During the course of the audio there’s discussion in regards to Matt Mullenwag (co-founder of WordPress) siphoning away users of Thesis using the GPL issue as a lure. I’ve personally seen similar issues (GPL related, in fact) tear communities / userbases in half, spit them up and leave nothing behind. During the course of my younger years I was involved in a few MUDs or two that were in direct violation of the very license the software was developed on. In one particular case (Ahem, Medievia) there was such an undercurrent from the community that several derivatives spawned off, servers were exploited, users quit left & right and the project itself lost multiple developers and thousands of active users as a result of the backlash.

The GPL is an extremely well backed license whether it applies to Diku, WordPress or Linux itself & touts and extremely strong following. I believe that Chris Pearson is treading very thing ice when he states that WordPress needs to “back up their statements”, through force or otherwise. I do suspect Mullenwag’s own twitter remarks alone lead me to believe he’s generating an uprising of his own against Pearson and GPL-naysayers, something I see as somewhat belated but necessary to ensure future derivatives and themes stay in line with the license.

I do hope the situation gets prettier before ugly, and Pearson decides to switch his themes over to the license. The license itself wouldn’t inhibit or detract from any of his offerings, business or personal, but I suppose that’s for him to decide. Several other wordpress theme developers have swapped over to releasing their themes with the GPL intact and from what I garner through their public commentary, “Success” is all they’ve experienced since.

Any thoughts of your own?

The downside of this contraction
The downside of an economic contraction like the one we’re undergoing now isn’t that it’s necessarily a bad thing, in fact for the most part it’s great. Inflation tends to decrease and goods return to their affordable pricing, rent tends to remain the same and we go on with life. In this particular instance though a large part of the contraction is directly the result of a housing bubble bursting — things will be slightly different this time around. We haven’t seen rent prices decrease as rapidly as they should have been because people are still locked into mortgages and financing that’s priced higher than the property they own; As a result they need to retain similar pricing structures for rentals as they had prior to the ‘burst’, inflicting significant amounts of pain on their own tenants whose clientbases are dwindling slightly. Many tenants are simply walking away or stepping out when their lease expires instead of continuing onwards — they can’t get their landlords to agree to decrease on the price and the landlords simply can’t afford to reduce it any further.

But, despite all the bad..
Despite the slight squeeze in the economy, a large number of businesses are wielding the recession to their advantage. Winter has always meant downturns and slower growth in most industries but that doesn’t have to be the case — with the internet, local community and a hint of advertising your growth can still steadily increase. I recently read of a coffee shop that had increased their business several thousand percent by using twitter and other ‘community’ driven tools. In this particular case, they allowed their regular clients to make orders online before they’d arrive at the shop. Their business skyrocketed and they began to become a local ‘hub’ for all sorts of events & gatherings. A win-win, for both the clientèle and company owners.

There’s a number of great tools you can use online to really begin to increase your business. A number of them are considered ‘hyperlocal’, that is extremely targeted sites towards local businesses. A few that come to mind are Yelp* and citysearch– and although both are largely geared towards restaurants, shops and brick & mortar places they can still easily be wielded to garner additional traffic.

Online and offline, one and the same.
Something we often forget (myself included) is that online and offline businesses are truly all the same. Although both may differ in physical locations they largely depend on the same variables in order to decide whether they’ll sink or swim. A large part of any business is word of mouth and reputation, both of which are truly dependent (Offline, especially) on your community whether it be nearby or afar. Negative reviews or comments made online or through word-of-mouth can spread like wildfire and damage any business. I’ve learned this firsthand with some of our own clients that weren’t 100% satisfied but even negative comments can be wielded to your benefit. Remember that it’s always best to ask your clients what they think of your services first before they have the opportunity to tell you (negative or positive).

