There is a new WordPress resource site that I’ve been introduced to through the great WordPress community on Twitter.

With so many options available today, selecting the right WordPress theme for your website or blog can be a daunting task. ThemeGrade was created to make finding quality themes with the features you want much easier.

ThemeGrade is not your typical WordPress directory. Quality themes are selected to be reviewed (2 per day) and are then scored against over a dozen critical points related to theme design and search optimization.

Tried and Tested

Each theme is given a bronze, silver or the coveted gold seal of approval. Gold rankings are awarded to themes which excel across the board in general usability as well as enhanced design features like browser compatibility, threaded comments, and designer support.

ThemeGrade also makes sure that top ranking themes perform well for key factors that effect search ranking performance.

• W3C Compliant – XHTML
• W3C Compliant – CSS
• Home page Heading SEO
• Post & Page Heading SEO
• Post & Page Title Tag
• Content Code Position

Sweet Select-boxes!

Searching ThemeGrade is very simple. They have implemented a nice selection box theme fetcher. I’ve never seen this style of search on a WordPress site, very cool! Simply select the boxes related to your interests and go.

ThemeGrade features both free and premium (paid) themes from select designers.

Sort by design structure (1 or 2 columns, magazine style, portfolio style, etc.) or  by theme category (Business, Art, Nature, Internet, etc.).

And, of course, you can select themes by their gold, silver or bronze rankings.

ThemeGrade Tip:

Don’t be discouraged by themes with low SEO ranking.

Proper title tags and other factors can be corrected with a few tweaks to theme files. Stay tuned to DotSauce for more on that very topic soon.

Be sure to check out ThemeGrade WordPress Themes now and follow along by RSS or @ThemeGrade on Twitter as new themes are reviewed.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Since launching my Twitter forum community, TweetSocial, and accompanying Twitter directory early this year, I have been keeping watch for innovative and useful applications that enhance user experience and productivity on Twitter.

While scouring the web I’ve discovered some amazing web based tools that I don’t know what I would do without today. So, I thought I would share with everyone what I think are the most useful apps (in no particular order). Enjoy!

1. Bit.ly Analytics

Lets start with something familiar! Bit.ly is a phenomenal resource for Twitter users because of their comprehensive click and re-tweet analytics.

Quick tip: Add a “+” symbol to the end of any Bit.ly short URL to view it’s stats. Also read our article on how to use the bit.ly sidebar tool to find interesting people on Twitter.

2. TPS Report

Tweet Positioning System or TPS Report takes the prize for coolest app name ever! It’s also pretty darn useful and fun to see where in the world people are talking about you, your business or your products.

3. Splitweet

If you have multiple Twitter profiles and haven’t found a great solution for managing that mess, Splitweet is for you. Very simple way to post to an unlimited number of profiles from a central location. You can also track @replies and messages from the dashboard.

4. Snap Bird Search

A simple tweet search application with a twist. This one goes way back beyond the 10 day official Twitter search archive. Can’t find that old Tweet you or your friend posted last week? Have Snap Bird find it.

5. TwiBack

A super cool application for managing your Twitter background image and profile photo. Awesome feature alert: TwiBack can update your Twitter background for you at an automated time.

I’m just waiting for someone to make a morning & night themed switching background.

6. TwerpScan

Very handy for managing and viewing detailed data on your followers or the people following you. Clean tables are sortable by followers/following, follow ratio, # of tweets, etc. Bulk unfollow or block if needed is very useful.

7. TwitBlock

This killer app is stomping out spammers by the thousands each day and is working to make Twitter a safe and clean place for us all.

I definitely recommend you scan people following you and see what shady individuals you find. Bonus: Big red block & report buttons can be fun and help keep Twitter clean.

8. FutureTweets

For those times when you just can’t be at the PC. FutureTweets will automatically post messages at set times on your behalf.

Note: This is not for posting the same tweet over and over again. Pre-load your stream with tweets for the weekend and take a vacation!

9. TwitterFeed

The premier application for routing blog / website RSS feeds to automatically be published on your tweet stream. Through this year Twitterfeed has added some pretty cool features including click analytics, feed customization and more.

