I keep hearing around the DreamHost office, “Did you see that site we host, Take This Lollipop.com?”

Then, I get a Facebook post with a graphic of a blue lollipop (with a razorblade inside it), and the words “I Dare You.” I want to see what the buzz is about but I am hesitant, as I want to protect what little privacy I still have left. You see, to experience Take This Lollipop, you have to allow access to your Facebook account to enhance and personalize your experience. I got the chance to speak to the creator of Take This Lollipop, director Jason Zada, and asked him just that.

So, I am sure you get this a lot, but does it do anything with my Facebook information?

Jason: It doesn’t do anything bad. It was important to be scary, but not cross the line. The information needed is very isolated to only your experience. Take This Lollipop does not store or share the data and it’s only used once for the video. It picks your information randomly, so if you go in and do it again, depending on how many pictures you have; it shouldn’t use the same info twice.

Since I was reassured, I decided to try it out, and I wont ruin the spookiness for you, but let’s just say I may be having a few nightmares tonight, tomorrow night, and the night after. Needless to say, I am sending to all my friends as we speak, its really scary! Okay, so back to the interview…

How did you come up with the idea of Take This Lollipop?
Jason: We wanted something scary and fun that shook people up for the holidays. I have always loved Halloween and scaring people is super fun. We came up with this idea and its been so exciting to see the world embrace it. The site has sort of been groundbreaking and it just feels really nice. We don’t have a product or big company behind it or anything, we just did it for fun and it’s amazing to see that it has got this popular, just from word of mouth.

Can you give me an idea of how popular it has been so far?
Jason: Well, in the first 24 hours of the site being open to the public, more than 300,000 people have given access to their Facebook accounts and we are almost at 3 million Facebook likes in less in just two weeks, not to mention we have had over 10 million site hits.

Wow! Did you know it would take off like this?
Jason: I knew it might be successful but nothing like this. I’ve done this before but never thought it would this popular. When I did Elf Yourself, the personalized dancing elf greeting card, we actually brought the system we used to a complete halt, so I am familiar with what could happen but you never know what to expect. This has all been so fast and so quick. We have no brand beyond it, nothing supporting it, just the Internet and people talking and I am actually getting calls from top newspapers all over the world. It’s been amazing. I have even seen kids taping themselves and others watching Take This Lollipop. I love watching reactions to it.

What is the best reaction you have seen?
Jason: My one friend has his dog as his profile picture, so when the video came after his dog, he was yelling, “Nooooo Dude, not my dog man!”

Did you do this yourself?
Jason: No, I couldn’t have done this myself. Developer Jason Nickel is the guy that figured out how to do all this.

How long did it take you?
Jason: Took us 3.5 weeks, from me writing the script, to Jason making it live. That is all in between shooting schedules.

Why did you decide to host on DreamHost?
Jason: Oh, I have been using DreamHost for years and years. I always loved it. A friend got me to switch to DreamHost a while back. Take This Lollipop has had massive volume and DreamHost has worked perfectly. I haven’t had issues, its always easy to use and DreamHost has been great with service. Since the early 90’s I have been coming up with these stupid little ideas and then find a domain name for them on DreamHost.

Thanks so much for your time Jason, is there anything else we should know?
Jason: Well on Halloween itself, we may do something sneaky, but you just have to wait to find out…

If you would like to be the star of your very own horror film, go ahead and try it…I dare you!

Our customers recently voted “One Long House” as a DreamHost “Site of the Month”. I recently reached out to One Long House to do a little Q&A and learn a little more about why they do what they do!

Congratulations on being chosen for the DreamHost Site of the Month! Can you tell me a little about yourselves?

Alan: Onelonghouse.com is a Creative Coop, which is a network of creatives from around the world. We are not a hard brick and mortar agency. We now have a coop of 11 people on 4 different continents. We do anything from graphic design, logos, websites to even documentaries. We are able to take on projects other agencies couldn’t, because we have the ability to pick from creative network from around the world.  We also have the ability to find the right person for the job at any time, not just who’s geographically convenient or on salary. This can be hugely helpful in a place like Los Angeles where the development skill is lacking severely.

How did you start the creative network?

Alan: This whole thing started when the economy crashed. Most of us worked together at Green Team, in New York. Unfortunately they had to do layoffs and I was one of those people that got let go. We realized we had great talent, so we got together and started this company. We have been very fortunate because since day one we had a lot of work and haven’t had to chase it.  We have been able to write our own rules, and this really empowers the creative network to take on projects that interest them. We get compensated like most companies, but we also take equity in companies, so we become more involved, more passionate, and [the projects] become your own.

Another part of our business that sets us apart is that we try and get our company to a 50/50 plan. That means 50% client work and 50% incubator work. We love doing client work, but the limit of how far a project can go is very evident. With an incubator project, the sky is the limit… and we hope to ramp these up in the near future. Currently, each year we pick 1 big project and a few little ones that spark our own interests.

That’s cool, how do you decide what those projects are?

