Pirates aren't cool any more

I hope these agents don't use waterboarding... :)

Block brute-force attempts on your WordPress blog

WordPress on it's own a quite secure #CMS but this doesn't mean there is no room for improvement. A simple but effective way to make your #WordPress installation more secure is to limit the amount of attempts that can be made on your login page. This will block automated or not attempts to gain access to your site by guessing the password.

The #plugin is called Limit Login Attempts. It will log attempts to login, and will limit the amount of times an IP can fail the login process. Over a (custom) limit it will just block any further attempts. Many customizations are offered (see screenshot). You will certainly be surprise by how many attempts are being made by #spambots!

Limit Login Attempts can be found on WordPress.org http://bit.ly/we0JdW

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Amazing: killing MegaUpload didn't stop sharing

Sharing sites like rapidshare, uploaded.to and hotfile.com should be sending chocolate gifts to the FBI. Since the closing of #MegaUpload they have seen as much as 3 times the traffic they usually have. Job well done feds :)

More at TorrentFreak http://bit.ly/wyCOtK

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Testing your responsive design

So you're following the latest trends in #web development and have decided to develop your new site with a #responsive design. You quickly realize that's kind of hard testing the site on multiple resolutions every time you make a change.
+matt kersley has a nice solution: http://bit.ly/ycYno9
A simple setup with iframes will show the same URL is four different resolutions.

Of course this doesn't fully replace testing on actual machines (and their specific browsers) but it will certainly speed up the initial development time.

If you want to host it locally, you can grab the html/js on GitHub http://bit.ly/xu39c5

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Mail your WordPress posts with Postie

#WordPress has a "post by e-mail" feature included, but it's fairly basic: you only enter the access information of the e-mail address you are going to use and then pray it all works. #Postie http://bit.ly/yhJpi4 is the same feature on steroids. Here's what more you can do it with it:
- Test your configuration to see that WordPress can connect to your account
- Setup how often the e-mail account will be checked for new mails
- Configure who can use the feature and setup e-mail alerts (so even if your special e-mail is found, no spam ever gets posted on your blog)
- Set default category and tags
- Filter the content of the message
- Option to setup galleries or choose a template on how to display attached images
- Options for videos and other file attachments.

You can pretty much leave everything on the default option for a start. You just need to create an e-mail address that only you will know and set it up on the first tab of options. Then whatever you mail to that address will be posted, with the subject as the title and the contents of the message as the content of the post.

You can get Postie at WordPress.org http://bit.ly/wMPRiE

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Rolling Photography

Interested in taking a photo like the one below with just your iPhone (probably works on most digital cameras, at least mobile phone ones)?
If your answer is yes, read this article http://bit.ly/xI3UT4 by +Takahiro Yamamoto

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Amazing Cisco

What kind of mind decides that a "contact support" form should have a 128-characters limit? That said, when there is an issue with an account and it gets disabled, what kind of mind decides "let's not send an e-mail to the customer about it, he'll figure it out next time he tries to use our service!"?
#CustomerSupportFail #UIFail :)

[Update] So 24 hours later, #Cisco support has contacted me once, to tell me that my request was bumped from one department (technical support) to another (client manager)... Awesome...

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JPEGmini: Less bytes, same quality on your photos

Here is a way for making your website faster: #JPEGmini http://bit.ly/zb7QdM is a new service that compresses a JPEG file without any change in the quality. I tried some random tests with pretty good results.
a) Flower photo by +Thomas Hawk : 2048x2048px at 964KB turned to 721KB (1.3x compression)
b) "Bird" photo by +Elena Kalis : 754x700px at 369KB turned to 100KB (3.7x compression)
c) Stadium photo : 1024x768px at 602KB turned to 260KB (2.3x compression)

I didn't have #Photoshop handy to compare this with the "Save for web" feature but the beauty of JPEGmini is that doesn't seem to alter the quality of the photo at all, where as on "Save for web" you have to experiment between different compression ratios.

Currently a free web service is offered (also allowing you to upload entire folders) as well as a Photo Server for big clients. A cloud service and a desktop app (that would be more convenient in a web development workflow) are on the way.
Hat tip to +Robert Scoble

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Location-enhanced photos in your WordPress

So you're taking photos with your mobile and posting them in your #WordPress -powered #photoblog but you find that you're missing something. While your phone has included location information in the photo, it is nowhere to be found on your site.

