Metaweb has built a smarter, more connected internet by classifying all persons, places and things under a unique ID they call an entity.

This video introduction does a good job explaining the concept and how Metaweb could bring great content to site owners.

I learned of all this at the Official Google blog today and am a little troubled by the tone of the announcement. I have lots of questions.

Will this optimistic outlook of Metaweb as a service to web developers change as they merge into Google?

Will these cool widgets ever see the light of your monitor?

Google has been increasingly adding content alongside search results in recent years. They have already taken over the traffic and attention of numerous industries and niches such as travel arrangements, business listings, definitions, product comparison and even the news.

Now Google hopes to enable a smarter search where people can go beyond text.

Looking for a college? You may search like this in the near future…

• [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000]

What’s going on in San Jose tonight?

• [events in San Jose]

There is far reaching opportunity for Google to use Metaweb to provide great answers without a user ever leaving their domain. This is what worries me. How much content will they take for themselves and will websites suffer for it with dwindling traffic numbers?

Metaweb’s data is hosted on a separately branded community site called Freebase. I tried to sign up, but registrations are currently closed.

Google does mention that Freebase (all that data from Metaweb) will remain open to the public. So, you should definitely check it out and support the cause. There is also a wiki for Freebase developer tools.

A free and open database for the world’s knowledge sounds like a phenomenal resource for business and web development. I can imagine countless new applications connected to this data and the social web.

Update: The following video is an astounding Freebase search project called Parallax. It is a new way to explore data and integrate it simultaneously from multiple Metaweb data sources.

While I’m still playing the conspiracy theorist (it’s all this UFO buzz), I believe Freebase may cut into web traffic of some individuals and businesses. Google started something similar with Knol a few years ago; I’m not sure how well it’s doing now.

Popular destinations like WikiPedia, IMDB and who knows what else may soon have smart competition with a major home-field advantage.

Regardless of how it turns out, I respect Google for bringing innovative web ideas to fruition. I hope they continue to recognize their users are creating great content and personal answers that deserve to be found.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

In preparation for the upcoming launch of Firefox 4, the Mozilla Labs team has undertaken an extensive and detailed heatmap study of their main browser window.

Nearly 10,000 test pilots participated in the study, 9,667 users to be exact. Every single mouse click and action taken within the browser was monitored over the course of 5 days. Mozilla has published a dynamic graphical representation of the heatmap study here.

Several trends are very clear to see after viewing the usage data. Two elements leap out that get more action than the scrollbar!

Your Worst Enemy

93.1% of participants used the back button, clicking it 66.7 times on average over the course of 5 days.

The technical term for this action is referred to as a website’s bounce rate, which occurs when a visitor decides not to click anything on the site and leaves entirely. Time spent on site is also something you should monitor and hope to increase over time.

Today, it is critical to engage a visitor and capture their attention. We do this by making effective use of graphic and design cues, headings and short, consumable pieces of information.

There are several other things you can do to get started dealing with your worst enemy, the back button. I’ve previously written some tips for reducing bounce rate and increasing website usability that you should check out.

Your Best Friend

95.6% of participants used the location bar, clicking it 430.1 times on average over the course of 5 days.

That is a huge amount of activity! A website should be optimized for both direct navigation and search navigation to increase website traffic.

Direct navigation does not often get the credit it deserves. It is not easily monitored, but when studied it has proven to contribute a much higher percentage of traffic than one would expect. Additionally, visitors who directly type domain names are extremely targeted.

I believe analytics software will soon place a larger emphasis on direct navigation. More attention should be given to branding and domain names while developing a website. They should be memorable, easy to pronounce and easy to type.

The location bar now doubles as a search bar in all major browsers, so visitors will come indirectly from search navigation. Your site should be as optimized as possible (without going overboard) to make the search experience better for these visitors.

One of the simplest and most effective forms of SEO is to make sure important keywords and phrases are included within titles, headings and content. For more tips read my article on common WordPress SEO mistakes.

I hope you get along nicely with your new acquaintances.

If you enjoyed this article, don’t click back! Like this on Facebook and have a look around.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

In this article, I am going to detail a technique for automating tedious aspects of marketing your domain names to potential end users. While this method does not fully-automate the entire process, it does significantly speed things up.

We will be using a simple browser tool and a cool new web application, but will leave the most important tasks to your experienced eye.

Round up your good keyword domains, set some reasonable prices (show a little empathy) and get ready to make some sales.

1. Search Google for your domain’s keywords and other highly relevant keywords

The most ideal potential end users will come from using your exact match keywords. Take the keywords from your domain and search for them using quotations.

To use the domain I’m marketing now as an example, for GrowLettuce,com I searched for the phrases “grow lettuce”, how to grow lettuce and grow lettuce indoors.

2. Take note of the results and paid advertisers and select the best potential leads

You will want to avoid some corporations and informational portals like Wikipedia in preference of individuals or businesses. Scan for individuals with an inferior domain on the same topic and businesses that sell products and services related to your domain.

Don’t stop on page 1. The people who need your domain the most will likely be found deeper within search results.

3. Open each lead in your browser and use the DomainTools bookmarklet

This simple tool gives you 1-click access to a site owner’s contact information. Simply drag the link to your browser toolbar in a convientent location and click it while  viewing a potential lead’s website.

Bookmarklet: DomainTools (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)

You can find this and other useful browser bookmarklets here on DotSauce.

4. Create an account with Tout, a new email marketing app

I’ve was recently introduced to the Tout app and have really enjoyed my experience with it so far. Tout allows you to create email templates for any messages you would like to send out.

Here is a quick video demonstration showing what Tout can do:

When you’re ready to start sending out emails, click “Pitch” and enter the recipients name and email address.

Tout Premium services enable you to track the performance of your templates by logging email open rates and click through data.

5. Setup a unique email template for each domain sale

I initially created a generic template for all domain sales, but found that composing a new template for each domain would yield the best results. Take a moment to customize the message, include your domains’ keywords and the domain itself.

Here is an example of a template I have setup for a domain:

I would love to get your thoughts on this technique. If you have any suggestions for automating domain sales marketing, improving this method, or if you try it out yourself please let me know by leaving a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Many have questioned the accuracy of Compete and Alexa traffic rankings. Could social engagement data soon be viewed as more relevant metrics?

PostRank came on the scene in 2007 with a goal in mind of helping people find the best blogs by topic and to help publishers measure their influence and reach.

Today, PostRank is monitoring and tracking social engagement across all domain names in real-time. Data is gathered on where and when someone shares a post on any number of social networks or makes a comment on-site.

The PostRank Labs team are working on (among other things) a tool that will look very familiar to many of you.

We all love website comparison charts, but this is not simply an estimation of website traffic like you’re thinking.

See this PostRank Labs demonstration for a quick preview of the data.

I was surprised at the differences between on and off-site engagement when comparing websites and how that percentage affects the engagement points total.

PostRank Domain Industry Rankings

I have setup a “Domains” tag on PostRank and added a number of publications. Unfortunately, some blog feeds were not able to be discovered by PostRank. Feel free to add additional feeds if they are relevant.

Clicking a title will show individual posts and enable you to find those with the best social engagement performance.

Social Data, Coming Soon to an App Near You

The PostRank Data Services toolkit for developers has just been updated with a Domain Activity API. Developers may use the APIs to incorporate PostRank, FeedRank and Domain Activity metrics into their own applications.

If you’re a programmer, the PostRank APIs may provide a unique opportunity to develop applications or services related to social engagement. I have a few ideas for using the real-time domain activity analytics, please get in touch with me if you would like to hear them.

I have a feeling we will start to see specific metrics such as provided by PostRank become more prevalent and useful.

Keeping tabs on your PostRank domain activity can help you get motivated to start actively promoting your content on social networks. Find out what works and potentially discover new ways to engage your readers and keep them coming back for more.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Google has made several big announcements at it’s I/O developer conference. Among them are a web app store, a font API to make the web more beautiful, and now Google TV may soon be a seriously popular destination for browsing the web and consuming video content.

Here is a brief explanation and demo of Google TV:

Will .TV Domains Be In High Demand?

While I personally do not own any .TV domains, I have a feeling the .TV brand is going to get a lot of exposure this year.

Thousands of websites may be interested in creating their own media channel optimized for Google TV. Of course a .TV domain is not required, but makes clear sense to use in this setting and may provide a more memorable branding option.

Please take a moment to respond to the poll question:

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

Get Your Own Media Channel Started

.TV domains can be registered at GoDaddy for $39.99 per year.

Web Developers interested in getting a head-start will want to read this guide for designing websites optimized for Google TV.

Google TV will certainly not be limited to just video. Images, text and interactive features will need to be carefully placed to ensure a pleasant user experience.

This article is from 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!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

A bookmarklet looks and works just like a normal browser bookmark, but contains simple JavaScript code to perform a unique task. Bookmarklets put some amazing tools and resources right at your fingertips and save you time.

In this article the bookmarklets may appear like regular hyperlinks, but you will need to drag and drop these links to your browser toolbar or save them as bookmarks for them to function.

Consider creating a folder to drag them to if you plan on using many.

Domain Name Bookmarklets

These bookmarklets, when clicked, will provide you quick access to important information about the current website you are browsing.

Bookmarklet: DomainTools (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Redirects to WHOIS lookup for the registrant of the domain you are currently browsing. This includes such information as name, address, email and phone.

