DreamHost, my favorite web host, yesterday announced that there had been a cyber-break-in at their facilities.

A very small subset of our user accounts have been compromised due to a security flaw in our web control panel software. We have already notified those of you affected directly via email…

The security flaw allowed the attackers to log into our customer web control panel with the access privileges of another user. From our web panel they were able to access individual user password information. The attackers also attempted to gain access to our central database and billing information but were ultimately thwarted in that attempt. No credit card information or customer personal information was obtained.

We will soon be making an official post about this situation and the steps being done to safeguard accounts in the future on the DreamHost blog…

Jim Logan points out that the world is full of crap marketing. And that’s your opportunity. Because the more crap is in the world, the easier it is to shine above it all. And there is more crap now than ever, because it is so cheap and easy to get on the web. But the whole story has an interesting implication that Jim missed.

Red or Green?

Wayne Hurlbert wrote about patterns of small business failure. One such failure is not knowing the true cost of doing business. Then when things get tough, the small business will cut corners, usually by cutting the marketing budget… And skimping on its website.

I disagree with Wayne, however, on one point. He says, “Cutting corners, at the expense of current and future customers, is not a wise idea.” But if things are getting tough, it might be better for the business to have fewer customers.

Let me explain what I mean.

Seth Godin advised his readers to blow up their websites’ home pages. Is the home page irrelevant? To answer that, I dug up a blog post I remembered reading a couple years ago on UIE’s site. Jared Spool and his associates at UIE actually do the scientific research on questions like this.

The answer is that your site’s home page is indeed important, but not in the way you may think. And it’s not the most important page on your site, even though it probably gets more traffic than any other page on your site.

Seth Godin yesterday echoed my philosophy on web stats. This is one of the 4 key elements that any website strategy needs. And it’s way simpler than the hype you hear in web-traffic circles. Because you should not maximize your web traffic. In fact, don’t even pay much attention to it.

This is a critical error, and yet one that every small business owner has made at least once in his life. We make it, because it’s human nature. Every human being loves to talk about himself. So when I talk to a potential customer, what’s the first thing I want to say?

I want to tell him all about me, of course! Except, he doesn’t care about me. Yes, I’m sure he wants to be friendly. I’m sure he wants to be polite. Maybe he’ll let me talk for a minute or two. But he won’t listen.

Joshua Porter at User Interface Engineering notes:

You’ve got to hand it to MySpace. The designers there have done the impossible: they’ve created a site that tramples on the aesthetic sensibilities of nearly everyone while continuing to grow and be successful.

Then he explains why MySpace is good for design. The reason, in a nutshell, is that MySpace actually provides value to its users: