Friday, June 29, 2012

Bootstrap This - 29+ Free Bootstrapping Tools That Help You Save Money

1. Bitrix24.com - Free CRM, planner, project manager, document sharing (limited to 12 employees)

2. PickyDomains.com - Pay per result naming service, $50 for domain/name/product line, slogan.

3. Reddit/Freebies - Community moderated daily updated freebies list.

4. AppSumo.com - Groupon clone for buying enterprise software.

5. JetRadar.com - Low airfare meta searchengine (searches through 700+ airlines to find best deals normally available through direct purchase on airline sites only).

6. SideJobTrack.com - Free invoicing.

7. MoneyBookers.Com (Skrill) - PayPal alternative, cheap way to accept online payments/credit cards (25 cents + 3%, please refer to site for exact details)

8. Kodesk.com - Office sharing. You can both buy and sell extra office space, including by the hour.

9. PRLog.com - Free press-release distribution.

10. InternMatch.com - Own slaves legally.

11. RetailMeNot.Com - Discount coupons, business section available.

12. OpenOffice.Org - Free MS Office alternative.

13. WaveAccounting.com - Free online accounting SaaS

14. SysAid.com - Free helpdesk software. ZenDesk.com is worth paying for.

15. CouchSurfing.com - Yes, I do want to let complete stranges sleep in my house for free (so I can do the same when I travel).

16. SubmitYourStartup.Com - Partly outdated list of sites that accept startup submissions.

17. Vator.Tv - Social network for startups

18. LowerMyBills.com - Loan/Insurance/Internet Provider/Phone Carries comparison service.

19. Score.Org - Free consulting from retired entrepreneurs (available in certain areas only).

20. Logaster.com - Free logos. Bad English gratis.

21. 99Designs.com - Cheaper alternative for design work. Designers hate the site, so it must be good.

22. MinuteBox.com - Hire doctor/lawyer/coffee enema expert - pay by the minute. Lots of experts, typical pay is around $2.50 a minute. Not sure, but there's probably some sort of minimum required.

23. HelpAReporter.Com - Free publicity (pitch your business directly to journos working on certain stories).

24. AVG - Free antivirus.

25. Weebly.Com - Free website creator.

26. GotFreeFax.com - Send free fax online. Limited to 3 pages, US and Canada only.

27. RememberTheMilk.com - Free To-Do list, iPhone and Android support.

28. Zamzar.com - Free online file converter. Let's pass a law that mandates that only one extension (how does .file sound) is allowed!

29. Join.Me - Free webcast/webconference SaaS.

P.S. I have not included eBay, Skype, etc. since everybody knows about those. Did I miss something? Send me a message.

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Startup Profiles - IslandX.Com

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http://www.islandx.com/

Name:Marius Hjelset
Age:30
Company:IslandX
Staff numbers:Three
Company description:A network for people moving abroad

Tell us what your business does

IslandX is a international lifestyle and relocation network; or in other words, a social network for people who want to work, study or live abroad. We help people find information about places they are interested in moving to using a social experience.
Where did the idea for your business come from?

I have spent most of my life living abroad. Having moved around many places with my parents when I was younger, I always had an interest in continuing to experience different countries. However, as an adult I found that moving countries was a lot more difficult when you have to organise everything yourself! So I decided to start building a social network that can help with the relocation process.
How did you know there was a market for it?

There was a great deal of market validation in place already by way of hundreds of different forums and information sites for people who are moving. However, we found these to be outdated either in content or design. Also, we found that they didn't take full advantage of the social web that people are familiar with.

In addition, the sheer number of sites already out there makes for a fragmented user experience, something we feel we can solve. Statistically, international migration is constantly increasing.
What were you doing before starting up?

I have been working in the technology sector for the past seven years in project and product development roles. Most recently I was leading the technical development on a global project for Vodafone, developing a web hosting and email service for small businesses.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Yes, ever since university I have had an interest in developing new services and creating something that builds value beyond that which one person can put into it.
How did you raise the money?

IslandX has been self-funded to date. We have also been in touch with investors as part of our launch build-up and we anticipate that we will start a fund-raising round in the near future to fund additional resources and accelerate our growth.
What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?

There are probably more than I can remember! Running a web start-up is a constant rollercoaster ride, with periods of immense feeling of achievement followed by feelings of insecurity and defeat.

Our biggest challenge is and always will be attracting enough users to engage online, help build content, and to come back again. That's why we spend time on PR and brand building, and we have had some good press coverage as a result.

How will you make money?

The service is entirely free for users. IslandX aims to make money by providing access to qualified leads to a wide array of companies involved in different parts of the relocation lifecycle. This will allow us to provide targeted support to our members who wish to work, study or live abroad.
What was your first big breakthrough?

Making it to our launch. Before launch we were doing early market validation with a test user base. If we didn't see enough of an opportunity based on their reactions we probably would have stopped right there.

It's now 10 days since launch, and we've had a great response from new members. We are adding new members every day, and more and more content is being added.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

To achieve your dreams, be stubborn. Don't give up: persistence and hard work will pay off.

When building your business, don't be stubborn. Evolve your product or service as much as is needed to get the desired behaviour from your customers.

Where do you want to be in five years' time?

In five years we want IslandX to be recognised as the tripadvisor of the relocation world. In other words, the number one place people go to for information about moving countries.

