Category Archives: General

Fix For DIVI Theme WP Websites with Customizer & jQuery Errors

Our hosting partner Rocket Ivy has discovered the cause of an error that may cause the MyStyle Customizer to not operate correctly on some sites (never loads), that came from a DIVI theme update in their new “Performance” tab.

Here is a link to the blog post describing the error and the fix to turn off the deferring of jQuery Migrate:

https://rocketivy.com/fix-for-sites-with-divi-and-jquery-migrate-errors-in-console/

Rocket Ivy is our #1 trusted partner for hosting and website maintenance.

Server Upgrade for MyStylePlatform.com – Clear Your Cache!

The server for this website (not our API or plugins, just mystyleplatform.com) has been upgraded to a new Google Cloud data center.

Google AND Amazon Clouds…

We’re happy to be using Google Cloud, a leader in cloud computing, in addition to Amazon AWS for our API itself still. It’s interesting to see and compare both platforms, and we may switch entirely to one or the other in the future, but for now we like this duality and in either case, performance is great.

Clear Your Cache

This upgrade required some IP address changes, so please Clear Your Cache if you’re experiencing any weirdness on MyStylePlatform.com or the MyStyle Renderer.

Faster Site Services

Otherwise, enjoy what should be a faster service from now on.

 

Cheers!

Closed For Holidays Until The New Year!

We’re booked solid until at least February, and we’re now closed for the Holidays.  We can estimate projects for February start dates but will not have any start dates nailed down until the new year. January start dates will require our standard RUSH dev rates (+50%), and February start dates will be normal pricing.

Customer service will be open for our retail sites and for urgent matters, but closed otherwise until the new year.  We will be completely closed from the 24th to the 28th for anything except service outages or downtime.  For critical issues like that please contact your account manager or Sean directly if they are out of office.

Wow what a year!  This has been a year of major change and transition for lots of companies, both partners and clients, as well as ourselves.  We’re happy to say numbers have really been popping this holiday in both versions of our app, with our mobile / html5 app now reaching all-time high design complete ratios, powering some of the highest sales ratios of all time!

We hope everyone finishes up a great holiday season!

Cheers and wishing everyone good fortune for all for 2018.

New Pricing for 2017!

New year, new leaf. Out with the old, in with the new.

We are still buzzing from the awesome response we saw in 2016 and very excited about 2017. We’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t for many of our users this past year, and we’ll be working hard to bring awesome features, upgrades, and optimizations to the MyStyle Platform that will help set everyone up for success that much more.

Enterprise Clients: New Capabilities in the Custom Developments Lab

We’ve got some really great new capabilities that are not available out of the box or in our current demos. If you are an Enterprise Client, please contact us here for a demo and quote for your project, and ignore our other pricing, as you will most likely do best with a custom solution.

Developers: New $99/yr Annual License for Developers

One major change is our entry level pricing. We’ve tried a lot over the years – free trials, up front charges, payment plans, monthly, yearly, high, low, we’ve tried it. Each time we’ve adjusted our service levels or features to match while trying to both open up access to a wider audience at a lower price point, while also requiring the features that we know are critical to success in the personalization space. This year, we’re making a change that we know will help. LOWER monthly pricing for entry level developer licenses when you purchase a year license will now replace our monthly developer Alpha license. This will really not affect any existing clients, Standard or Managed license clients, only the Developer license.

Why? Because We’re Setting DIY-Developers Up for Success, Not a 30 Day Demo.

This is for good reason, though, and one that is not obvious at first. For one, it’s a lower monthly cost in the end, our lowest yet, and for the bootstrap startup or unfunded business, that’s always a good thing. But, we do require for the new $8.25/mo developer license that you purchase for a year.

Why? Well, in a nutshell because people are slow and underestimate everything. Every day people sign up monthly and start their integration of MyStyle – very quickly, they’re up and running with a custom product, definitely within a week or two, in most cases. But, the website still says “Just Another WordPress Website”. Guess what – it stays that way for way too long, and that’s common. Now, you’re being rebilled for the customizer and yet you’re still in development. How many times have you purchased something and not actually used it for a couple months? It’s more common than you’d think, and really for most businesses who are looking for the cheap solutions, they’re doing everything themselves to save money around every corner, and that’s going to make things take a while – months in most cases.

