The Next Web shared the interesting story of how Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, gave a very special gift to Steve Jobs as thanks for his influence and sage advice.

In 2003, Benioff brought a few members of his executive team to visit Steve Jobs. The words of wisdom he would receive turned out to have profound implications for both Salesforce and Apple.

“You have a fantastic enterprise application here, but you’ve got to build an ecosystem.”

The Salesforce.com team took the advice to heart and developed a new technology called “App Store”, where users could buy enterprise applications and run them within Salesforce.

The project ended up launching under a different name, “App Exchange.” But, Benioff liked the App Store name so much that he purchased the domain name AppStore.com and corresponding trademark.

Years later, in 2008, Benioff was in the audience when Steve Jobs announced his own App Store. After the announcement, Benioff went up to Steve Jobs and offered the AppStore.com domain and the trademark rights as a gift, in appreciation of his help in 2003.

Apple now defends the trademark in court and uses the powerful generic brand to reign-supreme over other application platforms. Now that is a domain that is truly priceless.

How Steve Jobs Got The AppStore.com Domain and Trademark For Free DotSauce Magazine

[Header image via Washington Post]

I’ve been disappointed in recent days to see some web industry leaders and mainstream publications come out against ICANN’s approval of the new TLD system, scheduled to go live in 2012.

There are concerns that new TLDs are just money-making schemes that provides no value to the internet, or that trademarked names are going to be rampantly squatted upon. Do you believe any of this is true?

This open survey features a few poll questions that should offer an idea of reader confidence or lack thereof in new TLDs.

New Top Level Domains Opinion Survey

Please submit your answers for the 5 brief poll questions below.

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

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

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

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

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

Consider sharing this survey to include your networks’ opinion on new Top Level Domains.

Thank you for your participation. Please subscribe to DotSauce Magazine or come back at a later date to review the results.

Opinion Survey: New Top Level Domains DotSauce Magazine

If you have an eye for business, you will be able to see how the Domain Club model is intended to work. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify and discuss a few matters to anyone interested about our process and how specific Domain Club features work.

Group buying sites rely on sales volume to make up for the discounted pricing offered to members. The Domain Club works the same way, offering nice .COM domains to members at a discounted rate of just $19 each.

Domain Club Exclusivity

One of the points I would like to clarify is that while our pricing is exclusive to Domain Club members, our domain inventory is not necessarily exclusively for sale on DotSauce.

I have got back into domain sales recently, putting in work behind the scenes to resell some inventory at a markup.

I’m pleased to report that business is good in just the first few days of dipping my feet into the water of domain liquidation in 2011. That’s right, I am making easy sales of domains currently offered to Domain Club members for just $19 each. In some cases domains have sold for several hundred dollars and many are selling easily for $50-$100.

Domain sales activity and valuations are on the rise, hitting an all-time high in May 2011.

Vision

If I can do it, you can too. That is my true goal for the DotSauce Domain Club. I want to help you succeed and feel the best way to start is with quality keyword, brands, and product domains.

As Domain Club membership grows, both users and myself will reap the benefits of increased activity; more inventory and more content. I hope to continue to prove the value offered by an affordable monthly membership fee for access to exceptional deals on .com domains and domain sales resources.

Join the DotSauce Domain Club today to get first pick of domains for just $19 each and instantly access our private forum where you can learn the best places to resell domains and other insider domain sales resources.

July Update

Members, be on the lookout for a big inventory update and handpicked expired domains list very soon.

I have been quite busy this month, but I have not missed my regular domain research. I will be making considerable additions to the Domain Club inventory and publishing a handpicked expired domains list soon.

Getting Back Into The Domain Flipping Rhythm DotSauce Magazine

IDNX.com will continually monitor trends in domain prices month-to-month. The interactive chart includes 6 years of sales data or over 200,000 domain sales from the world’s largest domain name marketplace.

The IDNX price index value can be directly compared to select economic indicators that seem to correlate very closely.

• NASDAQ 100
• Google’s share price
• Revenues from online ads (US)

Here is a glimpse of IDNX as compared to revenues from online advertising in the US. Domain prices have recently regained strength from a dip in 2008 and early 2009 to grow to an all-time high this year in May.

These comparisons offer an unprecedented view of the domain name industry. It shows domain buyers and sellers are taking their virtual real estate seriously and are making economically motivated, informed decisions.

IDNX provides a great leap forward in legitimizing the often misunderstood world of domains. Cheers to Thies and Sedo for their work and dedication to bettering the industry.

What do you think of the potential for this new tool? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and consider spreading the good news by sharing this article with your network.

Domain Name Price Index Goes Live in Partnership with Sedo DotSauce Magazine

I have categorized and selected choice updates from the month of June in today’s link roundup.

To receive updates like those featured here, as well as more interesting resources and breaking industry news, please follow @DotSauce on Twitter.

Most of these links are also shared on the DotSauce Facebook page.

Branding & Domain Names

Each month it seems the domain name industry is featured in the mainstream media more and more. With ICANN’s approval of the new generic TLD space this month, I am confident this trend will continue. I found these headlines and resources particularly interesting.

Online Business

I’ve been pleased to read many informative and inspiring articles from respected entrepreneurs and industry leaders this month.

Web Development & SEO

Nearly a dozen great articles on SEO have been featured this month. The industry is evolving rapidly; optimizing for site performance, social engagement and producing quality content are becoming increasingly important to become an authority site.

Marketing & Social Media

These articles can help get you on the right path towards social media success. Get updated on the latest trends and social marketing techniques.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these resources and are able to use what you’ve learned to improve your online business. Join 15,000 others who follow @DotSauce on Twitter to stay in-the-know.

You’re welcome to retweet any of these links to your own following or share the entire link roundup. Have a great holiday weekend!

Domaining, Online Business and Web Development Link Roundup for June DotSauce Magazine

These conferences are extremely valuable to industry professionals. This is an opportunity to attend a popular search and social meetup in 2011 for free. Experience first-hand training, keynote speeches and networking; boost your SEO and social media knowledge and rub shoulders with industry leaders.

Conference Crashin’ Time

SEOmoz is giving away 2 tickets to each of the following conferences in a random drawing.

• MozCon - Seattle, WA – July 25th – 27th, 2011
• SES - San Francisco, CA – August 15th – 19th, 2011
• Social Media Summit - San Francisco, CA – August 15th – 16th, 2011
• Wappow Search and Social Hawaii! – September 26th – 29th, 2011
• SearchExchange - Charlotte, NC – October 3rd – 5th, 2011
• Conversion Conference East – NYC, NY – October 19th – 20th, 2011
• Distilled PRO Seminar - London, UK – October 24th – 25th, 2011

Enter to Win

For your chance to win, simply signup for a free SEOmoz PRO trial by June 29th at midnight.

That’s not much time to enter the giveaway. So, check out SEOmoz PRO tools now with no obligation to purchase and a sweet chance at a free conference pass.

Friendly Reminder

DotSauce is hosting a slightly more modest giveaway that ends on Jun 30th. You can enter to win a free design package from Logo.com after checking out the latest web development special.

