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Syesha Coming Home to Sarasota… But Just for a Visit!

After this week’s emotional round on American Idol, it’s official, Syesha is in the AI Season 7 Top 3!!  Congratulations, Syesha!!

We’ve already posted our support for this hometown Sarasota girl, but the exciting news this week is that local residents will have a chance to see Syesha tomorrow (Friday, May 9th) when she blazes through on a whirlwind visit to the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Evidently, she’ll be making some stops in the morning on Tampa TV & Radio, but she visits Bradenton (where she’ll receive a key to the city) and then comes to Sarasota for a concert on the gorgeous grounds of the John & Mable Ringling Museum!

According to the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau, the concert is FREE and open to the public!  Park nearby on the New College Campus.  I’d get there early (parking is available at 1pm) for the 3:30PM concert.  It’ll most likely be brief, as she’s got to get back to Hollywood!

If previous seasons are any indication, we should see footage of Syesha’s Homecoming Visit on next week’s American Idol!

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Sarasota Real Estate Market: Rebounding or Not?

Ever the optimists, Real Estate brokers always manage to locate a silver lining… no matter how far and how hard they have to look.  And, with a number of friends and business associates connected to the real estate business, I certainly am personally hopeful that their optimism has its roots firmly cemented in reality.

But alas, this is not always the case.

Take, for example, the blog published by Michael Saunders & Company.  Here’s a great example of a company reaching as deeply as it can for data — any data — to support the notion that somehow the market is on its way back to normal.  Is their data pulled from the number of transactions in the MLS, you ask?  Perhaps it’s based upon some newfound trend in the tax rolls?

Nope.

In fact, it’s taken from their Google Analytics account.  Yes, that’s right folks.  Now we’re basing the real estate outlook for Sarasota on the performance of Michael Saunders’ website according to the ever-so-reliable folks at Google.

Now… don’t get me wrong.  I’m a big fan of Google.  Chances are you’re here thanks to one of the many Google searches that we rank well on.  But… as we know, their analytics package — feature-rich though it may be — is fraught with inaccuracies.  And… even if it were 100% accurate, the Michael Saunders blog post smacks of a self-congratulatory webmaster more than it does market realities in the real estate business.  After all, our traffic is way the heck up, too!  Doesn’t say anything about the consulting business, though…

But… I digress.  (By the way, business is better than ever!  Not a touch of whining here!)

What Michael and gang aren’t really interested in pointing out is the simple fact that, by every measure, the housing crisis is only deepening.  Even if transactions are up, prices are down.  And this is based on real data from none other than Standard & Poor. Granted, the data are not local to Florida.  But then, we the unwashed don’t have ready access to the data for our market.  This is part of the classic information asymmetry associated with buying and selling real estate.  Your broker knows more than you do.  Perhaps someone with readily-analyzed data would be willing to step forward and comment.

In the meantime, I’m going back to my web analytics to look for more optimism…

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Financial Revolution – Featuring Gary Keesee

*Update (May, 2011): Unfortunately, the downloads we originally linked to are no longer available as The Kingdom Alliance website (see below) has been taken down. We have located this downloadable product (link fixed, January 2014) available for purchase directly from Gary Keesee’s ministry that can serve as an update to / replacement for the materials we originally recommended here.

This week’s Financial Revolution Conference in Sarasota got underway last night with a powerful kickoff meeting.  Gary and Drenda Keesee shared the emotional story about how they turned the tide on their drastic financial situation — credit cards, finance company loans, IRS debt, medical bills, personal loans from family, mortgages, etc. — and began creating wealth instead.  Gary pointed out that the “switch” for this about face was in their hearts.

The Kingdom Alliance has posted the audio from Gary’s talk (*Update: 5/11/2011, the Kingdom Alliance website is unfortunately no longer available) last night for all to hear at no cost.  It is definitely worth the time to listen to it.  Those who came to the event last night expecting to hear a talk on better money management, budgets and numbers were surprised at what Gary had to say.  Not only did he address the issues of the heart, but he also dealt with what he characterizes as misconceptions that have been perpetuated by church teachings regarding money.  Based upon the content of last night’s talk, the remainder of the conference promises to be significant.

