One of the dumbest things you can do with your online business is to tell someone about a website you own that is making money. So am I an idiot for telling you about websites I’ve made money from on my blog in the past? Well, let me explain:
Table Of Contents
Why I Show Off Websites I Own That Make Money
The reason why I share websites that I’ve made money with is because people won’t believe what I say and keep reading my blog unless I show proof. So there’s no better way to show people they should listen to my advice than to show them specific real life examples of websites I’ve made money with. I think after showing everyone how I’ve sold well over a million dollars worth of products for Amazon, sold a website in a deal worth six figures, bought a website and with a little effort turned it into an income stream that may break $1,000 this month (more than quadrupling the monthly earnings from when I bought in in July) people have probably seen enough to know that I’m speaking from actual experience.
I share these examples because it makes for compelling content, builds credibility for me and in turn more people read my blog and participate in the stuff I’m working on (On that topic – can we get some more donations?). But now I’m straying away from the reason why I wrote this blog post in the first place so let me get back to the point:
How I Found Every Website You Own:
I have a subscription to the website WhoRush.com and with a very simple search using my blog as an example I can find the following websites that I own:
There are additional tools that allow you to search by IP address, Google Analytics ID, Google Adsense ID, Whois search etc. as well.
If you tell me a website you own and you have even one website on your server with an Adsense ID I can use that to find every other website you own that uses the same Adsense ID!
Thanks for telling me about that one website you own and are trying to sell on Flippa – now I know every single other website you own, can look through each of them to see how you’re getting traffic from Google using another tool like SEMRushย and can copy the niches you’re in if it looks like there is enough value there for me to compete.
Now I don’t explicitly seek out people that share their websites to do the above, but there are a lot of savvy people that do. WhoRush and SEMRush are two amazing research tools (I love SEMRush the most though) The point I’m trying to get across is that you should never tell people about your websites that make money. Now some of you might be thinking – ‘Sweet now I can use these tools to go check out all the websites Chris uses to fund his lavish lifestyle’ (joking of course) – well it’s too late to do that because I’ve set up safeguards to prevent this that you can employ to protect yourself as well.
How To Prevent People From Seeing All Of Your Websites:
The only surefire way to prevent people from finding all of your websites is to have doubles of everything:
1. I have two Adsense accounts.
One Adsense account is a personal account and tied to my SSN# and another is for my LLC which is tied to my business. (completely ok for you to do)
I never tell anyone about the websites I own and run under my second Adsense account. I also don’t host any of those websites on the server that this blog is on so there isn’t anyway to find those websites that way either.
2. I have four hosting accounts.
I have two dedicated servers with HostGator and a couple shared hosting accounts for some smaller niche websites I run.
You only really need to have two hosting accounts if you want to protect yourself, but I use a dedicated server for this blog and a few other websites I’m hosting here for stability purposes. I have a second dedicated server for some larger websites I run under my second Adsense ID. In any case, the point being that you don’t want anything that links the websites in one hosting account to a website in another hosting account. So don’t use the same Google Adsense ID, Google Analytics ID etc.
3. I use domain privacy on every domain name I own.
This helps to prevent people from using the Whois tool that can search for your name, address etc. and find you that way as well.
Overall Summary:
There are tons of bloggers in this space talking about their earnings each month from niche websites (without disclosing URL’s) and in less than 5 minutes I can find out every website they own, how much money each one is probably making based on the traffic and keywords I see they rank for and just about everything else about their business. If I can find out this information then you can bet other people can too.
Now because of this added privacy I have to pay an extra few hundred dollars a month for another dedicated server just to prevent some savvy unscrupulous blog visitors that may stop by, read about some of the successes I’ve had and want to find what other things I’m running that are currently successful. So you can save yourself a lot of trouble by simply not telling anyone about your successful websites. I could go into more detail about how to protect yourself but the above tips will help you out quite a bit.
I am curious though – how many of you knew that tools like this even existed – where people can find basically every website you own very easily? Let me know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: The following was not a paid review post, but I do have a free comped subscription to WhoRush and SEMRush. I’d gladly pay for SEMRush.com and probably WhoRush.com as well (SEMRush is definitely my favorite though).
Thanks for your info, Chris.
There are a lot of tools on the Internet that have similar functionalities, however, the 2 you mentions probably are the best ones. I get subscription of a tool that track all websites on an IP address but it can’t give exact info because most sites are using shared hosting.
Btw, I remember that Google Adsense allows creating only 1 account for users outside the US, am I right?
