I picked up the $49 software bundle from MacHeist last week and finally got to play with some of the applications this weekend. (If you are on a Mac, don’t miss the MacHeist deal!) The gem of the bundle for me was a program called iStopMotion. In a nutshell, it allows you to easily make stop motion movies. As I was playing with it I thought it would be really handy to be able to control the program with the Apple remote. Another MacHeist goody (although it isn’t part of the bundle - you had to play the games to win it) was an application called Sofa Control. With Sofa Control you can create custom scripts that let you control any application with the Apple remote. It was very easy and I thought I would share the script with anybody who might find it handy. Here is what the script does:

iStopMotion Apple Remote Mapping:
* Plus: Play
* Left: Previous Frame
* Right: Next Frame
* Play: Capture Frame
* Play Hold: Save Movie

(Click here to download the iStopMotion Sofa Control script)

I have a quote printed on a scrap of paper that I have carried around for years. It says

“Profess no belief without conviction. To conform means often death; to non-conform in this is often life, often life eternal.”

The quote is by Albert Einstein and it has always inspired me. It is something that I strive for. It doesn’t mean I have to always be right or that I can’t change, but it challenges me to pick a side and boldly hold on to what I believe in. Obviously, that is so much easier said than done.

These words came to mind today because I was doubting myself. I am sure you do the same thing from time to time. Am I good enough? What if I am wrong? Should I compromise my beliefs? If you take Einstein’s quote to heart then the self-doubt can become really intense. Just having a belief backed by conviction is something that will get attacked. The stronger your conviction the more pressure you will have to conform. You will be called close-minded. Stubborn. Arrogant. Judgmental. Mean. Insensitive. And those are the nicer words! This is where your convictions get tested and it is critical that you don’t give in. Einstein says it is a matter of life or death!

So how do you maintain the strength of your convictions? One thing that helps me is to try to be aware of insults that carry hidden compliments in them. For example, I take pride in being uncompromising. If someone calls me stubborn I could get defensive, or I could realize that this person just doesn’t appreciate how uncompromising I am. Insults are often just a simple trick that people use to twist your strengths into weaknesses. A prolific person gets accused of “having too much free time.” A creative person is “artsy.” A person with ambition gets labeled a “dreamer.” Are you curious or unfocused? Confidence gets misconstrued as arrogance. These are all insults that I know from experience and I bet you can add to the list with examples from your life. Once you recognize what is really going on beneath the insults then you can be encouraged and know that you are doing something right! I hope you feel encouraged and I wish you luck as you try to live a life of conviction.

If you have ever tried to purchase a domain name, you have probably been frustrated by the seeming lack of available domain names. The domain name market seems like the perfect storm of limited supply and high demand. There is only one “YourBusinessName.com.” You can’t get a smaller supply than that. You almost have to have the “.com” if you want to be seen as an important online business. In other words, the demand is extremely high. It would seem that good domain names must be worth a fortune! The result of these economics is countless domain name “pirates” holding domain names hostage. Almost any domain name you look for will be registered by someone hoping to strike it rich by selling it to you.

How many times have you heard somebody say “I wish I would have registered more domain names five or ten years ago? I would be rich!” The problem is that tons of people had that same idea and they registered any domain with half a chance of getting used. An interesting side-effect of the apparent domain name shortage might be that the market is flooded with pirates! Many of the pirates have been holding their domain names for years without getting any nibbles. The ones that went a little overboard and registered hundreds of domains are wondering if it was really such a good idea. They will still hold onto the best names, but they are looking for opportunities to cash out on the mediocre ones. It seems that maybe the market is settling down and there may be a more realistic price structure on the horizon. If the birth of a bunch of online auctions is any indication, the bubble may be on the verge of bursting.

So what are you supposed to do right now if you are trying to get a good domain name? Good news: it is not as hard as it may seem to secure a good domain name. If you are frustrated by trying to find a domain name, here are some options that hopefully give you some ideas…

1. Change your company’s name.
If you are a relatively new business or are launching a new product or branch you can base your name on a domain that is available or cheap. This makes more sense than using a name that you can’t secure a domain name for. The names Google, Ebay, and Yahoo sounded pretty silly before they were household words. Don’t be afraid to invent a word that might sound silly at first.

2. Be creative.
If the .com you want is taken you me be able to get creative with the extension. For example if you had a name like “Music Pages” you could try to use Spain’s country code and register musicpag.es. Maybe that isn’t the best example, but you get the idea. For a full list of country extensions click here. A creative extension can add memorability to your domain name if you do it right.

3. Watch the auctions.
There are a number of domain name auction sites, (like Sedo). It is very educational to watch the domain auctions to get an idea of what domains are worth. You might even find a bargain.

4. Use more than one word in your name.
You may not be able to get Anderson.com, but you might be able to get AndersonArts.com. By combinging words you increase your chances of finding a .com domain. If you look at my domains (Found Photography, Adrian3, Holy Gears, etc) you can see that this has worked well for me.

5. Make an offer with a backup plan in place.
Depending on the size of your business you will have to evaluate how much the domain name you want is worth. If you contact the domain owner directly you can get an idea of what it will cost to buy the domain name. Everybody has there price, but I wouldn’t spend more than $5,000 on a domain unless you are really a big time player. Have a backup plan so that you can walk away if the cost is too high.

There are also some things to avoid when you are looking at .com domains. Here are some things that could cause problems if you aren’t careful:

1. Avoid acronyms unless people use it a bunch.
It makes sense to have a domain name of “NASA” if you are NASA, but if your company is C&S Concrete Cutting Company it doesn’t make sense to register csccco.com because nobody will possibly remember it.

2. Don’t confuse your domain name with the competition’s.
If you sell whistles and your competition has whistles.com it doesn’t make sense for you to use whistles.net as your primary web address. If you promote that domain name people will undoubtedly go to whistles.com by mistake and you are sending traffic to your competion. With that said, it is a great idea to register whistles.net and have it redirect to your domain.

3. Avoid dashes.
People don’t remember dashes. If you have a dash in your name then register it with and without dashes and have the dash address redirect to your non-dash domain.

4. Use redirects, not multiple sites.
It is a good idea to only use one domain name for your site because you don’t want the same info mirrored in more than one place. There are exceptions to this rule, but generally you want to have one domain name that is getting promoted. It avoids confusion and keeps your domain name’s equity in one place. Have the other domain names redirect to your primary address.

5. Watch out for unintended phrases.
For example, it would make sense for Experts Exchange to register expertsexchange.com. Well, without the space between the words the domain gets read as ExpertSexChange. There are a bunch of funny examples of companies who didn’t think there domain name all the way through.

I hope that these suggestions are helpful. Good luck in your domain search!