DNCart – Domain Network

Our Domainer’s Community is powered by Mixx an amazing social media and link sharing portal that has rapidly grown in size and popularity over the last year.  The interface is clean, beautiful, quite simple to use and packed with great features like member messaging, tagging, photo and video display, secure voting, message boards, comments and more.

Sign Up For Your Chance to WIN!

The first 50 members to join the Domainer’s Community and comment below on this announcement will be put into a prize giveaway drawing for 2 free domain name registrations at GoDaddy and a copy of “The Domain Game” book!

Comment below with your member username for your chance to win!

• 2 Domain Registrations from GoDaddy.com
• 1 Copy of David Kesmodel’s new book “The Domain Game“

Competitors Lack Many Important Features

Currently the domain industry has three sources which aggregate and deliver domain news.

• DNHour – A website powered by the Pligg script which is plagued by spam links and has virtually no organization or social features. Voting can easily be duped by deleting cookies or voting on different computers.
• Domaining.com – An excellent resource for top domain blogs, but lacks versatility, customization, voting and commentary.
• Discussion Forums – Rarely updated and often only displaying the biggest news items.

The Domainer’s Community is fulfilling the need for a one-stop stable and easy to use domain industry news source.  Please join us and contribute your favorite domaining resources, news, photos and videos.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine – The Domain Industry’s HOTTEST Publication!

Domainer’s News & Media Sharing Community Goes Live!

The Domains Into Dollars program by Phil Craig has received many great reviews and comments from satisfied customers.  The package features video tutorials and guides for finding available domains, domain sales, and exclusive techniques for monetizing your domains.   Free templates for custom parking pages and eBay domain auctions.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not here to sell you the program.  I just wanted to let you know that if you visit the site now Phil is offering a free report for anyone interested in his Domains Into Dollars program.

Click here to sign up for your free Domains Into Dollars PDF report.

The report details some of Phil’s background and experience, what it is to be a Domainer today and details the various profit models for domains as well as a bit of info on tasting, traffic, typos and trademarks.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine – The Domain Industry’s HOTTEST Publication!

Free Report from Domains Into Dollars

The following is an interview with Nate Whitehill, a professional web designer, entrepreneur and “renaissance blogger”. He has been an inspiration to DotSauce and hundreds of other bloggers over the past few years.

Nate is involved in the domain industry, web development and most notably web design as one of today’s premier WordPress rock stars. Read the questions and answers below to get to know the man behind Unique Blog Designs.

DotSauce asks, “How has the web design profession changed for you over the years since you started in 1998?”

Nate Whitehill: “As you mentioned, I first started playing around with designing websites in 1998-1999 with Adobe PageMill 1.0. It wasn’t until 2004 or so that I put any real effort into trying to learn Photoshop and HTML. As far as what has changed, when I started using PageMill, there wasn’t even native tables-support. Another big transition was making the switch from tables to CSS which I did not do until about a year and a half ago. Tables is a bloated way to write code, CSS/XHTML is so much cleaner. I started designing websites professionally in 2003 when a friend and I launched a local web design company, infinFX media. Even though I’ve been designing websites for almost 10 years, it was only this past year that I realized the potential of blog design as a niche to web design.”

The Unique Blog Designs team with John Chow and Shoemoney

DotSauce asks, “What prompted the foundation of Unique Blog Designs? What have you learned since starting your business?”

Nate Whitehill: “I have been blogging semi-consistently since January of 2007 and in that time, I saw an enormous opportunity in the number of new blogs being started each day. It was only through my previous interest in web design that I put two and two together to decide on starting a web development company specifically catered towards blog design. That being said, we have began to use the WordPress platform to develop more traditional looking websites, with attached blogs. WordPress is not just a great blogging platform, it is a great CMS!

My biz partners, Matt and Josh, and I have been running UBD full-time since August of 2007 (almost 9 months now). We have learned a lot in that time about running and sustaining a business. One of the most important thing we have learned is about the power of networking with other people, specifically bloggers. We exhibited at the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas last year and had the opportunity to meet a lot of our clients including John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker. We also met a lot of future clients at that event. Attending trade shows is a great way to network and expand an online business. We will be exhibiting and speaking at Blog World Expo and IZEA Fest in September of this year.”

Unique Blog Designs team chillin’ in Las Vegas!

DotSauce asks, “How and when did you acquire your great generic domain BlogDesign.com? How has this domain affected your business?”