The conference continues with meetings tonight (Friday) at 7pm and Saturday at 9am.  The meetings are being held at the facility belonging to the First Church of the Nazarene, 3375 Fruitville Road in Sarasota.

If you’re not familiar with who they are, The Kingdom Alliance is a group of 5 congregations who have joined forces to increase their impact on the communities of Sarasota & Bradenton.  This type of cooperation among church leadership is quite rare in a landscape filled with competition over what some experts would describe as a dwindling pool of potential congregants.  This is the first community event that they have publicized, and it’s a good taste of things to come!

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RIP: Starbucks Almond Syrup

**Latest Update** It looks like Starbucks Almond Syrup is truly gone for good. The Fontana choice was good for a while, but it’s no longer on the market either. I’ve tried the Torani Orgeat Syrup, and it’s pretty good…. plus it’s in Amazon Prime, so… free shipping, right?!

**Update #3** Thanks to our reader Joyce, I did a little checking around and it looks like this Fontana Almond Syrup is the very stuff that Starbucks uses (Fontana is evidently manufactured for Starbucks) You can still purchase the Almond variety in a 4-pack.

The Torani syrup we mentioned in a previous update is also delicious, but not quite the same flavor as the Starbucks / Fontana syrup. Even the bottle on the Fontana syrup is an exact match!

Enjoy!

**Update #2** All my Sarasota readers: you can get almond cappuccino and syrup from The Beanz Man Espresso Bar Cafe on Bee Ridge Road (just west of Shade). Tell ’em I sent ya! sells and services fantastic coffee equipment (especially for commercial purposes), but no longer has a coffee shop. 🙁

*Update 1* I’ve been told that this Torani Orgeat Syrup is the exact product that Starbucks used to sell with its own label (turns out the Fontana syrups are manufactured for Starbucks… see the update above). You can grab it up inexpensively from Amazon and use it in your homemade beverages. Alas, since I don’t make espresso-based drinks at home, this doesn’t help me.

Don’t forget the pump!

Those who know me know that I’m an enormous fan of coffee. In fact, I have a book project that I’ve been dabbling with for a while that deals with coffee as a source of inspiration. It will eventually be finished. Watch for it. 🙂

As a true coffee connoisseur, I drink my daily brew black, freshly ground (in a burr grinder for consistency), and brewed (by the cup) in my french press. OK, I admit it. I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I certainly don’t mean that I look down on those who drink, say, robusta beans. It’s just that I personally have a well-developed palette where it comes to fine coffees.

(A.D.D. Moment: Want a really great book on the benefits of caffeine? Nab The Caffeine Advantage: How to Sharpen Your Mind, Improve Your Physical Performance, and Achieve Your Goals–the Healthy Way)

OK, back to my point: I have one guilty pleasure, as it were, where it comes to flavored coffee beverages. I know, I know… real connoisseurs don’t use any flavoring. But, years ago an astute barista who was a personal friend of mine made me an almond cappuccino.

Now, I’m not going to say that the skies parted, light shone, angels sang, and that I was enraptured by a glorious ecstasy as I partook… but it was close. Thanks, Mike, wherever you are.

Since then, I’ve been an addict. When Starbucks finally entered the Florida market, I quickly made the Grande Almond Cappuccino my beverage of choice… when in the mood for something other than a bold drip or a doppio.

I’ve partaken of this particular beverage all over the United States in Starbucks locations and even as far away as Singapore. I love it. It is truly a pleasurable experience that I enjoy.

So, imagine my dismay when the baristas at my local Starbucks announced that the almond syrup was being phased out. First, their ability to ring the drink up properly was taken away by a software update to their POS system. Now, they’ve actually told me that the syrup is gone. Some locations still have some, but almond—as a flavoring syrup at Starbucks—is basically dead.