[Via - Startups.Co.Uk.]
My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

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Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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10 Great Books About Underground Economy, Working Under The Table And Surviving When Economy Sucks

1. Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor

In this revealing study of a Southside Chicago neighborhood, sociologist Venkatesh opens a window on how the poor live. Focusing on domestics, entrepreneurs, hustlers, preachers and gangs linked in an underground economy that “manages to touch all households,” the book reveals how residents struggle between “their desires to live a just life and their needs to make ends meet as best they can.” In this milieu, African-American mechanics, painters, hairdressers, musicians and informal security guards are linked to prostitutes, drug dealers, gun dealers and car thieves in illegal enterprises that even police and politicians are involved in, though not all are criminals in the usual sense. Storefront clergy, often dependent “on the underground for their own livelihood,” serve as mediators and brokers between individuals and gang members, who have “insinuated themselves—and their drug money—into the deepest reaches of the community.” Although the book’s academic tenor is occasionally wearying, Venkatesh keeps his work vital and poignant by using the words of his subjects, who are as dependent on this intricate web as they are fearful of its dangers.

2. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don’t need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald’s, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don’t really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner’s 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there’s a good economic reason for that too, and we’re just not getting it yet.

3. Ragnar’s Guide to the Underground Economy

Through detailed case studies Ragnar shows you how carpenters, woodcutters, farmers, housecleaners, computer consultants, mechanics, lawyers, vendors, locksmiths and others are cashing in on today’s booming economy - and keeping what they earn by not paying taxes. From these undergrounders you’ll learn how to locate work, get paid without supplying identifying numbers, prepare a realistic budget, advertise your services or product and finance your project when you can’t go to the bank. You’ll also learn the pitfalls of working off the books and what you can do to prepare for them.

4. How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning How to Live the Conserver Lifestyle

I thought that this book was so funny in places that I haven’t laughed so hard, so much, for a long time. Charles is a skilled writer; the book is very readable, intelligent, thoughtful,and well organized. It contains a copious (even prodigious) amount of tips, for a 200-page book. Very practical, and at the same time touches on abtruse philosophical areas, especially at the end of the book.

Hey, I used to think I was cheap. This guy is CHEAP. His anecdotes include waiting for it to rain to take a shower instead of installing indoor plumbing. He had a big hole in the floor of his entryway, or somewhere in his house, into which the kids and a few guests fell. He refused to spend one cent covering the hole, until a neighbor told him about a steel grate they threw away years ago, so he went to the dump and found it.

The point is that you can learn from a top-notch “conserver”; an applied example I would give is to buy two gallons of milk when it’s on sale and freeze one for later use (works well!). This guy probably drinks powdered milk though.

I disagree with his economic analysis; prudence CAN be a vice, as any virtue most certainly is in its extreme, or even overdone. But Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is not just about “McPimple Burger” or keeping up with the Joneses. Any system on a mass scale is going to have gaping faults, and the weaker of us might succumb to our basest impulses. But perhaps Long goes a bit too far the other way…

At any rate, he sounds like an economic anarchist. Very well thought out book, great advice.

5. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

In Freakonomics, many people were fascinated by a section that described how most crack cocaine dealers lived at home with their mothers. Why? They make less money than minimum wage. The source of that factoid was research conducted on site by Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a Day, who describes in this book how he did that research and came to make decisions one day for part of the Black Kings gang in Chicago.

In the process of reading this book, you’ll learn more than you ever expected to know about the ways that the poorest people support and protect themselves. You’ll also find how drug-dealing gangs are both a help and a hindrance to the poor.

More powerfully, you’ll be exposed to the great difficulties involved in observing the lives of the poor and the gangs that spring from them. The moral and ethical dilemmas this book presents are almost beyond belief.

6. Under the Table and Into Your Pocket: The How and Why of the Underground Economy

Under The Table And Into Your Pocket: The How And Why Of The Underground Economy by Bill Wilson will provide the non-specialist general reader with a complete education on a facet of the American economy rarely (if ever) covered in school. Beginning with an introduction to just some of the ways governmental regulations strangle business, overtax the little guy, and enable Washington to be the drunken big spender that it is today (if you overpay your taxes by $7,000 and don’t reclaim it within three years you’re out of luck - but underpay it by $7,000 and the IRS can and will come after you no matter how much time has passed!), Under The Table proceeds to demonstrate how the little guy can circumvent taxes by doing business away from Big Brother’s prying eyes. From boarding houses and flea markets to roadside merchants and dominatrix work, Under The Table covers the benefits, disadvantages, tips, tricks, techniques and much more of common underground ways to earn a living. Under The Table is emphatically not a legal guide; neither the author nor the publisher assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained within - but the eye-opening ins and outs of a truly free economy make for quite fascinating and advantageous reading.

7. Deep Inside the Underground Economy: How Millions of Americans are Practising Free Enterprise in an Unfree Economy

Are you fed up with giving so much of your hard earned cash to the government, then watching it get spent on ridiculous pork-barrel special-interest projects? Would you like to hold on to more of your money for your own special-interest boondoggles? The underground economy continues to grow in spite of ever-widening atttempts by the government to regulate and tax everything we do. Millions of Americans are practising fee enterprise in today’s increasingly unfree tax society. This is the most comprehensive how-to book ever written for those entrepreneurial individuals who have decided to end their slavery to a wage and to government taxation as well. Discover how you can keep more of what you earn for yourself. Here you will find complete and up-to-date information on the ins and outs of guerrilla capitalism and the underground economy in this country.

8. Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging.

