New Owner of www.CareerRamblings.com

Hi, I would like to introduce myself. I am Eric, the new owner of www.CareerRamblings.com. I run several hundred websites such as Bored.com , CheapFlowers.com , and Dumb.com . I also own 10,000 domain names such as FindJobs.com, BuyWine.com, MtEverest.com, and ComedyClub.com.

I started on the Internet back in 1995 creating web sites for other people, while at the same time I was buying up domains and starting some web sites of my own. Eventually I stopped doing sites for other people and just focused on developing sites on all the domains I was buying. Many of the domains, such as Bored.com, were ones I was able to buy because the previous owner did not pay the bill and Network Solutions reclaimed them and made them available again to the public. Back then there was no automated software to find these type of names, so I used to manually look for good domains that were no longer working and write them down on a list. Each morning around 4am-5am Eastern time I would get up and check this list to see if any became available, because that was the time each day Network Solutions released new domains, and if I did not do it early other people would grab the good names.

Back in the early 2000’s I opened a bunch of ecommerce sites selling vitamins, candy, cookies, and pretty much anything else I could get companies to dropship for me. But, it was a huge headache dealing with upset customers, shipping problems, credit card fraud, shopping cart problems, and supplier problems so I eventually closed them even though they were making money, and instead focused on creating more free entertainment type sites like Bored.com (Bored.com gets over 2 million visitors per month). The only ecommerce site I kept open was CheapFlowers.com, because I put a lot more work into setting that business up and it makes good money.

Now in 2007 I do pretty much the same thing I did when I started 12 years ago, which is that I do anything online that I think will make money. The great thing about the Internet is that I can think of a new business idea today, and by tomorrow have a rough version of it up and running and actually see how well it does. No business plans, no meetings, no projects, no budgets, no delays.

Don’t worry, I do not plan on changing www.CareerRamblings.com to be my personal blog. It will have the same exact type of career and business postings it always does. But, every once in a while I will add some additional postings with personal stories about various business ventures I have been involved in, or info on new ways I find to make money online. Some possible future topics for these “personal” postings include:

• How I bought 2 retail flower shops over the Internet, without ever visiting them first or knowing anything about the flower business.
• How I have had an office for the past 7 years, but I have never been to it.
• How I have over 10 people working for me, but I have never met any of them, and I have never even spoken to most of them on the phone.
• How I almost took my company public via reverse merger right before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.
• How I have become a partner in 3 companies over the years, and it has not worked out well with any of them.
• How I created a plush toy and got it sold in Toys “R” Us.

• – Eric