10. Hummingbird 2

Hummingbird is the best selling Twitter automation software and is in full compliance with Twitter TOS.

Note: This one is for small business, bloggers or people who have a product to sell online. Hummingbird is a valuable and professional resource for automatically following keyword targeted people.

Want more cool apps?

Quality resources are featured daily at the TweetSocial Twitter App Directory.

Enjoy this post?

Be sure to share these useful apps with a friend! Is there a Twitter app you can’t live without? Leave a comment, we’d love to hear about it.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

eBay’s latest online destination is a vibrant magazine style blog dubbed The Inside Source which features just that, eBay insiders observing and reporting timely trends from the world’s largest marketplace.

If you are a trendhunter or a member of the eBay Partner Network this could turn out to be one of your favorite new blogs.

Imagine the search data! eBay has 88 million users, 25 million of those are sellers who are posting 200 million live product listings and turning out several million sales daily. From this can be derived global e-commerce trends that only eBay can offer.

The Inside Source keeps a watchful eye on all of the actions, daily searches and sales and reports trends for top categories like technology, home and garden, automotive, pop culture and fashion.

Alongside editorial style blog posts are various widgets featuring top eBay product info.

• Tag clouds for whats popular right now in each topic area.
• Most popular searches right now.
• Most watched products right now.

I’ve already found some interesting data. One of the introductory posts from Insider Source Tech on eReaders closes with this juicy info:

On eBay you can find eReaders from Kindle, Sony, Hanlin and iRex, although the most popular is the Kindle. In the past 60 days, there were over 23,000 Kindle listings with the average selling price around $113.

That’s the kind of detail and insight into e-commerce trends I would like to see more of! Definitely consider subscribing to your pick of the various RSS feeds or following @TheInsideSource on Twitter to stay updated.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

November is my favorite month of the year. The winter holidays are just around the corner. We’re all working towards rounding out a solid year of growth and preparing to tackle 2010.

Friday, the 6th, is my birthday! For those keeping tabs, I’ll be 26. As a little present to myself, I’m hosting this domain clearance sale.

I don’t get to promote my own portfolio very much. As a matter of fact, the majority of these domains have never been offered for sale before.

Browse the unique categories below to find what interests you. There are a lot of quality domains, priced to sell!

This sale will only last through November 30th.

Domains will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Please contact me directly by email at mark@dotsauce.com or, if you prefer, use this contact form with any questions or to purchase domains.

Brandable Names

The App Store

Business Builders

Designer Special

Web Developer Special

Reseller Special

Product Domains

All domains are registered at GoDaddy for a quick and easy transfer of ownership. Payments will be accepted through PayPal for verified buyers.

Remember, Sale Ends November 30th!

Please contact me directly by email at mark@dotsauce.com or, if you prefer, use this contact form with any questions or to purchase domains.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

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

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

8 Killer Domaining Tricks

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

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

1) Expired Domains Explained

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

2) 5 Tips on Selling Domain Names for Maximum Profit

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

3) “The Domainers Language” Guide

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

4) Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business?

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

5) Expiring Domains Research Pro Tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 Delicious
Web Development Treats

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

1) 99 High-Quality Free XHTML/CSS Templates

2) Free E-Commerce Widgets Usable on Any CMS

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

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

5) 75 Free Icon Sets for Web Designers and Developers

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

7) 51 Web Apps for Web Designers and Developers

8) 10 WordPress Themes and Plugins for Turnkey Online Business

9) 10 Most Useful Google Plugins for WordPress

10) 10 Best WordPress Plugins for Blog Traffic

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

Happy Halloween!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

Before I get into the actual solution for adding affiliate IDs to RSS feeds, here is a little background information on what led me to seek out this method as well as an example of how I am putting it into practice.

I am a big fan of the Envato web goodies marketplaces, ActiveDen, AudioJungle, VideoHive, GraphicRiver, but most especially, ThemeForest. Hundreds of fresh, high quality CSS/HTML and WordPress themes can be found from top designers.

The Envato referral program is pretty neat, earning members 30% of the first cash deposit made by anyone they refer. It is not a traditional affiliate program by any means. However, it can still be a nice bonus for little effort (the content really sells itself).

