Will Strohl's BlogMy name is Will Strohl. I'm a former employee of DNN Corp., a leader, personal branding expert, technologist, gamer, and more...http://www.willstrohl.com/BlogGetting the Most Out of Your Google Analytics DNN Integrationhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/781/getting-the-most-out-of-your-google-analytics-dnn-integrationASP.NetDotNetNuke,TechnologyTue, 10 Oct 2017 16:57:52 GMT<p><img title="Getting the Most Out of Your Google Analytics DNN Integration" alt="Getting the Most Out of Your Google Analytics DNN Integration" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/google-analytics-51degrees-hero-01.png" /></p> <p>Google Analytics is often taken-for-granted in too many ways. When the average company thinks about Google Analytics, they simply ensure their Google Analytics code is in place and they keep track of what I refer to as vanity metrics. Copy. Paste. Done, right? Vanity metrics are quite deceiving, to be honest, and you&rsquo;re only scratching the surface with what you could (and probably should) be doing with Google Analytics. In this article, we&rsquo;re going to discuss how to dive deeper into your Google Analytics integration to grow your business.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m going to approach this from a content management system perspective, or CMS. If you&rsquo;re not already using a CMS for your website, you really should be. A CMS is perhaps one of the most critical tools you&rsquo;ll need for your web presence. Having a CMS literally empowers your entire organization to do more with your website, both onsite and off &ndash; including getting more out of Google Analytics. In this instance, I&rsquo;m going to talk about how you can use features found in the DNN CMS along with 51Degrees to begin to raise your business to the next level by making data-driven decisions.</p> <p><img title="DNN plus Google Analytics plus 51Degrees" alt="DNN plus Google Analytics plus 51Degrees" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnn-ga-51degrees-800x215.png" /></p> <h3>What is DNN?</h3> <p>DNN is the shorter name of my favorite content management system (CMS), previously called DotNetNuke. DNN has run hundreds of thousands of websites over the years, including some notable ones like the U.S. Department of Defense, Bank of America, NASCAR, and many more. DNN helps entire organizations to be able to run their own website while also being able to integrate with their other systems. It&rsquo;s the ultimate CMS-based toolbox for the website of any growth-focused organization. </p> <h3>What is Google Analytics?</h3> <p>Really? You haven&rsquo;t heard of Google Analytics? I don&rsquo;t believe you. But just in case&hellip;</p> <p>Google Analytics is hands-down the most popular service that website owners choose to use to help learn more about their website and how customers use it. You have many features that simply just work out of the box without any additional configuration to get all the basic information you&rsquo;d want to know about your online business. However, Google Analytics is also a very flexible platform to help you learn and make decisions based upon almost any activity your website visitors perform.</p> <p>If you want to truly learn about how your visitors are using your website, you need to do a little to a lot more work to really benefit from the data.</p> <h3><a href="https://51degrees.com/" target="_blank"><img title="51Degrees.mobi" align="right" style="display: inline; float: right;" alt="51Degrees.mobi" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/Square%20Logo.png" /></a>What is 51Degrees?</h3> <p>Since we&rsquo;re using DNN in this example, we&rsquo;re very lucky to have 51Degrees in our toolbox. I mean, it&rsquo;s already there. We can just get started with it immediately. 51Degrees is known worldwide to be the fastest and most accurate mobile device detection service available to developers and website marketers. <a href="https://51degrees.com/blog/51degrees-unrivaled-device-data-accuracy" target="_blank">A great example of their accuracy</a> can be seen when a handheld device browses your website using the UC mini browser. 51Degrees correctly reports this as handheld device, whereas Google Analytics thinks this is a desktop device.</p> <p>51Degrees powers over 1.5 million active implementations around the world and they are adding up to 200 device definitions every week. It really is a no-nonsense decision to use them for anything mobile like this, even if you&rsquo;re not on DNN already. They&rsquo;re available to nearly any platform you can develop on. If that&rsquo;s not enough, they&rsquo;re trusted by brands such as Subway, Disney, Hyundai, and Home Shopping Network.</p> <h3>51Degrees + DNN and Beyond</h3> <p>In the case of DNN, again, you&rsquo;ll see that it&rsquo;s already there for you as a built-in feature. In the free and open source version of DNN (called DNN Platform), you&rsquo;ll have immediate access to a free version of 51Degrees, which doesn&rsquo;t give you all the data you may be looking for, and it only supports quarterly updates. You can upgrade to their Premium Cloud or On-Premise plan which gives you automatic weekly updates and access to additional data properties such as device type (e.g., knowing tablet, smartphone, TV, etc.) and physical screen dimensions (which is necessary for the examples below).</p> <p>By the way, DNN is only <a href="https://51degrees.com/resources/web-platforms" target="_blank">one of many web platforms that 51Degrees is integrated with</a>.</p> <h3>Growing Your Company by Making Data-Based Decisions</h3> <p>There are seemingly countless ways to use and speak about how you can further leverage Google Analytics, but we&rsquo;re going to focus on the fastest growing and arguably most important segment of your website visitors &ndash; mobile. Basically, anyone that comes to your website using a tablet or mobile phone. There is a lot of anecdotal information about these visitors out there, but it&rsquo;s imperative that you know more about your own visitors if your site is in any way meant to drive revenue for your business.</p> <p>Let&rsquo;s take a very standard example, namely advertising. If this doesn&rsquo;t sound like the best example, consider this&hellip; This year alone <a href="http://www.adweek.com/digital/u-s-digital-advertising-will-make-83-billion-this-year-says-emarketer/" target="_blank">online advertising has increased nearly 16% to $83 billion the U.S according to eMarketer</a>.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s easy to think that you can just place some sponsored ads on your site and then wait for the dollars to start rolling in. Sure, you may have even done a bit of usability testing and user experience research before rolling them out. But did that also include the habits, context, and form factors of the various mobile devices that are potentially coming to your site? I&rsquo;m guessing not. If you don&rsquo;t measure, you can&rsquo;t forecast. If you can&rsquo;t forecast, then there&rsquo;s no way to ensure it will be a successful part of your business. </p> <p>FYI&hellip; Even though we&rsquo;re talking about advertising, this article can apply to any content on your site. These principles are equally relevant to articles, calls to action, and marketing forms.</p> <p>In the case of ads, it&rsquo;s quite common with all the web frameworks out there today for the ads to always look good, even when browsing using a mobile device, but that&rsquo;s pretty much where most organizations stop. Are those ads still functional? Is the placement in a mobile context still functional? Meaning, are people still seeing it? If they are, how often? Is it performing any differently, and on which devices? If we know the devices, do we also know if they&rsquo;re viewing the page primarily in landscape or portrait orientations? These are all very important questions, but the answers are even more important.</p> <h3>Enabling 51Degrees in DNN</h3> <p>Today, enabling 51Degrees is something that you&rsquo;ll need to do using configuration files. So it will feel a bit technical, but it&rsquo;s quite easy. This will change in the future to be configurable as clickable features, and I&rsquo;ll write a follow-up article once those features are available again in DNN.</p> <p>Once you&rsquo;re logged in with a superuser account, you&rsquo;ll find a feature in the persona bar called Configuration Manager.</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-01.png" target="_blank"><img title="Persona Bar &gt; Configuration Manager" alt="Persona Bar &gt; Configuration Manager" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-01_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>51Degrees has its own configuration file, called 51Degrees.mobi.config. When you choose it, it will be loaded into the editor area.</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-01b.png" target="_blank"><img title="Choosing the 51Degrees configuration file" alt="Choosing the 51Degrees configuration file" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-01b_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>You&rsquo;ll only need to change two values, and you&rsquo;ll find them at the bottom of the configuration file. We&rsquo;re going to want to enable the feature (&ldquo;enabled&rdquo;), and also turn on feature detection (&ldquo;featureDetection&rdquo;). Both values will be &ldquo;false&rdquo; when you first load the file. Simply change them both to &ldquo;true&rdquo; like in the image below.</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-02.png" target="_blank"><img title="51Degrees configuration file changed" alt="51Degrees configuration file changed" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/persona-bar-config-mgr-02_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>If you have the premium data subscription, you&rsquo;ll have one more step and it will require access to the file system of the website. You&rsquo;ll find a folder named <strong>Bin</strong> in the root of your website. You&rsquo;ll want to create a new file there named <strong>51Degrees.lic</strong>. In the file, you&rsquo;ll want to paste the premium data license key and save it. </p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/license-file-02.png" target="_blank"><img title="51Degrees license file in the bin folder" alt="51Degrees license file in the bin folder" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/license-file-02_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>After saving all of your changes, you&rsquo;ll want to go to the Servers page in the persona bar and restart the application. Your updates won&rsquo;t be applied until you do.</p> <p>If you&rsquo;re a premium data subscriber, the data files that contain mobile data will begin to automatically update a few moments after your application restarted in include the additional data that you&rsquo;d otherwise not have access to. </p> <h3>Enabling Google Analytics</h3> <p>There are plenty of articles and tutorials out there to help you enable Google Analytics in DNN, and it varies depending on the version you&rsquo;re running. I recently wrote <a href="https://upendoventures.com/Blog/PostId/35/adding-universal-google-analytics-to-dnn-9-1" target="_blank">an article on how to enable Google Analytics in the most current release of DNN</a> (as of the time of this writing). </p> <p>Now that you have Google Analytics enabled, let&rsquo;s get to some of that advanced data we&rsquo;ve been talking about&hellip;</p> <h3>Advanced Behavior Tracking</h3> <p>Let&rsquo;s imagine we have an advertisement that is on the right sidebar area of a page when viewed on a desktop device, like a laptop. Assuming the website is already mobile-friendly, this ad will be repositioned once a mobile device visits the page. In many cases though, this ad may be below the content, making it unlikely that it gets seen. We could just move the ad, but what if that increases the bounces on the site? We need to figure this out, and the only way we can do that is to measure it. </p> <p><img title="Desktop vs. Mobile Site Comparison" alt="Desktop vs. Mobile Site Comparison" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/desktop-v-mobile-site-1054x439.png" /></p> <p>When you look at the placement of the ad in mobile, it could feel like an easy decision as to what to do with the ad, but that&rsquo;s most likely going to be a gut decision. It&rsquo;s far more important to know if it&rsquo;s even necessary to reposition the ad for mobile. </p> <h3>Add Custom Dimensions</h3> <p>Before we go any further, you should check out an article written by James Rosewell, 51Degrees CEO and co-founder, where he details <a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/11/enabling-multiscreen-tracking-with-google-analytics/" target="_blank">how to add custom dimension track to Google Analytics</a>. Go ahead and add some of your own custom dimensions. </p> <p>To keep things simple, here&rsquo;s how to quickly add custom dimensions, but the article linked to above will go into greater detail. </p> <p>First, navigate to the Custom Dimensions area in the Google Analytics administration area. The screenshot below will help you. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-01.png" target="_blank"><img title="Choosing custom dimensions in Google Analytics" alt="Choosing custom dimensions in Google Analytics" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-01_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>You&rsquo;ll most likely first see an empty grid. Click the button to add a new custom dimension. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-02.png" target="_blank"><img title="Empty custom definitions table" alt="Empty custom definitions table" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-02_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>We&rsquo;re going to add two dimensions. First, a dimension for each page load that specifies the orientation of the device when the page is loaded, called &ldquo;Orientation.&rdquo; Then, another dimension that tells us the screen size of the device, called &ldquo;ScreenInchesDiagonalRounded.&rdquo; You&rsquo;ll see the settings in the next two screenshots. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-03c.png" target="_blank"><img title="Google Analytics custom dimensions settings" alt="Google Analytics custom dimensions settings" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-03c_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>Once you have both dimensions added, you&rsquo;ll see that your custom dimensions grid has dimensions now. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-04.png" target="_blank"><img title="Google Analytics custom definitions created" alt="Google Analytics custom definitions created" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/custom-definitions-04_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>Now that we have some custom dimensions added that are mobile-specific, we can leverage the dimensions together with the data from 51Degrees to begin learning more about our customers&rsquo; habits while browsing the site. </p> <p>First, update the Google Analytics script we updated earlier in the article to include the dimensions upon page load. You&rsquo;ll see two new lines of code that each add a new dimension. You&rsquo;ll also notice that there&rsquo;s a new script reference added to allow the 51Degrees object to be loaded. This script is dynamically generated at page load based upon the unique visitor, so you&rsquo;ll need it before Google Analytics runs, and you&rsquo;ll want to ensure that this file isn&rsquo;t cached. </p> <pre> &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt; &lt;AnalyticsEngineConfig&gt; &lt;Engines&gt; &lt;AnalyticsEngine&gt; &lt;EngineType&gt;DotNetNuke.Services.Analytics.GoogleAnalyticsEngine, DotNetNuke&lt;/EngineType&gt; &lt;ElementId&gt;Head&lt;/ElementId&gt; &lt;InjectTop&gt;False&lt;/InjectTop&gt; &lt;ScriptTemplate&gt;&lt;![CDATA[ &lt;script type="text/javascript" src="/51Degrees.features.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt; &lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt; (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', '[TRACKING_ID]', 'auto'); ga('set', 'dimension1', window.innerHeight &gt; window.innerWidth ? 'Portrait' : 'Landscape'); ga('set', 'dimension2', FODF["ScreenInchesDiagonalRounded"]); ga('send', 'pageview'); &lt;/script&gt; ]]&gt;&lt;/ScriptTemplate&gt; &lt;/AnalyticsEngine&gt; &lt;/Engines&gt; &lt;/AnalyticsEngineConfig&gt;</pre> <p>We need to add some code to the page to help track new event information. We&rsquo;re going to assume that your ads are all wrapped in a DIV tag with &ldquo;adContent&rdquo; as the class name like the example below. You can even apply this using the settings of any module. </p> <pre> &lt;div class="adContent"&gt; &lt;a href="/My-Promotional-Page"&gt; &lt;img src="/Image-Path/my-banner-ad.jpg" /&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </pre> <p>We'll also need a code snippet to look for the ad, and then push event data to Google Analytics if the ad is visible. In this case, we&rsquo;re only doing it when the visitor is using a mobile device. That code snippet is discussed below. </p> <h3>Add the Event Code to DNN</h3> <p>There are many ways to add this kind of code to DNN. You could technically even use the out-of-the-box HTML module. However, I&rsquo;d suggest using a solution more tailored to your site. In some cases, that might be a custom extension, such as a skin object or module. In this example, I&rsquo;m going to use an open source module I created years ago specifically for this kind of use case where you may not necessarily want to get a developer fully involved. It&rsquo;s called the Content Injection module. You can always find the latest release of <a href="http://hismightiness.github.io/dnnextensions/" target="_blank">my open source extensions on the GitHub site</a>.</p> <p>Install the module using the normal installation method, and then add it to a page where you want to track the ad. This may be your homepage or blog page, for example. Then, you can copy and paste a code snippet into it and modify it as desired. The great thing about this module is that you can use it on one or many pages &ndash; even across the entire website. This means that you can write the code once, and potentially not have to manage it again. </p> <p>Add the module to a page, and then choose to add a content injection.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/add-content-injection-01.png" target="_blank"><img title="Choosing to add a content injection" alt="Choosing to add a content injection" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/add-content-injection-01_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>You&rsquo;ll then simply give the code a name, specify that it&rsquo;s HTML content, and paste the snippet into the textbox. It&rsquo;s also best to inject this to the bottom of the page.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/add-content-injection-02.png" target="_blank"><img title="Content injection being saved" alt="Content injection being saved" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/add-content-injection-02_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p>The code snippet below can be done any number of ways, and it could even be less code if you used a jQuery plugin. This snippet first creates an extension to look for and report that an element has entered into the viewing area of the page. The next bit of code will use that extension to report the event to Google Analytics. </p> <pre> $.fn.isOnScreen = function(){ var win = $(window); var viewport = { top : win.scrollTop(), left : win.scrollLeft() }; viewport.right = viewport.left + win.width(); viewport.bottom = viewport.top + win.height(); var bounds = this.offset(); bounds.right = bounds.left + this.outerWidth(); bounds.bottom = bounds.top + this.outerHeight(); return (!(viewport.right &lt; bounds.left || viewport.left &gt; bounds.right || viewport.bottom &lt; bounds.top || viewport.top &gt; bounds.bottom)); }; $(document).ready(function(){ // set a local variable to track if the event occurred already var seen = false; $(window).scroll(function(){ // if we can see the element AND it's the first time seeing it if ($(".adContent").isOnScreen() &amp;&amp; !seen) { // The element is visible, tell Google // swtch AdVisible to your own event name, and SideBar1 to your own criteria ga("send", "event", "AdVisible", "SideBar1"); // flag the event seen = true; } }); }); </pre> <p>Once you save this code snippet in the Content Injection module, it will immediately begin to do its job, and report the scroll event, which you could then report on later in Google Analytics. </p> <h3>Test the Code Snippet</h3> <p>Now that the code is in place, we can test it. There are several ways you can do this. We can use the built-in mobile emulators in browsers like Google Chrome for example. We can even use our own devices if it&rsquo;s a public site. When you do, simply scroll until you see the ad. After the event is triggered, you&rsquo;ll see the data appear in Google Analytics like the images below. </p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/ga-dimensions-orientation.png" target="_blank"><img title="Google Analytics dimension data: Orientation" alt="Google Analytics dimension data: Orientation" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/ga-dimensions-orientation_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/ga-dimensions-screen-size.png" target="_blank"><img title="Google Analytics dimension data: Screen Size" alt="Google Analytics dimension data: Screen Size" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/ga-dimensions-screen-size_thumb.png" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>In the first image, you can see how many devices were looking at specific pages holding their device in portrait versus landscape mode. The second image illustrates the screen sizes of the various devices that came to the same pages. In either case, we now have accurate data to help us make informed decisions about how to move forward with any other updates on the site. </p> <p>This data won&rsquo;t be game-changing immediately, but it will once you begin using it. This is exactly what you need to help you make those game-changing decisions that could do something amazing, like double or triple ad revenue. </p> <h3>Getting Real Results </h3> <p>You should let the data aggregate over time. After about a month, you&rsquo;ll already have some great data to use as a baseline. From there, you can make small adjustments and experiment with ad placement on mobile devices. Each time you make one of these changes, wait another 2-4 weeks and compare the data. It&rsquo;s best to only make and test one change at a time so your results are always as accurate as possible. </p> <p>There are countless success stories from companies that have successfully implemented advanced behavior tracking as part of their online strategy. <a href="https://51degrees.com/resources/case-studies/give-me-sport" target="_blank">GiveMeSport increased ad revenue from tablets by 40%</a>. <a href="https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/case-study-accuweather-delivers-enhanced-value-to-advertisers-with-doubleclick-for-publishers-and-google-analytics-360.pdf" target="_blank">AccuWeather increased revenues per 1,000 sessions by 45%</a>.