Included in this new package-deal are lots of extras that will offer a complete business web presence ready to take on 2012. I’m making this available to anyone for less than $800.

I am also liquidating an established website forum for only $1500. Both are extraordinary deals, so please continue reading for all the details.

Start 2012 With A Modern, Professional Website

With this web development special you are getting much more than a customized design. I am offering a complete business website launch done right with search and website optimization, design, marketing, social network integration and much more.

The following 10 features and services are all included in this limited-time special offer.

1. eCommerce, Social or Membership Sites – Using the latest online business solutions such as WP-eCommerce, BuddyPress and more, we can create a wide variety of feature rich websites.

2. Professional WordPress Theme Customization – Take your choice of premium layouts from ThemeForest or other professional themes and frameworks as a starting point for your business.

3. Logo and Graphic Design – In addition to customizing your website however you like, a great looking new brand and promotional graphics will give a finishing touch.

4. Comprehensive SEO – Starting from the beginning, your website will be optimized to rank for targeted keywords of your choice. In addition to complete on-site optimization, I am now offering initial link-building and other methods of driving traffic and gaining authority for your new site.

5. Website and Marketing Copy – Content is king. So, for your business to succeed in 2012 you need great web copy. I have written for the web for over a decade and would be happy to get you started with website copy for your products or services. I will also include starter content for your company blog and social profiles.

6. Comprehensive Website Optimization – Your site will load lightning fast and will prove to be a great experience for your visitors. Several plugins, features and tweaks will make your business up to par with the latest website optimization standards.

7. Hand-selected Plugins and Extras – Along with SEO and website optimization, I will also share my favorite WordPress management plugins and other unique solutions that may fit your needs.

8. Six Months of Free WordPress Hosting – I will be glad to host your website on my server for up to 6 months at no additional cost to you.

9. Custom Facebook and Twitter Profiles – You don’t have to worry about finally getting a Twitter profile and setting up your Facebook page. Included in this package are custom social networking profiles that will be linked with your website and drive leads for you in 2012.

10. WordPress Instruction – Each of the elements of your new site may seem overwhelming, but they are really not, and I will be available to walk you through the process of managing your website effectively and easily.

All these services are included in this New Year Special for only $799.

Because many of these services demand a lot of time, I will only be able to accept a limited number of clients. So, please contact me now to express your interest in working with me to build your online business.

Example Works

Here are a few sites I’ve completed for clients who took advantage of some of these services.

RaleighPersonalTraining.com

JukeBoxxMedia.com

UDRP-Attorney.com

WritingAssignmentHelp.com

Contact Me To Get Started

Thank you for your interest in my web development services. For just $799 you can have a professional online business presence. Please contact me here as soon as possible with the details of your online business needs.

Start 2012 With an Established Twitter Forum

I am looking to liquidate TweetSocial.com a nearly 4 year old Twitter Forum. This online community of over 3000 members features discussions on all things Twitter and additionally features an application directory.

Liquidation Sale! Own this website today for just $1500.

I have not attempted to monetize or extensively market this site in recent years, however it grows organically through rankings for key terms on Google. The site receives just under 5000 unique visitors per month.

Included in the sale is all site content, design, and ownership of the Twitter profile (@TweetSocial) with 6710 followers, which as an easy way to send more traffic if you have just a few minutes to spare.

For only $1500 you can be the proud new owner of the TweetSocial Twitter Forum and app directory. Please contact me here as soon as possible with your interest in purchasing this website.

Have a great new year!

New Year Web Development Special: Start 2012 With A Great Business Website DotSauce Magazine

For almost any type of website you’re looking for, I can create a great solution using WordPress, the webs’ most popular and user-friendly content management system.

Get this cool deal on professional WordPress development for only $300 until the end of this sweltering hot summer.

Here is a list of types of websites available as starting points, though I would be happy to discuss other options you might be interested in.

• Personal blog
• Professional portfolio
• Professional business web presence
• eCommerce or affiliate product portal
• Niche magazine
• Startup web presence
• Community / forums
• Question & answer hub
• Directory
• Classifieds
• Job board
• Membership site

August Development Special

Included in this special offer are the following features and services.

• Beautiful designs using the latest standards. Integrate your existing logo or get a new one.
• Full search engine optimization services
• Social media integration and other interactive features
• Advanced WordPress plugins make site management simple and boost performance.

Let’s Build Your Professional Website

I will be in close contact with you throughout the development process to get your feedback and direction as well as to explain how to manage the site. My work will not be complete until you are 100% satisfied with your website.

Hot August, Cool Deal: Professional Website Development Only $300 DotSauce Magazine

In an effort to make the monthly link roundups easier to consume I’ve left out updates on marketing, social media, small business and entrepreneurship.

If you’re interested in getting all the updates please connect with DotSauce on one of these networks.

Stay In The Know: Connect With DotSauce

Twitter – (See top of sidebar to follow –>) Join 15,000 others who follow @DotSauce tweets on domains, SEO, marketing and web development.

Facebook – (See top of sidebar to like –>) Like DotSauce on Facebook where you’ll receive almost all the resources shared on Twitter, though more focused on domaining. Plus receive special announcements and exclusive offers for fans.

LinkedIn – If you are a web professional or work in a related industry, I would be glad to have you connect with me on LinkedIn. Twitter updates are broadcast to the LinkedIn stream.

Google+ – Add me to your circles. I’ll be sharing special updates and resources with Google Plus connections soon.

Web Development

It seems the theme for July is speed. Included are several great resources and some big news from Google on the webpage performance front.

Domaining

The domain industry continues to get exposure in the mainstream media. July was a busy month with several major industry moves and great editorials.

SEO

The web at large is catching on that social media and SEO go together. Google+ has been the tipping point, time to get on board.

Thank you for checking out these recommended news articles and resources. I hope you’ve found some beneficial information that can help your business or website.

As always, you’re welcome to share these links with your followers individually or by using one of the share buttons below. Any mentions are greatly appreciated.

Web Development, Domaining and SEO Link Roundup for July DotSauce Magazine

Google’s official Page Speed announcement reports speed improvements of 25% — 60% on some websites. The service works by routing your DNS requests to Google’s server where they rewrite your website and serve it to visitors faster with optimized CSS, image, text and script compression, caching and other tricks.

