DNCart – Domain Network

Smeego is a newly released content management system that you may mistake for PHP Nuke. The developer sold PHP- Nuke and has since moved on releasing Smeego CMS on June 5th as an open source web portal software. Many PHP-Nuke enthusiasts are already converting.

Business Development Opportunity

Released under the terms of the GNU/GPL license, Smeego can be used to develop commercial web properties at no cost. You can in-turn sell these web properties without any restrictions or licensing troubles. This is a major bonus for web developers of all kinds especially those who are currently developing blogs and businesses on platforms like WordPress. Smeego provides an alternate and promising avenue for developing websites.

User Generated Content & Social Actions

The out-dated concept of the “web portal” is now beginning to merge with social networking features, focusing on users sharing content and contributing to a community of like minded individuals. Smeego champions user powered content with friendly features that allow submissions of blogs, downloads, links, articles and news from your website visitors.

Features and Functionality

• Fully integrated File Downloads manager
• Open submission Links Directory
• Email to Friend and Printer Friendly Pages
• Automatically generated Mobile friendly version
• Theme/template system
• FAQ Manager
• Website Statistics
• Polls and Surveys manager
• Reviews manager (Books, games, etc.)
• Banner Advertising manager

As you can see from the list above, Smeego has some seriously cool features. This comprehensive CMS also has module management. New modules and features will be released by developers in the coming weeks.

Smeego Case Study: XboxMVP.com

Immediately after hearing about the release of Smeego a few days ago I downloaded a copy and choose to give it a go as a development option for my domain, XboxMVP.com which has great community potential.

This project starts off as one of the default templates called “Orange” which comes bundled with Smeego. I did some simple modifications to the CSS style options, then created a graphical logo and header design to replace the default white box and orange slice.

“Blocks” were customized to make their titles more relevant to the Xbox niche. Several blocks (Statistics, Advertising. etc.) were not needed during initial development and were deactivated from public view.

Now all that is left to do is promote and create content which is easily managed through the Reviews, News, Polls, and Stories modules!

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

Smeego CMS Goes Live: Is this a Dream Web Development Opportunity?

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

Promising news for web developers, designers, domainers, SEO gurus… let’s just say the internet industry in general! If you are a specialist in any of these fields you will be happy to hear what small businesses will be buying this year.

Register.com, one of the oldest and most respected domain name registrars, conducted a survey of 800 small businesses. The results speak volumes for the ability of the internet industry to thrive in economic down times.

“Despite the slumping economy, most small businesses do not anticipate a decline in revenue over the next year, and many expect to make additional investments in Web site design, SEO and e-mail marketing, according to Register.com’s newly released “Small Business Survey.” Register.com conducted the online survey over a three-week period from April 28 to May 16, polling 800 small businesses.

When asked which areas of technology they are mostly likely to invest in, the top three answers were: Web site design (53%), SEO (43%) and e-mail marketing (41%).

Seventy percent of those polled said they do not expect Web revenue to decline this year despite the struggling economy.”

—Carol Krol of BtoB Magazine

If you haven’t considered offering your professional services as a means of income, now may be a good time to consider getting to know some of your local businesses and working with them to create a web presence.

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

Small Businesses Expect to Invest in Internet Services this Year

WordPress Market is an innovative WordPress theme that is going to revolutionize your WordPress blogs and projects! Developed by Revive, a leader in WordPress theme development. This amazingly affordable product goes beyond styling to deliver a fully functional storefront that you can plug right into your WordPress powered blog!

WordPress Market is easy to install, easy to use, and easy to manage! Packed with features and guaranteed updates, your small investment of $40 could be earned back within your first sale or two.

My regular readers know I am a big WordPress fanatic. I am looking forward to promoting the Market Theme and using it to easily build out my portfolio of online businesses with ease.

