My personal web presence at MarkFulton.com has been around for over a decade and has gone through many different concepts and designs.

A new update is nearing completion and I’d love for you to visit.

I will now be sharing lots of short articles, app reviews, videos and other resources related to social media, domains, business, and web development at my personal blog.

Latest Posts at MarkFulton.com

• So You Think You Have A Competitive Advantage
• Interactive Social Media Survey
• Epic Win To-Do List iPhone App
• Google Me Will Challenge Facebook With Social Groups
• Microsoft Introduces WebMatrix Beta for Windows
• Link Directories Making A Comeback

New PliablePress Theme

The site is now powered by the PliablePress Chalemeon framework which allows me to manage each element of the site through an innovative and easy to use admin interface.

Not long ago, I featured complete details on PliablePress during it’s launch.

The Chameleon framework has been a pleasure to work with since updating my blog. It took me just a few minutes to set up the layout, widgets and other features. I have not had to open up the theme files at all to this point.

PliablePress is pioneering a level of WordPress customization without coding or theme editing knowledge. I am looking forward to customizing the layout and design further as I continue development.

About Me & DotSauce

If you’re curious about who I am and my history, I’ve written an updated bio.

A few months ago, I published a list of my services. I don’t regularly advertise these services, but may be available for certain things.

I’ve also included information on DotSauce Magazine and other projects.

Thanks for checking out my personal blog!

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.

WordPress 3.0 has introduced some exciting new features, not the least of which is a merger with WordPress MU!

That’s right, the WordPress team has made it much easier to quickly deploy a network of WordPress powered websites on the same host, using the same WordPress installation and administration.

How To Enable WordPress MultiSite

To get your website network started, you will need to enable the WordPress Multisite feature and become a Super Admin! Reason enough, right?

I’m going to direct you to this great MultiSite walk-through at Weblogtools Collection to get the job done.

Follow a few steps, and once enabled, you will notice a new “Super Admin” menu appear.

Setup Domain Names for Each Site

Next, you’ll want to be able to map your domain names to each of the websites you setup in your new network. Unfortunately, this requires a special plugin that has to be installed manually.

Not to worry though, Otto on WordPress has created this great MultiSite domain mapping tutorial.

Follow these two simple guides and you will be well on your way towards building a powerful website network. Your websites will have their very own administration panel, unique plugins and themes.

Each site on your network will be empowered by the innovations and flexibility that WordPress has to offer.

Make Your Network Beautiful

The new default WordPress 3.0 theme “Thelonius” has some cool features and is pretty customizable, but I would like to recommend an even more advanced and more customizable new theme from PliablePress: the Chameleon framework.

With this one theme you can make each of your websites look unique. Setting up the theme options is fast, without any design or coding skills required.

You can learn all about PliablePress here at DotSauce. For a chance to win a free PliablePress theme, join the all new DotSauce Q&A Forum to be entered into our prize drawing!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The Pro Blog Design team has just launched a wonderful new set of feature-rich, premium WordPress themes called PliablePress.

Continue reading for previews of the lovely themes and innovative features or if you simply can’t wait… Visit PliablePress through this link.

PliablePress Theme Features

These themes use the latest innovations in WordPress theme design by taking advantage of an advanced theme control panel as well as useful custom fields.

This is what PliablePress is calling the Chameleon Framework. These new features make each PliablePress theme extremely customizable; simply drag and drop the elements of your design to arrange.

Those custom fields I mentioned make your new PliablePress blog SEO friendly by letting you set a custom title and meta tags for each post as you write the post. This is one of the most important things for WordPress SEO.

Also of note, each PliablePress theme incorporates nice social bookmarking features and RSS subscription for both readers and email delivery via Feedburner.

PliablePress themes come with comprehensive documentation, video tutorials and a full support forum if you run into any trouble or want to take your customization to the next level.

PliablePress Theme Designs

This is what you’ve been waiting for. These awe inspiring designs are not only flexible and functional, but visually appealing, highly usable and coded with the strictest standards.

Chameleon is the backbone of PliablePress themes, but it is also very stylish on it’s own as a clean design with beautiful typography.