I’ve seen cue cards left about coffee shops asking clients to leave reviews on Yelp* and other locations, and although it may not seem ingenious those extra few comments left on the web could easily bring in thousands of new visitors each month. In colder climates in particular, many people (at least outside city centers) don’t often roam about without a purpose — it’s key to wield online communities and sites to your benefit and get as many content clients to them as possible. We’ve lucked out ourselves in that sites like Hostjury and Gigpark allow our own clientele to leave great reviews about us. Would you believe that 65% of our clientbase has arrived from either of these sites? We wouldn’t either, until we checked our statistics.

No news is bad news, online
Realize that not every review or peep you’ll hear about your company is going to be a positive one, but with some savvy and quick reaction you’ll be able to always explain yourself and your side of the story. The beautiful part about online communities is they often allow you the ability to respond to any negative commentary (or even positive) left about your company. The more people talking about you often garners more business though, whether positive or negative. You can interact on a whole new level where your clients were once inaccessible, you can be ‘real’ to them.

Local, yes. But don’t box yourself in
Remember that you’re not just a provider in your local community, don’t just offer a service or product. Be involved, get involved — and be local. I’m not saying buy local, in fact I believe in helping neighbors near and afar — especially as a company with clients in more than 45 different countries. Remember that as a retailer of any sort you have the ability to expand beyond your local community and start offering services to the world as well — it’s especially easy and there’s no reason for you to solely target your local market. I’ve seen companies go from a single employee to over thirty just by launching an online store and selling toys of all things. Their local targetmarket only had a few thousand consumers but their global reach was millions: They succeeded and there’s millions of other niches that your own products could easily fill as well. As much as you should think, act and be ‘local’, don’t forget there’s a market just within reach that consists of the entire planet. Don’t limit yourself to the few passerbys, sell globally.

If you are considering launching a retail store online, consider a few of the developers below who are happily hosted at Fused Network:
Sage Media
Peapod Studios
16Toads

Global market, local economy. Two birds with one stone.

There’s a number of exciting topics being discussed and it should be interesting as it’ll be my first time actually stopping in Las Vegas for anything more than gas. I just drove through this weekend on my way across the United States, a 2,400+ mile trip in my mean little Elantra.

If anyone is attending or in the area you should poke us. I’ll be staying in Vegas tonight and attending the first day of sessions. I’ll be hanging around in Los Angeles with Steven getting a few projects completed and enjoying the sunshine!

But it’s that time again as the week begins winding up to get back into gear. We finished up the week before the holiday’s as a sponsor of an event in Toronto, a success! The event HoHoTo raised over $25,000 (We contributed 10% of the total) for the daily bread foodbank in downtown Toronto, making the event one of the largest donations this year for daily bread. I can’t reiterate enough how great of a cause supporting local food banks are no matter the time — but especially relevant today with the slugging economy.

One of the more well-known Toronto bloggers, Mark McKay (And a future fused network client, right Mark? *poke* Especially as your other host is down as I write this!) clipped together a small video that I thought everyone might like to peek at. I did happen to get a quick kind word in (I’m the nerd in the red shirt) partway through the video. Luckily, for all of us, Mark did some decent editing and removed most of my embarrassing moments. Included in the video is a thank you from some extremely cool people on the internet (How can someone be cool on the internet, anyways) like Matt Mullenwag of WordPress, Biz Stone of Twitter, Toronto mayor David Miller and Cory Doctorow, my internet hero.

I can’t even compile into words how great it is for such an awesome IT community to come together and help out, we’ll make certain that the daily bread is always in our prayers & on the top of our together charity list.

Of course there’s 1,000+ clients, the rest of the internet and only two tickets so we had to devise something really special to get to win. So we’ll make it as difficult as possible! In order to win there’s three requirements that you’ll have to satisfy. Three runners up will receive a tshirt from Threadless, so you’ll get something for your efforts even if you outright fail.

