I bought a new domain name just today! You know, the thing you type on your web browser, sometimes starting with www. The domain name is the foundation for building a website; and I’ll be building a website in the healthcare industry for the first time!
How I ended up creating a healthcare website
I suppose you’ve read my most recent posts here. I mentioned “depression” quite a lot in those. I even came up with a business idea; far from my brightest though! Imagine my surprise when I checked how much a click may cost in that industry (probably the highest I’ve ever seen).
Long story short, after two-day research I came across a nice depression-related domain name that was first registered back in 2011 and has similar search performance with another website I’m running quite successfully for 10 years. This website makes mid-five figures.
Should this newborn website perform similarly to that one, I’m creating another semi-passive income stream. Even better, it’s a totally uncorrelated industry. Thus, I’m diversifying my sources of income, so that if one industry takes a hit, the other might survive or even perform better.
Yes, it’s another website. No, it’s not another line of work. I’m not diversifying THAT much. But it’s like working in two similar jobs at the same time.
If I am getting fired in one job (one website shuts down), I still have the other (the other website continues operating normally). And if one job underperforms in a time of crisis (say the air travel industry during COVID-19), I may get a raise in the other one (say communication – teleconferencing). Diversification in web publishing means managing websites of different industries and niches.
My work as a web publisher
For years that’s how I am investing in domains. I set aside a portion of my company’s capital to buy and develop domains.
I’m not flipping domains, I don’t buy developed websites.
I start from scratch, I outsource content, I build the website and wait (usually for months or years) for the search engines to work their magic. Then I monetize the websites and hopefully create income streams. Of course, not all websites turn out profitable machines, but I don’t need 100% of them to make money.
Say I spend $3,000 on ten domains and only one ends up making $300/month. For life. Would you say it was money well spent?
That’s my plan with this one. My writing team and new freelancers are going to create content in the next weeks while I’m getting the website prepared to host the articles. I already have a list of the topics we’re going to include on the website. I don’t need to pour a ton of money in the beginning. Just a few well-researched articles will show whether the website will flop or not. And as soon as it gets some traction, I’ll be in business.
See? Working as a web publisher hasn’t changed much in lockdown.
Image by Fabrizio Van Marciano