A solution comes with the GeotagPhoto #plugin : it will identify attached images in your post, find if they have location data and put a marker icon on it when it's displayed on the post. Clicking on it opens a Google Map with the location. It comes with several customization options and you only need a Google Maps API key to start using it.

See a live example here http://bit.ly/yxk5z2

You can get GeotagPhoto at WordPress.org http://bit.ly/xrTPSa
As the code is a little outdated, a small fix is required in you're running WordPress 3 and over, you can find it here http://bit.ly/ADSMSh

In album 2012-01-21 (4 photos)

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Auto-post Google+ posts on Twitter

If you have left Twitter for Google+, here is a way to stay in touch: ManageFlitter http://bit.ly/xmb2tk is a freemium service for managing your Twitter account. In it's free service it allows for copying your public Google+ posts on Twitter. The process is quite simple, you create an account with your Twitter credentials and just put in your Google+ URL in a form.
Check it out!

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The Glorious End

Leslie in Barcelona

Damn you Google!

I need the meme generator to be working perfectly! :)

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OMG WE'RE OUT OF TAXIS

The wing home

Luxembourg

Lies and money

by +Guy Kawasaki

Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs
1. “Our projections are conservative.”
2. “Jupiter says our market will be $50 billion in ten years.”
3. “Several Fortune 500 companies are set to do business with us.”
4. “No one else can do what we’re doing.”
5. “Hurry up because other investors are about to do our deal.”
6. “Our product will go viral.”
7. “The large companies in our market are too big, dumb, and slow to compete with us.”
8. “Our management team is proven.”
9. “We filed patents so our intellectual property is protected.”
10. “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.”

Top Ten Lies of Investors
1. “I liked your company, but my partners didn’t.”
2. “We are patient investors who want to help you build a great company.”
3. “If you get a lead, we’ll invest too.”
4. “There are no companies in our portfolio that conflict with what you’re doing.”
5. “Show us some traction, and we’ll invest.”
6. “We love to co-invest with other firms.”
7. “We’re investing in your team.”
8. “We have lots of bandwith to dedicate to your company.”
9. “This is a plain, vanilla termsheet.”
10. “We will get other companies in our portfolio to work with you.”

Do you know what the difference is between the lies of entrepreneurs and the lies of investors? The investors have money.

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Building a website in 2012?

If you are planning on developing a new website, here as some concepts (some old, some new) on how to go at it:

- Think responsively - Even if you’re not implementing a full responsive design, simply thinking in responsive terms goes a long way to achieving usable universal design.
- Think touch-first - A button sized for a fingertip will always work for a mouse cursor. But a button sized for a mouse cursor will often be too small for a fingertip. Designing for touch first ensures that your website or application translates well to other contexts.
- Think universally - "Test early, test often” the saying goes. In your design process, think early and often about how your design will function on various devices.
- Think mobile-first - Starting your design with mobile focuses you on what really matters to your users. By maintaining focus on the essential features, achieving a consistent experience across devices will be much easier.
- Be careful with interaction behavior that is not supported universally across interfaces. Hover states don’t function the same on touch devices. Touch gestures can’t be performed with a mouse. It doesn’t mean we can’t use these things, but we have to be aware of their limitations.
Full article: Designing The Well-Tempered Web by Rob Flaherty at Smashing Magazine http://bit.ly/y4w9M5

See also mediqueri.es http://bit.ly/xHP8oe an excellent directory of responsive-designed sites.

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25 Universities and Colleges Offering Free Courses Online

See also http://opencontent.org/ocwfinder/
If you have trouble accessing the link below here it is
http://freevideolectures.com/blog/2012/01/universities-colleges-offering-free-courses-online/

Reshared post from +Michelle Marie

25 Universities and Colleges Offering Free Courses Online

Open courseware offered by top universities allow self-learners to access high quality educational materials for no cost. Whether expanding your knowledge on a variety of topics or sampling the programs offered at universities, free courses can benefit you. List of colleges & courses offered: http://goo.gl/j5FFu

You can also access free online course materials from around the world at World Lecture Hall: http://wlh.webhost.utexas.edu/index.cfm

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Escaping Flickr

I previously http://bit.ly/x0KSf0 wrote about my troubles with Flickr: my Pro account expired (Flickr cared so much about keeping me as a client that it sent me a total 1 (one) mail about it) and according to Flickr policy I could only access only the 200 most recents og my photos. The solution (according to #Flickr was easy: pay them for another year).

