This rib recipe is my own, it’s not the holy grail for ribs.  When I cook ribs they are seasoned well, smoked, able to be held yet come apart with ease.  They aren’t ‘falling off the bone’ type ribs.

It should be noted that ribs you get in restaurants are a lot different than the ribs I make.  Good ribs take time, it’s a process and below I’m going to share my process along with the seasonings I used in this last batch.

Step 1:  Buying Baby Back Ribs

Since we have a Sam’s Club here in Fairlawn Ohio, this is where I purchased everything for making ribs including the ribs themselves.  All the seasonings, the smoker, and everything was purchased at our local Sam’s Club.  They have some good size, nice looking ribs at Sam’s check them out.  They are sold in packs of three full ribs.  I like to look for ribs without as much fat, the skinny ribs.

Step 2:  Skinning and Trimming the Ribs

When you purchase ribs there’s a membrane on the bottom (bone side) of the rack.  I like to remove this membrane.  Once you start pulling it away it usually comes off fairly easily.  Some racks are harder to remove the membrane than others but I’d recommend cleaning it all off.

Cutting baby back ribs in half – I like to cut my ribs in half for serving portions. It’s preference and doesn’t make much difference in the end product.

Next, I like to trim any extra fat etc. from the ribs.  Baby back ribs don’t always come completely trimmed so make sure to trim away any of the excess fat, see images below.

Remember to remove the membrane. This image doesn’t show that but does show cleaning some of the excess fat.

These baby back ribs are trimmed and cleaned, ready for the rub.

Step 3:  Seasoning Rub for Baby Back Ribs

There’s all kinds of seasonings and variations of seasoning rubs you can use and experiment with when making dry rubs for your ribs, prior to smoking.  Here’s the seasonings I used for these ribs.

Weber Kansas City BBQ Rub, McCormick Grill Mates Applewood Rub, Tones 6 Pepper, McCormick Brown Sugar Bourbon, Weber KC BBQ Rub, and a dash of Kosher salt.

For these ribs I used all the KC BBQ Rub and then added more of the Applewood and Brown Sugar Bourbon than the others.  I used a dash of Kosher salt, I’d recommend not using too much of it.  Now it’s time to dry rub the baby back ribs.

This is a bowl that I’ve mixed the rub in. Just a dash of Kosher salt or none at all might be best.

Applying the dry rub mixture to the baby back ribs. Coat the entire rib and massage it in.

These are all the ribs ready to wrap.

I like to wrap the ribs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours (at least), prior to smoking.

Step 4:  Smoking the Baby Back Ribs

I finally purchased a larger smoker from Sam’s Club.  I ended up with Masterbuilt  X-Large Propane Smoker, and love it.  Plenty of room for 9 racks of ribs if you’d like.

First thing I do is start the smoker.  I like to get the smoke rolling (follow instructions on smoker) and get the temp to 225 (this is the temp I smoke at).  Load the smoker with hickory or applewood.  I soak the wood chips in water before adding them to smoker.  Seems like they smolder and smoke a little better but it’s all preference.

Once it’s up to temp, I load one more batch of chips (as many as you can fit), then load your racks so there’s spacing between each rack and they are altered in the smoker.

The first 15 minutes of lots of smoke is the most important and will create your smoke ring.  Make sure your temp is 225 and held there and the smoke is rolling.  Be sure to have plenty of ventilation as too much (sitting) smoke can make your ribs bitter.

Don’t open the door at all during the first hour.  After the first hour I rotate the bottom ribs to the top and so forth to get an even cook.  I let these ribs do their thing, rotating every hour for approximately 3-4 hours at 225.

After they’ve smoked for a few hours, it’s time to take them out of the smoker, wet rub, then wrap and tin foil and re-add to the smoker.

These ribs are smoked for 3.5 hours and ready for the wet rub.

Step 5: Wet Rub and Tin Foil Wrap for Baking Ribs

The ribs are going to come out of the smoker a little dry and smoked but still fairly tough.  In my process I like to take each rib and wet rub with a mixture, then wrap each rib tightly in tinfoil for the final baking process.  Ribs will then go back into the smoker for 2-3 hours at 225 degrees.

Step 6:  Grilling the Baby Back Ribs to Finish and Serve

My last and final step is grilling the ribs on an open charcoal or gas grill.  Typically if I’m catering or have to par-cook the ribs, I’ll take the tinfoil wrapped ribs and freeze them or refrigerate them, then when everyone is ready to eat, I pull them out, unwrap and toss on grill at low temperature.  The grill IMHO is meant to char the ribs.

The final grilling of the ribs before serving.

Once on the grill, you’ll want to add your BBQ sauce of choice.  I prefer KC Masterpiece over most others, or you can make your own.  Some people don’t want the BBQ sauce on the ribs and that’s OK too.  They will be delicious either way.

SPECIAL NOTE:  At one point I didn’t have time to smoke, then bake the ribs so I smoked them, put them in refrigerator overnight.  Next day I wrapped in tinfoil then baked them but wasn’t ready to serve so I tossed them back in refrigerator, wrapped in foil, overnight again.  Then finally I pulled them back out and grilled them.  —- These were the very best ribs I ever made.  3 day process.

Step 7:  Serve and Enjoy your Baby Back Ribs

That’s it.  Your ribs are done.  The meat on the ribs should expose the tips of the bones about 1/4 to 1/2 inch.  They should be able to be held up yet tender enough to pull off the bone easily.

