After attending HostingCon in Boston I was interviewed for an article about Boston business and the conference. August, 2012.

http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/how-hostingcon-brought-the-hosting-business-to-local-startups-in-boston

I used Acronis to clone the existing drive and make it bootable and then put the SSD into the laptop. I was so impressed when the system booted up and booted up fast.

My bloated Outlook came on the screen faster. I have also noticed that closing Chrome with my 20+ tabs open happens instantly instead of over a few minutes.

Two exceptions to my being overjoyed were RoboForm and QuickBooks, which seemed to have a similar issue.

RoboForm did not recognize a registered user. I simply clicked and logged on to my account and was back in action.

The Corsair 240GB SSS - photo by Jim Spencer

QuickBooks Support was not effective

I am using QuickBooks Pro 2009. When I clicked on the icon to launch the program it threw up some arcane error code.

Specifically the error was

Error 3371: Could not initialize license properties

I looked on the support forums and called QuickBooks three times.

I found an entry in the support area that exactly named this error. I followed all the suggestions;

1) Reinstall QuickBooks

2) Uninstall and then reinstall QuickBooks

3) Ensure that MSXMS is installed

4) Reinstall Microsoft .NET

5) Ensure that all Microsoft software is up to date

6) Download QuickBooks from http://UseQuickbooks.com/pro2009 instead of using the original disk. Internet Explorer, which they recommended just looped. Chrome allowed the download.

7) Use the QBInstaller.exe tool

The really iratating part was that on all three calls to Intuit I was told that I needed to buy the latest version of QuickBooks. That is not a software solution, that is sales. I needed to make whole the existing product, not brush by the issue by making another sale.

Besides the advice defied logic. I had already installed QuickBooks six ways to Sunday and it didn’t help. Why would a newer version be any different. I dare say that it would not be different.

A further complicating issue is that the software is near its “end of life”. The support guys helped a bit, but they wanted me to either buy support of buy the product. One the third call after I told him all the efforts that I had made, he sincerely wanted to help me.

After a few hours I was finally told about the “Entitlement” folder. That is the culprit. Deleting it and then installing QuickBooks was the solution.

I believe that this is the file path - C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data – I deleted the entire Entitlement directory.

A sad face at the MFA - photo by Jim Spencer

Solution

If you are trying to start QuickBooks and get the error

Error 3371: Could not initialize license properties

then go delete the Entitlements folder and its contents located here  C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data.

I am not really clear whether Acronis failed to copy the data completely or accurately or these software packages have something that prevents copy data and logging in.  The latter seems more likely.

I am grateful to the third support person for providing the answer despite his reluctance. That was the difference.  The new SSD is still wonderful and I will hold off replacing my “end of life” software until there is a genuine need.

Have you run into similar situations and found unexpected solutions?

While pretty much everyone who spends time on the web knows about WordPress, not many people I talk to have heard about its community-oriented companion: BuddyPress. For those of you who’ve never heard of such a thing, here’s a rundown of what BuddyPress is about:

• BuddyPress is a plugin that turns your self-hosted WordPress site into a membership based private social network.
• Your members can create a complete profile with information you specify (including a photo).
• Members can post status updates, message each other publicly and privately, and friend each other. They can even each have their own WordPress blog.
• BuddyPress allows you to set up forums where your members can discuss, collaborate, and debate.
• BuddyPress automatically generates an activity stream for each user, letting your members see what posts people are  commenting on and which forums topics their friends are spending time on.
• See live examples at the BuddyPress Showcase.

Sounds pretty great, so why haven’t you heard of it?

Earlier versions of BuddyPress were resource intensive, loading a lot of unnecessary JavaScript and CSS onto pages and slowing them down. BuddyPress was also not customizable unless you were willing to hack some serious code. Even earlier versions were more challenging to set up and configure properly. These factors slowed adoption and limited active use to “advanced” programmers.

Fortunately, times are changing! In the fall of 2011 BuddyPress 1.5 was released with a serious list of improvements and new features.

Performance

First and foremost, BuddyPress’s JavaScript and CSS files now only load when they are needed instead of loading everything everywhere. This can result in a huge performance gain on sites with a lot of traffic.  I know from personal experience that the new BuddyPress can handle communities with tens of thousands of active users.

New Theme

The default theme that comes with BuddyPress has been redesigned to be more beautiful, flexible, and usable. It now looks great on mobile devices, has four new widget areas, and allows for page-specific featured images. The profiles, activity streams, comments, and forums have all been redesigned for better readability as well.

The new BuddyPress 1.5 profile and activity stream

Administration

BuddyPress has been extremely customizable since it was officially launched in 2009. Version 1.5 features a brand new administrative interface that lets you specify the URL of your profile pages and forums, create and reorder profile fields with a drag and drop interface, and upgrade BuddyPress with less hassle.

Extensibility

Last but not least, for the hacker within all of us, BuddyPress comes with a brand new BP_Component class which makes it easy for plugins to extend user profiles and more.

All in all, these enhancements make BuddyPress a very attractive out of the box social networking solution. If you’re interested adding BuddyPress to your WordPress site, feel free to send us a message and we’ll be happy to help.

For more information, check out:

• BuddyPress homepage
• BuddyPress 1.5 Highlights (information on the hundreds of fixes and improvements that shipped with version 1.5)

Have you heard of BuddyPress? What is your experience with BuddyPress? Let us know in the comments please.

What is a Mission?

Missions drive social engagement. I setup my Mission to ask people to visit http://www.jbspartners.com and click on the social sharing buttons on the left side of the page. You can click on the ones right here on this page if you like.

Each mission provides an award of Empire Avenue currency, in this case 1,000 eaves. I arranged to have 30 missions available to whoever wanted to participate.

The 30 Missions cost me 60,000 eaves. I opted to mail all shareholders, which cost another $2,875 or so I think because I have 474 shareholders and this was my first Mission. I can see that sending Mail for a second Mission is more than twice as costly at 5,850 with the same award and number of Missions.

Before the Mission I had small numbers of social mentions;

1. Likes – 26
2. Tweets – 15
3. Google+ – 11
4. Stumble Upon – 2
5. LinkedIn – was added during the Mission, started with 4

Mission Description and Text

Title: Provide Social Sharing

The Details…

 Likes 19

Mission: Please click on the social sharing buttons on the left side of http://www.jbspartners.com to Like, Tweet, G+ and/or Stumble please.

Thank you very much!

 

What you see is a very simple and brief title that is clear about what the mission is.  The Mission text makes it even clearer. I said “please” twice, at the beginning and end on purpose and followed-up with “thanks”.

 

Mission Results

Mission Lessons

The sharing tools that I installed uses the page name instead of the meta title to share the page. So, on Twitter every link was described as “Home” instead of something much more meaningful and helpful.

So, I got a lot of tweets like this;

Home http://www.jbspartners.com/ via @fairminder

Home jbspartners.com via @fairminder

— AnneThomas (@annehthomas) January 3, 2012

Instead of like this;

WordPress powered Websites, Blogs, and Marketing.http://www.jbspartners.com/ via @fairminder

WordPress powered Websites, Blogs and Marketing. jbspartners.com via @fairminder

— Steve SchraderBachar (@MortgageMinute) January 3, 2012

To resolve this I need to add a custom navigation menu which will allow me to change the Home page title to anything I want while keeping the navigation text simply “Home”.

19 people “Liked” the mission on the mission page. This likely helped spread the word inviting others to do the Mission.

I also posted news of the Mission on the Team Zen Facebook page. I think the shareholder was the primary driver though.

The mission only took about two hours after being launched in the morning around 10am EST.

Here is what you will need to have in hand;

1. A display name for the email recipient ( Jim Spencer )
2. Email address ( jim@jbspartners.com )
3. Email password
4. Domain name ( jbspartners.com )
5. Incoming mail server (mail.jbspartners.com) – if you host with JBS Partners, just replace with your domain name
6. Outgoing mail server (mail.jbspartners.com)

Click on Tools and then Account Settings

Under the Email tab click on New

Choose Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP or HTTP

Select the box at the bottom - Manually configure server settings or additional server types, and click Next

Choose Internet E-mail and click Next

Fill in all the information listed below;

• Your name: How you would like your name displayed in your messages
• E-mail Address: Your full E-mail address example; user@domain.com
• Account Type: Choose either IMAP or POP3
• Incoming mail server: mail.your-domain-name.com
• Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.your-domain-name.com
• User Name: Your full e-mail example; user@domain.com
• Password: password for the account

When complete,  click the More Settings… button at the bottom right

Click on the Outgoing Server tab and

check off My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and

choose Use same settings as my incoming mail server

Then click Next

Click on Next, and then Finish to complete your setup!

Congratulations!!!

No Graphics Instructions

1 – Click on Tools and then Account Settings

2 – Under the Email tab click on New

3 – Choose Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP or HTTP

4 – Select the box at the bottom - Manually configure server settings or additional server types, and click Next

5 – Choose Internet E-mail and click Next

Fill in all the information listed below;

• Your name: How you would like your name displayed in your messages
• E-mail Address: Your full E-mail address example; user@domain.com
• Account Type: Choose either IMAP or POP3
• Incoming mail server: mail.your-domain-name.com
• Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.your-domain-name.com
• User Name: Your full e-mail example; user@domain.com
• Password: password for the account

6 – When complete,  click the More Settings… button at the bottom right

7 – Click on the Outgoing Server tab and

8 – check off My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and

9 – choose Use same settings as my incoming mail server

10 – Then click Next

11 – Click on Next, and then Finish to complete your setup!