</p> <h3>Summary</h3> <p>This article only gives you a taste of how powerful it can be to leverage advanced behavior tracking for mobile devices using Google Analytics. You should use these techniques for anything on your site that can potentially increase revenue or reduce costs. Imagine augmenting your marketing automation strategy with additional behavioral data to help increase the number of times your white papers are downloaded or increase the number of people signing up for your webinars. </p> <p>By the way, this also puts you at a huge competitive advantage over your competition. It&rsquo;s surprising how seldom organizations of all sizes track, measure, and adjust their online strategy based upon their actual visitor behaviors. In a world like we live in today, where customers are becoming more and more difficult to attract and engage, we need every competitive advantage we can get. </p> <p>At the end of the day, when you combine the available best-of-breed tools, the possibilities of how you can apply them are potentially endless. Though, this wouldn&rsquo;t truly be possible without being able to leverage the speed, power, and accuracy of 51Degrees. You should give them a try, no matter how your website is built. They make it easy for you with both <a href="https://51degrees.com/Licencing-Pricing/Cloud" target="_blank">Cloud</a> and <a href="https://51degrees.com/Licencing-Pricing/On-Premise" target="_blank">On-Premise</a> options, and they even have <a href="https://51degrees.com/products/device-detection/evaluation" target="_blank">a free trial</a>, so there&rsquo;s no risk. </p> <p>This blog post is <a href="https://upendoventures.com/Blog/PostId/40/getting-the-most-out-of-your-google-analytics-dnn-integration" target="_blank">cross-posted</a> from Upendo Ventures. </p>781CMS State of the Union: Data-Based Insights From the Past Two Yearshttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/779/cms-state-of-the-union-data-based-insights-from-the-past-two-yearsASP.Net,Business,DotNetNuke,TechnologyFri, 20 Jan 2017 02:50:56 GMT<p><img title="CMS State of the Union 2017" alt="CMS State of the Union 2017" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/reporting-header-664x374.jpg"></p> <p>If you didn’t already know, CMS is an acronym for “content management system.” A CMS is used by many developers, consultancies, and companies to build their website. It’s an incredibly common thing to do, as any flavor of CMS you choose will always save you effort and money, compared to building a website from nothing. This is especially true if you look at the lifetime investment of your website. Using a CMS framework or solution of some kind just seems to make sense. After all, this is what I’ve built my own career upon since 2001. However, then, CMS was known as a portal or portal framework. That’s a long time ago, so it’s not a bad idea to take stock of things every now and thing to see if what you’re doing is the correct thing. To this end, I asked myself, “How is CMS doing right now, and does it make sense to still be doing CMS-related work in the future?”</p> <p>Please note that this article is mostly focused on the perspective of those of us that in some way provide website development services, where you deliver a website to clients.</p> <h3>Riddle Me This… Is CMS Worth My Time?</h3> <p>This article is the result of me asking that very question. If I’m going to invest my own time, effort, money and that of others into CMS, is it still a good investment today? This is an easy question to ask, but how exactly do you go about making that determination? This, it turns out, is not so easy. There’s a lot of disconnected information out there. The most useful information it seems is locked behind the closed doors and high-priced clutches of research firms like Forrester. So what now?</p> <p>Before I move forward any further, I should get one thing out of the way for my fellow <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> community members… This is not a look specifically at DNN, nor is it meant in any way to speak directly to DNN. For that matter, not only is this article not intended to hurt DNN, it’s also not intended to disparage any CMS. This was purely done as an exercise to research CMS in general. If CMS as a whole is doing well, then any good or great CMS will do well too.</p> <p>Another worthwhile disclaimer would be that I’m not necessarily a professional researcher, only in that I’ve never held such a title in my professional career, but like most of you, I have performed research that has informed entire companies since I’ve been in the workforce. So, generating data, parsing it for commonalities and abnormalities, and making decisions based on that data are all tasks that I’m very familiar with. I’m just not a mathematician, statistician, or a formal research analyst.</p> <p>In doing a similar exercise to answer similar questions in the past, it occurred to me that there actually is a way to do this research and it would only cost me my time. I guess I’ll have to bill myself later, as it took a long time and this is valuable information. Information I’m now giving to you.</p> <h3>Gathering The Data</h3> <p>Gathering the data for anything like this is often the most time-consuming part. You need to find it first and foremost, but then you need to find a way to make sense of it, then do the same thing again to make sure others can make sense of what you figured out. This is a process, it’s not always the same process, and it takes a lot of time with a few dashes of trial and error. </p> <p>The data I found was hiding in plain sight. Long ago I’ve learned to use services like <a href="https://builtwith.com/" target="_blank">BuiltWith</a> to help me get to know prospects, clients, and competitors. BuiltWith is a great way to get a lot of information about the various technologies used on nearly any website, sometimes in as quickly as a click or two. It’s surprisingly very accurate. Since BuiltWith came onto the scene, others have been doing similar things and one of my favorites in this area is a company called <a href="https://www.datanyze.com/" target="_blank">Datanyze</a>. I’m much more a fan of them because of their great UI and convenient tie-ins to lead generation and business development processes. However, in this case, I used their free service that’s similar to what BuiltWith offers, that shows you market share. In this case, their <a href="https://www.datanyze.com/market-share/cms/" target="_blank">CMS market share area</a>.</p> <p>The market share tool is based upon people landing on a site while having the Datanyze browser plugin installed, and I believe they have bots that scour the web as well. They first analyze a site and then determine which technologies are being used by the site. Then, over time, when those technologies change, they can help you make informed decisions for your needs based upon the migrations.</p> <p>If you just look at the market share tool on its own, it doesn’t do much for you. You can simply see the figures for all CMS’s over a small period of time. This is convenient enough to figure which CMS is the best and worst at any given moment, but it’s not at all useful to make any actual decisions. That is, unless you aggregate the data and begin charting it. Herein begins the time suck…</p> <p>Now, before you begin harping on the accuracy and latency of tools like this, I agree with you. At any given moment, a website could be refreshed using a completely new set of technologies. When this happens, the data is a bit off. This introduces a certain degree of inaccuracy. You’re also dealing with the fact that these tools are essentially crawlers, depending upon end users initiating the scans of various sites. So, they don’t likely have the picture of the entire internet. Despite these drawbacks, this is still incredibly useful, as it allows you to have a true sense when drawing a picture. This is increasingly more interesting with Datanyze since it also analyzes internal or non-public websites in some cases.</p> <p>For example, it’s not at all important for this kind of research to know that a specific number of sites are using WordPress or Drupal for example. What is definitely useful though is using the numbers to draw conclusions based on percentages. This is where it gets fun. If you can now say that 89% of websites are using this CMS or that one, that means something.</p> <p>What’s to follow are insights gathered from data from January 2015 to November 2016. I won’t have December 2016 until next month, but we have enough as it is. In the data itself, I kept mostly to the top 20 CMS’s in use today.</p> <h3>But What is a CMS, Really?</h3> <p>You’re probably already drawing a pretty common conclusion without seeing any of the data, which is that WordPress is ruling the CMS kingdom in terms of overall adoption. If you’re thinking this, you’re right – but that doesn’t really mean anything. Also, it doesn’t really matter if you consider WordPress or any other solution a CMS or not. It matters that the marketplace uses it as such. For example, I didn’t know until this exercise that some people consider Blogger a CMS. Now, if you’re even remotely close to being a purist, you’ll be one of the first to scream an expletive at someone who suggests that. In discussing my findings with various people in the CMS ecosystem and technology community overall, I was just as surprised by this and was even more surprised to find that some individuals whose names may be synonymous with CMS use Blogger and similar tools to roll out client websites in the same way as most people do with traditional CMS’s. Don’t forget that this is how WordPress itself began too, and few people argue the merits of it being a CMS today. (I do though, but I digress…)</p> <p>There are few types of CMS as you probably have figured out by now. There are many that are aimed at a specific vertical, such as car dealership or auto part CMS’s. There are others like Blogger who focus on brochure-style websites. There’s e-commerce CMS’s. There are application frameworks like DNN or Umbraco. There’s so very many, and they’re all more or less included in this article.</p> <h3>Media Outlook</h3> <p>When you look at the various news stories and industry articles, there’s no shortage of CMS-related news. However, you may have noticed a similar trend that I did. The CMS news has become ambiguous. You’ll find e-commerce news alongside CMS articles, and sometimes in the same article. The same goes for other types of solutions as well. This is part of what prompted me to look into this more. Why is there so much non-CMS news on a CMS industry site? There are many reasons for this. It’s just yet another symptom to keep in mind.</p> <p>Despite the news shift, there’s plenty of money being reported as being spent in the CMS space. In the past, you could spend only a moment though looking for the amount expected to be spent, and have a few pages of search results. Try searching for that now. CMS is not the hot topic keyword it used to be. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any news article addressing CMS spending specifically. It’s just not an actual line item anymore. The conversation and outlook have changed. Instead of talking about CMS, the conversation is about overall budgets in IT and marketing departments. Media reporting on CMS is instead mostly sponsored by the various vendors out there now, and focus primarily on features and releases. It’s a marketing engine instead of a true news engine. Again, this isn’t necessarily good or bad on its own. it’s another symptom.</p> <p>Something that’s more interesting, is the attention that <a href="http://www.cms-connected.com/News-Articles/July-2016/IT-Spending-Flat-According-To-Gartner" target="_blank">the 2016 Gartner report on IT spending</a> got last year. In this report, web isn’t even really spoken about in any meaningful way. Instead, the conversation is all about the internet of things (IoT), 3D printing, and RFID. However, the amount of spending in these areas is worth talking about. In the chart below, they speculated that 24% of the overall $3.14T IT budget would end up being spent on IoT.</p> <p><img title="Gartner: IT Spending in 2016" alt="Gartner: IT Spending in 2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/gartner-it-spending-2016.jpg"></p> <h3>Market Leaders</h3> <p>Overall, you’ll find that WordPress is by far the winner when it comes to market share. This should surprise no one. This is just a snapshot, but in looking at it, you may want to immediately shift your time and resources to support WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal since they’re all on the same stack. Sure, there’s a huge market share there overall at 72% collectively, which is a big pool of prospective customers to fish in. Though, there’s much more for any business to consider. When you look at the chart below, the CMS vendor list on the right is listed from the biggest market share on the top, to the smallest on the bottom.</p> <p><img title="CMS Market Share 12-2016" alt="CMS Market Share 12-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/cms-marketplace-201612.png"></p> <p>Another thing to take away from this is that ASP.NET CMS’s don’t total more than 1% of the overall market share, where 1% is around 150,000 sites. If you’re someone like me, who makes their living on the Microsoft stack, that could feel a bit discouraging, but again, this is a snapshot. This alone doesn’t paint a full enough picture. Also, don’t forget that this is only the sites that they can see, and only CMS’s. So while the number is discouraging, the percentage is what’s more meaningful. When you apply 1% across the entire internet, it’s a pretty big number. I’m not proposing that all sites will use a CMS in the future, but most will (or something like it).</p> <h3>Oh My, The Trends…</h3> <p>The most important part of my research is that I wanted to look for positive trends. Having existing market share is like owning an entire bag of M&M’s, buying them one at a time. Once you have the whole bag, there’s nowhere to go from there. You need a new business. Is the CMS market growing? I’d love to give you good news here. I really would. Alas, I’d like to tell you the truth.</p> <p>Until I refreshed the data for this article, only a single CMS vendor was showing positive growth over the past two years, and it wasn’t WordPress. Despite being the giant on the playground, it seems businesses were beginning to play with someone else. It seems Datanyze had an anomaly in September 2016 though, adding nearly 600,000 sites in a single month. This is almost a factor of 4 higher than their highest volume month. This could most likely be attributed to an algorithm being updated, and those additional sites should have already been added over time. If you were to normalize the September anomaly, WordPress would still be trending down over the past two years.</p> <p><img title="WordPress Growth: 2015-2016" alt="WordPress Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/wordpress-growth-2015-2016.png"></p> <p>This overall trend in the non-ASP.NET stack can be seen across all of the most popular CMS’s in that category. </p> <p><img title="Non-ASP.NET Growth: 2015-2016" alt="Non-ASP.NET Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/non-aspnet-growth-2015-2016.png"></p> <p>Until August, Adobe’s Experience Manager (formerly Adobe CQ5) was the only non-ASP.NET CMS to be seeing growth. It was all positive. Unfortunately, the last few months has reversed their trend line. Despite this, Adobe’s Experience Manager has shown very consistent growth over the past two years. They’re a very clear competitor out of everyone I’ve looked at so far.</p> <p><img title="Adobe Experience Manager Growth: 2015-2016" alt="Adobe Experience Manager Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/aem-growth-2015-2016_thumb.png"></p> <p>So that means people are fleeing the LAMP stack and running to the Microsoft stack, right? As a fan of that stack, I wish I could tell you that. I really wish I could. It would be a lie. When you isolate only the ASP.NET CMS’s, they’re showing the same anti-growth trend I saw in the others above.</p> <p><img title="ASP.NET Growth: 2015-2016" alt="ASP.NET Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/aspnet-growth-2015-2016.png"></p> <p>In fact, the largest ASP.NET CMS market share over the past two years is surprisingly Kentico. They edged out DNN by 1,000 sites. DNN has traditionally been considered to be the behemoth to battle against on the Microsoft stack ever since it was first released. Having been in this ecosystem for a long time now, this may have been the most surprising thing to me about this exercise. Unfortunately, even isolated on their own, all of the ASP.NET CMS’s show an anti-growth trend almost identical to Kentico’s.</p> <p><img title="Kentico Growth: 2015-2016" alt="Kentico Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/kentico-growth-2015-2016.png"></p> <p>Since most of my readers are DNN enthusiasts, you may want to see how that stacks up, first with DNN on its own. You’ll find the downward trend to be painfully obvious.</p> <p><img title="DNN Growth: 2015-2016" alt="DNN Growth: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnn-growth-2015-2016.png"></p> <p>When you stack DNN up against Kentico, they both show a very similar migration pattern, but it’s trending downward regardless. Sadly, you don’t even need to have the trend line in the graph to illustrate this.</p> <p><img title="DNN vs. Kentico: 2015-2016" alt="DNN vs. Kentico: 2015-2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnn-v-kentico-2015-2016.png"></p> <h3>Why No Growth?</h3> <p>Whoa… so if you’re hearing for the first time, I’m guessing you’re no doubt a bit speechless. Everyone I’ve spoken to about this so far seemed to be completely caught off guard. An important note about this is that while the trends are all going down, the gains in the marketplace are mostly net positive over the same period of time. More sites are being gained than lost by most vendors, but that is something that’s clearly not going to last. People are leaving traditional CMS as a trend. It begs the question, “Where is everyone going?” </p> <p>I tried for a couple of weeks to try and find the answer to where people are going. I poured over the data I do have, and I simply could not find the gains to show where companies are going, when they’re not choosing an existing prominent vendor. None of the smaller vendors are showing the growth necessary to explain it. </p> <p>The answer came to me through an off-chance conversation with someone I know in the South Florida startup scene. He had literally just gotten off of the phone with someone at Forrester the week before, having a similar conversation about website trends. They weren’t speaking about CMS specifically of course, but they were talking about where and how companies were deploying their websites. As it turns out, there are multiple factors playing at the same time to cause the anti-growth patterns you’ve seen above. </p> <p>First, there are cloud solutions being more and more prominent, each taking on a specific task from a company. In many cases, they’re even things that previously used to exist on their own website, such as a company blog. All of these are chipping away slowly at features that used to be gained from a CMS. Why deploy an entire CMS if you just need one specific feature? Sure, there are pros and cons to going or not going with a CMS, but budget and total cost of ownership will generally point towards a non-CMS decision.</p> <p>Second, among cloud and traditional software, many vendors are now offering add-on services that fulfill the basic needs of most companies. For example, a CRM vendor may not have what you may consider being a traditional CMS, but they may offer a website service that’s nearly just as good. It offers exactly what the company needs, without all of the bells and whistles that a CMS usually comes with. You may know from experience yourself that while a business may have a formidable checklist or RFP, they only really intend to deploy a small fraction of those requirements initially. As with most IT projects, all of those nice to have’s and wish list items tend to get forgotten – prioritized below other business objectives. If you pay any attention at all to startup mergers and acquisitions over the past 3 years, you probably have already been seeing the evidence of this without even realizing it.</p> <p>A third factor includes all of the vertical-specific CMS solutions that have sprouted up over the past few years. There’s far too many to show up on the radar in reports like Datanyze offers, and so it’s possible that all of these are collectively stealing the market share, and we can’t even see it yet.</p> <p>A possible fourth contributor is custom-built websites. However, I have yet to find any data to show that this has any larger growth than it typically does. Anecdotally, all of the agencies I know that build custom-made websites aren’t showing any growth in this area either.