Forget the security issues or the pyramid scheme accusations (MLM-tier scructure to syndication credits.) There is a fundamental problem with Blogrush that needs to be fixed if its going to have any future.

Blogrush only sends a small handful of visitors, as evidenced by multiple reports:

swollenpickles, on WickedFire.com webmaster forums — “I joined up 5 days ago, just logged into my stats and have nearly 10,000 impressions and only one click. Has anyone actually seen any traffic from using BlogRush or is it a dud?”

Via Technorati: Caroline Middlebrook did a little better, 5,800 impressions and 14 clicks. With just 384 impressions, another blogger received an unsurprising zero. HowToGeek reports 3 clicks out of 7,231 impressions.

Most telling of all is John Chow’s report: 27,293 impressions, for a whopping 91 clicks. John Chow is sitting at the top of the pyramid, ranking in the top 50 internet blogs. The post is now a few weeks old and I am sure he has received many more clicks. Whats important is John Chow’s results represent “best case scenario.” If 91 clicks gets you excited, you probably have not been in the business for long.

Is the clickthrough rate really the problem? John Reese has acknowledged it, and said they are working on it.

John writes — “…we’re also in the process of rolling out “Phase 1″ of some of our major changes — like moving to the 100% Manual Review process which is going to greatly improve the QUALITY of blogs in our network which will also raise the click-rates for everyone. (i.e. more traffic!)”

One minor problem, getting rid of the “bad players” will also drop the number of impressions. Lower impressions and high clickthrough rate hardly is a guarantee of more clicks. It could even be less, as early arrivals bail out of the system.

Take a look at this full view of Shoemoney.com.

Several have attributed bad headlines to Blogrush’s low clickthrough rate. You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me. Headlines don’t matter when no one can see them.

I did not write this to bash Blogrush, or John Reese (or Jeremy for sticking his Blogrush widget in no man’s land.) Rather the post was made to illustrate what works, what doesn’t, and why. And, most importantly, to show how simple the concepts of “working” online really are.

Want to really fix Blogrush? Here is how to do it:

Mandating that Blogrush be displayed only above the fold is not the answer. I have not used Blogrush, I do not understand exactly how their syndication credits system works. Whatever it is, syndication credits must correlate directly with outgoing clicks. Any measurement by impressions is horrendously flawed. Yes, the system will be gamed, and counter-measures will have to be put in place. No one said this would be easy.

Blogrush needs a better display system. If you have ever used Adsense you know a simple border can kill your ad clickthrough rates. The same is happening here, and then some:

Just as bad as having borders, syndicated headlines & blog names are being chopped in half. Bloggers just are not going to change their site names or headline posts to fit in with Blogrush, nor should they.

So just how should Blogrush look? I got an idea. It involves ditching that sexy Web 2.0 widget and returning to plain old text. It is not nearly as lucrative from a free branding standpoint, but it will work.

Big drumroll…

Here is how Blogrush should look:

Yes, its that simple. Users should be able to set their own font & size. Users can drive as much or as little traffic as they want — and be rewarded accordingly. This is the same way it works for big PPC syndicaters. Integrate, blend in, and drive the traffic (and it this case, receive it back, for free.)

If a blogger stuck that in their header, they could drive clickthrough rates anywhere from 5-25%+. Toss in an update for RSS subscriptions, and now you’ve got a real blogosphere pull. Beyond this is contextual & user targeting; you basically end up with an ad network.

John Reese is smart. He knows damn well what he is doing and he understands very well how things work online. I think he will figure this out, and he probably already has. But geeze, why hasn’t any of the big bloggers bothered to point this out with all the free coverage they’ve given?

Millions of internet domain names sit on pages full of ads. To the novice, it appears like a waste. Doesn’t a great one word domain name deserve a real website?

The pros and cons of each are pretty straightforward to the experienced internet entrepreneur. Parking is quick & easy, development requires a big time & capital investment. Parking has a higher revenue per unique visitor thanks to 100% of the content being ads (and PPC payouts that far surpass Adsense & YPN), developed sites have lower earnings per visitor because of traffic leaks and abandonment. Parked domains miss out on organic search traffic, links, and word of mouth, while developed sites receive both.

When switching from a parked page to a developed web site you will typically see a revenue drop off. It is going to take time for the curve to move upwards and surpass your pre-development revenues.

Here is where the problem comes in: time. The cost to park a domain name is almost non-existent. Relative to this, development requires a staggering amount of time and/or money (e.g. 15 minutes verse perhaps thousands of hours.)

To add to all of this, the values of premium domain names have decoupled with the name’s earnings*. What this means is doubling the earnings by developing may have no impact on its value (if and when you choose to sell.) That is a strong statement, but it is quite true. Because of this decoupling domain investment has become more about the selling price than what the domain earns in PPC revenues. If a big corporation comes along and wants to drop 7 figures for your generic name, the developed site will be “demolished” without a second thought.