Bookmarklet: Alexa Info (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Redirects to Alexa traffic rankings and data on current website. Provides a glimpse into the popularity of a website.

Bookmarklet: Compete Info (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Redirects to Compete report; another popular traffic rankings provider.

Bookmarklet: Archive.org History (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Directs you to the complete archived history of any domain dating as far back as 1996.

Bookmarklet: Estibot Appraisal (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Loads an automated appraisal report on current domain. Estibot reports consider the keywords within a domain name and analyze many factors to produce a valuation along with other interesting data.

Bookmarklet: Delicious Saves (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Searches Delicious bookmarks history for any saves from the current website.

Bookmarklet: BackTweets (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Scans the current website for any mentions on Twitter. Automatically detects shortened URLs as well.

SEO Bookmarklets

These bookmarklets will help you quickly analyze and research key factors effecting search engine ranking performance.

Bookmarklet: Show NoFollow (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Highlights all links on a page designated as NoFollow.

Bookmarklet: SEOSiteCheckup (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Directs to a very comprehensive SEO and page performance report by SEOSiteCheckup.

Bookmarklet: SEOMoz Linkscape (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Directs to SEOMoz linkscape report for information on links to current domain and mozRank.

Bookmarklet: TouchGraph (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Launches the TouchGraph visual Google browser to explore related sites and see how they connect. Requires JAVA.

Bookmarklet: Pingdom Test (Drag & Drop link to your toolbar)
Description: Performs a live website loading time test. Watch as Pingdom loads each element of the page and find out how it performs.

I hope you enjoy and make good use of these domain name and SEO bookmarklets! While you’re at it, be sure to drag DotSauce Magazine into your browser bookmarks as well!

Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for another tool or service that could use a bookmarklet and I will consider adding it to the list.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

SEOMoz just launched an overhauled SEOMoz Toolbar for Firefox featuring new page and domain authority metrics that display live as you browse.

These metrics help determine the search ranking strength of any page and can be used to get an idea of the value and authority of a website.

Several other new features are proving to be very useful to have in such a convenient location in your browser.

When visiting a site you can click the Analyze Page button to open an overlayed report featuring a plethora of information and data related to link structure, page load time, meta data and other on page elements organized neatly.

Also included is an option to export this data as a spreadsheet file.

Highlights of the new SEOMoz Toolbar include:

• Comprehensive page analysis overlay
• Ability to disable JavaScript
• Show NoFollows button highlights all links tagged NoFollow
• Smart links to full suite of SEOMoz tools and other important SEO data

Each of the links found within the Tools drop down menu are uniquely coded like browser bookmarklets to direct you to results pages without having to do any typing.

• Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics displayed on Google, Bing, Yahoo search results

That’s right, when you do a search on Google, Yahoo or Bing after having installed the SEOMoz Toolbar, you will see unique page and domain authority rankings for all of the individual search results.

All the features mentioned here are included with the free SEOMoz Toolbar. I recommend you try it out now, it only takes a few seconds to install and is sure to save you lots of time.

SEOMoz Pro members enjoy the added benefit of viewing the number of links coming in from root domains as well as much more valuable data found within the full suite of SEOMoz’s Linkscape professional SEO tools.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Innovative multimedia company, Tynt is working behind the scenes on over 400,000 sites including many well known media and news publications. Their service extends to over 200 million web users.

Tynt Insight technology is being used to track content sharing via copy & paste actions in a user’s browser. According to the company, an average of 6% of page views on the web result in some kind of user action that can be tracked by their technology.

In a recent rebuttal towards TechCrunch’s claim that 45% of all social sharing is done on Facebook, Tynt has shown clearly that this is not the case.

Email deserves the top spot for overall shares at 75%, Facebook accounts for 25%, blogs and forums (labeled “Other”) still account for a significant number of shares while Twitter is still growing with 1% of the social sharing action.

Tynt went on to provide a different and all-together more interesting break down of social sharing by showing how shares are performing in the chart above. Apparently Tynt Insight is tracking more than just copy/paste actions. This is valuable and definitely insightful click-through data!

Here are highlights I’ve observed containing some very interesting data revealed by Tynt:

• There are an estimated 1 trillion to 1.4 trillion page views on the web each month.
• Slightly over 2% of all page views result in sharing via copy & paste actions, totaling 20 billion shares per month.
• Sharing via built in share buttons (Digg this, Tweet this) account for only 400 million shares per month.
• Email is used for 70% of all social sharing and accounts for 48% of new site traffic.
• Blogs, forums and other mediums generate 36% of new site traffic despite accounting for only 4% of total shares.
• While 25% of all sharing is done on Facebook it only generates 10% of new site traffic.
• Digg generates 5% of new site traffic despite accounting for less than 1% of total shares.

What can we do to improve user experience and cater to the kind 2% of visitors who choose to share our content?

Website publications and blogs could definitely use more accessibility and unity with email sharing. We put an emphasis on social sharing and tend to leave email as a fall-back option when in fact it is being used the most.

Adding a prominent notice or automated form to share via email may do the trick and help tap into the prevalence of email sharing.

I’m sure improvements and new applications, website widgets, and browser addons for both email and social network sharing will be coming soon throughout 2010.

Tynt’s Insight software will automatically include a link back to the source page when text is copied from a website. I’m still a little dumbfounded that they are tracking copy and paste data, why didn’t someone think of this sooner?

I’m interested to see what content is being copied from my sites, how often, and how I can use that information to generate more site traffic. If this sounds good to you as well, check out Tynt Insight‘s free service and leave a comment below with your thoughts.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Two WordPress plugins have peeked my interest recently. A startup has launched with a completely new advertising concept and an older plugin (new to me) is reportedly increasing AdSense revenue for many bloggers without being intrusive to their regular readers.

A New Medium: Sponsored Comments

TalkAhead.com recently launched with a new approach to advertising through sponsored comments on blogs. The idea is that advertisers can connect and engage with readers of a targeted article and promote relevant products and services with a link to their website.

This chart shows the benefits and potential of sponsored comments as compared with traditional and often shady contextual advertising.

Marketers can sign up to receive automated alerts anytime an article of interest is published.

Oddly enough, I found a blog comment by TalkAhead founder Philippe Lang with some insight into how the system is working thus far.

…we are getting positive feedback from readers, our advertisers receive high click-trough rates and our publishers generate new premium revenues.

I went through the process of registering as a publisher and am quite impressed with the administration, setup and configuration. There are options for creating new channels for multiple blogs, moderating incoming sponsored comments, viewing performance reports and more.

Another cool feature I found was the option to create a coupon code which can be used to offer free or discounted sponsored comments to a business of your choosing.

Why Do Work? AdSense Plugin Works For You

An intelligent AdSense plugin found here at WhyDoWork.com allows you to display AdSense units on posts older than X days. This plugin has been around for quite awhile and has received excellent reviews and confirmed increase in AdSense revenues.

It makes sense to display AdSense on older posts. Visitors coming in from search engines are looking for something specific on your blog. The bounce rate is typically quite high and the return visit rate is typically very low. Why not take advantage of this and serve them prominently featured targeted advertising?

An important feature was not left out, any article can be excluded from displaying AdSense units individually.

I have included AdSense units on certain articles which receive daily search traffic and it’s paid off well. This AdSense plugin makes it simple to do just that and automates the process to strike a balance between respecting regular readers and monetizing search traffic.

Want more? Check out VigLink Affiliate Links and Ecwid eCommerce Widgets, two more innovative solutions for WordPress business that have been featured on DotSauce.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

I have been enthusiastically beta testing the Wibiya toolbar here on DotSauce for several months.  I’m happy to inform you that registration is now open to any blogger interested in having their own Wibiya toolbar.

The red toolbar you’re seeing at the bottom of the screen now, that’s Wibiya in action. Now loading faster and featuring a handful of new “apps” that can be easily added through a slick user dashboard.

You may have noticed the subtle, yet effective notification messages when visiting DotSauce previously (shown right, currently disabled) which I think is one of the best features of Wibiya toolbar. It provides an unobtrusive way to notify visitors to take action.

Admin Dashboard Features

I could go on at length about the many neat features of Wibiya, but I will spare you the time and just list them here.

• Change color scheme
• Drag and drop interface to arrange each item on toolbar
• Dashboard statistics showing visitor usage
• Suite of add-on applications

On-site Buttons Interact with Toolbar

New “website badges” (which I haven’t tried yet, but look very promising) enable you to place code on your site which interacts with your Wibiya toolbar. So, for example, you could place a “Tweet This” badge which launches your Twitter dashboard.

Excellent Suite of Applications

Who doesn’t love apps? Hopefully more innovative and useful apps will be able to be created by third partys. Here is a quick list of the apps currently available for Wibiya.

• Site Search
• Google Translate
• Latest Posts
• Random Posts
• RSS Subscribe
• Post Sharing Tool
• Live Notifications
• Photo Gallery
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Navigation Links
• Live chat room
• Real time visitors display
• Scroll to Top
• Flash Games

All of those applications translate to alot of value for your website! Here is an older screenshot of my statistics (the stats display has since been enhanced), just to show you how Wibiya is working for me.

Wibiya Works

I believe Wibiya is doing a phenomenal job reducing bounce rates, increasing on-site and social interactivity between a blog / website owner and their audience.

Not only has Wibiya developed the right applications for the job, but they are executing the applications themselves very effectively, reaching out to other companies to bundle features, providing community support and continually innovating!