2017 is right around the corner and it’s during this time we come up with New Year’s resolutions.  Everyone has something they’d like to change or improve and the new year is a great time to commit to these.  There’s a few things I’d like to change and improve on this new year as well and I believe writing them down is a healthy exercise.

I’ve been listening to Napoleon Hill’s – “The Law of Success” while driving to work each morning. While there’s a ton of things within this great course I’d like to work on, what resonates with me most is the development of a pleasing personality (lesson 10).  The other thing I’m going to work on in 2017 is minimalism.  I simply have too many things.

Developing a Pleasing Personality

I’ll be honest with myself here, I’ve never really had a pleasing personality but didn’t realize this is an area of my life that needs work.  While I’m not going to bore you with details on how much of an asshole I’ve been most of my life, I am going to recognize my faults and share with you how I came to realize this is an area that needs my attention, and what I’m going to do about it.

As I was listening to Napoleon Hill’s book through Audible, he began the lesson on a pleasing personality.  As he was describing the characteristics of someone who has a pleasing personality, I could identify people that I have known that match his description to a ‘T’.  However, I couldn’t identify myself in this description.  It made me realize that while I’m not the individual he’s describing, it is possible to develop a more pleasing personality and that’s going to be my major goal for this new year.

What is a Pleasing Personality

A pleasing personality usually may be found in the person who speaks gently and kindly, selecting refined words that do not offend, in a modest tone of voice; who selects clothing of appropriate style and colors that harmonize. One who is unselfish and not only willing, but desirous of serving others; who is a friend of all humanity, the rich and poor alike, regardless of politics, religion or occupation; Who refrains from speaking unkindly of others, either with or without cause; who manages to converse without being drawn into vulgar conversations or useless arguments on such debatable subject as religion and politics; who sees both the good and bad in people, but makes due allowance for the latter; who seeks neither to reform nor to reprimand others; who smiles frequently and deeply; who loves music and little children; who sympathizes with all who are in trouble an forgives acts of unkindness; who willingly grants others the right to do as they please as long as no one’s rights are interfered with; who earnestly strives to be constructive in every thought and deed encourages others and spurs them on to greater and better achievement in their chosen line of work. – Napoleon Hill

Do you know people that can be described by the above?  I do.  Does it describe You?  Doesn’t describe me either but it certainly brought to my attention, that which needs worked on in my own life.  In the book I’ve learned that a pleasing personality can be developed over time and with practice.  It’s something I’m going to work on very hard this year.

Next Goal – Minimalism

Last year I wrote about my 2016 goals and pretty much stuck with them.  I’ve been able to filter the news out of my life entirely which has proven to be a healthy change in lifestyle.  I’ve read and listened to more books of quality.  When watching netflix I tend to watch documentaries rather than movies or shows.  While 2016 was a good year for positive changes, my content creation goals fell short.

I believe that part of the reason I’ve created less than desired in 2016 is because of ‘stuff’ and things.  What I mean by this is material things.  Things that clutter but offer no real fulfillment.

When I walk into my garage I get a headache just because all of the stuff.  I have duplicates of tools, screws, bolts, hand tools, power tools, and generally a basic hardware of stuff… Much of which I can’t find something when I’m looking so I end up at Home Depot to buy another of what I really don’t need.  My office is much the same…. receipts everywhere, electronics, papers, books, and lots of stuff.

The older I get the less stuff I want in my life.  The less high stepping through the garage or office to avoid tripping over unnecessary stuff.  Sure it’s nice to have something when you need to use it but it’s too easy to collect too much junk.  In my case, it’s become overwhelming.  I’m to the place in my life where I’m not sure where to start, but I’m going to start anyway.

Unstuffing my life is going to be a process that I will work on throughout this year and based on the amount of stuff I have, it could take all year to clear it out.  Next year at this time, I’m committing to unstuff my life and take a more minimalistic approach to living. One book that I recommend in regards to this is: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

That’s about it.  I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year to come.

Fresh Store Builder Review

Let’s cut right to the chase, I DO NOT recommend Fresh Store Builder.  Based on all the hype, I purchased this product myself and gave it a go.  It wasn’t long before I discovered that the only people making money on this product are the ones selling it because it had too many bugs and support was sub-par.

The best advice I can give you on this product, if you read no further, GET A REFUND!  Do it quickly because after 30 days they don’t issue refunds.  It will take at least 30 days to sift through all the garbage to make your first site and another 30 before you find out that the work you did doesn’t pay off as expected.  If they refuse to give you a refund after you’ve had enough, call your credit card company and chargeback.

All Fresh Store Builder 7 Reviews

Fresh Store Builder 7 Reviews – When purchasing a product you usually search google for reviews.  For this particular Amazon store building product, you’ll find a lot of reviews.  Almost all of these reviews are coming from Affiliates who are paid to recommend the product.

Affiliates of Fresh Store Builder get paid to promote the product, they haven’t actually used it, nor have they made any money with it other than you clicking on their link and buying it.  Affiliates typically get 20-75% of the money for referrals and usually there’s an outside tracking service so it’s all above board.  Fresh Store Builder manages their own affiliate program and they track the links.

So, all those positive reviews you’ve read or seen on YouTube are affiliates promoting the product, not necessarily using it to make money.  The money is made in selling and promoting Fresh Store Builder, not necessarily building stores with it.