Congratulations!!!

Let us know if this was helpful or how we might make it even easier for you.

Note: cPanel hosting accounts have a button to click that will configure your email client for you.

Promoting quality content effectively is all about leveraging influence. Using a network is an effective method.

Empire Avenue for Content Promotion

I joined Empire Avenue back in April and have enjoyed many benefits, including an entirely new network of positive and motivated people. I am making friends. Here is my account –  http://www.empireavenue.com/fairminder

I am a member of a couple of Empire Avenue (EA) groups that congregate on Facebook.  I posted the following on the Team Zen group;

Need someone to buy your shares? Tweet, Like, +1 or Stumble this post and I will buy your shares - http://www.jbspartners.com/spe?aking/presentation-tips-speake?rs Probably at least 100 shares if you leave a link to your acct. If you buy back I will too. Tomorrow.

Ad Structure

1.  It starts with a subject near and dear to every shareholder’s heart – getting someone to buy their shares. This is important because it causes their share price to increase, which is good.
2. The second sentence makes the request. I ask for some social media attention using the conveniently located buttons in the sidebar of the post.
3. Then I clearly define what is it for them. I will buy 100 of their shares. I put in “probably” just in case I ran out of currency. Anything is possible right?
4. Then I made a second offer to buy more of their shares if they purchased some of my shares, something called a “buy back’.
5. Lastly, I let them know the buying would start the following day.

Team Zen Did What?

The offer was available for 21 hours beginning after midnight. The group has about 1,000 members from all around the world.

The Facebook posting received 6 Likes.

About 15 members of Team Zen visited my post and hit the button(s).

The sidebar social widget on the post shows the following now;
(see the image here on the right)

Like – 15
Tweet – 22
+1 – 9
SU – 133

Stumble Upon is under represented in this group. I think one person used Stumble Upon.

This group has an affinity with Twitter it seems, despite being in a Facebook group.

A handful of participants bought a few of my shares after I purchased their shares, usually less than 50.

A small number began to friend or follow me today.

Quite a few postings did not include a link to their account, so I ran into the challenges of using the EA search box. It failed me more than once.

More than one person commented that they were happy to help and did not want me to buy their shares. the general tone of all the comments were very supportive and encouraging. I appreciate that.

Key Benefits and Takeaways

I got to get to meet new people and made some good connections.  I don’t see the same opportunity for this to happen on EA, although EA it would not have happened without EA.

The post got almost 200 page views just during this 21 hour period.

There were about 30 visitors from Facebook, and handful from Twitter and the rest came from Stumble Upon.

The project earned a link from a blog to my speaker tips post. Thanks for that.

There is also an outstanding offer to cross-promote

A few more people are better equipped to present now. Yippee!!!

And I think a few more people know about JBS Partners now.

My Flawed Reward System

I spent around 100,000 eaves, which is a lot in my mind.

Offering a flat 100 shares is simple and clean, but flawed, here is why.

A couple of participants have a huge audience and influence while others are still growing them. Compare over 50,000 Twitter followers with 27, for example.

In addition, participant share prices varied from 25 to nearly 120 per share.  Spending between 2,500 and 12,000 to buy that 100 shares for the same action makes no sense.

Offering to spend a flat number of eaves, instead of shares,  makes more sense for next time.

For example. If I had offered to spend 5,000 eaves, this project would have cost only 75,000 eaves, instead of 100k.  I could have allowed five more participants.

What’s Next?

I would definitely like make this offer again, as long as it is ok with the community.

When I try this again it would be interesting to try it over on the X Bar Empire Avenue group on Facebook. They have about 700 members.

The offer will be  eaves instead of shares.

Two things would be great to figure out;

1. Ways to  compensate for the variation in size of audience and influence
2. To see if quality blog comments can also be encouraged.

What do you think?

Title

What makes a good presentation title? Here are some suggestions;

1. Short – four to five words might be typical in your industry
2. Clear and accurate – specifically what are you talking about?
3. Makes you curious – “hmm, that sounds interesting”
4. Provides clues – is the talk for novices or experts?
5. Word play – example; when speaking about tools, “Don’t be a tool”.
6. Key Words – Tips, Tricks, Techniques, Best, Free, Resources, Simplifying, Myths, How To, Improving, Optimizing, Stronger, Faster

The title may be all that the audience reads to decide whether to attend your presentation. In some cases there is room for a paragraph or even a full-page of more information. Be sure to use it.

Description

Here is the opportunity to offer more. Elaborate on the ideas in the title. But, be sure you don’t introduce subjects that are not related. Keep a tight focus. Use numbered or bulleted lists if you can. Specify the target audience. Show a bit of your background, sense of humor and why they should attend.

Plugg Conference

Your Presentation Slides

First, lets assume that you will publish your slide presentation on the web. SlideShare.com is a common site to share presentations, usually after they are presented, but not always after.

There are also benefits to sharing your presentation on your own website or blog. Why not drive traffic to your own site and introduce more visitors to your content?

I do both.

Share Online

This allows me to use SlideShare as an outpost, a place where people may find me for the first time  (unrelated to the conference).  SlideShare offers analytics that show me how many times people watch the presentation, plus I get to use their widget to post my presentation on my website with ease.

Letting your audience know at the beginning of the talk that the slides are available online will cut the note taking anxiety and let them focus more on listening and less on “writing”.

Contact / Sharing Info

Don’t be too shy or too bold about letting people know who you are and if it is relevant who you work for.  It can be very helpful to include a website address, email address, Twitter handle, a Twitter hash tag, phone number or whatever is proper (not all that info) to your audience, on every slide.

People like to connect with speakers. Give them that opportunity. You may be pleasantly surprised.

The Slide

Your slide is not a script to be read from. In fact there is a trend away from lots of text toward visual clues for the audience.

The first slide generally offers the title of the presentation, maybe a sub-text and a graphic. Here or on the second slide your contact information is available in a large readable font.  Also give three to five points on you and why people should listen to you. Education, work experience, past clients  and an interesting fact usually are enough.

Remember that the slide design is to support the message, not show off your design skills. I like strong, solid colors with impactful text or images.  I have made the mistake of jamming five lines of text on a slide. Don’t do that. And you won’t if the slides are for illustration and not your script.

How many slides? Target about one per minute .

How many bullets on a slide? 3-6 seems reasonable.

The last slide again displays your contact information and relevant links. Consider also including a link to your account on SpeakerRate to gather information so that you can improve before the next speaking engagement.

Links

People love additional resources, so include links.

Use shortened links. Have some pity for the note takers and typists in the audience.

Think about the name of the shortened link. You may be thinking about the name of the conference. But, your audience may be thinking about the skill set or discipline you are speaking about. What kind of naming will make the link most sharable and interesting. Refer back to the title information in this post up at the top.

Photo Credits

Using Creative Commons photos from Flickr is a great way to get quality images for free. You can include a credit on each slide with the image or all on one slide at the end of your slide deck, which I find less distracting.

Audience Participation

Tell the audience right up front that you want this to be interactive and to yell out questions or to hold questions until the end. They have a right to be informed. If the session is being recorded tell the audience to please wait for the microphone before speaking. Guide them gently to successful participation.

Give something away

When I presented after lunch I shared individually wrapped Lindt chocolateswith the audience. It kept them alert in the after lunch time slot and it was fun.

Lindt Lindor Truffles for Everyone

Provide a free document from your website. Offer a PDF of valuable information.  This will again drive qualified traffic to your website and introduce more people to your ideas and capabilities. Ensure that the document is well branded too.

Or offer a fun quiz at the end of your presentation and offer small prizes.

Or you could just give prizes to those that add useful comments, ask questions or otherwise take part.

Whatever you give away will make a lasting impression on the recipient.

Breathe

It is best to assume that the audience is on your side and supportive, especially if this is your first presentation.

Although saying “this is my first presentation” seems like a good idea, I don’t recommend what actors call, “breaking the fourth wall”. Stay on form. Don’t talk about your presentation to the audience.

This is especially hard when the computer and projector problems delay your presentation.  Ask for  technical help if you need it.

Know that you are the best “you” that there is. Be grateful for the audience. Go out and share what you know without fear. Learn from the experience.  Rinse and repeat.

References

Keep in mind that this post is full of suggestions. There are always exceptions and we each have our own style and audience.

The best slides I have ever seen in person were from Tamsen McMahon. Here is one set which is 146 slides (very long), but don’t miss the last slide.

The PowerPoint Manifesto by John Heaney is recommended.

And Tony Ramos has a blog devoted to presentations.

Further Suggestions

Please add your further suggestions in the comments below.

