One of the many frustrations of operating a website is that stuff you don’t necessarily want people to find is often still available in one cache or another.  Google operates one of these.  So here’s the question:  how do you delete data from the Google cache?

Simple: instead of just deleting the page, delete most — not all — of the content on it.  Let the Google bot come around and index the new, empty content.  Once you have verified that Google has cached the empty content, you can safely delete the page.

That’s it!

There’s a security article making the rounds today (”Look at all these passwords“) that shows the unencrypted content of several major website login screens.  These included a couple of relatively unknown places as well as major sites like Amazon.com and ClassMates.com.  The gist of the article is this: these sites should require all users to authenticate against SSL encrypted login forms.

OK, I can hear you say, but does this really represent a significant security threat?  Do I really need to worry about this for my business’ website?

The short answer: Yes, you need to worry about because getting these passwords is fairly simple.  If you read through the comments on the article, they pretty much tell you how to harvest a significant number of user passwords without a lot of effort.

So, as a website operator, what is your responsibility?

First, make sure you have an encrypted login section and that you require your users to use it.  The days when a significant number of users couldn’t login via SSL are gone.  Forcing everyone to go SSL is quick and easy.

Second, once you have the encrypted login section, make sure you’re submitting the form as an HTTP POST request and not an HTTP GET request.  What’s the difference?  In a GET request, data sent as part of your request to the server is encrypted as part of the address.  Even when you have an SSL connection, the address cannot be encrypted so all data, including the username and password, is visible.  In a POST request, the data is sent as a separate part.  When you have an SSL request, this second part is also encrypted and you data are safe.

Finally, as a website operator you need to store your user’s credentials in something other than plain text.  You have a lot of choices with this one but your goal is simple.  In the event your database is compromised, you want to make sure your users’ information isn’t easy to get at.

The article discussing this is pretty interesting and doesn’t require any special knowledge to understand.  Definitely worth taking a look at.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” – Shakespeare

You’re starting a new company.  Great!  What are you going to name it?  I recommend against using your own name.  Why?

Using your name has some good sides.  Chances are your first customers will be people you know and the brand they’re interested in is you.  That makes a natural connection to the business.  But what comes next?

If you’re successful, you’ll probably hire an assistant or two.  If you start to build a good team, at least one of those assistants will start doing things independently of you.  That’s one issue where the name gets sticky.

Someone who starts as your assistant probably doesn’t want to stay that way.   They want and need to be recognized as an individual contributor.  In a small organization, that’s difficult when the name on the door is yours.  They will always be working for you.  You will always be the higher authority.  And the business name reminds them of this day in and day out, which can stifle your team and lead to premature employee departure.

Of the costs you will face as you grow your business, nothing will be as important or expensive as finding, training and keeping good people.  Although you are necessarily the boss, the one who is taking the risk, it’s not in your own best interest to remind your team of that day in and day out.  Team members will come and go from time to time.  One of your primary responsibilities is making your company a place they feel comfortable staying.

And, yes, I agree that the business name isn’t the secret key to keeping employees. People need to be happy and growing and making money to stay at their job.  Not naming the business after yourself is one way to keep your mindset in check and to help others know that not having your name isn’t a barrier to success.
For more ideas about employee retention, talk to this guy or visit his other site.

ATTENTION FASTWEBUPDATES.COM CUSTOMERS

Greetings!

It’s August and you’re like us: working through the heat. Here’s something designed to make things a little cooler: a free iPod Nano.

You heard right.

Refer your website maintenance needing friends, associates and third cousins to FastWebUpdates.com, and we’ll send you an iPod Nano – free!