In December of 2001 Jeff Ferrell quit his job as tenured professor, moved back to his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and, with a place to live but no real income, began an eight-month odyssey of essentially living off of the street. Empire of Scrounge tells the story of this unusual journey into the often illicit worlds of scrounging, recycling, and second-hand living. Existing as a dumpster diver and trash picker, Ferrell adopted a way of life that was both field research and free-form survival. Riding around on his scrounged BMX bicycle, Ferrell investigated the million-dollar mansions, working-class neighborhoods, middle class suburbs, industrial and commercial strips, and the large downtown area, where he found countless discarded treasures, from unopened presents and new clothes to scrap metal and even food.

9. McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld

In McMafia, Misha Glenny draws the dark map that lies on the other side of Tom Friedman’s bright flat world. That connected globe not only brings software coders and supply-chain outsourcers closer together; it’s also opened the gates to a criminal network of unsettling vastness, complexity, and efficiency that represents a fifth of the earth’s economy, trading in everything from untaxed cigarettes and the usual narcotics to human lives and nuclear material. Glenny’s a Balkans expert, and he begins his story there, with the illicit–but often state-sponsored–underworld that grew out of the post-Soviet chaos, but he soon follows the contraband everywhere from Mumbai and Johannesburg to rural Colombia and the U.S. suburbs. It’s not just a hodgepodge of scare clips, though: Glenny reports from the ground but follows the leads as high as they go, showing how the dark and bright sides of the flat world are more connected than we imagine.

10. Living Well on Practically Nothing

Living Well on Practically Nothing: Revised and Updated Edition is for people who need to live on a lot less money. If you have been fired, demoted, retired, divorced, widowed, bankrupted or swindled - or you just want to quit your job and remain financially self-reliant - this book is for you. In it are hundreds of tips, secrets and necessary skills for living well on little money. Chapters include: Save Up to $37,000 a Year and Live on $12,000 a Year; Low-Cost Computers for Fun, Profit, and Education; Some Ways to Live on No Money at All; A Day of Cheap Living; A New Career or Business for You; Fix Things and Make Them Last; and Protect Your Investments and Make Them Grow. From cover to cover, this book is stocked with proven methods for saving money on shelter, food, clothing, transportation, entertainment, health care and more. The author left the “system” in 1969 and has worked for himself ever since. Let him show you how you, too, can live happily, comfortably and with complete financial freedom.

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Startup Buzz - Zozi.Com

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.zozi.com/

Twenty people tore up Squaw Valley with Olympic gold-medal skier Jonny Moseley. National Geographic explorer Mireya Mayor led a small group on a wildlife "safari" through California's wine country. A group of thrill-seekers sharpened their whitewater skills in Nevada's Truckee River with world-record kayaker Tao Berman. These are the types of once-in-a-lifetime adventures, guided by celebrity gurus, that have helped drive zozi to rapidly multiplying revenue, backed by $11 million in venture funding.

"No other company has built an online platform that easily connects anyone to some of the most unattainable people in the world to go on experiences that will give you a lifetime of stories to tell," says T.J. Sassani, founder of the San Francisco-based company. "Zozi is ultimately a discovery engine that makes bite-sized adventures accessible to all kinds of people."

When the site launched in 2010, it specialized in discounted nonguided quests, like a tour of medieval castles in Ireland, a five-day surf and spa retreat in Baja or the chance to hang glide to a beach picnic. But Sassani says he's growing the business to also focus on unique, full-price celebrity excursions, starting at $300. Zozi's niche is in creating short adventure trips that aren't available anywhere else.

The site operates in 19 U.S. markets, and its user base is approaching 1 million. Sassani will not disclose revenue, which comes through shares with merchants and partners, but says it grew 700 percent last year.

Venture capitalists are clawing for a piece of the exploding tech travel sector. Last year zozi raised $7 million in Series B funding from investors that included LaunchCapital; meanwhile, San Francisco-based travel search site Hipmunk raised $4.2 million and Seattle-based flight tracker Yapta locked down $5 million, though they are threatened by recent JetRadar success.

LaunchCapital co-founder and managing director Elon Boms says his firm was looking for a concept that could be a category leader through true innovation. "They've done just that. Zozi is unlike any other company in the tech travel space," he says. "Zozi is pioneering the future of travel and entertainment, and as VCs that excites us." He adds that leadership in the fragmented but huge U.S. travel activities market--worth $26.8 billion in 2009, according to PhoCusWright, host of the annual Travel Innovation Summit--will be "driven by a brand that both customers and merchants embrace, one that stands for quality and is used not as a bargain hunter but as a tool for discovery."

PhoCusWright senior technology analyst Bob Offutt agrees that the time is right for investment in travel companies with a tech component. "There's a sense that there's some gold to be found if you mine the right mines in this category," he says. "VCs feel there's opportunity to move the needle and come up with new ideas that will shift share to something more appropriate for the 21st century."

[Via - Entrepreneur]

Odd Jobs: How to Have Fun and Make Money in a Bad Economy

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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Monday, June 25, 2012

The Slow Growing Startups - MyWedingWorkbook.com

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http://www.myweddingworkbook.com/

Company: My Wedding Workbook
Location: Denver, Colo.

Annual sales: "Low six figures."

When a local angel investor expressed interest in funding the development of their web-based project management software called Planning Pod in April 2011, business partners Jeff Kear and his co-founder Steven Feingertz got excited. They were taking on well-established competitors like Basecamp and could have used the money. But it turned out that the investors, who were going to pony up $20,000, wanted a 20% the company in exchange, plus 20% of annual revenues; the investor would have four additional opportunities to buy 5% of the firm for about $5,000. Their instincts told them to back away. "It would really cripple us," says Kear.