The Official Resource Site

Empire Avenue’s list of blogs, videos and news – http://planet.empireavenue.com/

Video

Robert Scoble’s interview with Dupes, the founder of Empire Avenue – from Apr 14, 2011, 52 min YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27dudRnM3RI&feature=player_embedded

Empire Avenue Chat on Twitter

Blogs – news, opinion, how to, guides

Blog posts about Empire Avenue with tips, new, discussion sand suggestions http://empirebuilding.net/

Blog posts with tutorials, videos and the newbie guide – http://empireavenuefans.com

Tools – rankings, ROI calculators, shareholder sorting

Great tool to check your stocks – http://setsocial.com/empireAvenue

Tool to help you track the best dividend earners – http://alethe.net/~k/eav/

Stock buying Recommendations from Team Zen http://teamzen.org/

Tool to find high dividend and high ROI stocks to buy – http://empireavenuetips.com/node/73519

Link that allows you to see account data about any stock. In the URL string just replace fairminder with the stock name you are interested in. Useful to see how many shares someone owns in you.  http://www.empireavenue.com/fairminder/portfolio/quickview?display=fb&mode=profile -

Facebook Pages / Groups

Empire Avenue Facebook Application - http://apps.facebook.com/empireavenue/

X Bar – http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_215923051760153

Team Zen – http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_160861073976561

Do you have a favorite resource for Empire Avenue? Share it here or leave a comment about the links above.  If you want to join Empire Avenue here is a link.

When your Purpose and Motive in joining and participating are clear the experience is more worthwhile.

You can join EA to;

1. Amass virtual wealth, called Eaves
2. Develop a high dividend yield. Over 1% is popular with investors
3. Connect with new people and nurture existing networks
4. Get people you don’t even know to increase your follower counts on Facebook Twitter, Flicker, YouTube and Linkedin
5. Sell products and service that you sell other places
6. Learn about the mechanics of virtual investing, and thereby real investing
7. Find someone to finally fix that computer problem

Once you join, you typically take part by buying and selling shares in other people who have also joined.  Their value is based on social activity or online influence on major social networks as well as social activity on Empire Avenue, including the buying and selling of shares with the virtual currency called eaves.

The customary gaming part in social sites is present with all kinds of achievements that give not only pretty medallions, but also more eaves.

You can also buy your way in with cold hard cash if you want to. You can buy eaves, the virtual currency, and you can buy upgrades, advertising and luxury items.

Once you decide why you want to join keep that focus in mind as you make decisions about buying and selling shares, participating in communities and so on.

How to Start

1. Go to www.EmpireAvenue.com and register after you consider your ticker. Four letters is cool or use your typical online name – whatever you want to be known by.
2. Fill in your profile completely.
3. Upload a smiling photo of yourself.
4. Write a full and complete BIO so people can get to know you.
5. Fill in at least 50 interests. If you add 50 you earn some eaves.
6. Connect your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Flickr accounts.  If you have large followings people will buy your shares right away.
7. Connect RSS feeds. Keep in mind that Empire Avenue (EA) only tracks your top five accounts. So, just put in your top five blogs and then request that they be upgraded by clicking on that button.
8. Join a few communities, again based on your motive, and engage with people.  Remember you earn eaves for your social activity on EA.
9. Be sure to visit the Settings / Edit profile and fill in the requested information there to completely fill in your profile.
10. Think about the kind of people you want to engage with. Whose attention do you want to get?
11. Start buying shares. You may want to get the attention of people who;

• are in your industry,
• might become customers,
• live in your area,
• are influential,
• offer really high dividends,
• that might increase dramatically in share price, you get the idea.

You don’t have to buy back. Just because someone buys your stock, doesn’t mean you have to buy theirs. Some people believe you should. Make your own rules that fit with your purpose and motives.

That’s how I suggest you get started on Empire Avenue.  I will write a few more posts about Empire Avenue in the future.

Go to www.EmpireAvenue.com and create an account.  Leave a message below about your experience.

The Drupal "Drop" logo

My Content Management System Background

After moving from a custom platform to Open Source development years ago, I felt it wise to choose one or two content management / development platforms to focus on. I didn’t want to specialize in “everything”.  I made two choices – WordPress and Drupal.

The business grew and WordPress was the platform of choice nearly every time. I explained to business owners the advantages of a CMS and that WordPress was designed for writers and that Drupal was designed for programmers.  Neither Drupal or WordPress fan boys would disagree.

Moving forward with Drupal was much harder. The terminology and admin navigation was not helpful in Drupal 5. The WordPress admin interface took some learning, but I never got completely lost or felt afraid I would do irrevocable damage.

I remember feeling bad for one client in particular because each time they wanted to change their Drupal website they couldn’t figure it out and had to hire me. The guy was a programmer, so he didn’t feel great about it either. Our of my commitment to Drupal one of my own sites www.WebPageAdvisor.com was built in Drupal, but eventually I reverted to WordPress so that I too wouldn’t have to pay someone to make changes on the site.

Today, nearly all of the work done at JBS Partners is on WordPress. In addition, in 2009 www.BlogWranglers.com was launched to provide site migration services.  Most move requests are to WordPress, well all of them so far are to WordPress.

In summary, I tried Drupal and WordPress. Drupal was hard. WordPress dominated incoming client requests and here we are. But, I didn’t forget about Drupal.

Drupal 4 Design Conference 2011 Boston

I volunteered at DrupalCon Boston in 2008 and this is the second Drupal4Design Boston that I have attended.

This year I learned the most at the lunch table, a presentation on user testing and the keynote by Dries Buytaert- the founder of Drupal. First, let me say it is was fascinating to be among the Drupal faithful as an “outsider”, a self-professed WordPress guy. I wasn’t quick to tell anyone that I work with WordPress and know little about Drupal.

Drupal User Testing

This presentation made me feel good. It was full of affirmations that I was not the only one who had trouble with Drupal, even later versions like Drupal 6 and Drupal 7. During 75 minutes of testing every subject needed to call the help desk to complete the assigned task, which I believe was to build a page following a wire frame.

Most test subject utterly failed. Many became frustrated. Some of the issues included terminology that was unfamiliar or unclear, groups of navigation links in the admin area with no indication of what they were for or whether they were required to complete a task, drop down with 19 choices and no previewing of changes made to a page.

The main auditorium full of laptops and tablets

I thought this was fantastic. The Drupal people are being very open about a huge weakness and they are working very hard to make the changes to reduce frustration and make Drupal easier to use.

Who is Drupal for?

During the keynote question and answer period Jon Sachs asked Dries about the levels of Drupal users and which is being targeted in the user testing.  The three levels Jon described are the business owner / end user, the person or company that is hired to create the site and the deeply knowledgeable Drupal developers. I thought about this and piled on the different cultural and language factors to the mix. Not an easy question.

You don’t want to alienate the strong developer community. But, Drupal cannot remain difficult to use. I don’t remember that Dries provided a specific choice in his reply, but he clearly recognized and asked for help in improving the design of Drupal, the User Interface of the admin area.

The Keynote – Founder of Drupal

Dries is very humble, willing to accept his own perspective or even shortcomings and eager to welcome suggestions and contributions to make Drupal better.  He is the kind of guy you can have a conversation with, which I did. More on that later.

One of his slides clearly made the point that right now design is more important than engineering and then he added, “there, I said”. to an auditorium full of laughter. You see Dries is an engineer by training.

One of the really fascinating questions was from Jaye. He asked about WordPress, Drupal and Joomla all improving and whether Dries saw a convergence in 5+ years.  He asked what would separate the platforms.

The answer centered around Drupal being an enterprise level platform to build on.

Is there another major CMS that has a design focused Camp / Bar or Conference?

Lunchtime Conversations

I happened to sit at a lunch table that included very experienced Drupalers and conference speakers.  I took the opportunity to be a fly on the wall.  A few topics that interested me.

Large Shops – Drupal not WordPress

Large Drupal shops – the group offered that there are many large Drupal shops, whether they be design or custom solution focused. The interesting point to me was that they held the opinion that they no of no large WordPress shops.

Why would this be?

1. If that is not a testament to how hard Drupal is to work with, I don’t know what is.
2. You don’t need a big shop to build blogs and small websites on WordPress
3. WordPress isn’t used in the enterprise providing complex solutions
4. Maybe the work is being done in-house

I am not convinced that any of these answers offered at the table are fully accurate. Do you know of any WordPress shops with more than 15 or 20 people employed full time?

The inference here is that large multi-national is not likely to choose WordPress because there are not large WordPress shops to turn to for support, customization and special projects.

Shortage of Drupal talent

There is a shortage of talented Drupal developers, themers and programmers. This was confirmed multiple times before and after lunch.

Chat with Dries

I found myself drying my hands in the Men’s room with Dries. He asked me how the conference was going and we ended up having a nice conversation on the way out of the bathroom and into the concourse.

This conversation combined with the lunch conversation really left me with the thought that these folks see Drupal in the Enterprise and WordPress, well, not so much.

Dries Buytaert - founder of Drupal

I asked Dries what the big differentiators are between WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.  He talked about editorial review and user permission, workflow and Drupal more as a platform than a solution.

We agreed that Joomla is not really worth speaking about and that many feel that way while there is WordPress and Drupal available.

We also discussed how hard Drupal has been to use and how expensive it is to hire quality talent to work on Drupal, especially when compared to the WordPress. He agreed that is the case and attributed this to simple supply and demand, which seems reasonable.

Conclusions

The Drupal core development group is aware that much user interface work is needed to make their platform user friendly. Hurray!!! The focus on user interface and design will have a huge benefit.