Thankfully, I had most of my photos in my iPhoto library. So for most of the photos I could just export them again to Picasa and then delete them from Flickr. As soon as I deleted some photos, Flickr would release a few more, always holding me on the 200 limit.

So I ended up with about 100 photos I didn't have elsewhere. To the rescue came #Migatr http://bit.ly/xTGzjE . Migatr, a Windows-only application, allows you to migrate from many web platforms to another. The following are supported:
- 23HQ
- Aol Pictures (Import Only) (CLOSING)
- Faces.com
- Flickr
- Menalto Gallery (Self-Hosted)
- Picasa Web
- Phanfare
- Photobucket
- SmugMug
- Zenfolio
- Zooomr

The process was quite pain-free (I was only troubled having to find the .NET Framework that is required not the actual migration). Your photos are first downloaded locally and then uploaded on the service of your choice. Unfortunately titles from Flickr are not saved, but titles embedded in EXIF data will of course be read on the other end (e.g. Picasa in my case). I'd like it the photos were also separated in folders when they are downloaded, as it is they are all dumped in a single folder. Still, it's free and worked without issues, and I'm free from Flickr now :)

See the liberated photos here http://bit.ly/ygyScu

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The ultimate in Troll technology

You automated our factories - which took our jobs.
You automated our travel agents - which took our jobs.
You automated buying books - and closed our bookstores.
You gave us automated checkout machines at shopping centers - which took our jobs.
You automated our skilled radiologists work - which took our jobs.
You automated our accounting - which took our jobs.
You gave us open source - and took away your own ability to make a living writing code - by allowing people in India and China to do that much cheaper for us.
You automated our lives away.

You see a person with a job and you think "how can I take that job from them and replace it with a computer"
You didn't replace them with anything. You just though that you have a fucking great idea about how to make things more efficient. More disruptive

It isn't the 1% who destroyed the middle class. It was you. The IT nerds. You constantly look at ways to "disrupt" our society so you can get some more silicon valley stock options.

Unemployment will rise - because you don't give us new jobs - you just take away our old ones.

Pat yourself on the back Gnat as you destroy another industry. You're the fucking problem.

Found on http://oreil.ly/y2YxpT

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The dangers of a pixel

Designing web sites for mobile devices may not be as straightforward as you think as it is, thanks to hardware manufacturers increasing pixel densities in modern phones and tables. See an example in the image below: a 16px font size is different on Galaxy Tab from a Kindle Fire. Luckily there is a solution although it means keeping tabs with the specifics of each device.

Read on Scott Column's article on A List Apart http://bit.ly/xdWHhC

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Amazing

Impressive #photography by +Elena Kalis
http://bit.ly/xpxJ9K

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Easy Google Maps on your WordPress

My #WordPress #plugin discovery of the day: MapPress by Chris Richardson (find it on WordPress.org http://bit.ly/zgNHrR or the developer's site http://bit.ly/zmMgHa)
You can easily add maps on your posts and pages, full with multiple markers, html descriptions, directions, all the usual Google Maps control, etc.

It's free (which covers most uses) with an affordable pro version for some more special features.

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Inevitable

No big internet story is complete without a Hitler video. That said, when I search for "Britney Spears" I dont get her Facebook page but I do get her Twitter account. Her Google+ page is not included, but there is a small link to it under the result for her official page (it's the new "author information" feature) http://i.imgur.com/A51en.png

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Around the World in 5 Minutes

An awesome #time-lapse video by photographer, Kein Lam. Each two-second scene is comprised of about 40 to 60 photographs. More on his site http://kienlam.net/around-the-world (currently down due to heavy load :))

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Advancing the HTML experience

www.mycookingdiary.com by +Mike Matas is great example of what you can do (and how to do it properly) with #HTML and #CSS today:
- A continuous user experience using AJAX to keep the user engaged. However, each "slide" has it's own URL. This means you can bookmark it, share it, etc.
- Animation - but on user action: Yes, animations can liven up a site. But it should be controllable by the user otherwise they end up being irritating. The user needs to feel he is in control of his experience of your site
- Flexible layout: the site looks great at 800px as well as 1200px
- CSS effects to enhance the visual result: #CSS3 blur is here used to bring the attention to the main content area not as a gimmick
- Keyboard navigation: a small issue for some but shows attention to detail and professionalism

Do you have any more example sites along these lines?

