MJ

I've been giving some things in life and business a lot of thought lately, all starting when I hit a brick wall this summer from having too many websites and a domain buying addiction that really is comparable to chasing crack rocks. Bottom line the quality of my sites and my production levels really suffered from "too much to do" syndrome.

I got to this point where I wasn't getting much of anything done, current site earners and income that was growing on it's own made me a bit lazy, but mostly it came from not having any real focus and direction towards my most immediate goals. I work off a whiteboard, and I keep a to do list, but we all know how easily our "priorities" can change when we get excited about a new site, domain, or niche right?

I'm writing this blog so I can keep myself in check, I've only been in this business for a bit over a year and I've managed to accumulate well over 300 sites and domain names. I have been especially guilty about buying and building minisites, which are indeed quick money but I'm starting to see it as short money as well.

I'm excited about new directions I've been heading, even new industries. I realized I suck at making big sites, but it's what I'm going to do even if it kills me.

Recently, I've acquired a few premium domains. Going through my Godaddy account one day I realized something, if I just develop 50 of my best domains and sites (which is extremely unlikely to happen) I would be rich by anyones standards. Ok, so, how do I do that? I have to start by cleaning my plate.

The Eurolinx situation cost x,xxx a month to my pocket book, and actually started hitting me 3 months ago. That didn't help my motivation this summer either but thankfully I have enough base at other rooms to keep my business going and growing to support our young family.

To the point of this post:

I'm as of this moment done promoting stand alone rakeback sites. I needed to just say it, that I'm done with it for now and my recent failures at it were of my own design - even if it's just because I'm making more money in other markets, it's still not an excuse.

Going forward, I intend to just keep offering my players the best available deal, this helps in retention. But, I have no desire (or time) to compete for rakeback traffic anymore, my business slumped many months ago when I stopped doing just that (competing). No rakeback business in 2009 can survive on organic search signups alone, trust me on this. Rakeback has become a service and referral industry, you need to make it your primary focus if you want to get big, period.

My heart just isn't into that, in fact I'm damn sick of all the player support, IM requests, and overall headaches - I got into this business because I want to be out on my boat doing nothing, not sitting at my IM box all day helping players figure out deductions and moving money around. Kudos to those of you who enjoy doing that, I say you can keep it lol.

So if anyone is interested in buying any rakeback sites and domains, please drop me a line. I'm not looking to give anything away but I have various levels of oppurtunities available for anyone who wants to take a shot at the business.

I'm keeping several of my premium domains as a backup plan just in case I change my mind - but really this is the final curtain for me before moving into other markets.

Outside of the rakeback niche I literally have 50 websites I'm selling (pm me!), and well over 200 domains I'd be happy to part with. I'm tempted to just flood the PAL marketplace with all my stuff, but so far am limiting myself to posting a couple things a week. Bottom line, if you feel like buying I feel like selling.

Could be an interesting month if I put 100k into my bank account just by getting rid of some sites and real estate huh?

As funny as that sounds it's not even a joke - I almost thought about taking a prop bet on that, but with the poker economy not as great as it used to be I decided not to offer it up, lol.

I'm hoping to limit myself to about 10 really quality websites in 2009, even that is already a long shot. Hopefully this post and the fact that I don't blog very often will help me keep my 2010 goals in check.