Nate Whitehill: “We acquired BlogDesign.com about a month before we exhibited at Blog World Expo in November of last year. We were presented with the opportunity and immediately jumped on the chance to own a fantastic generic domain name which captures our business so well. For the Blog World Expo, we professionally printed a 4×8 foot vinyl banner and we placed the BlogDesign.com domain name on the banner. I think a lot of the big wigs some much bigger companies were impressed we owned that domain.”

DotSauce asks, “Do you have any other high profile domain names or domain stories?”

Nate Whitehill: “Between my business partners and I, we own around 400 domains. About 150 of those are related to blogging and blog design. We also used to develop websites for a man who owns 2000 Chinese-character generic one and two-word domains. Domaining is one of the first businesses I became interested in when I started blogging. I used to chronicle my domaining stories quite a bit on my personal blog (NateWhitehill.com).”

The new Unique Blog Designs office

DotSauce asks, “What advice would you give to an aspiring web developer or professional blogger?”

Nate Whitehill: “While I fully believe in specializing in one particular skill, I think it is very important to aspire to be a “Renaissance person” of online business. There are many different online business skills/models which coincide and intersect with each other. By knowing ‘a little bit about everything,’ it can improve problem solving ability and general online efficiency. I am primary known for being a blogger/blog designer, but I am also well-studied in conversion, SEO, copywriting, domaining, and social media. An aspiring blogger or web developer should work to understand the fundamentals of all of these different types of online businesses. I touched on this topic before on my blog here.”

DotSauce asks, “Aside from your own amazing work, what is your favorite blog design of all time?”

Nate Whitehill: “My business partner, Matt Blancarte, is about to release a new blog design for himself which is incredible, probably one of my favorite designs of all time. We are in the process of coding his site, but once it is done, you will be able to preview it at MattBlancarte.com. Matt is also a co-founder and he is now the lead designer for us. He will also be speaking on the ‘blog design’ panel at IZEA Fest in Las Vegas.”

This article is from DotSauce Magazine – The Domain Industry’s HOTTEST Publication!

Interview with Nate Whitehill, BlogDesign.com

Take for example, a domain I registered earlier this month, “RSXJ.com” this was an expired domain that I caught by chance. Mind you, it has been a few weeks after all of the four letter domains were registered. My first impression of the domain name concluded that this was the perfect domain for an “RSX Junkie” or some old Joe, John, Jacob, Jingle, Jack and Jill, all of whom drive Acura RSX’s of course.

Some people are buying LLLL.com (four letter) domains and using them as personalized license plates.

I don’t know about you, but I want one! I’m on the lookout for an LLLL.com domain that has some meaning to me as a web developer and domainer. If you have any suggestions let me know.

• LLLL.com Domain Name ~ $50
• Fee for Vanity License Plate ~ $30
• Having that hotty in the Beamer hit you up on Facebook – Priceless!

If vanity plates don’t rev your engine, you could always just go for a custom vinyl domain name sticker to slap on your windshield.

Google has an exciting new project which they call a “Knowledge Portal,” hence the codename Knol. It has been rumored that Google is upset about Wikipedia dominating it’s search results and is releasing this open-author information sharing website to compete for some top results. Knol is currently in private beta testing, you can read more information on it here. It is also naturally getting alot of buzz from the blogosphere.

What?! Knol.com Owned by Steam Cleaning Company

Tens of thousands of visitors, including myself, typed “Knol.com” into their browsers after hearing the news, only to be baffled by a Dutch website featuring high quality vacuums and steam cleaners. The company who owns the domain has posted a thank you message to Google, for the traffic and publicity I assume. They later posted this surprising message which is, oddly enough, badly translated by Google:

“Well, from that Friday there is a real run immediately on domains that the word “Knol” in itself, as also the domain knol.com….. This has resulted in tens of thousands of visitors who came to take a look at our Knol.com! ….. In a short time, we had received visitors from more than 130 countries around the world.

Fortunately, the website in a position to be able bastions and the site remained in the air.

But that was not in, we were by Jan and alleman asked if we do not want to sell the domain….. Unfortunately, we have to disappoint everyone, how beautiful their offer sometimes.

…. In short, it was a special experience.”

There you have it, they will not be selling the domain name to Google, nor any other individual. Someone should call and suggest a way to monetize their new temporary flood of international traffic.

The Squatters Came Out in Full Force

A quick search on Sedo shows 358 pages of domains containing the term “Knol.” Many have bids and are receiving a minor amount of traffic. Apparently these people do not realize that “Knol” is only a codename! Google is going to brand it’s new knowledge portal with a completely different name and acquire it’s respective domain name.

Think before you squat.