[Header image via Flickr]

Is Google’s Page Speed Service really necessary? I’m not convinced it’s for the masses yet because most of these techniques are available freely. However, I’m sure there is a large market for individuals or businesses who are willing to leave website optimization up to Google. It can provide some peace of mind in knowing that all the many best practices for optimization are taken care of for you.

Try It Out

You can see how the Page Speed Service would improve your website performance now at WebPageTest.org.

For now, the service is free for a select number of webmasters who sign up here. Google plans to charge a fee for usage in the near future.

Related Article: Instant Pages: Google Plans to Preload #1 Search Result

My Page Speed Service Results

I ran the DotSauce Magazine homepage through the comparison test. You can view my results here. Google was only able to speed up the site by about 0.1 seconds, a 1% improvement. Not surprising really as I have taken steps to increase website performance manually.

Page Speed Service Comparison

Don’t get me wrong, I did see some benefit to the service. The start-rendering time as reported by the comparison did show a marked improvement. Some images began loading 14.9% faster as you can see in the results, particularly on the visual comparison.

I attribute the already fast load time to optimization techniques and resources recently featured in my article, 12 Tips and New Standards for Optimizing Your Website. I highly recommend you implement most, if not all, of these tips if you haven’t already.

How did Google Page Speed work for your website load time? Would you pay a subscription fee for this service? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.

This should prove to be a valuable service that will help boost business by reducing website bounce rate and increasing search rankings.

Google Launches Pay For Page Speed Service DotSauce Magazine

[Header image via Flickr]

Multiple Domains Multiplies Risk

I have a semi-dedicated server that I use to host all of my web properties, domain development projects and many client websites. Before today, my public directory had something like 100 folders representing multiple domains for various websites, mainly WordPress installations.

I found out the hard-way that exploits within a particularly vulnerable script on one directory can lead to complete access of the public_html directory. In my case, a neglected old WordPress installation came back to bite me in the butt. I also discovered a vulnerability within an old PHP-LinkDirectory installation.

It’s something I should of known was possible, but never thought an exploit would be so bad as to lead to this.

The hackers placed code within .htaccess files, redirecting Google bots to spam sites. Normal visitors, including myself were none the wiser as search rankings were taken over. It’s an all-too-common, devious form of hacking that you should be wary of.

Luckily, several observant readers reported that something was awry with my search listings (they are still screwed up) and I was able to contact Google to remove the suspected hacking warning.

Avoiding This Disaster

Nobody should have to go through the experience of losing all their hard-earned search rankings. There are several actions you can and should take to prepare for and avoid a potential hack when using multiple domains on the same host.

1. Move inactive projects to a new folder, hidden below the public_html level
2. Be vigilant and timely about updating all web software
3. Regularly check notices from Google Webmaster Tools
4. Monitor website content changes through a third-party service such as CodeGuard

I’m not too worried as DotSauce Magazine should bounce back in the coming days and weeks.

I would greatly appreciate your support in sharing our content and +1′ing articles to help speed the process along. You can earn rewards like free domain registration through our loyalty program if you do. Try out one of our share buttons to sign-up for free.

Security Vulnerability When Using Multiple Domains On The Same Host DotSauce Magazine

Domain Holdings has debuted a new domain development platform called DomainPower, a follow up to Rapid Domain Builder, it’s 2010 predecessor . The new development platform will focus on content development for SEO performance and engagement, and will feature multiple revenue opportunities.

DomainPower offers dozens of niche website frameworks suited to specific industries (Shopping, Insurance, Travel, etc.). Sites are enhanced with plug-ins such as social media integration. Enhancement services such as website content, link building and directory submission are also featured.

DomainPower Powered Sites

Here are a few examples of sites running on the DomainPower platform.

Innovative Analytics and Reporting

While I have not had the opportunity yet to dive into the DomainPower platform (signups are approved manually), I know that their analytics will play an important role.

According to the feature list DomainPower includes A/B testing, alerts for under-performing domains, and keyword tracking across search engines–all firsts for the industry as far as I am aware.

What do you think of DomainPower? Will you ditch WordPress powered sites or standard parking pages to give it a try? Will the revenue share be enough to compete with other emerging parking options? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Domain Holdings Raises $2.9M to Energize DomainPower Development Platform DotSauce Magazine

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

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

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

Branding & Domain Names

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

Online Business

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

Web Development & SEO

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

Marketing & Social Media

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

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

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

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

I’ve recently discovered a new, possibly better solution for displaying a domain portfolio within any WordPress page using the My Domain List WordPress plugin which is available at CodeCanyon for $12.

As it turns out, this plugin is a great way to both market your domains for sale and manage your portfolio privately.

[Header image via Flickr]

Automated Whois Information

One of the key perks of My Domain List is automated retrieval of whois information. This is a great feature which enables you to keep up-to-date on all of your domain information from multiple registrars in one central location.

My Domain List Management

The following data is displayed for all domains within a private domain management page.

• Domain registrar
• Owner name
• Whois creation date
• Ownership change date
• Expiration date

These details can be displayed publicly as part of your domain list table or kept private.

If you would like to manage your portfolio with My Domain List while keeping some domains private you can do that as well. Select the “Unpublish” to set a domain to only be visible through the domain management page.

Your domain list is displayed by placing a shortcode within a post or a page and customizing it to suit your needs, as in this example.

[my-domain-list-portfolio show='owner,extension,registrar']

With this initial release of the plugin there are some features left to be desired (such as domain search and categories), but all the essentials seem to be covered. The UI is well designed for both owner and visitors and the Make Offer process is user-friendly and inviting with a fixed priced domain.

My Domain List Screenshots

Here are more screenshots of the Domain List display and the private back-end. You can review the full plugin documentation here.

My Domain List – Full Demo

Incoming Offers Stats – Displayed on WordPress Dashboard

Optional Pagination by Letters

Get My Domain List

My Domain List is available exclusively at CodeCanyon. The WordPress plugin is reasonably priced at just $12. This is a bargain for being able to manage and market your domain names for sale.

Let me know what you think. Please leave a comment below if you decide to give it a try.

My Domain List WordPress Plugin: Market and Manage Your Domains DotSauce Magazine

What was traditionally thought of as a blogging CMS has been transformed into a powerful, user-friendly development platform. Virtually any type of business website can be created using a combination of innovative WordPress theme design and advanced plugins.