WordPress Market Theme Features

• Form & Function – The market theme was designed to focus on its functionality as opposed to its design. The theme is intended to be customized to meet the needs of its specific store. A minimalist design which is easy to customize.
• Hassle Free Integration – Using your admin email as specified in the Wordpress settings the buy now button will forward all payments to you. Just click and activate like any other theme.
• Easy to Use Custom Fields – The theme uses multiple custom fields for inputting product images, pricing and custom options within a normal WordPress post.
• Thumbnail Generator – Code included and setup for you so thumbnails are all generated at the right sizes.
• Fancyzoom for Image Viewing – In use for product thumbnails on the single post and product view page for full size image viewing.
• Download Packs and Upgrades – Download the standard Market theme install or a few other custom packages, such as one with the “buy now” option replaced with a “add to cart” option powered by FatFreeCart.

You can purchase WPMarket directly through DotSauce now for only $40!

	STANDARD LICENSE	DEVELOPER LICENSE
Price:	$40 USD	$120 USD
Upgrades:	Unlimited, Free	Unlimited, Free
Resell?:	No	Yes
Affiliates?:	Yes	Yes
Ideal for:	Sole owner who wants to run a marketplace on one site or maybe a few of their sites.	Designer and developer who wishes to build off of the Market theme as part of client work.
Buy Now:

The theme requires Wordpress 2.0+.

You will receive an email with the download location and password instantly after your payment has been received. My sincere thanks in advance for your purchase, I know you will love it!

I would be willing to answer any questions you might have, please leave a comment below.

I would like to announce a new resource that can be found in the Premium area of the DotSauce Forums.

I have organized and pruned my personal bookmarks which I have been saving for several years as a web developer/domainer and am now releasing this collection of hundreds of resources to you!

Below you will find an outline describing each category of my “Bookmark Vault” and the number of links contained within each.

Peak Into Mark’s Bookmark Vault

• Webmaster & Domainer Forums: (41 Links!) An excellent list of professional web developer and domainer forum communities. These are all established and reputable communities which often have forums to sell your domains for free.
• Domainer Tools & Websites: (34 Links!) Free windows software and web based applications to make the life of a domainer easier, more productive and more profitable!
• Domaining Blogs: (38 Links!) A nearly comprehensive listing of domainer specific web blogs posting professional articles and news updates regarding the domain name industry.
• Web Design Resources: (99 Links!) Loads of amazing applications, resources, free downloads, blogs and more related to CSS, design themes, graphic design and web design.
• Brilliant Blogs: (68 Links!) Blogs that are not directly related to domain names but provide professional articles, resources and news updates for web developers and tech enthusiasts.
• Miscellaneous Domainer Resources: (57 Links!) A hodge podge listing of cool links related to domaining and web development which have not yet been categorized but still contain some great resources. These will be merged into correct categories soon.
• Random Cool & Web 2.0 Links: (51 Links!) A collection of fun, functional and innovative “Web 2.0″ type tools, websites and projects that I have discovered in my uncharted journey through the web.
• Search Engine Optimization: Coming Soon!
• Script Downloads and Resources: Coming Soon!
• Free Entertainment & Music: Coming Soon!
• Quality Free WordPress Themes: Coming Soon!

I encourage my premium subscribers to contribute their favorite links and help me to manage the Bookmark Vault so that it can stay fresh and continue to evolve as great resource for everyone.

How to Access Mark’s Bookmark Vault

Premium subscribers enjoy unrestricted access to expired domains lists, free domain tools, discounts and exclusive coupons, and valuable articles.

On top of all that they now get a glimpse into the hundreds of resources found in the Bookmark Vault. It is only $10 /month to become a DotSauce Premium Subscriber.

Register for free on the DotSauce Forums and then click here to purchase your Premium Subscription for only $10.

StomperNet is an online business-building membership website. They currently have some great quality videos published online featuring “cutting-edge content.” I’d like to share with you their “Click Fu” video which I found to be an excellent learning experience.

I have embedded the “Click Fu” course video in this post. In total it is 30 minutes long, separated into four parts, but is worth every minute of your time. You will learn through the eyes of your website visitors how to optimize your content.

Part 1: Welcome to Click Fu!

Part 2: Click Fu – Understanding Visitors

Part 3: Click Fu – Optimizing Text Content

Part 4: Click Fu – Wrapping Things Up

I downloaded and toyed with their “Scrutinizer” utility mentioned in the video. It allows you to simulate how a visitor envisions your page layout. Their vision is narrowly focused, contrasting colors are emphasized and peripheral vision is blurred so, as you learned in the Click Fu videos, you need to group important data and links together and organize headers and navigation properly.