</p> <h3>Your Future with CMS</h3> <p>Where does that leave you if you want to CMS still? Well, it’s far too early to panic, but you need to get into gear and start making plans now. If you haven’t already diversified, you need to. There are of course the immediately obvious options, such as specializing in multiple CMS’s in the same stack, or choosing one each from both stacks. However, this is fairly short-sighted in my opinion. </p> <p>Do you remember that IT spending chart from Gartner waaaaaaaay up at the top of this article? IoT and 3D printing are massive areas of opportunity if you provide any kind of software solutions, but especially mobile- and web-based solutions. It would be a very safe bet that your CMS future is somehow going to merge with those areas, whether you like it or not. Ideally, you may want to jump on that preemptively, to shortcut your competition. There’s simply far too much money being spent in those two areas.</p> <p>There’s another area of diversification though. You may need to find yourself specializing in a handful of CMS’s, each focusing on specific verticals. In this case, you may even find there to be opportunities for integration work, but even that is getting chipped away at. Companies like MuleSoft have done a phenomenal job of taking care of that for companies. There are even many cases where a company such as this prevents any code from being written at all.</p> <p>The bottom line from my findings is this… If you’re specializing in CMS today, you should make that only one of a few specialties you offer in the future. That is unless you specialize in many CMS’s. CMS isn’t going to die, but its bubble had burst a long time ago, but no one really has begun talking about it yet.</p> <p>What do you think though? Do you have your own research on this? Are you still planning to stick to just one CMS option? Why or why not? Let me know what you think in the comments below.</p>779DNN 9 Appears to Be a Foundational Step Forward for the Future of DNNhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/778/DNN-9-Appears-to-Be-a-Foundational-Step-Forward-for-the-Future-of-DNNDotNetNukeSun, 06 Nov 2016 22:28:01 GMT<p><img title="DNN 9 Persona Bar" alt="DNN 9 Persona Bar" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnn-9-blog-header-664x374.jpg"></p> <p>DNN Corp is on the verge of releasing their latest DNN Platform release, version 9.0.0.  As a DNN MVP, I of course had to take a look around at the new stuff coming.  It’s still in the early stages though, so there are a few areas where the new updates have some smoothing out to do, but overall, the updates we’re seeing in version 9.0 are very nice.  In short, it’s a much more contemporary user experience for all involved – but a very important step in the right direction for the future of all DNN’ers.  Here’s my preview and insights after using DNN 9.0 for the first time – a <u>pre-release</u> version of DNN 9.0, that is.</p> <blockquote> <p>Everything I’m discussing here are things I’ve looked at while viewing the <strong>nightly builds</strong>. If you’re not familiar with what a nightly build is, it’s basically a software product that’s still actively being developed on.  There’s work and features that aren’t even checked-in yet.  It’s not the final release, so please keep that in mind in this article, and any others like it. </p></blockquote> <p>Once you get by some of the <em>rough edges</em> that are in still in the nightly builds, like clunky animation transitions, help labels docked in random positions and/or partially hidden, and figuring out how to exit the persona bar views, the primary new feature begins to open up with a lot of subtle, but powerful updates.  First and foremost, the administration experience is indeed a lot more contemporary.  You’ll hear that word thrown around a lot by DNN Corp folks, but the new persona bar that replaces the control panel we’ve come to know quite intimately does a great job of tucking away a lot of the things that would previously get in our way in a large number of ways (right, skinners?).</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/2016-11-06_1250.png" target="_blank"><img title="DNN 9.0 Persona Bar" alt="DNN 9.0 Persona Bar" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/2016-11-06_1250_thumb.png"></a></p> <p>As you can see above, the control panel is no longer docked at the top of the page.  Instead, you see two new bars docked, at the bottom and on the left side.  These both comprise the new persona bar, allowing you to edit numerous aspects of your site, without having to wait for page reload after reload.  This is sure to be a time-saver, especially when you find yourself configuring multiple things at a time.</p> <p>While I mentioned words like <em>rough edges</em>, this is by no means a completely new feature.  Don’t be scared.  The persona bar is something that’s been back-ported from DNN Corp’s commercial product suite.  Only now, there’s a bunch of new features added to it to make it more usable across all of the DNN Corp products.  What this means to you is that this feature has been under development and tested in real world environments for quite a long time now, and it’s inclusion into 9.0 is lower risk than nearly any zero point release before it.  We can almost certainly expect for those <em>rough edges</em> to be smoothed out by the time 9.0 is ready for release.</p> <h3>Unexpected Multi-Tasking</h3> <p>What seems to be an unexpected feature is that you never know when your work is saved or not.  Follow me here…  If you do something like edit a configuration file.  You may be working on multiple lines in the configuration.  Next thing you know, an urgent phone call comes in asking for a quick SQL query report.  You switch to the SQL view, and run the query.  Problem averted!  Just as you begin to return to the configuration updates, someone asks you over IM what the URL is for an important new content campaign.  So, you leave the persona bar and navigate to the page, then send the URL.  Awesome, now you can finish your work, right?  Right.  Just navigate back to the configuration manager, and your updates will still be there, waiting for you to click “Save.”  Just be careful that you don’t forget about saving those updates.</p> <h3>Added Usability</h3> <p>The admin and “host” modules we’ve grown used to over the years are removed and replaced with streamlined counterparts.  These new additions are more thoughtfully grouped together, as are the various settings that used to play hide-and-seek with us in the past, hidden across any number of configuration views and collapsed sections.  You literally had to be using DNN for years before you could even consider yourself as an anything remotely close to a “DNN expert.”  Another thing I liked while digging around is how the global and site-specific settings are both put side-by-side and easily distinguishable.  When you’re not logged in with enough permissions, the global settings are neatly tucked away, and you’d never know they existed.</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/2016-11-06_1325.png" target="_blank"><img title="DNN 9.0 Global Settings Tooltip" alt="DNN 9.0 Global Settings Tooltip" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/2016-11-06_1325_thumb.png"></a></p> <h3>Some Missing Things</h3> <p>You shouldn’t look at “missing” as being necessarily a bad thing.  Change is necessary, and DNN has had way too many features to get in everyone’s way for far too long now.  The admin and “host” pages you’re used to using will mostly be gone when you upgrade, replaced by newer and easier to use counterparts in the persona bar.  Some other things are missing too, like the Store/Forge integration in the Extensions management area.  Again, the missing things aren’t necessarily a bad thing.  In order for DNN and the DNN ecosystem to grow, this kind of change will be necessary.  So far, the things I see missing are all very good.  Although, I’m on the fence about the Store/Forge integration.</p> <h3>The Future Looks Even Brighter</h3> <p>We could find all kinds of little things to continue to talk about when it comes to the updates coming in DNN 9.0.  However, the biggest thing I think we can look forward to with the updates we see applied in this release are the things that haven’t yet happened.  Two of the most popular complaints about DNN are its speed, and how old the administration looks.  The administration issue is clearly fixed here, and speed is addressed to some degree as a byproduct.  The thing is for me though, this series of updates lay the foundation for something that will be much more impactful to the future of DNN – a reliance on the ancient .NET technology we call webforms.  Once DNN 9.0 is released, the only things that really use and depend on webforms are the modules you see on individual pages.  Architecturally speaking, DNN 9.0 appears to be the first step towards the newer ASP.NET Core we’ve all been anxious to see for quite some time now.</p>778A Year of Grief: Thoughts & Lessons Learnedhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/777/a-year-of-grief-thoughts-and-lessons-learnedPersonalThu, 03 Nov 2016 14:28:54 GMT<p><img title="Sabrina and I at Artesa in wine country" alt="Sabrina and I at Artesa in wine country" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-header-664x374.jpg"></p> <p>I would imagine that not everyone who reads my blog knows, but as of today, it marks a year that I’ve been going through the process we call grieving. A year ago today, I went through the most traumatic thing a person could go through – I found the person I love more than anything in this world, passed away. My soul mate, lying there, all of my hopes and dreams, lost and crushed in less than a second. Nothing can prepare you for such an abundantly awful thing. Nothing. However, one thing is certain, almost no one on the planet is immune from this experience. No one.</p> <p>This post is for you. All of you. If you’ve lost someone close to you, ever, this is for you. If you haven’t yet, you will, and this is for you too. If you know someone who’s lost someone, yes, this is even for you as well. I’ve always known and preached this, but never from personal experience, until a year ago... </p> <blockquote> <p>Life is precious, and it’s short. You never know who you’ll never again see tomorrow – and it might be you.</p></blockquote> <p><img title="Palm Beach - Our second picture together" class="img-right" alt="Palm Beach - Our second picture together" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-palm-beach-240x160.jpg" align="right">So, if you’ve been wondering what happened to my articles, or why certain things have changed on my site, or why I haven’t participated in social media in the same ways as before – now you know why. The proverbial <em>cat</em> is out of it’s equally proverbial bag. That’s the love of my life you see above and throughout this post. You’ll end up finding out more and more about this amazing woman, the more you know me, the more you pay attention to the things I do – because she’s so much a part of who I am and has been for the past 4+ years I’ve known her, and that’s never going to change. She inherently frames everything I do now.</p> <h3>Grief</h3> <p>Grief. It’s a 5-letter word, and it’s thrown around so easily by most of us, on most days. Historically, I’ve been guilty of it too. After playing a joke on someone, I might have said, “I enjoy giving [<em>insert name here</em>] grief.” This is probably one of the most understated words in the English language. We have words for all kinds of things, but there isn’t a word that effectively describes what grief really is, and how awesomely shattering it is to the people that experience it. Grief is in and of itself, one of the most life-altering things any person can go through. It’s experienced in every way – emotional, mental, and even physical.</p> <p>Grief for me is a giant, constantly throbbing ball of molten lava-like chaos and emotions, swirling with a level of violence that you can both hear and feel. It’s both physical and mental, ruling your very existence. Not a single thought or movement can be made, without it first passing through that ball of grief-lava. To this day, I have a feeling in my chest that I once described to my therapist saying, “It feels like I had a really bad open heart surgery. They didn’t fix anything. They didn’t sew me back up right. And they left the scalpel in there.”</p> <h3>Good Grief, Charlie Brown</h3> <p><img title="Boca Raton, FL - At a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant she found" class="img-right" alt="Boca Raton, FL - At a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant she found" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-boca-240x160.jpg" align="right">Let’s be clear… Grief comes in many forms, none of it <em>good</em>. It’s a simple word that’s used to describe the feelings and process that follows loss. Any kind of loss, really. You go through grief on almost a daily basis. You might have a breakup, lose a job, make a mistake on a project – any number of things and situations can cause grief. It’s a simple word. Easy to spell. One syllable. Easy to say, <em>Greeph</em>. <em>Greef. I fucking hate you, grief.</em> The word itself is so simple, yet it’s used to describe one of the most complex and emotionally-charged of all human experiences. This little word simply doesn’t have the weight it should for someone like me. There doesn’t appear to be a word that does.</p> <h3>First Two Weeks</h3> <p>When this horrific event happens – no matter how expected or not – you get flooded with love and support initially. Some people show up right away. Some people fly countless miles to be with you. Some call. Some send an e-mail. Some do nothing though. What’s interesting about all of these people and acts, is that most of them are surprises. You never know until something like this happens how much some people truly care about you. How much people think about and care for you. You’ll be surprised at who sends flowers, and who doesn’t. Who comes to the funeral, and who doesn’t. You’ll be even more surprised at the various excuses and incredibly odd things people do to avoid the funeral altogether.</p> <p>All of these people say various flavors of the same thing. <em>My thoughts and prayers are with you. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. Call me if you need anything.</em> Little do they know, a griever won’t call unless we really have no other choice – or maybe they do know; maybe it’s a bluff. </p> <p><img title="Treasure Island, CA - The day we found The Winery and the Treasure Island Flea" class="img-right" alt="Treasure Island, CA - The day we found The Winery and the Treasure Island Flea" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-winery-240x160.jpg" align="right">What if we called them on that bluff? I have, to some, but it was very difficult, and the result was about what you might expect – mixed. Many business authors have said various versions of the same quote that describes this mixture of results (at least, it does for me)... <em>Money doesn’t change a person. It simply empowers them to be their true self, since they no longer have to answer to someone.</em> Whether or not that true self is a good person is another post, for another time. Regardless, I think grief holds a solid parallel to that idea.</p> <p>Then there’s the month and months after…</p> <h3>Shit People Say</h3> <p>After the first two weeks, everyone begins to drop off. In bulk at first, then one-by-one. People drift back to their lives. No one can blame them. The world does keep spinning – no matter how insulting that is to someone like me. <em>Why didn’t the entire world stop? It certainly feels like it did to me.</em> </p> <p>The interesting thing here is that it’s when people begin to feel empowered. They begin to feel that it’s okay to say horrible things. <em>Are you out of your funk yet? You should do something to keep yourself busy. Are you over it? You should move. You should move on.</em> I doubt most people mean anything negative by these statements. In most cases, I truly do believe they feel that their heart is in the right place. But they forget… Their heart, in the right place or not, is still beating. And the person and people they love also still have beating hearts. They’ve somehow learned or come to the conclusion that it’s okay to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-e-steinke/stifled-grief-how-the-wes_b_10243026.html" target="_blank">stifle someone else’s grief</a>. <em>These people haven’t yet been destroyed in the same way a widow or widower has. Experience is literally the only teacher here. Unlike you, I get to wake up every morning, widowed all over again.</em></p> <p><img title="San Carlos, CA - At our favorite 'regular' bar for brunch, called Town" class="img-right" alt="San Carlos, CA - At our favorite 'regular' bar for brunch, called Town" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-town-240x160.jpg" align="right">Let’s knock this out…</p> <blockquote> <p>There’s no getting out of <em>the funk</em>, and we’re not getting over it. <em>It</em> is here to stay. The <em>funk</em> is something we will learn how to live with for the rest of our lives. No matter how we look and act when you see us, the <em>funk</em> is there – waiting just below the surface for any trigger at all to call it back into action. The level of funk and the period of time it’s visible on the surface can depend on any number of factors, but it’s directly linked to the connection and love two people shared.</p> <p>It’s different for everyone, but <em>keeping yourself busy</em> is something I think is a massive mistake for anyone that’s recently widowed. If you’re doing something that keeps you from going through all of the emotions and memories, all it ends up doing is put off the grieving process. You’re going to go through it anyway, so just go through it. You’re otherwise a ticking time bomb. When a trigger occurs, you’re going to be an explosion of balled up emotions. Those emotions will be flying all over the place, hitting anyone and anything unfortunate enough to be in its path. If you’re telling someone to “keep busy,” you’re responsible for setting the bomb. Don’t. Just don’t. We’re the widowed, and we will find when, where, and how to <em>keep busy.</em></p> <p>Moving homes is a thing that sometimes is forced upon us grievers, for various reasons, including literally losing <u><strong>half</strong></u> of your income instantly. Sometimes it’s not. Regardless, where we live is usually where the heart is – almost in a literal sense. Asking or telling someone to move when there’s no actual reason to do it, is generally not something you should do. They built a life with someone. That life was there. For most of us, moving is giving up on the person we loved. Hell, I sold a rowing machine that neither Sabrina or I liked, and it destroyed me on the inside. The door was barely closed before I nearly collapsed in tears. <em>She touched that. I remember hearing her row on it, behind closed doors, because she didn’t want me to watch her exercise. She hated every second on that damned machine, but did it anyway. The cutest and hottest home-rower, ever.</em></p> <p><em>Moving on</em>… Well, this is the doozy of them all. (And I’m going to talk out of my ass a bit here, because I haven’t gone through this myself yet - moving on - but I speak to fellow grievers that are processing this daily.) One who is recently widowed is never truly <u>ready</u> to move on. They just will talk themselves into it one day. And moving on isn’t what you think. Many who are widowed will decide to date or just accidentally meet someone, almost always far too early. I haven’t heard a story yet of a griever that began dating at the right time. Regardless, it doesn’t matter who you are. It’s not your place to tell us to move on. Being widowed myself, I wouldn’t dare tell another widow or widower to move on. Ever.</p></blockquote> <h3>Talk to Us</h3> <p><img title="San Carlos, CA - My favorite photo of us, at our favorite wine bar, TasteVin" class="img-right" alt="San Carlos, CA - My favorite photo of us, at our favorite wine bar, TasteVin" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-tastevin-240x160.jpg" align="right">Don’t get me wrong. I am not at any level suggesting that you should walk on egg shells around a griever. Say stuff. Make jokes. Have a conversation. Insist on dinner or coffee. <em>Insist, dammit!</em> Take us out. Sit with us, even if we don’t say a thing. We enjoy every second, and we’ll never, ever, ever forget those who did. When you do this, you’re literally saving our life, because – especially in the early stages – we’re not interested in life anymore. Your very presence can and does influence that.</p> <h3>Bring Them Up</h3> <p>Above all, PLEASE… Please, please, please talk to us about the loved one we lost. Bring them up. Mention them by name. Tell us a story about them. Ask for a story. Ask about what their favorite things were. Only a couple of months ago, I saw an old friend of Sabrina and mine. He asked me, “Where’s your partner in crime?” I about lost it that very second. No one asks about Sabrina. No one brings her up, mostly in fear of dredging up bad feelings or something. I can tell you that even if a widowed person begins balling and sobbing that very second, you’ve made us happier than you can imagine. By speaking their name, by being interested, you’ve kept them alive. Even if for a second, you let the widowed know that the life of the one they lost mattered. </p> <p>This is so damned important. So important, that <a href="https://gma.yahoo.com/grieving-husband-inspires-strangers-spread-love-sharing-100-200344825--abc-news-lifestyle.html" target="_blank">one widower even created love letters</a> to keep the spirit of his lost wife alive and spread their love.</p> <p>The more you talk to someone while they’re actively grieving, and the more you speak about the person they lost, the more they can process it. The better off the grieving process goes overall. We want so desperately to talk about our love. You just need to let us. Don’t worry. We’ll grow through this to have an even stronger bond. You’re saving our life by remembering theirs.