Continue reading to enter to win professional logo design! (No purchase necessary)

For a limited time I am offering these special rates on development services for the following turnkey web development solutions powered by WordPress.

Updated June 22 – I’ve lowered the prices to make them even more attractive. Pay half up-front to get started and the remaining half when your website is completed. Contact me to get started.

Magazine / Blog / Business – $350

Below is an example of the many high-quality, visually appealing and flexible themes for creating a web based publication, blog or business website.

Affiliate Product Portal – $350

Create a niche affiliate site and earn commissions by referring customers to popular products. Bonus: A plugin will track stats and create custom affiliate URLs.

Product Reviews – $350

Similar to an affiliate portal, you can review products and promote affiliate products. This layout is intended for ratings and reviews from you and a community of visitors.

Q&A Site – $400

Question and answer sites are a popular new trend that is great for business and getting advertising revenue.

Classifieds – $400

Find an audience for professional classifieds site to help people market their products and services. Collect listing fees through PayPal.

Job Board – $400

Certainly a great time to develop a job board as many are looking. Connect employers and job seekers and collect listing fees through PayPal.

eCommerce Storefront – $400

Whether you have your own products or are selling digital goods, this turnkey solution makes use of a flexible shopping cart, but has options for external purchase options.

Membership Site – $500

With premium membership plugins you can setup private membership site and collect subscription payments. A-List Blogging site shown as example.

Group Buying Site – $650

This wildly popular trend is sweeping the world by helping small businesses profit and customers save money. It will take some commitment to get the site started, but the rewards can be big.

These innovative new WordPress themes use the latest standards from WordPress 3.0. Much more than incredible designs, they are built for turnkey online business. Theme and plugin files, documentation and authorized licences are included.

You can select one of these turnkey solutions  to customize and launch your online business, or you can request a comparable design to work with. Pick any premium WordPress theme the web has to offer, the cost will be included in the service fee.

Added Features & Services

The following features are included with all turnkey development options at no additional cost.

• Professional logo design and theme integration
• Design customization and widget setup
• Social media integration
• Navigation and content map setup
• SEO review, consultation and latest plugins
• Website performance optimization and plugins

Pay half to begin development and half upon completion!

That’s right, I can get started for an initial payment of half the special rates listed above. You can then pay the remaining half when the website has been completed and you are 100% satisfied.

I would be happy to discuss design options or answer any questions you might have about the development process.

Please get in touch as soon as possible; availability will be based on demand. Contact me here with details about your development needs to get started.

Logo Design Giveaway

The team at Logo.com has been kind enough to offer professional logo design services to one lucky DotSauce reader.

This is a $199 value!

There is no purchase necessary, anyone is eligible to win. Simply connect with the Rewards widget below and follow the instructions to earn entries.

• Comment on this post saying how a new logo design will help you (+1 entry)
• Like DotSauce on Facebook (+1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway (+1 entry)
• Bonus (+unlimited entries): Share your invite link to earn +1 entry for every unique click-through and +5 entries if your friend joins the giveaway.

Enter to Win

Update: Abhinav Gulyani has been selected as our lucky winner. Enjoy your new logo!

This giveaway ends on June 30th at midnight EST. Thank you for participating and good luck!

Again, please contact me soon with your interest in my turnkey web development solutions.

Turnkey Professional Web Development Special and Free Giveaway DotSauce Magazine

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

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

Site Header Tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Site Speed Tips

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

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

_gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Increase Conversions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extend Your Reach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Up: Optimizing Publisher Experience

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

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

12 Tips and New Standards for Optimizing Your Website DotSauce Magazine

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

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

Domaining

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

Small Business & Startups

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

Marketing

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

Web Development & SEO

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

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

Domaining and Online Business Link Roundup from May 2011 DotSauce Magazine

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

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

Small Business Startup Package

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

Giveaway Details

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

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

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

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

Enter To Win

Update: The winner is Abdel Toughrai!

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

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

Small Business Week Startup Package Giveaway DotSauce Magazine

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

Wide and Unique Coverage

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

• Business
• Domaining
• Marketing
• SEO
• Web Development

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

Advanced Site Features

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After reviewing the full offering, I am convinced that CodeGuard is going to be a must-have service for serious web professionals and I am thrilled to be using it to protect my websites.

[Image by Flickr user Aaron Landry]

Super Backup

CodeGuard connects to your site through FTP and seamlessly goes to work for you backing up and monitoring your files.

Unlike traditional cloud storage services like DropBox, CodeGuard can be setup to backup your website hourly, daily or monthly and stores a unique image of your site each time.

Thwarting Hackers

Over the years I have seen a steady rise in attacks against websites and have even fallen victim to some very devious hacks and exploits myself. I wish CodeGuard would have been around to alert me about those issues.

CodeGuard continually scans your website files for unauthorized code. Pro members can be alerted by email in as little as a few minutes if anything malicious appears.

Mishaps Be Gone

CodeGuard Pro members never worry about breaking their websites. An amazing “rollback” feature works just like an undo tool, letting you effortlessly restore a previous version of an entire site.

The rollback feature could be particularly helpful when dealing with CMS updates that can at times break a customized website.

FREE Beta Offer With Activation Code: DOTSAUCE

CodeGuard is offering up to 5000 free accounts during their beta launch. They have been kind enough to provide DotSauce readers with an invitation.

Simply enter DOTSAUCE as your activation code when signing up for CodeGuard. You can use this activation code to backup one site for free or get CodeGuard Pro features and backup multiple sites for just $10 per month.

If you’re interested, hurry and try out the free Beta offering while it’s still available.

What do you think of CodeGuard? Leave a comment below to let us know how it works out or ask any questions you might have about CodeGuard’s service.

CodeGuard is a Must Have for Website Backup and Malware Monitoring – Free Beta Offer! DotSauce Magazine

The development team happily announced considerable optimization and performance gains and hinted at a new plugin community.

By utilizing Custom Post Types and tight WordPress integration we have shaved off more the half the file size of our download!

The WP e-Commerce 3.8 release has been mostly about optimization and aligning our code and our User Interface with WordPress standards.Future proofing our software and stabilizing it by utilizing the most up to date WordPress hooks and filters has been our top priority.

…our goal is to foster a Plugin community around e-Commerce functionality so that the WP e-Commerce Plugin stays fast and lightweight.