Then, after months and months of development, fine tuning things, getting too busy to work on it, getting back around to it, finishing it up enough to a lunch, they do launch and… Nothing! Because the marketing hasn’t started yet. But, everything is working so that’s great – except 6 months has gone by and now you’re just getting your first traffic and your first sales, and your SEO is starting to catch hold. By the time you get from this point to the point you want to be at, selling multiple transactions every single day, it’s going to take 6 months to a year without funding or an advertising budget to jumpstart things. Thus, the cheapest possible license as a monthly commitment is already setting up unrealistic expectations for the website itself, not our plugin! We’re so much easier to implement than finishing the rest of the website, it’s crazy. Thus, entry level monthly commitments are really doing no favors for anyone if it’s cancelled a few months later because the website itself is still not done and the whole system hasn’t had time to run it’s course.

If you’re a lone unfunded business owner or developer working on your project with no funding, you’re going to need 6 months to a year to get this right, see the usage, see the sales, make some adjustments, and get things selling well, and you’re going to need your MyStyle app to be a 1-and-done thing that buys you a year of growth before you have to even think about it again. We know this will result in less signups, but you know what, we don’t care because what we want is to help people SUCCEED, not just spend $10 and quit too early, as is far too common these days on the web. With a year commitment, even WE have some time to help you get things right without having to charge you an arm and a leg to point you in the right direction, and we’re already in personalization for the long haul – so welcome aboard!

So, the new developer price is now $99/yr, and it’s really in everyone’s best interest to jump into the year commitment so there is realistically ample time to develop, launch, grow, optimize, and see the full potential of MyStyle even though you, like all of us these days, are busy and are going to probably need all year to generate the sales and growth you’ll really be happy with. We really feel strongly that if DIY developers stick with it for a year, just a commitment of a year, they will almost always see the plugin perform wonderfully and make their money back and generate sales better than normal. This is going to encourage people to commit longer and in that extra time, as MANY successful entrepreneurs will tell you, it’s sticking with it beyond the point where everyone else would have normally given up and quit that makes you succeed where everyone else failed! So, forget a month, that’s for amateurs! Sign up today for the year, save a little money, and let’s have a year of successful launches and growth!

Twitter, Netflix, PayPal, Visa and More Go Down From Massive Cyber Attack, But We’re Still Up!

Crazy news today that some of the biggest sites on the internet are down today, but we’re still up with no downtime!

The sites that have been or are still down today include:

  1. PayPal
  2. Twitter
  3. Ebay
  4. Netflix
  5. Etsy
  6. Visa
  7. Reddit
  8. Github

+ MANY MORE

…And of course we can’t forget the target themselves, Dyn.com

This massive outage is the biggest in years, maybe the biggest ever, and is a result of a huge DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the Dynamic DNS provider company (Dyn) that they rely on to point their domain name to their sites and services.

MyStyle Cloud:  No Outages!

We use both Amazon and Rackspace services and experienced no outage at all. Props to our ops team, Rackspace infrastructure teams, and especially to Amazon AWS and for bouncing back from this attack FAST after Amazon was also hit. Even though Amazon’s retail site was reported to having some connectivity issues and downtime for their own well known Amazon.com retail site Friday morning, our services and uptime has been 100% through the storm, and we are happier than ever to be using their infrastructure. Great job Amazon AWS!

Amazon, Maybe the Most Experienced History of Dealing With DDoS

Perhaps their professional and super fast handling of the situation comes from their history having been one of the victims of some of one of the first really major mainstream DDoS attacks way back in 2000. They’ve been dealing with this sort of attack since then for over 15 years now, and also showed that experience in 2010 when Anonymous tried to take down their network after Amazon decided to cut off WikiLeaks from their services over leaked State Department documents. That attack showed the world that Amazon’s infrastructure was so massive it could actually handle the load of the attack, just like it handles the massive traffic of the holidays for millions of people every day.