Creative Soul is a vibrant theme that comes in 3 different colors.

Creative Soul Minimal is for those who love the features, layout and details of the original, but not quite so wild.

Backdrop is a bold magazine style theme that color-codes content and highlights imagery very well.

Oracle is a very professional style magazine theme with a wonderful layout for articles and imagery.

More theme designs by PliablePress will be released soon!

Video of Chameleon Framework Control Panel

Michael from PliablePress walks us through the innovative control panel included with the themes.

Saves Time for Developers

Chameleon is used as a framework for all of the other PliablePress themes. Highly flexible design features make using it for your development projects a pleasure and a time saver.

Even if you are not a WordPress pro, you can create awesome looking unique WordPress themes of your own! (With the full flexibility of the Chameleon control panel to impress you clients!)

So, to recap PliablePress themes are…

• Awesome designs
• SEO friendly
• Innovative admin controls
• Affordable
• Fully documented with support forum
• Highly flexible and customizable
• A no brainer!

Check out all the details and demos of PliablePress themes now!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Nothing compliments a domain name like a really nice logo design. The creation of a brand identity immediately increases the value of any domain name. In some cases a professional logo design can turn a $7.50 domain registration into $1000+ brand package.

Here are three businesses that really get it when it comes to uniting well designed logos with domain names.

Brandstack

Brandstack (formerly IncSpring), which I wrote about here and listed in the Top 20 Places to Buy Domains in 2010 was originally a marketplace of logo brand designs.

Designers were naturally coupling domain names with their brand creations to further increase their value and interest. It works both ways. A quality .com domain name will make a professional logo design all that much more valuable.

Brandstack has continued to improve their platform over time to make it a user-friendly marketplace for both buyers, sellers, designers and domainers. So, they now have a unique area just for domain name sales (with or without logos).

Brandbucket

Brandbucket is similar in concept to Brandstack, but they cater specifically to quality, pronounceable and short .com domains.

If your domain qualifies to be listed on Brandbucket they will create the logo for you and help to market your brand for sale. I have not listed here personally, so I can’t speak from experience, but there is likely a hefty commission fee to be paid upon a sale.

Pricing across Brandbucket seems to be inflated for the majority of listings. I’m sorry, but you’re not going to get $4000 for Oscula.com, don’t fool yourself.

Castello Brothers

Castello Cities Internet Network at CCIN.com is owned by brothers Michael and David Castello, two or the biggest players in and supporters of the domain industry. I’d like to point out some of their portfolio as they obviously understand the value of a quality brand image.

How To Cash In on Logo Designs For Your Domains

With the vast array of open source software and tools available today for web development. Web design, logo creation and branding is actually the biggest challenge a business or individual faces when launching a web presence.

Obviously not every domain name is destined to be a brand. It’s ultimately up to you to decide which of your domains is best suited for brand creation or if it is worth the investment to hire a designer.

Like I mentioned previously in the bit about Brandbucket’s pricing, you need to be reasonable with your asking price and have a clear goal in mind. That goal should be to make a sale. Many of the brands on these marketplaces will sit for years because they are asking for a fraction too much, making the sale unrealistic.

Get In Touch With The Creatives

Connecting with designers is now easier than ever. Twitter is a great place to start. I have been creating a Twitter list of designers myself that you’re more than welcome to check out. There is also a list of domainers if you’re interested.

Alternatively, there are always popular freelance marketplaces like oDesk, available to hire designers on the cheap and you can post an ad for your design job for free on FreelanceSwitch.

Here’s an idea: If you can’t afford a professional logo design for your domain, consider befriending a designer and offer them a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the brand.

Has creating a logo brand for your domains help you make a sale? Do you know of any other businesses or services that get it when it comes to domains and logo designs? I would love to hear about your experiences. Please leave a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Everybody loves a good freebie! I’ve rounded up some of my favorite places to find quality graphics, code and other useful tools and services here. Dive in and get your download fix.

1. Delicious.com Tag: free

If you’ve been using Delicious bookmark service for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed the community is a bunch of geeks! This makes for some fresh design, software and web service freebies almost daily.

