Going through a lot of my methods of making money online, you may have noticed that a majority of the techniques involve buying a domain name at some point. True, when you are dealing with online businesses it is essential to have that winning website address that is going to sit on top of the Google search rankings and ring in your customers’ heads when they visit.

The only problem? Most good domain names are taken.

Our old solution to this method was to manually go to a website like GoDaddy.com, NameCheap.com or 1and1.com and search the name’s availability one by one. However, more recently I have come across a website called PC Names that let’s you do everyone in one shot — without even reloading the page!

As you can see by the video, PCNames.com is a very cool tool that will save you a boatload of time. Let’s get into a few of the pros/cons below.

Pros

I think that this service has a lot to offer, but a few of the best features are:

• Real-time search engine results
• Quickly see what is available / taken / for sale
• Keep track of your results, history and favorites with a interactive list
• A free and extensive database of reviews for all of the major domain registrars
• Additional tools like Bulk Lookup, Mobile App and Domain Generator

Cons

There aren’t a whole lot of drawbacks, but a few that I found are:

• The mouse-over feature on domain names doesn’t always load correctly
• The website is packed with affiliate ads (though heck, it is a business)
• Some of the additional “tools” on the site could be more expansive

In all, I was really excited when I came across this website as I think it is going to save a lot of my clients a TON of time as they try to build their own media empires or place investments online. It is 100% free to use and as long as you can avoid over-paying through their affiliate links… I think that this could be the one-stop shop for people looking to do a little late-night domain name research.

Stay bullish my friends.
-Jimvesting.com

I just got an email from Hostgator’s sales department detailing an outrageous offer they are promoting for Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). If you’ve been reading, you know that I have been pretty bearish on Black Friday in 2010… but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t deals to be had.

If you are reading this blog, chances are you either own a website or you are planning on getting a business/blog started. The web host that I have been using for this website almost since inception has been HostGator, and they have been gracious enough to run promotions with my blog and even offer unique coupon codes. The bottom line is that HostGator is the absolute best on the web, and if you are running a network of blogs it is the most reliable, most affordable and most feature-heavy package in the world.

Black Friday Deals

Details of what HostGator is offering are below, be advised that this starts in a few hours on November 26th, 2010, and will only run until midnight (Central Time)!

• 80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM to 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)
• From 9AM to 11:59PM CST OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, we will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING

This applies to ALL Accounts and ALL Term Lengths. So you will have the opportunity to receive up to 80% off of up to 3 years worth of Hosting! That would come out to $35.64 for 3 FULL YEARS! That includes Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting AND even Dedicated Servers! Never before has HostGator allowed the promotion on EVERYTHING including reseller, vps and dedicated servers AND ALL Term Lengths.

Interested? Check out the deals here!

This promotion gives our customers our award winning hosting for as little as:

• Shared Hosting: $4.95/month AS LOW AS $0.99/month
• Reseller Hosting: $24.95/month AS LOW AS $4.99/month
• VPS Hosting: $19.95/month AS LOW AS $3.99 First Month
• Dedicated Servers: $174/month AS LOW AS $34.80 First Month”

If you’ve ever wanted or needed web hosting, Black Friday at HostGator is literally the best deal I’ve ever seen. Go snag it if you can!

-Jimvesting

I was recently talking with a few buddies about the Web 2.0 “wave” of themes hitting the blogosphere, and we were chatting about the types of new tricks that can be done with CSS to stylize your blog. To me, what is considered “Web 2.0″ are themes and colors that are light, simple and easy-to read. I’d say that “fresh” is the new “professional“… and making your blog “fresh” isn’t as hard as it seems.

One really neat trick that I will now share with you involves adding simple “boxes” to your normal post structure, allowing you to add a beautiful flare to an otherwise ordinary blog post. As a note: I want to attribute this trick 100% to the designers at WooThemes . WooThemes is one of the pioneers of these great looking templates, so I am borrowing a piece of their code that a buddy and I were looking at to encourage you to change your website to fit a more natural “Web 2.0” feel.

Let’s Look at Some Examples

The first is an “alert“-type box, that could be used to warn users of some kind of exception to a rule or a potential downside/side-effect to a strategy:

WARNING! The Nuclear Reactor Is Set To Explode!

Let’s offer our users a free download with our “download“-type style:

Check out our FREE eBook: DOWNLOAD HERE

Why not give our users the green light with the “tick“-type box:

“It’s A Green Light Go” – Gorilla Zoe

Add some additional information or an expert tip with the “info“-type styling:

FUN FACT: The collecting of beer coasters is called “tegestology.”

Adding a little note here or there is convenient when you have a “note“-type box:

Grocery List: Milk, Eggs, Baking Soda, Chocolate Chips, Flour, Sugar

Awesome Styles, How Do I Use Them On My Blog?

I’ve compiled the coding you need to add this to your WordPress style, and the great thing about these is that they are really 100% plug-and-play! If you know your way around, you can have these styles working in under a minute.

STEP 1: Download the five different icons that you will need to designate a different style when you enter a new type of “box.”