Knowing this, DDoS attacks against Amazon are almost pointless, because if Anonymous can’t DDoS hard enough to take down Amazon, really almost nobody can.  So, this time the attackers targeted a service provider for DNS to cut off some of Amazon’s sites and many networks rather than attack the networks themselves.  The ironic part is that the company taken down that caused all of the sites’ outages, Dyn, provides this service as a way for these major sites IP addresses to always be changing, something that helps prevent these sort of attacks in the first place by frequently changing the address.  It’s a smart move on the attackers part, to go over these massive networks’ heads to cut off power right by the switch, so to speak, but Amazon has pivoted and handled the outage so quickly, that the strategy it doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect on them.  PayPal, Twitter, and many others are still down, however, even though they have massice technical resources, showing how good the Amazon Ops team and network really is.

Use Our Managed Program and Join Our Infrastructure

Custom Car Wraps Now Has Fleet Graphics and Fleet Wraps!

Use Custom Car Wraps to Create Custom Fleet Graphics and Fleet Wraps!

Custom Car Wraps, the #1 site for car wraps and vehicle wraps, is proud to announce that you can now get fleet graphics and fleet wraps! Use the Custom Car Wraps car wrap designer to create the perfect vinyl wrap design and then use that design as the mockup for your fleet graphics. By partnering with VMS, the leading fleet wrap and vehicle graphics company in the industry, Custom Car Wraps has taken fleet graphics to an entirely new level.

The Same Fleet Graphics Used By Major Fleet Management Providers

Because Custom Car Wraps runs on the MyStyle Platform this partnership has allowed anyone looking for fleet graphics to use the exact same technology and design software that is used by the major fleet management companies. Add any of your logos or business information to your wrap, save multiple designs, and use multiple vehicle models to get the exact look you’re going for with your fleet advertising. After you’ve created the perfect look for your vehicle fleet you can send your designs and all the information about your fleet directly to us for a quote. We have a proven and dedicated and process for handling fleet graphics and now you can get that same level of dedication to your fleet graphics directly from Custom Car Wraps!


Looking for More Info on Fleet Graphics and Fleet Wraps? Click Here!

Design Your Own iPhone Case and Create Custom iPhone Cases with Case Monkey

Case Monkey Lets You Design Your Own iPhone Case and Create Custom Cases

One our favorite customization sites is our original “design your own iPhone case” online app called Case Monkey. Featuring all the latest models of iPhone from the original iPhone cases to the latest iPhone cases we keep Case Monkey up to date with the latest in iPhone personalization. You can upload your own pictures and get your own photos on any iPhone case. Use our backgrounds, featured iPhone case art, or just create just about any custom iPhone case you can think of.

Every Type of Custom iPhone Case

Case Monkey specializes in adding brand new iPhone cases as soon the latest iPhones and their phone cases are available. After we know exactly what a new iPhone is going to look like and how various phone cases hold up, (tough iPhone cases vs. thin iPhone cases), we are able to offer the best customization possible for you to design your own iPhone case online. Case Monkey also has custom tablet cases, custom Samsung cases, and of course custom iPad cases. If you’re looking for strong tough cases or cases with heavier hand feel then Case Monkey has a ton of options. If you’re looking for a slim fit or thin shield case, or just looking for cheap iPhone cases with great shipping, then Case Monkey has a ton of iPhone case options.

Create iPhone Cases and Get Your Photos Prints on an iPhone Case!

Looking for that perfect personalized gift for just trying to get some inspirational quotes on an iPhone case? Case Monkey has the top tier iPhone case designer that allows you add your own text to any custom iPhone case. Need to add your business or logo to an iPhone case? No problem! Case Monkey has one of the best wholesale iPhone case and bulk iPhone case programs. Use the contact form to learn more about corporate programs. Design your own iPhone case and create custom cases online with Case Monkey!

Design Your Own iPhone Case and Create Custom Cases Online!

MakeCustomSigns Launches! Design Your Own Signs and Custom Signs!

MakeCustomSigns is Live! Make, Design, and Create Your Own Signs!

MyStyle Platform is excited to announce the launch of our latest partner property where you can design your own sign, MakeCustomSigns! Using the MyStyle Platform custom product designer MakeCustomSigns allows users to create outdoor signs, yard signs, banners, flags, and business signage. MakeCustomSigns is the most advanced custom sign site online and uses all the features of our MyStyle Customizer to let you add images, text, pictures, colors and get your design printed on any sign. We even use them in our own offices for our own signage!

