Cashmore reported that Mashable now receives 50 million page-views per month, and has gained an incredible increase of 10 million in the span of 1 month. The publication is branching out to multiple news areas of interest to online readers beyond Technology news. Some of their best performing categories are Marketing and Business.

In 2011, Mashable has taken over the sale of their advertising. Simply by not giving away a huge revenue share to an ad network such as Google AdSense, they have effectively doubled their revenue. Direct advertising is one of many ways to make money blogging (#7) and is likely the single biggest money maker for professional bloggers.

The State of the Blogosphere

The massive success and following of online publications such as Mashable, the largest online publication The Huffington Post, and AOL’s purchase of TechCrunch for $25 million has led the blogosphere to grow tremendously in 2011. Even smaller bloggers are getting multi-million dollar deals.

The blogosphere has truly arrived to the mainstream in 2011, largely piggy-backing off the success of Facebook, Twitter and other means of social news consumption.

Blogging is an essential and increasingly important part of online business. I highly recommend it. If you can curate and share value, you will gain customers and keep your existing ones in-touch.

I look forward to riding the wave generated by this Internet boom with DotSauce Magazine. I believe the domain industry will make a similar emergence in 2012 with the introduction of thousands of new gTLDs. It’s not so far-fetched to predict the future as the exponential growth of the internet is plain to see.

Congratulations to Mashable–thank you for leading the way.

Mashable Doubles Revenue In 2011 Switching to Direct Advertising DotSauce Magazine

Domain sales exposure in the old version was decent; as members visited the page the top listings would be seen. With the updated Domain Name Marketplace group, exposure will be brought up to a new level.

Facebook Domain Name Marketplace Upgrade

We now have live notifications and optional email updates. This should encourage members to engage and stay updated on the latest sales listings. We should also begin higher quality domains from industry veterans and brokers.

You are invited to join the newly upgraded Domain Name Marketplace group on Facebook to advertise and browse domain names for sale.

Now that we have to take live notifications and emails into consideration, I will post some rules as a notice to all group members. We should follow certain guidelines to reduce signal to noise ratio. With 900+ members, this group will likely be quite active. Common sense rules will apply when it comes to spacing your posts over time and staying relevant.

I hope that the group works out for the best and begins driving home sales between real verified people. I also look forward to introducing more and more people to domain sales on Facebook by inviting other web professionals and business owners to join.

See you on Facebook. Let’s see what you have for sale!

Other Social Domaining Destinations

You can find the counterpart to the Facebook Domain Marketplace group on Twitter @DNMarket where over 330 verified sellers have advertised domains for sale to over 1500 followers.

Also be sure to join the Domaining group on Facebook for industry news and discussions without domain sales advertising.

Facebook Domain Marketplace Group Upgraded, Join 900+ Members Buying and Selling DotSauce Magazine

I’m not sure how long this feature has been live. I don’t recall seeing it before and the earliest I can find someone talking about it is just last month. A few months ago, I listed the majority of my portfolio and am now continuing to do so as new domains are acquired.

Today’s sale brought in several hundred dollars profit for a name that was available yesterday for just $19 to DotSauce Domain Club members. The domain (LinkCoupons) sold for $600. GoDaddy takes a 30% commission, so I am expecting a check for $420.

Recommended Pricing and Range

GoDaddy is using a keyword algorithm to generate an automated appraisal for domains as their recommended pricing. Oddly, this data is only shown after domains are submitted. I own mostly two-word keyword domains and found that the appraisals were moderate to low estimates, but interesting to review nonetheless.

A handful of keyword .CO domains had the highest recommended pricing, but I opted to price them significantly lower.

A price range is also displayed for each domain that goes from 50% off the recommended pricing to around 25% more. I think increasing the recommended price by 200% or possibly much more for quality domains is more appropriate pricing.

How It Works

GoDaddy Premium Listings work by advertising your domain to those searching for it or a very similar domain on GoDaddy.com. Instead of seeing “Sorry, this domain is unavailable.” a searcher will see “This name is available as a premium domain.”

As I previously mentioned, GoDaddy takes a hefty 30% commission on Premium Listings, so sellers should price accordingly for at least the minimum you are willing to accept plus 30%. Domains that have sold are conveniently transferred automatically to the new owners’ account and the price is not negotiable.

How To Add Premium Listings

Premium Listings have become a popular outlet for domainers in recent years. So, unless you have jumped ship for more elephant-friendly registrar, I highly recommend taking advantage of GoDaddy Premium Listings (especially after today) as a rewarding and passive means of domain sales marketing.

The process is simple to complete from your Domain Manager by following these steps.

1. Select a domain or multiple domains
2. Hover over the “Cash In” icon
3. Select “Add to Premium Listing“
4. Set your asking price and select auto-renew listing

Note: I’ve noticed an issue when adding domains in bulk; the text-area is not pre-populated with selected domains so you will need to create a list of names and prices manually.

To view and modify your listings, hover over the green “Buy/Sell” tab in your Domain Manager and select “Premium Listings.”

Have you featured domains as GoDaddy Premium Listings?

Share your success stories and any suggestions you might have for fellow domainers using this service. What do you think about GoDaddy’s recommended pricing and price range? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

[Header Image by Flickr user drewdomkus]

GoDaddy’s Recommended Pricing for Premium Domain Listings and My First Sale DotSauce Magazine

[Image: Nic McPhee, Wrapping one's head around the data, via Flickr Creative Commons]

I set out with a goal to create a page that hits-home on three of important aspects of domain development:

1. Unique Content and SEO
2. Automation
3. Maximum Revenue Potential

My Dream Parking Page

The following mock-up shows my vision for a perfect domain parking page. A solution like this is what it would take to get me back in the game.

I created this concept page using a nifty application called MockingBird and will continue to edit my Dream Parking Page as new ideas and monetization opportunities present themselves.

Click image for full page mock-up.

Psst! PromoEssentials.com and other quality domains are currently available
for $19 each, exclusively for DotSauce Domain Club premium members.

Unique Content and Search Optimization

It may not look like it, but this page can contain a large amount of unique content. The trick is that not all of it is displayed to users at once. Using well-formated list-styling with a little XHTML and CSS magic, the tabs can contain extensive resources, apps and information for visitors on-demand.

Parking pages and mini-sites face an SEO dilemma in that we would like to be more like a single landing page to convert as much traffic as possible into revenue through PPC or acquiring leads. The problem of delivering unique and fresh content to stay relevant on search engines then becomes an issue. For this reason, my dream parking page would be mostly one-page of content aside from an added Q&A application to take advantage of user-generated content.