The Drupal community is cohesive and supportive. Definitely a male dominated, programmer-centric group at the conference. There were ladies in the crowd of 300, of course.  Quality folks, I must say as my misplaced iPhone was returned to the registration desk where I retrieved it within 10 minutes of discovering it was missing.

Need a job? Become a Drupal themer or developer

I want to learn more about WordPress in the enterprise and large WordPress shops. You can see some big names using WordPress listed on the WordPress showcase site.

No Convergence: WordPress and Drupal will continue to grow and improve.  Drupal will become prettier and easier to use (more like WordPress in that regard) and WordPress will become more of an extensible development platform and handle more complex requirements (more like Drupal).  I have to agree with Dries, there is room in the world for both. Complete convergence that wipes out the need for one or the other is not going to happen.

Will I start looking to take on more Drupal clients? Sure, why not. Especially after Drupal 8 has been out for six months.

Do you think Drupal needs usability testing and a focus on better admin area design?

Do you think WordPress is present in the Enterprise?

Are there any large WordPress shops out there?

PROBLEM Alert

Service: HTTP URL: http://72.29.66.95 Name: 72.29.66.95_http Tag: mY IP State: CRITICAL Date/Time: 3-21-2011 17:47:13 (GMT – 5) Additional Information: Connection refused. Failures From: EU, US and the recover comes in green

RECOVERY Alert

Service: HTTP URL: http://72.29.66.95 Name: 72.29.66.95_http Tag: mY IP State: OK Date/Time: 3-21-2011 18:12:03 (GMT – 5) Additional Information: HTTP response code: 200 Keeping your website up and available is easy with a service like Monitorus. If the reports and emails show that your server services are down you are half way to getting things fixed up and running smoothly again.

Open Source Monitoring

If you want to install and run your own Open Source monitoring service have a look https://www.icinga.org/download/ How are you monitoring your hosting server services?

Domain Name

Your domain name is the foundation. Without it you have no visitors, commenters or buyers.

Businesses large and small often neglect to consider domain names as vital corporate assets.  This leads to domain names expiring which brings down their entire Internet presence, including email.

This is especially problematic with organizations and non-profits because well-meaning people come and go and don’t leave a well documented paper trail with URLs, account names, user names and passwords.

Every registrar keeps information that you provide so that they can contact you to renew your domain name.  When you need to collect and verify information about a domain name a site like Domain Tools is a great resource.

I have a JavaScript short cut in my browser that takes me to this site to check sites. The results page has five tabs

Here is what I look for.

One Whois Record Page

1. Who is the registrant? Hopefully the person I am speaking with.
2. Is the contact information correct?
3. Do the Registrant, Administrative and Technical contacts all list different information? The more ways a registrar can contact you the better.

On the Registration Page

1. Who is the registrar?
2. When was the account created?
3. When will it expire?
4. If I recognize the name server that will tell me who is hosting the site.

The Server Stats page shows me

1. Whether the site is hosted on Windows or not.  I hope not.
2. Where geographically the site is hosted.

It is worth the free registration to see the full information on the Whois Record page.

Store your domain name registration account information with your other important papers.

I have seen client sites go down and I have seen clients lose their domain names entirely. Be sure to log-in to your domain registrar account or at least visit Domain Tools to make sure that your account information is up to date and correct. Do this every year, like changing the battery in your smoke alarms,  along with confirming where the login information is stored.

Have you found this or similar tools useful? What suggestions or experiences do you have?

Hi. I am Jim Spencer and my primary Twitter account is fairminder.

I have 7 other accounts (BlogWranglers, WebPageAdvisor, LocalSEOAdvisor, BlogNitro, BlogArmour, JBS Partners, Jim Spencer and MarketingLocals, but only post duplicate posts to them.

I joined Twitter April 3rd, 2007 and have been an active user.

Around my three-year Twitter anniversary I gave up following back everyone that follows me. With over 6,000 followers I could no longer keep up.  I most often will friend folks that @ me or RT. I like meeting folks more than racking up a follower count.

I appreciate Twitter for the opportunity to meet new friends and colleagues. It’s especially fun to later meet Twitter friends in real life.

A lot of the people I am friends with on Twitter are related to:

• Social Media
• WordPress
• marketing
• website development
• website design
• search optimization and marketing
• RedSox
• hosting
• domaining

Or if you want to see a different kind of profile, have a look at an organized list of the Twitter Lists that my followers have put be on. It’s a revealing user-generated profile.

There are many ways to get in touch with me http://protocol.by/jim

I have a few websites:

• www.jbspartners.com – website and blog design and development
• www.BlogWranglers.com – website and blog move and migration services
• www.WebPageAdvisor.com – website and blog report and assessment service
• www.TweetAdvisor.com – a slowly abandoned site for Twitter items of interest
• www.RandomlyFunny.com – a slowly abandoned place to post funny phrases, images and videos people send around

and some day I hope to build out:

• www.BlogArmour.com – Secure WordPress installations, add security to WordPress
• www.BlogNitro.com – Speed up WordPress sites, improve performance.
• www.WranglerMedia.com – Custom high-end design and development
• www.LocalBusinessAdvisors.com – Local Marketing services
• www.MarketingLocals.com – Local search marketing, local seo

Generally speaking the topical subjects accurately represent some facet of my life. I just find it interesting to see what lens a person chooses to see me through.

Below I sorted the listed into reasonable and sometimes questionable groups. I can see patterns and I think you will too.
I dare say that since the meaning provided here is created by others, it may provide a more accurate profile of JBS Partners than Linkedin. What do you think? Just skim the headings down the page.

Here is a sorted grouping of Twitter Lists that I find myself on.

Events that I attended:

1. attendees-boston-2010
2. boston-140conf
3. boston-podcamp5 PodCamp Boston – 26-27 September 2010, Microsoft R&D Park, 100 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
4. boston-surfers Shortbord’s list of influential surfers in Boston, MA
5. community-roundtable CR folk
6. sempo-boston
7. Cambridge SEO Meetup members. DM me if you should be on this list!
8. podcamp-boston PodCamp Boston – 26-27 September 2010, Microsoft R&D Park, 100 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
9. the140conf
10. webinno-27
11. thecrlive-boston People who have joined us for #TheCRLive in Boston
12. megatweetup 12.3.09 Megatweetup
13. megatweetupstars All the Stars that are attending the #MegaTweetUP
14. csne-members Content Strategy New England members and speakers.
15. gdgtlive-boston

Business Owner:

1. bizowners2 A custom list created by adding, subtracting or filtering existing lists (generated by @formulists)
2. consultants

Winchester, Boston, Massachusetts and New England:

1. boston
2. boston
3. boston
4. boston
5. boston
6. boston
7. boston All about the hub
8. boston bestofthebest tweeple in boston.
9. boston Greater Bostonians
10. boston What do you think?
11. local-bostonians
12. winchester-ma
13. boston-2 More cool Twitterati from Boston
14. boston-folks People worth following in Boston
15. bostonians
16. bostonians-i-know
17. boston-ish
18. boston-ish
19. boston-peeps
20. boston-people All things Boston – find deals, events, and other cool Boston stuff.
21. bostontweeps
22. brilliant-boston
23. metinbostonsome
24. people-co-boston-ne Interesting People and Companies in New England & Boston Area
25. massachusetts-tweeters
26. new-england
27. new-england New England related people – if you think you should be here let me know.
28. new-england-2
29. new-england-marketers A collection of marketing professionals across New England.
30. new-england-sports
31. new-england-tweeps This is obviously a work in progress…lots more people to add.
32. new-england-tweeters-21 All New England Tweeters, including businesses

Branding:

1. brand-related Brand related Accounts

Conversationalist:

1. conversationlist
2. conversationlist A dynamic list rebuilt daily of the people you are talking to and about.
3. conversationlist A dynamic list rebuilt daily of the people you are talking to and about.
4. all-follow-back-499 These STAR PEEPS follow everyone back that follows them! You Must FOLLOW this list to be included!