All that being said, I’m sure you can guess that I highly recommend it! Give Wibiya.com a try on your website as soon as you can.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

This past weekend, Google went live with personalized search results for all users. Whether logged in or logged out, results will be customized based on search history.

Many search optimization professionals (and enthusiasts) are essentially freaking out and lamenting as if all their efforts to rank highly for certain keywords will be thwarted. In some cases, this may be true.

Here is a brief video introduction to personalized search by Google.

A Step Closer to Search Perfection

This is an innovative change for the general public to gain accurate results. I feel that legitimate business websites, well optimized blogs and organic content will begin to reap the benefits of personalized results soon as well.

Why will this be good? This search history data that Google is collecting is more powerful than we can readily imagine. They will use the nationwide collective data in the future to improve their algorithm, deliver further optimized results and put quality content at the top.

So, if you put in the hard work to deliver great content, network with your industry to gain authority links (which may now be more important) you will be rewarded by Google and indirectly by those who find their way to you through Google.

Another perk may be that spammers, keyword stuffers, obscure minisites or made for AdSense sites may become a thing of the past as the trickle of traffic they do get from Google grinds to a halt.

For more information on privacy issues, opting out and how Google is making sure to keep results diverse despite personalization, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has published a nice writeup for further reading on the topic.

Turning It Off For Research Sake

Web developers, domainers, marketers, and SEO professionals may want to consider turning off personalization. Sacrificing your own customized search results to get a more accurate representation of keyword research and where your own sites rank.

Alternatively, you could use a third party service like Authority Labs to monitor your rankings on Google as well as Bing and Yahoo.

What are your thoughts? Will you be turning off personalized results? Comments are always open.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

WordPress is an excellent tool for publishing websites and blogs. This widely used CMS software does alot of great things like creating posts, pages and tags with clean URLs, linking everything internally and generating valid code.

Oddly enough though, the majority of SEO responsibility is placed within the hands of third-party WordPress theme developers as well as yourself, the site owner.

Some theme designers may not be familiar with SEO best practices, so you should take some time to examine your site for any ways to improve it’s effectiveness on search ranking performance.

I’ve come up with several common WordPress SEO mistakes that I see day in and day out. I hope you can use these tips to improve your blog or website!

1. Bloated Title Tag and Abandoned Post Titles

One of the simplest concepts goes overlooked on even the best of blogs. The title tag is essential for ranking well on search engines.  Consider looking into the effectiveness of the way your title tag is currently displayed on search results.

The following method has proven to work wonders for me in getting posts to rank well on Google.

How To Optimize Your Titles

Luckily, this is a fairly simple, but important issue to correct. The code below will feature only the title of your post as the title tag of the page.

With a few simple statements in your WordPress header.php file you can make sure that titles on all posts and pages are properly formatted. Replace your current <title> tag with this code:

<?php if ( is_home() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_search() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Search Results</title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_single() ) { ?><title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_page() ) { ?><title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_category() ) { ?><title><?php single_cat_title(); ?></title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_archive() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Archive</title><?php } ?>
<?php if ( is_month() ) { ?><title><? bloginfo('name'); ?> - Archive</title><?php } ?>

If you must have your website name in the title of every post, then place the most condensed version of your name after the post title separated by a simple, search-friendly dash.

2. Lack of Relevant Keywords and Phrases

Repeating the same keyword or phrase over and over again will eventually hurt your rankings as search engines will recognize this as “keyword stuffing.” It’s a bad idea for usability as well, you don’t want to bore visitors.

Adding supporting keywords keeps content fresh and readable. This practice may show search engines that you have been doing your homework and deserve to be listed as a credible resource for a specific subject.

How to Find Keywords

As mentioned in the previous article here on DotSauce, the new Google AdWords Keyword Tool (Beta) has just been released. This is just one of many great tools for finding complimentary keywords and phrases to use for blog articles.

We’ve also featured SEO Blogger, a free keyword suggestion tool for Firefox. This tool opens up as a sidebar and suggests keywords as you write posts!

3. Disregarding the NoFollow Link Attribute

Love it or hate it, the nofollow tag is helpful for publishers to direct mindless search engine indexing robots to your most important content.

How to Use NoFollow

It is very important not to abuse this link attribute. Slapping a nofollow tag on every external link is not the way to go about it. Here are some basic guidelines on when to use nofollow.

• Use nofollow for external links to large sites that don’t influence your own or are not directly related to the content on your website. (Examples: Twitter.com, Facebook.com).
• Use nofollow for internal links that lead to pages you don’t want to appear in search results.
• Use nofollow on affiliate links and advertising banners, unless otherwise requested by sponsor.
• Use nofollow on untrusted blog commentors.
• Use nofollow when linking to an external video, image or other downloadable file.

4. No Sitemap or Ping Notification to Search Engines

A sitemap is a cleanly defined list of every post and page on your website. Search engines use sitemaps to quickly and efficiently find and index all of your content.

Unfortunately, WordPress does not come packaged with a site-map solution. There is some good news though! This is one of the easiest mistakes to fix.

How to Create a Sitemap

Simply visit your WordPress admin, search for and install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. You will find there are options to exclude certain categories, posts, and pages that you don’t want indexed.

This plugin will also ping search engines whenever your website is updated with a new post.

5. Not Adding Images in Posts

Yes, just one simple image can have search ranking benefits and I’m not talking about appearing in image search. Adding images is one of the most valuable things you can do for a blog post.

Take note, virtually all of the best online publications and blogs include images in their posts.

Your readers will love the accompanying graphic and will be much more inclined to read the post, share and potentially link to the post.

How To Properly Add Images

WordPress takes care of uploading media and clean image markup. So, you just have to take the initiative! Spend just a few minutes finding a cool image, crop and re-size it to fit nicely above or alongside your content.

Check out the WP Smush.it plugin to compress image file sizes on the fly.

Be sure to include 2-4 keywords that are related to your article and image as the ALT attribute of your image. This may get your original images indexed within image search.

6. Improper Anchor Text for Internal Links

Sometimes we have to trade off search engine value with usability, as is the case with most “Home” links. Website owners don’t won’t to rank for the keyword “Home” but it is good practice for usability.

Using proper keywords as link anchor text is important as it reinforces the keyword or phrase you want to rank for.

How To Format Links Correctly

Identify the root keyword phrase of the page you are linking to.  Check Google Analytics often to stay on top of what keywords are driving traffic to your articles. You will want to reinforce rankings that are doing well by using those exact keywords as anchor text for the article.

For example, a post entitled “55 Active RSS Directories to Help Promote Your RSS Feeds!” would benefit from using the keywords that are sending traffic to that article (i.e. RSS Directories). This is much better than using the entire article title as anchor text.

Make sure the links are readable within the context of use in an article. Users clicking through is ultimately more important than search ranking.

That’s all for now!

Know of any other common WordPress SEO mistakes? We’d love to hear your tips or success stories. What works for you? Comments are always open. Thanks for reading.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The AdWords team have rolled out a completely overhauled keyword suggestion research tool. Smooth user interface and updates make using the new tool a much better experience.

In this article I will share some alternative uses for the AdWords Keyword Tool and run down the new features in this beta release.

Accessing the Beta Keyword Tool

To access the new beta AdWords Keyword Tool login to adwords.google.com, click the “Opportunities” tab,  find the current Keyword Tool link and then click the (beta) link.

The general purpose of this tool has always been to help advertisers find relevant, popular keywords.

As it turns out, the AdWords Keyword Tool is pretty useful for publishers and developers to get a  glimpse at this data for various reasons.

7 Alternative Uses of Google AdWords Keyword Tool

• Cover all the bases of a specific niche.
• Discover areas of interest to publish content about.
• View what phrases are trending or becoming extinct.
• Improve keyword optimization on your website.
• Target untapped, low competition keywords.
• Find complementary keywords for articles to boost ranking.
• Find exact match available domain names to purchase.

New Keyword Tool Beta Features

The new AdWords tool enables you to search by keywords and a URL simultaneously. Additionally you can filter or browse results from popular defined categories found in the sidebar.

Also new in this beta release is the ability to search broad matches (the original standard) as well as Exact Match and Phrase Match keywords.

Once your searches are complete and you’re satisfied with keywords you see you can download all data for each keyword result or the entire table and let further research begin.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

There is a new WordPress resource site that I’ve been introduced to through the great WordPress community on Twitter.

With so many options available today, selecting the right WordPress theme for your website or blog can be a daunting task. ThemeGrade was created to make finding quality themes with the features you want much easier.

ThemeGrade is not your typical WordPress directory. Quality themes are selected to be reviewed (2 per day) and are then scored against over a dozen critical points related to theme design and search optimization.

Tried and Tested

Each theme is given a bronze, silver or the coveted gold seal of approval. Gold rankings are awarded to themes which excel across the board in general usability as well as enhanced design features like browser compatibility, threaded comments, and designer support.

ThemeGrade also makes sure that top ranking themes perform well for key factors that effect search ranking performance.

• W3C Compliant – XHTML
• W3C Compliant – CSS
• Home page Heading SEO
• Post & Page Heading SEO
• Post & Page Title Tag
• Content Code Position

Sweet Select-boxes!

Searching ThemeGrade is very simple. They have implemented a nice selection box theme fetcher. I’ve never seen this style of search on a WordPress site, very cool! Simply select the boxes related to your interests and go.

ThemeGrade features both free and premium (paid) themes from select designers.

