There were only 3 scripts that I could find that were sort of well known. Actually, only 2 are popular and 3^rd is pretty new.

1. Open Classifieds – this script has been around for a while and has some user base. What I liked about it that it comes with a nicer theme.  It has most of the basic features. It also has a structure closer to what I was looking for. But it is lacking some advanced features and plugins.

1. OSClass –  seems to be more advanced script and has plugins. And it seems like many people even converted from the 1^st option to this one. But what I didn’t like about this one is that the built in themes are crap. Yes, their site shows off some nice examples but it doesn’t come with any decent theme nor there is an option to get a free one.

1. DClassifieds – this is the newer kid on the block. I can imagine it still has some bugs but what I liked about it is that it uses a great php framework called Yii and has the best code base. My fear is that it may not be mature enough. It doesn’t come with a great theme nor has plugin options. But it does have a great framework. Note: it has tricky download page, to download it go to  here.

I give kudos to all the developers of the scripts. It does take a lot of time/effort to build/release an open source script.

My first option was Open Classifieds because it had the theme/features that I was looking for. And I thought that with little modification I can get it to what I need it to be. I downloaded and installed it. It did take me some time to install it as it has a bug in the installer. But then once, I started getting in to it, I realized that it’ll take a lot of time to get it the way I wanted it. So I started having second thoughts and will probably have to try another option.

It’s really hard for me to choose a script as I am a developer, I don’t just look at the demo,  I look under the hood and see how the script is built. And guys, most of the time, I’m not impressed. Most open source scripts are crap when it comes to the code base. Yes, including WordPress. Most scripts are poorly architected and they keep patching it to make it work some how. It’s no wander there is some kind of security update on WordPress every other week. But again, I am thankful to all the authors that have spent their time creating these scripts.

So again, the first 2 options were just like that. And since I have to make some modifications, I really didn’t want to work with such code. So today, I’m going to try out DClassifieds which has much better architecture, but again, I hope it doesn’t have a lot of bugs as it’s a newer product. I will have to modify a lot and maybe create an entire new theme for it, but hopefully, it shouldn’t be too hard as I’m already familiar with the framework.

So if you have no coding abilities, I’d suggest going with OSClass as it seems to be a more mature product and has tons of plugins already. You may just have to create a theme for it.

Once it’s ready, I’ll share the domain/website and you can tell me what you think.

I really liked the idea and with website sales becoming more popular, we defiantly need a way to have some sort of formal appraisal.  The challenge with website sales has always been verifying the financials. Appraiso is a great way to do a quick check and get an estimate.

Protrada is another great platform for quickly building websites and the integration makes a lot of sense. Being a web developer myself, I can appreciate such efforts as they do take a lot of time and energy on both sides to get it right.

I always try to find ways to automate tasks/processes myself and I can tell you that our industry needs a lot of it.

Once again, kudos to Morgan and his team as well as Protrada team for going the extra mile for their users.

I kind of felt that most of them are BS, yet I am sure they sell millions of copies of these. It made me wander, wouldn’t be great if something like that was done for domaining.

It would no longer be a fake product, it would be something that actually works and has all the variables that people are looking for, ei, work from home, internet based, low startup costs, digital goods, etc.

I happen to believe that the more people become domainers the better. Our industry needs to expand, we have to get the word out and for that we need to expand our workforce.

I want to see a time when every business looks into aftermarket or hires a domain consultant to buy their domain instead of just going and grabbing the next available domain.

And can you imagine how many millions of households actually seat and watch those infomercials. Even if they don’t buy the product, they’ll learn about the existence of domaining.

I say most business owners still don’t know the importance of a domain. My plumber called me the other day and asked me if I’d build a website for him. I usually don’t take such jobs anymore. But I’ve known the guy forever and wanted to help out. The guy knows almost nothing about internet or websites, but then he made a statement “I already registered the domain” and gave his company name which is some crappy name, nothing to do with plumbing. And it’s hard to be a developer and domainer, I used to not care, but now, I find myself consulting about domains.  It would be great if business owners understood the importance of a domain.

Anyway, back to the course. So what do you think I did next? This idea has been in my mind for a few months now. Well, as a first step, I bought the domain name that would be great for it, can you guess? Well, I bought DomainingCourse(dot)com. That’s right.

While, I don’t have the budget to go through this, I have a plan B for it for now. As a plan B, I want to create and interactive Domaining Course website for beginners. I’m still working out the details, feel free to pitch in and comment. What kind of features would you like to see in such a course?

I still can’t believe the quality of the domains I see on TopDrops. Every time I go in there, I want to purchase them all, lol.

If you’re into expired domains, TopDrops.com should be your daily destination. There are a lot of great/amazing domains dropping and many go unnoticed.

This daily top 10 email will now make it easier to glance over the top dropping domains. But there are a few hundred daily Top Drops on the site and sorting algorithm isn’t all that great, so be sure to go through the rest of the Top Drops on daily bases.