Negative Fresh Store Builder 7 Reviews

I’ve seen some of these on YouTube as well and what they are doing is recommending another product.  So they’re using the popularity of Fresh Store Builder to write a negative review and affiliate linking you to another Amazon Store building product.

My Fresh Store Builder 7 Review

I bought Fresh Store Builder 7 for a specific use on a specific website to generate income.  I also wanted to know if this was a product I would recommend to others. Quickly I found out just how buggy Fresh Store Builder was.

What impressed me (soon to be unimpressed) is that Fresh Store Builder was using Xenforo Forum software for their forum.  Xenforo, to give you some history, was created by the original vBulletin lead developer, Kier Darby.  It’s a solid forum software and not cheap, so I thought this was better than most IM software forums that I’ve seen.  At least Fresh Store Builder made some investment.

Next was the support.  Fresh Store Builder invested in Kayako Support software which also isn’t cheap.  That impressed me as well.  So, for the $97.00 investment in Fresh Store Builder 7, I bought it.  It was a no-brainer.

For starters, these services are all on different domains and completely unorganized.  It’s a mess if I’ve ever experienced one.  Here’s a quick list of why this software isn’t any good, read on for the full review:

1. Not Mobile Responsive – Only 1 out of 3 stock themes are mobile responsive.
2. Software is buggy – Plan on submitting numerous support tickets.  Too many to list.
3. Disorganized – The forums, support, guides, all of it… Completely disorganized mess.
4. Poor Moderators – Say something they don’t like and BAM! you’re outta there.
5. Not Good ROI – You’ll spend all your time in support, forums, etc. and finally discover that you’ll be lucky to make any real, long term money.
6. MONEY $$$ – The money is in selling the product, not necessarily the store itself.
7. Too Many Versions – They try to launch new versions twice a year now.  You might think you have lifetime access and support but that’s only for the version you purchased.
8. Too Many Upsells – Carey Baird has like 6 upsells after your initial purchase.
9. Stand Alone Script – This is a poorly coded stand-alone script.

Fresh Store Builder Mastermind Forum – Disorganized!

Fresh Store Builder Forums have the right forum software but no organization.  The News and Announcements forum is littered with introductions and questions.  No news or announcements.  The rest of the forum is a similar shame.  It’s not a mastermind forum, it’s Romper Room.

Notice that this is the Announcements, News & Important Information Forum. It’s in as much disarray as the rest of the site.

To make it worse, they spend all their time moderating the forum, not organizing it.  This is version 7 mind you.  If you say something they don’t like, they delete your post.  Same goes for their reviews and facebook page.  They close threads that aren’t solved, they basically bully you.

There’s a user called BGHouse, she’s running around with a gavel and essentially, over-moderating.  Here’s her message to me after she removed one of my posts then put all my posts in moderation que:

I had asked the forum members if anyone was actually making money with this product and nobody spoke up.  It was an honest question and all I got back was some SEO advice from someone called Cam.

Banned! They don’t like that I’m experienced in this area and offer guidance to others. They also deleted my posts.

Fresh Store Builder Support Sucks

When you submit a support ticket at Fresh Store Builder you have the option to provide login information so they can quickly get in and fix what needs fixed or at least find the problem.  I provided all the login info and posted a ticket.  Rather than logging into my account and actually providing support, his response was asking me if my store was licensed.  See Below:

All logins were provided with this ticket. They know if the store is licensed. Check out Amra’s response.

Yes, my store was licensed and has he logged in or check the licensing he’d have known this right away.  It took nearly a week to get anywhere with this ticket.  Get a refund promptly or you’ll go past your 30 days just screwing around with these mamalukes.

Fresh Store Builder Review Summary:

Let’s not waste anymore of your valuable time, or mine.  Fresh Store Builder looks good on the front end but the backend has a lot of issues.

If it were a solid product and if everything was easily located and there were steps to building your store, you might be able to make some money with certain niches and genuine, unique content.  As it sits, it’s too buggy and too much moderation for paying members.

Here’s a link to another Fresh Store Builder review site with tons more information if you really feel the need to dig further.

How to Make Real Money on the Internet

Listen, I’m not selling anything.  If you want to make real money on the Internet you have to provide value to your audience.  Whether it be writing reviews on products you’ve used or creating a site that provides value in some other way, that’s how you’ll make money over the long haul.

Building affiliate stores might make some money soon after launch but it’s only a matter of a few weeks or months before Google comes knocking on your door for trying to game the system.

No matter what you do, it takes work.  Hard work and dedication.  Making money online isn’t as easy as it used to be because search engines are getting smarter.  However, for those who provide real value to a real audience, there’ll always be room.

If you really want to make money on the Internet, then I’d suggest Jason and Jeremy’s Internet Business Mastery Academy.  They’ve had the podcast now for 10 years and they’re not selling blue skies.  I’m a member there and have never experienced anything like I’ve experienced with Fresh Store Builder.

Overconsumption of Information and Stuff

We’re consumers.  We consume everything from food to news and what we consume influences our health and well-being.  Many of us are guilty over-consuming, including myself.  This year is going to be different for me and my reasoning might be helpful to you.

News Overconsumption

With the Internet and social media, news from all over the world is readily at our fingertips.  From television news to Facebook posts and discussion/debates among peers, bad news travels fast, far, and wide.

In the evenings I typically watch the news.  If you’re like me, you watch the news too.  For some odd reason we find importance in this tradition.  Maybe you have a news App on your phone or a preferred channel to gather the information.  Either way, many of overconsume the news and the majority of it is bad or negative.

