I did a quick poll on Twitter the other day asking my followers how many of them planned to launch a new startup in 2009. 100% of respondents stated that they would indeed be starting new businesses this year! I wasn’t very surprised, as those who did not have plans probably didn’t respond. However, it’s always fun to see growth in the industry before it happens.
Now let’s get some details! This is a multiple-choice poll and also has an option to add your own answer. So take a minute to think about your domaining plans for 2009 and check off all the answers that you think you will be doing this year.
Thanks for participating! Look forward to seeing the results and please leave a comment if you want to share details about your plans for 2009!
This article is from DotSauce Magazine - The Domain Industry's HOTTEST Publication!
Many web developers, designers and now domainers are flocking like an army of little blue birds to Twitter, a social status service that allows you to share what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Over the Holidays, NameCheap.com ran a wildly successful trivia contest promotion which amassed them a huge number of followers. This is the story of their success on Twitter.
About how many Twitter followers did @NameCheap have before your contest began?
Maybe 30. We set it up and used to to answer basic questions and offer specials, but it wasn’t something used regularly. (NameCheap now has 4,221 followers!)
What has the response from contest participants been?
Overwhelmingly, they loved it. Many people asked for more contests. It was blogged about quite a bit as well, with some participants even showing how to answer the quickest. Even the CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, mentioned how much he liked the idea.
What was the total amount of domain names that were won?
Over 600.
Who organized all the Christmas trivia questions? I’m sure they deserve some recognition.
Our Marketing Specialist Michelle Greer wrote them.
Have you seen a significant increase in new customers during the contest?
Our website got 47% more new visitors.
What are your future plans for the @NameCheap twitter account?
Possibly more contests. Definitely updates on our service and basic support.
I see NameCheap is on Facebook as well, how has your experience been with that network?
Good. It puts names and faces behind our customers.
How do you think social networking will affect domaining in 2009?
It allows us to offer more hands-on support with our customers and will help us understand how we can offer what our customers want. It will also help connect domainers with other domainers as well as potential buyers for their domains.
Here is a quick video screencast demonstration that shows a glimpse behind the scenes of Parking Revolution, an excellent new service for domainers which allows anyone to develop content rich mini-sites.
A new year has almost arrived! It seems that not so long ago I was hanging out at DomainFest in Hollywood earlier this year, which was no doubt the highlight of my year. We saw many events take place in the domain industry, good and bad, the Snowe Bill, the end of domain tasting, the NetSol scandal, etc. However, I would like to share with you some of the more useful and exciting posts from DotSauce.
Without further adieu, the best posts of 2008…
Domaining Goes Social
Domainers, being the epic geeks that we are, have embraced social networking and social media and it is now contributing greatly to the success in our industry.
Here are some video screen cast tutorials featuring some interesting and fun ways you can find quality available domain names. I really enjoyed doing these and you will see more very soon on DotSauce!
A few months ago DotSauce sister site, AQDN.com was announced as a new marketplace for affordable domains! Earlier in the year, WordFuse.com was announced as an available domain name research service.
My fellow domainers, I am looking to raise some money to keep DotSauce.com afloat and provide more free tools, articles and resources aimed at helping you succeed and profit in our industry. I have never had to ask for donations before, but you could say I am caught in somewhat of a quarter life crisis. Funds raised through this post could really help to get me out.
DotSauce Fundraiser Donations
I would like to make your donation 100% worth your while…
As a big Thank you!, everyone who makes a donation of $50 or more right now will receive a complimentary lifetime membership toDotSauce Premium private domaining content. (Normally $10 per month.)
What’s DotSauce Premium?
DotSauce Premium is a private area of the DotSauce forum community which is loaded with exclusive domainer content, coupon codes, free scripts and software, video tutorials, high quality available domain lists and more.
So please, contribute what you can to this DotSauce fundraiser and I will gladly grant you complete access to DotSauce Premium for life. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Mark Fulton
Founder & Editor
This article is from DotSauce Magazine - The Domain Industry's HOTTEST Publication!
If you’re a domainer, you have lots of online assets. But are you properly protecting them? There are a few legal steps you should take to ensure that your online property is secure.
1. Use Good Security
This first tip isn’t really about the law. It’s just common sense.
Use adequate passwords. Keep them in a safe place. Change them often.
All your legal efforts won’t amount to anything if you use passwords like “password” and write them on a sticky note.
2. Pay Attention to Names
Many people form companies for their business purposes, to protect their personal assets. To be effective, your assets have to be owned by the company.
When you buy a domain or a website, you should always make sure the business actually owns it. If you own it personally, your personal creditors could seize it to collect a judgment.
3. Watch Your Agents
If you have given someone else the authority to handle your affairs, they’re your agent. They have legal responsibilities to you in the way they handle your affairs.
To protect yourself and your online assets, be sure to keep an eye on your agents. Agents steal from their employers even when they work in the same office. Think how much easier it would be to steal when everything is online. Make sure they aren’t handling things improperly or stealing from you.
4. Make a List
What will happen to your online assets, if something happens to you? Does your significant other or next of kin know about your online life?