2. DevSnippets Free Code & More

Packed with great resource articles and lots of juicy code snippets for bloggers and developers of all experience levels.

3. WebDesignLedger Freebies

WDL provides extensive resource articles, graphic freebies and design goodies.

4. Smashing Magazine Freebies

A crowd favorite for great freebies ranging from WordPress themes, Icons, Wallpapers and more.

5. BittBox Freebies

This great blog has been offering up free graphics for quite awhile and has amassed one of the largest collections of design freebies ever! Textures, fonts, vectors and more.

6. Envato Network Blogs

Oh, how I love ThemeForest and the rest of the Envato marketplaces. They generously offer up one file from each marketplace each month, so stay tuned for the newest freebies.

7. Noupe Design Freebies

Yet another awesome blog featuring regularly updated graphic design freebies.

8. Tutorial9 Freebies & Resources

Top quality design resources, tutorials and icon sets and some code to boot! You’ll need to subscribe to the newsletter for some exclusive downloads.

9. SEOMoz Free SEO Tools

Some of the most innovative and advanced search optimization tools available are found right here. Alot of SEOMoz tools are free to try and can provide some juicy data on your website.

10. BoagWorld: Free Software for Web Designers

Fresh article points out some quality free alternatives to pricey software designers need.

11. TUTS Plus Free Tutorials

TUTS+ is the leader in quality tutorials for web professionals. They have a huge archive of coding, design, audio, flash, and web development tutorials. I’m a member myself (well worth the $9/month) and love the source files and accompanying video tutorials.

12. Lifehacker Tag: #free

This wildly popular blog often shares free software and resources to keep your PC in tip top shape.

Know of any more great places for web design or development freebies? Please share your favorites in the comments area below.

If you found these freebie locations helpful, definitely bookmark them and consider passing this article on to your network!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Usabilla, a usability testing startup, launched earlier this month and congratulations are in order, as they have already been featured on Mashable.

While there are many popular and effective services for getting feedback about your website or application, Usabilla is bringing powerful tools like heat mapping data display and an innovative test interface to the masses.

As expected, the Usabilla member dashboard is extremely easy to use and building a usability test for your webpage is done in minutes.

Here is a quick video introduction showing Usabilla in action.

Usabilla works by displaying an image of your webpage to a participant who is asked to perform a task or answer a question about the page they are viewing.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ask your website visitors questions like these?

• What things draw your attention the most?
• Which images are most appealing?
• What elements of the page do you like?
• What things would you remove from the page?
• What things need improvement?
• Where do you click to purchase?
• Where do you click for contact info?
• Where would you click next?

Now you can get valuable feedback from these questions and more.  Participants respond to tasks by tagging or clicking areas of the page and can additionally leave comments.

Once all of the data is collected, you can analyze a test through various methods including a visual heat map (shown below), or you can select a specific element of a page to view corresponding results.

You can use Usabilla on up to 5 pages and share the test with up to 25 participants for free. For those with the need to reach more participants and test more pages, there are Usabilla plans from $50 a year.

While reviewing Usabilla, I did notice that flash objects do not show up in their generated screenshots, so you may want to look into uploading a pixel perfect screenshot of your own to get the best test results. I recommend FireShot for Firefox, it can capture an entire page beyond the page fold.

I would love to hear if you give Usabilla a try and how the results work out for you. Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

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’ve compiled a delicious collection of 100% geeky goodies for your enjoyment this Halloween, take your pick! Featured are top resources on domaining from October and a few gems from yesteryear.

After you’ve received your tricks, be sure to sample the jaw-dropping collection of downloadable treats for web developers.  Have a safe and fun time out there!

8 Killer Domaining Tricks

These tips, tricks and guides on domain names come highly-recommended. If you are already involved or interested in buying and selling domains or if you’re just looking to be sure to get a quality name for your business then these are for you!

Warning: The domaining tricks below may scare you into buying better quality domains and learning more about this awesome industry.

1) Expired Domains Explained

Domainer Income published this nice looking chart quite awhile back, but there are many people who still don’t know the actual processes going on behind the scenes in the life-cycle of a domain name registration. Great info to know especially when playing the expired domain game.

