Understood around the world as an abbreviation for “COmpany,” “COrporation” and “COmmerce,” .CO is easy to recognize, simple to remember and flexible to use. It offers international recognition in a fresh landscape where shoppers can still choose the name they want.


Go directly to GoDaddy‘s website for further details or…

Starting July 20, .CO domains will be offered to the general public, with pricing set at just $29.99/yr.  Take advantage of this great new product offering and upload a .CO banner today!

You may also be interested in the following:

Create An Adsense And Clickbank Monetized, Search Engine Optimized, Niche WordPress Blog In Just A Few Minutes With The Socrates Theme!

No fancy sales copy, just watch the video, spend some time on the demo blog and decide whether Socrates is the WordPress Theme you’ve been waiting for…

With Socrates, you’ll find:

1. Custom header design system.
2. Over 200 niche headers.
3. Create Custom Headers On The Fly.
4. Easy to Manage Navigation Links.
5. 50+ Backgrounds or Upload Your Own.
6. Design combinations running into 1000′s.
7. WordPress tutorials and training.
8. Instantly Monetize your site.
9. Integrated affiliate program.
10. Built-in Clickbank monetization.
11. Sales page template.
12. Squeeze page template.
13. Advanced SEO features.
14. Create Multiple Layouts.
15. Footer Widgets For Extra Customization.

The developer, Dan Nickerson has done a fantastic piece of work. A highly customisable premium WordPress Theme created by marketers for marketers. Check out the Socrates demo today.

The users page gives details of the users on your blog and allows you to manage user roles. The following is a quick summary of the differences between the user roles.

We all share URLs (website links) with each other through emails, blogs, social media sites, book marking websites and word of mouth and we rarely, if ever, think about the potential security risk this simple act can raise. In this article I will outline some of the potential risks involved in sharing shortened links supplied by URL Shortening Services.

Continue reading »

This is a work in progress and more details will be here within the next couple of days. The series will cover everything you need to know about URL Shortening, including a comprehensive list of the current services available.
To complement URL Shortening, especially for affiliates, the series will also cover everything you need to know about URL Cloaking including the source code for the various techniques available.

The story so far:

by Philip King

When you give your WordPress plugin or theme away what are you hoping to gain? Nothing! Fame! Money! If your answer is fame and/or money then how are you going to achieve this? In this article we will discuss the possibilities of making money by giving your product away.

The Answer

Well the answer to how you going to achieve fame and riches has to be, from advertising. Just like celebrities, the fame you’ve gained from that brilliant plugin or theme can earn you status in the eyes of advertisers. The key is to forget (from a financial point of view) the product and concentrate on your "brand".

Branding is everywhere you look, supermarkets, cars, electronics, airlines, sportswear, food, clothing and of course celebrities.

If you can become a celebrity you gain the status of being an expert. Think Bill Gates and the brand Microsoft, Nikkie, David Beckham or Kelvin Klien who’s brands are their name. They have all been given expert status!

Notice that the products being sold, is secondary to the brand. The brand is the image, the status grabber. It’s the branding of the product that sells, hence the brilliantly simple but memorable logos you see on products.

Manufacturers also take care to brand their product and ensure the visibility of the brand. Cars are an excellent example here. Do you know of any car, even custom made, that does not showcase a brand. Computers, electronics and even supermarket plastic bags do the same, they push the brand, not the product.

This is all indirect advertising, marketing and PR, like word of mouth, used to promote the brand and hence the manufacturers products. People see the brand and if the trust the brand they are motivated to buy.

The Power of Brand Names

Question, which would you prefer, a BMW, a Mercedes or a Lada?

How many people do you think selected a Lada?

But look at the question again, you don’t even know what the product is! I didn’t say what the product was. Your selection was based purely on the brand name. You jumped to a conclusion based purely on a brand name.

I think that proves the power of brand names…

Showcase Your Brand Not Just Your Product

On the web your brand image can be just as important, showcase it and get links to your website whenever possible. Place, "Powered by" links in you theme footers and on your plugin products, but do give users the choice of disabling any visible branding, most will not.

Controversial Topic

I realise that branding plugins and themes is a controversial topic and that some would argue along the following lines;

… if users want my product they will have to accept my visible branding after all they get the product for free anyway, I should get something in return. A little advertisement will not hurt their website…

At the end of the day it’s a matter of personal choice. The developer has to choose between forcing a brand onto the user and the user has to decide if that is acceptable.

I suspect, if the end user is not given a choice, they will find an alternate plugin. Remember the better your plugin or theme the more it will be copied, improved upon and made freely available. Give the user a choice and trust to fair play.

Finally

With open source being the rule rather than the exception on the web, branding and the associated status is the best way for web developers and designers to get something in return for their hard work. Use this option along with any services you can provide to increase your visibility and hence your marketability for advertising revenue.

by Philip King

Are you planning to release a commercial "premium" WordPress theme or plugin or even a software application maybe? Have you thought about how you are going to market the product? Have you though about the licensing issues, especially if the source code is available for all to see?

This article will discus "premium" themes and plugins in particular and the issuing of licensing under the GNU General Public License agreement.