Facebook Overconsumption

According to statistics, during the last quarter of 2015 Facebook had nearly 1.5 billion monthly active users with 1.3 billion logging onto the social network via their mobile device.  There’s only slightly over 300 million people in the U.S. and approximately 7 billion people worldwide.  Half of the world’s population is on Facebook… Isn’t that astonishing?

Facebook, albeit a great social network to keep in touch with friends, can become a time consumer.  From news to life events to silly shit, Facebook is a popular place to hang out on a daily basis.  Facebook has become a major part of our lives.  Are we consuming too much information?

Netflix Overconsumption

There’s a new series available on Netflix that’s popular… Do you watch these?  Many of my friends and family have netflix and it’s a great place to waste time.  It consumes hours of our time while we idly sit back and watch the television.  A series like ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (for instance) is popular and filled with murder, rape, and all sorts of garbage.  Why do we allow such trash into our minds?

More Stuff – More Consumption

What about stuff?  Not sure about you but I have too much stuff.  A garage full of stuff that I haven’t used in years but don’t want to get rid of because I might eventually need to use it.  Or stuff all over the house?  I’m referring to material items that aren’t necessarily needed.

Having so much stuff can be mind-boggling – Literally!  They say cleanliness is next to Godliness and having too much material belongings adds to the chatter that distracts from creativity.

The Problems with Being a Consumer

One of the biggest issues that I’ve discovered with being a consumer of information and stuff is that it is food for our minds.  Whatever we watch, read and listen to plays a huge role in our health and wellbeing.  If we hear news of a flu spreading we talk about it, share it with our friends on facebook and eventually… almost inevitably we bring that flu into our lives.  What if we hadn’t heard the news of the flu?  Would it affect us?  Are we victims of a placebo effect?

Perception and Reflection

As humans we have 5 senses.  Touch, Sight, Taste, Smell and Sound.  Our senses provide data needed for perception.  Our individual perceptions of life, through our senses becomes our reality.  If we continue to stand in the face of negativity and garbage, it alters or builds our perceptions.  Our perception of life is all that we have and the only way to protect or program what we perceive with our senses is to change what we’re feeding them.  From perception there’s only reflection.  Our lives become a reflection of our perception. (I realize this is dipping down the rabbit hole and will expound on it later in future blogs)

My New Policies for 2016

Being a consumer of information, data, and stuff is a choice and it cuts into or eliminates creativity.  We can literally become a garbage dump of useless or negative information and news which ultimately affects our lives.  This is something I’ve come to recognize over the last 45 years of life.

After realizing just how much I’ve consumed and collected throughout the years I’m making some personal changes in my life that will not only improve myself, my perception and reflection, but also those around me.  From this point forward I’m not going to watch television, netflix or the news.  I’m also not going to get into discussions about the garbage floating around in the world today.

Here’s a few areas I’m changing:

• I don’t care who becomes President of the U.S. – Yep, I don’t give a shit.  No matter who becomes President, life is going to go on.  There’s going to be good and bad but I will not allow myself to get involved or consume the bullshit surrounded by next year’s election.
• I will NOT watch the news – Most of it is negative.  News can change economies and influence people.  Fear, doom and gloom will not be part of my life any longer.  If it’s really important I’ll hear about it through close friends and family.
• I’m done with Television – As much as I enjoy golf, I’d rather play then watch.  I’m also not going to spend another minute sitting idly in front of a television screen consuming whatever is delivered.

It’s tough to not get caught up in the daily rat race but it’s important to recognize that which we’re consuming.  This is all part of designing a better lifestyle.  Not talking about it anymore but doing it.  Change is hard, especially when we’ve been comfortable for so long.

The ‘walking dead’ is essentially what we’ll become if we keep feeding our minds with bullshit.  This is a journey, and it’s life changing and I’m excited about what the future holds.

With that, I’m also going to blog and write more often.  So many of us have books within them that never get written.  I refuse to be that guy.  Thanks for reading, I look forward to your comments and have a wonderful 2016!  Make 2016 the year for less consumption and more creation.

The major differences between the iPad Mini 2 vs. iPad Mini 3 are minimal.  The iPad Mini 3 added Touch ID and did away with the 32GB version, kept the 16GB version and added the 64GB and 128GB option.  Outside of the Touch ID, there’s very little that makes the iPad Mini 3 worth the extra cash, making the iPad Mini 2 easily the best value decision.

The Price Difference

Price is often part of the decision making process and the iPad Mini 2 is less money.  In side by side comparison, the 16GB iPad Mini 2 is $100 cheaper than the iPad Mini 3 and there’s really not much difference in the two.  However, there’s no point in purchasing a 16GB anything, anymore.

iPad Mini Memory Options

When it comes to 16GB, Apple should have just did away with it in the iPad Mini 3 because the operating system takes up about 4GB leaving you with about 12GB usable space… That’s not a lot these days and as operating systems update, they tend to use more space so it’s best to skip the 16GB version of anything and go with the 32GB or larger.

When Apple designed the iPad Mini 3, they removed the option for a 32GB version and left the 16GB version.  Logically, I think they should have removed the 16GB version and started at 32GB.  It just makes more sense.