2) 5 Tips on Selling Domain Names for Maximum Profit

DotSauce shares an in-depth look at being a frugal domainer. Information on finding free marketplaces, avoiding high commission fees, setting up your own domaining business and more.

3) “The Domainers Language” Guide

Arbel Arif has composed a great glossary of domaining acronyms and terms. Must know information for anyone interested in domaining.

4) Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business?

INC Magazine delves into the world of domain names with some no-nonsense advice on selecting the right name for your business.

5) Expiring Domains Research Pro Tips

DotSauce feature 7 tips and a couple secrets for getting the most out of your domain name research. Information on selecting the right keywords, data you need to analyze and things to avoid when researching expiring domains.

6) Get Your Domains Listed for Sale in GoDaddy’s Registration Path

Andrew Alleman of Domain Name Wire recently wrote about a new feature at GoDaddy. The Premium Listing service can looks promising for getting your domain in front of targeted end-users, but comes at a price with a steep commission going to GoDaddy.

7) Advice from the Most Successful Domain Investors of All Time

Elliot Silver asked some of the most successful domain investors in the business for their advice and has kindly shared it with everyone. Follow through for a killer PDF containing advice from some industry pros.

8) Google’s Matt Cutts On Keywords In The URL

Search Engine Land shares a video by Google’s Head of Web Spam team, Matt Cutts. Confirmation that keyword in URLs lend aid to search rankings in some way. For more from Matt Cutts check out our SEO Advice of the Year feature which includes a presentation by Mr. Cutts on successful blogging.

10 Delicious
Web Development Treats

For your enjoyment, a collection of downloadable goodies and fresh resource lists. Don’t you go and try to download these all at once, your PC may get dizzy!

1) 99 High-Quality Free XHTML/CSS Templates

2) Free E-Commerce Widgets Usable on Any CMS

3) 500+ Free Download Quality Photoshop PSD Files for Designers

4) 23 Free E-Commerce Icon Sets for your Designs

5) 75 Free Icon Sets for Web Designers and Developers

6) 55+ Seriously Useful Front End Web Developer Cheat Sheets

7) 51 Web Apps for Web Designers and Developers

8) 10 WordPress Themes and Plugins for Turnkey Online Business

9) 10 Most Useful Google Plugins for WordPress

10) 10 Best WordPress Plugins for Blog Traffic

This treat bag never ends! So, be sure to pass it on to a friend!  Click here to Tweet this article.

Happy Halloween!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Qualiteam Software, a leader in open source commercial shopping carts since 2001, has just released their newest product, E-Commerce Widgets or “Ecwid” for short.

Ecwid is a free and flexible e-commerce suite for selling products online and is the first to offer a 100% AJAX solution. This means that store owners can easily copy and paste JavaScript code for their products, shopping cart and other store features to be displayed on existing websites.

Store owners manage their products, sales, payments, customers and store features from a user-friendly control panel on the Ecwid website. All data is managed by Amazon Web Services, making your storefront very secure and lightning fast.

Adding Ecwid to WordPress

Within a CMS like WordPress, Ecwid code can be placed into theme files as well as directly inside posts or pages. Be sure to use the “HTML” tab and not the Visual editor.

You may want to create a new page in WordPress to become your storefront, then place the Product Browser widget code on that page. You will then likely want to place the shopping cart widget into the sidebar theme file.

Demonstration of Product Display and Checkout

Embedding individual products anywhere is also possible. Here is a demonstration of a single product embedded on the left and a checkout button on the right.

Each of these elements can be styled using CSS to match your website.

For a complete demonstration of a full Ecwid storefront and the Admin Control Panel then head over to Ecwid.com.

What do you think about Ecwid?

I am thinking of implementing it on my own domain name sales storefront at AQDN.com. My shopping cart works, but is somewhat dated and I feel Ecwid provides much better management on all levels.

If you decide to give it a go please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Be sure to share this with fellow bloggers and business owners, that’s what the open-source community is all about!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

DotSauce is now sporting a fresh new look! This new layout should help new and old readers alike stumble upon valuable articles that may not have been so easy to find before.

