Last week, I designed my first wordpress template. xHTMLValid coded the template and released the template free for download on their site.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to design and release a few more wordpress templates, as soon as I do, I’ll let you know here. I may even code them myself.

The template is free to use as long as you keep the footer links intact. If you decide to use it, let me know it would be great to see people using the template.

View the demo here and download the template here.

ProfitBaron.com has recently launched their first contest and requested people to donate prizes for the contest.

I decided to donate to the contest, three lifetime text links. So if you’d like the chance to grab a free PR3 text link here at iPeterBrown, head over to ProfitBaron. There are many other great prizes up for grabs too such as a other text links, consultations, dvd’s, sponsored posts etc (Take a look on ProfitBaron for the full prize list). You don’t have to do much to enter and everyone is apparently a “winner” (there are 1000 copies of an ebook to be given away).

The contest it to be drawn on the 28th of June.

Yesterday, I reached 100 iTraders on DigitalPoint forums (All 100% positive).

I’m sure you know what an iTrader is but for those that don’t, an iTrader is simply like an eBay feedback, It’s left after a transaction has been completed.

You can find my DigitalPoint user profile here. I have also had 62 iTraders at NamePros forums and just 12 at DNForum.

I’ve used ActiveAudience and Parked now to park my domain names however the amount I received compared to the amount of unique visitors and clicks was crazy.

So, today, I’ve decided to completely scrap 3rd party parking services and have designed my own parked page. My aim for the parked page is not to generate revenue by clicks, I’m looking to increase the amount of domain sales.

I’ve been told by a few people in the past that parking your domain while acknowledging the domain is for sale increases your sales significantly. It makes sense if you think about it, if you’re wanting to purchase a domain name and you visit the domain to see if it is available to find out it is taken (you don’t know about whois yet) and you don’t know how to contact the owner, the chances are you will look for a new domain that is available. Also, not everyone is comftable contacting the owner of a domain name if it isn’t advertised for sale.

Here is a preview of what you will see if you visit a domain that I have parked (Click the image for a live, better quality view):

John Chow recently created a new, four minute video for YouTube to see just how viral it could get with no advertising . He choose an extremely odd topic, the topic of shit. It’s quite strange and shocking to see John post a video like this which is one thing that makes the video really work.

It’s been out for 5 days and already has almost 4,000 views and a few awards although, as it is John Chow with 22.5k RSS subscribers on his blog, I would have expected this to be much higher by now. It has already got many John Chow readers talking about this video so it hasn’t failed too badly.

I would advise you to not watch it if you dislike talks about long shits or strong language. It is quite gross at times, especially when he details what a shit in your pants feels like. Anyway, you can view it here:

A cruel and heartless prank to an Epilepsy support forum pulled by hackers has been posted by Wired.com. The hackers apparently used a script to post hundreds of messages onto the forum containing flashing gifs although they didn’t stop there. They also managed to inject JavaScript into a handful of posts to redirect the readers of the forum to more complex images.

I know and have known quite a few people with Epilepsy, my Dad was one of them, it’s never nice witnessing a seizure and I can only imagine what it must be like experiencing a seizure. Engadget, the large gadget blog also reported this tale, I was shocked to see the amount of users on Engadget that seemed to find humor in the story. Here are just three of the many comments posted:

By Bizzy: “I found humor in this prank”

By James: “Rofl rofl rofl, Nice.
They’re an hero’s!”

By Tim: “Funny stuff.”

It took 12 hours after the attack took place for it to be resolved. Many members of the forum experienced effects of Epilepsy such as seizures and headaches, you can read the transcripts from RyAnne Fultz statement as to what she experienced, on Wired.

A few people have asked if this could be seen as assault or even, attempted murder, I’m not sure about attempted murder however I can certainly see this being accounted as assult. I hope that the extremely disturbed hackers are caught and punished fairly soon. At the least, I would restricted from internet access, permanently.

A post over at Engadget shows an concept for a gadget that is said to be released for Christmas.

It’s a USB headset with a difference, you will be able to play games without the use of hands etc which will be great for people born without these abilities but may not be so great for people who don’t excersie enough as it is.

Perhaps a concept will be created where you can use your cell phone, tv remote etc like this.

You can view the full article here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20/emotiv-to-make-control-games-a-reality-by-christmas/

The BBC also has an article which is a little longer than Endgadget’s: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7254078.stm

Submitting to free web directories can be a great way to improve your ranking in search engines as well as bring your site small amounts of traffic.

If you’re looking to submit to directories, here are a few large lists of free web directories:

• Info.vilesilencer.com
• DirectoryCritic.com
• DirectoryRate.com

For newly released directories, checking on forums is a good idea. Many directory owners advertise that they have set up a new directory here:

• DigitalPoint.com
• NamePros.com
• V7N.com

Submitting to newly created directories allows you to grab a place in directories that may become popular and/or paid in the future. It also often allows you to get a listing quicker, because they are new, there are not as many links for the directory owner to review.

I’ve just signed up to Bux.to, a PTC program (Paid to click) and thought I would post a review about it.

Bux.to is another way to generate a small amount of monthly revenue. On their site they say “Bux.to is a new innovative, international and FREE English based service that allows advertisers to reach thousands of potential customers by displaying their ad on our, “Surf Ads” page.” It’s not exactly new, it’s been around for.

Advertisers pay for visits from users of the site, the users get paid for each site they visit for atleast 30 seconds. It doesn’t pay much, aproximatly $0.01 per site you visit and $0.01 per site people you refer visit but it all mounts up.

They have two membership plans, regular and premium. The premium membership is $59 and allows you to earn more from each click you make and also gives you priority when the payments are due.

Once you have made some money with Bux.to, you’ll want to withdraw your earnings., you need to have made atleast $10 (that’s 1,000 clicks). They don’t pay via PayPal anymore; I read somewhere that they used to. They now use a less common payment method called AlertPay.

If you haven’t yet tried out Bux.to, take a view minutes to take a look at it, you wont get rich any time soon using it but I’m going to give it a go with the referral side. I did click a few adverts but for $0.01 every click, I don’t find it value for time, it does get boring too after a while.

Finding potential end users for domain names can be quite tricky for the first time.

Should I phone or email? Should I list a price or request offers for the domain? Should I create an auction and guide the potential end user to the auction? These are just some questions that a beginner has there are many more.

NamePros.com has a great thread, it’s quite long but well worth the read. I’ve just finished reading thread from the first post to last and I have learnt a lot from it.

I plan to email a few end users about the domains I have very soon, up to now, I’ve just pretty much been buying from resellers and selling to other domain resellers, finding end users will bring me much larger ROI.

You can find the thread here: http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/68798-how-to-find-potential-end-users.html towards the end of the thread, one user mentions that they have sold 988 domains since February which is very impressive.

NamePros has many other useful threads if you are interested in domain names, browse the forums it’s worth it.