Sort by design structure (1 or 2 columns, magazine style, portfolio style, etc.) or  by theme category (Business, Art, Nature, Internet, etc.).

And, of course, you can select themes by their gold, silver or bronze rankings.

ThemeGrade Tip:

Don’t be discouraged by themes with low SEO ranking.

Proper title tags and other factors can be corrected with a few tweaks to theme files. Stay tuned to DotSauce for more on that very topic soon.

Be sure to check out ThemeGrade WordPress Themes now and follow along by RSS or @ThemeGrade on Twitter as new themes are reviewed.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

I would like to share a simple yet powerful Twitter tip for finding people with your similar interests to follow on Twitter. There may be multiple ways of going about this process and I think I’ve found the quickest, but the main idea is to follow the re-tweets!

There are two things we can assume about people who re-tweet links to resources and articles. First, they are interested in the subject of that article or resource. Second, they are engaging actively with their followers and sharing. My kinda people!

I have always been a fan of Bit.ly, even before Twitter decided to use them as the default link shortening service. Their click tracking analytics and clean interface have always appealed to me. In this guide we will be using the Bit.ly sidebar tool to find and follow new interesting people.

Step 1. Register an account with Bit.ly.

Once logged in you will be able to drag the sidebar tool button (shown right) to your browser toolbar.

Step 2. Find an article of interest to you.

Popular articles will work best as we’re looking to see who might have shared this article. Consider your favorite blogs’ best posts or the latest news from your topic of interest.

You can use sites like TweetMeme, TweetMixx or Favstar to find articles that have been re-tweeted alot. Now navigate to the article page.

Step 3. Activate the Bit.ly sidebar tool.

Click the link you just placed in your browser toolbar. The Bit.ly sidebar allows you to quickly re-tweet this article, see how many visits the article has received and last but not least you can see the Twitter conversation.

Step 4. Follow the Re-Tweets!

The “Conversations” area shows everyone who has re-tweeted the article in a nice chronological list.

You can scroll all the way to the bottom and see who first shared an article and as you move up the list you see how the re-tweets progressed.

Click a few Twitter profile names at a time while holding the Ctrl key or click with your mouse scroll-wheel to open them in a new tab.

You will likely find hundreds of new and interesting people to check out and follow on Twitter using this method.

These people like to share stuff, so if you have quality tweets there’s a good chance they may be re-tweeting YOU soon!

Speaking of re-tweets, you can click here to Tweet this article.

Be sure to follow @DotSauce for live updates on future articles.

This article is from 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.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

I’ve scoured my seemingly endless Twitter stream and have come up with several hundred web development resources shared with my followers over the past 9 months. I have divided my top resource picks into several categories of interest: Domain Names,Web Development, WordPress, SEO & Marketing, Web Design, and Online Business.

To get more resources like these shared daily,
please follow me @DotSauce on Twitter.

Feel free to copy and re-tweet any of these resources to share with your followers, they will thank you for it and I would most definitely appreciate the mention.

Domain Name Resources

Here are some of the latest tools, trends and articles on domaining. For more articles and resources browse the Domain Names and Domain Industry categories on DotSauce.

Coming Soon: The new DotSauce Domaining Directory will begin featuring a collection of top domain name resources.

1. Pending Delete Domains In Drop Order & Drop Time: http://bit.ly/Ut9mV
2. DotSauce Premium Domaining Content is Now Free for Everyone! http://DotSauce.com/1736
3. Impact of domain name on CTR and Conversion: http://bit.ly/19XI6o
4. Excellent info here on the full process of domain name expiration: http://bit.ly/TbJrm
5. Weekly domain sales report from DNJournal: http://bit.ly/uXSEo
6. Root Domains, Subdomains vs. Subfolders and The Microsite Debate: http://bit.ly/zyKBY
7. Domain Names in the News: http://bit.ly/3uQiab – A collection by @dominikmueller
8. Good Domain Names (to Register) Grow Scarce: http://bit.ly/d4q8M
9. Domain Names Podcast Episode 13 with Zappy Zapolin – http://bit.ly/f5SHe
10. Brokering Peace Between Brand Owners and Domainers – NYTimes http://bit.ly/17Uudj
11. Webmaster Radio: Importance of Domain Names to Search – http://bit.ly/3eP5i2 (Skip to minute 4:30)
12. Domain Names Podcast Episode 11 with Jeff Behrendt INForum: http://bit.ly/18HnFF
13. “The Domainers Language”, for all the New Domainers out there: http://bit.ly/EgiF1
14. Tips to Ensure Success in Flipping Websites – http://bit.ly/CkhAS
15. New TLDs For Dummies (Sort of): http://bit.ly/rcOuj by @mneylon
16. DNHeadline Comprehensive Industry Coverage: http://bit.ly/vFwwT
17. Parking, Tasting and Squatting: http://bit.ly/oiYs0
18. The Dot Coms Are Booming Again (Domain Registrations, That Is): http://bit.ly/LzIQ1
19. Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business? http://bit.ly/guQJ1
20. Does Domain Age or Registration Length Affect Search Engine Rankings? http://bit.ly/yZTex
21. Domain Tools SEO Text Browser Tool: http://bit.ly/leiWn
22. Effective Strategy For Choosing Right Domain Names: http://bit.ly/qZ5bL
23. Rick Latona’s ccTLDs discussion forum: http://bit.ly/ATfFt
24. Interview with Marc Gawith of Godaddy Executive Accounts: http://bit.ly/jUZLn by @brucemarler
25. New tool compares domains’ backlink history: http://tinyurl.com/cq9dve
26. Earning More Money From the Same Domain Traffic: http://tinyurl.com/d8uqc9
27. Pricing Strategies For Your Domains In A Recession: http://tinyurl.com/abp2pp
28. 12 Tools For Picking a Killer Domain Name: http://tinyurl.com/bugtn5
29. 5 Ways to Find Fellow Domainers on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/dajpgn
30. Matt Cutts Talks About Keywords in the URL: http://tinyurl.com/dgpn2b
31. Domainer Essentials: Registrant Alert by DomainTools: http://bit.ly/CS4Ny
32. Domainer Essentials: Domain Name List Cleaner: http://tinyurl.com/ct2a54
33. Domain Name Search Gets Powerful with Domize: http://tinyurl.com/cjusgt
34. Google PPC campaigns with generic domain URLs can get 105% more clicks! http://bit.ly/RtNkb (PDF)

You may also be interested in browsing or contributing to the DotSauce list of Top Domainers & Industry Profiles on Twitter.

WordPress Resources

I am a huge fan of WordPress, which you will soon see as you scroll through this monster list of top notch WordPress resources. Featuring topics from plugins to themes and everything in-between. For exclusive articles and features on the subject browse the DotSauce WordPress category.

1. 10 Ways to Use .htaccess to Speed Up WordPress: http://bit.ly/C6jBU
2. 10 Ways to Customize and Personalize your WordPress Blog: http://bit.ly/xF4GH
3. Amp Up Your Blog With These Add-Ons: http://bit.ly/2K31ti
4. Powered by WordPress: 10 Themes and Plugins for Turnkey Online Business! http://bit.ly/6VXrj
5. 35 Stylish And Modern WordPress Plugins Using jQuery UI: http://bit.ly/BXKqz
6. 5 Fresh WordPress Plugins Ready to Enhance Your Blog: http://DotSauce.com/1632
7. Get an email notice when your WordPress install needs updated: http://bit.ly/bCuWM
8. Adding and using custom user profile fields in WordPress: http://bit.ly/165a4L
9. 26+ Free AdSense Optimized WordPress Themes: http://bit.ly/5BmSG
10. Advanced WordPress 2.8 Optimization Guide: http://bit.ly/pd7p2
11. WP-CRM plugin / theme – Build a contacts manager powered by WordPress: http://bit.ly/6w04Y
12. CMS your WordPress with these 10 plugins: http://bit.ly/R75Yz
13. 10 Awesome Things To Do With WordPress Custom Fields: http://bit.ly/1Qb0ln
14. 10 Good WordPress Hacks: http://bit.ly/F5cpx
15. 9 WordPress Hacks to Encourage User Interactivity: http://bit.ly/2c9DPG
16. WordPress Theme Design Functions Guide: http://bit.ly/rElFD
17. 13 WordPress related Firefox Extensions: http://bit.ly/19TWko
18. 18 Useful Tricks To Speed Up WordPress & Boost Performance: http://bit.ly/mzz59
19. 10 Useful WordPress Hook Hacks: http://bit.ly/vqnGz
20. Broken Link Checker Plugin for WordPress: http://bit.ly/15EuJU
21. 30 Tutorials Combining Both WordPress and jQuery: http://bit.ly/so2En
22. 25 Essential Plugins for WordPress: http://bit.ly/H2Rgm
23. 15 Killer Hacks for WordPress that Are Extremely Useful: http://bit.ly/ywlOq
24. 50+ Ways To Improve Your WordPress Blog: http://bit.ly/1DdbTh
25. Create Your Own WordPress Theme Tutorial Resources: http://bit.ly/10Kv56
26. 15 Plugins to Unleash the Invincible Power of jQuery and WordPress: http://bit.ly/u5vvB
27. 5 Useful And Creative Ways To Use WordPress Widgets: http://bit.ly/36qfOs
28. 14 Free “Vintage” WordPress Themes http://bit.ly/13EZ7s via @ThemeHunter
29. SmushIt for WordPress: http://bit.ly/6PVIE – Optimize images for web on the fly!
30. Google Analytics Plugin for your WordPress dashboard! http://bit.ly/SGc0d
31. 101 WordPress Plugins to Meet Anyone’s Needs: http://bit.ly/ojv13
32. Add a dashboard widget in WordPress admin panel: http://bit.ly/LuN2n
33. 40 Free Premium-Quality WordPress Themes: http://bit.ly/59ZEX via @ThemeHunter
34. 9 WordPress SEO tips you may have missed: http://bit.ly/AQAlC
35. Any WordPress Theme Can Be a Blank Framework: http://bit.ly/779iG
36. 5 Useful WordPress Functions You Didn’t Know Existed: http://bit.ly/NUafP
37. 20 Most Beautiful Free WordPress Themes: http://is.gd/10BQY
38. Direct integration of WordPress with Facebook – http://bit.ly/yNtVI
39. Custom RSS feeds in WordPress: http://bit.ly/f78F4 Great hack by @yoast
40. 7 WordPress Theme Trends & How To Implement Them Yourself: http://bit.ly/ER3xC
41. The Ultimate Guide to Setting up WordPress after an Install: http://bit.ly/jVlgn
42. 10 Twitter Hacks For Your WordPress Blog: http://bit.ly/ijlD6
43. 40 Exceptional “CMS Enabling” #WordPress Plugins: http://bit.ly/CdnYD
44. Premium WordPress Themes Fail at SEO and How To Fix It: http://bit.ly/6mpM6
45. 20 Tutorials to Develop WordPress Plugins: http://bit.ly/kt956
46. 10 WordPress Tips & Tricks for Your Comment Page: http://tinyurl.com/cubmpb
47. Custom Fields Hacks For WordPress: http://bit.ly/1GQZY
48. WordPress Blog Link & Traffic Analysis Plugin: http://bit.ly/19eTy4
49. Event Calendar plugin for WordPress: http://wpcal.firetree.net/
50. 10 Exceptional WordPress Hacks:  http://bit.ly/16i8Y by @SmashingMag