Customization of navigation and other website element text is key to be able to include the domain keywords where appropriate. As you can see in the mock-up, there are keywords in all the major elements of the page including the title, slogan, tabs and search bar.

Automation

The main tabbed section can contain interactive applications such as the Amazon product feed shown. These popular products would update automatically based on a master keyword and can then be refined by the visitor.

Affiliate promotions and more content can be featured within the other tabs. I’ve shown an example of connecting to a daily deals network such as Groupon or LivingSocial affiliate programs.

All of the site elements would ideally be editable through a WordPress theme options panel or plugin. One could then use WordPress multi-site to create and manage pages for all of your domains.

Maximum Revenue

It doesn’t look like it, but almost every clickable element on my Dream Parking Page leads to a revenue generating source. Whether it’s referrals to Amazon products, Google AdSense or an affiliate offer, all exits lead to profits.

I have additionally included a prominent notice at the top-right of the page stating the website or domain may be for sale.

The are three advertising positions placed strategically for exposure and page flow. Most mini-sites typically use just two alloted AdSense units. The third position can be used for affiliate banners, direct advertising or an alternative ad network.

Additional site elements such as video and social buttons compliment and balance the advertising so that it isn’t overwhelming.

What would your dream parking page be like?

I would love to receive feedback on my mock-up. Maybe you have first-hand experience with domain parking optimization or can give advice from a user perspective. Any suggestions at all are welcome.

Let’s crowd-source the perfect domain parking page for 2011 and beyond. Please leave your suggestions and ideas in the comments area below.

My Dream Domain Parking Page DotSauce Magazine

In an age of social networking, having a big list of followers, friends and fans is also beneficial. However, Twitter and Facebook essentially run on real-time, so your audience will only see brief messages occasionally. That is the unfortunate, yet necessary nature of the social stream.

Email is different and all-together more valuable than social marketing, because it reaches people in a place that is highly important to them at a time that is convenient.

Now there is no excuse for not having an email list to make more sales and drive traffic to your domain name portfolio website, blog or business.

Just a few months ago, MailChimp introduced freemium email newsletter services for small accounts and has just announced today an increase in the limit for free accounts to 2000 subscribers.

You can sign up for free here. They are  bringing on thousands of new users daily, so be patient with their website server for the moment.

I will say that I personally use AWeber to manage the DotSauce newsletter and email lists for my other websites, because of the more advanced features and tools.

I have become accustomed to Aweber, but MailChimp is a perfectly capable service with most of the same features and many other neat tools. I actually use MailChimp’s Google Analytics plugin for WordPress which mashes up data from Google Analytics, MailChimp and WordPress post data.

Give it a try and begin building your list of regular customers, clients, fellow domainers, businessmen and entrepreneurs for example. You may also want to target a particular niche. It is important to offer some value in exchange for subscriptions; exclusive offers, discounts, coupons, resources, news, or information. For some great advice on getting started, you will be interested to read the latest from Copyblogger on how to get more email subscribers.

I hope you enjoy the fun and innovative MailChimp experience and are able to grow your email newsletter beyond 2000 subscribers! The pricing at that point is just pennies per email and surely worth every one.

Please consider subscribing to the DotSauce newsletter for more domaining and online business resources.

No Excuse for Not Having an Email List, MailChimp Goes Free for Up To 2000 Subscribers DotSauce Magazine

The online usability study pitted GrpTrp.com against GroupTrip.co and the results speak for themselves. Two tests show the .CO domain to be the better option and it was ultimately chosen as the new business name. Bryan’s pre-conceived notion that people would somehow not trust .CO domain names was proven false.

I would have liked to see more domains be part of this study. A three-word domain or another .COM alternative could still have potentially outperformed the .CO domain in text-link advertisements. However, Bryan is looking for a brand name for his startup and is wise to keep it short and as memorable and relevant as possible.

Test 1: Sponsored Text Ads – Will users trust a .CO domain enough to click on it? The same ad copy was shown using both domains and the .CO version performed slightly better in two different trials. You can review the full results here.

Test 2: Memorability Poll – Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and PickFu, Bryan was able to quickly poll 200 users on their domain preference. Users were to select between the two options shown below.

79% of 200 responses said they would be more likely to use and remember the .CO domain. That is 155 out of 200. You can see a list of complete responses here with commentary from users.

It’s interesting to note that the survey displays the domain spoken verbally as “dot C O” instead of “dot Co.” I can’t say that I’ve actually decided for myself which option is preferable, though I’m leaning towards “dot Co.” Both methods of saying the domain are viable and speaking the two letters seems to have worked at least for this test. It would be another interesting thing to split-test.

I’d like to thank Bryan for this interesting study. It’s good news to hear that users are recognizing and accepting of .CO domains as I suspected. In our latest poll question, results for .CO’s outlook in 2011 have been a very close race since the beginning. Lots of people are on board, and equally as many have not been convinced, yet.

What are your thoughts on clear .CO vs not-so-good .COM domains? What choice would you make for your business? Please leave a comment with your opinion.

[Top Image: Michael Johnson, Apples & Oranges - They Don't Compare, May 14, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

79% of Respondents Choose Quality .CO Domain Over .COM Alternative DotSauce Magazine

Credit for the boom is given mainly to a rise in international search volume. The United States is expected to see a 12% yearly growth in total search queries, while international market queries will grow by 19% yearly.

Search advertisements are expected to contribute 70% of the total online ad market in the U.S. this year.

Similar reports are also coming in from eMarketer analysts who are projecting a record breaking increase in ad spending that will top $40 billion in 2014. It is said to be recovering more rapidly than the overall economy.

The graphic below shows an overview of the current paid-search market.

Google’s paid-search network encompasses spending on AdWords, publishers’ sites using AdSense, Google custom search, AdSense for Domains, YouTube and other networks.

The JP Morgan report, entitled Nothing But Net: 2011, also references an interesting third-party study performed by Microsoft’s Atlas Solutions. In the study, comparisons were made between clicks on display ads and clicks on search advertisements. Users who clicked on both display ads and search ads convert 22% better than search alone and 400% better than those who only clicked on display ads.

The effectiveness of search ad campaigns is no longer in question. More big brands and small businesses are expected to flock to search and social advertising in 2011.