The first step: (To admitting you have a problem, I’m addicted to twitter!)
Even leaders have to be followers sometimes. So, I’m new to this whole twitter thing and with the number of hours I spend in the office answering your tickets — I don’t have time to make friends! You’ll need to “follow” me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/DavidAndGoliath

If you’re not familiar with twitter, I won’t even begin to explain it but it’s sort of like email and blogging on speed. The sign-up process is easy enough and it’s a great way to get interconnected, less bloaty than facebook and you won’t have all of those photos to untag in the morning.

The second step:
You’ll have to say something naughty or nice about us somewhere on the web & ‘twitter’ the link to me (@Davidandgoliath your message here) You can post the ‘something nice about us’ anywhere whether it’s your blog or a hosting review site.

Sound easy enough? Well, it is. You’ve got 24 hours!
Willy Wonka even gave out more so act now!

The perks, requirements & details.
1. We’ll be picking names randomly out of a hat. Winners for the two tickets will need to find their own transportation to the event however we’re open to playing chauffeur if you’re close enough. No limos, just a hyundai so don’t get too excited. The first two winners will be selected within 24 hours.

2. Winners of the threadless shirts & other random stuff (of my choosing) can live anywhere except Antartica and will be selected after the event completes.

3. If a winner cannot be selected within 24 hours for the tickets they will be randomly dished out on twitter to the quickest responding individuals nearby.

4. You don’t have to be a client of Fused Network to win, so join in the fun!

I do forewarn you, this is an extremely long post but we’d love for you to get all the way to the bottom. We’ve got some gifts lined up for those who do.

Ongoing giving.

Last year we had our ‘giveaway’ in which clients raised just under a thousand dollars for several different charities to lend a helping hand to their efforts. This year we’ve had an opportunity land in our lap to become the largest sponsor at an event here in Toronto on behalf of the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank. I can’t thank you enough (nor can the daily bread users) for helping Fused get to the size it is so that we can help make a difference.

This year you’ve donated a significant amount to the event & charity (Hey, 2.5x more than Microsoft!) and we’re looking to increase that even further. The food bank itself helps serve 80,000 people on a monthly basis (35% of which are children) and we’re just happy to play a role in that and you should be as well.

Through our ‘together’ affiliate program we’ve been raising funds all year for different charities and with the odd economic times we want to scale that up even further. The system is really simple, every time you refer a user to us you get 100% of their initial payment which you can either choose to divvy out to a charity, yourself or future services with fused. With only a few weeks left of the year, you can help make a real difference at foodbanks & charities around that need it more than ever.

If you haven’t yet signed up for our ‘together’ program you can check under affiliates within your billing panel in your client area — it’s a bit obfuscated and hidden, but it’ll give you a link to generate and forward users through. Ones who sign up through that link generate funds in your account that you divvy out as you see fit!

There’s no easier way to give than by posting some links, banners and reviews on your sites — in the end, someone gets great hosting and the more charities helped the better! As always I prefer the ones that help out with direct needs like food, clothing and shelter but some clients have even selected greenpeace, the world wildlife fund and more. It’s up to you.

We’re blessed, let’s return the favour.
(Hey, even I’ve been taught not to let the left hand know what the right is doing but together we can make such a massive difference. Social media is the new way of starting movements, so spamming you is the next best thing! :p)

So, hey, what about that winning you mentioned? We’ve got some hohoto tickets & tshirts to give away

So, as a result of Fused Network being the largest (last minute) sponsor at the event we’ve been given a bunch of tickets to the event. Although I realize it’s on extremely short notice (Planning, schmanning) we do have two tickets available to give out. The event itself is on Monday at 7 PM EST here in Downtown Toronto at the ModClub, it was planned relatively quickly and will consist of about 600 local nerds, marketing and ‘suit’ folks. You can’t find these tickets anywhere else and they’ve sold out faster than Governor Blagojevich, so here’s your only chance.

You can read more about the event here: HoHoTo

Of course there’s 1,000+ clients and only two tickets so we had to devise something really special to get to win. So we’ll make it as difficult as possible! In order to win there’s three requirements that you’ll have to satisfy. Three runners up will receive a tshirt from Threadless, so you’ll get something for your efforts. There are of course some simple rules and regulations.

