Have you experienced picking a username for social media but it’s taken or already exists?

Don’t worry about it! In this post, I’d like to share with you some tips and tricks on choosing a modern, clean username

17 Tricks on choosing a username that’s already been taken

1. Use part of your name. Ex: @Oprah (Oprah Winfrey)

2. Use your initials.  Ex: @SarahKSilverman (Sarah K Silverman)

3. Shorten your name. If your full name is really long, hard to remember or if you’re known by a shorter nickname (like @JLo) then shorten your name.

4. Say what you! Add “actor,” “actress” or “acts” to the end of your username

5. Add ‘Real’ to your username. Ex: @KevinHart4real (Kevin Hart) or @RealGilbert (Gilbert Gottfried)

6. Add ‘TV’, ‘Chat’, ‘Buzz’, or ‘films’ (if you are a creator) to the end of your name.  Ex: @ArdaOcalTV 

7. Add ‘Talks’ or ‘Says’ to your name. Ex: @TheRealAdamSays

8. Add a ‘THE’ in front of your name. Ex: @TheEllenShow (Ellen DeGeneres)

9. Make it ‘Official’ (only works with shorter names) Ex: @OfficialAdele

10. Add “I am” or “Im” or “Its” Ex: @IAMQUEENLATIFAH (Queen Latifah)

11. Use your location.  If you live and work in LA or NYC, add it to the end of your username. 

12. Use your website (if you have a short name). This is great because it also directs everyone to your website. Ex: @wordpressdotcom 

13. Add a Mr, Miss, Mrs to the beginning of your name. With this hack you can actually just use your first or last name if it’s still available. 

14. Get creative & make it funny (if that’s your brand)  Ex: @SteveMartinToGo (Steve Martin)

15. Add letters to your name.  Ex: @garyvee (Gary Vaynerchuk)

16. Keep them Updated. If your name is short, add a “daily” in front of your name. Ex: @DailyYourname

The post 17 Tricks If Your Username Is Taken appeared first on UpMinded.

In this post, let’s talk about how to download and convert .m3u8 file to any other format such as TS, MP4, MOV with VLC player on Mac.

The steps are very straight forward, at the end of this page you will see a video to it, feel free to give it a watch and let me know if you have further questions!

Step 1. Open on Chrome, Right Click, Choose “Inspect“

Simply open the video url you’d like to download and convert with Chrome Browser, right click and choose “Inspect” option.

Step 2. Choose Network, Search “m3u8”

Under the new window just opened, pick the Network option then in the search box type “m3u8“.

If nothing shows up, simply refresh your page and it should be able to load right away.

Step 3. Copy m3u8 URL

Click ‘playlist.m3u8‘ in the search result, on the right hand side, you should see a long Request URL, copy this URL, we are almost done!

Step 4. Download VLC Player, Install, Open

VLC is great video player and packed with powerful tools, you can download it for FREE here.

Step 5. File – Open Network

Go to file on top menu, choose Open Network option, and in the new window, under URL section, paste the URL you copied earlier, check “Streaming/Saving” box and click on settings.

Step 6. Name your video, Pick file type

Under settings, give the video a name and choose a file type, I normally go with TS then convert to MP4 or MOV later, this prevents VLC from crashing during streaming and saving. When you’re done, click OK.

Step 7. Wait for the process to finish

At the bottom, you will see the process has begun, just wait for the bar to finish, this process depends on how long the video is, if it’s short, it will finish fast, if it’s a long video, you might have to wait for a while.

Once the process is done, your file is ready to go, in this case, I saved it on my desktop, so the TS file will be save on my desktop.

Step 8. Convert to Other Formats

You can either use the .TS file or use other tools to convert the file to any other formats such as MP4, MOV.

I use this tool called “iSkysoft Video Converter“, however, there are many other tools out there, simply pick the one you like and convert the file.

Step by Step Video:

The post How to Download and Convert m3u8 video to TS, MP4, MOV with VLC (Mac) appeared first on UpMinded.