Our homepage has sections for the top categories as well as a new featured content slider. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the new layout and browse some articles or categories that look interesting to you!

In other news, the DotSauce Domaining Directory will soon become an extensive collection of domain name and web development resource links.

We’re looking to tackle one category at a time over the coming days and weeks, but of course we don’t expect the links to ever end!

So far these categories are being populated:

• Domaining Blogs
• Domain Conferences
• Domain Forums

See anything you like? Be sure to rate and review your favorite sites.

If you have a favorite link that’s not been added then please join the directory project and submit as many resources as you like. We’ve got lots of great categories to fill out.

Not all websites will be approved as we would like to include only the most high quality resources.  Also, don’t worry about adding any snapshots if you decide to submit.

Any comments on the new website layout would be greatly appreciated!

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.

WordPress is a fantastic content management system that has been adopted by the masses. With huge demand and community support, many web designers are taking advantage of the open-source software to create innovative product themes that go beyond just looking great.

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

1. YellowPress

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

2. WPAuctions

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

3. WPClassified

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

4. WordPress Affiliate Theme

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

5. Flexibility

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

6. WordPress Shopping Cart

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

7. wpShop Reloaded

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

8. WordPress Wiki Theme

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

9. ReviewAZON

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

10. OIO-Publisher

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

This poll includes 12 popular online industries that are in some way directly or indirectly related to domaining, so I expect alot of you will show some interest in at least a few of these.

You may select as many industries as you like, but please try to select only those which you are actively interested in.

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

Thanks for taking the time to answer. If I missed something please let me know in the comment area below.

Check back later for the results!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Something unique to the ThemeForest web design marketplace is the fact that they show sales stats to the public.  I have purchased several themes from ThemeForest because of their exclusivity, professional designers and design standards.

It’s not to be left out that alot of their themes have some really cutting edge features.  I’ve previously featured the WordPress Wiki Theme and others on DotSauce as part of the Innovative Use of WordPress series.

The themes featured below are sold exclusively on ThemeForest and have not been so fortunate as to get alot of sales. Maybe it was poor branding or lack of promotion by the designer… either way these themes are gems that got passed over!

The themes listed below have official stats of just 4 or less total sales.  Meaning only 4 total people could possibly be using these themes at any given time.  Of course, that number may go up after this article is published, but you will still be able to see the stats on ThemeForest.

This is a chance to own and use professional WordPress themes on a budget and you won’t see them all over the web.

Membr Theme by Cams – View Theme

WPB Wood by Mateous Souza – View Theme

Magazine o’ Tuts by Dan Harper – View Theme

Business Solutions by rkquest – View Theme

Colour Vault by Cams – View Theme

Modern Portfolio/Blog by Hein – View Theme

Sweet themes, huh?  Hope you enjoyed the list and possibly get some use out of these rare WordPress themes!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Cross Promote Your Current Domain & Website Sales

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 Great New Marketplace Categories

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

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

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

Get Started Selling on the DotSauce Marketplace!

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Mini site development has the potential to increase revenue and pay-per-click (PPC) conversions on domain names with traffic, especially those with natural type-in visitors.

Mini sites also allow you freedoms and features that current parking companies simply can’t and won’t provide you. If you have a domain with strong keywords there is also the possibility of ranking high in Google and increasing traffic significantly in due time.

Ron Jackson at DNJournal has recently published the DNJournal March Cover Story featuring an introduction to the rise of mini site development lately and list of other mini site development companies.

Each company is unique and has different features, models and methods to their developing madness.

Some are automated like WhyPark or Parking Revolution which places more interaction and content control with the user, others are on the pricey side but provide a hands on experience with true custom content, graphic and promotional work.

DN Media has announced today the launch of MiniSites.com. The new company provides mini site development services to domainers, which is as mentioned above, a hot trend in recent years for those seeking an alternative to falling revenue from traditional PPC parking companies.