Hey Tuan,
Yah the IP address method isn’t the most effective because of the shared hosting but it can help. Sorry I don’t know about Google Adsense rules outside the US…
Chris
This is really helpful info, I usually keep hush about some of the websites I run (not all but some), and went through a whole other process to keep them a secret, but this seems to much simpler, so maybe I’ll switch to this and then I’ll share what my current “trick” is.
Hey Jamie,
Yah it just find lots of people sharing one website URL without knowing that they’re basically showing everything unless they’ve put in place a solution that’s similar to my own.
Chris
Excellent post, Chris. You must have been reading my mind because (as a newbie) I’m just starting to monetize my websites. In fact, I just set up my AdSense account this week! In one of your podcast interviews (with Pat Flynn maybe?) you mentioned this issue.I’d really appreciate if you expanded on your methods to keep your websites as anonymous and unassociated as possible. Maybe an ebook (I’d buy it), or a pillar post (a la Glen Allsop style)? I’ve been trying to diagram the setup to visualize a strategy, using 2 hosts, 2 Adsense accounts, maybe 10 websites… HELP! Also, can posting comments on other blogs blow your cover? We input our website names (varying them) for backlinks when we comment, correct? I bet if someone were tracking you on the web they’d figure out what some of your websites were. Best to use aliases then…
Hey Rich,
I replied to your email but think the comment is fine / valid. This could be something I expand upon I suppose – maybe a free webinar perhaps but I don’t know how much people would really be interested in hearing about it and I don’t know if I could even talk about it for more than 30 minutes etc.
Chris
Yeah, I used to do this for fun a while back! (can’t remember the site I used). Just out of curiosity and not to outright copy anyone. I try not tell anyone, not even my family members what websites I have. People should always take their adsense code out of their websites before they put them up on Flippa! I’ve noticed a few people that do this for protection, but not that many. I guess they would have to take out the Google analytics too. Chris, since your are so public with your sites, I think it’s really smart of you to take those precautions. I’d be too lazy to do all that. Then again, I don’t make nearly as much as you do so I don’t have as much at stake!
Hey Nicole,
The tough thing is that there are tools that will show the history of Adsense code on a site (i.e. whorush) so really as soon as you expose the adsense ID’s you’re at risk. I suppose that’s partly why I’ve been more focused on growing my business through buying websites and less by selling websites that I build out.
Chris
Wow! Who would have thought? I can now say that I used to think domain privacy was all that you needed to implement but I guess I was wrong. Thanks for the post Chris. A lot of other people other there will want to read this.
Hey Gerri,
Thanks – yah there are are lot of tools and methods out there for people to see everything you’re running ๐
Chris
What tool do you use to check backlinks now that Yahoo Site Explorer is no more? Any good free tool?
Sorry if you’ve mentioned it before but you need a good tool to find backlinks for sites you are thinking of buying right?
I’m going to write a blog post about this.
This article is an example of why I always listen to your podcast and almost always tune in to your webinars. You come at things more practically than others, and yet you are also a little sideways. My meaning is that your approach is unique in my opinion. Very good and timely advice for me and I really appreciate it. Luckily I ended up doing what you have done by accident and partly because I sometimes get irritated with the big brother aspect of google.
Thanks for your excellent writing.
Pat
Your welcome ๐
Well, damn. I never known about this till now. Although I always kept quite regarding any website I own that was making money and I didn’t want other people to know about. I always feared competition, especially on micro niches.
Yah, don’t share your sites at all. If I see your blog then I could look through and see other sites you’ve got going on as well if they’re hosted there too.
For small niche sites, I just use fake whois, no point spending $10 a year on whois guard when it’s only make $50/year. It ads up when you’ve got 200-300 domains.
Another way to find competitor sites is to see how they build their links, if they use article submissions, they’ll likely have one account so you just search for that account name…same goes for guest posts.
Hey Chris, great post. I would add the bigger you become and the smaller your sites are the harder in becomes to cover your footprints. There are just so many tools out there for tracking us.
@Feng, you should be careful about using fake information with your registrar. This could back fire if there is ever a problem with your domain or someone wants to contact the owner for legal reasons. I agree it adds up, but really even a micro niche cites should be able to beat the $10 a year fee.
SpyOnWeb.com is another site that does this. Once I found out that you can find sites that way I started creating individual Google Analytics accounts and have 2 different hosting accounts.
Great post Chris..just another step to take if you’re building an online business. Do dedicated servers get the same 24/7 customer service as the cheaper shared servers do or do you have to do the maintenance on your own or through an outsourced service?
PS. someone suggested it, this is great for a ebook or webinar.
Thanks for the info; I was ignorant about all that. Although sometimes I dislike the simple fact of the existence of whois…
I didn’t know that I could have two adsense accounts ! One personal and one business.
