surfboard topples over. You struggle to stay afloat while younger surfers enter the fray, doing much better than you are. So you bring in an experienced lifeguard. Never mind that he’s never surfed before; you figure that since he knows how to swim, he’ll be able get you back onto the surfboard.

Okay, enough with the analogies. Back into Jerry’s shoes. Present day. The company you built and raised from scratch is hurting a bit. You’re still making tons of cash, but the media and the stock market are hammering you hard. And worse—some of your top talent is leaving because of that.

Then a major competitor comes knocking at your door again (they’ve done this before). Except this time, they make their bid public, hoping to win the support of your shareholders. Reports from the media (like MarketWatch and Forbes) warn that such an acquisition would not be easy on either company. Your employees, advertisers, and partners are all concerned and shouting, “What’s going to happen to me?”

So you grab your favorite bottle of scotch, sit by the shore, and wonder:

  • “If I sell my company to Microsoft, will they lay off half of my friends & colleagues and put my company through painful months of transitions, while combining our collective talents, expertise, and financial resources to put us back on top of the market again?”
  • “Or, if I don’t sell my company, will my shareholders revolt as my stock price drops amidst my already planned lay offs and talent drain, while remaining tenacious and using our remaining resources & leadership to put us back on top of the market again?”

Not an enviable position to be in. There are pros and cons to every side of this story. Every constituent has his/her own concerns. Whatever decision he makes, he’s going to hurt somebody.

Personally, I think Jerry wants to say “No” to Microsoft. I think he still has hope for Yahoo!. He’s seen it through the dot-bomb and I think he’s willing to see it through this economic downturn as well. He’s a true Yahoo!, with purple blood and a bang (!) in his heart.

But he’s a smart enough guy to know he’s got to think this through and do what’s best for his company, his shareholders, and his customers. I think he’ll ultimately be realistic about his decision, whatever it will be.

I don’t envy him. And Jerry, I hope you’re drinking some good scotch there.

Is Google Afraid of Microhoo (or Yahsoft)?

Microsoft + Yahoo! Here’s something that made me go Hmmm? Yesterday, David Drummond, the Chief Legal Officer of Google (GOOG), posted what appears to be their official reaction to Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo! (YHOO): “Yahoo! and the future of the Internet“.

The reaction from the blogosphere has largely been WTF?

Dave of PassingNotes.com even posted an amusing interpretation of Drummond’s piece, “Dr MicroHoo, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb“.

Drummond’s response struck me as surprisingly tinged with fear, hypocrisy, and spite. That probably wasn’t his intention, but it’s not hard to take it that way. To be fair, he does raise up valid points. And ironically, those very points have been raised against Google too. So what was Drummond trying to say with this post? I dunno, maybe he really was trying to play tit-for-tat with Microsoft?

Where in the World is Ray Ozzie?

Ray Ozzie Here’s food for thought. With all the hubbub of Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo! (YHOO), I can’t help but wonder: where in the world is Ray Ozzie?

Ray Ozzie is Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, a role he assumed after Bill Gates stepped down to focus on philanthropy (though he remains as Chairman of Microsoft). Ozzie’s claim to fame is being the founder of Lotus Notes, a client/server collaboration application that was once one of Microsoft’s chief competitors.

Although Ozzie isn’t a highly-visible executive in the media (at least in the publications I read), a lot of eyes turned to him since he became Bill Gates 2.0. In a leaked email way back in 2005 entitled, “The Internet Services Disruption” (which followed on the heels of a leaked email from Gates), Ozzie stated that (emphasis his):

Businesses are increasingly considering what services-based economics of scale might do to help them reduce infrastructure costs or deploy solutions as-needed and on subscription basis.

Most challenging and promising to our business, though, is that a new business model has emerged in the form of advertising-supported services and software.

Following this was a greater emphasis on MSN, the launch of Windows Live, and an array of related products. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s forays into online advertising have been, well, as good as knocking down airplanes with a fly swatter. So much for trying to execute on this new business model, huh? Looks like the next best thing is to buy a company that can execute better. Hellooo Yahoo!

Since Ozzie is the chief executive driving Microsoft’s march into the Internet space, I wonder why he hasn’t been mentioned in any of the stories about Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo!. I’m guessing he played a big part in this, whether it be in making the decision, or forcing the decision because he didn’t deliver with Microsoft Live…?

I’m totally speculating here. For all I know, maybe Microsoft elected Steve Ballmer to make the announcement so the bid would carry more weight. It’s still odd to me that Ozzie isn’t mentioned anywhere at all though. Or perhaps he just prefers to stay out of the spotlight. Even his own blog is pretty quiet. Hmm.