MiniSites.com has three different mini site development packages to choose from which include features and services such as the following…

• Dedicated Project Manager
• Unique Content Creation
• Custom Text Logo Design
• Attractive Graphic Header Design
• Flexible Monetization Options
• Targeted Keyword Research
• Search Engine Optimization
• Easily Add Your Own Content Post-Launch
• Free Hosting for as Long as You Own the Domain

Looks like a great all around package for having someone develop a quick mini site for your domain name.  The base price is set at $120, but they do have discounts for bulk orders.

Surprisingly, the service price nearly triples from $120 to $350 when you want to add on advanced link building and advanced monetization packages.

No details are to be found on the company site regarding hosting or a user control panel. But, I think they are on the right track and I am sure more information will show up soon on MiniSites.com as they push through the new launch.

Would love to hear your comments about mini site development or MiniSites.com, please leave one below!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The DotSauce Marketplace is a unique domain sales marketplace with free listings and no fees.  One might consider the DotSauce Marketplace to be a step up from traditional sales on industry forums but not quite as advanced as paid marketplaces like Sedo or Afternic, and that’s exactly what we’re going for.  A smooth balance between ease of use and function.

Feature Rich Options for Buyers and Sellers

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

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

Great Exposure to Your Domain Sales

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

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

Get Started Selling!

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

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

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

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

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

Pretty slick, huh?

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

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

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

NETTUTS, VECTORTUTS, & PSDTUTS have all been merged into one awesome tutorial hub called TUTS+. Within TUTS+ you receive access to hundreds of web development and graphic design tutorials with all source files included.

What is TUTS Plus?

High quality tutorials from industry professionals guide you every step of the way towards creating beautiful graphics and rich interactive web applications.

How Can it Benefit Me?

Simply download the content files for any tutorial, customize, upload, and most importantly learn and improve your web development skills!

In just a short time since launch the guys behind TUTS+ have been churning out an amazing amount of Plus content.

Check out all the stuff you can get inside TUTS+ so far…

• WordPress, Beginner to Master Series: Part 1-3
• WordPress, Beginner to Master Series: Part 4-6
• Build a Shopping Cart With PHP and MySQL (Screencast + Source Files)
• Design a Ready to Print Brochure in Photoshop (Tutorial + Source Files)
• and many more design and script and website tutorials!

TUTS+ will grow your business, improve your existing websites, and most likely wow your visitors and clients.  I have been a regular at NETTUTS for awhile, but I can’t wait to get started with the new TUTS+ membership tutorials and screencasts.

Quality Education and Materials on the Cheap!

TUTS+ exclusive membership is just $9 per month (or $22 per three months), a fantastic bargain for the high quality content.  They already have over 3000 happy members.

Earn Your Money Back

Once a member you can pass on the knowledge through the TUTS+ affiliate program.  Refer your friends and earn 25% of what they pay on the first month and every month.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Continuing my series of posts on innovative uses of the widely popular WordPress CMS, I’d like to present to you the WordPress Wiki Theme.  A WordPress theme of beautiful form and intelligent function.

Just recently developed, the WordPress Wiki Theme, by Valen Designs, is built specifically for developing a knowledgebase or wiki style website where articles and FAQ’s can be posted with ease and displayed in a user-friendly way.

Beauty, isn’t it?

Design and Navigation

The WordPress Wiki Theme is extremely clean, easy on the eyes and built for quickly delivering the content your visitor wants to see.

You can actually choose from 6 different color variations on installation and the PhotoShop files are included to customize the logo.

Other Wiki scripts and software are bulky and may be intimidating. While they may possess more features, this Wiki theme is built for speed and will surely impress website visitors as well as search engines.

Plugin Ready Features

Going beyond the call of duty, the WordPress Wiki Theme features a custom built FAQ plugin as well as integration with a star rating plugin and an advanced page navigation plugin.

Also included is a simple but highly-effective “Related Posts” section in the sidebar of each article.

Many of the WordPress Wiki Theme elements are enhanced with AJAX for better usability and definitely some cool factor.

Purchase the WordPress Wiki Theme

The theme is for sale exclusively at ThemeForest for the modest price of $30.  ThemeForest is the premier marketplace for theme designs and features a ton of amazing WordPress themes.