Do you think we will begin to see good PPC revenue again for parked domain names? It looks promising as search queries continue to rise. Can we count on Google and other networks to be transparent and pass on a fair share of the revenue? Please share your thoughts in the comments area below.

PPC Expected to Make a Comeback DotSauce Magazine

In a recent announcement about the AdWords Keyword Tool coming out of beta, Google has finally revealed information which explains the significant decrease in search volume data.

Domainers like to review Global and Local monthly search volume data for expired domain research, aftermarket valuations and more. It’s an excellent resource for getting a first impression of keyword popularity.

Many have been in a state of confusion as to why global monthly and local monthly search volume data rapidly dropped by tens of thousands or more in some cases.

The Google AdWords team explained:

Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners.

Now, it’s not clear whether their search partners were powered by other engines or if they are referring to Google Custom Search implementations which display results on external websites.

It seems a shame to me to lose that extra search data. If it was indeed data from Google Custom Search setup on niche websites that was removed, they could now be significantly undervaluing keyword search volume.

This change is reported to come at the request of advertisers. Big AdWords bidders were likely not seeing the return expected from such high volume numbers. The new data should now accurately represent a potential for traffic from Google.com.

Google Explains Sudden Drop in Global and Local Monthly Search Volume Data DotSauce Magazine

When it comes to online advertising, those in the know seem to be confident that Facebook will soon launch it’s own display advertising network and open it up to third party publishers.

Chris Dixon, co-founder of Hunch.com, has shared his thoughts and some interesting insight into the two different types of online advertising at play.

1. Intent Harvesting

Domain investors will recognize intent harvesting as it is the same concept behind a generic domain name. When someone types in RumCakes.com, for example, then you can be fairly certain they want to buy rum cakes.

Text advertisements found on Google search results are intent harvesting as the user is actively looking to find a specific product. Amazon and Google are the dominant players, so much so that Yahoo closed down it’s publisher network.

Publishers have noticed the steady decline in revenue from AdSense / traditional PPC.

Could innovations in advertising bring revenues back up? Continue reading.

2. Intent Generation

When a website visitor is not actively looking to purchase a product (as when they may be reading a blog post, using an application or being entertained) then the goal of an advertiser is to generate interest and influence the visitor.

Display advertisements like this have a notoriously low click through ratio of around 1% despite demographic segmentation.

Dixon predicts that this type of advertising will increase rapidly in the coming years as brands continually look to increase awareness across the web.

How Facebook & Google Are Revolutionizing Online Ads

Google and Facebook may soon rock the intent generation segment by empowering ads with more advanced data.

The Like Button

Facebook recently launched it’s developer tool set that allows website publishers to place a “Like” button on virtually anything. This social sharing feature generates some website traffic for the publisher.

Facebook will soon be able to paint a beautiful picture of everything their members like.

That is very powerful data to behold. Dixon gives the example of knowing that a user liked Avatar would be useful when looking to advertise Avatar 2.

Even while not actively browsing Facebook.com, users will remain logged in to their account and can be served highly targeted advertising on third-party websites.

Retargeting / Remarketing

Google AdWords advertisers are now actively remarketing display ads to site visitors based on previous activity.

For example, an advertiser could target a user who had previously visited their website by following them as they browse other sites on the Google Content Network.

The diagram below makes it much easier to visualize.

Reports by advertisers have shown very positive results with ad remarketing.

As for Facebook developing it’s own advertising network, we will have to wait and see just what happens. I suspect we won’t have to wait very long.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, test out the like button first-hand!

Facebook To Rival Google AdSense? Intelligent Ads Will Know What You Like DotSauce Magazine

Just a few hours ago Mashable published findings from a social media engagement study on a high-profile website. The study intended find out which types of advertisements would perform best as far as engagement and purchase power. The full report is embedded below.

If you refer to page 2 of the report, “Methodology,” you will find that participants in this study are being shown video screen-captures of a third-person manipulating the mouse, navigating a website and clicking on various ads. They are then asked questions in a traditional 5-point rating survey.

I can’t bring myself to wholly agree with this methodology, but I have never seen it in action. Why not use eye-tracking or an actual sampling of user actions? Yes, this process may be expensive, but any other alternative will come up short.

That being said, I feel like the results would be similar to a large scale study, so maybe being frugal paid off. Now let’s take a look at what they found.

Mashable asks, What Social Media Ad Types Work Best?

As it turns out, their findings are not related to social media at all.

The most effective ad type in terms of purchasing power was found to be traditional banner ads that were matched with website content. In the case of this study, it was a soup brand on a recipe website.

Of the seven advertising types, banner ads and newsletter links were the most successful at encouraging purchase intent.

By “newsletter links,” Mashable is referring to a specific area on a website where a user can subscribe to a newsletter (as seen here, upper right). Not an actual hyperlink.

The other ad types shown to participants were interactive widgets (save or share virtual goods/info), sponsored content (holiday message sponsored by a brand), and corporate profiles (Facebook fan pages).

What else can we conclude from this study? Facebook fan pages can be an effective way to engage customers and visitors and may provide the added psychological effect of prompting purchases from those who choose to become fans.

The Full Report

Good Old-Fashioned Banner Ads Outperform Social Media Alternatives DotSauce Magazine

A standard link to any one of thousands of retailers or individual products can be detected by VigLink and once clicked, affiliate tracking information is added dynamically. You earn the commission and VigLink takes a percentage for their wizardry.

GigaOM reports, “VigLink estimates that less than half of links that could be monetized are hooked up to affiliate programs.”

Publishers can request a free pre-sales report which analyzes outbound links and uses several estimates to determine potential earnings. In the example report above, popular blog Gizmodo could potentially earn $4,413 per month with VigLink.

On the Horizon – Affiliate Marketing to the Masses

VigLink’s CEO Oliver Roup has hinted that their open API can already be connected to social services.

I believe VigLink will be able to tap into massive social networks where people are sharing links to products constantly. The major hurdle will be making deals with the likes of Twitter and Facebook. If this doesn’t spark an online business boom, I don’t know what would.

I look forward to watching what happens as the company evolves and will likely be joining in myself as this may be a way to circumvent Amazon’s recent ban of North Carolina affiliates.

What are your thoughts? How did your pre-sales report turn out? Please leave a comment below.

VigLink To Provide Seamless Affiliate Earnings to Bloggers and Beyond DotSauce Magazine

A few days ago, I was in the middle of working on a presentation for an offline audience using the uber-cool Prezi web based software. I was very curious to test out the embed feature to see how it worked, so I placed the code within a post on my personal blog to take a peek.