Creative:

1. creative-design-photog
2. creatives
3. creatives
4. creatives Creative Twitter Users worth a mention. Follow them for some great inspiring tweets

Design:

1. design
2. design Graphic designers, web designers, artists, highly visual people.
3. design-and-dev3
4. design-and-dev-leaders Top influencers in dev and design
5. big-web Combined list – “web design” “web-development” “wordpress”
6. designerds
7. art-design-and-media-arts

Domaining:

 
1. domaining-7 Domainer Focused
2. dn

Lists of something good:

1. don-t-miss-these The people @tamadear is most grouped together in lists with (generated by @formulists)
2. formulists-filter-my-following A self-updating filtered list of people I follow (generated by @formulists)
3. good-list A custom list created by adding, subtracting or filtering existing lists (generated by @formulists)
4. kindred-spirits The people I am most grouped together in lists with (hatched by @formulists)
5. list filtered list of people I follow
6. tracy-falkelets The people @Tracy_Falke is most grouped together in lists with (generated by @formulists)
7. thanks-for-listing-me A list of people who have added me to one or more of their lists (generated by @formulists)
8. who-i-followed A self-updating filtered list of people I follow (generated by @formulists)
9. whomyfriendsengagewith A list of people who talk with the people I talk to.
10. mutual-friends A self-updating list of people who are followed by the people I follow (generated by @formulists)
11. myfollowers A dynamic list rebuilt daily of the people following me

Drupal:

1. drupal

Fathers:

1. fathers

Very Complimentary:

1. cantmiss Great-content-great-folks
2. close
3. custom-list A custom list created by adding, subtracting or filtering existing lists (generated by @formulists)
4. favorite-tweeters List of favorite tweeters of Marsh Sutherland of Socialgrow.com
5. followrate-plus-10-perc-3 >3000 following RATE 0,9-1 ers
6. fots-friends-of-the-slice
7. friends
8. friends-of-craig People I generally like paying attention to in the twittersphere
9. f-twitters
10. fun-tech-geeks
11. funtimesguide
12. homies
13. humans-i-ve-met
14. irl
15. magnificent
16. mypeeps
17. peeps
18. phritters These are the people that I always want to hear. I recommend them highly.
19. review-list A list of twitter profiles I should have a better look at.
20. seenatmileycyrusconcert The coolest twitters in the world I’ve run across
21. smart-tweets
22. supporters
23. the-real-deal People & companies who regularly talk with me or I’ve met
24. the-usual-suspects-3 Nice people I have met in real life, gotten to know and wish I saw more of.
25. tried-true
26. tried-true Tweeple I’ve become acquainted with enough to recommend them to others
27. verified-real-people People I have personally met OFFLINE, or family members thereof.
28. veteran-tweeple Incredible Tweeple who have stood by me since the beginning
29. wicked-smaht
30. coolpeoplei-vemet People on Twitter I actually know aren’t imaginary.
31. cool-web-types SEO + Social Media+ Online Marketing+ PPC+Email Marketing+ Geeks+Tech = a General Twitter Elite
32. love-to-chat-with Automated List of folks I recently tweeted with.
33. pundants valuable information
34. teachme

FourSquare:

1. foursquare-users Foursquare users check out www.na4sq.com

Internet:

1. industry-info
2. internet-computer
3. internet-marketing Collection of peeps and businesses in the internet marketing industry.
4. internet-marketing SEO, SEM, IM, SMM, ORM…acronyms abound, but it’s all Internet Marketing.

Los Angeles:

1. la

Linkedin:

1. linkedin-connections

Website Hosting:

1. list-2-hosting-people-co People and Companies In the Web Hosting and Infrastructure Space

Marketing:

1. marketing
2. marketing
3. marketing
4. marketing
5. marketing
6. marketing A self-updating filtered list of people I follow (made using @formulists)
7. marketing-comm-pr
8. marketingleads
9. marketing-pros Those whose primary business is marketing
10. marketsavy

PPC:

1. ppc
2. ppc Pay Per Click (PPC) Twitter list. PPC list on Twitter for SEM. Twitter PPC list of people

Public Relations:

1. pr-marketing-advertising
2. pr-socialmedia-marketing
3. top-influencers This list is powered by Klout: http:
4. top-pr-mktg-sm
5. media-pr-marcomm

RedSox:

1. redsox Boston Red Sox fans and writers. if you want on it or be removed: @DaigoFuji
2. red-sox-fans
3. redsoxfriends
4. redsox-mlb
5. redsox-nation
6. red-sox-nation
7. sports

Search Engine Optimization:

1. search
2. search
3. search-and-social A collection of SEO, SEM, and Social Media pros on Twitter
4. searchengine Search Engine
5. searchengines Search engines industry – marketers, optimizers, engineers and gurus.
6. searchsocialdesigntech
7. sem-sm Search Marketing and Social Media
8. seo
9. seo
10. seo
11. seo
12. seo
13. seo
14. seo people I respect in seo
15. seo-custom-7 A list that is a customized clone of another list (generated by @formulists)
16. seo-media-20 A custom list created by adding, subtracting or filtering existing lists (generated by @formulists)
17. seo-ronin SEO settings themselves apart
18. seo-sem-smm
19. seos-on-fire
20. real-seo-sem-people
21. sm

Social Media:

1. socailmedia
2. social-boston-friends Must follow Social people throughout Boston and the North East.
3. socialindustry Members working in the social media or online community industry
4. socialmedia
5. social-media
6. social-media
7. social-media-19 my favorite social, technical, fun and interesting tweeters
8. social-media-club
9. social-media-contacts
10. social-media-pros-orgs
11. social-media-surfers Shortbord’s list of influential surfers in the social media space.
12. social-media-types List name says it all. Follow this list for social media news and tidbits.
13. social-network
14. real-social-media-elite the elite of the elite – world-wide social media power user (via Osnapz & score.ly) + hand-picked
15. newmedia All things social media, tech and new media related
16. boston-social-networking

Technology:

1. tech
2. tech
3. tech-friends
4. techppl

Website Design:

1. web-design
2. web-design
3. web-design
4. web-design Web designers and front-end web developers…

Web Development:

1. web-development
2. web-development-design
3. digital-media-dynamos Makers of all things beautiful to the human eye.
4. dmedia-design-adv-apps
5. dev-community A list of developers, designers, agencies and other like-minds.
6. developers

WordPress:

1. wordpress
2. wordpress Bloggers, developers, coders, designers, speakers, teachers, students – WordPress, BuddyPress, etc.
3. wordpress Interesting members of the WordPress community.
4. wordpress Klout Powered List
5. top-wordpress-developers Mainly a list of coders and developers that work with WordPress, it’s themes, and or it’s plugins.
6. wordpress WordPress designers and developers…
7. klout-influencers-wordpress This list is powered by Klout: http:
8. boston-wordcampers Everyone who’s registered to attend WordCampBoston, January 23rd.
9. thesis-wordpress-theme
10. bostonwp BostonWP Meetup Folks
11. wordpress-people People who enjoying talking about, and working with WordPress.
12. all-wordcampers Speakers, panelists, sponsors, attendees, and founders, oh my.

World Views:

1. worldviews

Writers:

1. writers
2. writers-seo Solid SEO writers, thinkers, doers, & everything in between
3. blogging

Content Strategy:

1. content-stratetweeps

Summary:

I would say that there are only a few possible mistakes. For example if someone is thinking that I live in LA, well that was decades ago, and only near LA. I was born there though. Content Strategy, I wish. I have a lot of respect for those talented content strategists.

It’s interesting to look at the proportions in each list. Strangely they are kind of accurate in some ways. I can see patterns. I am glad that there is a strong theme in what we might call the friendship area as well as the technical areas that I work in day in and day out.

What patterns do you see?

How are you communicating to a person when you put them on  list?  What are you saying?
Does this give you a better idea of what I do than my JBS Partners Linkedin Profile?

About now you should be asking yourself what that has to do with Social Media being a fad and Citi, or as I still think of it, Citi Group.

I have been involved in and observing Social Media for more than three years. It doesn’t seem like a long time at all.  By contrast, the predecessor to Citi, City Bank of New York was formed in 1812.

Plenty of opinions are shared about the reach and duration of Social Media. Even Monday night a friend shared his opinion that Twitter would only be around for another two years at which point it would be bought out maybe by Google or Facebook.  The thought that even the term “Social Media” will not be around much longer is quite possible and suits me just fine.

But here is my point. The content creation and sharing that is called Social Media is not going away.

Social Media may get folded into marketing or PR or some other agency moniker, but it is not going away any time soon.  For all the creepiness that Facebook brings, it has brought good social interaction into my experience 95% of the time. Twitter has helped me grow friendships online and in real life and connect with both new colleagues and new clients.  That’s both an individual and a small business point of view on Social Media. But, what are the big guys doing?

The CEO of Citi has his name attached to a letter in the 2010 Citi Annual Report.  Here is an excerpt: ( I added the italics)

Changes in consumer preferences: A new generation of globally minded and tech-savvy people is coming of age and entering the financial system. Globalization has harmonized, to some extent, these consumers’ tastes, spending habits and expectations in ways that make people who live in the world’s largest and most sophisticated urban centers more like one another than ever before. These consumers also have different — and higher — expectations from businesses than their parents.

The demands on businesses that rely on information technology will be especially high: consumers have come to expect instant, fast, reliable, always-on access to a plethora of data. In addition, consumers in differing circumstances and markets increasingly demand products and services tailored to their specific needs. Keeping up with — and staying ahead of — those expectations will require changes to the global retail banking business model that are every bit as significant as the changes being wrought by new regulation.

Social networking and technology pose perhaps the greatest challenge. More than 750 million people around the world now use social networking sites, which are radically changing the way consumers communicate — with each other and with businesses. What used to be simple messages are now interactive and ongoing dialogues.

Industries and businesses that succeed in the new environment are harnessing social network technology to offer highly personalized service and virtual, online communities. In short, consumers everywhere are becoming more knowledgeable and sophisticated. We must treat them accordingly.

Sounds like Citi is “all in” at this point.  That’s the CEO’s letter to all shareholders.

So, if you have family members or clients that are convinced that Social Media is a fad, let them be. Take this knowledge yourself and use it to your advantage. Show them by example. And then when they ask you about your successes maybe share your Social Media story along with this excerpt from the CEO of Citi and observe the response.