The two entrepreneurs had been investing revenues from their first successful product, My Wedding Workbook, into building the new one. "I would rather bootstrap it and use the revenue we're already bringing in to bump it along," he says. And that's what they did, offering their tech contractors equity instead of paying development fees. "Our developers now have a vested interest in the success of the company and have shown great initiative," says Kear. Plus, the four-employee firm has freed up cash for marketing.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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Hot Startups - Bitrix24.Com

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Bitrix24.com is a new SaaS (software as a service) cloud based social intranet platform that makes corporate intranet easily available to smaller companies. It does not take any time to deploy (everything is already installed and set up) and doesn’t cost anything if it’s used by companies with fewer than 12 employees.

At first, Bitrix24 looks like corporate Facebook – there is the wall or activity stream where different employees engage in discussions and vote by ‘liking’ ideas, documents or workgroups. There are also instant messenger and photogallery. This is where the similarities end.



The first important Bitrix24 module is free CRM (customer relationship module) that comes with a database for clients and prospects that are easily sorted by events (phone call or meeting, for instance). Next comes the sales funnel that divides clients into easy-to-work-with groups - new prospects, first contact, requested quote, scheduled meeting, negotiations and sales, for example (the actual setup is customizable). Bitrix24 free CRM is designed for easy interactions with clients. For example, you can send an e-mail to a certain group as well as import/export any client information. You can also set Bitrix24 to automatically import ‘leads’ that are generated by any site into the CRM.



The second important module is document management. This module allows storing, editing and collaborating on various documents with co-workers. The documents can be made private (visible to document owner only) or shared. Bitrix24 also tracks version history, making it possible to revert to older version of the document, if necessary. Importantly, you can map a single document library or all of your document libraries to a network drive on your local machine literally in 2 clicks using WebDav. That means that whether you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, you will be able to see the documents in the intranet locally through your file manager.



Third and fourth are planning and task/project management modules. These include calendar, work reports, absentee charts, meeting scheduler, personalized to-do lists, time management tools, even Gantt charts for easy visualization of progress made on specific projects. The employees are split into workgroups and access rights are assigned to each individual. For example, the department head may see work reports of his subordinates only, while vice-president is able to view every work report made by any employee.



Because companies tend to outsource or hire outside contractors/freelancer Bitrix24 allows one to easily integrate those into workgroups and give non-employees access to corporate intranet with restricted rights specified as necessary. Also, for higher mobility, Bitrix24.com can be easily accessed via iPhone, iPad or any Android based device.

As mentioned, Bitrix24.com is free when used by 12 employees or fewer. Bitrix24.com can be used by unlimited numbers of workers for $99 a month. Unlike other similar services, Bitrix24.com doesn’t charge extra for each additional employee, since it is cloud based and ample storage is available. The premium version is priced at $199 a month.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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Hermitage Jewelers Review

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http://www.hermitagejewelers.com/

If you’re somebody who’s into carefully hand-crafted jewelry that you know will last a lifetime, chances are you might have a stash of authentic, luxury Swiss watches and fine jewelry in your little treasure chest somewhere. But if you don’t and want a few pieces for yourself or the people who matter to you, Ermitage Jewelers might just have the perfect ones for you in stock.

Ermitage Jewelers is a respected name in authentic, luxury Swiss watches and fine jewelry, and had been buying and selling Swiss watches and jewelry for almost 30 years now. Rolex or whatever luxury brand, you also have an option to trade in an old timepiece of yours.

Peter, Ermitage Jewelers’ chief watch specialist, is the grandson of the very same guy who opened the first Ermitage outlet in Russia in 1915 and served as master jeweler with New York’s Baume & Mercier for seven years in the 1970s. Every client is guaranteed to receive personal attention from Peter himself, and the store’s state-of-the-art repair shop ensures quick turnaround time.

In addition to a retail store in Atlanta, Georgia, the company’s website, www.ermitagejewelers.com, provides the same quality of service and selection as in the actual store. Every piece Ermitage Jewelers sells is new-looking and authentic. You can rest assured the store never sells replicas of any form. The company’s philosophy is simple: Commitment to quality, service and value results in satisfied customers who are sure to come back time and time again.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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Education4Drivers.Com Review

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http://education4drivers.com/

Being on the road, especially if you’re the one driving, is serious business. A moment’s distraction, a tiny miscalculation may mean grave danger, worse, loss of life and destruction of property. This is why a driver’s license isn’t just any regular piece of plastic, or a ticket to freedom, or some sort of a lunch pass that allows you to move around anytime you please. A driver’s license has to be regarded with respect and sense of responsibility.

As the domain would suggest, Education4Drivers.com is an online resource for drivers and would-be drivers. The site offers a broad collection of carefully researched information regarding everything driving-related, one of which is the permit test, which basically is the test that gauges your knowledge of state traffic laws and your ability to navigate state roads. The permit test is a prerequisite to applying for a driver’s license.

The site also offers similarly valuable information about the driver’s test, the driver’s license application, the DMV test, graduated driver’s license, parent-taught driver’s education, driver’s manual, permit restrictions and a whole host of others.

So if it’s a wealth of knowledge about driver’s education and driving in general that you’re on the lookout for, it’s worth checking out Education4Drivers.com.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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MegaFlowers Review

BizHacks - How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager.



http://megaflowers.com/

If you're somebody cooking up a surprise for somebody close to your heart and you're into flower giving, you're sure to love MegaFlowers.com.