Conference Crasher Giveaway from SEOmoz DotSauce Magazine

Along with Voice Search for desktop, Google has introduced a brand new concept in search; preloading the webpage of the first search result.

As a user performs a search Google will use web rendering technology to load the webpage of the #1 search result behind the scenes. When the user navigates to the top search result the website has already been loaded and the site renders instantly.

Coming to Chrome Browser Soon

Google’s Amit Singhal states pages load 3 to 5 times faster for the average user. VentureBeat reports the feature is now available on the developer version of Google chrome and will début in the public beta later this week.

It’s obvious Google is committed to a faster search experience, most notably by rewarding websites that are optimized with better search rankings. When Instant Pages goes live the competition for the #1 search position will become much more intense, but the reward will be all the more sweet.

Extremely Beneficial for Website Owners

This is incredible news for website owners, especially those ranking well for many search terms. If you’re not, it’s time to read up on some of the new rules of SEO.

With instant load times, visitors’ time on-site and lead conversions will increase, bounce-rate will be reduced and more unique visitors will be recorded via analytics. Clicking on the top result will become preferential for the average user. Hopefully Google will expand Instant Pages feature to further top results so that more websites can benefit from instant loading times.

You can get some results now, the previous article here on DotSauce features several resources and tips for website optimization that can increase website speed.

Below is a video demonstration and introduction to Instant Pages.

Instant Pages: Google Plans to Preload #1 Search Result DotSauce Magazine

I’ve kept watch and tried out many new web development techniques. I’ve also held an active interest in engaging with readers directly on site and through social networks as much as possible.

In this article, I share the optimization techniques and resources that have been most beneficial to me as a web developer and blogger.

Site Header Tips

1. Optimize your title. By default, WordPress and other CMS’s append your website name to the end of title tags on posts and pages. Using your choice of SEO optimization plugin, such as All In One SEO or WordPress SEO, you can configure post titles to contain just the title of your post.

This technique has proven to be beneficial for ranking well for key terms within post titles. It works because you will eventually receive backlinks with better anchor text and more relevancy on social network shares.

2. Set a default image URL for Facebook & LinkedIn sharing. In the past, images accompanying my articles when displayed on social sharing services like Digg, Facebook, bitly, and others always seemed to be the wrong one or missing entirely! The problem annoyed me to the point that I had to seek out a solution.

I was ecstatic to finally work out a simple way to define the proper post image every time. Plug this code into your site header to define the image URL.

<link rel="image_src" type="image/jpeg" href="post-thumbnail.jpg" />

3. Set an author link attribute. (New) Google, Bing and Yahoo recently announced a joint initiative hosted at Schema.org. This HTML tagging platform will work as a framework for defining the structure of a website and individual bits of data. This initiative to create a more open web filled with rich data is just getting started.

Google is getting started right away with a new way to connect authors with their content across multiple websites. Simply define rel=”author” when linking the author’s name in post display as shown here.

<a rel="author" href="http://markfulton.com">Mark Fulton</a>

Site Speed Tips

4. Track page speed with updated Google Analytics code. (New) Last month Google introduced a revolutionary new feature as part of the upgraded Google Analytics, tracking website load times.

With a little adjustment to your tracking code you can begin receiving reports on site speed analytics. Get this rolling and watch as the next few tips greatly reduce page load times.

_gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

5. Minify JavaScript and CSS files. WordPress Minify is a must-have plugin for any site using JavaScript files and detailed CSS.

Automagically have all these files compressed and combined. This will reduce the number of HTTP requests, significantly speeding up page speed performance.

6. Compress images and serve them across multiple sub-domains. Another highly recommend solution for improving website speed is the WP Smush.it plugin which compresses images as you upload them.

I still recommend saving all images for the web using PhotoShop before uploading. Then let Smush.it work a little extra magic to reduce the file size further without noticeably compromising quality.

Additionally, hosting some images on different sub-domains allows them to be loaded simultaneously instead of one at a time.

7. Place non-critical JavaScript calls in the footer. By placing your JavaScript calls just before your closing tag you make sure all critical content and design layout is rendered before JavaScript enhanced elements. This is as important for user experience as page loading time.

Ironically, the new Google +1 button code suggests placing the script tag in your header. Put it in the footer instead!

Increase Conversions

8. Split test your business and lead generation copy. We’re hearing more and more about split-testing or A/B tests in recent years as easier tools are made available. The smallest of changes in copy, color or positioning of call to action elements can sometimes yield big returns.

Here are some economical choices for getting started with split testing your website content.

• Google Website Optimizer
• A/B Theme Testing Plugin for WordPress
• Visual Website Optimizer

9. Reduce bounce rate by engaging readers. There are a lot of great methods for engaging website visitors, encouraging them to stick around longer and click-through to further pages on your site.

I’ve written some common sense suggestions for reducing bounce rate in the past. Simple things like improving your navigation or adding images to content can help.

I have been pleased with increased engagement here at DotSauce Magazine using the following applications.

• Wibiya Toolbar (red toolbar at bottom of window) – An incredibly useful toolbar with lots of applications.
• Punchtab Rewards (“Rewards” icon at bottom left of window) – Encourage return visits and sharing content with Punchtab’s innovative new social rewards layer.
• HelloBar – Run a promotion in the header of your site to get immediate attention. Simple app with lots of thought put into it.

I have 5 beta invites to HelloBar for those interested. Please leave a comment and let me know you’d like one.

Extend Your Reach

10. Go mobile. I use the WPTouch plugin which automatically generates a mobile optimized version of DotSauce Magazine. Have you looked at your Google Analytics browser reports to see if many visitors are using mobile devices? It’s likely more than you think.

Greatly improve their user experience and conserve server resources by implementing a mobile optimized display.

11. Get social. Love them or hate them, social networks are driving traffic and allowing your following to engage and endorse your content. Discover the best widgets and sharing buttons for your website and include them in prime positions such as at the top of your sidebar or directly after post content.

I recommend you highlight the big 4; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and email.

• Facebook Social Plugins
• Twitter Website Resources
• LinkedIn Share button
• Google +1 Button (New)
• Sharedaddy (Part of JetPack for WordPress)

12. Become a curator of the latest news and resources. This suggestion goes hand-in-hand with getting social. The most influential people on social networks are found generously sharing editorials, news and resources. It’s a great way to build a following and get recommended.

Every day I share a selection of domaining, online business and web development resources on Twitter, the DotSauce Facebook page, LinkedIn, social bookmarking and social news websites. I’ve been doing this for years and have found the practice to be very rewarding.

I’m now using Keepstream to publish a monthly roundup of the best links here on DotSauce. You can also find over 90 industry leading publications at the new DotSauce News site.

Next Up: Optimizing Publisher Experience

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips and techniques for optimizing websites for both search engines and readers. I’m considering a related post that will feature methods of optimizing your experience as a publisher on the backend of a website. This year, I’ve discovered some very interesting tools and resources that make professional blogging that much easier. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading my tips. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions about this article, I would love to hear your thoughts.

