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Premium WordPress Plugins & Code Snipets

Elliot Silver
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I use WordPress on a number of my websites because it’s an easy platform to manage. There are thousands of programmers and designers who use WordPress, and likewise, there are thousands of great plugins (both free and inexpensive) that can help a developer customize a website. IMO, it makes web development less expensive and less time consuming than a custom content management system.

I was having a chat with my web developer last night, and he recommended that I check out Code Canyon to see the WordPress plugins that are sold on site. I had heard of the site before because of its affiliation with ThemeForest.net, but I hadn’t really visited or looked around. Not only is The Events Calendar plugin I use on Lowell.com and Newburyport.com for sale on the site (I had discussed it before), but there are plenty of other great scripts and plugins as well.

Frequently, Mike has to make modifications to free plugins to better suit my needs, but sometimes enhanced plugins, that do what I want out of the box, are available on Code Canyon for a few dollars, which is obviously better than paying an hourly rate for customization. As much as Mike doesn’t mind getting paid extra to do extra work, he has (more than) enough on his plate right now to keep him very busy!

Code Canyon has everything from enhanced contact forms, to jquery code, to advertising platforms, and everything else in between. Yes, some of the links contain affiliate code, but Code Canyon is something my developer uses and a site I will continue to monitor to find great WordPress plugins.

Usually, I come up with ideas for my websites based on things I’ve seen elsewhere, and I leave it to Mike to find the plugin or script to make it work. Now, I will look at the plugin options first and ask him to implement them on site. It’s a good way to save time and money.

New Charge for Posting Comments

Elliot Silver
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After careful consideration, I’ve decided to implement a small charge for posting comments on my blog. Each comment you post will cost $.05 USD. If you post more than 25 comments per month, the cost will be lowered to $.04 USD/each, and people who post 100 or more comments a month will only be charged $.025 USD/comment. You may also pre-purchase 1,000 comments for just $0.01 USD/each.

In addition, comments that are mean spirited, that question the validity of my article, or those that insult others will be charged double. Similarly, comments that are positive, ass-kissing, or otherwise complementary will be half price. I am the sole judge on the categorization of said comments.

It takes quite a bit of my time to approve and moderate comments, and this is the most fair way to address the situation. The comment charges will be kept accurate via IP address, and payment can be submitted at the end of the month via Paypal. Charge disputes may be addressed directly with me.

Finally, if you haven’t guessed already, I am just kidding around. Hope you’re having a good summer so far. Happy Friday.

Exclusive: The Man Who Nearly Partnered with Alleged Russian Spy Anna Chapman

Elliot Silver
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Texas entrepreneur came close to partnering with alleged Russian spy on NYCRentals.com start up

To this single man from Houston, Texas, Anna Chapman was very attractive and well put together. Although she was not wearing provocative clothing when they first met at a trendy restaurant across from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the red-headed Chapman’s conservative Chanel suit and freshly styled hair was reminiscent of the classic Jackie O look. She looked good, but didn’t oversell her beauty.

During the initial meeting in early 2010, Chapman exuded a confidence the Texas Internet entrepreneur (who wishes to remain anonymous) wasn’t accustomed to seeing in women – “she was like a female with balls,” he shared, illustrating her directness and confident attitude. There wasn’t any indication that Chapman could be anything other than how she had been described, a successful entrepreneur who built a multi-million dollar business in Russia selling real estate online.

These two individuals were introduced out of the blue by the Russian wife of a friend of the Texan, who was acquainted with Chapman and knew she was looking for a New York real estate domain name to go with her business. NYCRentals.com hadn’t yet been fully developed, and it would be the perfect domain name on which Chapman could run her business in the US.

The Texan was intrigued by her beauty, and he was interested in working with someone who had been described as being very successful. He also believed she brought quite a bit to the table, as she had promised to help fund the company with somewhere between $150,000 – $200,000. The cursory details of the partnership sounded good to the Texan, whose other online business ventures and the “complicated Manhattan rental market” precluded him from building the business he first envisioned when he acquired NYCRentals.com for $5,250 in July of 2007.

The would-be partners subsequently met in person three or four more times over the next nine months or so to discuss business. Each meeting was held at a different upscale restaurant in New York City, and on two occasions, Chapman showed up with other men who were not a part of the deal.

For several months, the two would-be business partners frequently chatted on the phone and via text message, exchanging ideas and discussing their business deal. Chapman created a website for NYCRentals.com, and the Texas entrepreneur permitted the site’s launch, despite not having any working agreement. Concurrently, as reported by TechCrunch, Chapman was meeting with financiers and venture capitalists to discuss this business venture.

As the deal process continued to be drawn out, the Texan grew leery of Chapman and the promise of making money with her. There was something about her that he didn’t trust. After reading proposed contracts that contained strange contingencies and legalese, all in the hopes of earning somewhere around 3% gross, the Texan decided that it might be in his company’s best interest to sell the domain name instead of creating this partnership.

The Texan proposed an outright sale of the domain name to Chapman, and he set a price of $50,000 for it. Chapman pleaded with him to sell it for $20,000, and after subsequent discussion, they agreed to a deal at $25,350. The transaction was finalized through domain registrar Moniker, and it was reported in June’s Domain Sales Report in DNJournal, coming in at #11 of the week.