Grab the icon series from Jimvesting.com:  DOWNLOAD ICON PACK

STEP 2: Upload the image files directly to the “images” folder within your theme (will most likely be located here: “/ROOT/wp-content/themes/THEMENAME/images/“) via an FTP client or web-based file uploader.

STEP 3: Add the following code anywhere in your CSS file (by default, this will be “style.css”) by editing your theme in WordPress (“Appearance” –> “Editor”)

/* CUSTOM IN-POST BOXES */ p.alert, p.download, p.info, p.note, p.tick {  margin:10px 0 20px 0; padding:9px 10px 9px 50px; } p.alert { border-top:1px solid #f0baa2; border-bottom:1px solid #f0baa2; background:#ffd9c8 url(images/ico-alert.png) no-repeat 20px 13px; } p.download { border-top:1px solid #d4ebaf; border-bottom:1px solid #d4ebaf; background:#edfcd5 url(images/ico-download.png) no-repeat 20px 13px; } p.tick { border-top:1px solid #d4ebaf; border-bottom:1px solid #d4ebaf; background:#edfcd5 url(images/ico-tick.png) no-repeat 20px 13px; } p.info { border-top:1px solid #ccc; border-bottom:1px solid #ccc; background:#eee url(images/ico-info.png) no-repeat 20px 13px; } p.note { border-top:1px solid #efe3ae; border-bottom:1px solid #efe3ae; background:#fef6d2 url(images/ico-note.png) no-repeat 20px 13px; }

STEP FOUR: Call the codes inside your actual posts by replacing any paragraph code with a new “class.” This can be done by going to an HTML (the source code) view of your post, and changing <p> to <p class=”____”> where you want the box to appear.

CODES:
To call the alert box: <p class=”alert”>Text Here</p>
To call the download box: <p class=”note”>Text Here</p>
To call the tick box: <p class=”tick”>Text Here</p>
To call the info box: <p class=”info”>Text Here</p>
To call the note box: <p class=”note”>Text Here</p>

Step 5: Clear your blog’s cache (if applicable)  to make sure the changes take place. Save your post and enjoy!

I hope that you enjoyed this quick tutorial. I know that a lot of people have asked about how to do this on other websites, and since I figured out how to make it happen I figured I’d go outside of my typical content and get you some blog improvements. Everyone can use a little Web 2.0, and if you want a theme for a great price that is totally fresh… check out WooThemes for an awesome deal.

-Jimvesting Dot Com

UPDATE: As recommended by Fas of GreatestReviews.net, “WP Notes” has a similar effect on your posts… plus it is a plugin so it is easier to install. CSS is definitely the smart call, but plugins sure are easy to use!

Okay folks, you talked me into it!

After recently launching a new design, that I continue to believe would be much more efficient and monetizable, I am going to cave into the pressure and re-do things like I had it before. It seems that despite my best efforts, the blogging community has fallen in love with the logo and mascot of old… so I have recently contacted my old designer and have started a fresh new concept for the blog.

THAT’S RIGHT… ITS ANOTHER NEW HEADER FOR JIMVESTING.COM!

I will not be using the same theme as my old header, but I am going to portray a new scene that is going to look more like a penthouse office. I am currently in the process of getting a few revisions from my designer, and then I will still need to integrate it into the header that I have currently, but it is going to look somewhat close to the demo I am about to show you.

My designer, Pinky from Freelancer.com, is doing a pretty good job drawing a header out of the sketch I provided him. Please feel free to laugh and make fun of my inability to draw with any level of competence… but it seemed to get the job done well enough!

My original hand-drawn and scanned-in version:
VERSION 1 (Click for Larger)

And here is how it looks once my designer took it apart:
VERSION 2 (Click for Larger)

Naturally I think there is a LOT of work that needs to be done (especially because our old logo is smack dab in the middle of the thing, haha), but  it is certainly coming along and I would love to get any feedback that you can offer on the logo in the comment section below.

The finished header will be out hopefully in around a week, and hopefully before that we can finish up the 30 day blogging series so that our full blog can be ready to go on all cylinders. Again, we’d love to hear your feedback so be sure to leave your comments below.

-Jimvesting dot com

Recently I made an upgrade to the header on my blog, and it was a BIG update at that! Not only did I enhance the looks of the most-viewed area of my blog, but I added a newsletter opt-in box which could potentially boost my subscribers tremendously.

But was my excitement premature!?

One of my readers, Rob from myTTOOS.com, pointed out the following:

Rob: “Really cool, but i bet it will be overseen a lot = bad conversion. Let us know if i am right.”

Jim: “Could be true… but then again I am not trying to spam people like typical marketers, haha”

Rob: “at least put the focus on the chalk board, put a few blinking stars around it or something lol”

Though it sounded silly at first, I started thinking about just how right he was! While I was all concerned with making the new opt-in newsletter box look at good as possible… I made it flow TOO WELL! Therefore, I needed a little something to get people to notice it (though I won’t be putting blinking stars on my header anytime soon, haha). So what did I do? I added a big ol’ floating arrow! Read the rest of this entry »