12 Tips and New Standards for Optimizing Your Website DotSauce Magazine

I take great pleasure in curating and sharing the most valuable articles, editorials and resources related to domaining, online business, marketing, web development and SEO. I hope you’ve had a chance to use and pass these resources on to your following.

It’s been some time since the last Twitter link roundup. I had considered discontinuing that post series, but the content shared in May is definitely worth a second look even if you did happen to catch the updates on the DotSauce Facebook page or the @DotSauce Twitter feed.

Domaining

Domain name industry news, articles and resources from DotSauce and around the web.

Small Business & Startups

Big collection of inspiration, editorials and resources for small business and entrepreneurs.

Marketing

Powerful techniques and tips for the constantly evolving world of online marketing.

Web Development & SEO

The latest in website development, design, management and optimization.

Like what you see? To stay up-to-date with our online business resources, follow @DotSauce or Like DotSauce on Facebook to receive ALL the updates. Thanks for connecting!

Domaining and Online Business Link Roundup from May 2011 DotSauce Magazine

However, SEO publications are far and wide sharing a much different story. They cite Google’s latest search ranking algorithm changes (dubbed the ”Panda” update) as the final blow to exact match domain value for SEO.

The debate came about slowly as search results pages evolved to something completely different than what was seen a few years ago (shown below) and has climaxed in recent weeks.

Aaron Wall of SEO Book Chimes In

One of the leading authorities on SEO, Aaron Wall of SEO Book, has just published a detailed editorial on how Google killed category killer domains.

He has personally stopped buying domains for SEO purposes and points to numerous factors for the decline in category killer domain value.

Here are the major points he writes about:

1. Search engines influence domain valuation
2. Authoritative brands have received a healthy boost
3. Social search provides additional boost to brands
4. Larger and more numerous ads and product listings
5. Localization features may be harmful to GEO longtails
6. Small sites don’t matter
7. Anticipated new gTLDs

These all seem to be fairly reasonable observations in my opinion.

The World’s Not Actually Ending

Please note that Aaron does not believe all domains are doomed. We are talking about exact match domains; that is, keywords or keyword phrases that represent a search string a user would type into Google.

I own dozens of these and still feel that they have great value and potential for other reasons than SEO benefit. So, you don’t need to take this as the literal end of the world. There will still be a thriving liquid market for domains.

Aaron made the following important point when responding to one comment.

“There is plenty of buying budget for domains in the say $50 to $5,000 range, but the main point of this post was that the high-six and low-seven figure domain names are at this point often becoming malinvestments.”

What’s Your Outlook?

Do you think Aaron is right or wrong about these domains?

I’ve posed the following poll question fairly straight-forward in the hopes of getting a balanced result. Please select the answer you feel most accurately predicts the near future of category killer domains.

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

Thank you for responding to the poll question! Please check back soon for the results and feel free to share your thoughts on the precarious future of exact match domains in the comment area.

Aaron Wall Declares Category Killer Domains Dead: Is He Right? (POLL) DotSauce Magazine

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

Reyes found that those who have Google Apps setup on their domains are particularly vulnerable to a social engineering exploit. However, any personal or business domain that is allowed to expire may be vulnerable to identity theft. This warning is not necessarily restricted to those using Google Apps.

Being the owner of a domain obviously enables a person to create and use any email addresses, even those that may have been used in the past. With website histories and domain Whois registrant email addresses being archived, there is due cause for concern.

Additionally, expired domains may become a target for identity theft as news leaks out.

[Header photo via Flickr]

Google Apps for Domains Disaster

It is potentially very easy for a would-be criminal to use old email accounts with malicious intent. Reyes has provided us with a first-hand demonstration.

"This Domain Has Already Been Registered With Google Apps"

After verifying ownership of his new domain, Reyes was able to gain access to an existing Google Apps for domains account including stored emails, contacts and calendars. This leads to being able to access more sensitive information such as passwords to social networking accounts, shopping and online banking.

Personal Information Compromised

The Google Security team responded to news of the exploit with a statement that it is important to renew a domain or export your personal information. Google may be updating the domain verification process as a result of the incident.

Two Solutions to Avoiding Identity Theft by Domain

The risk associated with expired domains is so obvious that it is often overlooked. A little common sense goes a long way in protecting yourself.

1. Export and Erase All Personal Information

Before allowing any domain name to expire, erase any email accounts and personal information.

Inform all of your contacts that you will be using a new domain and provide them plenty of notice and follow up reminders to update your contact information and email address.

None of your accounts on other websites should be using email addresses associated with the domain.

2. Renew Your Domain Name Indefinitely

Domains can be registered for a maximum of 10 years. Doing so will put your mind at ease and is also said to give some website authority for SEO purposes.

All domain registrars have the option to register for multiple years or to automatically renew a domain. Be sure to have valid payment information on file. You’ll also want to be sure you are receiving email notices from the registrar. You don’t won’t those renewal reminders getting lost in a spam folder.

It’s also a good practice to use an administrator and registrant email address that is not associated with the domain name. Otherwise, you may be vulnerable to domain theft if your website or email address are hacked.

Take special care of your personal and business domains to keep your identity secure! If you are selling or re-branding, take the proper steps before transferring ownership and seek out a reputable buyer.

Please pass the word along about the security risk associated with letting domains expire.

Security Warning: Expired Domains Vulnerable to Identity Theft DotSauce Magazine

You heard right, DotSauce now has a free rewards program. See the “Rewards” button at the bottom left of your browser window? Securely connect with Facebook to earn points for simply reading articles. Earn enough points to claim prizes including free .Com domain registration and other special offers from the DotSauce Domain Club.

For National Small Business Week 2011 we want one lucky entrepreneur to start their summer with a professional website, absolutely free.

Small Business Startup Package

• Your choice of 1 domain name from DotSauce Domain Club inventory
• 1 month free trial of Domain Club Pro membership
• Professional WordPress website development with premium theme
• Logo design and theme customization
• Search engine and website performance optimization
• $100 Google AdWords gift card (for new accounts)
• Free web hosting for 1 year

Giveaway Details

Follow the instructions using the widget below to take part in the giveaway. There are many ways to gain entry points for better odds of winning the Small Business Startup Package.

Connect with the Giveaway widget and follow the instructions for earning entry points.

• Leave a comment on this blog post (+1 entry)
• Like DotSauce on Facebook (+1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway (+1 entry)
• Bonus (+unlimited entries): Share your invite link to earn +1 entry for every unique click-through and +5 entries if your friend joins the giveaway.

The giveaway will run through May 22nd at midnight. A winner will be announced on May 23rd.

Enter To Win

Update: The winner is Abdel Toughrai!

Note: If you are viewing through an RSS reader or have ads blocked you may not be able to see the widget.

Best of luck to you and all the many small businesses getting started this year.

Small Business Week Startup Package Giveaway DotSauce Magazine

I am pleased to announce DotSauce News has been completely renovated early and is now live. The original site was powered by a hosted service, Slinkset, which is being shut down completely. I had to act fast, but I am happy with the development progress of the new site thus far.

Wide and Unique Coverage

DotSauce News currently features 70 feeds representing a near comprehensive collection of the most popular blogs and publications from the following industries.