To make it easy for your next of kin to handle your assets, you should at least keep a list of what you own. You could take the extra step of writing out instructions on how to manage your websites, where to access your domain portfolio, etc.
5. Review Your Will
If you’re an adult, you should have a will. And you should review it every five years.
If you executed a will 15 years ago, you probably didn’t even own domains at that time. Your will doesn’t need to specifically mention your online property, but it should properly implement your wishes. Changes in technology are but one reason to review and update your will throughout life.
Parking Revolution has announced some great new features and an exclusive 15% off discount code for the holidays. Today you have the opportunity to be directly involved with Parking Revolution.
The guys at CubeVisions Software are actively listening to feedback from the original review on DotSauce and the official thread on NamePros and are taking all suggestions for new features into consideration!
Here are some of those new features! Continue reading for discount code…
Bulk Domain Development
Parking Revolution really shines when you spend a couple minutes tweaking keywords, page features and various revenue options. However, you can now develop hundreds of domains instantly using a bulk submit form!
Improved Content Pop-over for more PPC Exposure
Parking Revolution pulls targeted site content and external links from various news sources and RSS feeds. When a visitor to your Parking Revolution website clicks to read more of that content an awesome pop-over window is opened and external content is loaded within your page!
Here is an example: Click to read any article featured on DomainNameCoupon.com, powered by Parking Revolution.
They have tweaked this feature and now embed your AdSense or other affiliate code within the pop-over display.
When a visitor closes the article, blog or external link they will be right back on your Parking Revolution website where they left off.
Affiliate Program
If you are a Parking Revolution customer you will receive a unique affiliate link which allows you to earn 10% per sale for referring your domainer and developer friends! More details to be announced on the affiliate program soon.
Parking Revolution Site Showcase!
Yet another first, the Parking Revolution Showcase (see preview) will soon feature your developed domain names and display cool information on how it was customized and what sort of monetization is being used. Start developing with Parking Revolution and submit your sites to be included in the showcase!
Exclusive Discount - 15% Off Christmas Special!
As a Parking Revolution partner, DotSauce has been given an exclusive discount coupon code to be released to the public. Merry Christmas from Parking Revolution!
I just received today’s email summary of domain industry news from Google Blog Alerts. Today’s update contained lots of great articles, news and resources from top blogs in the domain industry, proving to be one of the busiest days in domain news in quite some time.
Google’s AdSense for Domains is old news! The Parking Revolution has been announced earlier today on DotSauce and is well on it’s way to becoming a common name in domain parking and website development.
I have been hinting at my involvement with a revolutionary product in domain parking and development for a few weeks now. I am happy to announce the wait is over! Parking Revolution is now live and accepting memberships for the most innovative, automated and fully featured domain development product ever to be released.
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.
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 the best toy you get this Christmas! 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 - The Domain Industry's HOTTEST Publication!
I mentioned in my last editorial, “The Evolution of Domain Parking and Mini Sites” that domain parking will gradually transition to feature rich mini-site development. Google recently announced the public launch of it’s AdSense for Domains program. As with all things Google, it is getting alot of buzz in the industry.
Will AdSense for Domains be worth your time? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits and shortcomings of Google AdSense for Domains.
What are the benefits of AdSense for Domains?
Higher Conversions - There have been case studies and numerous reports on conversion rates for simple domain parking pages. Direct navigation (typing a domain into an address bar) has proven to be highly targeted traffic.
Possibly Higher Revenue - This may turn out to be the opposite as Andrew of DNW points out here, Google has contracts for the advertising feeds it provides to parking companies. It is within Google’s power to “dial back” or reduce revenue shares for both parking companies and new AdSense for Domains users.
What is AdSense for Domains lacking?
Search Indexing - Obviously Google is not going to index any domain enrolled in this program, a major drawback to anyone interested in driving more traffic and increasing site value.
Domain Sales Contact - As far as I am aware there is no option to notify visitors that your domain may be for sale or how to contact you, please correct me if I am wrong.
Unique Landing Page Design - Google is good at simplicity. Pages may convert but won’t look good.
Unique Keyword Rich Content - It is impossible to add any custom content whatsoever to your domains.
Alternate Revenue - There will be no option to include affiliate links, products or leads of any kind.
Customization - No real way to fix any of the above.
These are huge features that benefit domainers by increasing the short and long term value of your domain name properties.
Google’s AdSense for Domains is simply boring domain parking for the general public repackaged and sold direct from the provider. They are taking a step backwards in the evolution of domain parking.
Don’t worry about activating your AdSense for Domains account, it will probably just disappoint and waste your time. However, I must admit I will be interested to hear about initial conversion rates and revenue earnings per click.
What’s a Better Alternative?
Soon I will be announcing an amazing new product/service for domainers that will allow you to almost instantly develop full mini-sites with unique content and multiple revenue streams including Google AdSense direct from Google! There are many other great features I can’t wait to share. I am currently in beta testing and will have a full review completed when the product officially goes live.
DotSauce Domain Magazine
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