Website Development Resources

Here you will find a variety of tools, code snippets, full scripts or plugins as well as some interesting articles and tutorials on modern web development. Browse our articles on the topic in the DotSauce Web Development category.

1. Really useful list: 100+ Resources for Web Developers – http://is.gd/qFkh
2. 40 Super-Neat JavaScript Plugins: http://bit.ly/3V5Cvh
3. Improve Your Website Loading Time by 50%: http://bit.ly/ctKfS
4. 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog: http://bit.ly/3QgE74
5. 25+ Free Flash Website Templates with Source Files: http://bit.ly/ReJcb
6. 150 Web Developer Tools and Techniques: http://bit.ly/pJ4Aj
7. 16 Website Clones You Can Build with Drupal CMS: http://bit.ly/E8Bwd
8. Top 10 Most Usable Content Management Systems: http://bit.ly/VRH3w
9. Essential Learning for Ruby and Rails: http://bit.ly/sEanF
10. 10 Web Apps To Build The Next Big Thing Without Writing Any Code: http://bit.ly/I5UVA
11. Resources for Testing Cross Browser Compatibility of Your Website: http://bit.ly/QEvf0
12. 16 Best Facebook Connect Plugins for Your Blog, Forum, Wiki, or CMS: http://bit.ly/i9iEE
13. 21 Handy PHP Code Snippets: http://bit.ly/19x8Op
14. The Ultimate Guide To Speeding Up Firefox 3.5 – http://bit.ly/h1I6S
15. 13 Firefox Add-ons For Web Development: http://bit.ly/U1pMb
16. 6 Promising Open Source Social Networking Software: http://bit.ly/9tENX
17. 50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools – http://bit.ly/mlqIg via @Minervity
18. 40+ Essential Web Developer Cheat Sheets: http://bit.ly/3WlsG
19. 12 Tools To Check Your Site’s Accessibility: http://bit.ly/92dXc via @SitePointdotcom
20. Create Featured Content Slider Using jQuery UI: http://bit.ly/dWbkg
21. Useful directory of PHP scripts: http://is.gd/rldf
22. Evaluate your site’s load times with Google’s “Page Speed” Firefox addon: http://bit.ly/17IE2P
23. 5 Essential Steps to Make Your Site Search & Social Media Friendly: http://bit.ly/LGNv4
24. WordTaps – Web dev resource community. http://bit.ly/JBA27
25. 30 Essential Online Converters for All Webmasters: http://bit.ly/iYent
26. 21 Free And Useful Web Tools For (Non)Web Designers: http://bit.ly/NG4vs
27. Best jQuery and Ajax demos at 9lessons: http://bit.ly/13lFzl
28. 12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process: http://bit.ly/2MEKSU
29. 31 Fascinating Ruby on Rails Tutorials & Guides – http://bit.ly/PSq2d
30. Tipster: Web design and development tips in 140 words or less! http://bit.ly/iAtzz
31. 15 Wonderfully Creative Uses for PHP: http://bit.ly/q0tHT
32. FullCalendar, an open-source jQuery calendar script: http://tinyurl.com/cxgyty
33. 20 Excellent AJAX site effects you can download at NetTuts: http://tinyurl.com/d4zjpc
34. 100% Google AdSense: Tools, Tips and Resources http://ff.im/-1E0si
35. 25+ jQuery Plugins that enhance HTML form elements: http://tinyurl.com/cs7s28
36. Great tips from @nettuts on freelance web development: http://tinyurl.com/d9v8h7
37. 28 Useful Web Tools to Speed Up Your Web Development: http://tinyurl.com/cdrztq

Search Optimization and Marketing Resources

Select articles, niche guides and tools on succeeding with the search engines. For additional articles on search check out the DotSauce SEO, Traffic and Marketing categories.

1. How To Optimize Your Site for Local Search: http://bit.ly/15GPEO
2. Get More Blog Visitors – 21 Untapped Traffic Sources: http://bit.ly/7FypV
3. SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging: http://bit.ly/15j477
4. How To Track Google Keyword Rankings In Google Analytics: http://bit.ly/G3y72
5. Monitor your Google, Yahoo and Bing rankings for free: http://bit.ly/2RQ7M7
6. 6 Places to Track A Website’s Traffic: http://bit.ly/11rYrN
7. Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines: http://bit.ly/N5mcm
8. Make Google Search Real-Time With This URL Hack: http://bit.ly/MyWuL
9. Track SEO rankings and Sitelinks with Google Analytics II – http://bit.ly/H3gMR
10. 20 SEO Tips Every Web Developer Should Follow: http://bit.ly/vYOeX
11. Simple ways to build up your website traffic: http://bit.ly/1K2Bau
12. Google Sets & Squared: Powerful Keyword Research Tools – http://bit.ly/cH2aM
13. SEO Blogger: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool for Firefox – http://DotSauce.com/1493
14. International SEO Made Easy: http://bit.ly/2ApLN – Great guide!
15. Geo Targeted SEO: The Technical Review – http://bit.ly/25PQK
16. Top Ten Search Engine Optimization Tips – http://bit.ly/eNGq1
17. 50 Ways to Get Your Site Noticed! http://bit.ly/DLHOJ
18. Top 5 Link Building Resource Websites: http://bit.ly/oADnQ
19. The Top 10 Twitter SEO Tips: http://bit.ly/ou8cE
20. The Complete Google Analytics Power User Guide: http://bit.ly/15fVMr
21. 10 WordPress Plugins That (May) Increase Your Search Engine Ranking: http://bit.ly/XbhlO
22. 5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Search Rankings: http://bit.ly/2mrbmf
23. WordPress SEO – The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For Your Blog: http://bit.ly/VMQg
24. Top Search Ranking Factors – Comprehensive guide by SEOmoz: http://bit.ly/UfoE9
25. The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet: http://ping.fm/VRAJW

Web Design Resources

Some fabulous downloadable graphics goodies, articles and tools for you creative types. Get inspired and enhance your website with these web design resources.