A brainchild of a company called Three Colours, MegaFlowers.com started business in 2005, specializing in the delivery of fresh flowers around the globe. MegaFlowers has florist partners all over the world, allowing it to offer delivery time ranging from a minimum of 3 hours to 24 hours. Plus, fresh flower delivery worldwide doesn't have to be expensive. MegaFlowers' own courier service and special partnership agreements with major delivery services affords the company its distinctive quality of products and services at affordable prices.

To place your order, simply go to www.megaflowers.com where you will find a wide selection of basic bouquets and flower arrangements. A professional manager-florist is always available to take your order and give you sound advice on bouquet choices, should you need any. Manager-florists are highly qualified and boast of an extensive professional experience in the field.

Payment options include credit card payment, PayPal and the call-and-pay method. MegaFlowers guarantees timely delivery and fresh quality of your order, ensuring that your gift's recipient feels loved and valued, just the way you want her to feel.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

My Name Is Beer, Mr.Beer

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping

Duolingo Review

How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Release

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

New Startup Pays Experts To Answer Questions

How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager

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Sunday, June 24, 2012

PeakGames - The Biggest Game Developer You Never Heard About

Need Perfect Software Name? Try Crowdsourcing.



http://www.peakgames.net/

It’s probably fair to say that few American have heard of Peak Games, the Istanbul-based startup that recently became the world’s No. 3 social-gaming company in terms of daily active users (DAU). That’s because Peak develops and publishes online games that are culturally targeted at Turkish, Middle Eastern, and North African markets. All but one of the games are available only in Turkish and Arabic.

The company, which creates Facebook, mobile, and browser-based games, announced last week that it has over 9.4 million daily users. Zynga and King.com, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 companies, have 57.3 million and 12.3 million, respectively, according to online data provider AppData. (Note: Peak’s number is based on a combination of developed and published games, while AppData provides these numbers separately. Also, these numbers have shifted since last week but Peak remains in the No. 3 spot.)

Peak Games has experienced rapid growth since late 2010, when the company’s three founders set up shop in the small storage room of an air conditioning store owned by one co-founder’s father. At the time, Peak’s goal was to create culturally specific games for the Turkish market, starting with an online adaption of the traditional Turkish tile-based board game, Okey. “Back then, Turkey was the fourth-largest country on Facebook and there was no local player or even global player who was providing relevant content or relevant services to the region,” says Rina Onur, the company’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, who graduated from Harvard in 2008 with a B.A. in economics and briefly worked at Morgan Stanley as an analyst. She explains that most big social-gaming companies simply translate Western games into Turkish.

When Okey took off (the game now has 18 million users), Peak’s team moved to more comfortable office space. In 2011, they secured funding to expand into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), regions that Onur says have “similar cultures, a similar history, similar user habits … and Internet and Facebook penetration that is growing really, really fast.”

The company’s first release in MENA was a game with a name that translates as Happy Farm. That game has since become the world’s No. 2 farm game, after Farmville. It includes characters, buildings, and animals that are specific to Peak’s targeted regions. “In the Turkish version, the farmer is not covered, while in our Arabic version there is a Saudi man with a cultural outfit,” says Onur. “We don’t have cowboys or American horses.”

In February, Peak acquired Saudi Arabia’s largest gaming company, Kammelna, creator of a popular online version of the beloved local card game, Baloot. Saudi Arabia is now Peak’s second-largest market, after Turkey. It’s a good market to have cornered, says Onur. “There’s high levels of disposable income but not a lot of liberty in terms of going out and socializing, so people use these games as a platform to meet each other, express themselves, and interact,” she explains. “They’re like online coffee shops.”

Since last year, Peak’s revenues have skyrocketed by 600 percent, according to Onur. The company now has about 200 employees in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, as well as in offices in Berlin and Barcelona. Peak has also secured over $20 million in funding from investors in Belgium, Germany, and the Middle East.

eak has no plans to make its locally targeted games available in English, as they don’t hold the same relevance for Western cultures. But Onur says the team may eventually expand its offerings of “global themed” games such as its latest release, Lost Bubble. Peak created the “bubble shooter, arcade-style game” for a dozen languages because it isn’t culturally specific, and it picked up a million daily users in two weeks. “To our surprise, without pushing the product in Western markets, we got a huge number of organic users, especially in Europe,” says Onur. “It proved to us that the developing capabilities we have built over the past year and a half … are comparable to those of our global peers.”

Regardless of Lost Bubble‘s success, Peak’s primary focus remains servicing and creating content for Turkey and MENA. It’s a market that the company has locked down, according to Onur. ”Global players with money and resources are not focusing on these games,” she says. “And the local players in our regions are too small to compete.”

The company’s next goal is to expand slowly and sustainably into such new emerging markets as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, bringing more local games online. According to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, it’s a solid strategy. “They’re obviously doing something right, and what’s interesting is that they’re focused on such a narrow market,” he says—noting he hasn’t played Peak’s games because they aren’t translated. “If their games work in that market, they’ll work anywhere. They just need to localize them and get the language right.”

[Via - Business Week]

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Hot Startups - Duolingo.com

Daily Advice Link - How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Releases


http://duolingo.com/

Even with artificial intelligence, language is not something machines are good at. Unlike their human counterparts, computers cannot easily point the difference between, say, a molehill and an ant hill. Sarcasm, jokes – even the most complicated language algorithm has a hard time with those. Add in wordplay, irony and cultural context to the mix, and it will be one hell of a day in a computer’s life.