WP e-Commerce Preview – Normal Looking WordPress Interface

Other notable WP e-Commerce 3.8 updates include:

• New user interface
• Integrates with WordPress Media Manager
• Better template integration for WordPress themers

The new WP e-Commerce interface blends seamlessly with other WordPress administration pages. Anyone familiar with adding posts and pages will be right at home building an online storefront with WP e-Commerce. Today I’m going to help you do just that by helping you build a custom domain portfolio.

How to Build a Domain Portfolio with WordPress

In just a few simple steps you can now create a functional domain name storefront or portfolio using your choice of widget-ready WordPress theme.

Let’s get hands on! Follow along as I describe the basic steps in setting up the WP e-Commerce 3.8 plugin to sell your domain names.

1. Install WP e-Commerce 3.8

And you’ll want to upgrade to WordPress 3.1 if you haven’t. Go to Plugins > Add New and search for WP e-Commerce.

Make sure to install the original plugin and not an imitator.

2. Configure essential WP e-Commerce options

Under Settings > Store, setup your payment gateway and other basic WP e-Commerce options.

Note: Be sure your WordPress admin user email address is the same as your PayPal account if you choose to use PayPal.

3. Rename the “Products Page”

After installing WP e-Commerce you will notice a few new pages have been automatically created. Navigate to the newly made “Products Page” and rename it to “Domain Portfolio” or whatever you like.

4. Create new Product Categories

Build up your categories such as ‘Short Domains’, ‘Product Domains’, ‘Business’, ‘Shopping’, etc., for easy browsing.

5. Create a New Product for each domain

Be sure to include a description and any other details which may be helpful in marketing your domain for sale.

Example Domain Product Page

6. Set your price or a discounted offer and other details

Also upload an accompanying image, remove shipping requirements and check that other details are correct.

Note: You may want to create a custom-meta entry or edit WP e-Commerce theme files to create a “Make Offer” option that links to your contact page. You can also input external links to auctions or marketplaces which will override the shopping cart action.

7. Set Quantity to Limited

In the Stock Control area set the product quantity to 1. Presumably each domain is unique, so you’ll want to be sure to select this option.

You can also choose to be notified when a sale is completed.

8. Add your choice of WP e-Commerce widgets

Under Appearance > Widgets to your theme you can select widgets such as Shopping Cart and Latest Products, as well as special offers, a search bar and any other useful information for your visitors.

You now have a working domain portfolio powered by WordPress and WP e-Commerce!

You can view this example portfolio page on one of my sandbox WordPress installations to see the results of completing these steps.

Making the Most of It

If you take the time to thoroughly describe your domain and include related data you will gain targeted search traffic. WP e-Commerce allows you to interact with customers in a way that sales by email does not provide. Having a web based portfolio can also be a great way to track your sales and inventory even if a domain isn’t sold on the site.

You can further customize your WordPress theme files to integrate your domains and shopping cart however you like.

Another alternative is to invest in a premium WordPress theme that is customized for and compatible with WP e-Commerce 3.8. You may need to wait awhile for theme developers to catch up to the new release, but it should be any day now that themes will be updated.

How I Am Using WP e-Commerce

Want more WordPress ideas? WP e-Commerce was just 1 of 20 ways to make money blogging featured on DotSauce this year.

I’m currently working on multiple development projects using WP e-Commerce for clients and my own business.  While I have recently transitioned my focus to the DotSauce Domain Club, I am excited to say I will soon update the 2 year old AQDN marketplace with WP e-Commerce, a fresh look and new concept that is sure to turn heads.

Stay tuned for updates and let me know how your portfolio development comes along. If you have any questions about setting up a domain portfolio with the new WP e-Commerce, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

How to Build a Domain Name Portfolio with WordPress eCommerce DotSauce Magazine

Latest poll question, "Does your domain portfolio contain names from a specific category or a variety of categories?"

This week I’d like to ask an open-ended question. As there is no definitive answer, feel free to respond with your thoughts in the comments below the post.

Do you focus on domain names and website development projects that you are passion about or those with the highest profit margins?

I have noticed an over-reliance on domain analytics, automated appraisals, average CPC and other domaining metrics. While this data is interesting and helpful in many ways, it should not be viewed as your primary method for investing in domain names.

Keyword quality and the potential reach of a domain should be the main deciding factors for any registration or aftermarket domain purchase. If a great domain or brand has promising stats, the data can be used to enhance your domain sales marketing.

I believe that passion is more important than potential profits. It’s why I primarily focus on technology, internet and business related domain names as this is what interests me most. It’s also why 99.9% of my portfolio is composed of all .com domain names; I am passionate and confident about the success of the .COM TLD.

In the past, with domain parking still in its infancy, you could simply define a single keyword phrase for each domain. It was plausible to acquire decent domains en-mass and collect nickels and dimes all day.

Today, we know that content is becoming increasingly important for any web presence to be successful. This presents somewhat of a problem for those with diverse portfolios. Do you really want to write and devote your time and marketing efforts to products, services and ideas that you are not personally interested in? I’m guessing not.

Passion Leads to Profits

When we are passionate about a subject we can better manage and grow a web presence. Developing a website for something you are passionate about will be fun and rewarding. It doesn’t seem like work to write, share and learn about something you are interested in.

Because of these key benefits, projects you are passionate about will become more valuable and marketable than projects put together with the sole intention of making money.

There are ways to find a happy medium. I think a wise option is to not think about monetization until a website is well established. When you have a captive audience of fans and followers you should have no concerns about getting advertisers, selling products or otherwise profiting from your hard work.

Passion or Profits? DotSauce Magazine

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

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

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

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

Impact on Domain Name Value

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

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

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

How To Avoid Losing Search Ranking for Keyword Domains

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

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

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

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

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

Last week, I announced the Domain Club Grand Opening prize giveaway that will run through March 28th. Free professional web development and design services are featured as one of the prizes.

A lot of people have shown interest in this particular prize, so I’ve decided to host this special
March Madness discount. You can take advantage of these services now for one low flat fee.

March Madness Web Development Special

All of these professional services and features are included for just $300.

• Business, personal or eCommerce website development; whatever your project requires, I have the resources to make it happen.
• Beautiful design using the latest standards. Integrate your existing logo or get a new design.
• Full search engine optimization services
• Social media integration and other interactive features
• WordPress and advanced plugins make site management simple and boost performance.