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Intro to Google Analytics

.Net magazine has a great article on how to use Google Analytics beyond simply checking your pageview and visitor numbers http://bit.ly/wY2ZxS Check it out!

Given the opportunity, a warning on the new version of #GoogleAnalytics: not every feature of the old version has been transferred. For example the new version is no longer exporting PDF (which is a tragic loss when your client (who gets confused by Analytics) asks for a report on his site...) Thankfully, Google still offers the old version (for now)...

(link via +Oscar Fuentes)

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Your Google+ followers on a map

www.Circlecount.com keeps on improving, this is a new feature that will show the location of your Google+ followers round the world. You also get a per country analysis, as well as gender stats.

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Now you really need to be on Google+

In case you didn't think you needed to be on Google+ since your social media presence on other platforms was "good enough", think again. As of this week Google is rolling out the "Search Plus Your World" feature, basically combining it's data from Google+ in the search results, both providing a more personalized result but also acting as a gateway to Google+.

As you can see on the screenshot below, the search results are now split vertically in two parts: the regular search results (but personalized with information on whether you or your friends shared a link) on the left and on the right related results from Google+. If you search for "music" you get Britney Spears's G+ profile.
Search Engine Land has more examples of these changes
http://selnd.com/wKFaBM

Now, Google says http://bit.ly/x5oIXJ they are not really favoring Google+ and they would want to add Facebook and Twitter on the right-part-of-the-screen results, if they just could make a deal with them. Of course until then, the situation is simple: If you're on Google+ and your competition isn't, you have a possible advantage (you also need to appear on Google's suggestions for your desired keywords). The fact is that Britney Spears didn't appear on the first page of search results for "music" yesterday, now she does.

So how do you get on the action? Google has a guide page http://bit.ly/y0GhHP but it's not really clear. Basically they are saying "get on Google+ and start posting useful content". Good luck then! :)
Google now has it's own internet :)

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HTML5 Tags Cheat Sheet

A helpful cheat sheet of #HTML5 tags by www.inmotionhosting.com (via +Andrew Maxwell)
Full resolution: http://giannopoulos.net/2012/01/10/html5-tags-cheat-sheet/html5_cheat_sheet_tags/

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Add your author information in search results

#Google is quickly adding social elements in search, you might have seen that can see who shared a page directly on the #search results page. But you can now add your own author information (name and photo) when a page of yours shows up in search results.

Here's how to do it:
1. Link your content to your Google Profile: basically just add a link to your Google profile similar to this <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109098983561044225374/?rel=author">Markos Giannopoulos</a> on all of your pages (for example in the footer or your sidebar bio)
2. Link to your content from your profile: This is done by editing your Google profile and adding your page under the "Contributor" section on the right column.

Google will do the rest. The full information is here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986 Google also provides the option to verify your information by your e-mail address, but this requires that your address is made public on all of your pages (not a good idea due to spambots).

You can verify that everything is working with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

The end result is similar to what you see in the attached image. Your name and photo will appear next to your pages in the search results, along with your circle count and "Add to circles" button.

(Post based on information thanks to an article by +WPMU.org, found via +Brian McDaniel)

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Creating an effective company/product presentation

An excellent post by +Guy Kawasaki on presenting your company and product. Extremely long but really analytical!

Read on...

Reshared post from +Guy Kawasaki

(Mon01) Welcome to the first in a series of posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts.

I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the deck from my public SkyDrive folder and use it as the starting point for your own perfect pitch. Enjoy!

To cut to the chase, there are two extremes in online dating: eHarmony and Hot Or Not. When you use the former, you provide the data along twenty-nine dimensions to find your soul mate. When you use the latter, you look at a picture and decide if the person is “hot or not” in a few seconds.