1. 70+ Free Icon Sets and Icons Collections for Web Designers: http://bit.ly/KGDlA
2. 10 Top-Notch CSS Editors: http://bit.ly/s0nzI
3. Awesome Free PSDs – http://bit.ly/3aNUk
4. Using @font-face CSS rule and 15 Free Fonts: http://bit.ly/2b0Di9
5. Lots of sweet free vector files from top graphic designers – Vectors on Fire: http://bit.ly/iU5OG
6. 75 Free Icon Sets for Web Designers and Developers: http://bit.ly/AEMv4
7. Cool! DIVINE software converts PSD to WordPress in minutes: http://bit.ly/72EJr
8. How To: Create Text Blocks Over Images – CSS-Tricks: http://bit.ly/qOJiE
9. 15 Essential WordPress Plugins for Aspiring Designers: http://bit.ly/pKi80
10. 16 Exciting Adobe Photoshop Tutorials To Boost Your Creativity: http://bit.ly/16tEoA
11. 9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design: http://bit.ly/KHFsX
12. 20 Fresh & Awesome Text Effect Tutorials: http://is.gd/1wb9P via @patternhead
13. 40 Free Web Design and Development Books from Google: http://bit.ly/hiX08
14. Create a beautiful timeline using CSS: http://bit.ly/9YwbB
15. Web Design Tutorials: The Ultimate Roundup! http://bit.ly/488Az
16. 1009 Hi-Res FREE textures and background images: http://bit.ly/11UcT8
17. 70 Tutorials Using Photoshop To Design A Website: http://bit.ly/gmW5z
18. 30 Most Influential People In Web Design: http://bit.ly/ybQzi
19. 2500 free high quality graphic icons! http://bit.ly/4kza6Q
20. 10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design: http://bit.ly/8ZXTd
21. 45 Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires: http://bit.ly/b1WhG
22. 33 Free HD Icon Sets designed for Web: http://bit.ly/UC27D
23. 7 New (and Free!) Typeface Downloads: http://bit.ly/19awpD
24. 26 Complete WordPress Theme Design Tutorials: http://bit.ly/4yzVi
25. 80+ Photoshop Tutorials: Practical Web Interface Design: http://bit.ly/7LYuD
26. 80+ Resources! Logo Designers Essential Toolbox: http://bit.ly/ZxKou
27. Wood in Modern Web Design – Free Wood Textures and Wood Showcases: http://bit.ly/gwq7e
28. 25 Awesome Facebook Apps for Designers: http://bit.ly/y2rQU
29. 2500 free icons for use on free and commercial projects – http://iconpot.com
30. CSS Sprites: “One of the most effective ways of speeding up a website’s render time” http://bit.ly/7uV4g
31. 16 Unveiled Logo Design Processes! http://bit.ly/BLEUZ
32. 160+ RSS Feeds For Web-Designers And Developers: http://bit.ly/x6Kij
33. 10 More Places to Find Absolutely Free Vector Graphics: http://bit.ly/2M59O
34. 25 Sites to Download Royalty-Free Stock Photos and Textures: http://bit.ly/112Z5s
35. 40 New High-quality and Free Icon Sets: http://bit.ly/M1ekE
36. How to Create a Slick and Clean Button in Photoshop: http://bit.ly/yFEUN
37. Designing web pages to make sales: http://tinyurl.com/dmqmex
38. 30 Sites For Fantastic, Free Fonts: http://tinyurl.com/dhfert
39. 101 High Quality CSS And XHTML Free Templates And Layouts: http://ff.im/-1BJHM
40. 28 Web Design Tools and Generators For Easy Web Design: http://twshot.com/?BFC

Online Business Resources

From blogging to social networking, there is alot more to do with business today than ever.  Here are some of the latest trends and insights in online business I’ve found this year.

1. 10 Business Lessons I Learned This Year: http://bit.ly/1UdS5n by @neilpatel
2. Hummingbird 2 Download: Pro Twitter Software Launches Beta Test – http://bit.ly/5y8E8
3. How Freemium Can Work for Your Startup: http://bit.ly/ISvs6
4. Discounts, Sales & Coupons, Oh my! A Booming Recession Business: http://bit.ly/4tV9B4
5. Should Your Company Go Online-Only? http://bit.ly/4Dq9w
6. 11 useful Windows apps that tie in to your GMail account: http://bit.ly/uf8kl
7. 8 Ways to Improve Your Web-Based Business: http://bit.ly/19Y0cL
8. Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors: http://bit.ly/8z5Oe
9. Nine Awesome iPhone Apps for Business: http://bit.ly/lMMuL
10. 100 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow and Learn From on Twitter: http://bit.ly/197B4E
11. 999 Business Ideas! http://bit.ly/PMHp6
12. HOW TO: Find your LinkedIn Contacts on Twitter – http://bit.ly/Wo2F2
13. Turning Web Browsers into Buyers: http://bit.ly/MaXmc
14. 6 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Business: http://bit.ly/NfHcc
15. Business Tool: Sample Confidentiality Agreement http://bit.ly/1qZy7a
16. 18 Blog post ideas for any small business… http://bit.ly/dqFeq
17. 20 Business Lessons Learned from Monty Python: http://bit.ly/16lcou
18. The Importance of Choosing Your Customers: http://bit.ly/gtp0r
19. Using Twitter to Find Customers: http://bit.ly/SNbUD
20. Branding on a Budget: http://bit.ly/12j38q
21. Seth Godin on choosing the perfect niche market: http://bit.ly/PU4Fg
22. Customers given too many choices 10x less likely to buy! http://bit.ly/tdNvj
23. Top 18 Industries for Starting a Business Right Now: http://bit.ly/8E6mD
24. WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg on how he runs his business from home: http://bit.ly/gHoeO
25. Business Opportunities around Google Wave: http://bit.ly/1keSt
26. 108 ways to improve your website profits! http://bit.ly/xHJ8x
27. How to Become a Better Entrepreneur in the Next 30 Minutes: http://bit.ly/1837n2
28. 25 Social Media Marketing Tips from Industry Execs: http://bit.ly/n9US5
29. How to Write PPC Ad Copy: Four Ad Templates that Cause Clicks and Conversions http://bit.ly/57Z74
30. 100 Terrific Twitter Feeds for Young Entrepreneurs: http://bit.ly/17uJFr
31. Six Hurdles to Clear When Promoting Your Brand Online: http://bit.ly/PYd0C
32. 10 Great Entrepreneurs Talk about their Start-up Days http://bit.ly/KcL5V
33. Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Personal Brand Image Online: http://tinyurl.com/dj9tac
34. The New Internet Start-Up Boom: Get Rich Slow – TIME: http://bit.ly/1i5i
35. Monetization Strategy Often Overlooked: Lead Capture – http://tinyurl.com/cz7etj

Enjoy the lists? Follow @DotSauce for more great web development resources and consider sharing this post on Twitter or your other favorite social sites using the buttons below. Thanks!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The Google AdSense team recently sent an announcement to publishers with some promising news. AdSense has opened up their doors to verified third-party ad networks and will soon allow them to compete for your website ad space!

The AdSense team will be certifying all participating ad networks for standards of user privacy, ad quality, and speed. Additionally, enhanced tools and filters will be available for website publishers in the Ad Review Center to filter out specific placement targeted ads or terms from appearing on your website.

Here is a video introduction from the official AdSense blog:

Will revenue really increase?

Opening the doors to other ad networks definitely has some promising benefits! Here are the two things that I think will benefit AdSense publishers most.

Geo Behavioral Targeting – Some of these new ad networks have advanced metrics for targeting browser location and browsing patterns. Once connected to your AdSense account, your site will be able to benefit from these new offerings. Great news for Geo website developers!

Big Business Competition – These are Google certified ad networks, so they are going to be managing lots of big business brands looking to expand their reach online across the AdSense network. Competition for display on certain websites will drive PPC rates higher.

When is this going to happen?

Over the coming months Google will be rolling out certified third-party ad networks to appear on AdSense enabled websites. This will initially be available to publishers in North America and Europe, and they hope to expand to additional parts of the world in the future.

How do I activate these new ad-networks on my site?

1. Opt into image ads – Currently, third-party ads are only available in image or Flash, so they won’t appear in text-only ad units.
2. Enable advertisers to target your AdSense channels – Most advertisers who use third-party ads are brand-conscious. They prefer to specify websites where their ads will appear in order to optimize the targeting and effectiveness of their campaigns.
3. Opt into placement targeting – Placement targeting will allow advertisers to target their ads specifically to your site.

So, what do you think of this upcoming change? New ad networks competing through AdSense will increase revenue for well established websites, but do you think it will affect AdSense PPC revenue on mini-sites or parked domains? Please share your thoughts in the comments area below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Twitter Friendly Links – Yup, Your Own Short URL

Download Twitter Friendly Links or Visit Plugin Website

This is quite simply an in-house URL shortening service that creates links using your short post ID’s.  For example you can visit http://DotSauce.com/1632 to access this very post!

Twitter Friendly Links plugin can help you preserve and increase your domain name brand exposure on Twitter and give your shared links more credibility.

The only caveat is that you are sacrificing click analytics, though I’m sure the developer of this plugin already has that in mind.

Analytics360 by MailChimp – Bringing Google Analytics to WordPress

Download Analytics360 or Visit Plugin Website

To use all of Analytics360 options you are asked to register a free account with MailChimp,  a web based email marketing and newsletter management system, but you don’t necessarily have to use their service.

Analytics360 adds a feature to you WordPress admin that connects with Google Analytics to display traffic stats, top referrers and most viewed articles.

A really cool feature of Analytics360 is the orange dot marker next to each of your blog posts over time so you can visually see how your posts are performing!

Disqus Comment System – Revolutionizing Blog Comments

Download Disqus or Visit Plugin Website

The default WordPress comment system is severely dated! I tried the WordPress threaded comment system for awhile and while it is slightly better it still fell short. Disqus simply has alot of appealing features…

• Track your comments across all blogs
• Verified emails and avatar uploads
• Instantly connect with Twitter and Facebook
• Moderate comments via email or assign moderators
• Top commentators and recent comments widgets

I am extremely happy since installing Disqus. It was surprisingly easy to install as any WordPress plugin usually is. Large sites like TechCrunch and Mashable have adopted Disqus and I foresee it soon becoming the standard for blog comments.

WP Smush.it! – Better User Experience by Reducing Image File Sizes

Download WP Smush.it or Visit Plugin Website

I was ecstatic when I found this plugin, a plugin that actually shrinks your image files on the fly!  Most people should know how to use the “Save For Web” feature when working with images to keep file sizes down.

I found that Smush-It actually works better than PhotoShop for getting down to the smallest file size, especially with GIF and PNG files! Amazingly, no image quality is sacrificed.

You can even go in to your gallery and smush previously uploaded files!

Sexy Bookmarks – Making Social Sharing Fun

See Live Example Below!