Without my knowing (I had forgotten Twitter Tools was enabled), the link to my unfinished presentation was broadcast to Twitter. I found out about the mistake an hour or so later and was surprised to see the presentation had several retweets!

Thanks to those retweets I was inspired to clean up and expand the presentation for publication here on DotSauce!

Within the presentation below you will find a handful of key thoughts and observations I feel are pretty important for business success today. I hope you can follow these general guidelines to help propel your business into the growing social sphere.

You can select Fullscreen view if you prefer. Enjoy!

Did you find this presentation helpful? Consider passing it on to a friend!

Starting a Business in 2010 DotSauce Magazine

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen has just published a report on his latest research into the world of business on social networks. There are some amazing perspectives and insights to be gained.

Any business engaging users on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin can put this information to use immediately and surely start seeing positive results in a short amount of time.

I would like to go over a few quotes from Mr. Nielsen that I feel are the highlight take-aways from his study.

Business messages appear in a context that’s permeated by personal messages. This context sets the stage for use.

Here we learn that messages should be personable and casual and not so corporate. However, Nielsen points out that users prefer RSS feeds to be more business like.

Users listed too-frequent postings as their top annoyance with following companies and organizations.

This is quite self explanatory. I would recommend limiting your broadcast messages to just a handful per day.

It is also noted in the report that Facebook and Twitter are often used multiple times daily whereas Linkedin and MySpace are used less so.

Plan your next correspondence, but wait to execute until the right time.

Users recognize that corporate postings are commercial — rather than friendship-driven — they do resist overly aggressive selling.

This is why I don’t recommend selling or directly marketing anything within your personal timeline (on a regular basis anyway).

Set up a unique profile for your business and provide a passive introduction to your product or service. Users run from anything that looks like an advertisement.

Messages that received the highest scores had three things in common: they contained something of substance, were timely, and provided the kind of information that users expected.

Stay consistent with your followers’ areas of interest and stay up to date!  Your followers will appreciate and find value in your messages and may be inclined to re-tweet or recommend you.

Check out the rest of Nielsen’s study for more findings on business to user interaction within social networks and RSS feeds.

Study Sheds Light on Business to User Interaction on Social Networks DotSauce Magazine

Mainstream domain marketplaces charge you, the domain owner, a  hefty percentage of the final sales price as their commission. The rates look something like this: Sedo (10% commission), Afternic (10%-20% commission), SnapNames (20% commission), Bido (8% commission), etc. on every single transaction.

These marketplaces may be right for you if you have valuable domain names and want to opt for the seller protection and escrow services they provide.  However, in many cases the final sales price on large marketplaces could end up being much less than you could earn if you found a buyer yourself!

5 Tips on Selling Domains for Max Profit

So, you’re looking to make some domain sales? These tips and tricks should help you become a more savvy domainer.

1. Choose names that have selling potential. If there is no market for your type of domain name then you simply won’t make sales.  Do the keyword research before you go on a GoDaddy shopping spree. You may want to check your domain’s keywords against Google search data using the AdWords keyword tool.

Some things to ask yourself before purchasing or registering a domain…

• Are the domain name’s keywords getting searched for?
• Are there paying advertisers appearing for the exact match search?
• Are there websites or products related to my domain’s keywords?
• Would someone want to build a website using the domain?
• Are similar names being used as fully developed websites?
• Do the words make sense, look and sound good spoken?
• Is there a better option available for this type of name?

If you find your name stands up to these questions then you are likely the new owner of a valuable piece of internet real estate.

2. Invest some time in marketing and promoting your own domains. With the explosion of social media, there is no excuse not to dive in and start spreading the good word about the value of domain names.

Domainers are currently tapping into the huge audience of users on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin. More consumers, business owners and potential domain buyers can be found on these networks than all of the major domain name marketplaces combined.

Here are some ideas for making the most out of your time on social networks.

• Connect with fellow domainers and follow their lead. Check out the WeFollow #Domains tag or this Twitter list on DotSauce.
• Share resources, news, links that you found helpful with your friends and followers. Simply talking about yourself or promoting your products won’t get you anywhere.
• Follow lots and lots of interesting people on Twitter.  Use Twitter’s search feature and find as many real and relevant people as you can to follow. They will likely follow you back if you tweet about similar things. If you don’t have time to follow hundreds of people, Hummingbird software can help.
• Join the Facebook Domain Name Marketplace and other groups of interest, engage with them and befriend new people. Every connection you make essentially lasts forever and opportunities may arise at any time.
• Create a separate profile for your business or domain sales updates as a service to your customers. For example, I have setup @AQDN on Twitter to alert followers when new domains sales are added.
• Use Twitter live search to research potential domain buyers.  People are talking about anything and everything and it’s not far fetched that you find a person who would love to own your domain.

3. List your domains for sale on free marketplaces and forums. This is a great way to get free exposure to your domain sales. Be sure to price your domains very reasonably to get sales. Be cautioned as a large part of the buyers here will be domain resellers, but really, who do you think is hanging out at Sedo.com and other big marketplaces? Resellers also.

Here is an older but still relevant article from DotSauce that has a large list of forums, 33 Great Marketplaces for Selling Your Domain Names (and Websites).

4. Set up your own web presence to display your domains for sale. A unique domain portfolio website is a valuable asset to any domain investor. Your domain portfolio website should be professional, user friendly and informative. You can send customers new and old to browse your inventory here, include a link to your site in your email signature, set up RSS feeds and alerts for customers, accept payments directly on site and more.

Here are some options for developing your own domain portfolio website.

• Get WordPress up and running and use blog posts and pages to highlight each domain name. Alternatively, you can customize themes and install plugins to enhance user experience. Check out this nice article which highlights 14 Domain Portfolio Examples and other resources.
• DomainPortfolio.us is a free PHP script for creating and managing your domain portfolio.
• A newer alternative is Domain Portfolio Manager which is similar to DomainPortfolio.us in that it is PHP / MySQL based with many of the same features and styling. MediaWizard informs us that with Domain Portfolio Manager your domain WHOIS data is updated on-the-fly, so you’ll never have to update expiration dates or name servers again, very cool!