Alan: We brainstorm and come up with what projects will work. We do the projects together, so we can choose the best people for the job. Also, anyone can contact us with an outside project. If we like it, we can do it.  Womensvoicesnow.org is a great example. We all signed on to help this non-profit create a film festival that benefited women in the muslim world. Also, we are currently working on a full brand identity & packaging for Jessica Alba’s new mom / baby line, The Honest Company.

So, I am curious, what’s the next big project?

Alan: We are going with a E-commerce site branded toward men. To do this type of project, you need a lot of money and resources to make it happen. The way we are structured, we have the man and brain power to just try things without raising lots of money. We also have a few apps in the making. Some will fail, for sure, but we have the ability to fail cheaply and fail quickly… then move on.

What services do you have with DreamHost?

Alan: We put all our sites and client sites on DreamHost. We use both Dedicated and VPS servers.

How did you learn about the DHSOTM (DreamHost Site Of The Month) contest?

Alan: I found it in the panel. When we were chosen for the DreamHost Site of the Month, not only did we see a spike in our website activity, we actually had 2 or 3 designers contact us to become part of our network. I am happy to say we have chosen one of those designers to be a part of our network.

How did you hear about DreamHost?

Alan: Actually, a programmer in Beijing recommended DreamHost. We were with 1&1 for a while. We didn’t like dealing with them because they felt very big. Also, they outsourced their customer service. It made the whole experience feel not so personal. Once we got to DreamHost, we loved the small company mentality. It was like we weren’t dealing with this giant behemoth company anymore. Also, your live chat really works for us. We host another site called dangerousminds.net and it kept crashing since we have a lot of visitors in a day. We are amateurs to hosting, so with your suggestion, we moved over to a dedicated server and we love it! Your team has been taking the time to help us learn along the way, so we are big fans of DreamHost.

Do you use any of the tools that we offer?

Alan: Yes, we use WordPress and have used a few other 1-click install tools for small projects. For instance, if we have a small campaign, we will use a preexisting theme. We also use ChartBeat, and I think the guys at dangerousminds.net are addicted to it. We have it running on all our computers all day and are constantly checking it. Dangerousminds.net is a site we designed, coded, and now manage… all on DreamHost.  It’s a huge sub-culture blog with about 40k-80k visitors/day… running very smoothly now on your dedicated servers.

Anything you would like to see from DreamHost?

Alan: Yes, it would be cool to have thumbnail images of the sites that are up for DreamHost Site of the Month. Also, it would be cool to have a showcase of all the cool sites hosted by DreamHost.

Amazon.com seems to have a goal of becoming the “search engine for anything you want to buy”, but is that really a good thing for their users?  For those of you who don’t use Amazon regularly, in addition to the products they sell themselves their website lists items for sale by merchants other than Amazon (called Amazon Merchants), as well as used items available from individuals and merchants.  All of those third party sellers have greatly expanded the product selection on Amazon.com, but it has also made the buying process on Amazon.com a lot more complex.  Amazon.com became successful by providing the best overall buying experience on the Internet, but now that they are so dominant have they forgotten that?

As an example, I recently purchased this Schwinn Roadster Tricycle and the process took longer than it should have.

That's a sweet trike! I really want an adult-sized one of those, but I'll just have to dream about that for now.

The red version looks even cooler!

Buying Options for Schwinn Trike in Red

A few of the buying options on Amazon.com for a Schwinn Tricycle

Wow, so many options! A 50-pack for 5 bucks??

We celebrate the life of Steve Jobs today.

Although we did not know him personally, we’ve all used the stuff he dreamed up and made a reality.

His legacy is the inspiration and commitment he has given us to dream big, design with flair, build with passion, and never give up inventing better ways to serve you and the world.

Thanks Steve.

This won’t come as much of a surprise to DreamHost users, but e-commerce sales are on the rise. (Hey, that’s why you have a website, isn’t it?). DreamHost recently polled their customers to ask about the e-commerce activities taking place on their sites, and the data was interesting to say the least.

Overall in 2011, 26% of DreamHost customers say they have e-commerce systems in place on their websites (up from 20% of customers in 2010). The number of websites accepting popular payment methods is also up. PayPal remains king, with nearly 78% of websites accepting PayPal (an increase from 72% last year). Credit card transactions are decidedly less popular, but also increasing from year to year. Today 37.9% of websites are processing credit cards online (compared to 24.7% in 2010). The percentage of websites with manual processing for credit cards increased from 8.7% in 2010 to 12.3% in 2011.

Some other interesting results from DreamHost’s survey:

What do you sell online?
Of those with e-commerce systems, 74.2% are selling physical goods like clothing, art, and cars. Digital goods (like music, ebooks, and video) are offered by 36.2% of websites. Services are being sold by 37.1% of websites.

Secure certificates
In 2010, 22% of DreamHost customers said they had a secure certificate on their website. Today, that percentage has increased to 25.1%. Of those, 61% got their secure certificates from DreamHost.

The 3 biggest complaints about e-commerce software
2010                                      2011
1. Ability to use plug-ins       1. Technical support
2. Technical support              2. Ability to use plug-ins
3. Documentation                  3. Documentation

While many e-commerce solutions will work on DreamHost accounts, DreamHost has partnered with CafeCommerce to offer an exclusive e-commerce software offering.