When it comes to PowerPoint pitches for your company, think Hot Or Not, not eHarmony.

End. Of. Discussion.

This post and PowerPoint outline will enable you to succeed in the real world of presentations to potential investors. Mind you, very few investors will tell you what you’re about to read—that’s because it’s much easier to smile and say, “That’s interesting” than to tell you the truth. First, some background information for you:

You do not present in a vacuum. There were pitches before you. There will be pitches after you. (Just like there are pictures of people looking for dates before and after you.) You need to look hot in a river of bright, shiny objects.

The scintillating adjectives that you think apply to your business are tired and worn out—”patent-pending,” “revolutionary,” “innovative,” “scalable.” Been there, heard that. Four times. Today. Just like people who describe themselves as “bright,” “outgoing,” and “warm” on dating sites.

Think of two airplanes: 747 and F18. A 747 lumbers down the runway and takes one to two miles to get off the ground. A F18 catapults off an aircraft carrier and reaches 165 mph in two seconds on a 270-foot deck—or falls into the ocean. Guess which plane you’re in when you are making a pitch.

The best-case outcome of pitch is not a request for wiring instructions. There is a much more modest goal: rising above the noise and avoiding elimination. You want to “live another day” and get to the next stage: due diligence.

--------------
Download the PowerPoint slides here:

http://bit.ly/yz9m5O
--------------

Slide #1: Title page. This slide should be visible as people walk into the room. Its purpose is to orient people so that they know who you are. From the start, you need to look more professional than you are, so spend a few bucks on a decent logo. Include your contact information on this slide—God forbid that an investor is interested in your company and has to search for how to get in touch.

Slide #2. Overview. This slide is the so-called “elevator pitch”—thirty seconds to explain what you do in a clear, if not “wow,” manner. For example, “Manufacture solar panels that are 2 x as efficient at 1/10th the cost.” In many pitches, fifteen minutes goes by, and I still don’t know what the company does. But I have heard that you are a proven team with a proven technology in a proven market.

Here’s a power tip for wowing people: Tell your audience (if it’s true) that you’re already doing $100,000/month, you’re adding 1,000 users a day, or you’re in beta tests with five Fortune 500 companies. In other words, you have proof that the dogs are eating the food. The longer you can bootstrap without raising money, the more powerful your pitch.

Slide #3. Problem/Opportunity. The purpose of this slide is to cause your audience to salivate when they hear about either the pain that you relieve or the opportunity that you enable people to tap. Note: this is about your customer’s pain or opportunity, not yours. Your opportunity is a derivative of what you do for your customers.

Rookie entrepreneurs cite a bull shiitake study from a market-research firm that proves that the opportunity is big. Something along these lines: according to Jupiter Research, there are 300 million Americans, one in four owns a dog, therefore there are 75 million dogs, each dog eats two cans of dog food per day, therefore there is a 150 million can per day total addressable market—how hard can it be to sell 1% or 1.5 million cans per day?

Make this slide work by either addressing a problem/opportunity that is intuitively obvious (for example, “people who want to listen to music”) or, if the market size isn’t obvious, discussing a case study or scenario (for example, “the person who runs social media for Virgin America needs to monitor Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Google Plus”). The goal is to enable the audience to fantasize about how great the market is, not for you to prove it using high-order mathematics.

Slide 4: Unfair Advantage. By now, the mouths of your audience should be watering because they understand what you do, they’re wowed by the potential, and now they need to start to believe that you can take advantage of this green and fertile pasture. They want to know, “Why you?” “What is your competitive advantage?” “Why is the field tilted in your direction?”

Stuff that won’t work: “We really believe in what we’re doing.” As opposed to the five other teams that the audience met today that don’t believe in what they’re doing? “We have a patent.” So you have years of time and millions of dollars to litigate? “We have the first mover advantage.” There are probably ten other teams as far along as you are, pitching just up the street. “We are smart and work hard.” Unlike that other five teams the audience met today? Get real: this isn’t elementary school where trying hard is enough to get by.

Stuff that will work: You were the vice president of sales for CNN, so you know all the buyers of the major brands. You ran industrial design for Apple. You have a PhD in materials science from Stanford. You implemented social media for Starbucks. Your audience wants to believe—just give them a rational reason to do so that is beyond “we’re hardworking folks who really believe in what we are doing.”

What if you didn’t work for Yahoo, Apple, or Starbucks, or you don’t have a PhD (or any degree) from Stanford? Then you do what all great entrepreneurs are good at: take your best and brief shot with competitive advantages, admit that you don’t have a “perfect, world-class team” to deflect objections, and move quickly to a demo that makes heads explode.

Slide 5: Demo. This really isn’t a slide. It’s where you dive into a demo that lasts approximately ten minutes. What if your product isn’t at a stage to do a demo? Then you are pitching too early, and you’re wasting people’s time. Of course some technologies are easier to demo than others. If you have a novel architecture for a nuclear reactor, you are probably going to be limited to compelling graphics.

There are three questions that you can answer in a demo: what, how, and why. Don’t waste time on “why.” You should have answered this already with your Overview and Problem/Opportunity slides.

You need to focus on “what” and “how.” Whether you emphasize “what” versus “how” depends on your product. Generally, if you do something that’s never (or seldom) been done before, then focus on “what.” If you do something that has been done before, but you do it much easier, faster, or cheaper, then focus on “how”

Slide 6: Sales and Marketing. Let’s say that people are salivating so much after your demo that they’re choking on their spit. Now you have to answer the question, “In a world of TVs, telephones, websites, blogs, social media, and smartphones, how are you going to roll out your product and ‘make a dent in the universe?’”

Again, investors want to believe—you just have to give them something believable. What’s not believable? “We’ll use viral marketing.” Viral marketing isn’t a strategy—it’s at best a goal, not a means to a goal. And the single greatest determinant of viral marketing is luck, so saying that your strategy is viral marketing is the equivalent of saying that your strategy is “to get lucky.”

What is believable? Your established contacts with the buyers of large companies—that is, circling back to the Unfair Advantages slide. Investors love it when they hear that you have already lined up brand name, referenceable customers or partners. Other believable means: an email database that your founders have compiled throughout their careers, a successful pitch to SXSW for a panel, 50,000 Twitter followers, and 50,000 Google Plus followers.

What if you have none of these? That’s why they are called unfair advantages. Life’s tough—you just have to be willing to grind results out. If everyone had them, the field was level, and everyone was created equal, then they would be called fair advantages, which is an oxymoron.

Slide 7: Competition. Most entrepreneurs put up a slide that says that there is no competition or that the competition is feeble. The problem with the former is that that lack of competition indicates that you are either addressing a market that doesn’t exist or you don’t know how to search the internet.

The problem with the latter is that the competition probably isn’t feeble if you’re going after a meaningful market. And your competition’s competition slide probably says you’re feeble, but I digress.

You want competition. It shows, though it doesn’t necessarily “prove,” that the market is attractive. Your task with this slide is to show how and why you can beat the competition—that is, what you can do that it can’t. You also want to provide information about your weaknesses vis-à-vis the competitions. There are three reasons to do this.

First, it shows that you know how to use the internet, and you’ve done your research about the capabilities of the competition. Second, it shows that you’re intellectually honest—or at least not delusional. Third, if you tell people what you cannot do, they’ll believe you when you tell them what you can do.

Slide 8: Business Model. Investors are not your friends or your soul mates, so they want to know how you’ll make money—and therefore how you’ll make them money. The key to this slide is simplicity: show that you rely on simple, proven business models, not a new technique that has never been done before. These kinds of business models include sales, licensing, advertising, sponsorship, affiliate fees, digital bling, and upgrades to additional features and services.

Pick one or two and stick with them until you need to try another one or two. Many entrepreneurs throw up (in more ways than one) multiple models because they think several revenue streams will make investors believe that the company is more attractive. However, it’s far better to have one business model that prints money than several that don’t.

In fact, you could purposely exclude an obvious additional revenue stream. Then when an investor has an aha! moment and shows off his brilliant business strategy mind by mentioning it, you could flatter him by adding it to your plans and exclaim, “Wow, this is why we need a seasoned investor like you.” Then, theoretically, the brilliant investor has a psychic investment in your success.