The domainers have spoken and it is now fairly common knowledge that in almost all instances developing domains is more profitable than parking domains. Here I have compiled my personal favorite out-of-the-box scripts for developing domain names.

#1 – PHPBB

Type: Forum Community
Price: Free!
Description: This amazing forum script has been in development for many years. In the past I have developed communities of thousands of members using phpBB. It’s user friendly control panel and plethora of free modifications and themes make it ideal for someone starting up their first forum.
Example: WiiFitForum.com

#2 – PHP Link Directory

Type: Link Directory
Price: $29
Description: One of the most popular directory scripts online. I have personally used PHPLD for many great projects. It has a very user friendly administration and it’s template files can be modified fairly easily. There is a large community of active members offering support and modifications.
Example: LinksComplete.com

#3 – Pligg

Type: Social Link Sharing
Price: Free!
Description: This cool script was essentially founded as a clone of the popular site Digg. It has since grown up on it’s own and has a strong following. Developing a Pligg site is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but if you are up for some code hacking it can really pay off.
Example: DNHour.com

#4 – WordPress

Price: Content Management System
Cost: Free!
Description: This script needs no introduction! With one of the largest communities of users on the web, WordPress is a blogging solution for any need. Even if the main focus of your development project is not to post articles or updates, you would be wise to use WordPress alongside any project.
Example: MarkFulton.com

#5 – Bulk Domain Research

Type: SEO Tool
Price: $19
Description: This is a great script that I am selling here on DotSauce. It is packed with domain name research features that quickly shows you stats on a bulk list of domains such as PageRank, Domain Age, Alexa Rank, Backlinks and lots more. The example site below generates good AdSense earnings for me. There is also an exclusive option to purchase with reseller rights.
Example: BulkSEO.com

#6 – paFileDB

Type: File Download Directory
Cost: Free!
Description: Designed to allow you to have a database of files for download. I have used this script on one project (see example) and found it to be easy to install and use. It lacks user memberships and/or an easy way for visitors to suggest files for upload. As a simple directory of files it is great.
Example: PHPmod.com

#7 – PHPAuction GPL

Type: Auctions
Cost: $24
Description: Beautifully designed and full featured auction script. Has support for custom CSS themes. Administration is user friendly. Great potential to earn money if you put some quality time into developing a niche auction service.
Example: Official Demo

#8 – Funny Pics & Videos Script

Type: Turnkey Video Site
Cost: $59
Description: Allows you to quickly build a humor video and pictures website. The script is designed to crawl several websites and update data every hour. Content is pulled from popular humor websites. Comes packaged with a professional design
Example: BestFunSpot.com

#9 – AV Arcade

Type: Gaming Arcade
Cost: Free!
Description: This is the most feature filled free arcade script available. Included is a skin/template system, commenting, SEO friendly links, ratings, statistics and more. Drop in your AdSense code and promote.
Example: SurfArcade.com

#10 – Plogger

Type: Photo Gallery
Cost: Free!
Description: An excellent and user friendly next generation open-source photo gallery. The default layout is a clean CSS based design just begging to be customized. Administration is very cool and easy to develop album and gallery trees.
Example: MouthCancerFoundation.org

DomainBits is a fairly new domain industry blog that has started off with a handful of great articles for domainers. The author, Jeff, contacted me last week and asked me to share my best tip for beginning domainers. I was enthused to contribute what I consider to be a solid tip for those starting to invest in domain names:

My Contribution

“I believe the most important tip that I would give to any beginning Domainer would have to be ‘Sell, sell and sell some more!‘ I believe many people in this industry place too much emphasis on the ‘priceless’ value of their domains. Beginners need to focus on making a profit from buying or registering domain names for cheap and re-selling them at a reasonable profit. It is essential to go through the process of registering and re-selling a decent quality domain a few times. Each sale is a unique learning experience.”

- Mark Fulton, DotSauce.com

Jeff’s Response

“Anyone who has been through the dotcom crash knows that paper profits aren’t worth much. The value of a domain is greatly influenced by the probability you are going to be able to sell it and what the chances are of getting end user interest in the domain. Selling a few domains is a very worthwhile focus for beginners.”

- Jeff, DomainBits.com

10 More Tips From Domaining Professionals

I am featured in the DomainBits article entitled “Become the Next Domain Multi-Millionaire - Learn the Domain Secrets of the Experts” along with 10 other domain industry professionals. I highly encourage you to click on through and read the rest of the great domaining tips. Don’t forget to subscribe to the DomainBits RSS feed while you are there.