Social Media is not for everyone, but if you are holding back for fear of wasting your time and energy, well you are wise.  You will be wiser to add Social Media to your marketing and business building toolbox. Social Media should be part of the mix. Citi certainly thinks so.

What do you think?

Domain Name Servers – DNS

The change in DNS to point to the new hosting server had occurred recently and was likely part of the issue.  Domain Name Servers get updated at different times. Complete propagation can take up to a full 24 hours. Each log in attempt likely hit a different DNS server.

How to Stay Logged In

Here is how we solved this issue.

1. Log in to WordPress
2. Log out of WordPress before getting kicked out
3. Enter your WordPress user name and password
4. Click the “Remember Me’ tick box
5. Login to WordPress

This will enter the correct data or replace any corrupt data in your cookie.

Clearing your browser cache and cookies BEFORE the above procedure is also a good idea.

If you find that WordPress is logging you out of the WordPress admin area, try logging in and selecting the “Remember Me” option and see if this resolves the issue for you as well.

I am going to install the Add-ons that I know I want first and then see what I miss and add them in slowly.  Here is my list to start with.

Firefox Add-ons

MeasureIt 0.4.6- measure anything in the browser

The Microsoft .NET framework Assistant 1.2.1 installed itself

Roboform attached itself to the new browser installation by defualt, which is pretty cool. Awesome password manager

Screengrab 0.96.3 – I learned that the Giant download button is not for Screen Grab. Read carefully before clicking.  Screen shots

SEO For Firefox 3.4.2  Agh. I have to register. I will do that later. Valuable SEO information

Session Manager 0.6.9.3 – Save all tabs. Great in case something crashes. Start right where you left off

YSlow 2.1.0 – Make your pages faster with Yahoo!’s page performance tool

ColorZilla 2.2.2 – Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies

Firebug 1.6.1 – Web Development Evolved

Greasemonkey 0.8.20100408.6 – A User Script Manager for Firefox

PDF Download 3.0.0.1 – Allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file: download it, view it with an external viewer or view it as HTML

SearchStatus 1.34 – Display the Google, Alexa, Compete and Linkscape ranking with search-related tools

Tabberwocky 1.1 – Tabs: duplicate, lock, multi-row, progress bar, new and close buttons, menu and more

At this point the CPU is sitting quietly nearly at zero.

Major Disappointment

My expectations are not met. I thought that installing the PortableApps Firefox in a different directory would not interfere with my current installation of Firefox. That is how it worked when I did this some years ago.

Now I have to go figure out where all of the information about my old Firefox installation is stored and import it into this installation.

UPDATE:

I restored my bookmarks and rebooted my computer. Now I seem to only have the original Firefox with all of it’s history, toolbars, plugins and so on.  Maybe I can only run one version of Firefox at a time.

I closed Firefox and launched the PortableApps version and it works just fine.  You can only run one at time, unlike some Internet Explorer software that I ran which allowed multiple versions to run concurrently.

So now either version of Firefox will work.  Both are behaving quite well. I will continue trying to get the CPU to 100% in the old version of Firefox.  I guess that the reboot was probably important as well.

What’s the Cause

I have no idea yet.  My guess is that it may be something to do with Video, Anti-Virus or something installed on Firefox.

Symptoms

If I run TweetDeck (an Adobe Air application) along with Firefox 3.6 and then run Safari 5.0.3 and play something on Hulu (not full screen), eventually the CPU will hit 100%.  The interesting part is that even after Closing all three of these applications the CPU remains at 100%.  That is frustrating.

I Tried Chrome.

It was surprising to see how many plugins are available for Chrome. After installing a bunch I made Chrome the default browser.  But over time I didn’t like the way RoboForm is implemented and a few other Extensions that I missed made my daily browsing more difficult than it needed to be, so I reverted to Firefox.

AVG

Uninstalling AVG provided some relief.  I am still testing, but removing AVG seems to have eliminated the problem of the CPU staying at 100% even after closing the applications. Now, after closing the apps the CPU returns to a restful state.

Installed Firefox Extensions and Plugins

Do you know which Firefox Extensions might cause heavy CPU usage? Below is a list of everything installed on Firefox.
My Config- default

Generated: Sat Jan 08 2011 09:14:23 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)

Build ID: 20101203075014

Enabled Extensions: [41]

• AI Roboform Toolbar for Firefox 6.10.1 – Allows the use of Roboform in Firefox.
• ColorfulTabs 4.6.5 – Colorful Tabs colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appeal of the interface.
• ColorZilla 2.2.2 – Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies
• Domain Details 2.6.8 – Displays Server Type, Headers, IP Address, Location Flag, and links to Whois Reports
• FEBE 6.3.3.2 – Backup your Firefox data
• Firebug 1.6.1 – Web Development Evolved.
• FireFTP 1.0.10 – FTP Client for Mozilla Firefox.
• Fission 1.0.9 – Progress bar in the address bar (Safari style).
• Greasemonkey 0.8.20100408.6 – A User Script Manager for Firefox
• Html Validator 0.8.6.1 – Adds HTML validation to the View Page Source of the browser. The validation is done by Tidy from W3c.
• Java Console 6.0.22
• Java Console 6.0.23
• Java Quick Starter 1.0
• Link Diagnosis 1.2.2 – Examine link competition
• LinkChecker 0.6.6 – Check the validity of links on any webpage.
• LinkDiagnosis 2.2 2.2.41 – Examine link competition using the new and improved Link Diagnosis Tool
• Live HTTP headers 0.16 – View HTTP headers of a page and while browsing.
• MeasureIt 0.4.6 – Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
• Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.2.1 – Adds ClickOnce support and the ability to report installed .NET Framework versions to the web server.
• Move Media Player 7 – Media Player
• Mozbar 0.51 – A toolbar for the users of SEOmoz.org, Inc.
• MR Tech Toolkit 6.0.4 – MR Tech Toolkit power tools for all users. (en-US)
• NewsFox 1.0.5 – RSS/Atom News Reader.
• PDF Download 3.0.0.1 – Allows you to choose what to do with a PDF file: download it, view it with an external viewer or view it as HTML.
• RankChecker 1.7.9 – Track where your site ranks in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live Search using the free Firefox rank checker.
• Screengrab 0.96.3 – Saves a web-page as an image.
• SearchStatus 1.33 – Display the Google, Alexa, Compete and Linkscape ranking with search-related tools.
• SEO Blogger 1.0.4 – Wordtracker’s SEO Blogger extension
• SEO Doctor 1.4 – Calculate link statistics of the current website
• SEO For Firefox 3.4.2 – SEO information inline with Google and Yahoo! search results
• SEO Link Analysis 1.0.7 – Adds display of PageRank, linktext and nofollow links to external links in Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo! Site Explorer
• Seo Toolbar 1.1.3 – The SEO Toolbar allows you to look at on page and off page competitive research details from the convenience of your Firefox browser as you browse the web. It also allows you to find keywords by putting many keyword tools at your fingertips. Have SEO questions? Ask them in the SEO Book Community Forums!
• SEOpen 1.1 – Provides some basic tools to help with search engine optimization.
• Session Manager 0.6.9.3 – Saves and restores the state of all windows.
• StumbleUpon 3.76 – StumbleUpon Toolbar
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.4 – Tab browsing with an added boost.
• Total Validator 6.9.1 – Validates web pages in numerous ways
• Update Notifier 0.1.5.5 – Notifies you when updates are available for your extensions and themes.
• Web Developer 1.1.9 – Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
• Website Health Check Tool 1.1.3 – The Website Health Check tool aims to provide a simple and intuitive interface to seeing if your site has any major SEO issues.
• YSlow 2.1.0 – Make your pages faster with Yahoo!’s page performance tool

Disabled Extensions: [7]

• After the Deadline 1.50 – After the Deadline checks spelling, grammar, and style in your web forms.
• BlekkoToolbar 1.0.2 – Blekko’s Search Toolbar
• Ghostery 2.4.2 – Ghostery identifies and allows you to block the 3rd parties (web bugs) that are hidden on the current page you’re visiting. Web bugs include ad networks, behavioral data collectors and web analytics providers.
• HP Smart Web Printing 4.60 – Print what you want, how you want.
• SeoQuake 2.6.8 – Quick view of site parameters in the search engine results pages.
• SeoQuake Plugin – Ask.com 1.0.6 – SeoQuake Plugin – Ask.com
• Speed Dial 0.9.5.8 – Direct access to your most visited websites

Total Extensions: 48

Installed Themes: [1]

• Default

Installed Plugins: (28)

• 2007 Microsoft Office system: NPOFF12.DLL- Office Plugin for Netscape Navigator
• Adobe Acrobat: nppdf32.dll- Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape “9.4.1″
• downloadUpdater: npdnu.dll- npdnu
• downloadUpdater2: npdnupdater2.dll- npdnupdater2
• Google Talk Plugin: npgoogletalk.dll- Version 1.7.1.0
• Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator: npgtpo3dautoplugin.dll- Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator version:0.1.43.4
• Google Update: npGoogleOneClick8.dll- Google Update
• iTunes Application Detector: npitunes.dll- iTunes Detector Plug-in
• Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.230.5: npdeployJava1.dll- NPRuntime Script Plug-in Library for Java(TM) Deploy
• Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U23: npjp2.dll- Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_23 for Mozilla browsers
• Microsoft® DRM: npdrmv2.dll- DRM Netscape Network Object
• Microsoft® DRM: npwmsdrm.dll- DRM Store Netscape Plugin
• Move Streaming Media Player: npqmp071500000347.dll- npmnqmp 989898989877
• Mozilla Default Plug-in: npnul32.dll- Default Plug-in
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin2.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin3.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin4.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin5.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin6.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.9: npqtplugin7.dll- The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in Web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site.
• RockMelt Update: npRockMeltOneClick8.dll- RockMelt Update
• Shockwave Flash: NPSWF32.dll- Shockwave Flash 10.1 r102
• Silverlight Plug-In: npctrl.dll- 4.0.51204.0
• Turner Media Plugin 1.0.0.10: NPTURNMED.dll- NPTURNMED
• Unity Player: npUnity3D32.dll- Unity Player 2.6.1f3
• Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library: npdsplay.dll- Npdsplay dll
• Windows Presentation Foundation: NPWPF.dll- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) plug-in for Mozilla browsers

I welcome all suggestions leading to a resolution of this issue.  Well, except the constant refrain from my friends to buy a Mac, unless of course you want to Chip-In. This is for you Phil and Chris and many others!!!

