Google is prohibiting newly registered domain names from participating in the Google for Domain Names program, severely hampering the practice of domain tasting. They would block all domains if they are less then five days old. This new policy change by Google could stop all Domain Tasting in its tracks! The new policy will go into effect before the end of February.

What is Domain Tasting?

Domain tasting is the practice of registrants using the five-day grace period (AGP) at the beginning of a domain registration to test the marketability of a domain name. What the domain taster does is register millions of domains and place Google Adsense for Domains on them, then drop the domains after the AGP expires and start all over again.

According to Jay Westerdal at Domain Tools, one Google domain taster was generating as much as $3 million dollars a month from the practice (and that was after Google’s cut)..

Oversee.net and other companies have been using this practice for years and it will have a direct impact on them. The gravy train of free money might be coming to a halt very fast. This policy change at Google should be announced to the channel partners soon and it will have a huge echoing impact on the Industry.

Good riddance! I’m sure I’m not the only one who has tried to register a domain name for legitimate purposes, only to find out that it’s already taken by a parking company. Google has been making some policy changes recently that’s upset webmasters all over the world (drastically reducing the referral bonuses, changing the Adsense clickable area, etc), but I think this is a change for the positive. What do you think?

I heard about the TNX System on Digital Point back in September, but I never got around to trying it out. Recently, I noticed more and more bloggers posting reviews on their service, so I decided to check them out for myself. They are a new text link provider, similar to TLA - But their approach is a bit different. While most link brokers sell you one or two links with high PR, TNX does just the opposite. They sell you LOTS of low PR links instead. For as little as $11 a month you can get up to 10,000 static links to your website.

For those interested in participating as webmasters:

TNX is free for webmasters who install a TNX code on their websites. In case there is a link sold from the page of your website that has Google PR = 4, you will be getting enough points to purchase up to 800 PR0 links from 800 sites. It is OK to hold on to the points or sell them at any time! TNX will automatically calculate ratings of each page of your website and fund your account when links are sold. One TNX-Point is basically a link from one website with very low rating/parameters (YB < 500, PR0, Subject: "Leisure, Jokes...") for a month. There may be 10000 points paid for just one link, so it all depends on the rating the page that has a link placed on it.

Many members that joined the TNX and created Ad Campaigns have already noticed more traffic from search engines on their websites. With TNX, you can promote unlimited amounts of websites and keywords. Within seconds, you can upload a file with thousands of unique links with different keywords.

I’m going to give it a try on a new site I recently launched, since it currently doesn’t have many backlinks. Check back with me in a month or so, and I’ll let you know how it worked out.

If you’re currently using it, let me know what you think of it so far. Thanks!

One thing that many small business owners fail to consider when going out on their own is dental coverage. Most people will get some sort of health insurance, but people tend to forget about their teeth. If and when you do need work done on your teeth, you’ll see that without insurance, things can get VERY expensive in a hurry. And when you look at the different dental insurance plans out there, you’ll find that most have 12-18 month waiting periods before any major work (root canals, bridges, etc) will be covered by them. Not to mention, the insurance plans are quite pricey.

An alternative that you might not have considered is a discount dental plan. These are plans that offer you full coverage almost immediately, and offer a significant savings over regular dentist pricing. There are many plans to choose from, so do your homework before jumping into a new plan. DentalPlans.com has been an industry leader bringing individuals, families and groups affordable and comprehensive discount dental plans. You can go on their website and search for your preferred dentist, and see which plans they accept. Then you can compare the plans, and see which one works best for you.

There are no sign-up fees, and plans start as low as $79/yr! So don’t delay, check out DentalPlans.com and get enrolled today!

There’s nothing worse than these shitty blogs consisting of nothing more than posts scraped from other blogs. Shoemoney wanted to make the scrapers work for him too, by getting some more backlinks from them. So he enlisted the help of Joost de Valk, and the result is a plug-in called RSS Footer. This Wordpress plug-in simply adds a link back to your blog in the footer of the articles in your RSS feed, like this:

Pretty slick, eh? At least now if someone if scraping your content, you’ll get full credit, as well as a backlink to your site. Joost has also added the option to add a link back to the post itself, with the title of the post as anchor text. This looks like this:

Definitely a plug-in worth adding to your Wordpress blogs!

Entrecard is a blogging service that has quickly emerged onto the blogger scene over the last couple of months. In a nutshell, it’s a free social advertising network for bloggers, and brings the concept of exchanging business card onto the Net. Entrecard allows you to advertise your 125×125 button (for free) on any blog in their network. You pay with Entrecard credits instead of real money, and you earn those credits by visiting other blogs and dropping off your Entrecard. It sounds complicated, but it’s really simple once you get used to it. Don’t let the complex control panel scare you off!

Entrecard is the brain child of Graham Langdon, creator of the Million Dollar Wiki. Already, a number of well-known bloggers are using Entrecard, and it’s continuing to grow each day! And in just two months, Entrecard has grown by leaps and bounds. Over 2000 free ads are now placed daily, and over half a million cards have been exchanged between site owners.

What are you waiting for?

Well wishes for a prosperous 2008!
  - Zander