I don’t spend enough at Starbucks to have the clout to pressure them to bring it back (despite whatever my wife may think about my Starbucks budget), so I’m not planning to mount any major campaign to boycott or ask people to join me. However, I am truly saddened by the loss. Most people stick with vanilla or hazelnut or one of the more popular syrups, I know. But they simply don’t know what they’re missing.

So… I bid the Starbucks almond syrup a fond farewell. And yes, every time I’m in a small private coffee shop (which I’ll admit I’ll be on the lookout for now more than ever), I’ll be forced to inquire… just in case they have some.

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Syesha Mercado Makes Us Proud Yet Again!

Sarasota-born Syesha Mercado heads for the next round in American Idol Season 7.

This week, she seems to have picked up some supporters, since she avoided landing in the bottom 3. The AI theme this week was focused on the music of Dolly Parton, and Syesha admittedly took on an ambitious song with I Will Always Love You. The judges noted the difficulty of doing the song, which was launched to mainstream popularity by Whitney Houston.

Syesha’s vocal arrangement ran right down the middle between Whitney and Dolly — not overly flamboyant like Whitney, but certainly not country like Dolly (although the band lent a bit of a “Nashville” flavor to the overall arrangement). Comparisons to Whitney were inevitable, however, which may have hurt Syesha a bit.

Even so, she did just fine in the end, amidst a strong field of candidates. Fellow Floridian Ramiele Malubay was the candidate who drew the fewest votes this week, which leaves us with only 8 candidates for next week.

As we previously noted, Syesha Mercado is a Sarasota native and hometown girl. Sarasota is behind you!

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Snoop Dog Hack – SQL Injection

If you’ve been following my blog for a little while, you know about the recent “Snoop Dog Hack.” I’ve spent countless hours recovering from this nasty attack on my content, which replaced real content with ghetto slang, but only when viewed in certain Microsoft browsers.

Hopefully, it will never happen to your website. If it has, however, allow me to save you the trouble of doing all of the research to resolve this.

-John

First, a little background…

SQL Injection

SQL Injection involves entering SQL code into web forms, eg. login fields, or into the browser address field, to access and manipulate the database behind the site, system or application.

When you enter text in the Username and Password fields of a login screen, the data you input is typically inserted into an SQL command. This command checks the data you’ve entered against the relevant table in the database. If your input matches table/row data, you’re granted access (in the case of a login screen). If not, you’re knocked back out.

One of the most popular SQL Injection scripts of the past decade is known as the “Snoop Dog SQL Injection Hack.” Often created to be unique to Internet Explorer 7, this hack makes it especially tricky for web development teams to spot and fix.

The Snoop Dog SQL Injection Hack

In its simplest form, this is how the Injection works. It’s impossible to explain this without reverting to code for just a moment. Don’t worry, it will all be over soon.

Suppose we enter the following string in a Username field:

' OR 1=1

The authorization SQL query that is run by the server, the command which must be satisfied to allow access, will be something along the lines of:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘USRTEXT '
AND password = ‘PASSTEXT'

…where USRTEXT and PASSTEXT are what the user enters in the login fields of the web form.

So entering `OR 1=1 -- as your username, could result in the following actually being run:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘' OR 1=1 -- ‘AND password = ‘'

Two things you need to know about this:
[‘] closes the [username] text field.

‘--' is the SQL convention for Commenting code, and everything after Comment is ignored. So the actual routine now becomes:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = " OR 1=1

1 is always equal to 1, last time I checked. So the authorization routine is now validated, and we are ushered in the front door to wreak havoc.