Hardware and Performance

iPad Mini 3 vs. iPad Mini 2 when it comes to hardware and performance they are identical.  They both have the A7 processor and M7 motion co-processor.  Both have dual-band wifi connectivity, bluetooth 4.0 and a 10 hour battery.  There’s no difference in cameras, there’s no difference in Facetime or camera zoom or anything.

iPad Mini 2 vs. iPad Mini 3 Summary

Unless you need 64GB – 128GB, there’s so little difference in these two iPads that make spending the extra money worth it.  When it came to my own decision, I didn’t need the larger capacity since I use an iPhone 6 with 128GB and it’s used more often than the iPad Mini 2 and typically store more data on my iPhone.

My Personal Use of the iPad Mini 2

Why buy an iPad Mini?  The reason I purchased the iPad Mini 2 is to use it around the house.  Living with a teenage girl and wife, I don’t get much time on the Television so I use my iPad Mini to watch the Golf Channel through the Time Warner app since they took away from the basic cable channels.  I also subscribe to a lot of podcasts and Udemy courses so I listen and watch the courses through my iPad Mini 2.  32GB iPad Mini 2 is a perfect size for storing several Podcasts on and is expected to be used for many years to come.

Best Price on the iPad Mini 2

Unboxing Video of the iPad Mini 2

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Are you Internet Marketer or involved in any affiliate marketing programs?  If you are or intend to be in the future, you need to read this and learn how to protect your information because affiliate programs need vital tax information or even PayPal information to both pay you and send you tax documents at the end of the year.  Recently Joomlart was hacked and upon further digging, Joomla may also have been hacked and the information shared is sensitive.

This blog post is a public account of the issue along with advice on how to protect your information.

On Friday December 5th, 2014 at approximately 4:11 PM an email was dispatched from a hacker which stated the following:

Hi, We wanted to tell you about  your details from Joomlart.com Affiliate program all your password are not decoded and they can see your password. You can see all your details in attached file Many of you , use this password for your paypal or your administrator or emails , If you need more details contact us soshkt@gmail.com We have 360000 Joomlart’s forum users email that you can use for ads If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to ask and we’ll be happy to assist. SOSHKT@GMAIL.COM

Immediately I hit ‘ctrl f‘ and did a search for my name and indeed it was in there.  Along with my PayPal email address and a password I commonly used several years ago in forums.  This 84 page PDF was publicly displayed as a link on a site called JoomlaCheap.com.

Just to make sure this wasn’t a hoax and before I started calling PayPal I chose a random user that had a numeric password and was able to login to their PayPal account with this public information.  Immediately I called PayPal and posted in the Joomlart forums.  I also reached out to the user who’s account I was able to login to.

Contacting Paypal About the Breach

My first of 3 different phone calls to PayPal, explaining the information and the breach was basically unsuccessful.  The security agent explained that someone from their executive team would contact me within the next 24-48 hours.  I explained that this needs to be escalated immediately and that I was able to login to a PayPal users account but I didn’t tell him which account.  He assured me it would be handled promptly.

An hour or so went by and I hadn’t heard anything and during that hour I tried to contact the owner of Joomlart, Tucows (to disable the domain) and worked with another gentlemen on Facebook to get the word out to Joomlart members that their information was out there in the public.

Meanwhile I hadn’t heard anything from PayPal so I called again.  This time I was put in touch with the limitations department and was assured that I would not be prosecuted for merely logging into someone’s account and he wanted the users email address so he could change it.  He also instructed me to forward that email I had received to spoof@paypal.com which is a common email that takes a while for folks to get to.  I gave him the users email that I was able to login to and he assured me this would be escalated and dealt with promptly.

Several hours later I thought… Hmm… I wonder if that PayPal account is still accessible?  I wonder if PayPal has done anything at all?  So I checked, I was able to login successfully.  That’s when I called PayPal again, this time demanding action.  The nice lady in security said spoof@paypal.com is a busy email and that might not be addressed for 24-48 hours so she contacted someone else in security and gave me a private email address with an ATTN: to name.  She also wanted the email account of the user I was able to access so I gave it… Never tried again.

Within the hour I received an email from PayPal, pictured to the right and I assume it went out to everyone on that publicly displayed list.  It basically disabled my PayPal account until I took action to re-verify and change my password.  Thank you PayPal for finally taking appropriate action.  I’d like to add that PayPal is indeed safe and I wrote a blog post about this a while back.

Affiliate Information on Joomlart.com – Breach of Security

When you sign up for an affiliate program there’s some information they need.  Whether it be Amazon, Ebay, Joomlart, Commission Junction or many others, they need to first be able to pay their affiliates and when they pay their affiliates, they have to report the total of these payments at the end of the tax year.  In order to do that they need certain, sensitive information from you.  This information will often include your Full legal name, PayPal email address, your Tax ID, Social Security Number or VAT ID.  Some vendors pay by check so they’d also need your full address.

Information Vendors Need from Affiliates:

• Full Name
• PayPal email address
• Member email address
• Physical address
• Social Security Number, Tax ID, VAT

That’s a lot of information and much of it is very sensitive information that must be stored in a database.  These databases contain tables  in which these data fields are stored.  A company as old as Joomlart, with all their developers, should have encrypted private and sensitive data belonging to their customers and partners.  It’s not usually a question of if, it’s a question of when a database will be hacked or back-doored.

Joomlart.com failed to do this.  The hacker was able to grab all the data from the unencrypted tables and send out an email to everyone offering to sell them more information.  Additionally I did a search for the email which showed up that the user posted on the Joomla forum, claiming to have all the Joomla users information and emails from their database.  See image below, apparently the thread was removed but I hadn’t seen where the breach had been addressed by Joomla.