• Business
• Domaining
• Marketing
• SEO
• Web Development

More news sources will be added over the coming days and weeks and suggestions are always welcome. Please leave a comment below.

Advanced Site Features

Some site features and concepts are still being developed. No login is needed at this time, but the option to create a customizable DotSauce News account may be incorporated as a service offered to DotSauce Domain Club members in the near future.

Here are a few of the features that make DotSauce News stand out:

• Multiple industry coverage
• Feeds sortable by engagement score or alphabetically
• Full article reading for many feeds
• Multiple feed and in-article advanced search
• Curated list of favorite articles
• Multiple layout options for readability

What do you think of the new DotSauce News site? Read up on the latest in domains, business, SEO and more, then come back to let me know what you think.

Would you like to see additional categories or more advanced domain news feed sources such as domain marketplaces or discussion forums? Please leave your feedback in the comments below.

I would also appreciate it if you help spread the latest domain news coverage around the web by sharing the new DotSauce News site with your network.

DotSauce News Updated! Features Domaining and Related Industry Feeds DotSauce Magazine

Many times domains related to your business may even be available to register for a low yearly fee. Ivana recalled a time when she found many domains for a business, “…you’d think that just about every obvious name had been taken, but this is just not true. Especially if you’re selling into a specialty niche, market or industry.“

Considering that if a single domain generates just a handful of leads it will more than pay for itself, this is not an opportunity to be missed. It’s pretty amazing that it has taken this long for many online marketers and business owners to realize this important marketing strategy.

Four Benefits of Descriptive Domains

In her article on OPEN Forum, Ivana covers four points on the importance of owning descriptive domain names that I would like to share.

1. Own the entire market space – Get seen by customers searching for your services and not just your company name.

2. Build brand value and dollar value – Ivana recommends, “Instead of location, location, location, you want to be thinking keywords, keywords, keywords. Owning the most popular words that a target customer will use when they are looking for your product is like money in the bank.“

3. Rank higher on search engines – Google gives some weight to keyword domain names.

4. Get more exposure – Ivana describes another key benefit; “By owning more domains, your products, services and company will get more exposure to your target audience… Buying up domain names that contain descriptive keywords of your products and services increases your likelihood of being found by your ideal customer.“

Finding Related Keyword Domains

The new TailWords keyword tool recently featured on DotSauce should prove to be useful for finding related keyword domains that are available to register. The key stat is daily search volume. If you can find a domain representing a high-volume search there is promise for generating leads.

For truly high-quality descriptive domains that drive a lot of traffic you will likely need to research domains featured on popular domain marketplaces and auctions or make offers directly to owners for domains of interest.

Ivana suggests forwarding your new domains to relevant pages on your site. You could also use them as landing pages for PPC campaigns, special marketing campaigns, forward to your homepage or create a sister website. How do you use keyword domain names to boost business?

OPEN Forum Clued In On Buying Multiple Domain Names for Business DotSauce Magazine

In less than 2 hours from the time of this posting Domain Madness will be underway. The auction closing and final bids will be broadcast here at that time.

Update: Domain Madness Auction Results

Domain Name News has reported the final sales figures for the auction. Ocean.com has been sold for $100,000 and 11 other domains including Irons.com, SmoothLegs.com and GasDeals.com made up an additional $61,000 in sales.

Live Broadcast at 3pm EST

Domain Madness Auction Inventory

I would like to quickly feature the inventory for your review and invite you to participate in the live auction event. There are no reserves and many reasonably priced keyword domains.

Several lots have already received bids and will be sold.

• Ocean.com
• FamilyVacation.com
• Irons.com
• MensJewelry.com
• DomainDevelopment.com
• HomeOwnerInsurance.com
• HoneyBellOranges.com
• Pig.com
• LastMinDeals.com
• Title.info
• Gyrate.com
• Waikiki.me
• EliminateDebts.com
• DrugDeal.com
• DoubleOven.com
• ZoomLens.com
• Discount.us
• ChildDevelopment.com
• AutoRepairs.com
• LimoRental/s.com
• FinancialPlanners.com
• OfficeScreens.com
• BaseballTrainer.com
• BasketballDrills.com
• BaseballTicket.com
• BaseballGame.com
• NameGames.com
• SingAlongs.com
• SmoothLegs.com
• StationaryStore.com
• BigWinner.com
• MagicSpell.com
• iLoveShopping.com
• FlowerBouquets.com
• AthleticClubs.com
• MiracleCream.com
• Evenings.com
• StayCool.com
• GasDeals.com
• LocalSupplier.com
• ArmTattoos.com
• GPSdevices.com
• RefinanceCalculator.com
• TanningStickers.com
• CashBackCredit.com
• JobResume.com
• Cradle.net
• CheckCard.net
• Incentives.net
• Champs.tv
• RentHome.net
• FlightSale.com
• ForexCurrency.com
• YellowstoneNationalPark.net
• BroadbandProviders.com
• RibSauce.com
• OnlineTheft.com
• BetterBody.com
• SiteManagers.com
• Bet.ws
• Uncoordinated.com
• TractionTires.com
• ImpoundAuction.com
• FreezerBurn.com
• DrugDeals.com
• BasketballDrills.com

For complete details visit the official Domain Madness 3 Auction page.

I wish all parties involved; buyers, sellers and the DomainConsultant team all the best during this premier auction.

Domain Madness Live Auction Right Now! Featuring A Small Ocean.com of Keyword Domains DotSauce Magazine

According to Aaron Wall of SEOBook, brand names have been given a boost to ensure doorway pages remain indexed. It has also recently come to light that Social Media directly effects search rankings.

The benefits of using generic domains like RealEstate.com or keyword rich domains such as DomainNameNews.com have been well-known for many years. It’s currently seen as easy by many industry professionals to get a top ranking for desired keywords if your domain name is an exact match of the keyword phrase.

In his latest video update, Google’s head of web spam Matt Cutts hints at the possibility of yet another algorithm change. Google may be reconsidering the weight it provides to keywords in domain names.

…we have looked at the rankings and the weights that we give to keyword domains, and some people have complained that we are giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains. So we have been thinking about at adjusting that mix a bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm, so that given 2 different domains it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain name with a bunch of keywords in it. – Matt Cutts

Impact on Domain Name Value

Depending on how severely Google “dials back” the value of keyword domain names, we may see a negative effect on keyword domain values. However, quality domain names are increasingly in-demand and good keywords have inherent value beyond an SEO boost.

As quality domains become scarce and appealing new domain extensions are made available, there will always be opportunity for premium quality, short keyword domains. Domain investor Elliot Silver recently chimed in on this discussion with a great point, exact match domains can be brands too.

I suspect that those targeting long-tail keywords with three-word domains and hyphenated domains may find the SEO advantages diminished. Domains with similar content using a brandable domain will have a fair shot at ranking for targeted keywords.

How To Avoid Losing Search Ranking for Keyword Domains

The major advice we keep hearing from Google during updates is to ensure quality content. This image shows a prime example of the kind of flawed search results this algorithm will be targeting.

The domain name “ExpiredDomains.com” simply has a login form and no content, and no keywords in the title. Amazingly, this site ranks well for the term “expired domains.”

