So I’ve heard of wine-tasting, but I’ve got to admit that “domain tasting” is a new one on me.

What is it? Simply put, “domain tasting” is the practice of registering domains and monitoring what kind of traffic they get. For those companies who make money buying and reselling domains, they use this practice to see what domain ideas get a lot of traffic. If they get a lot of hits on a certain domain, they’ll hold that particular domain in hopes that someone will approach them to purchase the domain or for the purposes of placing ads on the domain. If a domain is not getting a lot of traffic, they’ll simply return the domain within five days since many domain registration companies gives you a five day grace period in which you can “return” a domain name without charge.

So what does this mean to you? Well it may mean that when you’re researching domain names for your site, you can run the risk of losing that domain to someone practicing domain tasting if you’re not careful. This had actually happened to me about six months ago. I was doing some domain searches for a new web site was working on and found the perfect one that was available. But I didn’t have my payment information available, so I wasn’t able to snag that domain right then. When I went to register the domain the next day, I found that that was registered right after I had checked its availability, sending me back to the domain idea drawing board. About a week later, when I was searching for alternative domains, I decided to check out that lost domain and lo and behold it was available again. Needless to say, I was sure to snag that name immediately.

In that case I was lucky and I was able to get my domain in the end. But whenever you’re researching domain names, you may attract the attention of these “tasting” companies. Fortunately, there are some easy precautions you can take when doing your research. The following tips are from this post about domain tasting from the Daily Domainer.

1. Don’t do domain research unless you’re prepared to buy immediately. If you find that the perfect domain is available, snag it NOW.
2. If you’ve done a recent search and find that the domain that was available had been purchased when you to return to register it, wait for five days and check to see if it is available again. While you’re waiting, be sure not to search for that domain again. Remember that domain tasters are monitoring to see what kind of traffic a particular domain gets. Don’t encourage the taster to keep the domain by providing traffic.
3. Use the five-day grace period to your advantage. If you have several domains in mind register all of them at once and drop the ones you don’t want before the end of the five days. Just be sure that the registrar that you’re using allows this.Thanks to the Daily Blog Tips blog for this link!

If you are considering using Moveable Type to create your blog, check out the blog Learning Moveable Type. Here you can learn the basics of building, managing, and promoting your Moveable Type blog. Although this blog concentrates on the Moveable Type blog software, many of the tips can relate to managing and promoting any kind of blog.

Software, especially mainstream graphics and web development software can get expensive in a hurry as the ladies in the Switchboards forums were discussing a couple of days ago. Web building software like Dreamweaver is currently priced at around $400. Photoshop CS, just the standalone program is priced at $649 and if you decide to get the entire Creative Suite, it will set you back about $1,1990. If you’re planning on building and maintaining your own web site from scratch, you’ll need at minimum a graphics program and a web building program. So how do you get what you need without breaking the bank? Fortunately the discussion yielded some great money-saving tips.

1. Get only what you need- Unless you’re doing a lot of print design or graphics work outside of your artwork, getting the entire Adobe Creative Suite is just overkill. Unless you know that you will be using all or most of the components of a software suite and will be using them often, getting the bundle may be a big waste of money. Also, if you’re only planning on editing and updating photographic images to your web site and will leave the actual graphic design to someone else, you can probably get away with using a inexpensive photo editor like Photoshop Elements.
2. Find alternatives- There’s no law that says that you must use Photoshop for creating and editing graphics. Consider getting lower priced alternatives such as Fireworks or CorelDraw. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous consider trying out GIMP. GIMP is a free open-source photo editing software which has many of the same features as Photoshop.
3. Shop around- You’re almost guaranteed to pay full price if you buy the software directly from the software company. So if you’re looking to buy, it pays to shop around. Many software distributors sell software online, so if you search for software, you may be able to find some fairly decent deals.
4. Scout out Ebay- Some of the same software distributors also have storefronts on Ebay and they often auction off recent versions of software for much less than the listed price. Scour the listings on Ebay and you may be able to find very good deals. Several forum members mentioned that they were able to buy software like Dreamweaver for anywhere from $100 to $150. If you go this route, be sure to go with a vendor that has great feedback ratings.
5. Check out Craigslist- It can pay to check out the listings on Craigslist. One of my colleagues managed to get an older version of the Adobe Creative Suite for almost 50% off the original price from a graphic designer who was selling their computer and software.
6. Downgrade to an older version- Psst! Hey! Want to know a secret? I’m using Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, and Dreamweaver MX. I’m not using the latest and greatest and guess what? They work just fine! It’s not always necessary to have the newest version of any software. If you can snag a slightly older version of a popular software, you’ll often find that they work for you just fine and they’re cheaper than the newest version. You can find older or used software on Ebay and Craigslist. Amazon also has vendors in the Amazon Marketplace selling older or used software.
7. Investigate educational discounts- If you are a student, teacher, or a member of school faculty, you can be eligible for an educational discount. The amount of the discount can vary with each software manufacturer, so take the time to research these.

Got any other money-saving tips I may have missed? Leave me a comment and tell me about them!

Two problems I’ve always run into when creating designs for web sites are:

1. Coming up with a fresh cool design
2. Working my way out of a design problem

Fortunately there are resources out on the web that can help you if you find yourself out of inspiration and out of creative steam when designing your site. The SEOmoz blog has 8 great tips on how to pull yourself out of a design rut. I must say that tips #4- “Learn to let it go” and #5- “Step away from the computer” does actually work wonders, especially if you’re ready to toss your computer over a balcony.

If you’re gathering design ideas for your web site, look no further than Design Meltdown. This web site/blog is a virtual encyclopedia of wonderfully executed examples of actual web sites. Design styles are divided into categories so if you’re looking for examples of a clean, minimalist design, for a retro style, or even examples of blog sites, ecommerce sites or portfolio sites, inspiration is only a couple clicks away.

Any other ideas about how to get web design inspiration? Leave a comment and tell me about them.

Okay, so this isn’t strictly speaking a post about web design or building a web site. But tax season affects all of us, and if you own your own business, you might need some pointers in how to save on your taxes. Tax and financial advisor June Walker has created a blog about taxes and tax law for the self employed. She’s recently posted 12 tax saving tips for artists on her blog. Whether you’re a totally newbie to business taxes or an old hand, check out these tips out before filing!