Pay $150 to start and $150 when your project is
complete and you are 100% satisfied.

To get started, contact me here with specific details of your website development project or if you have any questions. I will review your request and get back to you soon with design options.

Don’t delay, this offer will only run through March. Availability is subject to demand.

March Madness $300 Professional Website Development Special and Free Giveaway DotSauce Magazine

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

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

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

My Dream Parking Page

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

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

Click image for full page mock-up.

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

Unique Content and Search Optimization

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

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

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

Automation

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

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

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

Maximum Revenue

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

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

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

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

What would your dream parking page be like?

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

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

My Dream Domain Parking Page DotSauce Magazine

To take part in this giveaway you simply need to sign up for Domain Club membership. Basic membership is completely free and gives you instant access to a private forum and collection of the best articles on DotSauce Magazine since 2007.

Our premium plans start at just $14 per month and entitle members to exclusive discounts on a select inventory of quality .COM domain names. The DotSauce Domain Club provides many valuable features and services for domain investors of all experience levels. Visit the sign up page for complete details.

Giveaway Prizes

Here’s your chance to win free access to the valuable features and services offered to our premium members. We’re also giving away comprehensive website consultation and professional website development services. Give your website a makeover or launch a brand new business!

• 6 months of free Domain Club Pro membership ($120 value)
• 6 months of free Domain Club Plus membership ($84 value)
• 3 months domain for sale advertising to DotSauce readers (free to Pro members)
• A comprehensive blog or website consultation and review
• Professional WordPress website development with premium design from ThemeForest

Enter the giveaway now for your chance to win!

Earn Giveaway Entries

Complete one or more tasks to earn entries into our giveaway drawing. The more entries you earn, the greater your chances of winning.

20 Points – Sign up for free or premium Domain Club membership (required)
30 Points – Blog about the DotSauce Domain Club
20 Points – Refer at least one member using your affiliate link (free or paid)

10 Points - Like DotSauce on Facebook
10 Points – Follow @DotSauce on Twitter

If you’ve already been following DotSauce for a while, that’s OK too.

Complete Your Entry

Please post a comment here or contact us with your Domain Club username, and links to your Facebook and Twitter profiles to complete your entry into the drawing.

Don’t forget to include a link to your blog post if you’re kind enough to write about the Domain Club.

Winners for each prize will be selected at random from the total pool of entries on March 28th 2011. You’ve got one month to accumulate as many entry points as possible for the best chance to win.

Enjoy the Domain Club!

Thank you so much for participating in our giveaway and for becoming one of the first members to join the DotSauce Domain Club. See you on the inside!

[Image: Alyson Hurt, Raffle Tickets, Flickr]

DotSauce Domain Club Prize Giveaway – Sign Up for Free! DotSauce Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

Sell Content

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

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

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

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

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

Sell Services

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

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

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

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

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

Digital Goods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 Ways to Monetize The Web With PayPal Micropayments DotSauce Magazine

I’ve also previously shared some resources and ideas you can use to predict and profit from the future today. However, in this article I am going to be writing about the world of tomorrow.

[Header Image: Jason DeRusha, Sam Loves To Blog, April 23, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

QR-Codes and similar technologies for gathering and sending information from images are just now emerging. You can make your own right now and begin living this dream once you have contacts owning devices with a QR-Code reader.

Once these technologies become mainstream, I envision a world of enthusiastic affiliate marketers both professional and part-time, because it will be so easy. Those who do not refer friends, family and associates to their favorite products will miss out on the opportunity to earn a substantial amount of money for very little time invested.

Example 1: Grandma Has a Tablet Computer

Grandma will have a paper-thin, light-weight tablet computer with a front and rear facing camera for video calls and snapping photos.

You print a stunning coupon advertisement that represents a coded link to a website URL embedded with your affiliate ID. Paper is still good for milling-over purchase decisions and posting on the GE All-in-one Kitchen kiosk. Grandma simply takes a snapshot of your coupon to be directed to the latest online sale.

Large affiliate networks enable virtually anyone with a website to sell thousands of products. By 2030, you’ll probably be able to earn a small commission for Grandma’s weekly virtual visit to the grocery store and immediate delivery service.

Example 2: Winter Olympics 2030

Imagine your friend is about to go on a family trip to the 2030 Winter Olympics under the Dallas, Texas city-dome and needs a handful of round-trip airline tickets fast. Take out your mobile device, have them capture and navigate to a sweet deal that also earns you a sizable commission.

Consider offering an instant split of the commission for your friend’s courtesy in using your referral. Credits in virtual hand, all parties are happy.

Example 3: Inventor Entrepreneur’s Dream

You are off to sell the latest product you’ve spent the last week developing on your super-computer along with the assistance of your friendly household AI. The free virtual modeling software and pricey, but must-have 3d printer went a long way towards the creation of your dream startup business. You embed a cheap RFID tag identifying your affiliate and a smart NFC chip so anyone can purchase your product with a wave of their mobile device, wherever the affiliate goes.

Share the great news with all your friends on the social network flavors of the decade and give them the opportunity to earn a commission on any sales.

Example 4: The Super Blogger

You’ve been blogging since 2012 and have built up a following of several hundred-thousand enthusiastic fans and virtual friends in the Facebook metaverse. You share great content and write interesting articles about the latest standards in interactive web design trends, supplemented with live video coverage of events with the HD video camera embedded in your glasses.

Every so often you have the opportunity to review and promote high quality products and services to a massive audience. Devoted followers will refer their network to your article review. Affiliate marketing will likely become the top revenue producer alongside direct advertising sales. The super blogger provides a needed service to readers in discovering the best products and services in a niche while living out their passion. Those articles you wrote in 2015 generating weekly commissions will come in handy when the biggest industry conference is hosted in the latest space hotel.

I Look Forward To…

The market in affiliate marketing is going to get much bigger. Not only will there be billions more people, but we will be able to speak to anyone through live-translation applications on mobile devices. A truly global economy will emerge.

This beta technology was just launched earlier this month by Google. It is presently working with 15 languages and is available on Android devices. Here is a demo of the prototype recorded some months ago.