Slide 9: Forecast. I hate this slide because everyone knows that you’ve made up numbers that are big enough to interest people but small enough to prevent them from laughing out loud. (I see a pitch a week that conservatively forecasts the fastest sales ramp up in the history of man.)

Alas, you need to include this slide to communicate the rationale behind your fabrications. My advice is that you make your first year sales $0 because your product will be a year late and make your fifth year sales $75-$100 million if you want to raise venture capital. (History has shown that your actual results will be 10% of your most conservative forecast.)

You should concentrate on the reasonableness of the assumptions behind your business model and forecast. Business models vary, but think along these lines: Are you going to do more business than Apple, Amazon, and Cisco achieved in their first five years? Because the likelihood of this is smaller than the odds that I’ll play in the NHL.

Do you need roughly the population of India to make your model work? Are you assuming advertising CPMs that are 20x typical advertising rates? Do you predict that more than .5% of the people who see your ads click on them? Do you require more than 1% conversion rate from free to paid use of your service?

The first two rows of the forecast are windows into the soul of your company because it reveals how many customers and employees you need. If you need an ungodly high number of customers to make your sales numbers, you’ll discourage investors. If you need an unrealistically low number of customers, investors will think you’re clueless.

Ditto for employees: if you need a lot, something is wrong—or maybe your business isn’t scalable. If you hardly need any, then investors, again, will think you’re clueless. It is a wicked web that you must weave to make investors truly believe.

Slide 10: Team. This the infamous team slide. You may wonder why it’s not earlier in the pitch. After all, you’ve heard and read that investors invest in teams, not simply products, services, or markets. The problem is that at the point of investment, it’s hard to truly “know” that a team is good. If this was possible, then investors would only back good teams, and every investment would pan out.

The fact is that your team isn’t proven or complete—this is why you’re raising money. If you were Steve Jobs, John Chambers, Steve Case, Larry Ellison, Howard Schultz, Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates, you (a) wouldn’t need outside money and (b) you could simply make one or two phone calls to get it. You certainly wouldn’t be reading about how to make a good PowerPoint pitch.

The most likely case is that you can show that your backgrounds are relevant to the market that you’re serving and the technology that’s necessary to build. For example, it’s a stretch to think that a bunch of friends from Home Depot are going to find the cure for cancer. But it is believable that they could create a DIY advice site sponsored by Home Depot with ads from Orchard Supply with a freemium model that requires membership to receive answers to questions.

Don’t let this depress you. The people who founded the great tech successes—Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, YouTube, and so on—were hardly proven entrepreneurs. In fact, you could make the case that these companies represent unproven teams in unproven markets with unproven technology. In other words, they were zero for three according to what “professional” investors say they are looking for.

This is why the Demo slide is earlier in the presentation than the Team slide. A mind-blowing demo makes up for a lot of shortcomings and objections. I’d rather see a great demo than a great presentation. Ideally, you’ll have both.

Slide 11: Status and Milestones. The purpose of this slide is to “tie a bow on the present.” You recap where you are in terms of delivery of your product or service, how customers are reacting to it and what the next major milestones are. A word about milestones: these are events that are so big that you’d call your spouse up to tell him/her that it occurred. For example, printed stationary isn’t a milestone. A milestone is an event such as shipping, first sale to a customer, website launch, or profitability.

Conclusion

What happens next? The best case is that the investors start due diligence—that is, checking your references, talking to the customers that you said loved what you’re doing, and investigating the current state of your market. All you want at this point is to get on the investor’s “short list” of deals he or she wants to follow up on.

However, believe it or not, it’s hard to tell when you are turned down. For this reason, I will translate investor speak for you. When the investor says, “Come back when you have a lead investor,” “Come back when you’ve built out your team,” or “Come back when you have some sales traction,” it means that she’s saying, “No.” When the investor says, “Let’s start due diligence,” it means “maybe.”

So now you have it: all you need to know to make an enchanting presentation to potential investors.

One last word: most companies have the same general challenges to overcome, and this guide is intended to cover those. But each company has its own unique combination of challenges that represent the critical priorities of that company. For an electronic medical records company the key issues are different than for a mobile game company.