If you’ve been looking for solutions to get Stripe work on your WordPress website without purchasing a SSL certification…

You stoped at the right place!

If you are a small business operator, paying for SSL or other premium plugins can be a little stressful for new start-ups especially with a low budget…

Without further ado…let’s straight cut to the point:

Signing up for a Stripe account is totally free, 2.9% + 30¢ transaction fee sounds acceptable. However, if you want to use Stripe as your payment option on your site (like a button or something) you must purchase a SSL (HTTPS) from your host or you will get notification on your backend that looks like this:

SSL (HTTPS) is not enabled. You will not be able to process live Stripe transactions until SSL is enabled.

The solution we discovered is quite simple and will get you a FREE SSL on your Woocommerce site with full functionality of Stripe payment gateway. Most importantly, NO CODING REQUIRED!

Follow these 5 easy steps and feel free to leave a comment or contact us, we will be happy to help you out.

Step 1: Install and Activate Plugins

There are 4 FREE plugins we need for this solution:

• Woocommerce
• WooCommerce Stripe Gateway by Automattic
• CloudFlare by Ian Pye
• CloudFlare Flexible SSL by iControlWP

You can either download the plugins and upload them to your WordPress or go to your WordPress Admin, click “Plugins” -> “Add New” then search the names.

Step 2: Register and Set up a Stripe Account

Create your Stripe Account here.

Once you’re done with signing up your Stripe account, go to your dashboard (or click your account name on the top right corner), click API on the left menu section, save both “Publishable key” and “Secret key”

Step 3: Link Stripe and WooCommerce

• Head into your WordPress dashboard on the left-hand side and find woo commerce > settings
• From the navigation bar on the top select checkout
• Check the box that says “Force HTTP when leaving the checkout”. (That keeps the rest of the site at HTTP and just the checkout pages at HTTPS.)
• Select Stripe from the checkout options
• Enable Stripe and make sure you have the following fields filled out: Live Secret Key, Live Publishable Key, uncheck Enable Test Mode, Capture: Capture card immediately enabled, Saved Cards: Enable payment via Saved Cards Enabled.
• Hit Save Changes

Step 4. Register and Set Up Cloudflare

Sign up for CloudFlare here and follow the setup guide. (this will also make your site faster! AWESOME!) Once you have your CloudFlare setup follow the next steps to make sure it’s ready for your SSL. (note: the following work with my server setup and should work with yours, if you’re having trouble you may need to alter some settings)

• Crypto Tab – Set the following options SSL: Flexible
• Firewall Tab – Security Level: Medium
• Speed Tab – Auto Minify: All Selected, Rocket Loader: Off (very important)
• Caching Tab – Caching Level: Standard, Cache Expiration: 4 Hours, Always Online: On
• Page Rules – See image… Make sure yourdomain.com/checkout/ has SSL: Flexible, Rocket Loader Off
• Network – Websockets: On, IP Geolocation: On
• Scrape Shield – Email Address Obfuscation: On, Server-side Excludes: On.

If you don’t have the settings, simply click “+Add a Setting” and make sure the final settings look like this:

Step 5: Set up CloudFlare WordPress Plugin

• In your WordPress backend navigate to Settings > Cloudflare on the left-hand side bar.
• Input your domain name as it is registered with Cloudflare,
• Input your Cloudflare API Key (which can be found in Cloudflare dashboard Overview “Get your API key” > API KEY > View Global API KEY)
• Your Cloudflare Email address.
• Turn on HTTPS Protocol Rewriting

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE DONE!

Your website should be able to take credit card payments over SSL + Stripe at no additional cost of plugins, or paying your host for an SSL.

*Note: it may take up to 24 hours (usually a lot faster) for Cloudflare settings to become active, so just be patient with it.

If you have any questions or issues, feel free to reach out to us and we are happy to help!

Stay tuned!

The post How To Install Payment Gateway with Free SSL on Your WooCommerce Site appeared first on UpMinded.