Check out the post here for more information: HoHoTo: Win some tickets and gear!

As of 15 minutes ago, Magento — one of the most often requested scripts for Installatron has been added to the mix of available installations. We will have many additional ones to come shortly but for now this should appease the masses. Magento is literally my second favorite script behind WordPress, I’m more excited than most of you about it.

Magento is a feature-rich, professional open-source eCommerce (shopping cart) solution that offers merchants complete flexibility and control over the look, content, and functionality of their online store. It was launched in 2007, and is the fastest growing eCommerce platform on the market with over 500,000+ downloads to date.

Future scripts will include e107 and a number of other ones so keep your
eyes peeled.

For now, read more about Magento on their official site at http://www.magentocommerce.com and the feature list available here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/features

I myself have been using WordPress since early 2004 after abandoning the blog services Livejournal, Blogger and several other content management systems that simply didn’t make the cut. WordPress is extremely easy to use, has a user-friendly instalation system and upgrading and managing are even easy for my technically inept blog-wielding father whom has been managing several sites using it ranging in topics from the United Nations to Christian music concerts. The beauty of wordpress isn’t that it just makes blogging and contributing to the web easy — rather, that anyone can use it.

An example of that would be this video.

I say that it’s changing the face of the web because with millions of users, from fortune 500 companies to regular joes like myself use it to speak through the web: Anyone Everyone is able to contribute and use the web no matter their skill-level. It’s free speech. Hosting providers like ourselves offer easy to install systems to setup WordPress in just a few clicks which really lowers the entry barrier even further.

Now where it gets extremely exciting for someone like me is in the ease at which I can modify the design and frontend of WordPress to fit my needs. The blog we’re using right here on Fused Network for both our status blog and this one is WordPress, of course!

There’s hundreds of sites out on the web where you can download different themes to use in conjunction with WordPress like one of our very own clients’ sites, Themeshaper, Adii, Woothemes and many others.

If you haven’t yet, give wordpress a try using our Installatron system within your control panel. If you’re not a client, signup to Fused Network using the coupon fused25off to get a 25% discount so you can start using WordPress now.

As surprising as it is we were just short of hitting one of our goals this year — we were just short of our goal of hosting 1,000 domain names by January first. Instead we arrived at a nice even 800, up by about 600 since the beginning of 2007. (Honestly, I’m ecstatic about it nonetheless. I always set lofty goals so even just grasping a sliver of the original target is wonderful)

Now some of you may be wondering where I’ve been! During the past couple of weeks I’ve been hiding out in Florida taking some much needed time off but at the same time solidified some upcoming changes & plans.

Hey, where are semi-dedicateds, David?!
First off, I’m sure a number of you are asking “Where are semi-dedicated packages, you’ve been talking about them since June!”. I’ll admit we dropped the ball on launching our semi-dedicated packages, while they’re essentially available (and we’ve got two servers handling clients for them) we still have yet to launch the packages.

The primary reason is a decent one though, I want to get our site ‘in tune’ with our new offerings before launching them. There’s a number of different key areas that are currently being updated including a content overhaul — the new site will contain more information about our team, infrastructure & what really makes us different from other providers.

The other half of it is that I’ve been absolutely swamped with keeping existing clients satisfied (hey, a 3 minute response time average isn’t something to brag about but it’s decent!) & new ones content with our service. It doesn’t give me all that much time to devote to new development.

There’s a number coming in 2008 though, I’ll avoid tossing out time estimations but we’ve got a new cPanel theme in development, a site overhaul, new packages coming & some other goodies in store.

What’s the plan, stan?
First up on the chopping block are our current packages. We intend on splitting our offering into two different tiers at the moment — both business & personal. I’m also (slowly) getting to work on a new ‘blog hosting’ offering that has been on the backburner for a year. We’re about 6 years late to the blog hosting industry, but better late than never

Second of all we’ve been preparing to hire new representatives. We’re finally at that ‘breaking point’ where we can afford to dish out some funds for some new blood here at Fused. As we continue to overhaul our primary site you’ll see new information going up about our available careers — I’m really excited about the opportunities we’ll be offering soon.