Make sure that you put the emphasis on the most important issues for your company, rather than giving equal weight to everything. One of the most important assessments investors will make about you is whether or not you really understand your business and whether or not you know how to prioritize. You don’t want to look like someone who is just filling out a template.

With that in mind, download my PowerPoint presentation from SkyDrive to get started right away:

http://bit.ly/yz9m5O

Onward and upward!

Promotional consideration paid by Microsoft.

Meeting Room with White Screen Ready for a Presentation

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Searching for a font, Part II

After my first attempt, I thought it was time for a small visual update on the site.

The previous choice: Ubuntu

The alternative: Adelle Bold by TypeTogether (you can get the font via Font Squirrel)

Current choice: Franchise Bold by Derek Weathersbee (free download, donations accepted)


The last choice also lead to some minor layout changes to fit the sharing buttons better and give more space to the main content area. Runner-ups (also free downloads, considered but not tried): Luxi Sans and Hattori Hanzo.

Your thoughts? :)

I'm a Flickr hostage

I had seen the notification by #Flickr that my Pro account was expiring. The single mail of notification linked to a FAQ page http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#73 mentioned that photos above the 200 free limit would be hidden. I made the mistake to believe that that meant that the extra photos would simply be hidden from public view.

Instead, when your account expires, not only the public but also you lose access to any photos over the 200 limit. This means your photos are now hostage to Flickr, which gives you a supposedly funny notice when you login, informing that your photos are "safe & sound". You just have to pay to see them again.

I can't seem to avoid thinking there was a reason why they only send a single notification mail about the account expiration...

So what are my options now (if any?) except from paying Flickr #extortion money?

[update]
1) +michael arrington describes the situation also here (nice photo :)) http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/08/i-wont-use-flickr-until-they-release-my-photo-hostages/
2) It seems that if you delete some of the most recent photos, Flickr will show you some of the older ones... An still no official way to massively download your photos. Thankfully most of my photos are also stored locally but I don't have them properly categorized in all cases.

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The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors

Here is a handy chart of factors to consider in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts by the good folks at Search Engine Land.

Use it to
1) evaluate your current status: how are you fairing on each of them (from none at all to perfection - but also "doesn't apply" might be a valid response
2) determine what you could change
3) research how you can achieve your targets
4) figure out how you can measure your progress
5) make a plan
6) apply your strategy with periodic checks on the results

Search Engine Land have the table in many forms including a PDF here http://searchengineland.com/seotable

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Getting your priorities straight

The parable is more than just about time management. Read on...

Reshared post from +Brad Thompson

Parable of Time Management

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz" and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes." The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!" "No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is, "If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. What are the 'big rocks' in your life, time with loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you'll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question, "What are the 'big rocks' in my life?" Then, put those in your jar first.
If this inspired you, share with others so they can benefit!

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If Google bans Google

[Update]
In an excellent move of fairness, the Google Chrome page no longer appears on the organic results for "browser".
Here is a screenshot (G+ doesn't allow me to add another photo on this post any more)
http://giannopoulos.net/2012/01/03/if-google-bans-google/google-chrome-demoted/
Here is Matt Cutt's post on the matter
https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/NAWunDzJSHC
It would be nice if they also stopped the paid ad for Google Chrome from appearing on the top spot of the results by the way... :)
[/end]

will it break the internet? :) Apparently Google has been paying for blog posts about Google Chrome, against it's own rules for the rest of the internet. On the issue:

The original article by SEOBook
http://www.seobook.com/post-sponsored-google
Article on Search Engine Land
http://searchengineland.com/googles-jaw-dropping-sponsored-post-campaign-for-chrome-106348
Google's "Paid Links" guidelines
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
Google says it's the marketing firm that did it
http://www.theverge.com/web/2012/1/3/2678948/google-unruly-media-response-chrome-sponsored-post

Damn marketers! We told you, "NO EVIL"! :)

P.S. I love the quote from Search Engine Land: "So what have we got? Google’s paid for a content-light post that’s not a review of Google Chrome, nor a review of how Google Chrome helps small business, pushing a video that also doesn’t show how Google Chrome helps small businesses."

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Back to work!

Time's up, back to work (a.k.a. "ta kefalia mesa" in Greek) :)

Photo via +John Pozadzides

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