Luis von Ahn, a computer scientist turned entrepreneur, is capitalizing on that human edge to decode stuff for the success of his startup, Duolingo. Duolingo utilizes groups of language learners to translate text on the Web. Duolingo offers basic language lessons to the learners, and then, little by little, from simple to difficult, they’re given text to translate.

Individuals and other entities may submit content to Duolingo for translation, and Duolingo offers, for now, at least, free translation services. As it is in its early days, there is no quality control mechanism in place yet, except for users voting for the best translation. The site is currently on invitation-only mode and is limited to Spanish, English, French and German translation. For its lessons, Duolingo taps into online content that is not under copyright or is released under a Creative Commons license.

For Duolingo to be successful, it’s going to need a giant crowd of learners. The better they become, the more chances of accurate translation. At Duolingo, big chunks of text are broken down into easy and difficult bits by a machine and distributed to learners depending on their levels and put back together, yet again by a machine. Eventually, Duolingo will be charging for its translation services for faster and more precise translations.

[Via - Unusual Business Ideas]

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Friday, June 22, 2012

Business Ideas - IDPoster.com

Daily Advice Link - How I Increased Sales 350% With Press-Releases



http://www.idposter.com/

If you're looking for a poster to adorn a blank wall or a unique calendar to grace your desk, or if you're simply hoping to own an awesome poster of your favorite celebrity or perhaps a personalized poster with your cute little pet puppy on it, IDPoster.com may be the right place for you.

Founded in 2010, IDPoster.com specializes in distributing celebrity posters for home and small business use. The company's top-of-the-line printing – notably, the vivid colors – and high-quality paper products from the world's leading manufacturers ensure 100% customer satisfaction.

To start the ordering process, simply visit their website, www.idposter.com, browse through and choose from the massive collection of celebrity posters they have available. Posters are alphabetically arranged and may range from movie stars, famous athletes, singers, models and more. When you're done with your selection, determine the poster size you want and add to your shopping cart. Payment may be made via major credit cards or PayPal.

For custom posters, simply map to the local drive where the image you want printed on your poster is located. And then, choose the design and size of your poster. You may also use downloaded images of your favorite comic book heroes, cartoons or celebrity photos not available in IDPoster's catalog.

[Via - Webiot.com]

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Niche Business - Hot Tub Covers

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http://northernhottubcovers.com/

Spa and hot tub covers have been known to reduce, if not completely prevent, evaporative losses from a pool or hot tub when not in use. Assuming the level of heat loss at 70%, even a hot tub cover with relatively small thermal insulation value can achieve up to 75% heating costs savings compared to simply leaving the spa or hot tub uncovered.

Northern Hot Tub Covers, a Canadian company manufacturing hot tub covers that are sure to withstand Canadian weather, capitalizes on this glaring fact. Northern's ultimate goal is to provide consumers with durable replacement spa covers at an unbeatable price while at the same time providing satisfactory customer service before, during and after a sale is closed.

Depending on the thickness of the cover, Northern's cover options can range from either Signature, Premier, Ultimate and Ultimate II. The company also provides spa accessories like bubble covers, foam core inserts, spa caps, cover lifters and hot tub filters.

The first choice in hot tub covers online ordering, Northern Hot Tub Covers' goal is simple, to be the provider of choice for economically priced hot tub covers.

[Via - Webiot.com]

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NicheBiz - LazBoy Spas

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http://www.lazboyspas.com/

La-Z-Boy is a brand name synonymous to home furniture, most notably, comfortable seating - sofas, upholstered recliners, sleeper sofas and stationary chairs.

Over 80 years ago, La-Z-Boy started out as a partnership between cousins Edwin Shoemaker and Edward Knabusch. In small town Monroe, Michigan, they invested in a furniture business and set out to design a wood-slat porch chair with a recliner system. Their invention was a hit, and as they say, the rest is history.

In keeping with the cousins' designing philosophy – "nature's way of relaxing" – La-Z-Boy Spas/Hot Tubs has taken comfort to a whole new level and developed what the company calls the perfect spa. Currently, it is offering the market three collections of underwater seating that are available in the hot tub industry anywhere. From Premier to Signature to Classic, there's a wide array of choices waiting for you, no matter how constrained your hot tub spa equipment budget might be.

Every La-Z-Boy Spas/Hot Tubs product employs a winning six-C strategy. One, indoors or outdoors, just like the first La-Z-Boy chair, it's engineered to be comfortable. Two, from 14 pre-programmed massage patterns to La-Z-Boy's exclusive AquaFlex Massage Technology, your massage can definitely be customizable. Three, a combination of dual microfiltration, pressurized ozone and a weekly La-Z-Boy Aquazure application ensures convenient maintenance and water management.

Four, the Therma-Zone insulation system ensures cost savings through energy efficiency. Five, since its inception, craftsmanship has been one of La-Z-Boy's trademarks. Then and now, special attention is given to the various elements of each product. And six, La-Z-Boy promises consumer protection via a guarantee that's 100% no nonsense and no fine print.

[Via - Webiot.com]

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

5 Cool Small Tech Projects By 5 Big Tech Companies

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You probably know all of these companies. You know what they do. You know they are big. But each one has a cool side project or a small aquisition that’s oftentimes (unfairly) overlooked. Well, it’s time to do some justice.