Well, now that the email subscription is done, you know what’s next right? Well, yes, the free ride is almost over. I plan on integrating the subscription plan this week, which means this week may be the end of free use of TopDrops.com.

There will still be an option for a free account which will include the daily email.

So if you don’t have an account yet, be sure to sign up and use TopDrops.com as much as you can while it’s free.

Have a great day!

Just being in one room with a lot of like-minded people is already a great benefit. It provides plenty of networking and partnership opportunities.  And of course, you have pros teaching it, which makes it even better. You can get a lot of your questions answered and hopefully not make as many mistakes.

The trouble with Domaining is that most people when starting assume that it’s really easy and only requires minimal investment. Well folks, that’s not true. Domaining can be like gambling if not done right. Just like gambling machines, you can start playing with packet change, but before you know it, you’re out $1000s

Domaining can have similar effect if not done right. If you buy a lot of junk/crappy domains, they add-up quickly, and before you know it, you’re out a lot of money.

I’ve always advised to take time to learn, experiment with no more than a couple of domains.

Boot Camp would be great if you can afford it. Hopefully, it’ll give you the missing parts of the equation.

I really like the Boot Camp idea and think Los Angeles needs one too

So back to the topic, those of you that have done a remodel know that it’s not fun. It takes a lot of time even if you’re not doing the work. In the past, I’ve always hired a contractor to take care of everything. This time around, I decided to do the contracting myself, I know think it was a mistake.

It’s taking nearly all of my free time to locate specific professionals, meet, discuss the project, start the work, buy material, fallow-up on inspections and so on.

Somehow, this process reminds me of Domain/Website development but with a lot more face to face meetings

Being the contractor is like being the architect of the software development.

Here is the process of Software Development

Seems very similar huh? At the same time it’s 2 different worlds. It’s hard to go from virtual world where most things are done via software/emails/calls etc. to physical where most things are done in person and sometimes you have to do the hard work yourself.

Anyway, I’m not complaining, it’s been a great journey and learning experience for me. I will be jumping into development soon and revisiting TopDrops.com/ValueDrops.com and I also have plans to jump start my startup LocalClub.

Happy Friday !

Sometimes it works well and they actually have a name that’s easy to remember/spell or it’s so common that you can’t really forget, ie: MikeSmith. But of course, a lot of those great domains are gone and now you’ll only be able to get .com of your name if you have an uncommon name. But wait, would you even want to base your business on your name when in fact you’d have to spell it out every time you tell someone? Answer is NO.

The other day there was an incident on the radio and it kind of proved my point. The host had invited a pro (can’t remember his name now, but that’s not important) and he talked about his services and so on. Eventually, the host asked him to share his website with the public. It was his full name, a veryyy long name. He said it out loud for a couple of times and went on spelling it for the next 20 seconds or so. Eventually, the host had to stop him and go to commercial. Now could he have said something more important in those 20 seconds? Sure, he just needed to have an easy to remember domain name that doesn’t need to be spelled out. I was kind of shocked because the guy makes good money and can easily afford to buy a great domain. And think about it, this was just one case, how many 20 seconds has he lost over the course of the business? I’d say many and not to mention the lost revenue.

So if you’re thinking about starting a business on your name/domain, I’d say think again, unless you have a common name and without spelling issues. It really is better to choose a 3 word .com and 2 word your name in most cases.

Many people think that interview is just about answering questions and answering them right, but it really is not the case. I didn’t really understand this concept until I was on the other side of the table taking the interview.

Here are some points to help you with the interview:

1. Be Prepared –  many would think this is about learning about the company and what they do. I guess that’s a little important, but what’s more important is that you be prepared to answer in depth questions about the position you’re going to fill in. Sometimes, this does mean that you have to go back and refresh your memory on different aspects of the job even if you think you know it all.
2. What’s New – part of this goes back to #1, you have to constantly be on top of new technologies and platforms that relates to your field. You have to know what’s out there, you have to show the interviewer that you haven’t been sleeping. For Example, Don’t assume just because job listing didn’t mention anything about HTML 5 that they wouldn’t ask questions about it.
3. Read The News Daily – that’s right, it doesn’t matter what field you’re in. You must read the news, at least news about your field. I read technology news on daily bases. I’ve discovered a lot of great stuff just by reading the news. Even if you’re unemployed, still read the news! You never know what will come up at the interview.
4. Keep Learning – what is going on? People have stopped learning. Just because you have a job today and it only requires you to do one thing, it doesn’t mean it’ll be like that at your next job. And trust me, when you’re only doing one thing, the chances of you being let go one day are much higher. So Invest in yourself. I’m not talking about going back to school; we have this thing called “Internet” now. You can learn anything you want to learn. Invest time in yourself. Spend at least one day a week on learning new things in your field. If you’re a programmer, how about learning jQuery or MVC. And reading a book is not the answer here. I mean hands on, do a small project or have a hobby project to work on.
5. Smile – don’t think it’s important? Think again. Unless, you’re applying for a CEO position, you should have a smile on your face. I’m not talking about looking like a retard, but have genuine smile on your face. Even if you think you’re the pro, know it all kind of guy, (this me, lol). Smile makes it easier to communicate and more relaxing.
6. Politeness – please be polite. Sometimes, this goes a long way, yes say “Thank You” or even “Sir.”  You really don’t want to leave impression of rudeness.
7. Typing – this may be related to technology fields, but I think computers being where they are now, this should be a requirement for any position. Do you know that some programmers still can’t type? I mean what is going on? Take a typing class, it’s not hard, it just tells me you’re lazy. Just because you type fast with 2 fingers, doesn’t mean you can type. I mean really, this really gets me. I took my typing class in high school, it probably was the most useful class I’ve taken in high school. I don’t really recommend that you try to learn on your own on this one, just take a class at your local community college. It’s fun!
8. What Have You Done? – yes, this is probably one of the most asked questions at the interviews. And yet, many are unprepared or simply don’t think before they talk. If you’re applying for a backend development position, don’t tell me that you haven’t been doing backend development for the past year. I’d say, really, seat down and write a complete essay on this point and memorize. What it is you’ve done, what projects you worked on? what was your role? Was the project successful? And so on. Again, don’t take 20 minutes to explain this, be short but to the point. And only talk about stuff that’s related to the position you’re applying for.
9. Personality – guys, this is really important. Show a nice personality. Show us that you’re social, outgoing, easy to work with, hands on, can do attitude, quick learner. I know this is a tough one, most programmers are known to be anti-social but that’s not an excuse. Don’t be afraid to speak up, to show your nice side. Show that you care, you’re motivated and willing to do whatever it takes, willing to learn and most importantly, show us that you love what you do. I mean really, this is a lot but if you love what you do, this should be come naturally.
10. Where do you see yourself after 5 years? Just kidding on this one lol, I absolutely hated this question and I’ve been asked this question a lot. I mean really? This point is for employers/interviewers, stop asking this dumb question. Granted, this is asked a lot in entry level positions, but still.
11. Say You Don’t know – yes, sometimes it’s better to say you just don’t know but are willing to learn. Don’t try to take 10 min and talk some random crap trying to answer the question. That’s worse than saying you don’t know it.
12. Know Your Stuff – it really comes down to this. All of the above points should still be fallowed, but still, you must know your stuff and know it well. Be confident, not just in yourself, but in your skills. And trust me you can’t fake this. You must have the skill set. Education is important but not as much as your knowledge and skills.

That’s it, I hope this will be helpful for your next interview.

But I still like monitoring traffic on the server as well. Google Analytics and others, all use javascript and for various reasons. the visit may not get recorded because of this. Many automated bots will not get tracked because they disable javascript calls.

So when monitoring your traffic, do pay attention to server logs or have a script installed for server side monitoring as well. This may not be that simple, but does give you more details on the visits.

I hadn’t been checking traffic for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been having very busy weeks, but I did an interesting discovery today.

I noticed a quite a bit of traffic increase on one of my sites, Top10Places.com. I actually love this domain, I think it’s one of my best domains if not the best. I think it has a potential to be a business on its own, that’s what I like about it.

But what’s interesting is that for a long time, the site wasn’t even on the first page of google for the main keyword, “top 10 places”. Although, in my case, it didn’t really matter as the site has tons of content and it’s getting traffic from those sub-pages.

So after noticing the traffic increase, I decided to do another search today and guess what? Not only, it’s on the first page, it’s on the #1 position for the main keyword “top 10 places.” This was an interesting discovery for me.

Hope you guys are having a great week!

A recent comment made to one of my other article pointed out the popularity of .co.uk, and it seems UK residents have gotten used to it. So I decided to look in to it.

So what’s wrong with this picture, why would companies/individuals go after a second level domain to begin with? Well, a Wikipedia article quickly answered the question for me.

It seems Nominet, UK’s naming body, is prohibiting the direct use of .uk cctld. They’ve come up with bunch of second level domains and companies/individuals have to select from the list. And it seems, .co.uk ( which stands for commercial use) won the popularity.

While I kind of understand that they did this to create more choices and keep the domains under .uk umbrella, I think it was a poor decision. This decision basically limited the use of the cctld only to UK as I don’t think anyone else would go for such a domain.

In the case of .co or .me or some of the other ccTlds, a lot of times they are being registered by non-residents hence creating more buzz/income for the cctld. Again, this might have been intentional to prevent such registrations, but again, I think the more sites launched on any ccTld the better. And having restrictions should not be the way to go. Even the residents or local companies a lot of times will turn away and use a gTld when there are too many restrictions and eventually it may kill .ccTld from no use.

I’d like to hear from UK residents, how do you like using .co.uk? wouldn’t you want it to be just .uk or you justify the restrictions?