</p> <h3>Even More Loss</h3> <p><img title="Redwood City, CA - At our pre-movie margarita ritual, getting margarita's at Quinto Sol" class="img-right" alt="Redwood City, CA - At our pre-movie margarita ritual, getting margarita's at Quinto Sol" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-quinto-del-sol-240x160.jpg" align="right">The more time that goes by, the more people on the outside at this stage also begin to get tired of hearing about someone that’s no longer here. They don’t want to deal with the <em>reality</em> of grief. This is of course only true if they’ve never been through this themselves.</p> <p>Yes, on the surface, this sounds cruel and only fitting of the most emotionless of human beings. While that could be true of some, I’d like to think that it’s not. Some people are deeply afraid of being around the kind of sorrow that someone like me is enduring and processing. I get it. If you feel that we should get over it, maybe it’s <em>you</em> that should get over it instead.</p> <p>What’s actually cruel about this is that the people who do this to a griever are the ones that we may have called very close friends or family prior. It’s amazing to see who actually cares about you. I’ve seen a quote a number of times that I can’t find right now, that basically says, “If you want to know who actually cares about you, look around when you’re down on the ground.” Most people are in your life in a much more superficial and materialistic way than you might realize. They’re just there for the ride. If you lose anyone during this process, let them go. They may come back, and they may not. For now, at least, you’re better off without them.</p> <h3>You’re Not Crazy</h3> <p>Immediately following the loss of my soul mate, odd things began to happen. I mean, very odd things. I have an analytical mind, so I keep records of most of it. I didn’t record anything I can easily explain away. </p> <p>I began seeing flashes of light everywhere in the house, never outside, but always in the corner of my eye. The light was always moving suddenly, like I might see it if it didn’t get away quick. </p> <p>I had objects that seemingly moved on their own. In one place one second, and look again to find it moved. One night before bed, I found that one of Sabrina’s toothbrushes had been moved, into the slot where mine was.</p> <p>A razor that had run out of power 2 months before Sabrina passed magically turned on the morning of her funeral, when I shaved again. I could almost hear her voice in my head, <em>My Simba always is shaved</em>. (<em><a href="http://sabrinawall.com/Nala" target="_blank">Why Simba, you ask?</a></em>) That razor would continue to work for months without the battery being replaced, almost a year after initially losing power. </p> <p>There have been sounds, like cups or dishes falling in the front of the house, but nothing is out of place when I investigate. </p> <p><img title="St. Helena, CA - At our final stop whenever we went to Napa Valley, V.Sattui" class="img-right" alt="St. Helena, CA - At our final stop whenever we went to Napa Valley, V.Sattui" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-vsattui-240x160.jpg" align="right">I once heard and felt her whisper in my ear, “Simba!,” when I was in the living room. I know the difference between voices in my head and <em><u>hearing</u></em> something.</p> <p>I’ve only experienced sleep paralysis once before, but shortly after I began sleeping in our room again, she appeared to save me from my second experience. This would be the only time I’ve seen her in my dreams so far.</p> <p>On separate occasions, our bedroom would smell like Nala’s (that’s what I called her) perfume, or smell like a meal she’d cook. The smells where so crystal clear, I had to check windows and look for broken bottles to be sure.</p> <p>At my daughter’s choir concert, I began crying during one of the songs. A strong breeze began to hit me, as if the air conditioning began to point only at me with all of its force – then went away once I calmed down. There wasn’t even a slight breeze before or after that moment, and it was inside of a very large concert auditorium.</p> <p>To this day, I’ll often feel something brush my leg, arm, or ear, and look to see nothing. No bugs. No flies. Nothing that I can explain to cause it. I’ve even been tickled. <em>Nala was a prankster.</em></p> <p>There’s so much more in my list. I’ve kept a journal of it. Although, the past two months have seen fewer and fewer entries. </p> <p>The bottom line here is that anyone who knows me would tell you that I’m a very objective and analytical person. I can’t explain these things I’ve recorded. I’ve tried to disprove everything I’ve logged. If I found even one potential cause, it didn’t go into my notes. I know I’m not crazy. I know I’m not dreaming these things up, or making them up. If you go through this, you’re not crazy either. I didn’t fully believe that though, until I began participating in grief groups. <em>If we’re all experiencing the same kind of things, I can’t be crazy, right?</em></p> <h3>The Afterlife</h3> <p>I’ve spent countless hours reading, watching, and researching everything that we humans know about what happens when and after we die. I obsessed myself with it. Still do. I know more than I ever thought I would about near death experiences (NDE), theories, and everything else that we use to try and explain the things we don’t know. The things that might be true, range from us returning to our Arcturian home, to going to heaven (whichever one you believe in), to nothing at all. Just plain nothing. Gone. I don’t and can’t believe in any of those theories. Not with everything I’ve been through and what I know now. Not when you factor in all of the circumstantial and irrefutable scientific evidence.</p> <p><img title="Honolulu, HI - Our final vacation together with Sabrina's family in a Korean BBQ" class="img-right" alt="Honolulu, HI - Our final vacation together with Sabrina's family in a Korean BBQ" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-hawaii-240x160.jpg" align="right">I lost my best friend in a car wreck when I was 17. He was in the seat behind me during our final road trip senior year. I held my grandfather’s hand during his last breath, when cancer finally consumed him. I’ve experienced grief before, but I never before had signs and I never before even thought about what happened next. Never felt the need. I loved them, but I wasn’t completely destroyed by their loss. I celebrated their life.</p> <p>Now, I find myself questioning everything, as one would and does. For some, your beliefs change, but I’ve seen that most find their original beliefs to be stronger. I’m not trying to tell you what to believe. That would be insensitive and overly ridiculous for me to do... <em>How could I? The shit people say…</em></p> <p>For me, I’ve come to the personal conclusion (not your conclusion) that whatever heaven we know and label it as - it exists - but it’s not what we know it to be in our books of worship and cultural common beliefs. None of us have any way of actually knowing. <em>That’s why it’s called faith, and associated with belief.</em> I firmly believe that there’s something else, and she’s waiting for me, along with my other family. She’s right on the other side of something we can’t see, taste, feel, or touch. Her energy speaks to me and has proven that to me a lot over the past year.</p> <p>I will see her, but it won’t be the same as what I remember we had before she left. It will be different. I just desperately hope it will be even better than it was. <em>A statement like that sounds crazy to me. Our relationship was so insanely awesome, like nothing I have ever known. It’s very cliché, but it was the truest of true love. I’ve never loved anyone even remotely close to the same level.</em></p> <h3>Getting Better</h3> <p>I have mostly shied away from the things that would have been “normal” for me before my Nala passed away. Nothing had the same feel anymore. Color? Gone. Flavor? Nixed. Pretty much all of life seemed pointless anymore, and still does to some degree. There’s no getting better. I didn’t ask to be in this involuntary club. This daily dose of bullshit. Yet, I’m still here.</p> <p><img title="West Palm Beach, FL - Not sure where we were exactly, but this was her taking the selfie (which is against her nature)" class="img-right" alt="West Palm Beach, FL - Not sure where we were exactly, but this was her taking the selfie (which is against her nature)" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/simba-nala-west-palm-beach-240x240.jpg" align="right">I’ve learned in this year of grief that the only way through this is to just take it day-by-day. Each day, I wake up. I go into a routine. I eat. I work. I take care of my daughter. Then I do my best to sleep. Next thing you know, I do it all over again. I’ve resolved myself to this… Every day I live is one more day that I’m closer to my queen, my soul mate, my true love. I need to get through it to get to her, and I can only hope she’s there, with open arms, as excited to see me this time, as she was the first. Jumping up and down like a grade-school girl getting the first present on Christmas morning. <em>For those of you that knew her, I bet you never saw her that excited, did you? <u>Literally</u> jumping up and down, with a massive smile, and squealing. She was so full of life. Happy.</em></p> <p>So now, to earn my reunion, I’ve begun the process of pretending to be all better. Pretending to be “normal” like the majority of you. I smile and laugh sometimes, but it’s not real. I don’t smile in photos yet, because I don’t want the fake me to be recorded. That’s not me right now. I do this to feel “normal,” but I mostly do this to make you feel normal around me too. I’m not normal. There is not a “normal.” I’m broken, but I’ll be okay. “I’m okay,” is my response now.</p> <h3>Being 100%, or Being “Me” Again</h3> <p>This story and all of the parts that may follow in the future, they’re part of my past, present, and future. They’re a part of yours too. No one is immune to this part of <em>life</em>. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/arts/patton-oswalt-ill-never-be-at-100-percent-again.html" target="_blank">Patton Oswalt recently went through an eerily similar experience</a>, but being a comedian, he’s far more articulate about this than I can ever be. So it’s only appropriate when he describes how he feels, as it fully embodies how I’ve felt from the first moments until today, saying, “I’ll never be at 100% again.” This isn’t to say that I’m not still the Will Strohl that many of you know or follow. </p> <p>Most of us throw around the term <em>my other half</em> so frivolously. We don’t realize that some of us are insanely lucky to truly know what that is like and how it feels. You’re 100% of a person finally, and didn’t realize you weren’t until you literally found <em>the one</em>. I wasn’t 100% until I met my beautiful Sabrina – something I didn’t know until the moment I fell in love with her (something that was instant, but I wouldn’t realize or believe until later). I’m still me, albeit a slightly different, more aware of everything, quick to cry, far more knowledgeable on the human condition, more sensitive to others, and ultimately deeply scarred version of <em>me</em>.</p> <p><em>I’m okay.</em></p> <p><img title="Nala kept her promise... I've never seen anything so beautiful" alt="Nala kept her promise... I've never seen anything so beautiful" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/nalas-promise-sleeping-664x249.jpg"></p>777Moving on from DNNConhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/776/Moving-On-From-DNNConDotNetNuke,PersonalTue, 28 Jun 2016 04:42:35 GMT<style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }</style> <p><img title="OpenForce Connect Orlando 2008 group photo" alt="OpenForce Connect Orlando 2008 group photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnn-openforce-connect-group-photo-664x374.png"></p> <p>Don’t let the headline freak you out.  It’s not as bad as it sounds…  We’ll start with some background, and then I’ll tell you the details.</p> <h4>Where it All Began: OpenForce Connect Orlando</h4> <p>The DNN Corp-run commercial conference that used to occur every year was originally called OpenForce.  However, many of us felt that the DNN community could and should have its own event.  One that was focused on the community, and less on anything commercial.</p> <p>In 2008, I helped as a local organizer for the very first community conference in North America.  It’s described in detail in the first chapter of <a href="http://amzn.to/28WW3oq" target="_blank">any Wrox DNN book</a>, and it was known as OpenForce Connect Orlando.  At the time, I was a co-founder of the largest and most popular DNN user group, known as the ODUG or Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group.  We put together an amazing event in less than 2 months’ time.  We had over 200 people there for a one-day and one-track event.  </p> <p>Day of DotNetNuke (now DNNCon) was founded on the principle of being a community-run event, for the community.  If you’ve ever been to a code camp before, this was one of the events that DNNCon was modeled after.  No matter if/when DNN Corp has their own commercial event, this event was meant to serve the needs and desires of the community.</p> <p>The following year, the community kept pinging me and others in the user group to put on another one.  We really wanted to, but we also weren’t sure if we could.  After all, we didn’t want to step on any toes (so to speak) since DNN wasn’t really ours.  It belonged to DNN Corp.  For those of you that haven’t been around for that long, you may not know some of the ways people tried to “steal” DNN in the past.  So we wanted to make sure we did this in the right way.  We kept e-mailing the folks at DNN Corp for several months, but no answer.  Eventually, we took things into our own hands.</p> <p>Now don’t go all conspiracy theory in the comments…  They literally couldn’t respond to us, but we wouldn’t know that until much later.  2009 was the year that DNN Corp got funding.  Part of the funding process required silence on their parts, so they couldn’t respond.</p> <h4>Day of DotNetNuke is Born</h4> <p>With a literal 2 months to the day, a group of us decided to put on the first Day of DotNetNuke event, and I was unanimously “volunteered” to be the organizer.  In two months’ time again, we filled an entire event with people from all over the world.  We had 5 or 6 tracks, training, and even exceeded the fire codes due to having too many people.  Getting down the halls was a challenge to say the least.  (Luckily, we didn’t get into any trouble.)  This event would boast the most attendees for any future event until the first one held in Palm Beach some 4 years later.</p> <p>Over the years, you’ve seen numerous people as the organizers of each respective event.  I made it my role to recruit and empower event organizers in any way I could.  I helped them to plan, organize, and execute each event.  Without these people, this community event may have only happened once.</p> <div class="embed-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m_iFg-k93To" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <p>Here we are in 2016, and since then, Day of DotNetNuke has been rebranded to Day of DNN, and then to DNNCon.  It’s been held 10 times in 3 countries, 2 continents, and 8 cities worldwide.  By my guesstimate, it’s helped several thousand people all over the world from every walk of life learn more about DNN.  I’ve heard too many amazing and life-changing stories to recount.  At each event, I’ve collected new friends from all over the globe – relationships that in some cases are as close or closer than family.  In fact, the first time I met my soul mate was at a DNNCon.  Needless to say, DNNCon means a lot to me.  </p> <h4>My Decision</h4> <p>If DNNCon has a “daddy,” I guess it would be me.  As a father, sometimes you need to let your kid grow up on their own.  This decision isn’t just about that though – but it’s not any less true.</p> <p>Any of you that know me know that I’ve recently been going through some personal issues with a tragedy that literally hit close to home.  I need to clear my plate a bit.  Keeping up with everything I used to do before the tragedy has proven to be too exhausting since.</p> <p>At the end of the day, I had a vision, together with hundreds of other DNN’ers we were able to make it happen, and it was nothing short of inspiring to see it continue to be adopted by so many people all over the world.  These past 8 years have been very rewarding as a result.  However, the only constant in life is change, and now is the time for a change to be made for DNNCon.  We are at a critical point of growth in our community, and DNNCon needs a fresh vision and a renewed energy.</p> <h4>The Future</h4> <p>DNNCon Baltimore was the first event that was run in a committee manner.  I’ve tried a few different models in the past, and this one was pretty successful.  There is now a committee of well-known and experienced DNN community members who will take DNNCon and push it forward to bigger and better things.  As of today, they’re 8 strong – eight of the brightest and most creative minds ever to be involved with DNNCon.  Needless to say, the event we’ve grown to love is in good hands.  If you have any questions about anything DNNCon, please e-mail <a href="mailto:info@dnncon.com">info@dnncon.com</a>.</p> <p>I’m very excited for the new life and energy the committee will bring to you in the future events to come.  As of right now, they’re closing in on making a decision for either Fall or Spring for the next DNNCon, but I’ll let them give you the details.</p> <p>As for me, I’m not leaving the DNN community.  You’ll still see me at events, online, and I’m still going to build and maintain DNN modules.  This is simply a passing of the DNNCon torch from me, to a new group of people.</p> <p>In closing, I’d like to thank you all for the support in putting on this event over the years.  If any single video can sum up what DNNCon is, was, and could be, this would be it. Enjoy, and I hope to see you at the next event (where/whenever that may be).</p><div class='embed-container'><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EYxEUjHh4iU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>776DNN Hangout - March 2016 - DNN Community, User Groups, and MOREhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/775/DNN-Hangout-March-2016-DNN-Community-User-Groups-and-MOREDotNetNukeThu, 10 Mar 2016 06:19:49 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout: March 2016 with David Poindexter" alt="DNN Hangout: March 2016 with David Poindexter" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20160309-664x374.jpg"></p> <p>David Poindexter is our guest in this month’s show.  David is the “GeekEO” of <a href="http://www.nvisionative.com/" target="_blank">nvisionative</a>.  I’ve interviewed him before in a Hotcakes Hangout, so you can get a lot of information about David and his company nvisionative there.  In this show though, we wanted to focus on community activities.  David and his fellow DNN’ers in the Charlotte, NC area have been doing great things for years now, so we wanted to pick his brain a bit, and then we finished things off with a very HUGE surprise for the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/download" target="_blank">DNN</a> community.</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We’re always look for new guests to be on the show.  Please <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Contact">contact me</a> or send me a note in the comments below if you want to be featured, or know of someone that should be.</p> <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>Our next episode isn’t yet finalized, but when it is, you’ll find it on <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events" target="_blank">the DNN community events page</a>.</p> <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions.</p> <p>DNN Community, User Groups, and MORE</p><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NA8zv-MBN6g" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="https://hotcakescommerce.com/Resources/Blog/PostId/470/Hotcakes-Hangout-September-2015-Introduction-nvisionative-and-open-source-integration" target="_blank">David Poindexter interview on Hotcakes Hangout</a> <li><a href="http://www.southernfrieddnn.com/" target="_blank">Southern Fried DNN User Group</a> <li><a href="http://dnncon.com/" target="_blank">DNNCon Baltimore 2016</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/2016" target="_blank">DNN-Connect 2016</a> <li>DNN 8 Module Contest Modules <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/weggetor/BBImageStory/releases" target="_blank">BBImageStory</a> by Torsten Weggen <li><a href="https://github.com/dmcdonald11/CallTrackerLite/releases" target="_blank">Call Tracker</a> by Dan McDonald <li><a href="https://github.com/hismightiness/dnnextensions/releases" target="_blank">Code Camp Events</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="https://github.com/DNN-Connect/Conference/releases" target="_blank">DNN Connect Conference</a> by Peter Donker <li><a href="https://github.com/DNN-Connect/Map/releases" target="_blank">DNN Connect Map</a> by Peter Donker <li><a href="https://github.com/weweave/DnnDevTools/releases" target="_blank">DNN Dev Tools</a> by Jan Jonas and Matthias Benfer (<em>Winner: SPA category</em>) <li><a href="https://github.com/INNO-Software/DnnJobBoard/releases" target="_blank">DNN Job Board</a> by Dylan Lopez and Aaron Lopez <li><a href="https://github.com/ralphwilliams/DNNVideoCourseModule/releases" target="_blank">DNN Video Course</a> by Ralph Williams (<em>Winner:  Community Choice category</em>) <li><a href="https://github.com/intelequia/IntelequiaVault/releases" target="_blank">Intelequia Vault</a> by Kepa González; Alberto Mendoza; Víctor Calero; and Aarón Suárez <li><a href="https://github.com/DotNetNuclear/DnnLogAnalyzer/releases" target="_blank">Log Analyzer</a> by Scott Wilkinson <li><a href="https://github.com/ChrisHammond/MessageOfTheDay/releases" target="_blank">Message of the Day</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="https://github.com/mydnn/LiveChat" target="_blank">MyDNN Live Chat</a> by Mohammad Mehdi and Eskandari Jajarm (<em>Winner: MVC category</em>) <li><a href="https://github.com/markmcavoy/ShoutboxSPA/releases" target="_blank">ShoutBox SPA</a> by Mark McAvoy <li><a href="https://github.com/OPSI-srl/UManage/releases" target="_blank">UManage</a> by Davide Espertini, Davide Galimberti, Paolo Roth, and Matteo Benedusi</li></ul> <li>DNN Community Links <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/answers" target="_blank">Community Exchange</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events" target="_blank">DNN Events</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/voice" target="_blank">Community Voice</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forums" target="_blank">Community Forums</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/groups" target="_blank">Working Groups</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/docs/index.html" target="_blank">Documentation Center</a> <li>User Groups (contact me and I’ll help you) <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/" target="_blank">DNN Store</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge" target="_blank">DNN Forge</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/dnnsoftware/" target="_blank">DNN on Github</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/dnncommunity" target="_blank">DNN Community on Github</a></li></ul> <li><a href="http://www.nvquicksite.com/" target="_blank">nvQuickSite</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/nvisionative/nvQuickSite/releases/latest" target="_blank">Download</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/nvisionative/nvQuickSite/wiki" target="_blank">Documentation</a></li></ul> <li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/DavidPoindexter1/a-southern-fried-buffet-of-dnn-goodness-dnn-community-user-groups-more" target="_blank">David’s slide show/presentation</a> </li></ul> <h4>Blogs & Articles</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/debugging-javascript-errors-with-a-modern-browser-and-f12-200" target="_blank">Debugging JavaScript Errors with a Modern Browser and F12</a> by Daniel Mettler <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155327/new-visual-studio-2015-templates-for-dnn-now-with-wizard-for-customizing" target="_blank">New Visual Studio 2015 Templates for DNN, Now with Wizard for Customizing</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155329/using-cloud-storage-for-dnn-images-users-and-other-folders" target="_blank">Using Cloud Storage for DNN Images, Users and Other Folders</a> by Bruce Chapman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155330/community-blog-guidelines" target="_blank">Community Blog Guidelines</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155332/dnn-hangout--february-2016--dnncon-and-dnn-connect-2016-questions-and-answers" target="_blank">DNN Hangout: February 2016</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155331/dnn-hangout--january-2016--dnn-8-release-overview-for-developers" target="_blank">DNN Hangout: January 2016</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155333/and-the-winner-is" target="_blank">And the Winner is…</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155334/dnn8-dnnimagehandlerashx-404" target="_blank">DNN 8 DnnImageHandler.ashx 404</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/3-reasons-why-we-re-moving-from-grunt-to-gulp" target="_blank">3 Reasons Why We're Moving from Grunt to Gulp</a> by Daniel Mettler</li></ul> <h4>Extension Updates</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-photo-gallery-61-image-flickr-picasa-media-slideshow-mobile-dnn-8?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Cross Photo Gallery 6.1</a> by DNNModule.com <li><a href="https://opencontent.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">OpenContent 2.1</a> by Sacha Trauwaen <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/classified-pro-87-ecommerce-store-auction-classified-ads-content-localization-dnn-8?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Classified Pro 8.7 (E-Commerce, Store, Auction, Ads, Content Localization)</a> by DNNModule.com <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/blueimp-carousel-slider-app-202?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Blueimp Carousel Slider App 2.0.2</a> by Daniel Mettler <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/youtube-vimeo-videos-timeline-v02-dnn7-8?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">YouTube Vimeo Timeline</a> by coolDNN <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-paypal-add-on-20?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">DNN PayPal Add-On 2.0</a> by DNN Sharp <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/bluebird" target="_blank">Bluebird JS Library</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/russian-language-pack" target="_blank">DNN Core Russian Language Pack</a> by Roman Yagodin <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/dnn-chat" target="_blank">DNN Chat</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/lessjs" target="_blank">Less.js</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/es6-shim" target="_blank">IE6 Shim</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/2sxc-800-amazing-content-and-apps-9733-9733-9733-9733-9733-rating" target="_blank">2sxc</a> by Daniel Mettler <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/dnnsimplearticle" target="_blank">DNN Simple Article</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/systemjs" target="_blank">SystemJS</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/systemjs-polyfills" target="_blank">SystemJS Polyfills</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/crewstone-codesmith-templates-74" target="_blank">Crewstone Codesmith Templates 7.4</a> by Keith Stone <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/r7documents" target="_blank">R7.Documents</a> by Roman Yagodin <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/doris-responsive-theme-102-unlimited-colors-700-google-fonts-mega-menu-dnn-6-7-8?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Doris Responsive Theme</a> by SpeedyApplication.com <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/unlimited-responsive-dnn-theme-042-v610-retina-shortcodes-bootstrap3-css3animations?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Unlimited Responsive DNN Theme</a> by DNNGo.net <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/bd008-theme-12-colors-business-megamenu-sidemenu-bootstrap-slider-mobile?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">BD008 Theme 12 Colors</a> by JustDNN</li></ul>775DNN Hangout - February 2016 - DNNCon and DNN-Connect 2016 Questions and Answershttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/773/DNN-Hangout-February-2016-DNNCon-and-DNN-Connect-2016-Questions-and-AnswersDotNetNukeSat, 27 Feb 2016 07:22:28 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout February 2016" alt="DNN Hangout February 2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20160217-664x371.jpg"></p> <p>There are two <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> conferences coming up very soon.  <a href="http://dnncon.com" target="_blank">DNNCon</a> is in April, held in Baltimore, Maryland, and <a href="http://dnn-connect.org" target="_blank">DNN-Connect</a> is in Girona, Spain in June.  Our guests are all organizers or co-organizers, and they spend some time with us </p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#33445a5f5f1d4047415c5b5f73545e525a5f1d505c5e">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout (or if you know of someone that should be on the show). <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>Next month, we speak to David Poindexter from <a href="http://www.nvisionative.com/" target="_blank">nvisionative</a>, and a co-leader of the <a href="http://www.southernfrieddnn.com/" target="_blank">Southern Fried DNN user group</a>.  He’s going to talk to us about user groups and other community topics.  However, I hear that he might have a HUGE surprise presentation during the hangout as well. <p><a class="dnnPrimaryAction" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events/dnn-community-user-groups-and-more" target="_blank">Reserve Your Spot</a> <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions. <h2>DNNCon and DNN-Connect 2016 Questions and Answers</h2><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pK0M2Nbe5xU?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://dnncon.com/" target="_blank">DNNCon Baltimore 2016, Baltimore, MD, April 1-2</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/events/2016" target="_blank">DNN-Connect 2016, Girona, Spain, June 2-5</a> <li><a href="http://patapscoresearch.com/" target="_blank">Patapsco Research Group</a> <li><a href="http://bring2mind.net/" target="_blank">Bring to Mind</a> <li><a href="http://www.nvisionative.com/" target="_blank">nvisionative</a> <li>Previous Hangout:  <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/725/DNNHangout-September-2014-Peter-Donker-Introduces-Us-to-the-Blog-Module" target="_blank">Peter Donker Introduces Us to the Blog Module</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/dnn8-contest" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Contest</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/participate/module-contest/community-choice-awards" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Context Voting</a> <li><a href="http://www.southernfrieddnn.com/Blog/TabId/208/PostId/25/sofri-february-meeting-wrap-up-dnn-packager.aspx" target="_blank">Southern Fried DNN User Group: DNN Packager Presentation by Darrell Tunnell</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/donker/generator-dnn-spa-gulp-react" target="_blank">Yeoman DNN Module Template</a> <li>Blog Articles <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155310/visual-studio-appinsights-module-for-dnn" target="_blank">Visual Studio AppInsights Module for DNN</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/new-module-development-templates-for-dnn8" target="_blank">New Module Development Templates for DNN 8</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155317/new-core-module-releases-for-dnn-7-and-8" target="_blank">New Core Module Releases for DNN 7 & 8</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/dnn-connect-2016-call-for-speakers" target="_blank">DNN-Connect 2016 Call for Speakers</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/dnn-connect-2016-early-bird-registration-now-available" target="_blank">DNN-Connect 2016 Early Bird Registration Now Available</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155321/create-a-canonical-url-link-in-dnn-by-using-the-canonicallinkurl-property" target="_blank">Create a Canonical Url Link in Dnn by using the CanonicalLinkUrl property</a></li></ul> <li>Extensions Recently Released (<em>these are not endorsements</em>) <ul> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce 01.10.01</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-75-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Revindex 7.5</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-bulk-mailer-63-newsletter-email-marketing-social-contacts-amazon-ses-dnn-8?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">DNN 8 Newsletter & Email Marketing Module</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnbackup-761-backup-restore-and-clone-dnn-and-evoq-installations?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Evotiva DNNBackup 7.6</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/tabs-pro-21-clean-looking-tabs-with-persistence-and-accordion-flavors?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">DNN Sharp Tabs Pro 2.1</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-article-82-news-blog-media-survey-document-slide-show-content-localization?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Cross Article 8.2</a> <li><a href="http://http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-userfiles-242-flexible-file-and-documents-manager?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Evotiva DNNUserFiles</a> <li><a href="https://ariciepkp.codeplex.com/releases/view/619571" target="_blank">Portal Keeper 4.3.1</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-api-endpoint-12-restful-easy-to-use-apis-builder-for-dnn?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">DNN API Endpoint 2.1</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/classified-pro-86-ecommerce-store-auction-classified-ads-slideshow-content-localization?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Classified Pro 8.6</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/my-tokens-26-custom-dnn-tokens-with-razor-support?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">DNNGlobalStorage 4.1.3</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/my-tokens-26-custom-dnn-tokens-with-razor-support?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">My Tokens 2.6</a></li></ul></li></ul>773DNN Hangout - January 2016 - DNN 8 Release Overview for Developershttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/772/DNN-Hangout-January-2016-DNN-8-Release-Overview-for-DevelopersDotNetNukeSat, 27 Feb 2016 06:37:10 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout January 2016" alt="DNN Hangout January 2016" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20160112-664x374.jpg"></p> <p>In this episode, we decided to have our guest be the topic.  The <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> 8 release was so HUUUUUUGE that we felt that it needed to speak for itself.  DNN 8 brings with it a ton of new features that developers can take advantage of.  These things include new MVC and SPA development patterns.  Patterns that never before existed officially and never before came supported out of the box.</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small.</p> <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#33445a5f5f1d4047415c5b5f73545e525a5f1d505c5e">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout (or if you know of someone that should be on the show).</p> <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>That’s already happened.  See the next post about the next episode.  <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions.</p> <h2>DNN 8 Overview for Developers</h2><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PkUA4FjO2bY?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155310/visual-studio-appinsights-module-for-dnn" target="_blank">AppInsights module for DNN by David Rodriguez</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/dnnsoftware/DNN.Templates/releases" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Template</a> <li><a href="http://www.40fingers.net/Products/DNN-Stylehelper" target="_blank">40 Fingers StyleHelper Theme Object by Timo Breumelhof</a> </li></ul> <p>If any links are missing from the show notes, you can blame Joe.  But if you leave a comment, I’ll be sure to update the post with any missing links.</p>772DNN Hangout - December 2016 - Module Development from a Skinner’s Perspectivehttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/771/DNN-Hangout-December-2016-Module-Development-from-a-Skinners-PerspectiveDotNetNukeWed, 13 Jan 2016 01:27:04 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout: Ralph Williams" border="0" alt="DNN Hangout: Ralph Williams" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20151214-664x347.jpg"></p> <p>While this is nearly a month late in getting posted, the show isn’t any less important.  Not by a longshot.  In fact, it’s one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever done.  In this show, we speak with <a href="http://ralphwilliams.com/" target="_blank">Ralph Williams</a>.  If you’ve been around <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> for any length of time, you know that we all know Ralph for one thing… his amazing theming (skinning) work.  He’s one of the minds behind the initial Day of DotNetNuke branding, technical presentations on best practices as it relates to DNN theming, theming training at all of the recent <a href="http://dnncon.com" target="_blank">DNNCon</a> events, and wrote the theme chapter in <a href="http://amzn.to/1SNp8Gi" target="_blank">the latest DNN book</a>.  In this show, we didn’t speak to Ralph about themes at all.  We spoke about the MODULE that he built.  Not just any module either… a SPA-based, video-centric LMS module!</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="mailto:will.strohl@gmail.com">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout (or if you know of someone that should be on the show). <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>That’s already happened.  See the next post about the next episode.  <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions.</p> <h3>A Skinner’s Perspective After Building Their First DNN SPA Module</h3> <p>And now, let Ralph tell you about “the Angular.”  That’s what he says at 53:51.</p><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uCN2VeAXiQw?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://dnncon.com" target="_blank">DNNCon Baltimore 2016: April 1, 2</a> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/events/2016" target="_blank">DNN-Connect 2016 in Girona, Spain: June 2-5</a>  <li><a href="http://amzn.to/1SNp8Gi" target="_blank">DNN 7 Book</a> <li><a href="http://knockoutjs.com/" target="_blank">KnockoutJS</a> <li><a href="https://angularjs.org/" target="_blank">AngularJS</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/web-services" target="_blank">DNN Web Services</a> <li><a href="http://www.hanselman.com/" target="_blank">Scott Hanselman</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/ralphwilliams/DNNVideoCourseModule/releases" target="_blank">DNN Video Course Module</a> by Ralph Williams <li><a href="https://vimeo.com/" target="_blank">Vimeo</a> <li><a href="https://developer.vimeo.com/" target="_blank">Vimeo API</a> <li><a href="https://vimeo.com/28672218" target="_blank">Ralph’s World-Wide Debut Rap Video</a> <li><a href="http://getbootstrap.com/" target="_blank">Bootstrap</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/client-resource-management-api" target="_blank">Client Resource Manager</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/ChrisHammond/DNNTemplates/releases" target="_blank">Christoc DNN Visual Studio Templates</a> <li><a href="http://darrelltunnell.net/blog/2015/12/01/dnnpackager-getting-started/" target="_blank">DNNPackager by Darrell Tunnell using Nuget</a> <li><a href="http://darrelltunnell.net/blog/2015/04/29/automating-dotnetnuke-deployments-with-octopus-deploy/" target="_blank">Automating DNN Deployments Using Octopus Deploy</a> by Darrell Tunnell</li></ul>771DNN Hangout Special Episode - October 2015 - Building Modules Using the DNN 8 MVC Patternhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/770/DNN-Hangout-Special-Episode-October-2015-Building-Modules-Using-the-DNN-8-MVC-PatternDotNetNukeSat, 17 Oct 2015 02:13:55 GMT<p><img title="DNN 8 MVC Module Development Pattern" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="DNN 8 MVC Module Development Pattern" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20151016-664x292.jpg" width="664" height="292"></p> <p>This is the second of two special episodes of the DNN Hangout, focused on helping <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> developers world-wide to learn more about the DNN 8 module development patterns.  This time, we walked through the MVC development pattern in DNN.  Following this hangout, you should have all of the knowledge you need to get started building your module for the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/dnn8-contest" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Development Contest</a>.  </p> <p><u>Previous Episode</u>:  <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/769/DNN-Hangout-Special-Episode-October-2015-Building-Modules-Using-the-DNN-8-SPA-Pattern" target="_blank">Building Modules Using the DNN 8 SPA Pattern</a></p><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/89zxuyj05RA?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/dnn8-contest" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Development Contest</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/ChrisHammond/DNNTemplates/releases" target="_blank">Christoc’s DNN Module Development Template</a> <li><a href="http://www.asp.net/mvc" target="_blank">ASP.NET MVC (Official Site)</a> <li><a href="https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-us/training-courses/introduction-to-asp-net-mvc-8322?l=nKZwZ8Zy_3504984382" target="_blank">Introduction to ASP.NET MVC (Microsoft Virtual Academy)</a> <li><a href="https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/vs-2015-product-editions.aspx" target="_blank">Visual Studio 2015</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/dnn-80-developer-quick-start" target="_blank">DNN 8 Developer Quick Start Guide</a></li></ul>770DNN Hangout Special Episode - October 2015 - Building Modules Using the DNN 8 SPA Patternhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/769/DNN-Hangout-Special-Episode-October-2015-Building-Modules-Using-the-DNN-8-SPA-PatternDotNetNukeFri, 09 Oct 2015 02:29:18 GMT<p><img title="DNN 8 SPA Module Development Pattern" alt="DNN 8 SPA Module Development Pattern" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20151008-664x292.jpg"></p> <p>Every now and then, we throw in a special episode of DNN Hangout.  These special episodes are normally by request of you or another viewer in our audience.  This time, we didn’t need to wait for a prompt…  With the announcement of the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/dnn8-contest" target="_blank">DNN 8 module development contest</a>, we already knew that people would be more than eager to get started… but before you can get started, you probably need a primer on just how to do that.  