As commercial plugins are a rare sight in the WordPress community, I’m going to discuss the general idea of commercial, paid for, premium WordPress themes and plugins in more detail and provide my views on the relevant issues raised in this respect.

My Position

First let me clarify my position. I’m new to writing plugins, in fact I haven’t been brave enough to release any to the outside world yet. I just write simple ones to get round problems on my site and then only if I cannot find a plugin to do the job from the many excellent plugin authors far more skilled in this task than myself. I don’t believe in re-inventing the wheel.

If you are a developer or have experience in this area (you might be going through this process now) I’m sure your views will be welcomed by all. So don’t be shy, correct me where I’m wrong, elaborate on a point where necessary and share any ideas I’ve missed.

GNU General Public License?

What is the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) and does it insist that everything has to be given away for free? The following is an edited quote from the GNU site (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html):

The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.

The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program–to make sure it remains free software for all its users.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish)…

Developers that use the GNU-GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.

For the developers’ and authors’ protection, the GNU-GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software.

Point No1

So, point of interest number one, the GNU-GPL does not stop an author (or anyone for that matter) from selling a product for a profit.

Point No2

The author (or owner) of the product retains copyright of the product (unless they give that right away).

non GNU-GPL Licenses

There seem to be many arguments over whether or not themes and plugins can be licensed under other, non-GNU-GPL, licenses. The short answer is yes, they can, but …

Licensing & GNU-GPL Compatibility

A point of contention with writing WordPress plugins seems to be whether plugins have to be GNU-GPL compatible. This of course applies to any addition to any GNU-GPL product, not just WordPress but I will continue to use WordPress as an example (since I think WordPress is the best).

For your plugin to be hosted by WordPress (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/about/) there are a few restrictions and one of these restrictions is:

• Your plugin must be GPLv2 Compatible.

Plus, as WordPress uses the GNU-GPL all "derivative works" must also use a compatible license. This allows the user to freely modify, redistribute and/or sell the product and source code, something usually not favorable to plugin authors making a profit. But is this really the case or can profits be make by looking at the problem from anther point of view? Read on…

Derivative Works

The GNU-GPL states:

If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

And goes on to explain:

… it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

"Normal" Plugins

So do plugins qualify as "derivative works". The quick answer is, yes. Generally "normal" plugins could be considered derivative works.

The simpler "normal" plugins are generally heavily derivative. On the whole they tend to be just a few functions hooked directly into WordPress. These type of functions derive their calling methods from WordPress and have very little functionality in their own right, so they fall into the category of being derivatives of WordPress (in my opinion, but read on…).

"Complex" Plugins

The exception to this would be for very complex plugins which have identifiable sections not derived from the main program and which can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves. Plus, you must distribute them as separate works.

Complex plugins are far more independent. They have several files, their own mechanisms for operation, and sometimes there’s just one "plugin" file that hooks into WordPress. These have a better case for being classed as separate works.

Interpretation of GNU-GPL

The above text could also be interpret this way…

The GNU-GPL states that obviously independent parts (plugins and themes) of the main program are considered separate works and do not have to be licensed under the GNU-GPL terms unless distributed with WordPress.

Of course, if you don’t distribute under the GNU-GPL terms then WordPress will not distribute your plugin or theme, i.e. they will prevent your work from entering the repository (which is their right).

My Opinion – My Soap Box

We would not even be talking about this but for the generous work by all those concerned with blogs in general, WordPress in particular, the many plugin and theme authors and everyone in the community who give their time, work and effort for the greater good.

Before you try to commercialise your work, ask yourself this:

• Would the effort and legal issues involved be worth the reward?
• How soon could you’re plugin be duplicated and made freely available?
• How much would you really earn for your efforts?

On the other hand, giving away a really great product for FREE gets you really great publicity. Plus you’re not legally bound by any contracts. Ask yourself this:

• How much can you make from the thousands of extra visitors to your web site because of the plugin or theme you made available?
• How many more visitors will you get because your plugin or theme was advertised on every portal of WordPress.

Need inspiration? Just look at the many companies who give their products away yet still make generous incomes.

Well if you’re in need of a coaching program that will show you how to setup and customise your blog without needing any technical knowledge, build your readership and get traffic for your site then you may be interested in the article I’ve just published on the Blog Mastermind system by Yaro Starak (I’ve also written an article on Yaro to accompany the review).

I must admit, I’m not overly fond of coaching programs. They never seem to match the quality of the courses I received at the Open University but the Blog Mastermind coaching program seems to be an exception. Give it a look see.

Some new sections have been added to the, Domain Names – What You Need to Know series. The series now includes the following files.

• Best ISP for WordPress and eBusiness

• Domain Names – What You Need to Know

• Does a good domain name improve search engine rankings?
• Domain Name Extensions – Which Is Best?
• Domain Names – How Do They Work?
• Domain Names – What Are They?
• Older Domain Names – Do They Rank Higher?
• 20 Tips on Creating Your Domain Name

Two new sections added to the, Domain Names – What You Need to Know series. The new section describe what domain names are and how they work.

Domain Names – What You Need to Know

• Domain Names – How Do They Work?
• Domain Names – What Are They?