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How to write an ideal service notification

Editor's note: Service interruption notifications are the unloved sibling of newsletters and welcome emails. They just don't get enough love -- and for the most part are fairly terrible, anonymous, vague and menacing messages, often from a no-reply address. There is a better way.

While software is our main business now, we have some hosting clients for special services. Every once in a while of course there is either expected or unexpected downtime. We strive to let our clients know about these issues in advanced (planned) and in real time (unplanned). We don't try the tricky move that many hosts do of just trying to hide downtime.

Keep reading How to write an ideal service notification

WordPress Plugin Pricing

I recently received an email about our FV Player Pro plugin licensing and pricing. filmmaker Paul Moon's questions were good ones. Here are my answers. 

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your email and your questions. I'm delighted to answer your questions.

I am very bothered by what appears to be a surprise limitation on my purchase: https://prnt.sc/gerwa6. That is a screenshot of my license upon purchasing FV Player Pro. THERE IS NO PLACE ON YOUR WEBSITE CLARIFYING A LIMITATION ON MY LICENSE. For you to add this only after I paid, is unacceptable. I'd like to understand what happened. A product is completely worthless when it expires after 1 year.

Your license never expires. You can continue to use the last version indefinitely forever. The main sales page clearly states: "All updates and support free for 1 year."

Keep reading WordPress Plugin Pricing

Intranet.red of Patagonia paying with a fake credit card

During the last year, we added Stripe for payment of FV Player Pro. We've had many more fraud issues with Stripe than Paypal.

One case is the company Intranet.red of Patagonia. With an email address [email protected] and name Matt C., Intranet.red purchased an FV Player Pro license. On 12 July, the credit card owner disputed the charge. We sent a courteous email to [email protected] about the incorrect charge but never heard back.

Keep reading Intranet.red of Patagonia paying with a fake credit card

How Observer Status in Teamwork.com project management allows Foliovision to handle more projects

Many of you may know that Foliovision began as a client service agency and not a software company. Our first big service was migration from Typepad to WordPress. We were literally doing dozens of migrations a month at one point. Project management in bulk was essential to the premium client experience we wishes to offer.

We started with Basecamp but eventually outgrew it (there's a long post about our Basecamp to Teamwork migration) and moved to Teamwork (back then TeamworkPM). Teamwork Projects at the time had a much worse design than Basecamp (latest version looks pretty good and even allows CSS customisation) but lots more tools (recurring tasks was a big one for us) at the time. As happy as the upgrade in features made us at the time, there was still one key feature missing. Later we called this feature Observer Status.

Keep reading How Observer Status in Teamwork.com project management allows Foliovision to handle more projects

Should you invest in Bitcoin

One of our more fun clients for our FV Player video player for WordPress recently wrote me:

btw.. i hope you invested in bitcoin like i told you...

Here's my answer.

I don't invest in systems where I have no control. Bitcoin could just disappear tomorrow and one fine day it will.

Here's how it will go down:

  • Bitcoin will be a threat to the USD
  • the US Treasury will declare Bitcoin a means to conduct illegal business

    • Keep reading Should you invest in Bitcoin

Moderating a busy WordPress Site with Thoughtful Comments

It's been a commenting kind of last seven days since Disqus started adding ads or charging what are extortionate rates for continued ad-free existence ($99/month for sites with from 50K to 250K visitors!). First some lively conversation over at WP Tavern about Disqus, wpDisquz (also very expensive at $29/extension), Postmatic, Replyable and our own Thoughtful Comments. Thoughtful Comments at free with Replyable at $3/month turned out to offer the best value in the advanced commenting sweepstakes to replace Disqus.

And now today I had one of our long time clients write in with a new issue which they hadn't faced before: how to deal with overly prolific commenters who were spoiling the intelligent conversations about law on their website. 

Hello! I've been digging into the documentation for "Thoughtful Comments". Do you know if it's possible in the plugin settings or in some other settings to limit the number of comments a single person (commenter) can leave either a) on a given post or b) in a given day?

We have a slight troll problem and we're wondering if something like that could address it. Or, maybe there's something else we could do short of manually flagging and banning individuals? Appreciate it!

Right now their website is open to any commenters, you don't need an account. This is the most difficult situation as in this case you have no real history with your commenters. Anyone can write in an email address, anyone can spoof another commenter's identity if s/he knows or can guess the email address of the other person. Guessing an email is not at all difficult if people are including a URL with their identity and a name.

Keep reading Moderating a busy WordPress Site with Thoughtful Comments

What to do when it’s too hot to work

Foliovision's office doesn't have air conditioning. Normally it doesn't matter. It's about one week or ten days per year that the heat gets up to the uncomfortable level. It seems to be more and more days each year as this year we are now into the third week of heat right now.

In any case, last week was the second hot one. We had a birthday party scheduled for our programmer Riso and designer Janette on Thursday night. We moved it out to the banks of the Danube, opposite Devin Castle. For many on our team, it was the first time swimming in the might Danube, as in Bratislava the Danube is too fast and after Bratislava and into Hungary, the river is considered too dirty for safe swimming.

Keep reading What to do when it's too hot to work

WordPress Copycat Coders: WPMUdev and iThemes review

We use a lot of software at Foliovision. What we like are stable reliable solutions which deliver what they promise. What we hate is hypeware which overpromises and underdelivers. Often hypeware is delivered by companies which look for successful niches, clone the existing software (easy enough thanks to Matt Mullenweg's and Automattic's insistence that all code must be GPL). Cloned code is generally vastly inferior to the original (most often coded by a passionate coder with a deep understanding of the problem he is trying to solve).

What those copycat coders then do is market the heck out of "their" new product, often making sales where better code is available free or outselling a less expensive and better solution.