The value of a premium domain name may far outweigh that of its developed content. That means your developed site needs to add substantial value standing on its own to be really be worth it. This is far from a hard rule, based on your own personal needs (cashflow now) as well as the domain name and niche’s.

Developed web sites are not a passive investment. That is a myth. Without fresh content and links your traffic volume will erode. You’ve built a full site, there is still have lots of work to do.

Is there a short cut? From what I understand, Demand Media is attempting to roll out a content platform across their gigantic domain name portfolio. It might be kind of like a combination of Wikipedia and a social network. This is an approach that allows for mass scale, critical if you want to rapidly develop a large group of domain names.

Alternatively you could hire a team of employees to manage & update a group of developed names. This eliminates redundancies and maximizes your capital investment, much like how Jason Calacanis paid writers to author content across multiple Weblogs Inc blogs. No reason to have a full unique team for each developed domain.

What if you have a single, valuable generic domain name, no capital, and nothing else to do but develop it?

If you really like the niche and can stomach working on the site day after day for at least a year, go ahead. To maximize your revenue avoid Adsense, go to direct ad sales and/or selling products. Learn absolutely everything you can about that market — who buys, who sells, who spends the advertising dollars. To build backlinks set up a blog and make it the best in the niche.

To sum this up in one sentence: parking is better than a half-assed attempt at development (but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test domain parking alternatives.)

*trademark and typo domain names tend to still be priced by their earnings, for obvious reasons.

Another Moniker.com domain name auction is coming up, at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami the second week of October. I was looking through Moniker’s published list of domains for auction, and there are some good ones. Here is a list of those with opening bids at $100,000 and above:

900.com $100,001 - $250,000
allergydrugs.com $100,001 - $250,000
audit.com $100,001 - $250,000
bad.com $250,001 - $500,000
banners.com $250,001 - $500,000
base.com $500,001 - $750,000
biker.com $250,001 - $500,000
bloodtest.com $100,001 - $250,000
bourbon.com $250,001 - $500,000
carshopping.com $100,001 - $250,000
cellphone.net $100,001 - $250,000
choppers.com $500,001 - $750,000
communication.com $100,001 - $250,000
computer.com $1MM - $5MM
consumerelectronics.com $100,001 - $250,000
contraceptives.com $250,001 - $500,000
copiers.com $250,001 - $500,000
courts.com $250,001 - $500,000
cowboys.com $250,001 - $500,000
crosswordpuzzles.com $100,001 - $250,000
crude.com $750,001 - $1MM
crush.com $100,001 - $250,000
cups.com $100,001 - $250,000
debit.com $100,001 - $250,000
decongestants.com $250,001 - $500,000
deli.com $100,001 - $250,000
diagnosis.com $250,001 - $500,000
disease.com $750,001 - $1MM
eel.com $100,001 - $250,000
elections.com $750,001 - $1MM
estate.com $500,001 - $750,000
ethanol.com $750,001 - $1MM
fantasysports.com $5MM and up
fiesta.com $750,001 - $1MM
finances.com $250,001 - $500,000
floridahousing.com $100,001 - $250,000
gasprices.com $100,001 - $250,000
germanwines.com $100,001 - $250,000
grapes.com $100,001 - $250,000
greekisles.com $100,001 - $250,000
hangar.com $250,001 - $500,000
happybirthday.com $1MM - $5MM
happyendingsmassage.com $250,001 - $500,000
healthinsurancecompanies.com $100,001 - $250,000
hobbyshops.com $100,001 - $250,000
house.net $100,001 - $250,000
hy.com $100,001 - $250,000
individuals.com $1MM - $5MM
internetserviceproviders.com $100,001 - $250,000
introduction.com $100,001 - $250,000
investment.com $750,001 - $1MM
leatherfurniture.com $100,001 - $250,000
localmovies.com $100,001 - $250,000
mangos.com $100,001 - $250,000
martialarts.com $250,001 - $500,000
mayores.com $100,001 - $250,000
miniaturegolf.com $100,001 - $250,000
movietheatres.com $500,001 - $750,000
necklace.com $250,001 - $500,000
newyorkrealty.com $100,001 - $250,000
opinions.com $1MM - $5MM
outdoor.com $100,001 - $250,000
personalcomputers.com $750,001 - $1MM
photographers.com $750,001 - $1MM
planet.com $500,001 - $750,000
podiatrists.com $100,001 - $250,000
polls.com $1MM - $5MM
program.com $1MM - $5MM
qr.com $100,001 - $250,000
racehorses.com $250,001 - $500,000
racetracks.com $100,001 - $250,000
reincarnation.com $100,001 - $250,000
release.com $250,001 - $500,000
reserve.com $250,001 - $500,000
sciencefiction.com $250,001 - $500,000
scubadiver.com $100,001 - $250,000
singlesonline.com $250,001 - $500,000
sportinggoods.com $250,001 - $500,000
sportsplex.com $100,001 - $250,000
stockquotes.com $1MM - $5MM
taboo.tv $100,001 - $250,000
tasks.com $100,001 - $250,000
taxes.com $1MM - $5MM
technology.org $100,001 - $250,000
toast.com $100,001 - $250,000
tortillas.com $250,001 - $500,000
urology.com $1MM - $5MM
videodownloads.com $100,001 - $250,000
websiteoptimisation.com $100,001 - $250,000
weightreduction.com $100,001 - $250,000
whiskey.com $250,001 - $500,000
wir.com $100,001 - $250,000
wirelessphone.com $500,001 - $750,000
xmas.com $250,001 - $500,000