Launch a professional Wiki knowledgebase fast with the WordPress Wiki Theme!

If you’re interested in other innovative uses of WordPress…

We have previously written about the WordPress Shopping Cart, the WordPress Link Directory and there are a few more features lined up in this series so subscribe and stay tuned!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Continue reading for full coverage and some live example sites!

An Inside Look at Parking Revolution

ParkingRevolution.com is truly living up to their name.  CubeVisions Software, the makers of SteadyNiche, are now blurring the line between domain parking and advanced web development with Parking Revolution.

There are several great features I can’t wait to share.. so I am going to walk you through the best ones right now.

• Fully Web Based – This advanced development software can be accessed from any computer online.  Each and every domain that you develop is hosted on Parking Revolution servers at no additional cost!
• Intuitive Control Panels -User friendly administration means anyone can easily find their way around both the customer control panel and their own personal parking and development control panel.

• Unparalleled Development Features - Parking Revolution is bringing amazing site development features to the table the likes of which our industry has never seen before. Here is just a small sample of some of those great features…
  • Word Replacement
  • RSS Feed Control
  • Unique Page Creation
  • Portfolio-Wide Widgets
  • Header & Footer Customization
  • CSS Design Control
  • Google Analytics
• First Class Support – The team at Parking Revolution has been enthusiastically interested in my feedback.  Using their simple support ticket system my one issue was corrected in just a few minutes.
• Multiple Money Makers – Paste your own Google AdSense code directly into your developed pages or update it easily throughout your entire portfolio.  eBay affiliates can plug in their campaign ID’s and start serving up relevant products and earning extra cash.  It’s also just as easy to add direct advertising or affiliate programs!
• Amazing Site Content – Your domains will no longer feel “parked” at all.  With news and articles being updated constantly, built in Job Boards, YouTube Videos, Flickr photo streams, eBay Products, contact forms, and much more.

And The Best Feature of All…

It’s just $15 per month to develop up to 100 domain names fast!

See Parking Revolution in Action!

Here are some sites I setup in just a few minutes all together!  Using default Parking Revolution options all I had to do was input keywords and a description for a fully developed, feature rich website!  Take a minute to browse one or more to see Parking Revolution in action!

Example Sites…

• Daily Poker Tip – Your source for insider poker tips and tricks.
• Junior Surfing – Latest news and videos on the world of Junior Surfing.
• GPS Explore – Top reviews, news and more on GPS Devices.
• Celeb Meter – Celebrity news, videos, photos and gossip.
• Immediate Legal Help – Articles, blogs, and more for legal help needs.

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

What do you think?  I’d love to hear your feedback on Parking Revolution.  Please leave a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

This will be the first in a series of posts devoted to highlighting new and interesting ways people are using WordPress.  I already have at least 3 amazing uses of WordPress lined up that you probably have never seen before and are sure to spark your interest.  So stay tuned, subscribe to our feed and be on the look out for more innovative uses of WordPress.

Innovative Use of WordPress: JustTweetIt.com

WordPress as a link directory! Who would have thought?

The JustTweetIt.com Twitter Directory went above and beyond simply turning WordPress into a link directory. The site features a beautiful design and alot of great content in traditional blog posts. So, you can’t do this over-night, but I’ll give you a quick explanation of just how they did it.

By the way, DotSauce is on Twitter!

How Did They Do That?

The concept is quite simple… turn your comments system into link submission! With a few tweaks and word-swaps (change any mention of “comment” to “submit link”) within the template files, specifically the comment system, comment display, single post and single page, you can have a fully functional link directory.

Once those modifications are done, any page can be created to represent a “Category.” Enable comments on your “Category” page and the link submissions can start coming in!

What’s Your Script Got that WordPress Doesn’t?

If you think about it… WordPress already has most of the features you want for any link directory; moderation, Akismet spam filter, and even membership logins, but I’ll save more on that for the next installment.

Yet Another WordPress Link Directory

The concept is starting to spread, another example of WordPress as a link directory just launched this past month and living up to it’s name.  DirectoryForDesigners.com is a social media directory for, you guessed it, designers of all types.

