Mike Jarema

Mike - Does your Facebook friend rank demo still work? I'm really interested, but the link appears to be broken. Thanks

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:11:47 -0400

Facebook modified some of the properties of their Javascript SDK, which in turn broke the demo, but I’ve since updated the code to account for those changes.

So yes, the demo should now be working.

Here’s the facebook friend rank demo (http://facebook-friend-rank.herokuapp.com/demo/index.html).

And the code is available here (http://github.com/mikejarema/facebook-friend-rank).

The Naive Optimist: Selling your company doesn't make you happy

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:15:53 -0400

The Naive Optimist: Selling your company doesn't make you happy:

ryanleecarson:

I started my first company eight years ago in 2004 and I’ve been through two acquisitions. The first company I sold was DropSend in 2008 and the second was Carsonified in 2011.

Like most entreprenuers, I believed I needed to sell a company for a pile of cash in order to be successful. I’m not…

how do i change the css in your tumblr bootstrap?

Wed, 16 May 2012 11:43:13 -0400

Thanks for the note, you can adjust the CSS in two ways:

Tumblr has a text area where you can add your own custom CSS. Click “Customize Theme” from your dashboard, scroll down in the left column, click “Advanced” and there’s a place to add your own CSS rules.
I’ve made it possible to import an external CSS stylesheet: Click “Customize Theme” from your dashboard, scroll down in the left column, under “Appearance” add the full URL for your application’s stylesheet in the “Application Stylesheet URL” field.

Of course you can manually edit the HTML in Tumblr as well, but then you would break the association between your blog and the Tumblr Theme, so you’re wouldn’t get any future updates that contributed.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Purgatory.rb - Now Prefix- and Suffix-Aware

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:51:00 -0400

A little while back I announced that I open-sourced purgatory.rb, my tool to filter expiring domains. Most tools for expiring domains look for SEO- and Adwords-centric metrics (pagerank, average CPC, etc.). For the product manager or startup team looking to name their new app or site, it’s more important to have a brandable name.

This post looks at how to filter expiring domain lists for short and brandable domain names, using memorable prefixes and suffixes.

Recent media darlings and Silicon Valley stories seem to be centered around companies named with a single, short, memorable word. For example, Stripe (a developer friendly payments solution), Square (a smartphone-based credit card reader for small businesses), Hall (a collaboration tool), etc. Typically all single word, generic domains are taken and, if available in the aftermarkets, command a hefty price tag. The companies I just mentioned likely paid the hefty price.

But this new breed of simply-named startups don’t always launch from their sexy single-word generic domains, oh no. They’re a crafty bunch, launching early on to prove out the value of their offering on less valuable but clever domains. For example, Square still serves up their site on SquareUp.com. Likewise, recently launch Pair (a social network for just you and your significant other) is running on TryPair.com. Other typical suffixes include “inc”, “app”, “ly”, the list goes on.

Clearly there’s a pattern here, a pattern that I decided to capture in Purgatory. So, as a result prefixed and suffixed domain filters are now available in Purgatory.rb.

These new filters are dead simple to use, let’s take a look at them in action.

Search for single word .com domains prefixed by “get”:

$ ruby purgatory.rb --prefix get
Loading dictionary for word count restrictions... done.
gethah.com
getpassed.com
getbrush.com
gethandled.com
getuncle.com
getarticulate.com
getstinky.com
getswimwear.com
getvaleted.com
getalder.com
getbeefed.com
getcondom.com
getflier.com
getmice.com
getfierce.com
getloved.com
getscent.com

Single word .com domains ending in “ly” (like Guardly):

$ ruby purgatory.rb --suffix ly
Loading dictionary for word count restrictions... done.
blobly.com
celebly.com
freestly.com
insidely.com
buttly.com
clanly.com
desirely.com
medsly.com
slingly.com
statly.com

And so on.

Some decent brandable, prefixed and suffixed domains really popped out to me today as I was finishing this feature. Here’s a quick list of them, enjoy!

coursesapp.com (for an e-learning smartphone app perhaps)
dynamitelabs.com (building explosive digital entertainment, hit after hit after hit)
statly.com (next gen analytics for your web and mobile apps)
playblitz.com (a multiplayer shoot ‘em up for your iPhone and iPad)
destroyr.com (flickr-style name for a naval war game)
pimpapi.com (web service for …?)

Purgatory is open-source and available on Github here.

This post could be called “How To Find Expiring Domains With Common Prefixes and Suffixes”, but I opted for a more technical headline to better target the audience I’m interested in. After all, purgatory.rb is a command line tool :)

How To Find a Killer Domain AND Matching Social Media Vanity URLs

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:56:11 -0400

namevine:

Namevine is a fun and easy way to help create an effective Internet identity geared for self-branding, but it can also be used for marketing purposes for your company, whether it’s a start-up, or even an established brand that has yet to build out its online presence.

So… how can Namevine help your business?

