I would guess that most of you guys have been to DoshDosh.com in the past. Maybe not recently, but certainly a couple of years ago. The Internet marketing blog was authored by a friend of mine called Maki, and it was one of the most popular around. In fact if you check the lists with the best Internet marketing blogs you probably find it mentioned.
Around 18 months ago Maki got tired of publishing content on the blog, and decided to take a break. We exchanged some emails about it, and he told me he would focus on his niche websites and on finishing his Psychology degree. Despite that the blog kept received a large amount of traffic from search engines, and given the amount of useful content already published it remained a good resource for people wanting to learn about Internet marketing.
I am guessing that even without any updates the blog was receiving some 200,000 monthly visitors and probably making $2,000 monthly from AdSense and affiliate offers (though it could be more than that). Not a bad asset to have, if you ask me.
Then a couple of weeks ago I typed DoshDosh.com on my browser to see how the site was doing, and to my surprise I found a blank page (that is why I am not linking there, as Google wouldn’t like it). I figured it could be a normal downtime, so I checked again on the following day, and it was still giving a blank page. I checked the domain name, but it was not expired. I checked the web hosting, but it seems that the the website is up, only displaying no content. It looks like someone uploaded a blank HTML page and left it there.
I tried to email Maki, but got no answer, so at this point I don’t know what is going on. I don’t think he would just erase the website, as he could easily have sold it for $100,000 or so if he didn’t want to keep it anymore. I also hope nothing happened to him, but it could be the case.
Anyway I just figured posting about it could help solve the problem, in the case someone knows him or what is going on. Do you?
This makes me sad. I used to read DoshDosh years ago. I guess at some point it just faded out of sight and out of mind, but the other day I saw a reference to him again while researching a post and I decided to pay another visit. When I got there I thought I had the wrong site, but I see here that it’s been offline for months and months.
Doesn’t really make sense financially all things considered. Plus there goes all my nostalgia happy. Guess everything fades in time though.
Dang I really hoped he would come back and share new social media ideas, but looks like he has moved on from online media.
I’ve been wondering the same thing and in finally wanting to solve the mystery came across your post. Still surprised to have such wonderful content simply vanish.
Irrespective of the website, I think Maki is doing OK. Anyone knows of any developments on this?
I was actually searching for dosh dosh today and found your site on Google. That site was too good to just let it go. The webmaster could’ve easily sold it like you said or requested guest posts from others. Plenty of bloggers would’ve contributed content to the site in exchange for traffic.
I was woundering the same thing. I remember doshdosh.com only used to update once and a while and I figured I haven’t been there for like 6 months so I would check it out and see if there is any new info.
Nothing but a blank screen. It looks like they got hacked, wow. I would have never guessed.
Maki’s website made an excellent bed time read for me and I’ve been wondering about the same thing. I even thought his website was accidentally blocked in the Chicago-area, so I asked a cousin overseas to visit his website and it didn’t show up there too.
I don’t understand why Maki would simply delete his website like this. It’s kinda like burning down a business that you built with patience and hard-work. Even if something did happen to Maki (God forbid) wouldn’t the website still remain in place? Did someone force or threaten him to delete his website?
We may never know.
Glad this subject came up. I always enjoyed Maki as a blogger, and I got value from many of his thoughts too … as well as one of the best links ever to one of my sites …
But about a month or two ago I visited doshdosh.com and saw that the site had been horribly hacked … had lots of unsavory drug ads, links to porn sites, etc. And now it’s gone? So sad.
I can clearly see taking a break, especially for something as important as finishing a degree .. but just to abandon a property that valuable? Mind boggling.
A freind who runs a web hosting company once had a fellow who was hosting a motorcycle foum on his server decide to just quit. The motorcycle guy said to my freind, “I’m bored, if you want my URL and site, take it, otherwise delete it.”
Now, about three years later that mortocycle forum makes about $18,000 a month, way more thna the web hosting company does.
Quit if you will, but don’t throw away what you already built. is my advice.
The content is still out there, of course. It will always be there.
archive.org, the Internet Wayback Machine.
We need to work on a way to bring him back, he was an amazing blogger and i loved his content. I noticed the blank page a fair while back but since he didn’t write any new posts, i expected it, sort of 🙁
After recently listening to a webinar titled “Social Media and Marketing” that is a core part of a Social Media Marketing Kit now being pushed by HubSpot and Mike Volpe I went to the doshdosh.com website expecting to find a list of social media news websites that had been touted in the webinar, but all I found was the blank screen mentioned in your article.
Since the HubSpot Social Media Marketing Kit is being actively pushed by HubSpot, perhaps it would be best to edit the mention of doshdosh.com from the webinar.
the site was talking make money online previously and then change the topic to internet marketing then.
without saying the blog is one of the top individual blogs on the web.
Look like Maki is not keen on monitize his blog…
@JohnTp If you are on WordPress, you can also use plugin name Broken link checker to find all dead links…!!
Thank you Harsh. Will check the plugin.
I too noticed that doshdosh.com was deindexed. Will the sites traffic return to normal if the site gets back?
My blogs lost around 2000 visitors per day for being down for some time once. And then again most of it because the blog is currently inactive I guess 🙁
Broken Link Checker is a great plugin to keep your site clean of broken links.
Sorry about DoshDosh, I will create some awareness about this as well in my blog.
If the site is deindexed, the return of the readership after the site gets back on will be just like any new site. But since doshdosh is already popular people will get back immediately to the site if they know it is online.