That’s the sole purpose of this hangout.</p> <p><u>Next Episode</u>:  <a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/770/DNN-Hangout-Special-Episode-October-2015-Building-Modules-Using-the-DNN-8-MVC-Pattern" target="_blank">Building modules using the DNN 8 MVC pattern</a></p><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UJ02-GTNGmI?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><u>Side Note</u>:  If you talk to, meet, or otherwise run into <a href="https://twitter.com/irobinson" target="_blank">Ian Robinson</a>, please thank him for creating dnndev.me.  The little bit of time that everyone in the community saves with this contribution is pretty awesome!</p> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.seguetech.com/blog/2013/04/18/what-is-single-page-application" target="_blank">What is SPA?</a> <li><a href="http://knockoutjs.com/" target="_blank">KnockoutJS</a> <li><a href="https://angularjs.org/" target="_blank">AngularJS</a> <li><a href="https://facebook.github.io/react/" target="_blank">ReactJS</a> <li><a href="http://reactjs.net/" target="_blank">ReacJS.Net</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/dnn8-contest" target="_blank">DNN 8 Module Contest</a> <li><a href="https://dotnetnuke.codeplex.com/releases/view/617802" target="_blank">DNN 8 CTP 6</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/ChrisHammond/DNNTemplates/releases" target="_blank">Christoc Module Templates</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/manifests" target="_blank">Manifest File</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/dal-2" target="_blank">DAL2</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155247/module-development-in-dnn-8-5--new-tokens-to-support-building-pure-spa-modules" target="_blank">DNN SPA tokens</a> <li><a href="http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/older-versions/build-restful-apis-with-aspnet-web-api" target="_blank">REST WebAPI</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/services-framework-webapi" target="_blank">DNN REST WebAPI</a> <li><a href="http://www.strathweb.com/category/asp-net-web-api/" target="_blank">WebAPI Series by Filip W.</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/dnn-80-developer-quick-start" target="_blank">DNN 8 Developer Quick Start Guide</a></li></ul>769DNN Hangout - October 2015 - Getting Funky with the Form and List Modulehttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/768/DNN-Hangout-October-2015-Getting-Funky-with-the-Form-and-List-ModuleDotNetNukeThu, 08 Oct 2015 03:46:51 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout - October 2015 - Clint Patterson and the Form & List Module" alt="DNN Hangout - October 2015 - Clint Patterson and the Form & List Module" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20151007-664x292.jpg"></p> <p>This month is a hangout that I’m very proud to have been a part of.  For one reason, we announced an exciting DNN 8 module development contest.  A contest that will yield some people in the community a lot of cash.  The other reason, is that I have the honor of interviewing one of my favorite DNN brothers, Clint Patterson.  I think you’ll agree by the end of the hangout – if it takes you that long – that Clint is one of the smartest people in our community, and easily one of the most resourceful, passionate, and sincere members we have.  We are lucky to have him in our community.</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="mailto:will.strohl@gmail.com">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout (or if you know of someone that should be on the show). <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>Next month, we originally were reserving the show for <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> 8.  With that release being pushed to January or so, we’re looking for a guest for November now. <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions. <h3>Getting Funky with Form and List</h3><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bTM4tjjFITk?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h4>Show Notes</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://clintpatterson.com/" target="_blank">Clint Patterson</a> <ul> <li><a href="http://wehuntsc.com/Home" target="_blank">We Hunt SC</a> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/CBPSC" target="_blank">@CBPSC</a> <li>Clint, <a href="http://clintpatterson.com/Blog/Blog-Details/PostId/237/week-1-game-1" target="_blank">playing football</a> <li>His book, <a href="http://amzn.to/1Lm9lX6" target="_blank">American Epidemic: High Maintenance Women</a> <li><a href="http://arrowdesigns.com/" target="_blank">Arrow Consulting & Design</a> <ul> <li><a href="http://arrowdesigns.com/our-team" target="_blank">Meet the Team (rollovers)</a></li></ul> <li><a href="http://www.southernfrieddnn.com/" target="_blank">Southern Fried DNN</a></li></ul> <li>DNN Form & List <ul> <li><a href="http://dnnfnl.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">CodePlex</a> (install packages) <li><a href="https://github.com/DNNCommunity/DNN.FormAndList" target="_blank">Github</a> (latest source)</li></ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/138736/using-dnnmodalshow-in-your-modules-and-content" target="_blank">Using dnnModal.show in your modules and content</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/live-content?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Live Content module</a> by Mandeeps</li></ul> <p>Thank you to <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBuelsing/status/651851625406025728" target="_blank">Mark Buelsing, for your very useful comment</a> during the show, with additional Form and List module examples!</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://elderhs.org/About-Us/Faculty-Staff" target="_blank">Elder High School employee directory</a> <li><a href="http://saintmartin.org/About-Us/Staff-Members" target="_blank">St. Martin of Tours Church staff directory</a></li></ul> <h5>Events</h5> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank"><a href="http://dnncon.com" target="_blank">DNNCon</a> 2016</a> currently in preliminary planning <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155276/announcing-the-dnn-8-module-challenge" target="_blank">DNN 8 module development contest</a> </li></ul> <h5>Articles, News, Blogs</h5> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155269/a-break-with-the-past" target="_blank">A Break with the Past</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155270/announcing-the-dynamic-content-creator" target="_blank">Announcing the Dynamic Content Creator</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155272/vendor-interview-jason-lichon-founding-partner-bluebolt-solutions" target="_blank">Vendor Interview: Jason Lichon, Founding Partner @ BlueBolt Solutions</a> by Aderson Oliveira <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBiwFZrjWoU" target="_blank">DNN News</a> by Aderson Oliveira <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155271/contribute-yes-you-can" target="_blank">Contribute? Yes you can!</a> by Ernst Peter Tamminga <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155275/dnn-742-security-bulletins-released" target="_blank">DNN 7.4.2 Security bulletins released</a> by Cathal Connolly <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155274/dnn-platform-742-is-released" target="_blank">DNN Platform 7.4.2 is Released</a> by Joe Brinkman</li></ul> <h5>Extension Releases</h5> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/content-injection-module-for-dnn" target="_blank">Content Injection Module 2.0.1</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce 1.9.0</a> by Hotcakes Commerce <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-add-on?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Hotcakes Add-On</a> by DNN Sharp <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/?page=0&category=all&stateFilter=all&sort=recreleasedate&tags=javascript" target="_blank">Various JavaScript Libraries</a> by Brian Dukes <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/news-viper?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">News Viper 1.0</a> by Bite the Bullet (Cart Viper) <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/ninja-dnn-backup-and-optimizer-15?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Ninja Backup and Optimizer</a> (free beta access) by OnyakTech <li><a href="http://ariciepkp.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">PortalKeeper 4.2.2</a> by Aricie <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/r7documents" target="_blank">R7.Documents</a> by Roman Yagodin <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/revindex-storefront-74-ecommerce-shopping-cart-store?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Revindex Storefront 7.4</a> by Revindex</li></ul>768DNN Hangout - September 2015 - Miscellaneous DNN News and Goodieshttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/767/DNN-Hangout-September-2015-Miscellaneous-DNN-News-and-GoodiesDotNetNukeThu, 10 Sep 2015 02:31:12 GMT<p><img title="DNN Hangout: September Edition" alt="DNN Hangout: September Edition" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-201509-664x292.png"></p> <p>We had planned to speak with Phillip Becker this month, but he had a personal emergency he had to tend to.  We’ll get that rescheduled for you soon…  Go figure – we got the technical issues solved, and we loose the speaker.  This left us to get creative last minute and come up with a show for you – and we did.  In this show, we pull out some of our tips and tricks, in addition to bringing you the typical <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> news.</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="mailto:will.strohl@gmail.com">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout. <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>In our next scheduled hangout, we’ll be speaking with Clint Patterson, the unofficial official southerner of the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> community. He’s done some very creative things using the Form and List module, and he’s going to show us just how easy that is.  In his own words, we’ll be getting funky with form and list! <p><a class="dnnPrimaryAction" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events/getting-funky-with-form-and-list">Join the Hangout</a> <h3>Site/Extension of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites or extensions to feature in this segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites or extensions.</p> <h2>Miscellaneous DNN News and Goodies</h2><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gXIQG-h8wpo?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://dnnglimpse.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">DNN Glimpse</a> <li><a href="http://getglimpse.com/" target="_blank">Glimpse</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/hismightiness/dnnextensions/wiki" target="_blank">DNN Extensions GitHub Wiki</a> <li><a href="http://dotnetrocks.com/" target="_blank">DotNetRocks Podcast</a> <li><a href="https://pages.github.com/" target="_blank">GitHub Pages</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/DNNCommunity/dnnicons" target="_blank">DNN Icons</a></li></ul> <h4>Events</h4> <ul> <li>DNNCon 2015 – Unfortunately, there’s no update on this yet (if you want to organize it, please let me know) <li><a href="https://hotcakescommerce.com/Community/Events/tabid/58/cid/3641/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Hotcakes Hangout</a></li></ul> <h4>Articles, Videos, and Blogs</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/766/DNN-Hangout-August-2015-Understanding-the-DNN-Platform-Source-Code" target="_blank">Understanding the DNN Platform Source Code</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155262/dnn-800-ctp-4" target="_blank">DNN 8.0.0 CTP 4</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155263/baby-steps" target="_blank">Baby Steps</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155261/vendor-interview-chris-wylie-ceo-accord-lms" target="_blank">Vendor Interview: Chris Wylie, CEO @ Accord LMS</a> by Aderson Oliveira <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155264/what-are-dnx-dnvm-dnu-and-other-aspnet-5-components" target="_blank">What are DNX, DNVM, DNU and other ASP.NET 5 components?</a> by Bruce Chapman</li></ul> <h4>Extension Updates</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/ninja-click-point-15?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Ninja Click Point</a> by OnyakTech <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-video-gallery-67-video-audio-youtube-media-content-localization-html-5-mobile?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Cross Video Gallery</a> by DNNModule.com <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/advanced-visitor-analyser-010100-analytics-tracker-azure?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Advanced Visitor Analyzer</a> by Kevin <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/umanage-000202?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Umanage</a> by OPSI <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/hotcakes-cart-item-count" target="_blank">Hotcakes Cart Item Count skin object</a> by nvisionative <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/hammerflex" target="_blank">HammerFlex</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/2sxc-723-amazing-content-and-apps-9733-9733-9733-9733-9733-rating" target="_blank">2sxc Content</a> by Daniel Mettler <li><a href="https://github.com/hismightiness/dnnextensions/releases/tag/Injection-02-00.00" target="_blank">Content Injection</a> by Will Strohl <li><a href="https://github.com/hismightiness/dnnextensions/releases/tag/Hangout-01.00.02" target="_blank">DNN Hangout</a> by Will Strohl</li></ul>767DNN Hangout - August 2015 - Understanding the DNN Platform Source Codehttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/766/dnn-hangout-august-2015-understanding-the-dnn-platform-source-codeDotNetNukeThu, 27 Aug 2015 06:28:15 GMT<p><img title="Understanding the DNN Platform Source Code" alt="Understanding the DNN Platform Source Code" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20150826-664x292.jpg"></p> <p>Every now and again, we’ll throw in a special episode of DNN Hangout, where we talk about something that we believe will be extra beneficial to the community. Sometimes this will have one or more special guests attached to it, sometimes it won’t. In this special episode, Joe Brinkman and I walk through the source code of <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> platform. It’s grown so much over the years that we realize just how intimidating it can be to someone. After watching this hangout, that intimidation should be at a minimum.</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just be prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="mailto:will.strohl@gmail.com">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout. <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>In our next hangout, we’ll be speaking with a return guest. I heard about and unfortunately had to miss his session at last year’s <a href="http://dnncon.com" target="_blank">DNNCon</a>. He showed everyone his tips and tricks to putting together a socially engaging <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> site, and he used <a href="http://dnn-connect.org" target="_blank">DNN-Connect</a> as an example. Phillip Becker will be joining us and filling us in on the things he learned. <p><a class="dnnPrimaryAction" href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events/how-to-build-a-social-community-using-dnn">Join the Hangout</a> <h3>Site of the Month</h3> <p>We’re always looking for sites to feature in our Site of the Month segment. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites.</p> <h2>Understanding the DNN Platform Source Code</h2><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1n1-pQ6Vgxk?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/contributing-to-the-dnn-platform-using-git-and-github" target="_blank">Contributing to the DNN Platform Using Git and Github</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/github" target="_blank">Github on DNN’s Wiki</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155011/get-involved-in-open-source" target="_blank">Contributing to DNN Platform</a> <li><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/742/DNN-Hangout-May-2015-Managing-Pull-Requests-with-GitHub" target="_blank">Managing Pull Requests with Github</a> <li><a href="https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx" target="_blank">Powershell</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/jbrinkman/posh-build" target="_blank">Posh Build</a> (doesn’t appear to be any check-ins yet) <li><a href="https://posh4dnn.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Posh4DNN</a> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/wiki/how-to-install-dotnetnuke" target="_blank">How to Install DNN</a> <li><a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/" target="_blank">Resharper Visual Studio Plugin</a> <li><a href="https://www.jetbrains.com/buy/opensource/" target="_blank">Resharper for Open Source Developers</a> <li><a href="https://www.devexpress.com/products/coderush/" target="_blank">Coderush Visual Studio Plugin</a> <li><a href="http://vswebessentials.com/" target="_blank">Web Essentials Visual Studio Plugin</a> <li><a href="https://www.nuget.org/" target="_blank">Nuget</a></li></ul>766DNN Hangout - August 2015 - Introducing Aricie’s PortalKeeper Modulehttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/765/dnn-hangout-august-2015-introducing-aricie-s-portalkeeper-moduleDotNetNukeTue, 25 Aug 2015 00:59:46 GMT<p><img title="Jean-Sylvain Boige introduces us to PortalKeeper by Aricie" alt="Jean-Sylvain Boige introduces us to PortalKeeper by Aricie" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/dnnhangout-20150819-664x292.jpg"></p> <p>It’s always exciting for me to meet someone in the <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> community that I haven’t met before. This hangout is one of those times. In this hangout, we speak with Jess (or Jean-Sylvain Boige) of Aricie. He’s the CTO of Aricie and the genius mind behind the module for <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a> called PortalKeeper. I must admit, I didn’t know anything about PortalKeeper before this hangout, but rest assured… this is going to be a pretty standard tool of mine for current and future projects. If you’ve gotten even the beginnings of a technical bone in your body, you’re sure to geek-out just like I did!</p> <h3>Want to Be on the Show?</h3> <p>We are always looking for new people to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an “expert” in anything. Just come prepared to chat with us about anything interesting about DNN, no matter how big or small. </p> <p>Please let me know in the comments or <a href="mailto:will.strohl@gmail.com">via email</a> if you’d like to be on DNN Hangout.</p> <h3>Next Episode</h3> <p>In our next episode, we’ll be having a very special show. Joe and I will be taking a deep dive into the source code of <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/platform" target="_blank">DNN</a>. When it first began, it was a fairly simple project. Not anymore.</p> <p>We’re looking for any special guest to join us for this. You don’t have to do anything, except help us introduce you, and ask questions during the hangout.</p> <p><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/events/understanding-the-dnn-platform-source-code" target="_blank">Join the Hangout</a></p> <h3>Site of the Month</h3> <p>We didn’t have any sites to show off this month. It was mostly my fault for not promoting it as much as I had in the past. I could have shown some that I have, but I much rather highlight yours. Please let me know if you’d like for me to do a quick segment on one of your sites.</p> <h2>Jean-Sylvain Boige: Introducing the PortalKeeper Module</h2><iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xadBtuJYNwg?rel=0" frameborder="0" width="640" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h3>Show Notes</h3> <ul> <li><a href="http://dotnetnuke.aricie.com/" target="_blank">Aricie</a> <li><a href="http://dotnetnuke.aricie.com/en/Products.aspx" target="_blank">Aricie Products</a> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning" target="_blank">Machine learning</a> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence" target="_blank">Artificial intelligence</a> <li><a href="http://dotnetnuke.aricie.com/en/Products/ArticleView/module/portalkeeper.aspx" target="_blank">PortalKeeper</a> <li><a href="http://ariciepkp.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">PortalKeeper on Codeplex</a> <li>MyIA.org (coming soon) <li><a href="http://swagger.io/" target="_blank">Swagger REST API tooling</a> <li><a href="https://github.com/domaindrivendev/Swashbuckle" target="_blank">Swashbuckle for Swagger</a></li></ul> <h4>Events</h4> <ul> <li>DNNCon 2015 – Unfortunately, there’s no update on this yet (if you want to organize it, please let me know)</li></ul> <h4>Articles, Videos, and Blogs</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155257/dnn-742-beta" target="_blank">DNN 7.4.2 Beta</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155255/vendor-interview-will-strohl-co-owner-hotcakes-commerce" target="_blank">Vendor Interview: Will Strohl, Co-Owner @ Hotcakes Commerce</a> by Aderson Oliveira <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community-blog/cid/155256/dnn-800-ctp-3" target="_blank">DNN 8 CTP 3</a> by Joe Brinkman <li><a href="http://dnn-connect.org/community/blogs/to-mvc-or-not-to-mvc" target="_blank">To MVC or Not to MVC</a> by Peter Donker</li></ul> <h4>Extension Updates</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/cross-article-80-news-blog-media-survey-document-slide-show-content-localization?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Cross Article 8.0</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnnupgrade-140-accelerate-and-automate-dnn-upgrades?