5. Go after the end users. Depending on the quality and reach of a given domain name this can be either an easy or difficult task.  Your first step is to simply research websites of the same category as your keywords.  See what the industry or niche is up to and what businesses and individuals are appearing on the top search results pages for the exact and similar keywords.  You may even want to do a Google blog search for fresh results.  Contact anyone you feel would benefit from owning your domain.

Here’s a quick tip from DNW; Do a WHOIS search to see if your domain has been taken in any other extensions (.net, .org) and contact those registrants.

Further reading on selling domains to end users.

• DomainMagnate’s tips on How to Sell Your Domains to End Users.
• Morgan Linton shares Why End-Users Are So Important.
• Elliot Silver details his story of a Domain Sale to an End User.
• Rob Sequin’s 10 Step Process for Selling Domains to End Users.
• NameFlipper’s great Guided Tutorial on Selling Domains to End Users.

I wish you the best with all your domaining ventures.  I hope these tips are able to help you out in some way. If you have any comments or suggestions please leave one below!

5 Tips on Selling Domain Names for Maximum Profit DotSauce Magazine

These 17 short videos cover the entire talk. Hear Dr. Ham’s story of how he got started on his path to becoming a multi-millionaire domainer.

Watch the video series and take home some solid ideas on being an entrepreneur and businessman online.

Learn the true value of money and get insight into how the Kevin Ham Business 2.0 feature “The Man Who Owns The Internet” came to be as well as details on the infamous .CM deal. Enjoy!

Source: Adam Killam YouTube Channel, Vancouver Enterprise Forum 2009.

Kevin Ham Talks Domains, Business and Money at Vancouver Enterprise Forum DotSauce Magazine

These 10 WordPress themes and plugins could each be used to launch your own online business or breathe new life into your existing website.

1. YellowPress

This premium quality theme features custom plugins which transform your WordPress website into a yellow pages style directory. Accept payments automatically through PayPal and have your members sign-up and create their own listings. A ThemeForest exclusive.

2. WPAuctions

This is a plugin that you can incorporate into any WordPress Theme. A sleek user interface and powerful auction administration make this a great plugin for managing your own private live auctions.

3. WPClassified

Created by the same developer as YellowPress. WPClassified has further features for managing classified style listings directory through WordPress. Potentially generate good revenue from user listings. A ThemeForest exclusive.

4. WordPress Affiliate Theme

Developed by the Unique Blog Designs team, leaders in WordPress design and development, Affiliate Theme overhauls your WordPress admin and allows you to quickly customize and develop beautiful mini-sites, landing pages and blogs without touching any code!

5. Flexibility

This advanced theme is similar in concept to Affiliate Theme, allowing you to create an unlimited number of landing pages and squeeze pages for your products or affiliate offers.  Advanced backend features give you the ability to customize and build great landing pages.

6. WordPress Shopping Cart

Market Theme adds excellent shopping cart and product management features to your WordPress dashboard. Using custom fields you can transform blog posts into product features.

7. wpShop Reloaded

Another WordPress shopping cart plugin featuring a light and dark style.  Advanced features for publishing, managing and making product sales through WordPress. A ThemeForest exclusive.

8. WordPress Wiki Theme

A beautiful theme that comes in 6 vibrant color variations and features some innovative details for developing a user-friendly Wiki or FAQ website. Unique sidebar features and a clean layout with great whitespace.  Wiki Theme is a ThemeForest exclusive.

9. ReviewAZON

This plugin can incorporate Amazon customer reviews into your blog posts. Earn more affiliate commissions from Amazon when you write about any product your readers can view relevant reviews from actual customers.

10. OIO-Publisher

The premier WordPress plugin for managing advertisements, affiliate offers and sponsored content on your blog. You keep 100% of advertising profit and set it on auto-pilot!

I hope you enjoyed the list! I would love to hear your comments and would appreciate it if you would share this post with fellow WordPress fans.

Powered by WordPress: 10 Themes and Plugins for Turnkey Online Business DotSauce Magazine

Members of the popular SitePoint Forums marketplace received an announcement this morning about the upcoming launch of Flippa.com, a rebranded and enhanced SitePoint Marketplace. All 36,000 SitePoint members will be able to login with their existing username and password.

An official date has not been set on when the site will be public.

The Flippa interface is quite simplified but is lacking the defined categories that exist in the current marketplace such as Established Websites, Domain Names, and Startup Websites for example. However, Flippa’s Advanced Search feature may make up for it.

Here is what SitePoint had to say about this specific change…

“In the old marketplace we defined what a ‘start up site’ was and an ‘established site’ and so on. This caused way too much confusion. It’s now up to buyers to define their own categories based on data that sellers have entered for their listing. For instance, I might setup a saved search for “sites with more than 10,000 page-views a month” and I might call that ‘established sites’.” via Flippa Blog

The team at SitePoint seems to be focusing on website sales with this new marketplace brand.  The lack of defined categories could be beneficial for domainers to have their domains placed in the same marketplace stream as websites, especially if those domains are earning revenue.

It has yet to be announced if goods and services like hosting, links, consulting, and scripts will even allowed to be listed on Flippa.

There are some noteable improvements to the process of buying and selling websites through classifieds as well as features from the original SitePoint Marketplace.

Here is a snapshot of the handy statistics widget embedded within each listing.

What are your thoughts on Flippa? I for one am excitied to see it grow and gain more exposure to domain and website sales.  Please leave your comments and questions below.

SitePoint Set To Launch Flippa.com Enhanced Website Sales Marketplace DotSauce Magazine

I know of several domainers who have live portfolios accompanying their blogs and services, and still others who prefer to do things privately through email and newsletters.  Both of those methods can be a powerful and personal way of selling domains.

Some, like myself, like to do a little bit of everything by listing domain names in popular aftermarkets like Sedo or Afternic in addition to posting sales on domain forums, email newsletters, domain marketplaces, and even Twitter.

So what about you? Please respond in our poll…

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

I have found my best sales results come from direct sales to people visiting my domain portfolio pages. You can place your portfolio website address in email and forum signatures to spread the word to your associates, friends and social networking contacts.

Having your own portfolio website can open up new avenues for building contacts and reaching potential end users.

My personal domain portfolio has evolved over the years.  Initially it was placed as a simple page addition on my personal blog which proved hard to update, then I customized various portfolio scripts to my liking, but finally opted to build a custom site using WordPress.

Some of my domain portfolio is now found at AQDN.com – Affordable Quality Domain Names. I have not had a chance to update in awhile (I have been buying names more than reselling lately). However, be on the lookout for some fresh names and new features at my portfolio soon.  You can also follow @AQDN on Twitter.