Keep reading WordPress Copycat Coders: WPMUdev and iThemes review

How Teamwork’s new Observer Status can almost double productivity and triple profitability in a busy agency

Christmas came early in 2015 for Foliovision. On St Patrick's Day actually. I got the email from Teamwork to tell me Observer Status had gone into beta. Believe it or not, Observer Status is finally here in Teamwork and it's awesome.

Observer Status will change the lives of smaller service driven agencies growing into larger agencies.

Let me start by telling you why we want Observer Status.

Keep reading How Teamwork's new Observer Status can almost double productivity and triple profitability in a busy agency

What’s the best CRM software for Startups?

This essay originally started on Quora. I was so dismayed by the other answers, recommending startups spend many hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month on over-hyped sales CRM. Sales are not made by software but by people. Yes you need good tools but there are some very affordable ones out there. Here's an overview of CRM software Foliovision have tried first hand.

If you are a startup, especially a bootstrapped one, you should care about the amount of money you spend. A lot of the contenders in this space want $50/month/user or more (Salesforce I'm looking in your greedy direction right now). http://close.io is another one in that category ($59/month). While talking about greed, even Salesforce doesn't hold a candle to the credit card hammerers over at InfusionSoft (do not even think about it).*

Keep reading What's the best CRM software for Startups?

Richard Branson, a whiner running down the road with a billion dollar cheque

Hardly but that's what the crows are calling Richard Branson over at LinkedIn in response to Branson's post "Career Curveballs: Embrace Change or Become Stagnant".

Branson talks about starting Virgin Airlines and selling Virgin Records:

I’ve often joked about the best way to become a millionaire – start out as a billionaire and launch an airline! While moving from the music industry with Virgin Records to aviation with Virgin Atlantic was a huge career curveball for me personally, it was an even bigger jump for the rest of Virgin, not to mention my friends and family. We went from taking on rival labels in the charts and in the clubs to challenging global airlines in the air – and eventually in the courts!

Keep reading Richard Branson, a whiner running down the road with a billion dollar cheque

Internet Marketing Superbowl: Post Panda Content Marketing

Our client and small business marketing expert Jeff Korhan published a timely post this week (surfing on current events) comparing internet marketing and the Super Bowl. But unlike the opportunity to hit the field for the Super Bowl, Jeff thinks it's not difficult to get a chance to play on the internet.

in these Internet days anyone can reach a massive audience, and certainly Apple and other giant brands are capable of doing that on their own. This is the opportunity for Apple, eTrade, and mainstream small businesses like yours and mine....What’s interesting is it is actually easier for people than businesses to build an audience today, at least for small businesses. This says something about the future of brands

Keep reading Internet Marketing Superbowl: Post Panda Content Marketing

Case Study: Jeff Utecht

Jeff Utecht contacted Foliovision when he needed to redesign his blog. The cooperation did not end there, quite the contrary.

Forbes ask for too much Twitter access: Doing Social Media Wrong

I quite like much of the content on Forbes. Often edgy business reports with fairly strong opinion pieces. The site looks good too. Good enough that we used the raw skeleton for one of our more successful client news sites.

Sometimes I comment over there. I'd even share my comments on Twitter as per Forbes request. Take this perspicuous story about American companies are losing their production capacity by focusing on the patent wars and litigation: Apple Will Lose Friends And Markets With Its Patent Strategy. But every time I think about sharing a Forbes story on Twitter, I get this warning screen.

Keep reading Forbes ask for too much Twitter access: Doing Social Media Wrong

Marks and Spencer Teas Review with Marketing Notes

Modern scientists as well as centuries of Chinese doctors assert tea increases health and vitality and concentration at little cost sleep or nerves. I'm going to try to move back after an extended coffee phase (coffee does disrupt sleep). Coming off a week of cold and fever, anything to increase health and vitality is high on the list. In line with cutting coffee and improving health and still enjoying delicious hot beverages, I bought a bunch of new teas on the weekend while I was out.

The Teas on Trial

Here are three Marks and Spencers teas I tasted:

  • Luxury Gold Loose Tea: Exceptional Quality, Fresh from the Tea Garden
  • Darjeeling Loose Tea: Premium Grade Large Leaf Teas, Picked in the 2nd Flush for Exceptional Flavour
  • Earl Grey Loose Tea: A Traditional Recipe Made Using Slightly Smokey Large Leaf China Teas, Infused with Natural Bergamot Oil

Keep reading Marks and Spencer Teas Review with Marketing Notes

Case Study: Lorne Marr

In November 2004, after having seen some of Foliovision’s successful real estate websites, Lorne S. Marr contacted Creative Director Alec Kinnear and offered him a unique problem to solve: how to start and build an insurance business online.

Kinnear initially turned down the offer. “I knew real estate inside out. I’d grown up with it. My grandfather was VP of commercial real estate at Royal LePage, my mother, her husband, his mother, my aunt Mo, my own sister Julie were all successful real estate agents. But I didn’t know anything about insurance.”

What slowed down Kinnear was his own experience with insurance. “When working in Russia, I’d had a private health insurance contract with a big operator. When I had a scooter accident in Turkey, they didn’t want to pay as I hadn’t been treated in an official hospital. I was in the depth of Anatolia: there WERE no official hospitals.”

“But after talking with Lorne Marr, I realized he was one of the good guys. Using his ties with local Toronto lawyers, Lorne was willing to put together a free service to help people collect on their insurance policies. At that point I was sold on working together: I could help Lorne develop his business and help people get a better shake from the insurance companies.”

That initial idea is still running at LSM insurance claims page where lawyer Andrew Suboch has answered hundreds of people’s insurance legal questions confidentially for free.

Keep reading Case Study: Lorne Marr

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