My earned cash is spent on awesome WordPress themes! I have downloaded many premium themes this way, essentially for free.

I Wonder If I Can…

I contacted Envato to request a way to add my affiliate ID to their new category RSS feeds. They replied to let me know that they currently do not have code in place to accomplish this, but would be looking into my suggestion.

I’m pleased to present that I may have saved them the trouble!

Solution for Adding Affiliate ID to RSS Feeds

I decided to find my own solution and came up with a custom Yahoo Pipe for appending my affiliate id to any RSS feed.

Using this solution I would be able to share all the beautiful WordPress themes as they are released on ThemeForest with my @ThemeHunter Twitter followers and earn some cash while doing so!

The Custom Pipe

I am using Yahoo Pipes to alter the original RSS feed and output a completely new feed with affiliate ID appended to the end of each feed item URL. Here is my custom pipe structure:

(Get This Pipe)

Customize the Pipe

Here are the simple steps you need to take to make this your own.

1. Login and Clone the Pipe so you are able to save and customize.
2. Paste your desired RSS feed URL into the “Fetch Feed” box.
3. Replace “?ref=DotSauce” with whatever affiliate ID you need to append.
4. Run your new pipe and get it as RSS!

Using my custom pipe you can create an unlimited number of revenue generating feeds from your favorite affiliate or referral programs. Embed your dynamic feeds on your site or even share them on social networks!

I hope you enjoyed this resource. Please consider sharing this article with fellow affiliates. If you have any questions or related ideas I would love to hear them. You can find the comments tab above the article.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

The TRAFFIC, New York 2009 domain conference is underway and starting right now Rick Latona Auctions is broadcasting live on Domaining.com

Domains being offered today include gems like Bananas.com, Bourbon.com, Database.com, Hookahs.com, Draw.com, Referrals.com and many more.

To review all of the premium domains being auctioned today or participate in the auction you can visit the official auction page on Proxibid.

Frank Michlick will be reporting final sales prices live from DNN.com

Tomorrow, October 28th at 4:00 – 6:30 PM ET Moniker will host another live premium domain auction at the TRAFFIC conference.

Up for auction are some valuable properties including…

• Photo.com
• QB.com
• Feature(s).com
• Stuff.com
• OfficeSupply.com

To review all of the premium domains being auctioned tomorrow or participate, visit Moniker’s Auction Headquarters auction inventory. The extended online auction will continue through Nov 4.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

I would like to share a simple yet powerful Twitter tip for finding people with your similar interests to follow on Twitter. There may be multiple ways of going about this process and I think I’ve found the quickest, but the main idea is to follow the re-tweets!

There are two things we can assume about people who re-tweet links to resources and articles. First, they are interested in the subject of that article or resource. Second, they are engaging actively with their followers and sharing. My kinda people!

I have always been a fan of Bit.ly, even before Twitter decided to use them as the default link shortening service. Their click tracking analytics and clean interface have always appealed to me. In this guide we will be using the Bit.ly sidebar tool to find and follow new interesting people.

Step 1. Register an account with Bit.ly.

Once logged in you will be able to drag the sidebar tool button (shown right) to your browser toolbar.

Step 2. Find an article of interest to you.

Popular articles will work best as we’re looking to see who might have shared this article. Consider your favorite blogs’ best posts or the latest news from your topic of interest.

You can use sites like TweetMeme, TweetMixx or Favstar to find articles that have been re-tweeted alot. Now navigate to the article page.

Step 3. Activate the Bit.ly sidebar tool.

Click the link you just placed in your browser toolbar. The Bit.ly sidebar allows you to quickly re-tweet this article, see how many visits the article has received and last but not least you can see the Twitter conversation.

Step 4. Follow the Re-Tweets!

The “Conversations” area shows everyone who has re-tweeted the article in a nice chronological list.

You can scroll all the way to the bottom and see who first shared an article and as you move up the list you see how the re-tweets progressed.

Click a few Twitter profile names at a time while holding the Ctrl key or click with your mouse scroll-wheel to open them in a new tab.

You will likely find hundreds of new and interesting people to check out and follow on Twitter using this method.

These people like to share stuff, so if you have quality tweets there’s a good chance they may be re-tweeting YOU soon!

Speaking of re-tweets, you can click here to Tweet this article.

Be sure to follow @DotSauce for live updates on future articles.

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

I’ve decided to share some tips for bloggers and more than a few secrets about my top earning affiliate campaigns. Some readers have expressed interest in learning about affiliate marketing, so I hope these first hand examples will provide some new ideas for your own campaigns.

While choosing great businesses and products is important, building a following, relevant content and authority on a specific niche will help you tremendously. It’s important to establish yourself first and overall give much more than you take, so to speak.

Without further adieu, here are my top 5 earning affiliate campaigns…

1. GoDaddy

I’ve been a GoDaddy affiliate for years now. Hundreds of domainers and almost every domain industry blogger are affiliates with GoDaddy through Commission Junction.

Here is a little insight into how I’ve made GoDaddy my top earning affiliate program.

• Capitalized on the launch of .ME domains! Prior to Montenegro’s ccTLD going mainstream, I wrote several articles and kept readers updated on the landrush pre-launch and eventually the public launch. I walked away with $3000+ in commissions from the .ME launch.
• Provided high quality expiring domains and suggest subscribers to register domains through GoDaddy. Initially I published this service on NamePros, and it evolved into a private subscription service called DotSauce Premium. Recently, DotSauce Premium has been open to the public for free. Earnings are modest with this method, a few dollars every few days. Occasionally someone will make a substantial purchase, likely bulk registration and the commissions go up.

2. Hummingbird

Hummingbird is the #1 best selling software for Twitter automation, having paid out over $76,000 in affiliate commissions. My take is roughly $2,500 so far.

I wrote here on DotSauce about my experiences with the software and how it can be extremely beneficial to any online business. Hummingbird automates the process of targeting quality people, following them and tracking performance. 

How did I make it successful?

• Discount codes. The key element of my article was that I was offering a promotional discount. Traffic from search engines still comes in daily as I rank highly for key terms related to Hummingbird. Unfortunately, there are no current discount codes, but that doesn’t mean people are not searching for them daily.
• Kept the article updated as Hummingbird launched version 2 of their software.
• Recruited Twitter enthusiasts like you to sign up for the affiliate program.

3. SEOMoz

Wrote an article about the launch of SEOMoz’s  innovative new SEO research tool called LinkScape. Again, some select keywords were used here featuring a free trial promotion and I ended up ranking for the ever sought after code.

I received two large conversions who must have paid yearly because each commission check was around $400. In the end earnings have slowed but well worth the minimal effort of sharing a relevant tool from the best minds in SEO.

The SEOMoz affiliate program is managed by the Pepperjam Network.

4. Affiliate Theme

An innovative WordPress theme featuring a slick admin and built to save time creating sites. Affiliate Theme was developed  by an associate of mine, Nate Whitehill and his team at Unique Blog Designs, so I was more than happy to share the launch of his new product. I was sure my readers would be interested as well. Turns out I was right. By sharing this announcement I have earned $842.85 and still receive occasional new commissions.

• I occasionally give Affiliate Theme a shout out on my Twitter profile (@ThemeHunter) that is targeted to WordPress themes.
• Featured this announcement in a special area of my blog. (See featured article slider below)

5. TUTS Plus

This web development and graphic design membership website by the Envato Network features hundreds of high quality tutorials with included source files.

I really have to give credit for this being a success to the TUTS+ team. The price is an extremely good deal at just $9 per month and affiliates get a bonus monthly recurring commission! Here is some insight into how I made it successful.

• Referred 22 people so far which has earned me a $228.50 + 25% of what they pay every month for a year.
• Endorsed TUTS+ as a satisfied customer. The thing I am most happy about is that my own membership is covered and the people I refer are getting a quality resource.

What’s your top earning affiliate program?

If you dare to share, please leave a comment! If you have any comments or questions or even tips for me about my campaigns I’d love to hear them. Thanks for reading!

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.

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

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

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

Adding Ecwid to WordPress

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

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

Demonstration of Product Display and Checkout

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

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

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

What do you think about Ecwid?

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

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

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

This article is from DotSauce Magazine.