I would suggest you keep things simple by using an open source software like WordPress.  While it is primarily a blogging CMS, there are features built in for keywords, categories, posts and pages that are perfect for building out a domain portfolio.

Do solid domain research and a little marketing know how to get your portfolio website off on the right foot.

If you have any questions, would like any tips or suggestions on where to get started building your own domain portfolio website, please leave a comment below.  I may do a guide on building a custom WordPress site if there is any interest.

Poll: Do You Have a Domain Portfolio Website? How One Can Help You Build Business & Customers DotSauce Magazine

Visit certain applications like Living Social or visit the Games pages and Facebook may send you 25 free credits (a $2.50 value).

Expect to see credits work their way into many popular apps and other areas on Facebook soon.

—–

Social networking giant Facebook is preparing to test a new payments system, according to BusinessInsider today.  A company rep says this new system will allow the use of Facebook credits towards the purchase of goods and services through third-party applications.

“They’re earning WHAT!?”

Facebook seems to have gotten excited about the idea after hearing that Facebook games-maker Zynga will sell over $100 million in virtual goods (mainly poker chips I suspect, but nonetheless astounding).

Facebook will naturally take a cut of each transaction, which will likely attempt to compete with online payments leader PayPal.

This is predicted to be an excellent way for Facebook to earn revenue while creating a new global marketplace as a service to users.

Thousands of people are already taking advantage of the explosive growth and reach of Facebook to do business online.

Domain Industry on Facebook

Our relatively small domain industry has a pretty strong presence on social networks.  We seem to realize the value of networking with other professionals and marketing to targeted customers.

DotSauce has a fan page growing steadily and there are thousands of other domainers on Facebook and nearly as many domainers on Twitter.

Last year I created the Facebook Domain Name Marketplace which continues to be a daily hub for domain sales within Facebook.

I’ve also beta tested the “Domainer” application (shown above) created by Randy Dryburgh.  This is quite an advanced domain name marketplace application that would be perfect with solid payment processing.  I have been waiting for this app to get the attention it deserves for some time and may not have to wait much longer!

Business Innovations in Social Networking

Launching this payments system will be a monumental task for Facebook and to be so close to testing is quite a pleasant surprise.

This will be an excellent opportunity for many industries to expand business and reach potentially millions.

I think Twitter could do this as well.  Short classified ads are simple and effective and status updates are already earning people money.

Facebook Preparing to Become the Next Big Online Marketplace DotSauce Magazine

Many domainers, bloggers and marketers currently use affiliate marketing as supplemental income… earning a few hundred bucks a month to pay some bills.  But, did you know there are many affiliate marketing millionaires, earning thousands weekly by promoting other businesses products and services?

It’s true, and John Reese, founder of this powerful affiliate resource website is one of them.

What’s Inside Opportunity.com?

John’s Opportunity.com has a dedicated staff of people keeping tabs on all aspects of the affiliate marketing industry.

There is an extensive directory of offers from the top networks available.  They show you what offers are hot that you should be promoting and what’s not.

They even will have market research experts tracking buzz from popular Google searches and other trends.

New to Affiliate Marketing?

Opportunity.com makes earning money as an affiliate so simple!  You will find checklists, blueprints, video tutorials and other materials created to get you started ASAP.

This could be one of the best business investments you ever make.  Here’s why…

• Run Part-Time Or Full-Time
• Run From Anywhere
• No Inventory To Keep
• No Products To Ship
• No Payments To Collect
• No Customer Support
• No Recruiting
• HUGE EARNING POTENTIAL

The service is reported to be just $39.95 per month, a steal of a deal for all the commisions they will have you earning!

Opportunity.com Knocks! Affiliate Marketing Powerhouse Goes Live DotSauce Magazine

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about my experience using the powerful Hummingbird Twitter automation software and how it allowed me to get over 5000 targeted followers on Twitter. Since writing that review I have almost doubled that number at 9,000+ followers.

Those numbers are just for one account!  I have several other online businesses with Twitter accounts which have many thousands of targeted followers each, all thanks to this powerful software.

Continue reading below for a great Hummingbird discount code and how you can easily achieve this success on Twitter.

What Does Hummingbird Do?

Hundreds of people are using Hummingbird to take Twitter to the next level.

This relatively simple PC software allows you to login to as many Twitter accounts as you like, search for people in your area of interest and then automatically follow people while you take a nap, walk your dog or work on something else!

Once you have followed all the people you can handle, wait awhile for those people to follow you back and then clean up your list by automatically unfollowing those people who didn’t seem interested.

This process would otherwise take hours of your valuable time each day!

Benefits of Massive Followers

• My website traffic has increased dramatically.
• I have built new relationships with individuals and businesses.
• I have introduced numerous people to my industry.
• Able to drive traffic to any resource, product or blog at any time.
• I get tons of Re-Tweets.
• Listed high in Twitter directories.
• I launched a website and gained hundreds of sign ups.

…and the list goes on!  There is no reason you shouldn’t pursue more followers on Twitter.

HummingBird Discount Code

Unfortunately, there are currently no Hummingbird discount codes. Bookmark this post and check back for updates!

However, the Hummingbird software can now be yours for just $4.97 per month by using this link to get the limited time offer.

The powerful and innovative new Hummingbird 2 Pro software is now available for $197!

Many people have told me (and I agree) that Hummingbird can pay for itself in just the first week. I highly recommend you give it a try and start leveraging the awesome power of the Twitter crowd!

Hummingbird Discount Coupon Code: Get 15% Off the Most Powerful Twitter Tool DotSauce Magazine

Update: You can now get 15% OFF! Check out this Hummingbird Discount Code.

I feel as if our industry is closed off from the public, like we are talking in a small circle when we should be spreading the good word of Domaining to a much wider audience. It may be like this for many industries.

I believe, through Twitter, that we can massively expand our industry and increase awareness of the true value and profitability of Domaining, all while making more money and driving traffic to our websites.

We can reach out and network with SEO and search marketers, web developers, freelancers, graphic designers, branding experts and many more people who should be involved with Domaining!

I currently have gained over 5000 targeted followers on Twitter, largely in part to using advanced automation software called Hummingbird.

If used properly (see Tips below), it is completely within the Twitter terms of service and it is an extremely effective way to market yourself to literally thousands of people interested in what you’re doing.