Live Translation

Virtual Currency

The adoption of virtual currency is another trend that will lend many benefits and open a wider customer base to affiliates. We don’t deal with cash, but if you’ll swipe your phone here you can earn 1% back with PayPal, free Groupon bucks or Facebook credits.

More Transparency

I would be thrilled to find more transparency from all affiliate networks and individual retailers. This would come in the form of live analytics, more accurate referral tracking and more frequent payments.

Something I haven’t seen before in many retail settings is an option to manually declare a referrer upon signup. This would be for situations where offering a direct affiliate link is not viable. This would earn you a lifetime of recurring commissions for any purchases made. Such a program would be very attractive to affiliates and would draw the benefits of a virtual army of marketers selling their products.

The Future is Bright

There is a lot to look forward to for everyone involved in online business. I believe the future of affiliate marketing is particularly bright. You can get started today with my guide on 20 ways to make money blogging in 2011.

What do you envision life as an affiliate marketer to be like in 2030? Please share your thoughts in the comments below and consider sharing this article if you enjoyed the short trip to 2030. Thanks!

Affiliate Marketing In 2030 DotSauce Magazine

In this roundup, I’ve collected and sorted all the top links to articles and resources shared on Twitter thus far in 2011. I’m sure it’s possible for even my most dedicated followers to miss some updates, so I have hand picked the top links and organized them by category for your convenience.

You’re welcome to share these resources with your own following. Mentioning @DotSauce would be very much appreciated . Enjoy!

Domaining

Domain name resources, articles and news.

Web Development

Web development articles and free resources.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Articles and editorials encouraging online business success.

Please follow @DotSauce on Twitter where I frequently share links like these that are related to the domain name industry, website development, online business, social networking, internet marketing and more.

You can also Like DotSauce on Facebook to receive instant updates on the latest articles at DotSauce Magazine. Of course, if you’re feeling very motivated, you can leave a comment with your thoughts and share this roundup post with your friends and followers.

Twitter Link Roundup 2011 Edition: On Domaining, Web Development & Entrepreneurship DotSauce Magazine

I’m not writing this to get you to convert to Google Chrome, but I am going to tempt you with a collection of amazingly useful new applications and extensions that can be found in the new Chrome Web App Store. Enjoy!

[Image: Ian Manrue, Wrenches, February 28, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.]

Web Development

Window Resizer – Quickly change the size of your actual browser window to see how your website looks at common screen resolutions.

Web Developer Tools – This is identical to the web developer toolbar that is so popular for Firefox users. Featuring an assortment of useful web dev tools.

Development & Code Search – Provides quick access to documentation for popular programming languages.

IE Tab – As the name implies, launch a tab running Internet Explorer inside chrome to see how your website looks for those poor souls.

Sight – Automatically highlights code syntax when source of websites is viewed in the browser.

Pastebin – Quickly store or retrieve text or code from a secure or public location on Pastebin.com

MeasureIt! – Determine the pixel width and height on any element of a page.

Speed Tracer – This official Google plugin really puts your website performance to the test and provides valuable information for improving load times.

csscan – Quickly view the CSS properties of any element on a page.

Blogging

Create Link – Allows you to copy the current page URL and title as a fully formatted HTML hyperlink or customize your own link structure.

SEO SERP – Check the search ranking performance of multiple websites against particular keyword term or phrase.

SEO Site Tools – A comprehensive suite of tools for researching and analyzing SEO and social performance of any website.

Pixlr Grabber – Useful for taking a full or partial screen capture of any website and instantly enables crop and editing.

Word Count – Watch what you’re writing. This app counts the words and characters within a selection.

RSS Subscription – Amazingly, Chrome does not automatically recognize RSS feeds. This application remedies the problem and helps you quickly subscribe to the feed of any blog.

Social Media Marketing

Session Manager – Enables you to save individual sets of tabs to open anytime you want. Use this to quickly open a set of important websites or for repetitive tasks that require multiple windows.

Personalized Web – This powerful application allows you to mold the web to work for you. Modify the code of any site to your liking.

iMacros – Automate repetitive tasks with ease with this advanced application. Record and playback actions to make your PC do the grunt work.

Stay Focused – Limit the amount of time you spend on time-wasting sites or manage your marketing efforts by making sure you cover all the bases before you run out of time.

Proxlet Tweet Filter – An amazing new web application layer for Twitter.com that enables useful features such as filtering your twitter stream, hashtags, and blocking annoying Twitter applications.

Thank you for browsing this list of tools for website development, blogging and social marketing. What are your favorite items from the Chrome Web App store? Let us know which tools you can’t live without.

If you found these Chrome applications useful and know someone else who might, please consider sharing this post.

Chrome Web App Store’s Useful New Tools for Web Developers, Bloggers and Marketers DotSauce Magazine

Not only does a blog help establish your identity and lend credit to your expertise, it can drive traffic to your business and help pay the bills.

In this article I will describe some of the best ways available today to make money blogging.

Business Services

These scripts and plugins can enhance your website with powerful new features.

1. Job Board – A job board is a simple software solution that functions like a directory and a classifieds system rolled into one. There are numerous solutions for WordPress and other CMS systems you might be using.

Additionally, some major job search networks such as Simply Hired have affiliate programs which can be implemented on your blog through various means.

2. Classifieds – Another great feature to add to a blog is a classifieds system. Essentially enable your visitors to post short advertisements for their own products and services. This could potentially be the focal point of a blog. Classifieds can work well for a local website or a popular niche segment.

3. Paid Directory – Who says a blog can’t be a directory too? New options are becoming available to add directory features of varying feature sets to blogs. Alternatively, you can use a feature rich platform like PHP Link Directory in addition to your blog CMS.

4. WP Auctions – With WP Auctions you can embed a fully featured auction platform into your blog. This could be relevant to some publications and unique products that are right for auction style sales.

Banner Advertising

Sell graphic advertising positions in your header, sidebar, below or within blog posts.

5. BuySellAds - This is one of the top networks for direct ad sales, particularly in the technology and web/graphic design industries. The directory of sites on the BuySellAds network continues to grow with nearly 3,000 blogs on board. Publishers can apply to setup a profile for their website.

The service will cost 25% of your revenue, but you set the rates. The real value is that thousands of advertisers purchase banners seamlessly through the network website.

6. Google AdSense – This is often the only option for new publications, but can provide some added revenue to established blogs. Google’s network works on a Pay-Per-Click system in which advertisers bid for targeted placement.