What do you think about using WordPress as a link directory? Know of any other innovative uses of WordPress? We’d love to hear your thoughts… please leave a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Matching up a quality domain name with a well designed logo really has potential.  Unfortunately, many of the domain names graphic designers choose to use are not the best quality.

An example would be, “Alidocious.com” which is currently listed with a pretty logo featuring an umbrella and stars.   While this is creative (Mary Poppins reference) it is not a functional or user friendly domain name.

I would love to connect with a great logo designer (have a few in mind already) to match up with some high quality .COM names to be listed on IncSpring.

IncSpring is a new site still in beta, so if you do sign up and start posting your brands for sale, don’t expect them to sell the next day. Over the coming weeks and months I expect IncSpring to draw more traffic and more potential brand buyers.

Visit IncSpring.com now if you’re in the market for a great brand or interested selling your own.

What do you think about IncSpring and it’s potential as a domain sales venue?  Please leave a comment below.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Exciting Speakers and Valuable Sessions!

Over 20 fabulous and famous speakers will be presenting and teaching you the ways of pro-blogging.  Covering topics such as Growing Traffic, Blog Design, What Advertisers Want, Social Networking, Tools & Plug-ins and more.

These top bloggers will be sharing their secrets to success!

• Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com
• John Chow of John Chow.com
• Merlin Mann of 43folders.com
• Neil Patel of Quicksprout
• Brian Clark of Copyblogger
• Michael Brito of Britopian
• Loren Feldman of 1938 Media
• Tamar Weinberg of Techipedia, among many others.

Click here for a full list of speakers.

Get a Free IZEAFest Conference Pass!

DotSauce is proud to be one of the official partners of IZEAFest.  We have been provided 2 free conference passes and some great discounts to pass on to you, our readers.

The first two people to comment below on this announcement who are sure they can attend IZEAFest will get to roll with me for free!  Just make your travel arrangements and I’ll get your pass taken care of.

Or Pay Just $50 Total With Discount Code “DotSauce”

Register for IZEAFest here and get $15 off the conference price!

Look forward to seeing you there!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The August print edition of Website Magazine has already been shipped and is arriving to subscribers around the world. Don’t worry though, you haven’t missed out on this great content…

Access Interactive Digital Edition Now

When your subscription is approved you can visit your control panel (Requires free subscription login, see link above) to view the interactive digital version of the latest August issue.

With Website Magazine’s digital edition you can easily search for content, email articles to friends and colleagues and even print for later review.

Inside the August Edition

The feature article in the August edition “Innovative Ecommerce: An insider’s guide to profitability,” provides top secret guidance for online retail success. Covering topics such as reputation management, alternative payment options and more, it’s an important read for merchants and non-merchants alike. Many other important topics are also addressed including comparison shopping engines, social computing, getting listed in Google News, tax havens for online businesses, negotiating better affiliate deals and much more.

An Easy Way to Help the Environment

Subscribe now and a tree will be planted for you! New trees will be planted on behalf of all Website Magazine subscribers. To achieve this noble mission, the necessary funds will be graciously provided by the Replace-A-Tree Foundation, partners and environmentally-conscious individuals.

Other Cool Interactive Magazines

While I’m on the topic, I feel compelled to share this find.   I stumbled on to MagWerk’s quite awhile back (so the content might be a little outdated) but their digital interactive magazines are still very innovative.

MagWerk’s has published (virtually) a line of high quality web zines posing as real flip page magazines. Currently featuring a magazine on each of the following: Music, Gaming, Art & Design, Art & Fashion.

These magazines are, in certain sections, very interactive and media rich with things such as sound clips and music while you read, animation, in-page link structures, pagination within pages , interactive graphics on mouse-over and click, live voting polls, embedded videos and who knows what else. Personally, I haven’t even read but a few pages from each magazine, so I assume there are much more surprises in the form of articles, reviews and more.

Enjoy these 4 high quality virtual magazines, we can only hope that all magazine publishers would someday try their hand and something as interactive and media rich as this!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.