How to Protect Your Information Online

Remembering different passwords for different websites can be daunting to say the least.  However, they are needed.  You never want to use a forum or any other website with the same password as your PayPal account.  Never ever.  Too many of us use one password for everything and that’s simply no good.

Password Managers

I use a password manager called 1Password by AgileBits but there are many others, LastPass being a very popular one as well.  You might find this article helpful:  http://lifehacker.com/tag/password-managers

Use the Tax ID of an LLC

Register for an LLC if you’re doing any kind of business on the Internet.  It costs an average of $100 and you can do it yourself.  Once you have an LLC, you’ll want to apply for a federal tax ID number for that LLC.  This is the number you’ll want to use in place of your Social Security number.  Never give out your Social Security Number, not even to the most secure sites, as they too will eventually be breached.

With an LLC not only are you protecting and isolating your personal and private information, you are also able to take advantage of corporate tax benefits and loopholes that so many people think are for the big players and big corporations.  Explaining of this would be an entirely different article all together.

Best of luck to all you and keep your information secure.  Don’t rely on other websites to do it because many times they don’t, as in the case of Joomlart.com.

Shame on Joomlart.com

Joomlart is dealing with this breach and I’d imagine the owner of this thriving community is probably sick to his stomach.  While having this data breach may not have been intentional, it’s certainly an oversight on the part of Joomlart.  Joomlart was one of the first and early Joomla template providers after Joomla split off Mambo back in the early days.

You’d think, based on the length of time Joomlart has been around that encrypting customer data would have been an important part of this website, but it wasn’t.  I know I paid quite a bit for yearly membership fees to Joomlart, you’d think a part of that would go into protecting my sensitive data, but it didn’t.

Here’s a link to Joomlart’s blog Post on the issue:  http://www.joomlart.com/blog/news-updates/emergency-we-are-hacked-and-database-compromised

Lesson to Be Learned about Security

If nothing else, let’s hope we can all learn a valuable lesson in security from all this.  Always protect your own data and webmaster’s are obligated to protect their clients data.  If you can’t do that much, you shouldn’t be offering affiliate services on the web and keeping private data.  Period.

Another consideration is… how many other companies do we do business with daily that may have similar vulnerabilities.

Remember that .COM is KING!

It was the first domain extension to roll of the tongue and it’s brand is recognized nearly everywhere in the world.   When you say such-and-such.com (Dot Com)  people automatically know it’s a Web address or an Internet address.  Dot Com  (.com) dominates the marketplace with nearly 53% of the marketshare.  The next runner-up is .net with around 5-1/2% of the marketshare… all other domain extensions fall below 5%.

Since .com was the first to market and most recognized domain extension, I feel it’s the best domain extension to invest in for your business or brand.

So what do these new TLDs mean for Me and My Business?

The new domain name extensions that ICANN is releasing into the ‘wild west’ of the domain world will force current brand owners to secure their brand in all these new extensions, which means an increase in revenue for this non-profit organization put in place by the U.S. Department of Commerce… Which is essentially a governing body that has no teeth to govern.

These new domain extensions are going to give you the option of securing a name that previously was registered under the .com or .net extension or it will force legitimate domain owners to register many more domains in defense of domain-squatters registering these names.  So a brand like Coke.com will likely register all 1400 of these new domain extensions to merely protect their brand from squatters.  This means each year, a larger brand will have to spend even more money in renewals.

What about you?  What about your small business or if you’re thinking of buying a domain name for your blog or your business?  One thing you want to consider is trust. -> ‘He who pisses first wins the piss race’ – unknown  Look at brands such as Kleenex or CocaCola or even Q-tips… Those were first to market and most recognizable as the product.  Likewise with .com.

.com is a brand in and of itself and it’s the brand of the Internet.  Consumers are used to the existing set of domain names.  That familiarity with the .com, .net, .org, .info, .gov and .edu has built trust over time.  These existing domain names are the backbone of the Internet when it comes to domain extensions.  They are first, they are familiar and they resonate easily with the vast majority of folks on the web.

If you’re building your business or considering registering a new domain for your business, it’s best to stick with what’s familiar and if your domain isn’t available, there are plenty of good ones that are.  Besides, I believe there’s more weight given in search engines to the length of time a domain has been registered and since these are brand new extensions, there is no time… only time will tell.

Should I Pre-register or reserve these new Domain Extensions?

The short answer is, I don’t believe so.  Keep in mind the cost of pre-registration.  Many of these new domains will be much more costly than the current domain extensions.  Pre-registration also doesn’t mean you get the domain.  If two people are interested in that domain and pre-registers it, it will go to auction.  So now you’ve not only paid a pre-registration fee, but you might have to come up with a lot more money to get the domain if it does go to auction.

New Registrars in the Business

Another thing to consider is that with the onset of these new extensions come new domain registrars.  Some of you might remember the Registerfly Debacle that took place in 2007 with an ICANN accredited registrar where ICANN didn’t do anything when domains were being lost and stolen, to eventually be purchased by GoDaddy for their GoDaddy Auctions site.

ICANN couldn’t control Registerfly, and now there are many new registrars who are new to the business… I’d imagine at least one of them are previous owners of the fallen RegisterFly.com business.  What happened to RegisterFly could happen to any one of these new registrars and we know that ICANN just doesn’t have the teeth to govern it.