1. Microsoft/Leafully.com. You know Microsoft as the biggest tech company with a virtual monopoly on PC operating system (though this is changing very quickly). You may also know that Bing has essentially been a failure so far. What you probably don’t know is that Bing engineering team (Timothy Edgar and Nathan Jhaveri, to be exact) are behind a free cool little app that let’s you track your energy usage and hopefully reduce your energy consumption in a friendly competition manner (literally, since you compare your stats with your friends).

2. Google/Prizes.Org. Google is known not only as a leading search engine, but also as a factory of really cool side projects everybody loves – from GMail to GoogleMaps. So I chose Prizes.Org for two reasons – first it became Google’s after acquisition of Slide (all other projects were killed). Second, Prizes.Org succeeds where Google itself has failed – namely Google Answers.

3. Bitrix/Bitrix24.Com. Bitrix is the largest commercial CMS maker in the world (people know about WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other free CMS, but ask anyone what’s the most popular CMS you have to buy and they won’t be able to tell you, but now you know). Bitrix24 is a free (to small businesses) social enterprise platform that combines SalesForce (CRM), DropBox (file sharing), Yammer (social workplace), BaseCamp (project management), FaceBook (likes) and a few other tools just to make you wonder ‘how can they afford to give this all away for free?’

4. Apple/Chomp.Com. Obviously, Pixar would be an ideal candidate since it’s Steve Job’s side project and Steve Jobs and Apple are almost the same. But since the Pixar story is so well known, I’ll settle for Chomp.Com, Apple’s search engine that is designed specifically for app search.

5. YCombinator/HackerNews. YCombinator may not be the biggest venture capital firm, but it’s probably the best known ‘startup bootcamp’ (which reflects Paul Grahm’s philosophy – ‘they don’t need money, they need advice and connections’). HackerNews is the founder’s personal project who wanted to recreate the early days of Reddit community and avoid the Eternal September . So far, so good.

[Via - Webiot.com]

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Dudepins Review

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http://dudepins.com/

Women love Pinterest. As of February 2012, women users are 80% of the total Pinterest population. Given this stat, Pinterest is still seen as a chick's site. Now, two Vancouver dudes, namely Colin Brown and Kamil Szybalski, have decided to create Pinterest's love interest: Dudepins, a startup that shares male-oriented content.

Dudepins is fairly easy to use. All you have to do is sign up, edit your profile, upload an image of you and you're ready to create a montage. Now, why the name Dudepins? The answer is pretty obvious. The co-founders felt "dude" was representative of male-oriented content, and "pins" was synonymous to content sharing.

When asked what inspires them, Colin pointed out the passion of others, prompting him to love the startup culture where a day is never the same and success is directly proportional to a person's decision and execution. Kamil, on the other hand, gets his inspiration from challenges, stress and results. He added he couldn't imagine himself spending his working hours outside of the startup environment.

Major emphasis on customer satisfaction is what makes Dudepins special. This is because Colin and Kamil want users to feel part of a community. The two founders are always accessible via Facebook, Twitter or e-mail to address user concerns. Dudepins is a self-funded venture.

[Via - PickyDomains.com]

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Friday, June 15, 2012

10 Cool Free Business/Productivity Tools You Should Know About

1. Bitrix24.com - Bitrix24 is a new startup that offers free sales/collaboration/productivity to small businesses. If your company has fewer that 12 employees, you get free CRM, free project manager, free file sharing/document manager, free calendar and other free goodies.

2. GotFreeFax.com - As the name implies, GotFreeTax is a free online faxing service, which lets you fax 3 pages for free to any fax number in US or Canada.

3. RememberTheMilk.com - Free To-Do list, iPhone and Android support.

4. WaveAccounting.com - This online accounting SaaS that offers unlimited invoices and expense tracking as part of free plan for small businesses.

5. JetRadar.com - This free low airfare meta searchengine searches through 700+ airlines to find best deals normally available through direct purchase on airline sites only (to combat price comarison services, airlines oftentimes reserve lowest prices only to own websites). Very handy if your business requires frequent travel.

6. PRLog.com - Free press-release distribution service.

7. Weebly.Com - Free website creator. Does not require any technical experties.

8. PickyDomains.Com - This one isn't free, but rather risk-free (naming service). If you need a cool domain name, product name or slogan, PickyDomains charges you ($50), but only if you decide to use one of their suggestions. If you don't like anything, you don't pay anything, hence risk-free.

9. Join.Me - Join.Me is a cool free webcast/webconference service that allows you to do free webcasting for 4 people.

10. Kolab.org - Kolab is free open source e-mail/workplace collaboration plaform. It's a little ugly and takes some technical expretise, but hey - free is free.


This is a guest post by Dmitri Davydov. Dmitri blogs at NicheGeek.com, a website where unusual business ideas and new cool startups are posted every day.

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Startup Buzz - AllPhotoLenses.Com

Gotta See: CMS - How To Choose Content Management System


http://allphotolenses.com/

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional, I’m sure you will agree, photography isn’t bound to go out of style, not by a long shot and definitely not in the distant future. Mainly, it is because photography immortalizes moments that the human memory will never be able to capture forever. Now, photography is an art, too. While it’s true that it is simply capturing something that already exists, when you look at a photograph, you also look at the way the photographer chooses to frame and present his photo to ultimately spin the photograph into an art form.

It is because of the artistic nature of photography that different brands and makes of camera lenses have been introduced to the market, all aimed at allowing photographers to generate varying results in terms of a photograph’s sharpness and other parameters.