What Kind of Custom Signs Are Available on MakeCustomSigns?

MakeCustomSigns has all of the most popular types of signage including banners, vinyl banners, outdoor signs, yard signs and even indoor signage like posters. MakeCustomSigns also specializes in signage like flags and a-frame signs for small and large businesses. If you want to design your own sign you’ll find multiple sizes of each of their designs and some of the lowest possible prices. They also do custom bulk signs and wholesale signs so you can get your own logo printed on your sign. Check out MakeCustomSigns and design your own custom sign!

Wholesale Canvas Prints On MakeCanvasPrints!

Wholesale Canvas Prints Just Got a Whole Lot Better!


MakeCanvasPrints Wholesale Canvas Prints

We’re proud to announce new pricing for MakeCanvasPrints wholesale canvas prints! By improving our bulk canvas prints process we’ve been able to pass the savings on to you for high volume and high quantity canvas prints! We’re able to accept large run canvas prints for photographers, offices, and events in both RGB and CMYK format. Please get in touch with us over on MakeCanvasPrints to learn more about our wholesale canvas prints and wholesale canvas printing.

Who Uses Wholesale Canvas Prints?

The most common customers on MakeCanvasPrints in the past have been: photographers, artists, major brands, small to mid sized commercial offices, residential housing units, hotels, and organizations with large spaces like universities and churches. A large order of canvas prints is one of the easiest ways to add color and differentiate wall space. Based on the size of your prints, the design of your prints, and the delivery date of your prints pricing may vary. Please let us know of any special color requirements or any particular design notices in advance so we can be sure your order is perfect!

Contact MakeCanvasPrints about your wholesale canvas print order today!

Latest MyStyle Site Has Launched – Fly Discs! Design Your Own Disc Golf Disc!

Custom Disc Golf Discs, Ultimate Frisbee Discs, and Frisbees!



Ever wanted a custom disc golf disc? Us too! So we went ahead and launched the latest super cool MyStyle Site: Fly Discs – Design Your Own Disc Golf Disc!

This is another one of our signature sites and we’re really proud of how well its turned out, (not to mention how cool our discs look!) We partnered with some of the top brands to make sure that every disc from our site is top quality and ready for course. This was one of first sites to go live with the mobile HTML5 customizer at the same time and we love the site design. A completely circular product makes for some interesting designs and we’ve already seen some great ones using everything from spirals to pepperoni pizzas. Definitely a great site to check if you’ve ever wanted a custom disc or ultimate disc and we’re confident this has to be one of the cooler brands in customization. FORE!



Missed the link? Click here to get custom disc golf discs from Fly Discs!

Mobile Customizer Is Launched! Design Your Own Products in HTML5!

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new product customizer for mobile web! We’re pushing the boundaries of HTML5 and web tech to bring mobile customization and mobile personalization to the MyStyle Platform. You’ll see our new mobile product design tool rolling out across many of our sites as we test the waters and launch new features. So far so good and the designs are looking great. If you want to see it in action head over to design your own skateboard on your phone at Whatever Skateboards or try it out by getting your phone pictures printed on canvas and MakeCanvasPrints.

Screenshots of Our Mobile Customizer

Want to take a peek at our mobile customizer? Here’s a few screenshots we snapped so you can take a look:

Whatever Skateboards Mobile Customizer
MakeCanvasPrints Mobile Customizer

So… What’s It Like? How Are The Designs?

We’ve tested this on multiple devices and the experience is great on both phones and tablets. We’re super happy with the performance on iPhone 5 and iPads in particular and the experience is the the current best in class. We’ll be adding more spice to our mobile customizer coming soon; new features are on their way! It is definitely exciting to see mobile tech and HTML5 break through previous performance and UX barriers to become a viable option for mobile customization apps and mobile personalization apps. The designs on the products coming out look great!

What Products Are Available?

Using our MyStyle API we’re able to provide nearly our entire product catalog from all manufacturers and printers to be designed on cell phones and other devices. That’s a staggering number of products that are live for people to design! We have to admit, its pretty fun to try the mobile customizer so give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

Brand New MyStyle Partner Site – Welcome MPS Prints!

Custom Metal, Glass, and Wood Prints!