Here is a screenshot of the Scrutinizer application in action viewing the DotSauce Forums. Wherever you place you mouse the surrounding area goes out of focus.

The StomperNet Scrutinizer download is free.
Give it a try and scrutinize you website content.

10 Uses for the Scrutinizer Utility

1. Simulate eye tracking in a usability task
2. Assess the ease of use of multi-step processes
3. Give your designer a fresh pair of eyes
4. Find out what �pops� in your design
5. Conduct findability challenges
6. Ask: does your visual grid work?
7. Evaluate your site�s contrast levels
8. Insure learnability in your template
9. Avoid button gravity errors
10. Tell the story of how your eyes work

I am using each and every one of these awesome Firefox tools DAILY and I want to make sure all of you are aware of them as well! The following 5 addons were picked based on their superior usefulness and functionality.

I have written on some cool Firefox addons in the past, be sure to check out these 5 Firefox Addons for SEO and AutoFill Forms Addon where I show you how to submit your website to directories with one click.

Click on the addon titles to go directly to the developer’s install page.

#1. Web Developer Toolbar

No brainer! The Firefox “Web Developer” toolbar has been in development by Chris Pederick since June of 2003. The Web Developer tool is packed with amazing features which allow you immediate access to information about any website you are browsing. Instantly view CSS files, disable JavaScript or cookies, control form fields, manipulate images, validate code and lots more.

#2. FireShot

This fairly new Firefox addon allows you to create and manipulate screenshots of any webpage. You can capture a whole page or just a visible area. Before saving your file you can add shapes, highlight items, create styled text notes and pointers, as well as crop your screenshot. This is an especially nice tool for bloggers and graphic designers.

#3. CoLT

CoLT is not as well known as they other Firefox addons featured in this article, but it is just as useful. Bloggers, developers, designers and anyone who has ever engaged in a forum copies hyperlinks to their clipboard! CoLT gives you added control while copying URL’s to your clipboard. Automatically saving both the URL and it’s anchor text and allows you to output it in custom formats such as HTML, BB Code, or customize your own. This addon is only visible when right clicking on hyperlinks.

#4 MeasureIt

Simplicity at it’s finest. This little addon allows you to draw a ruler on top of any webpage to determine the pixel height and width of any element! Takes the guess work out of CSS margin and padding adjustments, image and element placement. You can also drag the box around once you measure something.

#5 ColorZilla

Another little addon that packs some big tools. Literally. ColorZilla is an advanced eyedropper Firefox addon which allows you to zoom in up to 1000%, allowing you to grab the Hex or RGB code of the tiniest pixel anywhere on the web. I recommend enabling the “Autocopy” feature right after you install (not enabled by default), this way everytime you grab a Hex color code it is instantly stored on your clipboard.

I just couldn’t quite wait to release the new version of DotSauce Magazine. So, here it is in almost all of it’s glory! (I am still waiting on a spiffy new logo and header makeover, which should be live any hour now.) If you are reading via RSS reader, please visit DotSauce.com to see our awesome magazine style layout.

You may also notice some new content around the site, such as an expired domains resource page and some info hinting at new premium subscriptions and a private vBulletin Forum… both of which are coming very soon! Hold on to your pants and keep visiting for updates.

Leave your praise, suggestions and bug reports in the comments!

Thank you readers for your support!

Discovered this interesting bit of news on LifeHacker today that announces a new Google API which generates graphic charts on the fly by editing variables in a unique URL. This could potentially be a valuable time saver for bloggers and developers. Graphic charts are a great way to make your blog posts more visually appeasing and display data in a user friendly format. I can easily see myself using this tool in future blog posts.

Below are two pie chart examples of DotSauce Poll Questions. These only took me a few minutes to whip up.

[ Live Link to API Custom URL ]

[ Live Link to API Custom URL ]

Read Google Blogoscope’s article here for a quick tutorial on how to edit the variables and generate various chart types.