If we all can reach out to these new people and get them reading domain news, watching domain auctions, reading our tips, etc., then the industry as a whole will benefit greatly!

Just What Does Hummingbird Do?

Hummingbird is a powerful, yet simple desktop software program that automates the task of following large groups of targeted Twitter users.

You’ve probably found a list of people you like before and understand how long it takes and how boring it is to click “Follow” so many times.

This premium software is currently only $197 and is working brilliantly.

I have come across some information on official forums that a new version with enhanced features is coming soon and the price will increase significantly.  Current owners will get this update for free.

You can purchase and download Hummingbird here.  I recommend you buy it now before the price goes up with the new update, but even then it’s well worth it and you can earn your investment back fast.

Tips On Getting Started With Hummingbird

Many people are using Hummingbird to amass broad groups of tens of thousands followers. I don’t recommend this method, as it can get your profile suspended and you simply won’t connect with your followers.

What you want to do first is find authority profiles and follow their followers, it’s that simple!  This is the basis for success on Twitter and gaining thousands of followers in a relatively short time.

You can even start with my 5000+ followers (of course not all at once)! My followers are in some way interested in web development, domain names, SEO, marketing and/or web design. If you Tweet about those things, there is a good chance they will follow you back!

Simply navigate to http://twitter.com/DotSauce, click my followers number and Hummingbird can go to work for you.

If you’re in another industry, search for people in your niche and you will soon find plenty of targeted people to follow.

Wait a few days between each follow session to give people time to check you out, then you can have Hummingbird un-follow those who didn’t follow you back. The software even stores a list of every person you un-follow so that you don’t bother them again.

If you have any questions about the Hummingbird software please let me know, would be happy to help get you started.

Take Twitter to the Next Level with Hummingbird DotSauce Magazine

Cross Promote Your Current Domain & Website Sales

When submitting a listing to the marketplace choose a category and then select “Classified” as your listing type.  This will allow you to bypass the built-in PayPal payments system.

Simply tell us a little about your domain or website for sale and provide a direct link to your current auction or official aftermarket listing.

Extra Exposure, More Bidders & Maybe That End User You’ve Been Waiting For

Here’s an example… Say you have a live domain auction coming up for sale on Bido, Sedo, Afternic, SnapNames, SitePoint, etc. and you want some extra exposure, more bidders and possibly an end user to come along.

Submit a listing in the Domains – Auctions category with a Classified listing type.  Include a link to your live auction and your golden.

If your domain is of high quality we may also promote your DotSauce marketplace listing to hundreds of domainers on Twitter, through our email newsletters, over 1000 community members and to the 1000+ unique visitors DotSauce attracts every day.

3 Great New Marketplace Categories

Services - Advertise your web services here.  Such as web hosting, scripting, SEO, marketing, consulting, etc.

Domains Wanted - Request a specific type of domain name that you would be interested in purchasing.

Industry Job Listings – Hiring? Post job positions available in the domain name, development or design industry.

Get Started Selling on the DotSauce Marketplace!

It’s easy to start selling your domains, websites and services on the DotSauce Marketplace.

• Simply register for a username or login.
• Visit the marketplace to submit your listings for free!

For more details about the great features our marketplace provides please read our grand opening announcement.

Cross Promote Your Domain & Website Sales on the DotSauce Marketplace DotSauce Magazine

Feature Rich Options for Buyers and Sellers

• Live Auctions
• Automated PayPal Payments
• User Feedback Ratings
• Domain Stats
• Buy-it-Now
• Reserve Price Auctions
• Make Offer
• Adult Categories
• Private Communication
• Public Comments
• Unlimited Listings
• Free to Buy and Sell!

Our traditional domain and website sales forums will soon be replaced by the enhanced marketplace.

Great Exposure to Your Domain Sales

DotSauce is one of the most popular domain industry websites and our goal is to bring lots of active members to the Marketplace.  We also cater to web developers, designers, internet marketers, bloggers and more.  This means fresh eyes browsing our marketplace as well as potential end users.

We may also promote your domain sales to hundreds of domainers on Twitter, through our email newsletters, over 1000 domain forum members and to the many unique visitors DotSauce attracts every day.

Get Started Selling!

It’s easy to start selling your domains, websites and services on the DotSauce Marketplace.

• Simply register for a username or login.
• Visit the marketplace to submit your listings for free!

In the future, DotSauce may charge for featured listings or additional promotional features, but for now our Marketplace is open to the community at no cost.  So, take advantage of this opportunity!

DotSauce Marketplace Open For Business: Free Domain Sales Listings DotSauce Magazine

Professional job listings directory Elance has announced the premiere “Elance Online Work Index“, a list of the top 100 skills in demand based on job listings and user skills data compiled over recent months.

Topping the charts for in-demand jobs were some creative design skills, Graphic Design (#1) and Logo Design (#4).

The most widely used programming and development skills make up the majority of the Top 10; PHP (#2), MySQL (#3), HTML (#6), and CSS (#8).

WordPress (#10) fans, like myself, will be happy to see their favorite CMS make it so high on the list, it truly is a great content management option for all kinds of websites.

Marketing and writing skills have a strong presence with SEO (#15) still hot, but was trumped by Blogs (#13).  With blogging so simple today there is a good opportunity for the blogging and blog development business.

Other marketing skills ranked well such as Article Writing (#5), Web Content (#7), Online Writing (#22), and eBooks (#26)

Find out which other skills are the hottest right now in your industry by viewing the Top 100 List at Elance.

Elance Publishes Top 100 Skills – Graphic Design, Programming and Marketing Top the List DotSauce Magazine

Nate Whitehill and the Team at Unique Blog Designs are at it again! With an amazing new product – the WordPress Affiliate Theme.

This is an awesome new way to build interactive and powerful mini-sites using WordPress that are optimized to convert your visitors into customers or subscribers.

This is a very advanced theme which allows you to use the new WordPress 2.7 administration to customize your colors, fonts, logo and more without touching any of the theme code.

Watch this video for a quick introduction to WordPress Affiliate Theme…

Pretty slick, huh?

It’s the first of it’s kind and they have a package which includes all this!

• Use Affiliate Theme on a UNLIMITED domains/websites
• Six (6) unique page templates
• Access to Video Tutorials, Knowledge Base, and Support Forum AND Affiliate Interviews
• Free Lifetime upgrades
• BONUS Ten (10) pre-made UBD Niche Header Graphics for various affiliate marketing niches…

…for just a one time purchase of $147.  Yep, unlimited use to develop on all your websites!  Create mini-sites, interactive blogs, affiliate landing pages, newsletter subscriptions, ebook sales, and more easily using WordPress and Affiliate Theme.