Download Sexy Bookmarks or Visit Plugin Website

This plugin is quite literally beautiful! There are lots of social bookmarking plugins available for WordPress already, but this is by far the most appealing and unique set of bookmarking icons. In just a short time since installing I have noticed a few readers making use of my Sexy Bookmarks!

So yea, maybe you want to have unique looking icons and that’s cool, but I think it will actually benefit blogs on the whole because readers will be able to instantly recognize Sexy Bookmarks buttons and share blog posts.

These plugins rock, huh? Please share this post using my Sexy Bookmarks buttons…

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Risky Business

There are evident risks for trademark infringement when using .CM domains.

I encourage any decent sized company to take the initiative and pre-order their respective .CM domain to prevent any later headache.  I also strongly discourage anyone from attempting to profit from typo traffic on established .COM websites.

The typo traffic is likely not as much as you think on your average .CM name. There are more profitable ways to quickly develop online business on legitimate domain names.

I’m also not convinced that .CM is a viable brand option for anything but a company in Cameroon.

Traffic Machines?

On the other side of the table, there are countless .CM domains are generic in nature and can not be said to violate any trademarks. Could these be valuable resources for driving some targeted traffic to existing business?

Rick Latona is managing an auction currently of premium .CM domains that are generic in nature.  Domains such as Cars.cm, Loan.cm, Games.cm, etc. are available with reserves from $1000 to $20,000.

NameJet has gained exclusive rights to manage the sunrise registration / pre-orders for .CM domains.

So What’s Your Move?

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

Please respond to the poll and leave your comments below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Ian Stuart of ThemeShaper, the man behind the Thematic WordPress Theme framework, has recently published a comprehensive tutorial on creating your own unique WordPress Theme.

Follow the tutorial through just 11 lessons and fairly quickly piece together the basic framework for a WordPress Theme you can truly call your own.

Additionally, NetTuts has this nice tutorial on creating your own WordPress Theme from scratch which includes source files for TutsPlus members like myself!  If you are a member of TutsPlus (well worth $9/month) you also can get access to the in depth 6-part series entitled “WordPress: Beginner to Master”.

WordPress Rockstars

Graphic designers that are savvy with WordPress are living it up, developing and selling WordPress Themes. Would it be possible for you connect with a designer and create your own WordPress Theme product?  Many are putting a creative and innovative spin on the concept of themeing like the WordPress shopping cart, link directory or Wiki theme.

Here are a few examples of people stirring things up in the WordPress Theme industry…

Maximus a web designer who sells his work exclusively on ThemeForest has sold somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 since joining the site just 11 months ago in August 2008.

Just this weekend, the guys from Obox Designs launched their signature series WordPress Theme collection and have gotten over 48 enthusiastic responses to the announcement.

Unique Blog Designs has released a smashing new product called Affiliate Theme that you previously heard about on DotSauce, implementing advanced features for the online marketer and creating a lucrative affiliate program.

Turning Those Entrepreneurial Gears

I have been planning to develop a .com domain I purchased awhile back (ShortPress) into a unique WordPress Theme that connects WordPress with one of these newfangled trends we’ve been seeing called microblogging.

I’ve already been in touch with a top WordPress plugin developer and have the framework for the product and business laid out.

If you’ve got some interest in collaborating on this startup project or potentially investing funds for some revenue share, please get in touch with me!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Hummingbird 2 Beta with my accounts: @DotSauce, @AQDN, and @TweetSocial.

You can download Hummingbird 2 Beta to give it a go now. Note: There have been some bugs reported, and the developers are hard at work. That’s what this Beta test is for, but the original version is working.

You’ll likely want to sign up as an affiliate also because the people behind Mesiab Labs are going above and beyond to make this the premier Twitter marketing software that is 100% compliance with Twitter.com’s TOS.

Get A Free Upgrade

Existing customers get Hummingbird 2 Pro for free when it goes live in 1 to 2 weeks! Yup, you’ll be able to use your current license key to unlock all Hummingbird 2 features.

As a promotion for the Beta launch of the new version, the guys at Mesiab Labs have slashed the price on the original Hummingbird software to just $97 and if you use this link to purchase and enter coupon code “RECESSION” you can get an additional 15% Off!

Proven Twitter Success

Since using Hummingbird just a couple months back I have noticed some great benefits.

• 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.

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

So don’t miss out, give Hummingbird 2 a try (and sign up as an affiliate), then I highly recommend you get the original Hummingbird with discount code RECESSION to be sure you get to upgrade for free!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Blogging is one of the most beneficial things a business or individual can do to increase exposure to their product or service. Many even consider blogging essential for successful presence on social networks.

There are many ways you can enhance the effectiveness and exposure you can gain from blogging and the most important is optimizing your posts so they rank high on multiple search terms (SEO).

Popular keyword research company, Wordtracker, has recently released an excellent Firefox addon for bloggers called SEO Blogger.

While some bloggers use alternate keywords and phrases related to your post subject by simply pulling them from memory, the free SEO Blogger tool can provide real world search data to back you up.

Ken McGaffin, CMO at Wordtracker makes a great point in this comment about their new SEO Blogger tool…

“Bloggers often don’t take the time to do keyword research… they just want to get their story out there. Now, bloggers have instant access to relevant keywords…That’s sure to bring them extra traffic.”

SEO Blogger Keyword Suggestion Tool: How to Use It

Once installed, click the small Wordtracker icon in the lower right of your screen that looks like this…

The SEO Blogger tool opens in a sidebar panel in your browser (see screenshot) where you can enter any keyword or keyword phrase and then be presented with keyword suggestions ranked by popularity.

You are then able to select which keywords you would like to use in your blog post.

Your saved keywords will be shown in the lower half of the sidebar and you may continue to type in additional keywords in the upper half to be presented with more keyword suggestions.

One of the cool features of SEO Blogger is that as you write your post it tracks how many times each chosen keyword is used.

I might find myself using this tool outside of WordPress also for quick keyword suggestions, domain research, article ideas and other writings.

So, give SEO Blogger a try and let us know what you think of this free tool by commenting below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Gizmodo reports that Google has reserved 1 million new phone numbers from Level 3 communications.

An article by Adam Mills of the Charlotte Examiner points out this twitter update by one of the Google Voice Founders who states they are working 24/7 to get it released!

Just What is Google Voice?

Using VoIP technology (this means any mobile device, even your iPod), users will be able to route all their phone calls from any mobile device as well as send and manage SMS text and voice mail through one central web based location.

Google Voice will also feature all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a Google app, like these examples…

• Voicemail transcripts – Read what your voicemail says
• Share voicemail – Forward or download voicemails
• Conference calling – Join people into a single call
• Call record – Record calls and store them online
• GOOG-411 – Check directory assistance
• Block calls – Keep unwanted callers at bay
• Phone routing – Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones – Add phones and decide which ring

Goodbye Phone Contracts. Hello VoIP!

The outlook is bleak for the phone carriers of today. VoIP and WiFi hot spots will soon replace these ghastly cell contracts and finally open the mobile web to the masses.

SecondLife virtual world has generated over 15 billion minutes in free online voice calls in just under 2 years and wildly popular Skype has reportedly played host to 200 billion minutes in it’s 6 years in operation.

Here is a quick video demo of some Google Voice iPhone features in action.

Will There Be A Google Voice Phone Number Land Rush?

This could be an opportunity to pick up an awesome phone number for your online business!

You can sign up to receive an email alert when Google Voice goes live at the Voice home page.

Since signing up will require a unique Google account to claim a Voice phone number, I think this phone number rush will be comparable to the recent Facebook username rush.  (Where I scored facebook.com/MarkFulton!)

It is also likely that you will not be able to choose the digits of your phone number, but who knows? We’ll have to wait and see!

I will be looking out for the launch announcement email, you may want to do the same and tell your friends and associates.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Authority Labs is offering a free trial of their search ranking monitoring service! This is a relatively new company having launched in December 2008, but I’ve had a chance to test out the product for a few weeks and it works well.

Just what does Authority Labs really do?

The service allows you to monitor your domain names for search engine rankings of specific keywords or search terms of your choice.

Once you set a domain name and define the search terms you want to track, Authority Labs goes to work monitoring your ranking for those terms. There are options to be updated via email alerts and you can view charts to track your performance over time.

Monitor One Website for Free

You can give this service a go for free through a promotional free trial account. You can monitor one domain and 10 search terms.  Simply visit the Authority Labs website to sign up.

There is also a Personal Plan which is $9 per month to monitor 3 domains, though the beauty of this service may lie in the fact that it’s scalable, allowing paying customers to monitor many many more websites with ease.

Why Bother?

Monitoring search rankings can beneficial for numerous reasons. For one, it can help you visualize the progress you are making, especially if you are just getting started!

Keeping tabs on those rankings can help you discover where your traffic is coming from and try to repeat that success.

Do you track your search rankings? Would love to hear your thoughts.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

There have been some great developments this week, interesting article guides, editorials and even big announcements from Microsoft and Google!

Let’s face it, nobody can really keep up with all of the news and articles surrounding the domain and internet industry and I’m sure all you guys who were at TRAFFIC missed some things. I monitor and share this stuff actively and I still manage to miss some of the news myself.

So, for your convenience, I have compiled below what I feel are the most valuable and important articles on domaining from the previous work week.

