Domain:
www.ProFootballUpdates.com

This is a site about NFL football. However, the NFL is very strict about protecting its license, so I didn't want to use "NFL" in my domain name.

It's a chore, but when I'm done, I'll have 33 "self writing" newsletters, one for each of 32 teams, as well as one for the NFL in general.

I'm using RSS content from Digg for each team, plus eBay affiliate pheeds. I wanted to use Amazon, but it seems Bo's Zon script has stopped working.

I'm also putting Adsense on this site, but didn't check before picking this niche, which was a minor mistake. Seems there aren't many ads for NFL stuff. I'm guessing due to the NFL's stict protection of their trademark?

This is one reason I may put the site up for sale. It may make more money for a non US person that can add some online sportsbook type ads.

Depsite the drawbacks, this niche has fanatical fans, that should be easy to reach via all the sports forums, etc.

I chose Digg because their TOS says their descriptions are public domain. There's plenty of other RSS content available, but any next owner can deal with that.

Since the season is starting, I'll have all 33 team newsletters update daily. But Dig doesn't have all that much content, so I will only add maybe 3-5 news items per team. In the offseason, each list should probably be sent weekly.

The goal with this site is really for the owner to spend time and resources marketing the site and getting subscribers, instead of builiding content.

And just 30 subscribers per team is more than 1000 over-all, and that should be easy for anyone putting in the effort.

Godfather will allow the owner to send a message to ALL subscribers for all lists, but won't send any subscribers more than one email. This makes it great to broadcast "breaking news", with an ad included.

Godfather isn't a fast and easy shortcut. It will take me time to set everything up. I estimate 40 hours. However, once set up, I'll be "writing" 33 emails per day, on autopilot.

It also isn't totally "autopilot", as the more html pages are built, the more links are made, and the links can get a little "unruly" after a while. This is best maintained by hand.

There are also some SEO limitations to Godfather...If SEO is to be part of your marketing plan, you may want to download pages from time to time and run them through Tuelz to help improve the SEO.

Again, it takes some set up and I don't think you should start out with a project this big. But this shows you what is possible.

However, there's no point in setting this up right away, may as well build a number of subscribers first, letting Godfather run automatically in the meantime.

Another possibility for smaller sites is to build a blog, and use your blog to feed Godfather. This will give you total control over content as well.

And for those that like to network, going out and make contact with blog owners in your niche. Ask them if you can use their RSS pheed in exchage for "something", such as sending them traffic, split ad impressions, etc.

You have a typo though on the right side column - it's adding in unnecessary http:s.

How has the new ebay policy affected your earnings? eBay used to be such a great affiliates program....

btl

Hi Barb,

Thanks. I haven't devolped those yet. To be honest, I'm having another problem, which is the archive linking.

I seem to have installed a very old version of Godfather and having problems with it. Since Godfather came with free installs, I let Kirill handle it.

Now, Kirill has a "real job" and has been ill, so help from him comes slowly. Until I figure out the problem with the archive feature, this project will have to wait.

The good news is, Ian has been working with a newer version and it seems to be working well for him. But he also has a "full time life", so the Godfather trial is a second priority for him.

I need to make sure things work before giving folks Godfather, as it will be a huge waste of time (and aspirin) otherwise.

PS...I think I will bring out "Hubz". I'm going through it now to make sure it's working properly. It's been over 4 years and was only released to a very select few. And it's probably more relevant today then even way back when.

I remember hubz!!! I think you were the first person who
really grasped just how important commenting could be. 'twas
most impressive.

I'm not a cgi/php person alas, so I can't help much wrt
development (now if it was in ksh, that would be another
thing entirely!)....so best wishes with however you choose
to go!

btl

Check your email. It may help 'speed up' the process.

Kind regards

Ian

Hey Ian,

I responded by email.

Thanks

Hi Barb,

Hubz is actually a desktop tuel. It's really Commentz, but with a special page "dripper".

I'm going to start getting into Commentz and Hubz more, not sure when, depends on how Godfather goes.

But what Commentz/Hubz both do, is allow users to paste in text and have it create a web page, as well as an RSS pheed. It will then ping the pheed.

Basically, it creates "blogless blogs" and combines the power of blog, RSS in ping, while working with static html pages.

The "page dripper" is what seperates Hubz from Commentz. It uses a lot of random elements to relieve as many fingerprints as possible.

Both allow you to add the ability for readers to add comments to static html pages and both allow you to moderate comments from one central desktop "command center" across multiple domains.

It also allows your readers to create and add their own pages/articles, based on your templates form more User Generated Content. And these new pages are also moderated from the command center.

In addition, user comments and new pages are added to RSS pheeds, then pinged, with links added to a main index page.