Many of these new Registrars will be looking to make quick profits on initial registrations and then sell-out to another registrar, better known as flipping… selling blue skies of course but that puts you in the middle of another possible debacle.

Build your business on a rock, not in the sand

By a rock I’m referring to the existing trusted domain extensions.  New extensions with new registrars is essentially a sandbox and that’s not the place you want to start building your business.  Seek out a good .com domain and build from there.

It’s pretty easy knowing that .com is a trusted and legitimate domain extension… imagine trying to remember 1400 domain extensions.  This will lead to hijacking of traffic from similar domains.  So if your business is seats.bike if someone misspells your domain and goes to seats.bikes you could lose that potential client.

Remember, Recall and Repeat

The best domain name is one that can be remembered, recalled, and then repeated when someone goes to type it into their browser.  Dots and dashes and these new extensions only server to confuse and lead you off in some other direction then that which was intended.

When someone asks me about registering a domain name for their business or blog, is what I tell them:

If someone asked about your website while passing by, you’d rattle it off…. such and such .com or whatever it is.  What makes the domain more valuable is it’s ability to be remembered, recalled and repeated when this individual arrives at a computer and puts it into their browser to visit your website.  If they can’t recall what that domain is or what extension it was or if it had dots and dashes in it, then they will be taken elsewhere and someone else will be getting that traffic.

The shorter and more easily recalled domain is better.  When the domain rolls off your tongue and you can easily repeat it on a keyboard, that’s what you’re looking for.  Short, sweet, and brand-able is ideal.  There are still plenty of good domains out there under the .com extension and if you’re lucky, people will be focused on these new extensions and your desired domain name may just become available.

Links and Resources:

• Matt Cutts tells us that new domains will not get Search preference.
• DailyChanges.com by Domain Tools provides details on domain registrations and nameserver traffic.
• ICANN.org new TLD’s announcements and general news
• Good US based Web Hosting – Michigan based web hosting that’s not owned by EIG
• SEDO – The most widely used domain marketplace where you can buy your .com domain

Problem Adding Facebook Business Page to Your Profile

After some searching, discovering, and research and testing on my own Facebook Profile page, I figured out and created this tutorial so he could add his own business fan page to his profile as a place he works at.

Video Instructions at Bottom of this Tutorial

Written Instructions

My client wanted his Facebook Business page to show up in his profile as shown in the image below.  However, when he added his own facebook page to his profile as a place he works at, it came up with a page and community that wasn’t his own page.

Step 1 – Edit your personal Facebook Profile ‘Work and Education’

First, we’re going to be using the FireFox browser with the Web Developer toolbar  installed.  If you don’t have it, download it here and then install and Firefox will have to restart and you’ll see the toolbar on the top of the page.

Go to your personal facebook profile and edit your info.  Under Work and Education, we’re going to type the name of our Facebook Business page.  This name you type should match the Title of  your facebook fan page.  Notice that the fan page it’s suggesting may not actually be your own.  Don’t worry about it, select the Page, not the community.

Step 2 – Get ID of Your Facebook Business Page

You should be using Firefox with Web Developer toolbar installed.  Open another tab and visit your actual Facebook Business page.  What we’re going to do is get your unique page ID and copy this.  To do this you’ll go to your business page and on the top right you’ll click ‘Edit Page‘ and it will dropdown and select ‘Update Info‘ as shown in picture below.

Now, visit your address bar and up there you’ll see a web page URL which will include facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=3432032345343 … Notice the numbers after the id= these are your unique Facebook Page numbers.  Copy ONLY the numbers onto your clipboard.  I use command+c (copy) on a Mac or control+c  (Windows).  Once you’ve copied those numbers, we’re going to go back to the tab which has your personal profile opened in process of adding your job.  Remember, at this point we haven’t added your job yet but the window should be open.

Step 3 – Show Form Details in Webmaster Toolbar

The image above shows that we still haven’t added the job to our profile but we’re going to click Display Form Details which will present some code and such that’s highlighted that you may not understand completely, but don’t worry, you don’t need to understand it all.  Click Display Form Details.

Step 4 – Replace employer_id Field Numbers with Your Own

Once you see form details as noted in step 3, you’re going to scroll down until you see the Facebook Profile image icon on the Add Job in your Facebook Profile.  As you see in the image below, there’s an editable field right after:

<input autocomplete=”off” name=”employer_id”>3434332566777

These numbers on this example are pointing us to a Bokan Photography in Serbia.  We want it to point to our own Facebook Business page.  What we’re going to do in that editable field is replace those numbers with the numbers we copied representing our own Facebook Business page in the previous step.  See image below:

Once we have the correct numbers in this field, we’re going to go ahead and click the ‘Add Job’ link at the bottom of this particular job.  See image below:

The button above actually says ‘Add Job’ but it’s essentially a submit button.  Go ahead and click it.  You may not be able to see the button with form details showing, that’s OK, click the blue portion or thereabouts.  The button below the blue submit button is the cancel button, we don’t want to click that.  Just look at the arrow above.

Step 5 – Turn off Display Form Details in Webmaster Toolbar

Once we’ve submitted our new job, we’re going to go back up to the Webmaster Toolbar and de-select ‘Display Form Details’ which will get rid of the red details you see in the above images.  See images below:

Once you’ve de-selected as shown in the image above, you’ll see that the icon for your workplace has change in your Facebook Profile and you have not successfully linked your Facebook Profile to your Facebook Business page.