Looking to get a custom metal, glass, or wood print? Look no further than the latest edition to our MyStyle partner sites: MPS Prints!

Built using the MyStyle Platform and using both MyStyle custom products and the MyStyle Site format MPS Prints is one of our newest and shiniest MyStyle sites. Currently our only site displaying two new personalized products available through the platform, glass prints and metal prints, MPS showcases some of the best features of the platform. We’re especially proud of the way the metal prints turn out; if you’re looking for a professional or long lasting personal gift we highly recommend taking a look at the metal prints on MPS Prints.


Missed the link above? Click here to get custom metal, glass, and wood prints from the new MPS Prints!

MyStyle & Coveroo – Launching the Perfect Match!

MyStyle & Coveroo

Coveroo has launched their customization integration with MyStyle! This is huge news for the platform as Coveroo is one of the largest names in customization and custom printing & fulfillment. They’ve also been a long term, top-tier partner with MyStyle for a number of projects and products including offering a wide assortment of cell phone cases for customization on a number of MyStyle sites including our flagship site Case Monkey! Check out Coveroo’s custom cell phone case integration under their “Create” link on Coveroo.com.


As a leader in the customization space we couldn’t be happier to be powering part of the Coveroo product customization process. One of the best parts of partnering with Coveroo is their ability to custom print on nearly any product for any manufacturer. This extends well outside of the cell phone cases they are best known for and includes a huge variety of products for many manufacturers. If you are a manufacturer looking to get in to customization but are trying to find the perfect printing and fulfillment partner Coveroo will be your best choice.


Click here to see Coveroo’s custom cell phone case MyStyle integration. Click Create!

Greatest Skateboard Ever Was Made With MyStyle

Cats + Lasers FTW

One of the best parts of MyStyle is seeing the creative and incredible art and products that are made using using our platform. This skateboard is exactly one of those situations and we had to share it here on our MyStyle blog. Using the MyStyle platform running over at Whatever Skateboards to design their own skateboard one of our genius friends created this masterpiece which has to be seen to be believed…

Actual Printed Skateboard

Original Design on Website

YEP. Cat on a skateboard deck shooting laser beams from its eyes. Does it get any better than that? We submit that is does not and thusly why we dubbed this the great skateboard ever made. And it was made with MyStyle using the MyStyle Customizer and the MyStyle API. Here’s a link to the original design on Whatever Skateboards – design your own skateboard

Customizer and Designer and Editor, Oh My!

What Do You Call That App?

It goes by many names, but it turns out there isn’t a common word for the type of app we call our MyStyle Customizer™. Lots of people contact us asking about our “Customizer”, but a lot of people also ask if we have a customizer but just don’t know the right word to describe it.

Here’s some of the phrases we’ve seen that describe what we here call our MyStyle Customizer.

MyStyle Customizer Names:

  • designer
  • visualizer
  • configurator
  • personalizer
  • design editor
  • design tool
  • personalization editor
  • photo editor
  • photo manipulator
  • product editor
  • image maker
  • image editor
  • picture maker
  • previewer
  • preview tool
  • product preview
  • print preview
  • design app
  • editing app
  • customization app
  • image uploader
  • customization app
  • text editor
  • personalizer
  • personalization software
  • design-your-own
  • DIY

What is the Mystyle Customizer?

Our customizer is the visual tool that people use to create new designs on their products. Our customizer is extremely diverse and comes in many different forms. At times the customizer may only be a simple upload or text field and at other times the customizer is a full blown visual UI/UX for creating customized and personalized products. This is one of the key parts involved in personalization and customization because for every app, every product, every design, and every person is everything can be different. That is also why there are so many ways of describing a customizer.

Customizers are typically contained within an exterior website, application, kiosk, or display case and are a subsection of an overall customization or personalization website. In many cases people using our customization app are actually using it on other people’s websites! This can also make it hard to define precisely where the boundaries are on the MyStyle Customizer as it is seamlessly integrated with existing solutions.

There are always new ways of describing this type of app because there is no standard word for it! With all these options we wanted a single word that describes it best and went with customizer. So whether you’re looking for a “designer” or a “print previewer” or an “image maker” you’ve come to the right place. But around these parts we just call it the Mystyle Customizer :-)