Shortly after finalizing the domain deal, the Texan began hearing about Chapman on the news and her alleged spying for Russia, and he realized just how lucky he was. Not only did he make a profit on the sale of NYCRentals.com in the amount of $20,000, he avoided a partnership that could have ended badly and possibly led to the seizure of his domain name.

Although he hasn’t been contacted by government officials, he is still pretty shocked about the entire turn of events. “I still do not believe it,” he said, “but I have faith in the country to know what they’re doing.”

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Photo: Facebook via NY Daily News

SuperMedia Launches “Super” Domains

Elliot Silver
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Super Media, LLCPat Quinn from Big Iron Design emailed me this morning to share information for a follow-up to a post I wrote about SuperMedia’s acquisition of “Super” domain names. The company spent quite a bit of money acquiring domain names in the aftermarket, and it looks like they’ve launched a number of them.

Some of their new portals include:

When you visit the websites above, SuperMedia seems to be using a redirect to AskLearnHire.com, followed by an immediate second redirect back to the website you visited (you can only notice it if you watch your url bar change). If you visit AskLearnHire.com directly, you can learn more about the purpose of these mini-websites. It appears that the company wants to build small websites for social networking and interactivity between businesses and consumers. In my opinion, this is a smart move.

SuperMedia hasn’t built all of their websites out yet, as SuperPainters.com, SuperMoving.com, and SuperFlorists.com, which were mentioned in my original article, have not been developed yet. It is very possible that they are testing these portals, perhaps supported by television and/or print campaigns.

Welcoming DomainAdvertising.com

Elliot Silver
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Domain AdvertisingI would like to welcome a new advertiser to my website, Domain Advertising. You may have previously met company representatives at a domain investment tradeshow or read about the company’s founding in a profile, written by Ron Jackson. Domain Advertising is led by domain industry veteran, CEO Dan Warner, and the company has significant financial backing from the Ashmore Group and the Directi Group.

One of the primary offerings of Domain Advertising is what they refer to as “hyper contextual parking solutions.” The company can help domain investors create and test fantastic looking landing pages with a focus on generating maximum revenue for its customers.

Each domain name is optimized with hand selected phrases based on commercial usage and search volume, and the landing page is designed by hand with individually selected images placed by designers. Domain Advertising has an extensive library of images covering hundreds of verticals.   Each image is contextually specific enough that they qualify to be used as clickable images when used in conjunction with the bound phrases – a function not allowed in Google systems. This level of customization can be tested and optimized on an ongoing basis, helping to drive additional revenue.

Although I can’t share links to specific landing pages because of the rules of sending traffic to a parked page, I can share a few sample landing pages the company created and hosts:

Domain Advertising also works directly with advertisers, allowing their advertisements to be placed directly on the sites of publishers. This helps drive additional revenue for publishers, as a layer of management is removed and more relevant links are placed directly on site, driving higher CTRs.

As one might expect from a company that is led by Warner, Domain Advertising is a technology focused and customer centric company. You can sign up for Domain Advertising services and you can also connect with Domain Advertising on Twitter. I look forward to a good relationship with them.

Who is Aldo Landucci?

Elliot Silver
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In the last few days, my Blog has received a number of visits from Google after people searched for the term “Aldo Landucci.” One of my readers had posted an email he received from a “Aldo Landucci” in an article I wrote about domain scams. Since I don’t have any evidence that this is a scam, I decided to give it a separate blog post.

I know of many people who have received the same (or at least a similar) email, which seem to be targeting the acquisition of .net domain names. I don’t know if the person is closing deals, replying to emails, or if it’s even a real person, but I wanted to let you know that a lot of people have received the emails, so don’t get your hopes raised too high if you happen to get one, too.

Incidentally, Justin Godfrey, the former owner of EscrowDNS wrote a post on DNForum about this email since it mentions the company he founded. According to Justin, “It’s come to my attention that someone is sending out emails offering to purchase domain names and then suggesting to use escrowdns.com as a potential escrow service. I have also received an email from this person as well and do not know if they are scammers or if they are legit buyers, at any rate, Escrowdns.com is in no way affiliated with this person.”

Below is the text of an email I’ve seen used by this person.   Feel free to let us know if you’ve closed a deal with this person or at least if you’ve had further conversations with “him.”

“Dear Sirs,

I’d be interested in a possible purchase of your domain xxxxxxxxxxxx.net ; please, let me know if you wish to sell and your best asking price for a possible quick deal or, at least, your price expectations around whom negotiating.

I’m serious and I can guarantee a smooth transaction closed through EscrowDns.com or any other authorized domain brokerage services or, if you’re a verified paypal.com member, I can pay in advance through them, no problem. You’d transfer the domain in my hands only at payment confirmed, we’d discuss these details in a second time.

Just for your curiosity, I’m acquiring few generic domains to develop with targeted content in the next months during my spare time so, if you’ve other domains no longer useful to you, kindly send me a list to talk about a possible sale of the same, I guarantee a quick reply in any case.

Kind regards

Mr. Aldo Landucci
Email: aldo@nym.hush.com”

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