Step 6 – Update your Work Information

You’re not quite finished.  More than likely, you’re new workplace has taken on the location of the original selected job when you were adding it.  So make sure you go to Edit on the actual ‘Work and Education’ for that job in your Facebook Profile and update the position and location and whatever else you see necessary.  Now you’re done.

Video Tutorial – Add Facebook Page to your Profile

What lead me in the right direction was Erika Napoletano’s blog from a guest post by: Michelle Mangen ‘How to Add Your Fan Page as Your Employer on Your Personal Facebook Profile‘.

Getting a screen capture on a Mac with OS X operating system is easy by hitting the following keys at the same time or together:

1. [Command-Shift-3] to capture everything you see on your screen including dual monitors.  With dual monitors it’s two separate images with the same name followed by a (1) by default for the second image or,
2. [Command-Shift-4] keys at the same time to get a screen shot of a selection
3. Grab – is the other option where you open the application and choose from a drop-down selection of what you want to capture, (Takes too long! Use the keyboard shortcuts above).

The problem with screenshots on a Mac is they are in .tiff format.  If you’re uploading them to the web, this isn’t always accepted or preferred.  So in order to use the images, they’d have to be opened in a photo editor and saved in a different format.  I prefer to use .jpg or .png as a common format so I don’t have to edit and save in a different format to use right away.

How to Change Screen Capture from .tiff to .jpg or another format

The way to change the format of your Mac screen shots is easy.  First you’re going to open the Terminal application and then your going to type in the following to change the default format of all your images from .tiff to a file format of your choice.

To change this, type the following in Terminal, or copy the text and past (Command-C to copy; Command-v to paste):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

This will change all new screen capture formats from .tiff to .jpg.  You can choose GIF, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, BMP, or whatever you prefer.

In the image below the first thing I did when I was in Terminal is change where the screenshots are saved rather than having them open and then ask.  Basically I created a folder on my desktop called screenshots and set them to save in that location by default.

In the next command we’re changing the format of the screen capture.

The 3rd command we’re renaming all the screenshots to prefix with “screenshot”.

The last and final command restarts SystemUIServer and everything should be effective immediately.  Test it out.

So above what I’ve done is the following steps.  You can do one or all but you may need the last command:

• Step 1 – Change Default Location of Screen Captures:  defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /folder path/ – Folder path being wherever you’ve created a folder to save your screenshots.  To find the path, right click on the folder itself and click –>Get Info<–  Under General, there’s a field called ‘Where’ and next to it should be the location of the file or folder you’ve selected.
• Step 2 –  Change Default File Format of Screen Capture on your Mac: Since I’ve chosen to use .jpg I’ve entered:  defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
• Step 3 – Changed the Default Image Name of Screen Capture:  defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “screenshot”

For expert users and quick copy and paste:

1. defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /folder path/
2. defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
3. defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “screenshot”
4. killall SystemUIServer

That’s it.  Next time you save a screenshot you’ll find that it automatically goes into the directory you’ve chosen prefixed with your chosen prefix rather than the default, and it will be saved in the format you’ve chosen in Terminal.

With the Terminal commands above, all my screenshots are now saved to one folder on my desktop /screenshots/ in .jpg format for immediate use and ease of sorting and cleaning out.  If for some reason I’m unable to find a screen capture, I can do a search with that term and it will pull up all the images I’ve prefixed with my search term, ‘screenshot’.

Today, October 22, 2012 HostGator celebrates their 10th Anniversary offering a limited 40% off all hosting plans.  This is a great chance to save on web hosting and I recommend starting with the HostGator Reseller Web Hosting.

40% OFF HostGator Web Hosting Details:

• Shared hosting: As low as $4.95 Now only: $2.97/month (pre-paid)
• Reseller Hosting: As low as $24.95 Now Only: $14.97/month (pre-paid)
• VPS Hosting: As low as $19.95 Now Only: $11.97 (First Month)
• Dedicated Servers: As low as $174 Now Only $104.4 (First Month)

HostGator Review

We’ve been using HostGator since it’s beginning in 2002 when Brent Oxley, a student at Florida Atlantic University created it.  Within 4 years HostGator grew to 200,000 in registered domains and today hosts nearly 10 million domains.  From a one-man show to an industry leader and game changer, I’ve seen HostGator grow and handle it better then any hosting company I’ve done business with to date.  June this year HostGator was sold for $225 million USD to EIG.

I’ve liked HostGator over other companies because they have provided great hosting services at competitive prices.  From my own personal experience they’ve been able to maintain high employment retention which helps in being the best in the industry.

Our experience with HostGator includes nearly all their plans including dedicated servers.  For someone just getting started in web development, web design, or web hosting, or even affiliate marketing, I recommend the Reseller Hosting plan.  If you’re a small business, I’d recommend working with an experienced web hosting or design company that utilizes HostGator servers.

Why HostGator is the BEST Web Hosting Provider

What makes HostGator the best reseller hosting provider and web hosting provider is their server location and configuration.  In addition, they have highly skilled and creative System Administrators and staff that offer some of the best support in the industry.

HostGator has a wide range of plans that provide you an inexpensive hosting plan that allow you room to grow as a business or web services provider.

The biggest thing that makes HostGator better than it’s competitors is it’s level of customer service.  They have in-house, English speaking support staff that are helpful, knowledgeable and available 24/7.  HostGator seems to be a company that values it’s customers which sets it apart from other industry leaders.