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How to Pick the Right Name for Your Business

Dress Barn, Caviar Shack, Stubbs Prosthetics and Orthotics, and iSoars all real business names.

I remember six years ago when we spun off into Nology Interactive, we had to choose between 5 or 6 different company names and logos. It was a tough choice, but I think we made the right choice. I read this article and thought it might be helpful for people looking to start or rename their business http://goo.gl/Wrd4T.

Sites Go Dark

Wikipedia and several other big websites shutdown on Wednesday to protest proposed anti-piracy legislation. Read the full story on http://goo.gl/wP0C1.

WordPress, Joomla, Facebook – Free Websites.. Right?!

For the last few years we have been focusing on developing more and more in the open source platforms like WordPress and Joomla.  We have also been developing tools and customizing pages for Facebook.

There is a huge misconception regarding both open source platforms and Facebook and that is they allow anyone to build a free website.  Our customers are shocked when they hear that we are using a free content management system or Facebook’s interface but they still have to pay for it.  I’d like to take a few minutes of your time and walk you through the anatomy of creating a FREE website.  A friend of mine just did this so I will use him as a case study.  Let me start off by saying Mr. P. is one of the most curious, tenacious and intelligent people I know and all of the time below is conservative estimates from recollection.

Mr. P. owns a small business.  He wanted to create a free website using WordPress.  The first thing he did was download the WordPress installation file.  He spent the next 4 hours trying to figure out how to setup a hosting account and get the program installed.  After a few calls to me and his hosting companies tech support he had the site up and running.

Mr. P. then got out his WordPress for dummies book and started going over how to configure the site and make it do what he wanted (5 hours).  After spending 2 or 3 hours searching for the right “Free” template he fell in love with a template from a 3rd party that cost $150.  He then researched and added a few plugins that he wanted (4 hours) and got them configured.

He wanted a quick way to replicate his main site so he could easily create sites for his remote offices.  He purchased a plugin ($59) that would allow him to duplicate a configured website ad nauseum.  After spending 4 hours testing it out and trying to make it work he found an “Expert” that agreed to do the replication for $1500.  On the initial attempts the “expert” determined that the hosting platform did not offer the features required so Mr. P had to start over with a new hosting company.  He was much faster at it since he had been through it before so there was only 3 hours spent on it.  He tried to migrate all of the content but eventually ended up having to re-key it all (6hrs)

Mr. P. then started adding content to his site.  Once he had his content in the “expert” replicated several times.  What he didn’t realize was there was a code vulnerability in his template that allowed a third party to inject code into the site.  This code takes over the users browser and redirects them to nasty websites.

Mr. P called me up and between me and Joey (WP wizard and all around web Guru) fixed the vulnerability and patched the code (8 hrs).

The last portion was figuring out how to re-point the DNS to the new site and making it “live” (2 hours)

So let’s recap the free website:

Setup hosting:

• 4 hours (first time)
• 3 hours (second time)

Configuration

• WordPress for dummies $21
• 5 hours research
• 3 hours searching for templates
• $150 for the template he liked
• $59 replication software
• 4 hours for testing the plugin
• $1500 for the “Expert”
• re key/re configure all content 6 hours

Fixes

• trying to diagnose vulnerability – 3 hours
• removal of infected files and patching – 8 hours

Launch – 2 hours

Now let’s assign a value to the time. $90/hr

Total soft costs (we’ll throw our time in here too at the same rate): $3420
Total oops: $1730

So Mr. P’s completely free open source website cost him $5150 (plus he bought me dinner!).  This was for a design that he settled on and nothing being customized (all components were out of the box).  More importantly, because Mr. P. is running a business at the same time the, entire process was spread out over 6 months.

Flash is done for Mobile

Apple has won this battle. Flash for mobile is done with HTML5 looking to be the future for mobile browsers. http://goo.gl/sfKoU

Fun time at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Since I had to work last Sunday at the BoA Chicago Marathon, I thought I would walk around and take a few pictures. I was a bit warm for a 26.2 mile run, but the runners and people that came to cheer and watch didn’t seem to care. The crowds were great cheering the runners throughout the city and It was fun watching the relief and sense of accomplishment of the runners as they crossed the finish line.

Just before the start of the race for 40,000 runners

Crowd watching runners

Running to the finish line

Relief and Accomplishment

Bank of America Chicago Marathon Web Traffic

There is always a big sigh of relief after the Bank of America Chicago Marathon race day because the website gets most single day traffic on race day than any of our other clients. This years web traffic for race day was impressive, 593,000 visits and 1.2M page views. What is interesting is that 28% of the page views and 33% of the visits were from mobile devices (iPhone, Android, even Nooks, and Kindles).

Google Chrome extension allows for remote computer control

Those of you that have to help friends and family with computer problems know how difficult troubleshooting over the phone can be. There are other remote desktop options out there, but Google’s BETA release of a new Chrome extension that lets a person on one computer remotely control another across the network or Internet can be a useful tool. Chrome Remote Desktop BETA is fully cross-platform, so you can connect any two computers that have a Chrome browser, including Windows, Linux, Mac, and Chromebooks.

You can get more information and downloaded the extension via http://goo.gl/sYHlF

Internet Explorer, Your Website and You.

Do you know if your site displays as it was intended to an end user who is using Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8? What about Internet Explorer 9?

Internet Explorer (IE) is the most cumbersome browser to develop for in that it renders HTML a bit differently across all versions. As a tech company who develops websites, it is critical that we test using the most common browsers (and versions) and to insure what we develop functions and displays as intended. After all, if the site does not function or display correctly, it could give an end user a bad feeling and he/she may never return.

So how do we test in various browsers and versions? In the case of Internet Explorer, there is no easy way to install all versions on a single computer and simply review a site in each version. Microsoft does not offer any method for this. However, there are software tools out there that do. IETester is a free tool that will install almost all versions of IE (from IE 5.5 and up) in an easy to use interface. It is what we use.

If you plan to have a website developed or simply need to test various versions of IE, IETester is a great tool.

Entrepreneurs make mistakes

Some of us attended the SocialDev Camp in Chicago last weekend and we listened to Joshua Karp of The Printed Blog and Kumbuya speak to the group about his experiences starting several companies and the ups and downs of his experience. Joshua discussed the reasons why some of his companies failed and then gave some of the lessons he learned to the group. Most of them are common sense, but as most people have experienced when business starts to get crazy, common sense sometimes flies out the windows. He also discussed some techniques for help make one a successful entrepreneur.

Lessons learned through failure:

• Building relationships – whether its with investors, vendors, or your clients. Provide investors with with status reports, phone calls, and be transparent with them, so they get to know you and your company.
• Verify the important stuff such as finances, sales pipelines, and legal contracts. Do not cut corners.
• Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t let non-important things distract you or your company from the main goals.
• Use common sense.

Techniques for success:

• Make a difference in peoples lives. The reasons why startups take off, go viral, or capture attention of people is because they have a product or service people want to use everyday. Investors and clients will contact you.
• Focus on value not function. Function is driven by value and is how value is delivered. The WHY is important, not the WHAT.
• Be open and honest, especially to yourself.
• Have courage. Ask for the money.
• Listen. Seek advice from the most experienced people you can find. Take it all in and make the decision.

Why QR Codes Are Here to Stay

Whew! We just added QR codes to our business cards. Good thing they are probably here to stay at least according to Hamilton Chan of Paperlinks. http://tinyurl.com/3sybzx6