But, I digress.  I really want to get Firefox running in a stable manner again.  I think that removing AVG was a help, but it is not the solution.  I will add notes here as various solutions are tested and proven effective or not.

All suggestions are welcome int the comment area below.

UPDATE: In a new post I describe how I have created a new installation of Firefox using PortableApps.

UPDATE 2: The version of RoboForm was giving errors. I upgraded RoboForm and I am no logger getting a script error. Removing Tab Mix Plus may also have beneficial.   I also switched from AVG to Avira anti-virus program.  I have TweetDeck, PortableApps Firefox and Hulu playing on Safari and things are running well so far.

The latest  newsletter from Jason Calacanis is full of domain name ideas that for the most part are also fitting for the small and medium business market (SMB).  Jason’s contact and subscription info is at the bottom.

I have edited the post slightly by removing and editing text and formatting text.  This post is over 3,300 words, but well worth reading.  My take is at the bottom.

Think of Google, Yahoo, EBAY, Mahalo, Meetup, Yammer and Min — are all six letters or under, generally easy to spell and certainly unique. This is not a coincidence.

Landing a short dotcom domain name in 2010 isn’t easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. I know this because I was able to buy

Mahalo.com for $11,000,

aday.com for $30,000,

20.com for $70,000,

ThisWeekIn.com for $15,000

Kokua.com for $7,000.

That’s not chump change, but given that the average angel round is $500-$1m, investing five to ten dimes is no big deal.

Great entrepreneurs tackle and solve challenging issues like naming their company well, and if you can’t name your company well, you’re simply not worth investing in.

I know it’s harsh statement, but it is true. Better you hear it now while you still have a chance to hit a homerun.

If you go into a VC or angel meeting with a crappy name, they will look at it the same way they look at you unshaven with a stain on your shirt and a deck full of misspellings: that you lack focus and attention to detail.

For potential investors, critical hires and game-changing partners, the last thing you need is to tell them you lack focus.

Now, when someone shows up with a kick-ass domain, company name and logo, the first thing I think is: Dude is baller!

A stunning domain name paired with a world-class logo makes you look like a killer.

The first thing you will hear from people when you say, “Our company is named path.com (or hunch.com, mint.com or diapers.com)” is “how did  you get that domain name?” or “how much did you pay for that?”

That is what you want when you’re in a meeting asking people to give you money: credibility.

In fact, I’d rather have someone with a mustard stain on his shirt, smelling like a homeless guy, pitch me on Phones.com over Andersen Cooper in a tight, fitted black t-shirt, pitch me on BestPhones4u.com.

No offense Andersen, you’re totally dreamy and all, but if your domain name is not easy to spell, I’m not interested.

Jason Calacanis

Lets take a look at the top 100 sites in the United States per Quantcast

( http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1 )
You’ll find that 100 of 100 are dotcoms (as you might expect).

In terms of length, the biggest sites in the USA have short domain names:

• Two letter: 2
• Three letter: 8
• Four letter: 9
• Five letter: 15
• Six letter: 11
• Seven letter: 18
• Eight letter: 9
• Nine letter: 8
• Ten letter: 4
• Eleven: 6
• Twelve: 3
• Thirteen: 2
• Fourteen: 2
• Fifteen: 2
• Sixteen: 0
• Seventeen: 1

In summary:

1. Six characters or less: 45%;
2. Eight or less: 72%;
3. Ten or less: 84%

Great companies have great names (and the associated domain names). It’s not a coincidence.

Amazing names share the following basic qualities:

• Short, less than eight characters
• Easy to spell
• Literal (i.e. diapers.com) or evocative (i.e. Yahoo.com & Google)
• Memorable after one exposure (i.e. Go.com, CNN.com, Amazon.com)

Good names:

• Longer than eight characters
• Require a question when you say them over the phone: “oh, ingadget.com… it didn’t come up… oh, it’s Engadget.com with an ‘e’
• Sentences or phrases (i.e. ThisWeekIn.com, GetGlue.com, etc).
• Hipster misspellings (i.e. Flickr.com, del.icio.us, tumblr.com, Bit.ly, etc)
• Memorable after two or three exposures

Bad Names:

• Long
• Require more than one explanation over the phone (i.e. “it’s bestphones4u.com, with no spaces, no dashes, the number four and the letter u.”)
• Impossible to remember
• So hard to remember that Google has a hard time finding them or correcting your spelling

Amazing names take a lot of work, sometimes months–even years–to land. They usually cost $10k to $100k – and even top $1 million on occasion.

Good to great names take weeks to get, and cost a couple of grand generally.

OK names can be bought for $8.95 right now on GoDaddy.

Under no circumstance should you settle for an OK or bad name, except if it’s just a placeholder and you’re NOT showing it to investors.

It’s fine to have a good name when you’re in your angel round, but when you’re getting to scale as a company you’re going to want to spend the money–even if it costs $100,000–to get a killer domain name.

How to get a Great Domain Name

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As a startup you need to learn how to acquire good and great domain names. There are a couple of steps, but here is what I like to do.

1. Brainstorm Words

Get your founders together and open up a bunch of dictionaries and laptops. Nick Denton turned me on to onelook.com’s “reverse dictionary,” which lead me to the word gadling.com. It turns out it’s an old word for a hobo or wander, and I was shocked when I found out in the Weblogs Inc. days that it was–gasp!–available for $8.95 on GoDaddy!

If I was going to do a travel site today, for example, I would look up all the words around travel.

1. Do a search for ‘travel slang’ and ‘slang for travel’ and ‘slang for flight’ (http://jc.is/hQ9UAV ). From that search I found that there is a travel slang website, and from that I browsed how someone just came up with the term ‘salmoning’ for folks biking the wrong way down a street. Neat! I just bought the domain name salmoning.com–no one had bought it. Salmoning is a little long, but very memorable and unique. It’s also not that hard to spell and it evokes a radical, anti-establishment, individualistic brand–perfect for an adventure travel site. I’d say this is a certainly good, but arguably not great. We would have to MAKE IT great. That’s the opportunity with a name like this or twitter–or google for that matter.
2. Search Sedo.com and other domain resellers for travel domains. I’ve found some great stuff on these sites, and in fact in their travel category I just found a very fun “bagsup.com” for only $1,895. I can see the logo in my mind already: a funny guy picking up two suitcases. It’s easy to spell, it’s memorable as hell and it’s only six characters. Bingo!
3. Take all your fancy travel words and try adding suffixes and prefixes. Putting a Get or a Go in front of a word, and an -ist (as in Gothamist.com) or an -er (as in Gawker.com) at the end, can land you a great word.
4. Search other cultures for interesting sounding words that you can play with. Hawaiian words like “Wiki” and sounds like “oha” have spawned a lot of domains. Chacha.com is another great sound-based innovation.
5. Proper names are always worth considering. There are tons of great internet-era examples including Craigslist, Huffingtonpost and Dell. History is chock full of names like Disney, Levi’s, McDonalds, Chanel and yes, even Walmart.

2. Vet your Name

Once you have a contender, make sure you have a name that’s built to last, and you aren’t buying something that looks great at first, but is laden with “baggage.” Once I had my travel site I would:

1. Bounce the name off a few friends to check for misspellings and mis-hearings that I might not have noticed.
2. Make sure the name doesn’t have an unintended meaning in another language (google is your friend for this), and can be pronounced at least OK by non-English speakers. The Mazada Laputa is a cute little SUV that was named after a floating island in Gulliver’s Travels–it also means “the whore” in Spanish.
3. Cool trick: try typing the name into google (of course), but click on the image search tab. Scroll through the photos and get a feeling of how your term is used. This is the zen of naming, try it on some random unused travel URLs and see what I mean, this one (http://bit.ly/fNayMe ) has a really different “vibe” than this (http://bit.ly/i9g39J ) doesn’t it.
4. Make sure you’re not in conflict with some deep pocketed or very established foe. This is general naming/trademark stuff and there’s tons of great info online on how to avoid problems, but do a quick search for obvious problems and save time before you get too attached.