Domain Buzz – Monday June 1st through Friday June 5th

Whizzbang’s Blog – The PPC Industry: “For the first time ever Google posted a down-turn in earnings which is remarkable for a number of reasons…”

The Domains – Congress Calls ICANN Out On Finances: “Florida Republican Cliff Stearns called ICANN out on its finances , noting that the last balance sheet the nonprofit group showed a $7 million surplus.”

DNW – Congress Beats Up ICANN, 3 Part Series: “members of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet took turns ripping into Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its President/CEO Paul Twomey.”

The Domains – Verizon Testifies To Congress Against New gTLD’s: “in front of the House Energy and Commerce Internet Subcommittee panel, which is holding hearings on ICANN, that new gTLD’s shouldn’t be allowed unless there is a proven market demand”

DN Journal – Final Day Photos and Highlights from the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “We have already seen one blockbuster sale, DiamondRings.com at €162,000 ($230,179 at today’s exchange rate). In a solid ccTLD sale, Houses.co.uk just went for €51,000 ($72,429).”

TechCrunch – The Dot Coms Are Booming Again (Domain Registrations, That Is): “VeriSign has just put out its quarterly report on the web domain industry stating that there are now just about 183 million domain names in existence. This represents a 3% increase from last quarter and a 12% increase from last year.” Full VeriSign PDF report here.

DNN – Targeted TRAFFIC ccTLDs 2009 Live Auction Results

INC. Magazine – Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business?: “Choosing the right domain name is crucial to helping potential customers find you — with shorter, simpler, intuitive descriptive names ending in dot-com considered better.”

DNN – Dan Warner Sails From Dark Blue Sea: “Dan Warner, one of the most public faces of Dark Blue Sea has left his position as COO of DBS (parent company of Fabulous.com).”

DomainNews – President of CCIA will be keynote speaker at Domain Roundtable Conference: “Domain Roundtable Conference in Washington ,D.C. will start this month and will have as a keynote speaker Edward Black, President & CEO of Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).”

Google – Page Speed Firefox Addon: “Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.”

DotSauce – SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging: “Matt recently gave a presentation on the subject of SEO and blogging at WordCamp San Francisco and has been kind enough to share his presentation with everyone.”

DNJournal – Wednesday Photos & Highlights from T.R.A.F.F.I.C Amsterdam Including Kevin Ham’s Keynote: “With one day still to go I can tell you this has been an exceptionally informative and entertaining conference.”

DotSauce – POLL: Do You Buy Expired Domains?: “The nature of a domain registration will continue to provide virtually infinite opportunity for domainers, simply because of the fact that names expire.”

DotSauce – Hot New Domainer Resources Coming This Summer to DotSauce: “new Domaining Directory will feature comprehensive industry resources, tools and contacts. It is currently in early stages of development but is already an industry first.”

Rick Schwartz – It’s a DEAL! Candy.com (Sells for $3M). And the Buyer is…: “G&J Holdings, LLC today announced the purchase and acquisition of the web domain Candy.Com and the development of a new internet based confections retailer”

LLLL.com – Marketing — Are Domain Companies doing all they can do?: “9Domain Marketplaces should) have a link on your homepage which showed the last hundred or even the last thousand sales on your site? Would that not give potential buyers more confidence in making a purchase?”

DNJournal – Photos & Highlights From the First Full Day of Business at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “Internet Commerce Association President Jeremiah Johnson spoke about new threats facing domain owners, including efforts being undertaken by trademark interests to have the UDRP process replaced with a new system”

WannaDevelop – Exact Match Keyword Domains – Most Important Investment for Online Business: “Lots of opportunities for people who do get it to capitalize on this. Big time! Lots of opportunities for “domainers” and the collectors of quality exact match domains that are two to three keywords long…”

Domainvestors.tv – Do You Know Your Visitors? Why Analytics is Key to Monetization: “Analytics is an often overlooked part of the website development process but potentially the most important step in the long-term monetization of a site.”

eBusinessDomains – Bing Is Now Live – Microsoft Launches New Search Engine: “Microsoft has unexpectedly launched their new search engine ahead of schedule. Bing.com is the new face of search and will replace Live.com”

DNJournal – DN Journal’s First Report from Amsterdam: “The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs conference gets underway tonight in Amsterdam, Holland.”

Hope you enjoyed the Domain Buzz round up for the week! Have a great weekend.

If I missed anything feel free to leave a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Matt Cutts is head of webspam team and the respected voice of Google for web developers. Matt recently gave a presentation on the subject of SEO and blogging at WordCamp San Francisco and has been kind enough to share his presentation with everyone.

The presentation is titled, “Straight from Google: What You Need to Know” and provides excellent advice and insight from Google on optimizing WordPress for search engine ranking.

Please browse through the slides and read the highlights below the presentation. Update: Video is here to accompany slide, enjoy!

Matt has also provided a link to download the presentation in PowerPoint format.

Highlight Slides from the Presentation

• Slide #12: Use WordPress to get a head start!
• Slide #13: Basic but essential WordPress Plugins.
• Slide #21: SEO Tip – Choosing content keywords.
• Slides #22-#23: Ask yourself, “What will my visitors type?”
• Slide #26: Tweak your titles, URLs and content.
• Slide #27: Use keywords as categories and use dashes between words.
• Slide #29: Be passionate, write often, but don’t over do it.
• Slide #34: Be useful, creative and informative.
• Slides #36-#39: Use Google’s free Webmaster Tools to optimize.
• Slide #46: Save the Internet! Support net neutrality.
• Slide #48: WordPress Security – Block access to wp-admin with htaccess.

Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

As you can see, this presentation was a wealth of information, thanks Matt!

Pass it along to your fellow bloggers and developers!

If you have any questions or additions to the topic of SEO and blogging, the comments area is always open.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Can we transform a simple GMail account into the workings of a domainer pro?

Sometimes you may feel like you need to quickly scan through a newsletter so that you can clean out your inbox for the day, when you would rather read it completely at a more convenient time.  This method may be a fix to that problem and save you time and frustration later.

GMail Filters can store all your newsletters and information under a common easy-to-search and find label.

GMail Labels also allow you to manage alot more information than you would usually be comfortable taking in.

2 Step Process for Filtering and Labeling Newsletters

Step 1. After you subscribe and begin receiving newsletters, immediately create a label and filter for each one. See Newsletter Suggestions below.

Step 2. Choose display features like skipping the inbox (handy for those daily newsletters) or placing a star icon. Then of course you create your label name. See Label Suggestions below.

A Label For Everything and Everything in It’s Label

Here are some Label suggestions to help keep all the various aspects of the domain business in order.

• Available Domains
• Domains For Sale
• Domain Publications
• Blog Newsletters
• Affiliate Sales
• Domain Tools Alerts
• Domain Registration
• Domain Renewals

You can create more detailed labels for virtually any type of email you will be receiving regularly.  Perhaps a label for your clients, advertisers, domain deals, payments sent, Registrant Alerts, Twitter followers, Google Alerts, etc.

Bonus Label Makeover Treatment

You can style your various labels so that you can easily recognize your favorite newsletters and emails as they arrive.

On to the Goods! Quality Domain Industry Newsletters

Here are some newsletter and information suggestions to get you started.  There is a vast amount of valuable information that can be delivered right to your email inbox.

• Available Domains
  • DotSauce Available Domains Newsletter
  • AvailableDomainNames.com
  • DailyDomainDrop.com
  • FreshAvails.com
• Domains For Sale
  • AQDN – Affordable Quality Domain Names
  • Rick Latona Domain Deals
  • name.com Brokerage
  • BuyDomains
  • Sedo Highlights
• Domain Publications
  • DotSauce Magazine Articles
    
  • DNJournal MonthlyNewsletter
  • Domaining.com Daily Newsletter
  • DomainNameNews.com
• Blog Newsletters
  • Chef Patrick
  • Domainvestors.tv
  • Elliot’s Blog
  • Domain Name Wire

Now you’ve got a constant eye on the domain industry that you can watch at your own pace!

There are plenty more blogs which may offer email newsletters.  Please feel free to comment and suggest more resources that can be delivered through email. I will only add to the list if they are well established and provide some sort of value.

Carpe Nomen ~ Seize the Name!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Michael Wong, SEO and Business blogger, published a fantastic editorial today featuring 8 ordinary people achieving extraordinary success.

These mostly young entrepreneurs, software developers, affiliate marketers and bloggers made their millions by developing businesses online.

However, there is one man that stands out who didn’t do anything like the others. He invested in domain names!

Yun Ye Sold His Domain Portfolio for $154 Million

The highlighted feature in Michael Wong’s editorial is Yun Ye, a domainer who got started in 1998.

Just four years ago he agreed to the sale of his 100,000 domain names. The portfolio was acquired by Marchex, now a leader in local search advertising.

Michael Wong and this 2006 DNJournal Cover Story report additional details that Yun Ye’s portfolio earned more than $20 million a year in parking revenue, with $19 million in profits. Marchex paid 8.6 times annual earnings, based on figures provided in SEC documents.

Build Your Online Empire Today

It’s inspiring and gratifying to hear about these life-changing stories of online business success. It’s good to see that even small online business can pay off big if you put your heart into it.

Yes, they had somewhat of a head start in their respective industries.  Revenue models change, Domainers obviously can’t rely solely on PPC or parking revenue anymore.

Development tools, software and social networks are evolving and innovating over time.  New technologies have been developed that make it easier to build and maintain online business.

There is virtually infinite opportunity still today to achieve extraordinary success online, and many will in the coming years.

Invest in domain names now and get your own head start!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.