Incidentally, most of our favorites came from the same source: DJ Walsted. His first submission was Compass, using the idea that when you are lost on the sea, you will almost absolutely stay lost unless you have a compass pointing you in the right direction. Applied to the web, a Compass site would be the instrument that people use to find you on the vastness of the internet. Conceptually, we loved the idea; however, the compass is a fairly common image on the web, and we really want something that is distinct and individual.

DJ also suggested Seed; the idea that something small eventually blossoms into something great, with a wide reach covering a lot of ground. This also kept with the earthy, natural feel of Nectar. Still, Seed was a bit vague and simple, and it is a concept that’s very commonly used in just about every regard.

Then DJ dropped the bomb. Magnet. Bloody brilliant. Magnets attract, magnets drive, magnets are incredibly simple, but infinitely complex. Taking it in a broader context, magnetism is all around us and it’s forces can be found throughout mother nature and science. In short, magnetism kicks butt.

The next hurdle, of course, was the domain name. Obviously, magnet.com was taken, so we got creative. We came up with countless ideas ranging from getmagnetized.com to magn.it, though none really stuck out.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Brett suggested Magnt. It looked cool and webby, it was phonetic, and easy to spell (”Magnet without the e”). But, alas, magnt.com was also taken. The domain was home to The Minnesota Chapter of the Association for Global New Thought (MAGNT), and while we were doubtful in being able to acquire it, Dave gave it a shot anyways.

He got in touch with William Schmidt at MAGNT, who was incredibly helpful and open to the idea of selling the domain, and through that relationship, we were able to negotiate a conversion that worked favorably for both parties.

So, there you have it. Nectar is now magnt. As you can tell we’ve already developed our new identity and have begun a partial makeover of our website. We’ll continue to polish and refine over the next few weeks but we hope you are pleased with the early results.  Best of all, the entire experience will be seamless for our customers.

To the people that submitted ideas, we offer you a hundred thanks!! Seriously, we were overjoyed by the amount of responses we got. There wasn’t an idea that we didn’t give significant thought to. If you get a chance, check some of these people out. They’ve got good heads on their shoulders.

-Ryan Scott
-Jacob Good
-DJ Walsted
-Brandon Montgomery
-Tyler Hayes
-Mike Walker
-Alex Hillinger
-Bill Trammel
-Joel Knight
-Karen LeQuia
-Alexis Karlin
-Carol Hammack
-Jeremy Shulse
-Michael Manes (ie Awesome McAwesomton)
-Mike Ames
-Christopher Leitz
-Kyle Steed
-Stephanie Nguyen
-Holly White
-Royce Regester
-Scott Schwartz
-Bob Roman

We’ll have a new post in the very near future talking more in depth about our new brand and focused direction.  Stay tuned!

To us, Nectar communicated a certain fresh, happy, and simplistic vibe that we wanted our tribe to associate with the Nectar brand. When people thought “Nectar” we wanted a broad smile to stretch across their faces as they pondered their beautiful, fresh, and charmingly simple website. In nature, Nectar is the lure that helps wayard insects find their floral treasures and we believed the analogy was quite appropriate for our websites. In some small way we feel we’ve been able to achieve this vision and we can’t express how awesome it’s been to hear people respond positively to what Nectar is all about. But for all the good vibes we’ve had with the name there have also been some real challenges.

For example, because the URL nectar.com and the twitter username “nectar” were taken we opted to combine it with an adjective – hence “tastynectar”. Many folks referred to us as Tasty Nectar rather than our intended name of Nectar. We ultimately scrapped tastynectar.com and moved to getnectar.com instead but all of this giration left us feeling just a bit uneasy about our branding strategy. Now that we are forced to make a change, we can’t help but think this is a blessing in disguise. Which brings us back to you.

Instead of going through this renaming process alone we’d like to invite you to join us for the ride. From now through May 15th, 2009 we’re taking your suggestions for our new name.  That’s right, you (or people just like you) will be the deciding factor for our company’s future branding. Of course there’s more in it for you than just simple recognition; the creator of the chosen name will receive a $100 gift certificate to spend at Amazon.com. Yes this is hot, but it just proves how much we want to hear from you, so spread the word far and wide, release your inner creative genius, and submit your naming ideas now!

Looking forward to hearing from you.  Much love.

- The Nectar Team

The reason I share Chris’ story is because there are millions more like him in the U.S. and around the world.  These are tough times and with so many people unemployed job competition can be fierce.  Here are a few tips at every stage of the job search process to help you rise above the fray and land the job you’ve been wanting.

Sending out Resumes

• Notify your personal networks.  The more people that know you and realize your looking for a job the better.  Know any entrepreneurs, VP’s, or CEO’s?  Let them know your available.
• Clean up the resume.  Be sure to include a cover letter and check out these two resources for help with writing a fantastic resume. Resume Resource 1  Resume Resource 2
• Contact a recruiter.  A quick google search for recruiters in your area should suffice.  Contrary to what some have been told recruiters are free of charge to you, employers hire them to find good people so why not get in touch with them.

“What’s in store for the future” you ask?  Our immediate focus will be on increasing the number of tastes you have to choose from. If your not completely thrilled with the tastes we currently have check back in a few weeks because we’ll have designs rolling hot off the press all the time.  One thing to keep mind is that we’re limiting the sale of each taste to 250.  The positive side to this is that out of the 1.4 billion people online only a few hundred will ever have your look.  The downside is that we can sell out of a particular taste.  We’d never want you to miss out on a taste you love because you waited too long, so recognize that it can happen!

I know I speak for the entire team when I say “Welcome to the Nectar Family!”  We promise to do everything in our power to help you strengthen your personal brand and we’re looking forward to some wonderful years together.

Below are a few links and screenshots to some press Nectar has been getting lately.