There’s a tonne getting done & just all stewing together. I’m looking forward to it!

On the plate:

• Affiliate program overhaul — Cleaning up the semantics, setting up a more competitive offering & new ‘charity tallies’ so users can see how they stack up against others in the system (optional).
• Site overhaul — tonnes of new information being made available, new tools & hopefully an easy-to-use template system
• Knowledgebase Updates — We understand the importance of our knowledgebase and how unfun it is to use. An overhaul is expected soon.

We’ve also been completing an awful lot of custom development within the control panel. We’ve got new pretty little uptime & trend graphs available (already completed, just waiting to be inputted!) for shared and dedicated users. Once the new control panel theme is ready we’ll be implementing them.

So while I’ve been silent on a number of key development topics as of late (Ruby on Rails, Semi-dedicated packages, etc.) know it’s moving forward. Hopefully we’ll add some manpower before February and kick it into action a bit faster!

There’s lots coming, stick around for the show!

In total, we ended up netting $664.38 to give away. The majority of our clients opted into providing it to the Salvation Army, which I certainly have no qualms with! In total there were 4 different organizations selected. While I do think this year was a success, I initially expected a tad bit more (given our monthly new sales revenue trend) but failed to take into account the holidays!

During the holidays the internet slows to a crawl — our sales included. While our operation doesn’t rely on them all that much — our months before were 3x-5x the amount! Next year, we’ll have this in November instead

Overall, it was a success. Helping those in need — even in smaller amounts — is still helping those in need. Thank you to all who contributed & expected some more thorough updates soon!

1. David, are you insane?

Not quite, albeit I suspect I’ve had bouts of it in the past! As they say though, genius is one stroke away from insanity.

In fact, I consider just a small sliver of what we could be out there doing. This program is no different than our ‘Fused Together‘ affiliate program which offers funds to charities instead of handing it off to affiliates.

2. What if it exceeds your expectations?

Oh, would that not be a gorgeous outpouring of compassion?
I am absolutely hoping & praying it exceeds every one of my expectations! To have the opportunity to give selflessly & not take advantage of it would be a loss. This is a win-win situation for both our clients and ourselves.

3. How can you afford to give away an entire months’ revenue?

I’ve been smart enough to diversify my revenue streams & since the inception of Fused all of our needs have been graciously taken care of. I wholeheartedly welcome everyone to partake in the biggest holiday giveaway, you won’t regret it and neither will I!

4. So, who do you want to help David?

Personally, I’d love to see the majority donated towards causes that help the poor & orphans out. It’s a cause that will always be there but even just a little helps. I know I wasn’t raised with a silver spoon by any means, but despite being ‘poor’ by American standards during the majority of my life I’ve never gone without food, clothes or a roof over my head.

Countless people do go without those basic necessities & we should do everything within our capacity (or even outside of it) to meet those needs. If only compassion replaced wars.

5. I can’t think of a charity, who should I pick?

I’ve always liked The Salvation Army or the Child’s Play Charity, myself. The Governments’ Charities and Giving site offers a search engine to find Canadian Charities.

Here’s an excellent site called Charity Navigator that allows you to search & find charities easily.

6. What if I don’t need web hosting?

Well you could always tell a friend, co-worker or enemy about our Biggest Giveaway Ever. You could also just directly give to the charity of your choice and tell us all about it.

Give generously whether it’s through us or not.

Additional questions will be added as they arrive.

I’m truly disappointed in humanity after watching the PBS special on Darfur. It exemplifies our failure on such a great level.
Even more disappointing is our quest for oil, power & destruction has tied up our military & financial resources in the middle east leaving us to be the ones performing a genocide ‘of sorts’ there.

My God, how disappointing we are as a people.