If you have developed mini-sites or are using a domain parking service for keyword domains, there may be some trouble on the horizon. I highly recommend beginning development on your best domains using a content management system such as WordPress. Quality content should be the top priority for a competitive website. Blogging is becoming increasingly important to remain visible online.

Relevant and unique content offers the best experience for your visitors and that is ultimately what Google will continually attempt to deliver.

Google May Adjust Keyword Domain Rankings: How To Avoid Getting Dropped DotSauce Magazine

The Afternic domain name marketplace is one of many free places to list your domain names for sale. This marketplace stands out from the rest because of Afternic DLS, a domain listing network that reaches more than 35 million prospective buyers every month.

In our first glimpse of what is to come for the new Domainer’s Advantage area, Afternic has shared a graphic representation of year to date domain sales volume by category (shown below).

Online Business Boom

Business, Computers and Shopping are the leading categories for sales thus far in 2011.

The Afternic newsletter mentions, “online shopping — including sales of electronics such as laptops — has skyrocketed over the past three years.” And continues with some timely data from Forrester research, ”With 2 in 3 Americans reporting that they have purchased online, the opportunities in these domain categories remain strong”

Recreation, Family Life, Careers, and Financial categories are also faring well with sizeable portions of the sales volume for 2011.

Mystery Category

Curiously the pinkish slice at 10 o’clock on the chart does not seem to be represented in the key. Maybe this is Adult names? The unknown slice is just slightly smaller than the leading Shopping category next to it.

Do you have domains in the top performing categories? Are your private sales showing similar results this year? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

In case you missed the big reveal, there are some nice technology and online business domains currently available to DotSauce Domain Club members for just $19 each.

2011 Domain Sales by Category: What’s Hot On Afternic DotSauce Magazine

Acclaimed info-graphic artist JESS3 was commissioned to design this beautiful illustration of the generic TLDs of tomorrow looming over the historic downtown of current domain spaces.

Take a moment to look closely over all the proposed extensions. There is actually a great selection of Premium TLDs including .RUN, .NEW, .SPACE, .CHURCH, .PAPER, .FUTURE; which I have not seen any group show interest in operating.

Washington Post Commissions Artist’s Illustration of New TLDs DotSauce Magazine

Business.com has been a centerpiece for those wishing to prove credibility and sustainability of the domain industry. The business has continued to provide evidence for the near exponential growth in value of premium domains. Not to mention the opportunities a great domain offers.

It was Business.com that led to the idea of domain names and websites representing the “real estate of the Internet”. Here’s how the story played out.

Business.com Timeline

• Mid 1990′s - Purchased for $150,000 by domain investor Marc Ostrofsky. This was the most money ever paid for a domain at the time.
• 1999 – Sold to eCompanies for $7.5 million in cash and stocks, recorded by Guinness as a world record. The value of stocks eventually dwindled to $2 million.
• 2007 - The now business search directory sells at auction to RH Donnelley for $350 million. Donnelley filed for bankruptcy two years later.
• 2011 – Business.com is sold yet again, this time to Resource Nation with help from JMI Equity for an undisclosed sum.

The partnership is reported to be a great match. Business.com is now a widely popular marketplace for business-to-business services. Resource Nation provides B2B lead generation and has a network of 10,000 advertising partners.

It’s unfortunate that the sale price is not being announced, though I doubt the latest valuation would have added much more to the allure. Sometimes these transactions have a way of getting out to the public.

For now, we will have to wait and see where the next chapter in this story of internet success of will take us.

Business.com Is Good: Record-breaking Virtual Real Estate Sells Yet Again DotSauce Magazine

[Header Image: Famzoo, From Cash To Digital, August 10, 2010 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

Today, PayPal has announced the micropayments solution is now live and available to merchants, game developers and any creative looking to sell digital content online. The fee structure is reasonably low at 5% + $0.05 per transaction under $12.

For information on how to get started accepting micropayments, visit PayPal for digital goods.

The PayPal for digital goods solution opens a lightbox layer (shown below) on-site. This style of checkout was previously only available to merchant services subscribers. Now it will be easy for anyone to set up a two-click checkout for digital products and services.

Effective, fast and seamless micropayments will bring about new global trends in digital commerce. Here are some ideas on how to monetize websites with PayPal micropayments for digital goods and services.

Sell Content

1. Whitepapers - This traditional paid-for digital good is often given away in exchange for email subscription. Now publishers may seek to charge small fees in addition to subscriptions or as an alternative as sign-up rates decline.

2. Code Snippets – These little bits of text can give huge changes and improvements for web developers. Code snippets often give valuable hacks, tips, tricks and optimizations for popular software.

3. Software – I think software developers will be some of the first to adopt a micropayment solutions.

4. eBooks – Another no-brainer; eBooks are a great candidate for this solution and sales should increase much as micropayment options are made widely available.

5. Premium Blog Posts – These would be similar in concept to white-papers, but possibly on a more regular basis for certain niches. They would be included within the RSS feed for more exposure, but restricted to customers only.

Sell Services

6. Social Interactions – You could charge for any number of social network actions. Sell access to your Twitter stream. Offer to share interesting updates or articles for a small fee.

7. Live Chat Support - Recall that pay-phone operator asking you to insert $.25 to continue your call? Yea, that concept could easily be converted to online support now.

8. Text Links – For sites that are into blogrolls and allowing their readers to promote themselves, micropayments could be implemented for this service.

9. Newsletter Subscription – While traditionally free, word of paid-for premium email newsletters is slowly being spread. It’s really not so far-fetched, as a good newsletter can often provide as much value as a newspaper or magazine.

10. Membership Site - Virtually anything you can think of to put online can be placed behind a membership site. What do you have to share and teach? Charge a small fee for instant access.

Digital Goods

11. Community / Game Credits – Blogs, forums, applications are now including communities and game-like rewards systems to entice and engage website visitors and members. If the features take off, you could easily begin selling digital goods and features within the community.

12. Photos and Graphics – Another valuable resource often shared freely on the web that is just waiting to be monetized with micropayments.

13. Podcasts / Video Tutorials – These types of media are known to be of premium value across the web. Even with billions of YouTube videos to contend with, high quality productions with unique content are an easy sale.

14. Music – Artists, producers, DJ’s and other audiophiles will now be able to open up shop and sell their sounds direct to fans. Micropayments may just bring the band website back in style.

15. File Downloads – Whatever your file types are, exclusive downloads are an alluring product and will become more so as they become simple to buy and instantly download.

Micropayments should prove to be a great addition to an internet entrepreneurs’ arsenal. How do you plan to use PayPal micropayments? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

If you found this article interesting, be sure to follow up with another recent DotSauce Magazine feature on 20 ways to make money blogging in 2011.

15 Ways to Monetize The Web With PayPal Micropayments DotSauce Magazine

[Header Image: Phil Roeder, The Pack is Back, January 23, 2011 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

Business Insider shared results today of a study of online conversations by social analytics company Infegy. They have been tracking Super Bowl chatter since 2008 and have discovered that teams generating the most buzz online historically walk away the victors.