Some clicks may only pay out pennies, while highly relevant content for products and services can sometimes bring in clicks of up to a few dollars each. You will need to rake in at least $100 in earnings before receiving a check, so be prepared to stick it out if you decide to invest time implementing AdSense.

One way established blogs can earn revenue from AdSense is by adding the code to older articles that are receiving high search traffic.

7. OIO Publisher – If you do have an established blog bringing in any amount of regular traffic, it’s time to start looking to sell advertising directly to interested businesses and related websites. The OIO-Publisher plugin for WordPress makes for an easy solution to managing direct ad sales.

Affiliate Networks

Connect with the best networks to earn commissions on top selling products related to your content.

8. Share-A-Sale –  This rising player in the affiliate business offers you access to over 3000 retailers in all major categories.

9. PepperJam Network – Another great network with high quality products and services.

10. Commission Junction – The industry leading network represents thousands of the top brands and businesses.

11. Google Affiliate Network – Google recently launched their own affiliate network and now represents hundreds of retailers in dozens of categories.

Affiliate programs offer you the opportunity to sell products that will be widely recognized and possibly already used by your website visitors.

You have the option of making referrals by adding links within related article content, emails, status updates. You can also feature graphic banners for affiliate programs to fill unsold ad space.

Sell Your Products

An excellent way to bring in the big bucks is to dedicate time to creating your own products.

12. Membership Site – Create a subscription based members only area of your site. This can be accomplished using new WordPress plugins, discussion forum software like vBulletin. The most advanced and feature rich option is AMember, which can connect to almost all blog and CMS platforms.

13. Write an eBook – Writing a book on your topic of choice is a long-time standard for making money with your blog. If you are an expert on a subject, it could pay off very well to publish the sum of your knowledge in an enticing digital download. Remember, once you’ve completed the work of marketing your eBook has just begun.

14. Sell Access to Your Tweets – This new concept has just emerged and could become a trend in coming years as more people are accepting of pay walls for premium content. The model has proven to be a success for some stock advisors, celebrities and other experts.

15. WP e-Commerce – This software is the most popular storefront solution available for WordPress. This enables you top open up shop directly from your WordPress dashboard and begin taking orders for your products and services.

16. Downloads – Digital goods are big business. You can sell information, white papers, photos, art, data, and much more. A wise way to deliver downloads is to mange them with an email subscription service. This way you can build a list of your customers or readers and additionally have the download automatically delivered when the subscription is confirmed.

My email marketing and delivery service of choice is AWeber. You can also use scripts, services and various plugins like Ecwid to charge a fee for file downloads.

Bonus! Sell Domain Names – Join the new DotSauce Domain Club to discover how you can build a portfolio of quality .com keyword domains to resell for considerable profits.

Sell Yourself

No, not in Vegas. Offer your technical knowledge and skills at a reasonable rate.

17. Donations - Hook up with PayPal and create a unique donation button to add to your website permanently or within a special blog post. There is no harm in asking for a little support and you may find your loyal readers more than happy to support you.

18. Consultation – Another way to sell your expertise is by offering it on a personal basis with private consultation. Explain how you can help an individual or business achieve success. Include a well formated contact form for interested parties to contact you directly from your blog.

19. Your Services – What can you do to work from your computer? Millions of freelancers are working from home everyday. With some skills on your side, you could be earning added revenue by promoting these services to your blog readers.

Graphic design, writing, web development, programming, marketing, SEO, all that interesting stuff you learned to make your blog better can be put to good use.

20. Sell Your Website – When the time finally comes that you need to move on from your project you may consider selling your blog. The good news is that if you have been putting any of the other methods of making money into practice then there is a chance your blog is quite valuable.

Flippa is the leading website sales marketplace. Post comprehensive auction details including proof of traffic and revenue for the best results.

Happy Blogging!

All these resources and ways to make money have been of particular interest to me personally. I hope you have found them useful as well. I wish you the best on your quest for blogging success in 2011.

I’m sure there are many other great options and companies available to help you earn profits while blogging. Please share your tools of choice in the comments below and pass this article on to aspiring pro bloggers.

20 Ways to Make Money Blogging in 2011 DotSauce Magazine

Building a domain portfolio website can be an extremely valuable resource for making domain sales.

As you read through my reviews of these 5 new domain portfolio websites, you will discover that there are many different variations in Domaining business style and marketing methods. These are all nice domain portfolio websites that can be effective in their own unique way.

Dandy Domains – This website represents an excellently designed and well-thought out Domaining business. Dandy Domains features testimonials from satisfied customers, bold call to actions and helpful visual cues. Upon visiting the website you can tell a lot of time and effort has gone into the business model. This reflects the fact that this company has probably been in the industry for many years.

The search form is very clean and features options to filter domain criteria, categories and price ranges. Dandy Domains has several articles about the company and domain industry practices.

Premium domains feature their own full page of content and a welcoming and simple contact form. Taking the time to do this can bring about valuable targeted search traffic to each domain sale page.

dnwired – This portfolio has been designed to look ultra professional.

While i’m not sure about the neon green font, the graphics do have an appealing touch. The multi-column layout lends the eye to move about the site in a orderly and thorough manner.

The dnwired site features some innovative service offerings. How about a free 5 page WordPress starter website with every domain purchase? That includes a logo design, hosting and consultation. They additionally have a page with extended and full web development packages.

You can make an offer on domains listed for sale at dnwired, but the buy-it-now prices are seemingly out of reach for most small business. Domains are priced well in excess of $10k unfortunately.

Domains New Media – This portfolio is laid out very well because it’s powered by WordPress. Even though it is a commonly used blog layout, the site features a lot of great content and a blog which is well suited for the platform.

This very large portfolio of high quality domain names is owned by industry veteran Skip Hoagland. Skip is the visionary behind numerous high profile geo-destinations such as Atlanta.com and MyrtleBeach.com.

The site features several top key niche categories with a simple alphabetized list of the domain portfolio. Each name is linked to a parked page, so you will need to use the contact form to inquire about domain purchases.

DomainNameSales.com – Frank Schilling’s new portfolio website has been around for many months now, but I couldn’t leave it off the list. This portfolio immediately represents a nod to category defining domain names.