Already Been Hacked? Here’s How to Fix It and Avoid Future Attacks…

  • If you utilize a web content management system, subscribe to the development blog. Update to new versions soon as possible.
  • Copy and paste the following code into every page with forms on your website…


<?php echo "HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY PAUL AND KEVIN ?>

<?php echo "FROM JEREMY" ?>

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Finally… Small Business Marketing Made Simple

As most of our faithful readers know, this company was founded as a marketing consultancy. Marketing strategy is and always been our core competency. And, although we’ve done quite a bit of strategic work over the years that has been focused more at leadership and overall performance, in the last 24 months or so, we’ve been doing more strategic marketing work than ever before.

In fact, the work we’ve been doing has been so effective and is in such high demand — particularly among small business owners — that we’ve been forced to bring a shift to our business. Here’s an idea of what I mean:

“When David told me that I could start using the internet as a primary method for marketing my Neurology practice and obtaining new patients, I didn’t believe him. I did not understand the power of the Internet in reaching thousands of people daily with information about my business and services we provide. However, having prior experience of working with Dave, where he made outrageous claims that I didn’t believe, I proceeded with designing a completely new website and blog site.

His predictions came true, where now my Internet presence is responsible for a large number of new referrals. The initial investment cost of the project was rapidly recouped and as an ongoing service, my website has added significant revenue to my annual bottom line. Within 6 months of implementation, I was ranked on the top four pages of Google. Almost 50% of my new patients were (and are) coming in after finding me on the web. I was a busy physician when I started down this road – but I was able to use the techniques he showed me to make my business even more successful. With the excellent response to the website, I have been able to cut our yellow pages advertising budget by fifty percent. David is a skilled IT person and is very knowledgeable about marketing and creative uses of the Internet.”

– V. Daniel Kassicieh, D.O., founder of Sarasota Neurology, P.A.

One client (with a well-established business) multiplied revenues by a factor of 5 just last year alone!

We’re having such tremendous results that we recognize the need to share what we know. The good news is that any business person can implement these strategies right away.

So… I have 2 critical announcements to make.

  1. Effective January 1, 2008, we have no longer been offering any consulting services not related to marketing. The epiphanyconsulting.net site will be redesigned (when we have time) to reflect that change.
  2. We are formally announcing that we are not accepting new Epiphany Marketing clients at this time. The EpiphanyMarketing.com site has already been changed to reflect this fact. We will continue to evaluate new strategic marketing projects only from existing clients and Epiphany Marketing subscribers on a first-come, first-served basis.
  3. This means that the best way to access what we know is to participate in one of our training programs. A new round of these is starting up shortly.

Consider this your personal invitation to join me and my good friend (and client) Michael Pink on a conference call this Thursday or Friday. There are currently 4 time slots to choose from, but a couple of them are already nearly full (we can only accommodate 200 callers on each call), because Michael has been inviting people through his blog. We will consider adding additional slots if these fill up completely.

Here’s where to go sign up for these important calls.

I look forward to talking with you very soon!

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Syesha Mercado Tears it UP!

American Idol Season 7 is already proving to have its ups and downs. Tonight, many of the AI 7 girls seemed to be struggling with an illness and their performances reflected it.

But Syesha is definitely one of the UPs of this season. And, even though this is a business website, I must say we’re cheering the Sarasota girl on (as we mentioned in our earlier post on Syesha). We won’t even hold it against her that she moved to Miami! 🙂

Tonight’s big performance featured Syesha’s high-gear vocal over Paul Jackson Jr.’s sizzling guitar work. And, since it’s our first chance to vote, Syesha gets ours! Even the judges agreed that she’s one of the most talented young ladies in the competition.

Keep it up, Syesha!

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Syesha Mercado – Making Sarasota Proud!

Congratulations to Syesha Mercado on her progress in Season 7 of American Idol!

Syesha is a hometown girl who graduated in 2005 from the Booker High School Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPA).  Evidently, she was a great student who served on the Student Council and managed a 3.4 GPA while participating in a variety of productions through her high school career.

Since her departure from Booker, Syesha has been no stranger to reality television, appearing on the ABC series, “The One.”

Syesha: thanks for doing such a great job and representing!  We’re rooting for you here in Sarasota… and voting — as soon as we get the chance!