For this year’s game, the Packers are ahead by just a bit. They have been mentioned in 12.28% of Super Bowl chatter versus 12.02% for the Steelers. Pardon me while I bump that percentage up just a little bit… Go Pack!

GoDaddy will be taking center stage again at the big game today as they have done since 2005 . They have been planning to introduce the world to .CO domain names along with a new GoDaddy.CO Girl. (The headless figure to your right)

New .CO domains are normally $29.99 at GoDaddy, but for their biggest event of the year, they are reducing registration prices drastically.

Today you can get unlimited .COM and .CO domains for just $7.49 if you use this promotional link!

This limited time offer gives a huge discount of over $22 for each .CO domain. It’s a great time to pick up keywords or a brand that you’ve been wanting. It also provides an opportunity to invest in the increasingly popular .CO extension.

Have a wonderful day everyone. Enjoy the game and the savings.

Internet Buzz Predicts Packers Win + Super Bowl Savings! $7.49 .COM and .CO Domains at GoDaddy DotSauce Magazine

Headlining the list are some truly amazing domain names including Dating.com, Boating.com, Angels.com, Flying.com, Sex.com, Celebs.com, Business.tv, Poker.org and many other great generic keywords.

After reviewing the list of sales for the year, one name stands out from the rest.

How to Say Logo in 35 Different Languages

Logo.com was reported sold for $500,000 on November 3rd. The buyers, Adam Strong and Alan Townsend have formed a company primed to launch an internationalized logo design service for small business in 2011. They purchased the domain on Sedo.

I am selecting this domain name as my pick for best domain name buy of 2010 because of it’s global brand appeal. The word “logo” translates the same in over 35 different languages. This makes the domain name Logo.com priceless. The purchase is a brilliant investment at just half a million dollars for a brand name which will become the cornerstone of a business.

The logo design business is a thriving industry online. Thousands of popular websites including communities, design firms, design resources and logo design competitions are competing for business.

Logo.com has already captured a position on page 1 of search results pages because of it’s brand power. As the business develops, the domain will continue to rise in search ranking.

Coincidentally, DotSauce Magazine is due for a new logo design as I move in to the fourth anniversary of this publication in 2011. I hope to continue to expand DotSauce’s reach by adopting new development standards and a more professional look.

My best wishes to Adam Strong and Logo.com, LLC. Congratulations on your success thus far.

Best Domain Name Buy of 2010 DotSauce Magazine

In this article I will share the tools and resources I use to take brief glimpses into the future. Using these tools, you too can gain insight into trends and make predictions about the course of your own industry.

Followed by the 10 resources I describe 6 ways you can take advantage of the data for potential profit. Enjoy!

1. Recorded Future

An amazing new service is now providing free updates on future events and trends related to any industry or topic. This brief video introduction to Recorded Future explains how you can use the service to learn about the future.

Select as many topics or as you wish and you will receive an email update for each topic either daily or weekly.

The emails feature a visual overview of the volume and scope of future events and a listing of article references.

2. Twitter

The media has embraced Twitter as an amazing source of breaking news accross the globe. If something big is happening tomorrow, it’s probably already being talked about on Twitter.

Twitter’s real-time nature makes for a great place to watch out for what’s new, emerging and promising. A visit to TweetMeme can show you what people are reading and sharing. There are also many apps and services for monitoring trends. What The Trend displays crowdsourced data on why things are trending.

Other useful services include TweetDeck which now is live streaming capable, TweetTabs live monitoring and TrendsMap local trends.

Use Twitter Lists to follow the news-makers, influencers and curators and #Hashtags to tap into global conversations.

3. Technical Researchers

Many wonderful organizations are working to analyze trends and data so that we might better understand society and the internet.

Here are some great places to start for the latest research on the internet and online business.

• Pew Internet
• GigaOM
• eMarketer
• Morgan Stanley
• Jacob Nielson
• VeriSign

4. Futurists

I am a fan of Ray Kurzweil for his far reaching vision of the future (or it could be the sci-fi geek in me). His talks on the singularity event of exponential technological development make me thrilled to live in such an age of growth.

Futurists can also be a unique source of information for business in the short term. They use extensive experiences, public polling, deductive reasoning and other scientific studies to make predictions.

One futurist recently enlightened us that newspapers as we know them will be gone by 2022, to be replaced by crowdsourced journalism. This makes me excited to be on at center stage as the world discovers blogs and other homegrown online media.

5. Trend Hunters

I like to leave things to the experts in many situations. Trend hunting is no different.

The following examples are well-respected for staying on top of the latest in technology, media and more. Try to find the go-to sources for your niche.

• TrendWatching Briefs
• WIRED Epicenter
• ArsTechnica
• Current TV
• AllTop
• TED
• TechCrunch
• The Cool Hunter
• eBay’s Inside Source

6. Website Traffic

Arguably one of the best ways to predict the future is by viewing the trends in website traffic. This data can be found at Compete and Alexa.

Jacques Mattheij recently predicted that Facebook will overtake Google in the next 18 months using website traffic estimates.

7. Looxii Social Monitoring

While I have not had a chance to fully try out this curiously named service (I’m guessing they were going for ‘look see’), it does seem very promising as a social media monitoring tool.

With Looxii you can monitor up to 2 keywords for free and have reports emailed to you daily. The reports contain data of mentions and trends across blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

8. PostRank Labs

The team at PostRank, which I have previously praised for their innovative new services, are showing no signs of slowing down.

PostRank Labs features a suite of amazing tools such as social trends, blog widgets, even a engagement analytics plugin for your Google Reader.

Their newest tool allows you to compare social engagement across 3 different domains.

9. Google AdWords & Insights

Advertisers bidding on keywords at Google want to know which terms will be most beneficial to them. The world’s best search engine has gone to great lengths to provide amazingly useful data for just that purpose.

Fire up the Google AdWords Keyword tool and you will see a small graph at the right of each row which represents the local search volume.

This data is particularly useful for web publishers and businesses looking to increase the effectiveness of their search optimization efforts.

Google Insights provides a one-year forecast, comparisons and notable news for multiple terms.

Lastly, I have something for you to watch out for. Google has recently acquired Metaweb and Freebase, a massive public database of virtually all types of data.

10. Bookmarking Data

I have noticed a few things having kept an eye on Delicious popular bookmarks off and on over the course of many months. Invisible trends and influences moving through the blogosphere, often at the highest levels on the most popular publications.

TechCrunch articles will cause spin-offs, one blog will counter with it’s own arguments, a popular piece (The Web Is Dead) may cause the whole internet to share their opinion. We’re all connected much more than you might think.

Other places to find out what people are reading and sharing include Reddit, Digg, Hacker News, and LikeButton.me.

6 Ways You Can Profit From Future Research

After checking out the above tools, you might be asking yourself, “How do I profit from knowing about the future?” Unfortunately, there are no lottery ticket numbers or sports scores to be had.

This is going to take some initiative and time invested, but the rewards can be great. Here are some ways I’ve come up with that you can use this information for profit.