Read More

A Tumblr Theme Built on Twitter's Bootstrap Framework

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:15:00 -0400

I’ve made two recent changes to my preferred technology & publishing stacks in the hopes of tightening the Lean Startup’s Build-Measure-Learn loop as it pertains to my projects.

On the technology side, nearly all of my recent front-end dev work is based on the amazing Twitter Bootstrap framework. There’s nothing like it out there that combines gorgeous and extensible graphical components, well written styles and markup, and a tremendously strong open source following.

On the publishing side, I’ve been using Tumblr to get my thoughts and announcements posted to the internet at-large. It is simple to use, very easy to get started with, supports theming & custom domains, supports “page” types, and permits multiple contributors per blog.

My Bootstrap Tumblr Theme is the marriage of these two changes in a single package. Its main goal is to reduce the effort involved in keeping consistent styling on both a web app and its associated blog. Ideally a single stylesheet applies to both. I think with this project I’m most of the way towards realizing that goal.

Take a look at Namevine and its blog:

Both use the same stylesheet. And with the exception of copying and pasting over the navbar HTML from the web app, there was no customization required to the theme.

So I invite you to check out the Bootstrap Tumblr Theme on Github. Remember it’s open source and a work-in-progress, so please fork it and help make it better!

How To Deep Link into GoDaddy with Affiliate Links

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:29:00 -0400

Those who have been following my recent work have likely noticed I’m focusing on building lightweight, single-use tools for finding, purchasing and using domain names. While these are “side projects”, thanks to affiliate marketing, they do have the prospect of bringing in a little bit of money as I operate them.

In this post, I’d link to share a simple technique that GoDaddy affiliates can take advantage of to “deep link” to specific pages on GoDaddy.com with their affiliate tracking code. For typical promotions, this technique isn’t needed, as GoDaddy provides all the creative, copy and landing pages you’ll need. However, for specialized tools (like my Domain and Social Media Profile Search Tool), you may want to link to specific pages within your advertiser’s site to maximize your affiliate revenues.

Doing so with GoDaddy (on Commission Junction’s network) is quite simple, if a little buried in the management interface. Here’s the steps you’ll need to follow:

Search for “Deep Link”.

There are two results, one is a banner link and one is a text link. Click the text link.

Click Get HTML in the link popup.

Now you’re able to customize the target URL. Namevine has a WHOIS is feature, so I’ve deep linked to a WHOIS results in the example below. The HTML preview makes it obvious how to customize the link from within your own application or site.

To generalize this deep link, Namevine simply fills in the appropriate domain and extension:

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-1234567-123456789?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwho.godaddy.com%2Fwhoisverify.aspx%3Fdomain%3D{{DOMAIN}}.{{EXT}}

And there you have it — deep linking to a custom URL within GoDaddy. Let me know in the comments if this has helped you or if you’ve run into issues deep linking to other URLs.

Namevine Blog: Introducing Namevine! Instantly Find Your Domain and Social Media Profiles

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:18:15 -0400

Namevine Blog: Introducing Namevine! Instantly Find Your Domain and Social Media Profiles:

namevine:

After weeks of optimization, many design tweaks, some killer media coverage and feedback from our amazing early users, Namevine is ready to pull back the curtains and reveal itself to the world!

Simply put, Namevine is the fastest and most pleasurable way to search for a domain and matching…

Purgatory.rb - Mine Expiring Domains from the Command Line

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:19:00 -0500

I’ve open-sourced a helpful domain name mining script that I’ve been working on for a little while now.

Most of us have been in the position where we’re naming a company, product, service, blog, etc. and want to check for domain availability as we brainstorm names. Inevitably your shortlist of desired names is decimated because the .com is taken, is in use, or is being sold on the aftermarket for outrageous sums of $$.

Enter purgatory. It’s a ruby-based command line script that scans the list of expiring domain names subject to some helpful filters. For those not in the know, approx 70k+ domains “drop” each day, meaning the original owner has let them expire and they’re up for grabs. This script lets you define some quick filters/rules to prequalify dropping names for your brainstorming pleasure. Run daily for best results.

https://github.com/mikejarema/purgatory

Some interesting .com names expiring over the next few days:

ghettoes.com
insomnialabs.com
taxonomylabs.com
buybackrewards.com
morphly.com
applejacked.com (urban dictionary)

I’ll be buttoning up some loose ends over the next couple days in anticipation of submitting this to Hacker News — it’ll be my first submission.

Quick shot of my new flavours.me profile. I’m...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:34:00 -0500

Quick shot of my new flavours.me profile. I’m experimenting with various services to determine what is the “best” way to express my identity online at mikejarema.com.

Dribbble Blog: Color Coding

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:55:00 -0500

Dribbble Blog: Color Coding:

Cool feature. I dug up this post when pondering how to extract a palette from an image. Dribbble does a killer job at exactly this, plus I love the browse by color feature!

dribbble:

One of our focal points at Dribbble is helping you discover interesting shots. Toward that end, we launched Buckets last week. Today we’re happy to release Colors.

You can now search for shots by color. Just head over to the color search page (accessible via the Explore menu). There are…