Sergey Borodin, the brains behind AllPhotoLenses.com, aims to make the site the biggest online data repository regarding everything photo lenses. AllPhotoLenses.com is a virtual place where photographers hang out, discuss and review photo lenses and view actual photographs taken using a particular lens. Backed by supporting documents, personal experience or other online resources, users themselves upload news, articles, photos and reviews into the site. In addition, photographers have the option to buy and sell lenses and other photographic equipment.

For two years now, Borodin, a professional photographer himself, has been running a similar site in the Russian language via Lens-Club.ru.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

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Cool Startups - DealFlicks.Com

Gotta See: CMS - How To Choose Content Management System



http://www.dealflicks.com/

Seeing movies in theaters is a pastime a lot of people love to do. But nowadays, doing so has become really expensive, and a lot of folks would rather spend their limited income on other things.

Enter Dealflicks, a Los Angeles startup that is currently in beta mode. Dealflicks aims to revolutionize the entertainment business by connecting movie theaters with movie enthusiasts, allowing theaters to sell empty seats at a discount, generally 40% to 60% off the regular ticket price. This way, movie theaters make money off what would otherwise have been a no-sale, and customers get to enjoy movies for less.

Now before you go about jumping up and down, take note, there's a catch. You only get to specify the day and vicinity you want to see the movie, not the specific movie house or time. The moment you purchase the ticket, the site will inform if you're supposed to head on to the theater two blocks away right at that very moment or if the movie is going to be a movie-and-dinner kind of thing.

Launched in mid-April of this year, Dealflicks has raised $47,500, and this summer, they're planning to expand in Santa Cruz, California, in El Campo, Texas, cities in the Bay Area and Virginia.

Like most startuppers, Dealflicks founder, Sean Wycliffe, had his own set of problems to face before Dealflicks was finally ready to take off. With a business background under his belt, he was no programmer. The developers he contracted with eventually all became busy with other stuff that he was forced to learn programming himself. Wycliffe insists he's still bad at programming but better to know who's good and who's not, what technologies must be used and how long things normally take. Currently, Dealflicks has two developers, three co-founders and eight interns.

Wycliffe would consider himself successful only once Dealflicks starts generating a seven-figure revenue stream and joining forces with the top 10 movie theater chains.

[Via - NicheGeek.com]

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

CMS - How To Choose Content Management System



Here's a short video about how to choose CMS (content management system) from BitrixSoft. BitrixSoft is primarily known for it's intranet solutions, where it's number 2 right behind Microsoft. BitrixSoft's latest project is Bitrix24 - enterprise social network that offers free crm, free file storage, free project management, and other business tools that are free to companies with 12 employees or under.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Startup Buzz - MoxTree.com

BizHacks - How To Use Bitrix24.Com As A Free CRM, Intranet And Task Manager.



http://www.moxtree.com/

When entrepreneurs discover a gap, they normally bridge it with a startup. And that is what Victoria Oldridge, the “mompreneur” behind social networking startup MoxTree did. MoxTree came into existence out of her desire to connect and vent about the trials and difficulties brought about by motherhood and the immense disparities in moms’ social groups. As soon as Victoria realized the huge gap in age, lifestyle and location in the mothers, she thought there has to be another way to connect the women more competently.

Baby Moxtree is a network that connects mothers based on their common interests (careers, goals, hobbies, philosophies, etc.) and stages of motherhood. The network also allows moms to form groups (book, fitness, professional networking, etc.), provides them with tools to help them find other moms they are compatible with near them and the freedom to put their mom-friends and interests in a single place. MoxTree is looking at the total modern woman and makes it easier for her to connect with like-minded moms.

So far, instead of getting involved in accelerator programs with the hope of obtaining venture capital funding, Victoria is bootstrapping the project. This decision stems from her desire to take personal risk and have control over the project’s rate of development. Bootstrapping, according to her, is middle ground for the work, family and life balance she’s looking to achieve.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Meet Donuts.Co - New Startup That Raised $100 Million And Applied For 307 TLDs


http://www.donuts.co/

"The existing spaces (like .com) are saturated." Daniel Schindler, Donuts co-founder is spot on. As per the WHOIS database, millions and millions of top-level domains have been registered to date - .com, .net, .info, .org. - that a good number of people are having a difficult time coming up with a domain that hasn't been registered yet.

It is for this reason that the idea of expanding Internet addresses beyond the aforementioned extensions to basically just about anything imaginable came to being, and Donuts, a web registry established in 2011, is hoping to cash in on the opportunity. As of this writing, Donuts is aiming to own and operate 307 new "dot-brand" extensions.

Aside from Donuts, hundreds of other companies have applied with the ICANN for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and the complete list of applications, along with the proposed domains, will be made known on June 13.

When Donuts started operations last year, right out of the gate, it had been very vocal about its intentions to take advantage of this opportunity. Starting with 3,000 potential domains in its list, through its proprietary method of valuing gTLDs, the company was able to narrow it down to 307, which, by most standards, is still a lot.

Donuts and other applicants are keeping their lips sealed about any specific domains for competitive reason. As of May 30, ICANN revealed it has received roughly 1,900 applications. Each domain application is estimated to cost about $185,000, meaning, Donuts had to pay $56.8 million for those on its list. In any case multiple applicants had to battle for the same domain, the name goes to auction, which could mean millions more in expenses for the winning bidder.

Schindler, however, isn't concerned. According to him, access to money isn't going to be a problem. Well, given that the guy has raised more than $100 million from investors, he has every reason to say that.



[Via - PickyDomains.com]

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