1. Buy domain names of future products and services

As an example, I purchased HTML5Framework.com during the coding standard’s debut on the web. If I had decided to research this earlier, I could have registered countless other valuable HTML5 domain names.

Another example, RecycledFood.com; the business of turning food waste into energy and other products is growing rapidly. I registered this for a small fee and it may now be worth quite a bit.

2. Start a blog about a trending or emerging category

The sooner you begin publishing content the better, because the blogs of today may be some of the leading publications of tomorrow.

A prime example of this would be social media blogs. They are now some of the most heavily trafficked destinations on the web. One of the most popular, Social Media Examiner launched just 1 year ago and has already grown into a million dollar publication.

3. Invest in companies which show future potential

I enjoyed the following bit of information from Paul Graham, founder of startup incubator Y Combinator during a talk on the future of software and startups.

Hackers are a leading indicator of what people will be using in the future.

4. Get a head start on marketing products

Not many people know that Google TV is launching in the fall this year. I have been writing about it and sharing updates on this destined game-changer for several months now. This simple act of writing a post will give my site more authority and relevance for later coverage.

When it comes to web content and affiliate marketing, those who act first often come out as the winners as far as search rankings and eventual commission earnings.

5. Become an early adopter

Sharing all the latest news, resources and tools with your network is a great social media strategy. It also helps you learn the pulse of your industry and catalog all it’s resources.

6. Launch a startup or build the next big app

I just read this interesting bit of information recently on TechCrunch. There is a ton of opportunity for those who run ahead of the pack.

One company that has been overlooked as a potential platform for other startups to build a business on remains YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006.

Thank you for taking the time to review these tools and resources for predicting the future and my ideas for profiting from future predictions.  If you would like to suggest further resources or share your thoughts on this topic please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

There is a world of interesting data out there with many secrets yet to be discovered and it is only going to get better.

10 Tools You Can Use to Predict and Profit From the Future DotSauce Magazine

I’d like to introduce you to 5 interesting and useful new domaining related websites to watch out for in the coming months. These websites have the potential to be a driving force for the domain industry in 2011 and beyond.

1. Devsa Marketplace

This is probably the most exciting new website I have heard about in the industry for some time. I’m honored to be the first to inform you about the beta launch of the Devsa Marketplace and social network.

This innovative and feature-rich new platform could potentially fill the void that Bido’s closing left. It’s built better than Bido, but is currently lacking auction mechanics. Key features right now include member domain portfolio management, blogs, fast communication tools, reputation and certifications.

The portfolio manager currently has functions for sending and receiving offers to purchase, ownership verification and domain pricing.

Stay tuned to DotSauce for a complete introduction and review of the new Devsa marketplace soon.

2. Domainer Income

This website was recently launched by industry veteran Simon Johnson. Domainer Income is looking to provide a one-stop-shop for almost all of a domainer’s needs and desires.

With a Domainer Income account you can browse aftermarket auctions or expired domains and view comparable sales. Paid members have additional features such as portfolio management, trend watching, keyword reports and more.

Domainer Income is also now monitoring the performance of top parking companies in terms of domain volume.

3. Domain Developer’s Fund

I originally heard about this from Michael Berkens’ TheDomains last week and it has now been featured on PCWorld. This seems to be the first investment funds specifically focusing on domain name acquisition and development.

There are some questions that have arisen, such as who the official partners for the fund are and exactly what domain names will be invested in.

Additional information about the Domain Developer’s Fund can be found on TechCrunch’s CrunchBase or Michael Marcovici’s blog.

4. Epik.com & Developers Conference

Epik is a web development company catering to domainers. Their platform includes various products and services aimed at best monetizing certain domain types. Included are highly detailed product portals, directories and other useful development starting points.

Founder, Rob Monster and team have done an excellent job promoting advancement in a space that is lagging behind on web development technologies.

Watch out for Epik’s automated appraisals system and the first Epik Developer’s Conference forthcoming on Sept. 15th in Seattle, WA. (See video below)

5. DotSauce Q&A Forum

A little self promotion here. The DotSauce forum community is poised to be the go-to location for on-demand information about the domain industry. In just 2 months, we have reached 100+ members, 100+ questions and well over 300 answers.

Here are just a few of the cool things you can do on the DotSauce Q&A forum:

• Browse the top community members
• Connect with and message other community members
• Create a profile with your bio and link to your websites
• Create alerts for questions on specific topics
• Earn awards for feats of super domainer strength

Consider joining to help out your fellow domainers and newcomers to the industry. It is needed now more than ever. Share your ideas and you just might be rewarded more than you expected by discovering something for yourself.

Thanks for checking out these 5 new domain websites and businesses. I hope you have found them useful. Start putting them to work towards your success in the domain industry.

5 New Domain Industry Websites to Keep An Eye On DotSauce Magazine

• Shopping cart tricks
• Privacy swindling
• Friend spamming
• Disguised advertisements
• Even the Facebook like button gets called out.

The developer and curator of the site, Harry Brignull is a highly experienced User Experience Consultant (and Evangelist). He has started the collection off by explaining some of the most common black hat practices being employed by many well known businesses online.

Domain name registrar 123-Reg, based out of the UK, was put in the spotlight for the all too common trend of sneaking items into shopping carts.

Coincidentally, 123-Reg was just featured here on DotSauce as one of the Top 100 Domain Websites. The #1 site, GoDaddy is probably the most notorious for similar tactics. Many other registrars are just as guilty.

How many times have you seen alternate domain name extensions selected that you did not specifically search for? A user should not have to un-select additional domains simply to purchase what was intended.

Some registrars preselect 2-year registration periods. This practice doubles the necessary cost of a registration. First time domain buyers are being taken advantage of as they may be unaware that paying only 1 year’s fee is even an option.

What other shady tactics are registrars employing?

Will this trend continue? I can imagine many have already jumped-ship for down-to-Earth registrars like Name.com that don’t play these games.

Have a look at DarkPatterns.org to learn about all of the unethical, annoying and often infuriating practices your business and your wallet should avoid at all cost.

Domain Registrars Called Out for Black Hat Design Patterns DotSauce Magazine

Visit certain applications within Facebook, such as Living Social or browse the Games page and Facebook may send you 25 free credits (a $2.50 value).

Credits can be purchased using credit cards, PayPal and even through your cell phone.

Pretty amazing, right? The story just got much more interesting today.

TechCrunch writes that Google has acquired Jambool for $70 million. Jambool powers virtual economies with a platform called Social Gold.

Google may implement Social Gold into their existing checkout product, their new social platform and Google Me, a social network in-development.

I believe this is a very strong possibility and am sure that both Facebook and Google will be vying to integrate and promote the use of their virtual currencies by as many users as possible.

Facebook has a head-start, but Google seems to be nonchalantly adopting all of their strategies and will have the benefit of learning from any hiccups.

Both social giants should realize that there is use for virtual currency beyond games and virtual goods. Could it be that they are just testing the waters for now, or that governments will not allow these currencies to be used for real-world goods and services?

It’s going to be very interesting to follow as the virtual economies evolve. I believe virtual currency will be a success and am excited about it’s potential impact for the future of online business.