3. Find the Owner and Buy the Domain

Most of the great domains out that are owned, but not being used. In this case you need to do one two things: have a broker like Sedo buy the name for you or contact the person yourself.

First off, I’d suggest if you’re going to contact the person you don’t tell them it is for a huge startup that is going to change the world. Second, I would buy up similar domains. So, if you wanted Kokua.com from me, I would buy KokuaFestival.com (like Jack Johnson did!) and Kokua.org (which he hasn’t!).

Then, if you’re not already a female, find a women and have them email and/or call and say:

“Hello, my name is Susan and I noticed you’re not using the domain name Kokua.com. It’s a lovely name and I was wondering if you would be willing to part with it. I’d love to use it for my [ INSERT PROJECT HERE ]. If you’re interested please email me back!!! Fingers crossed!!!”

Perhaps this sounds sexist, but in my experience most domain squatters are men.  I don’t know why that is, but I’ve bought a lot of domain names and not *once* was it a female. Strange, I know.

Additionally, some of these domain squatters take bizarre pleasure in having something you want to own.  They string you along for weeks and month, change terms at the last minute and disappear.

In my experience, men are less confrontational and competitive with women then with other men. This difference really comes out when it comes to negotiating a possession of value (like a domain name).

Now, don’t use that strategy if you’re trying to buy diapers.com that is owned by a serious domain broker. I’d use it for those dudes who are camping on domains that don’t have a ton of value (i.e. getdiapers.com).

If the owner won’t sell the domain be patient, be nice and thank them for their time. Then ask again in three months.

Don’t offer equity in your startup unless it’s a super premium domain and the person is reasonable. It’s just a huge can of worms in my experience.

4. Fake it until you Make it

If you can’t get the exact dotcom you want, but you think the person might budge for a bigger number, you can always fake it until you make it with an OK to Good domain. For example, Joshua Schachter got away with using the horrible del.icio.us until he could afford the ransom for delicious.com. It’s a testament to how great his product was that such a horrible domain worked so well for so long!

Or maybe the name was so horrible it became the dotcom version of the movie “Showgirls”: so unusual and strange that you couldn’t get it out of your head. I don’t advise startups to do this–you are, after all, not Joshua Schachter.

Or Elizabeth Berkley.

Now if you are one of the greatest entrepreneurs in history on the way to being living legend then you can take what I call the “Steve Irwin” approach, where you try to do something literally impossible with both hands tied behind your back. Do this only if you are extremely talented and a thrill-seeking junkie.

In my experience, it’s a lot of fun to take a walking disaster domain like Joystiq.com and make it a category killer, but don’t try this at home, kids, you’re not me either.

5. Non-dot-coms are Fine *if*

In this day an age having a non-dotcom is becoming more acceptable. I chose to use www.Launch.is for the new Launch Conference and Newsletter for example, and I’m using a .co for another unannounced project.

Angel.co is being used by Naval at AngelList and it’s a killer domain in my mind (and I’m not just saying that because they sponsored This Week in Startups–I loved angel.co before that!).

Bit.ly is super memorable, and my domain shortener is the awesome jc.is.

Don’t use .net or .org however, those kind of suck in my mind. The ‘cool’ new domains like .ly, .is and .co are hipster unique–that’s sort of why they work. Oh yeah, be careful about how you use these .ly domains since, well, certain governments might care how you actually use the domain!

If you do go with a non-dotcom domain you better make sure it’s a GREAT word however. BestMobilePhones.us is lame, but MobilePhones.us or Phones.co are both great. I think you get the idea.

Conclusion

It’s going to be a ton of hard work to get really good, and sometimes great, domain names. It will take tons of debate, hours and hours of making lists, and countless emails reaching out to folks to buy a domain.

Branding is hard.

Acquiring great domains is hard.

That’s why investors, customers, partners, the press and potential hires pay attention to it.

People judge books by their covers, and investment deals by their domains and logos.

Oh yeah, we didn’t discuss making a kick-ass logo… let’s save that for next email.

Epilogue: Domain Name Survey

============

I did a little domain survey on my blog today ( http://jc.is/gtLCRm ), and asked my twitter followers to take it.

In it I asked three questions:

1. If you were running a startup about gadgets, and you’ve raised $250k in seed money, which option below would you choose below?

1. Gadgets.com for $175,000
2. GDGT.com for $8.95
3. gadgetgirl.com for $1,000
4. engadget.com for $5,000
5. Gadget.net for $14,000
6. Gadget.co for $2,000
7. Gadget.us for $750

2. Which is the best name?

1. Coupon.com
2. Coupons.com
3. Groupon.com
4. Savings.com
5. CouponMom.com

3. How important is each factor in naming your company?

1. Having the .com domain
2. Being able to spell the name easily after hearing it Being eight characters or under Being literal (i.e. diapers.com, coupons.com) Being unique (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bing)

The correct answers for these questions are:

1. Gadgets for $175k, since you have $250k in seed money and could easily raise more with a killer domain like that. Additionally, you could finance the domain purchase over five years. Owning Gadgets.com would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The other ones on the list are all solid: OK, good or great, depending on how you develop the brand.  GDGT is short, Engadget is memorable and Gadget.co, .us and .net are all great since they are memorable and short–despite not being a dotcom. You could win with all of them–but Gadgets.com would be the easiest to win with.
2. This is a bit of a trick question because all of these domains are great. However, Coupons.com and Savings.com are best because they are real word names everyone knows and search for. Despite those being greats names (and great companies!), they are worth a small fraction of what Groupon.com is worth. So, it’s not always the name that matters!
3. Being able to spell the domain correctly and being short are the most important factors. You can be literal or unique–it doesn’t really matter. Having the dotcom is preferable but not essential as we have learned.

~200 survey results can be seen here:

http://jc.is/domainsurveyresults

Thanks for reading!

all the best,

Jason

==============================================

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My Take

The point about other TLDs besides dot coms may be where Jason went  off the tracks a little bit. I think that the .ly, .is, .co are the shiny object of domain names for now.  Quality and Trust are huge factors and ultimately lead back to a .com. It remains to be seen whether that “love of the dot com” spreads to any other TLD. I will yield that early adopters have good chances of being right and Jason has a track record.

Although given the choice between Gadget.co for $2,000 and Gadgets.com for $175,000, I would rather spend two grand now and prove the concept and put another $173,000 into marketing, branding and service and then buy the dot com later with earnings. But, Jason is a high flier and posed the question with other people’s money readily available, so he may be right in this situation as well.

Exact Match Domain Names

Exact Match domain names are all the rage right now and they currently have their advantages. However, those advantages are generally bestowed by way of the search engines.  There are a few ways this can go.

1. Exact Match Domain Name benefits will exist forever – you can bank on it. (Cough, cough, hack)
2. The search engines will start to diminish that benefit algorithmically to reduce spam in the search results.
3. Search Engines will not maintain their preeminence as the gateway to all things web. Think how Yelp is much more effective to quickly find a nearby restaurant than Google.

There is no crystal ball here in the office, but I am not convinced that the Exact Match Domain Name is an enduring factor to base a company or even domain name buying decision on.  I know Aaron Wall’s SEOBook blog has a few posts about the same idea in a handle full of posts, Should You Buy an Exact Match Domain Name? and Exact Match Domain Names.  My take away after reading them was don’t bother, get a brandable name.

Now there is nothing wrong with owning diapers.com and selling diapers.  They apparently do a very good job selling that kind of thing.  It’s a very effective use of an Exact Match Domain Name.  And they are very much building a brand through marketing, delivery speed and great service.  They have the golden ring. There is only one diapers.com in the world.  The rest of the folks that want to sell diapers need to choose a different name or TLD.

Not Exactly Keywords Only

Straying a bit from the the Exact Match Domain Name there are a few alternatives before arriving at made up words like ChaCha or Yahoo.  You can choose a domain name that provides some clue of what you are selling.  However, keeping that kind of name short can be challenging.

Made Up Words Ideal for Branding

If you are going to “go big” while creating new products or services that didn’t exist before you may have no choice but to focus on branding. This is also a great opportunity to create a word and define it yourself. Look what Xerox and Kleenex were able to do decades ago.  They are dictionary words now and part of daily language.

You can certainly look for words in foreign languages that have a meaning related to your startup.  This provides the side benefit of allowing you to tell the story of your name.  That story telling is part of the sales process, educating the customer and builds your brand, as you define it, rather than as the media, public or your competition may define it.

Name Selection Best Practices

Just be sure to follow the best practices for an excellent name;

1. Keep it short – Less than eight characters
2. Easy to hear – tell your Mother or Grandmother over the phone and check their reaction
3. Memorable
4. Spellable
5. Available – select  and buy it before naming your company
6. Trustworthy – no hyphens, numbers or odd TLDs.  Does it sound like other common words whose definition you would not want associated with your company?
7. Read it without spaces – Therapist Finder sounds like a reasonable name until you read it as a domain name – www.therapistfinder.com The Rapist Finder is not so good for any industry, never mind a therapist.

Domain Names – Your Choice

This is an important point – a great domain name has a ton of value in the market place and in the private rooms used for funding and even hiring.   Follow these guidelines, buy what you can afford and then pivot your focus to marketing and delivering the best possible product or service you can muster.  That’s what will largely determine your business’s success or failure.