Articles by Upendo Ventures

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Our team loves to share our thoughts, research, experiences here in our blog. Please enjoy our articles and leave a comment to let us know what you think.

DNN-Connect 2019 Recap: The Next Phase of Our Journey

DNN-Connect 2019

I’m not yet out of Europe.  I’m sitting in my hotel room in Paris, enjoying the sounds of the city, just blocks away from the Eiffel Tower.  I spent about an hour last night after midnight, exploring the city.  I can’t help but reflect on what DNN has done for my life.  It’s quite literally changed it, for the better, time and time again.  As a minor and superficial example, over 15 years ago when I started with it, I never thought it would lead me to Switzerland or France, much less riding a scooter around the Eiffel Tower after midnight.  I’ve come a long way over the years, and so has our community.  We’ve all grown, and this conference marked an important new milestone in our mutual journey. 

Never Remember or Even Know Your Password

Upendo Ventures: Never need to remember or know your password

With all of the security breaches that have been happening over the years, I’ve always been skeptical of using a password manager.  Do you remember the (completely preventable) breaches at places like Target, Home Depot, and the massive one at Equifax?  Security is always a balancing act.  You’re constantly trying to walk that fine line between convenience and protection.  This high-wire act, unfortunately, leads many people into truly insecure password practices.  The most common taboos include writing it down somewhere, using the same one everywhere, and using passwords that increment by a single digit.  Historically, many data breaches have one or more of these as the root cause. 

An Interview with David Poindexter About nvQuickPulse and More

DNN Hangout - October 2018

If you've been around DNN for a while, you may vaguely remember a monthly show that existed where myself and Joe Brinkman spoke about the various interesting news items of the month, and we also interviewed various folks in the DNN community. Well, it's back! That's right. This is the first of many DNN Hangout shows for you to enjoy.

Hotcakes Commerce Version 03.02.01 is Full of Community and Support-Driven Updates

New Hotcakes Commerce Release

Our team has been working hard at delivering the next great release of Hotcakes Commerce.  This time, we primarily focused on some updates that both our support clients and the community really wanted.  We’re very happy to announce that version 03.02.01 is ready for you and it brings with it some very popular updates.

Using Google Alerts To Monitor and Grow Your Brand

Upendo Ventures Digital Marketing

One of the number one things I speak about with clients is brand, or branding.  In fact, when embarking on any project, internal or external, it’s probably the very first thing that we discuss.  This is especially true with small businesses and businesses who need to employ local and social media marketing strategies.  You need to first know what your brand is, how to speak about your brand (with as few words as possible), and how people should perceive your brand.  Most importantly, what will people say about your brand when you’re not looking?