Fingers crossed.
Jane.
Till recent time, I remember landing on Doshdosh.com when ever I search anything.. This is weird to see an informative site getting vanished from Internet..
Also I see Google has already deindexed most of the pages from Doshdosh:
site:doshdosh.com
Wow that’s crazy. I’ve ended up on that web site many times and always wondered what happened to it and why it was never updated again. Great branding on their part with the anime art. Very interested in seeing what happens there next.
And PR is still 6 🙂
Hmm.. I mailed the guy months ago, still no response.
The blog usually shows a blank page like that when you didn’t update its latest version or when a plugin is out of date and you forget to upgrade it.
Nothing to do with hacking IMO. Anybody who’d have got access to it, would at least re-direct to a domain parking or landing page, right?
@Daniel
This is slightly off-topic.
You said – “that is why I am not linking there, as Google wouldn’t like it” as a reason for not linking to DoshDosh.
I guess that is what rel=nofollow is for?
Do you think if “linking with rel=nofollow” and “not linking at all” are different from Google search engine’s perspective?
Yes I think it’s different. Linking with nofollow means there is a website on the other end, but you can’t endorse its content (or it was an advertising deal). Linking to a website that is non-existent, on the other hand, is a bad thing even if you put a nofollow tag on the link.
Got it.
I was not thinking about “non-existent site”. I was looking at a site which is “temporarily down”.
Also I feel, once we declare rel=nofllow, Google should not be bothered to check its existence (that will save time of their spiders on other hand)
Daniel, what about sites you linked in your old posts that are dead now? I have links to dead sites on my blog, so I am wondering what I should do. How can we find these links to remove?
About DoshDosh.com, just yesterday I visited the site and found it was showing a blank page and I was surprised. I really liked Makis blog and hope he returns.
It’s a good practice indeed to clean your website from dead links every 6 months or so. You can use a tool called “Xenu” (just Google it) to find those dead links.
Thank you Daniel. I will try it out.
He’s done this before, and frequently tweeted about taking extended breaks from the web. But at least his content was still accessible =/
I also have visited doshdosh many times in past while it was not updating so I have read only old posts but I was surprised to see Google page rank and Alexa rank of doshdosh.
The comment from costa is enough informative. Blog was hacked and may be data had been erased so Maki should have lost his interest.
🙁 sad think for blogosphere. DoshDosh.com is one of my favorite blogs and I’ve learned a lot from it. I really hope Maki will fix the problem and his blog will be available again.
Sorry to hear about that. I’ve recommended and translated a few post of DoshDosh’s in my Chinese blog before, since it is really a great blog with nice posts.
Hope the blog can recover soon, or I have to remove a lot of dead links of it. 🙁
I’ve learned many things from Maki. We’ve just lost a great resource from the online world.
A few weeks ago, I was chatting with one of my friend and he told me, “today is the last day of doshdosh.com!” I’ve become thundered! Then I’ve checked domain information on who.is and noticed that it has only a few hours to be expired the domain. The next day, I’ve checked it again and noticed that someone else transfered the domain 🙁
Never heard of the site before but went there now. Blank. Maybe the guy is gone.
I read a lot of great insights from DoshDosh.com in the past. It’s helpful stuff. I sure hope nothing bad is going on with Maki.
Wow, thanks Daniel! I completely forgot about DoshDosh, it was pivotal in my early days in internet marketing. It was a great resource, and it’s a shame to see it down. I miss Maki’s posts, and hopefully he’ll be finishing up his degree soon.
That is strange. I had not noticed. The links on my site still pointed to his site…..but as you said it is blank.
He has not Tweeted since June 2010.
Hoping all is well.
He was on Twitter for awhile but I don’t know if he still tweets. I remember because at one point he had said he was going to return to blogging but never did. I hope nothing happened to him either. He was a cool person.
So basically you could start a website, write some good content, and then leave it alone, and you would still make some money. And he just closed up shop.
Ohhh you just reminded me of DoshDosh! I had visited DoshDosh many times during 2009-10. His Twitter a/c is active till June 30, 2010.
Interesting post I used to read Dosh Dosh all the time, Maki even commented on my site a couple of times. Hope he is OK.
I too have been on DoshDosh a million times… The stuff was simply brilliant and his style was unique (the manga cartoons too)… God knows why he stopped blogging. Though there might be other reasons which were pressing I dont see why a guy like Maki should kill a blog of this caliber….. I guess its high time Maki pops up back and answers where the hell is he !!!
I have tried to email Maki a few times – noticed thios a while ago, and havent had a response.
I’ve also been wondering where DoshDosh went – and Maki too! He used to post on friendfeed and it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen anything.
That’s the thing with the internet: you could technically leave no trace.
I remember going to his page for advice on selling direct advertising a few years ago, and that it wasn’t actively being updated. Mysterious!
I also went to DoshDosh.com a few weeks ago and was surprised to find a blank page.
{Laughing at myself for getting that you can’t simply paste html code into a comment box}
Yeah I saw the source code of his page too. That is why I said it’s like someone just dropped a blank page there.
I was wondering this same thing a little while ago. I remember reading his blog regularly a few years ago. He had some great content. You are right though, if he choose to sell he could do well. Hope the mystery gets solved with a happy ending.
<html>
<body>
<!– default –>
</body>
</html>
Well, I’m so new to blogging that I’ve never even heard of DoshDosh.com. Mysterious though. The html of the site only says this:
Oh my God! You read my mind.