Here’s how the program works:

1. Refer your friends to FastWebUpdates.com. Tell them in person, tell them by email, or send them a text message. Just tell them.
2. Your friend calls up and orders our New Customer Special Referral Edition — $300 for 6 hours worth of website maintenance. (You should tell them about this special, too, since it’s not on our prices page. This 28% savings off our regular price is available only through this offer.) IMPORTANT: Make sure your referral tells us you sent them. Otherwise we won’t know where to send the iPod.
3. We send you a brand new 1GB iPod Nano. Free, no strings attached.
4. You rock out. Or maybe you’ll give your new iPod Nano to a lucky someone and they rock out.

There are a couple of rules (see below). This program ends August 31, 2006.

Hurry. Your iPod is waiting.

Best Regards,

FastWebUpdates.com

Promotion Rules:

1. Offer valid for current customers of FastWebUpdates.com ONLY. If you are not a current customer, you cannot participate in this program. Why not become a customer and participate in our next killer referral program?
2. The referral must be completely new and unrelated to the work we do for you. You can’t refer yourself or someone else that we work with in some other capacity. We’re looking for new blood. If you find yourself wanting to ask a bunch of what-if type questions, you can probably assume those situations don’t qualify for the free iPod. Remember: we’re looking for new blood.
3. Your referral must purchase the $300 New Customer Special Referral Edition in order to qualify for this program. Other purchases do not qualify. And this purchase must be made on or before August 31, 2006.
4. Note that FastWebUpdates.com can handle almost all website maintenance tasks, but there are times when we cannot help a customer. In the unlikely event you refer someone and this is the case, we appreciate your efforts, but no iPod will be awarded.
5. The referral must tell us that you referred them.
6. Limit one iPod per referral. If two people make the same referral, you’ll have to split the iPod among yourselves.
7. iPods will be shipped within 7-10 days of the referral’s purchase to your name and address as we have it on file.
8. Each iPod award will be subject to individual approval. Although we don’t anticipate needing to do this, an award may be denied for some reason that’s not listed here.
9. We’ll get the iPod to you, you’re responsible for everything after that. Warranty, technical support, etc., will be directly through Apple. We make no particular claims, promises or warranties about the iPod, including that of coolness or that you will be cooler when you have one.
10. Void where prohibited, taxed or otherwise hated on.

iPod and Apple are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. FastWebUpdates.com is in no way related to Apple. But we do like their iPods.

I had dinner last night with a friend who works at a small, locally owned supermarket in Michigan.  This time next year, there will be a Meijer superstore less than a mile away. My friend predicts that the market she works for will be out of business.  Why?  Lower prices.

Our conversation got me thinking.  Does the ability to provide lower prices automatically mean superior market performance?  Not necessarily.  In a price sensitive environment, superior market performance depends on two things: how different the prices are  and what the customer thinks they’re buying.

Let’s take the example of a recent proposal I received for some plumbing work.  The work included one big part, a pump, some piping and some labor.  The pump was quoted at $1,100 and I can buy it online for $400. That’s a $700 margin.  The guy who quoted the job came up with the idea of adding the pump and was very helpful when he came out.  I appreciate the expertise and am inclined to give him the business.  But what’s that helpfulness worth?  I wouldn’t think twice about $200 and I’d probably pay $300.  $700 is just too much.

So let’s get back to the locally owned market competing with Meijer.  If the only things the market sells are the same prepackaged goods that Meijer is selling, then the price doesn’t have to be that much lower at Meijer for consumers to switch.  The local market can launch a feel good “buy local” campaign that will add a little value to the items it sells, but that probably won’t outweigh Meijer’s improved selection and the convenience of one stop shopping.  So what should it do?

In order to stay in business, the local market will have to provide a special something that is worth at least the difference in price, value and selection to its core group of customers.  This could be personal service, gourmet products, unique community involvement, dietary advice or something else.  They definitely won’t win competing on price.  Unless they carve out a new niche for themselves that their customers appreciate and will be too difficult for Meijer to duplicate, this time next year they will be out of business.

What about your business?  What do you provide that differentiates your products or services from your competitors?  Are you happy to fight for commodity business or have you redefined the market you participate in?