From 2004-2007, I monkeyed around with small projects, monetizing to a small degree, but accomplishing nothing. I arrived here from years of layoffs, wandering around, but still working 9-5. I was 36 yrs old at the time.
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In '07, I shifted my focus to acquire descriptive .com's, to lean on their descriptive nature, and develop them from a domain-first perspective.
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I like tourism & travel, so I began to window shop those arenas. And by 'window-shop', I mean, type in tourism destination, add .com, and see what appears. I came from the perspective that "everything is for sale". So it was sortof fun. Type in a URL, and I'll throw them an unsolicited offer.
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I'd look for poorly designed websites. Slow loading. Times new roman font. No monetization. Hobby projects, basically. I must have searched thousands of locations / attractions. One was 'AppalachianTrail․com". A friend of mine hiked it after college, and it was on my to-do list.
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At the time, the site looked like this [img1]. Had like 5 pages. No monetization (TeacherSearch was owner's project). But the best part: the footer included link to "eXTReMe tracker"; where owner shared web traffic stats openly.
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I can't remember the exact numbers, but I remember they were significant, and a majority of visits were Direct. No search engines. No links. No social. Just direct traffic from either bookmarks or type-in. It's what I expected.
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The owner didn't have his email on the site, but had linked his other projects, so I dug up his info, and in a cold message, made him an offer of $3,000 for the site. Not low, not high, just enough so I'm not a tire-kicker.
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I had run the numbers, and if I added Google AdSense, I'd recoup that investment within a few months. Even faster if I added new content (which I planned to do). So I sent it.
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Then I got sidetracked on other projects, and mostly forgot about it. But 30 days later he replied. Thanking me for the offer, and accepted it 😳.
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So I pulled cash from my 9-5 salary & purchased. Domain landed in my acct Nov 1, 2007. [img]. He gave me the content as well. So I uploaded to my server via FTP. Then I went into my AdSense account, grabbed my code, and, cut + paste, save.
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The dang thing began generating around $500/mo for me. A small amount for most people, but quite an impact me little ole me. It taught that I can do this. Maybe, possibly. Become this strange object called an 'entrepreneur'. Odd for someone who'd been shit-canned so often.
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And the site kept performing. Month after month. I added a few pages here & there, but quickly realized the monetization angle might be capped for this niche. ie. what is the commercial component to hike the App Trail? A tent. Some dehydrated food. Hiking boots. That's about it. I figured this out after-the-fact 😅.
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So maybe this wasn't my long-term project, but hell, the dang thing tosses $500/mo, who cares, right? But then, a year later, I received an unsolicited offer to buy the domain for $30k. Just a blind email. This was 2008. It didn't take me long to accept. So I sold, and pocketed the difference.
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The proceeds helped me acquire DudeRanch․com (from the expiry market) in 2009. That project helped me quit the 9-5. And that lead me to (accidentally) buy VidaliaOnions․com in 2014 & begin selling onions on the internet. And from there, RanchWork․com. How on earth I got here, I have no idea. Curiosity can take you a long way.