Frank has returned to occasional blogging under this new domain. His editorials are always good for inspiration, educating on the value of domains and really seeing through the clouds towards the big landscape picture of our industry.

Frank’s portfolio receives dozens of purchase inquiries per day as detailed on the “Recent Action” page. The full portfolio is not actually listed. Interested parties will need to complete a keyword search to find targeted domains, but they are sure to be amazed by the results.

Many.co – I believe I discovered this large portfolio of one-word .CO domains through one of my Facebook contacts. While this portfolio is in Chinese, I wanted to feature it to show how effective and easy it can be to get a fully featured domain portfolio online.

In this case, Many.co is using the free DNSPortfolio script and has customized the design to a nice orange and silver color scheme. They have additionally used an eye-catching graphic set to feature some of the best domains.

Building Your Portfolio Website

I hope you learned a thing or two about the inner workings of a domain name portfolio website. Take the elements that work best for you to build your own marketplace and customer following.

These domain portfolio examples prove that good content, regular updates, a little love and innovation can go a long way towards building a nice web presence for your domain sales.

If you have any questions about setting up your own domain portfolio website, don’t hesitate to ask the DotSauce Q&A Forum community.

5 Refreshing New Domain Name Portfolio Websites DotSauce Magazine

The contest will pit around 20 web developers against each other with the goal of earning the most income without spending any money on advertising or using your existing networks. There is a $2000 prize pool for those who are able to prove the most income earned within 4 months.

My plan is to develop a blog community about fitted hats on my domain Fitted.co. I can’t link to the site due to contest rules, so you’ll have to type it in to have a look. What you see now is just a few hours progress.

In this article, I will describe the main focal points for the project.

SEO

I chose this domain because of it’s potential as a popular and profitable niche. I plan to put my SEO skills into action as soon as possible to attain top search results positioning for key terms. The competition seems to be minimal, so I am hopeful that I will be able to succeed in tapping into search traffic within the 4 month time frame.

Affiliate Commissions

I plan to write short articles about specific fitted hat designs and feature discounts of popular products from retailers which I have become affiliated with through Commission Junction. Some of the retailers have high network earnings. Fitted hats are additionally popular on eBay.

Direct Advertising

There are a few similar blogs and they all seem to have no shortage of retailers interested in advertising to fitted hat enthusiasts. This could potentially be the main source of income if I am able to drive enough traffic to the site.

Social Media

I will establish a presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks with the goal of converting those interested in fitted hats to subscribing to my email newsletter or directly clicking-through on my affiliate products. I also plan to host contests and provide incentives for those interested to follow or “like” Fitted.co.

Your Suggestions, Please!

I would appreciate any suggestions from my readers on how else I could promote and earn profits for Fitted.co in this short time frame. Remember, I am not allowed to spend any money on the project. Please leave a comment below with your suggestions.

It should be interesting to hear others’ ideas on how to profit from a brand new website. I would be thrilled with the possibility of selling a related digital product that did not require an upfront investment, though I’m not sure it’s possible.

Thank you in advance for your ideas!

How Would You Earn The Most Money Possible In 4 Months? DotSauce Magazine

Do you think you can guess which domain I have chosen to develop? Here are the hints…

• The domain has already been chosen and is planned to go live later this week.
• It is not one of the domains that is marked “Sold.”
• I will not be promoting the new site to DotSauce readers.

Submit your answer here at the DotSauce Q&A Forum for a chance to win some cash or credits that can be used to get a discounted or free domain at the AQDN Marketplace.

Only those who pick the correct domain name will be eligible to win prizes. Three winning entries will be randomly selected to win the following prizes:

• 1st Prize - $50 Cash via PayPal
• 2nd Prize – $50 Credit at AQDN.com
• 3rd Prize – $25 Credit at AQDN.com

This contest will end on Thursday, November 11th. So hurry to take a quick look at all of AQDN.com’s affordable domains.

Submit your best guess here for a chance to win!

Thanks for participating and good luck.

Contest: Which Domain Am I Going to Develop? Pick Correctly to Win Cash! DotSauce Magazine

The article reveals 25 super common SEO mistakes, but surprisingly the list does not include the basic mistakes you may be thinking of. You know, those mishaps with title tags, images and anchor text that I have personally covered in my article on WordPress SEO Mistakes.

Required Reading

Many SEO mistakes have been revealed in this new article. Here are just a few examples:

• Optimizing Google tools for SEO research
• Making sure to brainstorm keywords
• Avoiding free blogging platforms
• Forgetting your customer’s vocabulary
• Avoiding too much internal linking
• Not using a variety of anchor texts

I highly recommend you read through Search Engine Land’s full list of 25 Super Common SEO Mistakes for some of the best SEO advice you’ll find all year.

Bonus SEO News

I’d also like to share a bonus, breaking piece of SEO news that the Search Engine Land guys may not even know about yet.

NoFollow links may actually provide some value!

That’s right, Google may be lying to us when they say the “NoFollow” link attribute works to stop from passing any value.

An independent 6-month experiment has been completed by Brian Gilley of SocialSEO.com where they set out to discover if NoFollow links pass any PageRank, search ranking benefits or page value.

The results were very surprising. Over 90 NoFollow links were setup to point to two brand new domains by writing real comments on relevant blogs. In the end, the new domains were in fact ranking well for some of the targeted terms.

All those blog comments may not be a waste of time after-all. So go ahead and leave one below to let us know what you think about the latest SEO news and trends.

The Best SEO Advice I’ve Read All Year DotSauce Magazine

The newest release, CoverPad takes the concept one step further with cues from the popular FlipBoard news-reader application.

As seen in the video demonstration below, CoverPad uses CSS/XHTML to make your blog appear like a native iPad application without going through the App store.

Blog media is highlighted and content styled elegantly for readability.

CoverPad websites will have a hidden address bar and features for bookmarking as a home icon and social sharing.

Google TV

TechCrunch declared yesterday that the future of TV is HTML. We will soon see solutions similar to CoverPad for converting WordPress blogs into awesome video portals optimized for Google TV.

I have been hinting at the possibilities for awhile. It’s exciting to think that blogs will be able to effectively compete for the public’s attention in the living room.

If you want to learn about optimizing a website for Google TV right now, start at the official guide and read the latest from the Google blog for more information and examples.

Optimizing Your Website for Mobile, the iPad and Now Your TV DotSauce Magazine