I run my own business so this was great news. Thanks man !
High fives all around ๐
I guess this is the reason why so many successful people just don’t tell anyone about their success. I would think that most of the people making the real money online stay well clear of the Warrior forum, Flippa and other such places
I made this mistake early on but it was a mistake for a different reason. I was new to the game, thought I could get advice by posting my site, niche and keyword phrase. What I learned 6 months later as I became more informed, was that 2 separate internet marketers who were better at keyword research and internet marketing registered domains and started building sites in that niche within a few days of my revealing blog comment on a popular IM Blog. Now the top spot for a bunch of keywords in that niche has become a battle between me and the other 2 internet marketers.
I use a similar tool myself at reverseinternet.com, mostly to find sites with the same amazon affiliate ID or Google Adsense ID. As for private whois, I always pay for it. At godaddy, if you register 6 (maybe 5) or more domains then privacy guard is free for those sites for a year.
I think it’s important because with a little bit of time and a few small pieces of information like early niches someone started with (no domains) i was able to find old ezine articles which had links to sites that didnt have privacy guard and was able to confirm that the ezine article author was indeed a high profile IM blogger. From there its a matter of looking at their other sites for an Adsense ID to see which niches they are getting in to. I have been able to do this with a few high profile IM bloggers. I guess you let the cat out of the bag for the whole world to see Chris.
On another note, I think it’s funny when people complain about 4% commissions on Amazon. Once you sell 4 or 5 items you just gave yourself a 50% raise by getting 6% commissions on all the items sold. You only need to sell like 110 items to get to 7%. I guess compared to other affiliate programs like clickbank, that is low, but Amazon product sites are easy to get to the top of Google, at least the way I do them. I am diversifying in to Adsense because I don’t like the idea of it all coming from one place. Although I guess at this point I am still relying on Google no matter which affiliate program I use.
Chris you are my Amazon hero. I only wish I had found you when I started.
Hey Steve,
Yah sorry to hear that some other people copied your niche. It’s just so risky to even bother telling people about niches that it’s almost always better to just not say anything that’s why me even running this blog in the first place isn’t the best idea.
Chris
Do also keep in mind that some internet marketers have 1000’s of sites which means they could be in your niche just by coincidence.
Joe,
I understand that. It’s bound to happen as more people get in to internet marketing. The reason I jumped to that conclusion is because both EMD’s were registered a few days after posting my bog comment about the niche. Its possible that it had nothing to do with my comment, but not plausible. Live and learn. If I’m not learning then I’m doing something wrong.
[…] mentioned in a post that he knows how to find all the sites that you own using WhoRush. I use a service called SpyOnWeb, which is […]
Chris,
hands down.
I subscribed to your emails and made a tattoo
that says “you should never tell people about your websites that make money.”
Hi Chris, this post is a real eye opener… I have been an Amazon affiliate for about 8 months now and have been quite happy to discuss pretty much everything that I do…
Also I never bothered with whois security because I had no idea why it is so important. Even though I do all my work myself, I really don’t know much when it comes to internet marketing and until now, I had no idea why security is so important. Thank you for the wake up call, it’s a shame that there isn’t more people like you out there instead those that we have to guard against…
–Dave
Powerful stuff.
Thank you, I just subscribed
The thought of two hosting accounts never occurred to me, honestly, I thought choosing one good hosting account is enough. Certainly I’ll not want others to know how many websites I’m running or what other stuffs I’m marketing online. This post proved very important for me. Thanks!
I didn’t even think to hide this type of information. Thank you!
Hi Chris, I am deligheted to read your post. I personally knew about whorush.com but have never tried semrush.com which you seem to prefer more. I have already opened it in another tab to see more about it. OK, let me go now and explore the magic; then share with you later on.
Good day!
Maybe not quite the topic of discussion, but I’m DESPERATE! It’s my desperation that brought me to your site actually.
I get Whorush popping up on my site, and I don’t know why.
How can I get rid of it?
I understand it has something to do with SEOQuake, so I went into the Tools and unchecked Whorush, but it didn’t make it go away. Then I unchecked a whole bunch of checked items in the Parameters of SEOQuake, and that didn’t make a difference. Then I completed disabled SEOQuake, and THAT didn’t make a difference. I use pretty standard WP plugins; don’t think this is the problem.
ANYBODY who can help with this?
Thanking you in advance!
Hey Sonia,
Whorush allows anyone to see what you have on your site and there isn’t anything you can do to opt out or stop it. That’s largely why I tell people never to talk about how successful their websites are.
Chris