Give it a try at AffiliateTheme for Demos & to buy Affiliate Theme.

I would love to hear your experiences with the WordPress Affiliate Theme from Unique Blog Designs.  Please leave a comment, even link to your Affiliate Theme creations, I may feature your new website on DotSauce.

WordPress Affiliate Theme – Create Stunning Websites Without Touching Code DotSauce Magazine

And the list went on…

Spread the posts out a little next time please?

While I generally agree with Aaron’s opinions of what a good domain name is, it gets a little redundant.  We all know the basics and the whole GoodURLBadURL blog can be summed up by his “Best Practices” criteria (found in the side-bar).

I suppose his opinions could also be considered marketing advice since he is also critiquing commercials and advertisements.  But again, we all should  know how to display and place our domain names prominently within advertisements.

Sorry about the title of this post, I couldn’t help myself.

GoodURLBadURL on blogspot.com DotSauce Magazine

Great New Feature Updates

• Widget creation system, that allows you to create sidebar widgets for all parked domains. This is extremely useful for creating additional advertising spots, sponsoring content, sharing links or even creating simple blogrolls.
  • I used this to create a blogroll on one of my sites and already sold a link for $20 a month!
• Now there are three types of customization includes: Header, Meta and Footer. Header includes will be added right after the <body> tag, Meta includes will be added between the <head> tags and Footer includes will be added right before the closing </body> tag.
  • This was my suggestion, thanks for adding header includes!  I can now create a network bar and link all my Parking Rev sites together!
• Individual banner includes are now possible. This means that, instead of using the global banner includes, one of your domains can use specific includes.
  • One of the most requested features, now live!  Create unique AdSense code for each domain name.
• If you feel that the default content being displayed by Parking Revolution isn’t very relevant to your domain subject, you can display content imported from an RSS feed.
• Create new custom pages for any of your domain mini-sites.

Bugs Be Gone

• Google Analytics integration now works perfectly
• Performance tweaks on the entire system
• Better cache for parked domains (means they will load faster)
• Optimizations and minor bug fixes in the RSS Merging tool
• Optimizations and minor bug fixes in the Rewrite Content tool

Sign Up!  Parking Revolution is amazingly only $15 per month to develop up to 100 of your domain names!  I can almost guarantee it will be one of the best investments you make!  Visit ParkingRevolution.com now.

In Other News…

Parking Revolution has launched a Forum, their own Blog and you can now connect with Parking Revolution on Twitter!

Send them your comments, suggestions and feature requests!

Video Demonstration

Check out my video demonstration where I do a short screencast of the admin panel, showing you a glimpse behind-the-scenes how easy it is to develop a domain with Parking Revolution.

(Click image to launch video in new window)

Sign up for Parking Revolution now and develop 100 domains for just $15!

Parking Revolution Updated With Great Monetization and Unique Content Features DotSauce Magazine

Having a presence on Twitter really pays off.   Big corporations are monitoring their brands and connecting with customers on a personal level.

Small businesses, individual freelancers like Search Engine Optimizers, graphic designers, web developers, marketers, bloggers and yes even domainers have formed networks which distribute daily updates and news to anyone willing to follow.

Twitter to Finally Cash In on the Craze

Twitter previously had no business model and has stayed afloat through $22 million of venture capital.  That is all about to change in 10 days with the introduction of Twitter Search Advertising.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter made the announcement in an interview with The Times, “Founders have promised to introduce a revenue stream in the next couple of months and Mr. Stone said that search – finding relevant, useful information for companies – would be key.”

Mr. Stone said that within the next 10 days Twitter will be putting their search feature into the home pages of around 1% of member pages before rolling the feature out to everyone.

What is Twitter Search?

This is not your typical search that you might associate with Google, this is virtually live updates and news from an estimated million plus members.

Basically what they will be doing is integrating the powerful search tool currently found at search.twitter.com into the homepage of every Twitter member.

The search feature can be used to deliver fresh information on virtually anything people are talking about. Find out who mentions your name or your product, track who is messaging and replying to you or use advanced filters to find people with common interests.

Twitter Sponsored Listings

Businesses will inevitably be available to advertise your products and services within relevant search results. I predict twitter search advertising will be very successful and on par with the success of Facebook advertising.

I feel this is good move by Twitter.  They will of course finally get to make money from sponsored advertising and the community gets an awesome search tool at our fingertips.  What are your thoughts on Twitter Search Advertising?  Please leave a comment below or tweet us @DotSauce!

Twitter Set to Cash In on the Craze with Twitter Search Advertising DotSauce Magazine

Ron Jackson at DNJournal has just broke the news that Ask.com has acquired Sendori, a direct navigation company.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Mr. Jackson reports “The marketplace he (CEO & Co-Founder Ofer Ronen) envisioned went live on August 1, 2006 and now, just a little over two years later they become part of (Barry) Diller’s IAC internet empire where Sendori will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary.”

Why This Matters to Domainers

Sendori.com is able to send highly targetted visitors to an advertiser’s websites by taping into a very valueable resource we call generic domain names.  People type them into their URL bar everyday looking for products and information.

While this breed of domain name is extremely rare they are still out there on the auction blocks at domain conferences, in the hands of private investors and often times expiring daily.   I personally don’t own any generic .COM domains (one of my greatest ambitions) so this doesn’t direct affect me directly, but I know many people who do.

Even if you don’t own these valuable .com names like me, this is still great news for the industry!  The acquisition of Sendori by Ask.com affirms the value of a great .COM domain name.  Hopefully direct navigation will catch on this year and the domain industry will get some of the positive recognition we need and deserve!

Ask.com Making the Right Moves

DotSauce covered the April 2007 launch of Ask.com’s Sponsored Listings program, a PPC keyword advertising platform.  They have since been serving well over 34 million unique users per month via their network of sites, which include Match.com, Ticketmaster, and and Evite.

Domain Name News reports that “Ask.com is an IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) company and has made other moves in acquiring premium reference sites (and domains) under the Reference.com umbrella like Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com.”

Would love to hear your thoughts on direct navigation domains and this deal by Ask.com, please leave a comment below.

Ask.com Acquires Sendori Direct Navigation: Domain Names Take the Spotlight in Advertising DotSauce Magazine