The full list includes over 3,900 domains. Some good, some bad.

The first Moniker auction in New York City saw many bids rejected, totaling in the millions. There is some speculation that domain name owners could put trying to inflate valuations by having buddies bid their names up with no intention of buying. Considering its a regular practice in other industries (e.g., selling cars on eBay) this is probably not a wildly unrealistic conjecture.

That being said, there are some great domain names up for auction. All of the big domain name buyers are watching and participating in the Moniker auctions. If you are interested in unloading some of your inventory, this is the place to do it. If you are looking to pick up some names, download Moniker’s list and take a look. If you have experience and success in the domain’s niche market its very possible you could earn the cost of the domain back in a year and then sell it for a profit.

I am considering taking my name off of Web Publishing Blog and opening it up to other writers. If you are interested, and qualified, drop me an email. I am open to a wide variety of possibilities including co-ownership. Owning your own internet business is a must.

Do we need a Techcrunch for the part of the internet that doesn’t live off venture capital?

One of the most important lessons I have learned from web publishing and development is that testing & optimization is absolutely critical. Often a few minor adjustments done in 30 minutes can bring in more revenue than months of work. Its even better when those adjustments are done on the fly, leaving you time to do thing machines can not.

Last month one of my readers contacted me about a new service he co-founded, Pubmatic.com. This service allows publishers to auto-optimize their ad inventory on the fly. Unlike Right Media’s RMX Direct, the built in support for Adsense & Yahoo should be a big benefit self-employed content publishers.

Pubmatic currently supports Adsense, Valueclick, BlueLithium, and YPN. Expanding supported ad networks is a top priority, and many more are expected. Text ad color schemes are auto-optimized. Planned additions to later versions include ad size optimization, page position, and number of ad units per page.

One of the case studies Pubmatic lists is Sportsvite.com, which saw its revenue jump 90% during Pubmatic’s alpha testing period. While other publishers may not see such dramatic successes, double digit revenue gains are considered normal.

If that didn’t impress you, then at least check out their desktop widget for Adsense, YPN, Valueclick, and Komli stats, Pubmatic account not required.

If you do want to test out Pubmatic, they are now in open beta, timed just for TechCrunch40.

What is one simple thing that can slice away half of your revenue? If you are not measuring it, you may blame revenue and loss gains on randomness, or mistakenly assign it to something else.

That thing that matters oh so much is server speed.

Real numbers: One of my websites coverts at around 4-5.7%. However, an extra 10 seconds of loading time can slice that number down below 3%. When things get really bad, that number can slide down to 1%.

Whether you have an e-commerce site, or a content site, this will impact you. Friendster’s decline is largely attributed to growth problems destroying their performance. Without a prompt fix many members migrated to Myspace, and the rest is history.

If you are investing a lot of time into an advertising campaign you need to monitor page load times throughout the day. If you have a content site, make sure off-server advertisements aren’t breaking your site’s load times. If you insist on overloading your pages with images & rich media then you better be prepared to pay to ensure speed. Visitors just won’t wait around short of catching the latest nudie shots of their favorite celebrity.

Off topic, note for regular readers. I was an idiot and accidentally made a post based on a 7 year old story (argh!), which I deleted as soon as a reader pointed it out. However, I am planning a big post about parking domain names verse developing them later, possibly for late next week.

Forums can be a major pain. Forums are addictive, drain enormous amounts of time, and are overflowing with people who don’t know what they are talking about. In some cases, they have devolved into adolescent chat rooms. (I was just reminded of that this weekend when I banned the same troll twice a day from one of the forums I own.)

On the other hand, forums are, hands down, the best place online to discover and share new ideas. No forums, and today I would be an employee. All of my inspiration, ideas, and initial direction in online business came from forums.

The experience of forum use is like searching for gold. Once every few months you’ll hit the jackpot and discover an incredibly valuable piece of information or a business contact. This reward system creates an addictive situation similar to gambling. Rather than money, you exchanged your time. (its worth noting any type of digital or printed medium can do this to you.)