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Evotiva Upgrade 1.4</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/onyaktech-custom-forms-70?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">OnyakTech Custom Forms 7.0</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/lightbox-gallery-72-mobile-devices-support-responsive-anguarjs-based-spa?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">ZLDNN Lightbox Gallery 7.2</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easy-user-import-20?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">OnyakTech Easy User Import 2.0</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/prodnn-mighty-lms-010003?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">PROdnn Mighty LMS</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/easydnnmaps-13-google-maps-for-dnn?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">EasyDNNMaps 1.3</a> <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/hotcakes-commerce-ecommerce-made-easy?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Hotcakes Commerce 1.8.7</a> (1.9.0 in beta) <li><a href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/dnn-events-module?r=f8bbcdac65f347a39f0d" target="_blank">Events Module</a> by Ernst Peter Tamminga <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/openform" target="_blank">OpenForm</a> by Sacha Trauwaen <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/2sxc-722-amazing-content-and-apps-9733-9733-9733-9733-9733-rating" target="_blank">2sxc 7.2.2</a> by Daniel Mettler <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/christocs-dotnetnuke-development-templates" target="_blank">Christoc's DNN Development Templates</a> by Chris Hammond <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/session-warning" target="_blank">Session Warning</a> by Ainsof So'o <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge/opencontent" target="_blank">OpenContent</a> by Sacha Trauwaen <li><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forge?page=0&category=all&statefilter=all&sort=recreleasedate&tags=javascript" target="_blank">JavaScript Libraries</a> by Brian Dukes</li></ul>765Should You Accept That LinkedIn Connection Request?http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/764/should-you-accept-that-linkedin-connection-requestPersonal BrandingSat, 01 Aug 2015 05:01:58 GMT<p><img title="Bruce Lee: " alt="Bruce Lee: " src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/bruce-lee-opportunities-01-664x292.jpg" /></p> <p>In most social networks, connecting with someone else can feel like a personal decision.&nbsp; After all, if you accept a friend request in Facebook, you&rsquo;ve just given access to all of your &ldquo;private&rdquo; images and updates.&nbsp; They&rsquo;ll see that embarrassing photo of you at the beach.&nbsp; {GASP!}&nbsp; This has trained us to be weary of who we allow to be &ldquo;connected&rdquo; with us online.&nbsp; So much so that some people have private Twitter accounts.&nbsp; (Something that I have yet to understand.)</p> <h3>Six Degrees of Separation</h3> <p>The way LinkedIn was created was based upon the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation" target="_blank">six degrees of separation</a>, the theory that everything is somehow 6 steps or less connected to other things.&nbsp; Do you remember the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/tech/web/kevin-bacon-six-degrees-sxsw/" target="_blank">Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon</a> game that people once played?&nbsp; LinkedIn takes advantage of that theory, by connecting professionals that otherwise might not be able to be connected, for the end goal of exposing new opportunities to each other.&nbsp; They even display it to you when looking at other peoples profiles.&nbsp; For example, it was interesting to see just how close I am to knowing CEO&rsquo;s of major companies, like Facebook, Yahoo, and Microsoft.</p> <p><a href="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-connections-01-1084x463.jpg" target="_blank"><img title="I'm only 1-2 degrees away from being connected to some well-known CEO's" alt="I'm only 1-2 degrees away from being connected to some well-known CEO's" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-connections-01-1084x463_thumb.jpg" /></a></p> <p>What if I had an amazingly ground-breaking idea or opportunity for one of them, or vice-versa?&nbsp; LinkedIn makes it possible to do what wasn&rsquo;t imaginable 15-20 years ago.&nbsp; We can find each other through mutual connections.&nbsp; For example, I can ask Mike Earhart to help get me a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg.&nbsp; Without these connections, I wouldn&rsquo;t know how to even begin such a task, much less the right person to contact to make it happen.</p> <p>In a real world application of this idea, your opportunities probably won&rsquo;t involve Facebook or Microsoft &ndash; but the principle is the same.&nbsp; You might be looking for that next opportunity, or it might be looking for you.&nbsp; </p> <h3>Now How About That LinkedIn Connection Request?</h3> <p>In general, I&rsquo;d tell you to accept pretty much every single LinkedIn request you get.&nbsp; This is pretty much the rule I live by myself.&nbsp; The only connections I turn down are the few that look obviously spammy.&nbsp; You should also never be afraid to ask for a LinkedIn connection, and never turn down an inbound connection request.&nbsp; </p> <p>You simply never know how that connection might turn into something unexpectedly amazing &ndash; like your next job, the co-founder of your next startup, your foot in the door at the next client, or your savior when you need some critical information during your next project.&nbsp; They might even be the key to you getting introduced to a high-powered CEO.&nbsp; </p> <p>If you&rsquo;re using LinkedIn correctly, these same connections could also amplify your reach to other people when they like, comment on, or share your updates.</p> <p>Oh, and by the way&hellip; there&rsquo;s no harm to accepting anyone&rsquo;s request.&nbsp; If they become annoying or are spammers, LinkedIn makes it easy for you to block or remove them.</p> <h3>Wait a Second, What About the Spammers?</h3> <p>Out of all of the major social networks, LinkedIn appears to have the least spammers as far as I can tell.&nbsp; At least, I don&rsquo;t run into them a whole lot.&nbsp; For the most part, the profiles appear to be real people.&nbsp; Now, some of them are simply there to generate more sales for their business, but they&rsquo;re real people, with a real profile, and other real profiles connected to them.</p>764Inbox Zero Principle of Leadershiphttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/763/inbox-zero-principle-of-leadershipLeadershipFri, 31 Jul 2015 05:33:14 GMT<p><img title="Computer closed, work done" alt="Computer closed, work done" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/computer-work-done-01-664x292.jpg" /></p> <p>There are numerous ways as a leader to measure yourself, your progress, and your goals.&nbsp; Not all of them are scientific, but they give you a way to move forward to improve yourself.&nbsp; Sometimes you will have the benefit of measurable progress indicators, and luckily, your email inbox is one of them.&nbsp; You can easily use your inbox to gauge several things, including when you need to delegate and focus on specific areas of the business.</p> <p>Most of use our inboxes in similar ways.&nbsp; Our incoming emails are tasks that need to be taken care of.&nbsp; They might be related to any aspect of your daily duties, but all-in-all, your emails are your first measurable piece of information that you can use to determine how well you&rsquo;re performing in the organization.&nbsp; Since we pretty much all line in a world where leaders are expected to wear multiple &ldquo;hats&rdquo; in the company, this is perhaps one of your most important barometers for your personal success.</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Inbox Organization</strong></p> <p>That said, we all use our inboxes differently.&nbsp; Personally, I used to spend time going through emails, categorizing them, putting them into folders, building rules for specific ones, and so on.&nbsp; I eventually found this to be an incredible waste of my time though.&nbsp; Since then, I use a much simpler email organization system.&nbsp; I have a single rule in my inbox for a specific type of email that I almost never need to even look at.&nbsp; Beyond that, every single email I get goes into and stays in my inbox.&nbsp; Anything &ldquo;unread&rdquo; is not yet complete.&nbsp; Now, I never have any issues finding emails, and I spend a fraction of the time I used to in my email.</p> </blockquote> <h3>Inbox Zero</h3> <p>When you first begin at any organization, you can take on all kinds of responsibilities.&nbsp; No one yet knows what you are supposed to do, including you.&nbsp; What begins as a daily blessing of continuous inboxes of emails that are all processed.&nbsp; Eventually, that scale unbalances itself though, and you find yourself overflowing with email.&nbsp; On the rare occasion, you&rsquo;ll find yourself able to &ldquo;clear out&rdquo; your inbox.&nbsp; This is an exciting time for most of us.&nbsp; We obsessively brag about having hit &ldquo;inbox zero.&rdquo;&nbsp; Our inbox doesn&rsquo;t have any leftover tasks.&nbsp; On any given day, you&rsquo;ll find an obscene amount of these people I&rsquo;m describing <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InboxZero?src=hash" target="_blank">on Twitter (#InboxZero)</a>.</p> <blockquote lang="en" class="twitter-tweet"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr">All this coffee is paying off. I have reached that place where smugness &amp; accomplishment meet: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/inboxzero?src=hash">#inboxzero</a>.</p> &mdash; Andrew Giambarba (@andymiami) <a href="https://twitter.com/andymiami/status/626861168422948864">July 30, 2015</a></blockquote> <p>It&rsquo;s not realistic to get to inbox zero on a daily basis, but it should be happening often enough that it&rsquo;s not a cause for celebration, and none of the emails in your inbox are people asking you if you got their email.&nbsp; </p> <p>Now that we are all on the same page with what inbox zero is, what does it mean when you can&rsquo;t there?&nbsp; </p> <h3>Why Inbox Zero Is So Important</h3> <p><img title="Inbox zero" style="padding-left: 0.5em; display: inline; float: right;" alt="Inbox zero" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/inbox-zero-250x167.jpg" align="right" />At the end of the day, inbox zero is your measurement of how well you&rsquo;re doing as a leader.&nbsp; You should strive for inbox zero every day.&nbsp; If you find yourself trending away from it, you need to make some changes.&nbsp; Everyone within and outside of your company is one of your customers.&nbsp; Your team and co-workers are your customers, and your customers are your customers.&nbsp; Every time you&rsquo;re not able to respond to one of them, or the longer it takes to do so, the worse you are serving your customers.&nbsp; Unhappy customers mean bad business, no matter how you look at it.</p> <p>The more you can get to inbox zero, the better your business is doing and the more you&rsquo;ll be able to focus on aspects of your job and business that matter but are being overlooked.&nbsp; Oh, and you&rsquo;re quality of life will increase as well.</p> <p>Here are some causes of not being able to get to inbox zero.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s very important to identify the reasons so that you can address the issue appropriately.</p> <h4>An Area of the Business is Doing Well or Not Well Enough</h4> <p>When things are doing excessively well or poorly in any area of the business, you&rsquo;ll find the impact to be the same on your inbox.&nbsp; Both are problems, but only one is a good problem to have.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll be flooded with conversations and questions about how to fix the problems.&nbsp; The fixes for these issues will all be unique, but at least you know that this is a problem that has a solution.&nbsp; </p> <h4>You&rsquo;re a Micromanager</h4> <p>There&rsquo;s no two ways about it&hellip;&nbsp; Many people that hold leadership positions are micromanagers.&nbsp; The irony here is that most of those people don&rsquo;t even realize it.&nbsp; After all, your team wouldn&rsquo;t dare tell you that you are.&nbsp; I haven&rsquo;t met a micromanager yet that would react positively or constructively to that kind of feedback.&nbsp; </p> <p>If you&rsquo;re finding that you&rsquo;re routing too many approvals and reviews through your inbox, it&rsquo;s probably time for a change.&nbsp; Either you&rsquo;ve hired your staff poorly, or you need to learn how to trust the members of your team.&nbsp; Both problems can mean the end of your business or department.&nbsp; </p> <p>If none of the other causes here resonate with you, I have news for you.&nbsp; You&rsquo;re a micromanager and you need to stop.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll only hire and retain people that enjoy that kind of management (they&rsquo;re not model employees), and the good people will eventually quit &ndash; no matter how much money you throw at them.</p> <h4>Your Training Program/Materials/Process Need Creation or Updating</h4> <p><img title="Corporate training" style="padding-left: 0.5em; display: inline; float: right;" alt="Corporate training" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/corporate-training-01-250x188.jpg" align="right" />When you onboard new people, they&rsquo;ll be a &ldquo;time suck&rdquo; for you and your team.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s inevitable, even with the most well-architected training and onboarding program in place.&nbsp; However, if you don&rsquo;t have an onboarding and ongoing training program, that time suck is never going to go away.&nbsp; In fact, it will get worse over time, as your staff gets more and more responsibilities.&nbsp; You&rsquo;re constantly going to be playing goalie with issues related to your team.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m sure you have better things to spend your time on.</p> <p>You need to have and constantly update training materials and processes for all levels of your organization and departments.&nbsp; Not doing this is the equivalent of building a house without insulation.&nbsp; You&rsquo;re constantly going to be leaking energy (money).</p> <h4>Too Many People Are Reporting to You</h4> <p>We&rsquo;ve all heard the saying, &ldquo;too many chiefs and not enough Indians.&rdquo;&nbsp; This refers to organizations whose management team outnumbers the other members of the company.&nbsp; You might be suffering from the opposite, where you have too many managers or non-managers reporting directly to you.&nbsp; When this is the case, you will be spending all of your time managing and none of your time working on leading the company through the next 2-5 years.&nbsp; Ideally, you should have no more than 5-7 people reporting directly to you at any given time.&nbsp; This allows you to <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3032972/hit-the-ground-running/why-managers-should-spend-exactly-6-hours-a-week-with-each-employee" target="_blank">spend the invaluable time with each of the people you directly lead</a>.&nbsp; Having any more than that almost guarantees that none of them will be as successful as they should be, and neither will you.&nbsp; </p> <h4>You Are Doing Too Much</h4> <p>If you&rsquo;re any good at what you do, it&rsquo;s very likely that you&rsquo;re trying to do as much of that as you can.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s difficult not to.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s an amazing amount of satisfaction in getting things done, and the more you get done, the more of that satisfaction you have.&nbsp; This is because of <a href="http://www.linkdex.com/blog/the-psychology-of-gamification/" target="_blank">the psychology behind gamification</a> &ndash; our desire that&rsquo;s generated through the constant feedback loop of accomplishment.&nbsp; Like micromanagement, you need to stop this too.</p> <p>If you&rsquo;re doing too much in the company, then you&rsquo;re doing everyone in the company a disservice.&nbsp; Your knowledge and skill is not getting spread.&nbsp; People in the company and outside of the company come directly to you for answers and direction.&nbsp; Your team doesn&rsquo;t know how to do what you&rsquo;re doing, and they&rsquo;ll never learn enough for you to trust them.</p> <p>Forget your inbox, your company or department won&rsquo;t be able to scale beyond you.&nbsp; You need to begin to let go of some of the responsibilities that you&rsquo;ve taken on, and trust your team to get them done for you.&nbsp; Delegate.&nbsp; Speaking of delegation&hellip;</p> <h4>You Need to Hire</h4> <p>Every company goes through growing pains.&nbsp; Well, unless you&rsquo;re not growing.&nbsp; Assuming you are growing, you&rsquo;ll never be rid of the pains that come with the different stages of your company&rsquo;s growth.&nbsp; Part of this pain is the recurring realization that you need more people to spread duties across.&nbsp; When you find yourself dedicating too much time to specific areas of the business, or your department, it may be time to look for someone that specializes in that area.&nbsp; This will allow you to focus on other areas that need your attention.</p> <p>[Image: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hyperdashery/3455644690/" target="_blank">hyperdashery</a>]</p>763Know Your ABB’s: Always Be Branding!http://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/762/know-your-abb-s-always-be-brandingPersonal BrandingThu, 30 Jul 2015 05:17:48 GMT<p><img title="A filtered view of yourself" alt="A filtered view of yourself" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/will-strohl-camera-01-664x292.jpg"></p> <p>When people look at you, they see you brand, whether intentional or not.  It’s a lot like looking at things through a camera lense.  It’s a similar thing when you look at any successful business.  No matter if you see it’s sign on the side of the road, in an ad on a website or billboard, or you visit their booth at a conference – you know where you are and who you’re interacting with.  When you walk into any In-N-Out location or visit their website, you can feel their brand all around you.  You’ll never look at one and confuse it with Burger King or McDonald’s.  When you think about your personal brand, you need to attempt to achieve this as best you can.  Be the CMO of your brand!</p> <h3>What You Wear</h3> <p><img title="Steve Jobs & Mark Zuckerberg's brand style" style="float: right; padding-left: 0.5em; display: inline" alt="Steve Jobs & Mark Zuckerberg's brand style" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/zuker-jobs-200x411.jpg" align="right">There are a few notable people that we’d all recognize who were masters of their personal brand.  It wasn’t always because they were trying to do anything related with branding – sometimes it was purely functional – personal branding was the happy accident.  <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5830132/the-evolution-of-steve-jobs-clothing/" target="_blank">Steve Jobs</a> is probably the most well-known, with his black turtle necks, loose-fitting jeans, and New Balance tennis shoes.  <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/11217273/Facebooks-Mark-Zuckerberg-Why-I-wear-the-same-T-shirt-every-day.html" target="_blank">Mark Zuckerberg</a> wears the same grey shirt mostly everyday.  Johnny Cash became known as “the man in black” for the very reason that the phrase suggests.  And Dean Kamen (he invented the Segwey) always was seen wearing jeans with his denim shirts.  These people embodied what was to become their personal brand, every day.</p> <p>When I took over as president of a little known user group in Orlando, it had maybe 20 members, 9 of which you might see together at any given moment.  I took this responsibility seriously.  I wanted to grow the user group as fast and as large as I could.  I quickly learned and employed numerous techniques to do this.  One of the primary things I did was go to any other user group event in my area, and when I did, I always wore the same shirt, jeans, and matching shoes.  The shirt had the user group logo on it – large and pronounced.  Whenever you saw me at one of these events, you knew what I was there to represent.  You were aware of the user group I was leading.  </p> <p>This was only one of many things I did, but it worked incredibly well.  We ended up having hundreds of members in our mailing list, a live streamed monthly meeting, advertising in the other user groups, regular members that would drive as far as 3 hours to a weeknight meeting, and a full board before I handed the reigns to the next leader.</p> <h3>How You Look and How You Sound</h3> <p>This is more related to the ways you’re represented when you’re not directly representing yourself.  This includes your personal website, social media profiles/bios, and so on.  Every surface, laptop, tablet, slide background, and even the moleskin notebook you might be carrying is an opportunity to showcase your personal brand to the people around you.  Don’t waste the opportunity.</p> <p>I don’t represent the user group any longer, but I do represent an e-commerce company right now.  When you see me speak at events or visit clients, there’s no mistaking the brand I am projecting to you, and you won’t forget me.</p> <p><img title="Will Strohl speaking at an open source conference" alt="Will Strohl speaking at an open source conference" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/DSC_1803.jpg"></p> <p>If you have a personal website, you should make every effort for it to represent who you are.  It should also use photography, content, and colors that reinforce the personal brand you’re trying to build.  