Welcome to The Age of Virtual Currency DotSauce Magazine

The .CO landrush has come to an end and it has been a spectacular event. In just a few hours, the .CO registry will open to the public for general availability registrations.

There have been over 40,000 pre-registrations during the landrush period and a lot of media coverage both within and outside the domain industry.

General Availability

Update: The registry is now public! Remaining .CO domains will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. GoDaddy has .CO for $29.99 per year.

CoInternet is now reporting over 215,000 registrations so far.

Thousands more domains will be claimed during the general availability today and in the coming days, weeks and months.

Combining todays’ expected registrations and premium domains awarded for landrush applications should easily total several million dollars in estimated value.

Notable .CO Domains

O.co – Sold for $350,000 to Overstock

E.co – Sold for $81,000 at charity auction

T.co – New short URL for Twitter (likely to be implemented today)

Disrupt.co – TechCrunch startup event

Duck.co – DuckDuckGo Search Community

.Co Founders Program – Many businesses and individuals awarded free .co domains under contract to actively develop for at least 2 years. You will begin seeing many launch announcements on .co domains soon.

3 Things I Like About .CO

• It rides on the coat tails of .COM in representing commerce and companies.
• Registry operator CoInternet is doing a phenomenal job marketing the launch and will likely continue to do so.
• Early adoption by big players such as Twitter

3 Things I’m Concerned About

• Will people have a problem recognizing a .CO domain when spoken verbally? We are so used to hearing .COM
• Over speculation within the industry may cause public outcry against domaining and tarnish .CO similarly to .US
• Owners will fool themselves into believing their keyword .CO domain is worth just as much as it’s .COM counterpart.

What do you think of .CO? Please leave your comments below or send me a message on Twitter @DotSauce.

Want to know more about the domain industry or how to get started buying and selling? Ask a question on the all new DotSauce Q&A forum.

Millions in Virtual Real Estate to be Created Overnight During .CO Launch DotSauce Magazine

The majority of these keyword names have at least 2000 monthly searches on Google in the US alone, often much more.

Act fast to secure the best names before Tuesday, July 20th general availability.

Please pre-register at GoDaddy using this link to support DotSauce.

Use the link above and .CO coupon: MIN1 for 10% OFF when checking out!

Computers / Tech / Internet

• USBCable.co
• WirelessAdapter.co
• USBModem.co
• WirelessMouse.co
• ACAdapter.co
• USBHub.co
• CableModem.co
• Cat5.co
• PowerAdapter.co
• WirelessModem.co
• InkjetPrinter.co
• HomePhone.co
• DigitalCamcorder.co
• CheapTV.co
• CheapTVs.co
• GreenGifts.co

• MediaPlayer.co
• MediaCenter.co
• Publisher.co
• Sketchup.co
• PhotoEditing.co

• InternetSecurity.co
• Malware.co
• MalwareRemoval.co
• OnlineBackup.co
• BackupSoftware.co
• Virtualization.co
• SpywareRemoval.co
• VirusRemoval.co
• AccountingSoftware.co
• DiscountSoftware.co

• VirtualServer.co
• DedicatedServer.co
• DedicatedHosting.co
• VPSHosting.co
• FTPServer.co
• VirtualPrivateServer.co

• BusinessWebDesign.co
• CheapWebDesign.co
• WebDesignTemplates.co
• WebDesignJobs.co
• WebPageTemplates.co
• WebPageHosting.co
• BestWebHost.co
• WebDevelopers.co
• ContentManagement.co
• ServerMonitoring.co

• AffiliateNetworks.co
• MarketingSoftware.co
• SEOSoftware.co

Books

• ReadBooks.co
• BestSellingBooks.co
• VampireBooks.co
• DiscountBooks.co
• ElectronicBooks.co
• CollegeBooks.co
• ClassicBooks.co
• KidsBooks.co
• MustReadBooks.co
• PersonalizedBooks.co
• GreatBooks.co
• BooksOnCD.co
• FictionBooks.co
• ColoringBooks.co
• OldBooks.co
• BargainBooks.co
• TwilightSeries.co
• MysteryBooks.co
• ScienceFictionBooks.co

Gaming

• GamingNews.co
• GamerNews.co
• FishingGames.co
• GameDesign.co
• KidsGame.co
• RacingGame.co
• GameDownload.co
• VideoDownload.co
• ShootingGame.co
• PuzzleGame.co
• ArcadeGame.co

Music

• MusicVideos.co
• SheetMusic.co
• MusicDownloads.co
• MusicLyrics.co
• CountryMusic.co
• MusicPlayer.co
• ChristmasMusic.co
• HipHopMusic.co
• ChristianMusic.co
• HouseMusic.co
• TechnoMusic.co
• DanceMusic.co
• PianoMusic.co
• IndieMusic.co
• ReggaeMusic.co
• GoodMusic.co
• MusicPosters.co
• MusicBlog.co
• MusicSoftware.co

Business

• BusinessManagement.co
• BusinessConsulting.co
• BusinessCardDesign.co
• SampleBusinessPlan.co
• BusinessArticles.co
• BusinessNames.co
• BusinessJournal.co
• BusinessTechnology.co
• SmallBusinessAdvice.co
• SmallBusinessHelp.co
• BusinessEmail.co
• BetterBusiness.co
• BusinessBanking.co
• StartingABusiness.co

Mortgage

• MortgageCalculator.co
• MortgagePaymentCalculator.co
• MortgageLoanCalculator.co
• AmortizationCalculator.co
• Amortization.co
• LoanPaymentCalculator.co
• HomeLoanCalculator.co
• RefinanceCalculator.co
• MortgageCalc.co
• TaxCut.co

Other

• iPhoto.co
• SalesJobs.co
• Update.co
• Updates.co
• Roommate.co
• PrintShop.co
• InternetFax.co
• Professional.co
• Ultimate.co

Pre-Register Now With 10% Off Coupon Code

Please pre-register at GoDaddy using this link to support DotSauce.

Use the link above and .co coupon: MIN1 for 10% off when checking out!

Want more lists before the public launch? Let me know in the comments below. Good luck securing your new domains!

Premium .CO Domains Available to Pre-Register + .CO Coupon Code DotSauce Magazine

While GoDaddy cannot guarantee that you will receive the domain name, you can pre-register now to be first in line during the July 20 general availability date.

If your order is not secured you will receive a full refund.

Owning any of these popular U.S. city domains would be an excellent opportunity to develop a memorable local website business.

Pre-register one or more of these cities for $29.99 at GoDaddy, click here.

233 U.S. cities over 100,000 Population

Bonus List: Most common U.S. place names

• fairview.co
• clayton.co
• milford.co
• milton.co
• mountvernon.co
• centerville.co

Pre-register one or more of these cities for $29.99 at GoDaddy, click here.

I am working on additional keyword lists for various industry categories and will post them soon. Stay tuned.

Surprisingly, many generic phrases and keywords have been pre-registered! A good sign for the .CO landrush and initial domain valuation.

You will need to act fast to secure some of the best names.

233 U.S. Cities Over 100,000 Population Available to Pre-Register As .CO Domains DotSauce Magazine