As with any activity, how do you practice consumption with moderation? What is the line past which you are wasting your time?

It is in your best interest to be able to recognize and remember who is posting (so you can judge their credibility based on past posts.) Just the same, it is important for others to recognize and identify you so they can properly associate your advice with your identity (that presumes you give good advice.) For these reasons I have preferred to stick to smaller forums like Websitepublisher.net rather than frequent the big ones such as Sitepoint, Digitalpoint, and Webmasterworld.

So just how do you extract maximum benefit while minimizing wasted time?

Here are a few things I (try to) do:

1. Identify people that consistently give good advice. Bookmark a link to “Find all posts by X user”

2. Read thread titles as fast as possible by clicking on “New Posts.” Its surprisingly easily to keep up with even the most busy forums this way.

3. Skip over off topic posts.

4. Resist the urge to contribute unless you have something that will be valuable to readers — and when you do, keep it to a minimum. It is (generally) in your interest to post the best and most concise information to your own blog.

5. Completely ignore, or even block, idiots. Don’t even waste your time acknowledging their existence with a flame.

6. Read no more than one forum daily. Everything else should be no more than once a week, or less. If you are coming back twice or more in one day, its time to book a long trip to the Caribbean.

This is all common sense stuff. You don’t really have to read & post on forums. I have been scaling back my forum activity along with blog posting. Heck, I might even take a forum vacation one of these months.

The New York Times reports today:

“Business 2.0, a monthly magazine about the new economy, will be shut down rather than sold, its owners at Time Inc. have decided. The publication, which has been suffering from a decline in advertising revenue, will cease publication after its October issue, which will have a cover article on where to invest in a real estate downturn.”

Too bad, although we knew this was coming. Some of the staff will be moved over to Fortune magazine, and presumably so will existing subscribers.

One of my friends recently launched a forum, The Fastlane To Millions. The forum is for entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and stock traders who enjoy making lots money.

For the skeptics, the owner and a good chunk of the user base are already very successful, high net worth individuals. Multi-level Marketing and other rip-off scams are not allowed.

Why a forum? First, most new money had something to do with the internet. Secondly, many investors are spread out around the world and lack the traditional networking options used in the past. (I think that the book the owner is writing is a big reason as well — and not an e-book, for those who jump to conclusions.)

The fact is, low interest rates, globalization, and rapid internet growth have created a lot of multi-millionaires in just the past five years. Reaching this point quickly just isn’t that crazy or unrealistic. In fact, to retire into a modest middle class lifestyle today, you have to be a millionaire.

Taking that one step further, if you are my age, in your twenties, you will have to be a multi-millionaire to retire modestly by 65. Modestly means no Ferraris or round the world jet set traveling. This is not a goal to procrastinate.

Most of your are already doing quite well (according to the last poll, over 60% of you own your own business that is your primary source of income.) If you are like me, you have been focusing closely on your business and may have been ignoring the investment side a bit.

Here are a few direct links to the forum’s sub sections:

> Multi-Millionaire Stories

> General Business Discussion

> Entrepreneurs & Business Building

> Residential Real Estate Investment

> Commercial Real Estate Investment

> Stock Options, Currency, & Trading

The hot topic of the week is Jeremy Shoemaker, aka Shoemoney, being extorted by a Dmoz editor.

Newbie note: DMOZ, also known as the Open Directory Project, is a moderated directory of web sites. Due to its weight with Google and other search engines, being listed is considered very valuable.

Shawn Collins decided to look into the situation and was pointed to a DigitalPoint post Jeremy made way back in 2005 — “if anyone seriously does know a dmoz editor pm me ill pay there lame corruption fee to get in the dmoz… I dont like it but I want to be listed.” Another blogger (who hit the front page of Digg) had his Dmoz editor account banned after posting a note questioning Shoemoney’s removal.

Most Dmoz editors are web site owners, or promoters, themselves. Shawn Collins said that he applied for his Dmoz editor account after having trouble getting a site listed. This is a conflict of interest to Dmoz’s integrity. Editors are blocking the competition as well as collecting cash in exchange for listing sites. The system is broken and has been justly exploited.

What can be done? Easy. Add transparency.

Just like Wikipedia, all edits must be made public. Additions, deletions, times, dates, and ip addresses. Real names and faces must be assigned to the editors. Whether an identity is real or fake, the reputation behind that identity takes time to build up. This minimizes corruption. Directory categories need to be open to all editors.

Does Dmoz even matter anymore? Between millions of blogs, Wikipedia, Digg, and forums, is there not enough timely social media to far outweigh a single directory? Perhaps, yes. However, Dmoz still remains a valuable internet property. Just like real estate, without maintenance and renovation it can fall into slums.