Your emails should all reflect the same branding you’ve settled on, and so on. </p> <p>When you decide to have an avatar, <a href="/Blog/PostId/760/avoid-the-7-deadly-sins-of-linkedin-photos" target="_blank">follow the LinkedIn best practices</a>, and make sure it’s the same avatar on all of your public profiles.  Also do the same with profile backgrounds and bio’s, if possible.  Keep them for long periods of time.  Every time you change your bio or avatar, people end up having to spend time getting to to know your brand again.</p> <p>If you have a laptop or tablet that will be sitting in front of potential clients or opportunities, use a service like <a href="https://goo.gl/LkvOcP" target="_blank">SkinIt</a> to brand it.  It’s fun, it’s cheap, and it’s super easy.  (Also, it comes off easily.)  If you don’t do this, you’re wasting an incredibly effective way to spread your and reinforce your brand.  Like trailers in front of a movie, this is a simple method to connect with your captive audience.</p> <p>You’ll undoubtedly meet people that could help spread your brand for you.  You’ll need to <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-perfect-way-to-introduce-yourself-in-any-setting.html" target="_blank">introduce yourself</a>.  Like a business with their tag line, you should have an easy-to-remember phrase or short sentence that describes who you are and what you do.  If you don’t, recommending you will be much more difficult.  There should be nothing cocky about your introduction, but you really should think of something memorable – but please leave out ninja and guru (even expert is pushing it).  When you say your introduction, do it with confidence and always keep eye contact.  </p> <p>Another part of your brand will often go overlooked… Your brand should be and project positivity.  It should help connect others.  Sure, a negative or controversial post will get a lot of likes, but it’s simply catering to the lowest common denominator of human nature.  In the end, it won’t inspire people, and it won’t reflect the best parts of you.  Your social currency is very valuable.  Every word you say costs you.  Spend it wisely.</p> <p>Just to sum this up, I’m not here to suggest that you should wear the same clothing everyday.  However, you should have a consistent style in what you wear, what you say, and what you do. The whole point of this is that when someone needs to recommend someone like you – they remember you for the right reasons and recommend you before anyone else!</p>762Embracing the Jack of All Trades in Yourselfhttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/761/embracing-the-jack-of-all-trades-in-yourselfPersonal BrandingThu, 23 Jul 2015 06:46:11 GMT<p><img title="What would you say you do here?" alt="What would you say you do here?" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/office-space-bobs-01-664x292.png" /></p> <p>This article isn&rsquo;t for everyone, but if you&rsquo;ve found yourself reading this far, you probably consider yourself a jack-of-all-trades, or someone has said that about you.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a double-edged sword to be known as someone who can do everything.&nbsp; As the saying goes, &ldquo;Jack-of-all-trades, master of none.&rdquo;&nbsp; When you&rsquo;re good at a lot of things, it&rsquo;s highly unlikely that you&rsquo;re an expert at any one of those things.&nbsp; This makes you difficult to hire in most cases, but don&rsquo;t fret.&nbsp; This also makes you one of the most valuable people in any company you find yourself in.</p> <p>If you&rsquo;re not already inherently a jack-of-all-trades, it&rsquo;s probably not something you should aspire to be.&nbsp; It requires a special kind of personality and a large investment of your time.&nbsp; Every company needs both jacks-of-all-trades (or Jills), just as much as they need people that are focused completely on mastering specific jobs.&nbsp; Whatever you naturally aspire to today is what you should continue to focus on.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t try to be something you&rsquo;re not.&nbsp; It usually won&rsquo;t work out in the long run.</p> <h3>Why You&rsquo;re So Valuable</h3> <p><img title="Swiss army knife" style="display: inline; float: right;" alt="Swiss army knife" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/swiss-army-knife.jpg" align="right" />When you&rsquo;re already filling a role somewhere, being the jack-of-all-trades makes you one of the best resources or investments in the company.&nbsp; You&rsquo;re their Swiss army knife.&nbsp; As an example, instead of hiring a sales representative, they might have also gotten a data analyst, marketing automation manager, and a sales engineer.&nbsp; This allows your superiors to leverage you in many more ways than just the job your were hired to do.&nbsp; This gets you entrenched into the company in ways that you might not have imagined.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll be making a difference by working laterally across departments, ensuring the success of the company.&nbsp; No matter what your title is, this a great feeling!&nbsp; (And it also means that the CEO knows your name, for the right reasons.)</p> <h3>Why You&rsquo;re Such a Risky Hire</h3> <p>When your r&eacute;sum&eacute; or profile appears in front of a hiring manager, the prospect of having you join the team is an incredible risk.&nbsp; Think about it&hellip;&nbsp; Why do they want a Swiss army knife when they&rsquo;re looking for a screwdriver or a saw?</p> <p>They have the responsibility of hiring someone to fill a specific role.&nbsp; It might be a sales account manager.&nbsp; If you come in saying that you&rsquo;re great at that and 3 other things, then you put them in a precarious situation.&nbsp; Their reputation is at stake &ndash; maybe even their job.&nbsp; If they hire wrong, they might not only get reprimanded for it, but they appear that they don&rsquo;t know how to hire people, and they might even have ended up wasting a great deal of company resources getting you trained &ndash; only to let you go.&nbsp; </p> <p>When a hiring manager is looking at candidates, they need to first know that the person will be the absolute best hire for the primary position.&nbsp; This is the equivalent of your daily commute in the morning.&nbsp; Sure, you have about 100 ways to get to work, but only 1 way is the safest, most consistent route to get you to work on time everyday.&nbsp; You generally choose the path of least risk.&nbsp; </p> <h3>How You Make it Work for You</h3> <p>When you&rsquo;re a jack-of-all-trades, you need to come into hiring situations like an illusionist.&nbsp; You need to show the hiring manager what they expect to see.&nbsp; When you get the gig, you then do the reveal &ndash; showing them that they not only made the right decision, but they made the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">best</span> decision bringing you onto the team!&nbsp; </p> <h4>Don&rsquo;t Let the Secret Out (Yet)</h4> <p>This is not a one-size-fits-all formula, working in every scenario.&nbsp; You need to be flexible.&nbsp; Sometimes, you hold your cards close to the chest, only exposing your toolbox of skills once you&rsquo;re on the team.&nbsp; Other times, you discover that you need to open part of your toolbox during the interview.&nbsp; Whatever you do, NEVER open your toolbox until you get the interview.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because you <span style="text-decoration: underline;">won&rsquo;t</span> get the interview.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s rare that companies are actually looking for a jack-of-all-trades.&nbsp; </p> <h4>Choose One</h4> <p>If you&rsquo;re great at 4 things, weigh them all out.&nbsp; Think of it like this.&nbsp; If you could only choose one of those things to do for the rest of your like, which one would make you the most happy?&nbsp; Which one are you the most passionate about?&nbsp; Which one would you be excited to wake up and do tomorrow morning?&nbsp; If you need to, make a list for each.&nbsp; Just figure it out.&nbsp; </p> <p>If you&rsquo;re having trouble choosing one, think about doing some role playing with a friend or colleague.&nbsp; Have them interview you for the individual positions.&nbsp; If you do this right, you&rsquo;ll find that the one you should choose is likely the one you have to work the least at when faced with hard questions.</p> <h4>Focus On Your Choice</h4> <p>When you determine which one you need to focus on, the next step is to customize your LinkedIn profile and r&eacute;sum&eacute; to cater to that job.&nbsp; Even if you have other jobs in your history, do what you can to work in keywords, phrases, and skill sets that relate to your chosen profession.&nbsp; If you need help coming up with terminology for it, search around for job listings and descriptions that match what you&rsquo;re looking for.&nbsp; </p> <p>If you want to be thorough, have versions of your r&eacute;sum&eacute; customized for your other complimentary professions drafted as well.&nbsp; This will help you if you come across a potentially great opportunity that you really want to be considered for &ndash; but it matches a job you chose to not focus on.</p> <h4>Iterate</h4> <p>As you go through this process, you won&rsquo;t get it right the first time.&nbsp; Apply these changes and test them out.&nbsp; Figure out what worked, and what didn&rsquo;t.&nbsp; Then update accordingly.&nbsp; </p>761Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of LinkedIn Photoshttp://www.willstrohl.com/Blog/PostId/760/avoid-the-7-deadly-sins-of-linkedin-photosPersonal BrandingWed, 22 Jul 2015 06:13:53 GMT<p><img title="Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of LinkedIn Photos" alt="Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins of LinkedIn Photos" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-photo-collage-664x292.png" /></p> <p>In many ways, LinkedIn is just like every other social network.&nbsp; It allows you to create a profile.&nbsp; You add details about yourself, upload your preferred photo, and connect with other people.&nbsp; You post status updates, and like and/or comment on updates by others.&nbsp; However, as we continuously point out on this site, LinkedIn is not like every other social network.&nbsp; You need to carefully consider how you update your profile on LinkedIn, beginning with your profile photo.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m using actual profile images that I&rsquo;ve found on LinkedIn, in my &ldquo;People You May Know&rdquo; listing.&nbsp; They are all professionals, including: managers, executives, owners, salespeople, marketers, customer service representatives, and others.</p> <blockquote> <p>I&rsquo;ll obviously not be exposing names or anything, but if you find yourself here and would prefer to not be highlighted here, please just let me know and I&rsquo;ll remove your public photo from my site.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s not my intent to insult anyone here - only to help.&nbsp; (However, if you feel this way, this should be a clear indication that you&rsquo;re falling into one of the categories below.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Don&rsquo;t tale these tips lightly.&nbsp; Unless you don&rsquo;t need new opportunities, or your brand speaks for itself (e.g., world famous actor, CEO, or author), you should probably apply the tips here carefully.</p> <h3><img title="Default profile image on LinkedIn" style="padding-left: 0.5em; display: inline; float: right;" alt="Default profile image on LinkedIn" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-default-profile-image.png" align="right" />Sin #1: Using the Default Profile Image</h3> <p>Unfortunately, LinkedIn can&rsquo;t read our minds and it doesn&rsquo;t know what we look like.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s up to us to tell LinkedIn how we want to be represented.&nbsp; Like with everything else that you do and don&rsquo;t do, the effort you put in here will reflect directly upon you and your character.&nbsp; It shows how much you care about how you&rsquo;re perceived online.&nbsp; It helps people understand how much &ldquo;attention to detail&rdquo; you practice.&nbsp; Above all, it&rsquo;s your opportunity to stand out.&nbsp; Make sure you do it in a good way.</p> <h3>Sin #2: Using an Outdated Photo</h3> <p><img title="Sin #2: Using an Outdated Photo" alt="Sin #2: Using an Outdated Photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-outdated-664x332.png" /></p> <p>It&rsquo;s not always clear if a photo is actually old, or if it is simply poorly composed in some way (see below).&nbsp; However, if it appears to be outdated, it&rsquo;s a safe assumption for one to make to assume that your entire profile is also outdated.&nbsp; Not having an updated photo also is a subtle queue that you&rsquo;re not okay with having your photo taken.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t worry, you&rsquo;re not alone.&nbsp; I couldn&rsquo;t find any statistics on it, but I would guess that there&rsquo;s somewhere around a 70/30 split with people that like their photo taken.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t have to like your photo being taken, but you DO need to have a good one on your profile.&nbsp; A good one means one that actually reflects what you look like today.</p> <p>Imagine working with a prospective client over the phone.&nbsp; After weeks or months of hard work online, you finally get the chance to work with them and you need to meet face-to-face.&nbsp; They&rsquo;ve looked you up.&nbsp; The moment they meet you, the last thing you want is them questioning your integrity simply because you don&rsquo;t look like your photo.&nbsp; (Even if it is silly for them to do so.)&nbsp; Keep your best foot forward and have a current photo on your profile instead.</p> <h3>Sin #3: Using a Blurry Photo</h3> <p><img title="Sin #3 Using a Blurry Photo" alt="Sin #3 Using a Blurry Photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-blurry-664x166.png" /></p> <p>It should go without saying, but a blurry photo is not a good way to represent who you are.&nbsp; In most cases, I&rsquo;ve found that people that have blurry photos simply don&rsquo;t like their pictures taken &ndash; but a blurry photo and an old photo will have a similar result.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll notice though, that these photos would be pretty good if they weren&rsquo;t blurred.&nbsp; Having a blurred photo signifies to people that you either don&rsquo;t care how your profile appears, or you&rsquo;re too lazy to make it any better.&nbsp; In either case, it&rsquo;s a simple fix here to prevent people from passing this kind of unfair judgment on you.&nbsp; </p> <h3>Sin #4: Using a Upsized Photo</h3> <p><img title="Sin #4: Using an Upsized Photo" alt="Sin #4: Using an Upsized Photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-upsized-664x166.png" /></p> <p>Upsizing a photo is when you make a photo larger than the actual dimensions of the photo.&nbsp; This results in a highly distorted version of the photo, like the first example.&nbsp; In other cases, LinkedIn realizes that your uploaded photo is too small.&nbsp; This results in a background being applied to your photo.&nbsp; As you can tell, this doesn&rsquo;t represent you well.&nbsp; It also may signal to prospective opportunities that you&rsquo;re not capable of working with technology, or not resourceful enough to work around it.&nbsp; Regardless to whether this is a valid way for someone to look at you, you can avoid this altogether by simply getting a friend to help you generate and upload a properly sized photo.</p> <h3>Sin #5: Not Using a Photo of You</h3> <p><img title="Sin #5: Not Using a Photo of You" alt="Sin #5: Not Using a Photo of You" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-not-you-664x332_thumb.png" /></p> <p>The whole point of LinkedIn is to have a public representation of why you are the best candidate for that new job, contract, or other opportunity.&nbsp; If you were in a room full of people, you wouldn&rsquo;t be able to site there with a logo over your face, or have your kids sitting there on your behalf.&nbsp; If you did this, you most certainly wouldn&rsquo;t be the person chosen for the opportunity.&nbsp; Why would you choose to do this on your LinkedIn profile?&nbsp; </p> <p>Unless you&rsquo;re a graphic designer (and even then it&rsquo;s still questionable), LinkedIn isn&rsquo;t the place to express yourself using avatars of yourself, stock photography, symbols, or family photos.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s what Facebook and Twitter are for.&nbsp; Your LinkedIn profile photo should look like what you&rsquo;d want people to think of you on your first day on the job.&nbsp; </p> <h3>Sin #6: Using an Unprofessional Photo</h3> <p><img title="Sin #6: Using an Unprofessional Photo" alt="Sin #6: Using an Unprofessional Photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-unprofessional-664x332.png" /></p> <p>If I wrote this article even as recent as a year ago, I might have only been able to find examples of people at parties.&nbsp; There are still plenty of those on LinkedIn.&nbsp; Luckily, it seems that most of us are getting smarter about the kind of photo we use for our profile.&nbsp; The examples here are not nearly as unprofessional as they could have been.&nbsp; When people are looking at your profile, I think we&rsquo;ve established that they will be judging you.&nbsp; You don&rsquo;t want them making assumptions on why you took the photo, where you are, or what you were thinking to post it in the first place.&nbsp; You want them focused on the experience and value you can bring to them.</p> <p>Don&rsquo;t post photos of you during sports, vacation, at parties or weddings.&nbsp; If you happen to be wearing a tux and have a friend take a photo of you, that&rsquo;s exactly what people see.&nbsp; If you appear to be an extra in a hip hop video, scaling Mount Everest, or chilling on a Hawaiian shore, that&rsquo;s what people will see.</p> <p>Make sure you look like a professional in your photo, in a professional setting.&nbsp; Doing anything else is the equivalent of walking into an interview in a tank top, sandals, and shorts.&nbsp; You won&rsquo;t be getting the gig.</p> <h3>Sin #7: Using a Poorly Composed Photo</h3> <p><img title="Sin #7: Using a Poorly Composed Photo" alt="Sin #7: Using a Poorly Composed Photo" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-poorly-composed-664x332.png" /></p> <p>Poorly composed doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean that the photo has bad lighting or appears to be squished.&nbsp; It might also be your pose, background setting, not being cropped close enough, or simply being too creative.&nbsp; People don&rsquo;t look at LinkedIn to see how creative you are.&nbsp; They want to see that you fit in with their idea of you working with the rest of the team.&nbsp; Sure, there will be fun and creative times &ndash; but that&rsquo;s not what they&rsquo;re looking for.&nbsp; That comes after you put your best foot forward, earning the opportunity.&nbsp; </p> <p>In the meantime, make sure that you are clearly visible in the photo.&nbsp; Make sure it&rsquo;s not squished, and it crops you close enough to tell what you look like.&nbsp; Having some lights behind the camera will help too.&nbsp; Also, please&hellip; PLEASE smile in your photo.&nbsp; A partial smile usually works the best.&nbsp; Otherwise, you run the risk of having your photo look like a mug shot.&nbsp; </p> <h3>Simple Tips to Get a Good Photo</h3> <p><img title="Great Examples of LinkedIn Profile Photos" alt="Great Examples of LinkedIn Profile Photos" src="http://www.willstrohl.com/Portals/1/LiveBlog/1142/linkedin-good-examples-664x332.png" /></p> <p>In addition to some of the tips above, don&rsquo;t use a selfie, webcam photo, or anything that even remotely looks like one.&nbsp; It only takes a few moments to get a good photo of you.&nbsp; Put on some professional clothes and bribe your friend, roommate, or significant other with some pizza or something.&nbsp; (And take at least 20-30 photos. Only a couple will end up being usable.)</p> <p>Make sure that you have even lighting behind the camera.&nbsp; It should come from multiple directions or otherwise be quite bright, so that is doesn&rsquo;t create pronounced shadows on your face.&nbsp; </p> <p>Use an actual camera.&nbsp; Services like <a href="http://www.borrowlenses.com/" target="_blank">BorrowLenses.com</a> make this easy.&nbsp; You can rent a camera and equipment for as many days as necessary.&nbsp; Having the right equipment can make it look like you&rsquo;re a pro, without being one.&nbsp; </p> <p>Wear professional clothing, and don&rsquo;t have a busy background.&nbsp; The clothing should at least be what you&rsquo;d wear to work on your first day &ndash; except one step better.</p> <p>If your background does appear to be busy, use a photo editing program to gently blur the background to make sure you&rsquo;re the focus.&nbsp; If you don&rsquo;t have the expertise to do this, there are plenty of ways to get it done for your.&nbsp; Ask a friend for help, take a new photo, or use a service like <a href="https://www.fiverr.com/" target="_blank">Fivver</a> or <a href="https://www.upwork.com/" target="_blank">UpWork</a> to get someone to help for almost nothing.&nbsp; This will be one of the best investments that you can make in yourself.</p> <p>Finally, if you must get creative, make sure it doesn&rsquo;t interfere with your personal brand.&nbsp; For example, in the photo above, you can see a gentleman that&rsquo;s half football player and half suit.&nbsp; This is actually an accurate representation of what he does.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s both a professional athlete, and an investment advisor.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s part of his brand.&nbsp; He could have easily done this wrong, by having the logo of his favorite football team as his avatar.&nbsp; </p> <p>Don&rsquo;t cut corners on your personal brand.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll get every cent back in that investment.&nbsp; </p>760