Barbara

I've got newsletters and archives set up for the following:

NFL (Daily)

These four teams are weekly as of now:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills

Every day/week, GodfatherBomb sends out an email newsletter that includes the latest news and recent ebay auctions.

It also creates an html "archive" of that page to "auto-drip" content to the web site. As it creates new archive pages, it also generates a link to that page and adds it to an ssi file. This file is then included on all team archive pages, creating automatic cross-linking. See the homepage for a working example.

The news on these archive html pages is static. However, I inserted BlobBomb SSI tgs into the archive template so that the ebay listing are always fresh.

The index page for each team is all dynamic, both the news and ebay auctions will change and are added using Blogbomb via SSI.

In all html templates I'm making good use of SSI. All the Google Adsense, as well as footer and "NFL Team Updates:" are added using various SSI files.

For example, I have a file called ssi-footer.html which contains all the footer info. I can change this one file and the footer for every page on the site will be change.

Same thing for all three adsense blocks. I can modify the corresponding ssi file, and tweak or even remove Adsense across all pages at once. A real time saver.

So, some SSI files modify all the pages on a site, while the "archive" ssi files only modify pages for each team.

The content can be improved. However, right now everything is on "autopilot". At this point in time, there are no subscribers and all efforts should concentrate on increasing subscribers.

Why write 40 emails a week when no one is reading them? Instead, marketing and promo is the next step.

Once there are enough subscribers, then the content can be improved. One obvious way is to use Scrubz. As the lists increase in size, add a message to each list asking for volunteers or help...Or, contact blog/forum owners for JVs for their content. You use their posts and link to their blogs/forums in exchange.

With a little input into content, ProFootballUpdates.com can easily send more than 200 messages per week. (7 days X 33 mailing lists = 241 messages). Think about the potential, granted this would be only for the NFL season, which is about 5 months. But as you can see, just a few hundred people on each list has massive potential.

I'll be repeating this process for the remaining teams. But the foundation has been set.

Also, I have two minor things for Kirill to work out, then I'll release Godfather to contributors of this forum. By contributing, I mean adding stuff that will help others and not just asking me questions, although that's also encouraged.

Brilliant and SO very true. Lots of people miss that simple fact of life.

Bad news: I had to go back and modify all the lists I had created.

Good news: This project will now kick out 241 html pages plus 241 email messages per week, all on auto-pilot.

If each team/list can get 1000 fans, that would be 241,000 emails sent per week during football season. Even just 100 fans each is 24,100 emails per week.

WOW, nice indeed. Best of success to you!!

btl

I've finished setting up www.ProFootBallUpdates.com. I've had Kirill work out a few bugs and he's getting it ready, so I can give it out.

Again, Godfather is a tough install, but can be done with patience. The real issue is how Godfather handles "bounced" email, as each server handles this differently. You really don't need to mess with this until you have a pretty good list. At that point, you should be able to afford tech/server admin. It isn't that complicated if you know what you are doing.

And if you just want to use Godfather as a page maker, you don't have to worry about the bounce email issue. And, here's a little "trick":

Just install Godfather in a single domain, then use your Moverz Tuel to move the pages to other domains.

In the case of Profootballupdates, each team could be a different site. In this example, I could feed 33 different domains, all from one instance of GodfatherBomb. And, your sites don't have to "match".

As page makers, ZZ Tuel is a little more powerful, but your PC must be on and Tuelz started for it to do its thing. The basic power difference is in the linking structures.

However, Godfather will run 24/7/365 because it is server side.

For either, don't forget to include your own BlogBomb Super RSS pheeds, to automatically cross-link your own sites. Don't go too heavy on these links, just sprinkle in a few here and there.

And don't feel you have to match my ProfootballUpdates site. It took me about 60 hours and I know Godfather better than most. Remember, I'm trying to spin the site and sell it, not create a network and you don't have resell license for Godfather.

Get Godfather installed, find a cheap/free host with a unique IP and start to build pages slowly, using Godfather and Moverz, then repeat.

Hi Kurt,

This is the part I was looking to address. Selling the site with or without godfather.

So you answered that we do not have resell rights. But can we buy a full copy for the new owner and sell the domain as is? Because as I understand it, that is the only way they can keep all subscribers we would add. Unless of course they get there own autoresponder and we download the list for them.

I built a similar sports site before, but was somewhat disinterested in it.

kelvin

Hey Kelvin

Sure, you can buy another license, but I don't think I'd charge the full $249 price. Since I already have developers license for Blogbomb and Fatty, I could do the same for Godfather.

Plus, membership here would give somone the opportunity to get Godfather for the membership price, so I can't see charging higher than that, and probably less.

How about something like $45 per domain, includes both BlogBomb and Godfather? You'd have to handle the support.

Kurt,

Sounds Like a pretty good incentive to me.