FaxPipe
January 6, 2009 in 4 out of 5 stars, A service, Faxing FaxPipe: After initially recommending, and then getting hosed by Send2Fax (they significantly raised the prices, didn't let me know, made it hard to cancel and get a refund, didn't give a full refund), I was on the hunt for a replacement. I've been using FaxPipe now for several months, and can say it's everything I need and want in an electronic fax system. AirCom LLC. When someone faxes you, you get a PDF attachment of the fax in an email. To send a fax, you send an email with an
attachment to a special email address, put the recipient fax number as
the body of the message, and you're done. You get a toll-free or local number. Highly affordable. There's isn't much to it, it's just what you need, and nothing you don't. Paying yearly on the lower tier plans isn't my favorite (although, not a big deal). $48/yr for 25 pages/mo, $0.15 for more pages. Other plans. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Creative solutions (and high drama)
January 5, 2009
Ryan Carson over at Carsonified opens up about some of his recent successes, and failures - which offer some interesting insights:
DropSend was built on a budget, grown to a profitable monthly revenue and sold for a healthy sum of money.
...
But we’ve also failed pretty badly with another web app called Amigo. We launched it in late 2006 and received some great press. The idea was solid (pay-per-click advertising in email newsletters) but the problem is that we were naive and we thought we could run it in our free time.
Then it gets good. He talks about a creative approach he's taking on his next venture, a new web application. In summary: he's contracting to have the developer (Elliot) build the application and be compensated with a revenue split of 10-25% of net, depending on a few factors.
First - the idea presents an interesting and thought-provoking (if not entirely original) approach, but as you might imagine, a wide range of vociferous comments in response ranging from claims that Ryan is exploiting Elliot, to accolades for the brilliant approach.
Ryan's various responses - including a rather touching chiming-in by Ryan's dad (!) make the entire post - and most of the 153 comments (so far) a very educational mental exercise for those considering alternative ways of moving forward during challenging economic times.
The Secret to Success In [whatever]
January 2, 2009 in Happy Links, Happy Quotes, Killer Advice
Chase Jarvis, if you haven't heard of him, is a very successful (by most any measure) commercial photographer. He's also a true mensch -- and as such -- the object of great admiration by many serious photographers.
He is frequently asked the secret to success in photography. I think his answer applies 100% to whatever you're trying to find success in. His answer?
- Be undeniably good (quoting Steve Martin).
- Dedicate at least 10,000 hours (quoting Malcom Gladwell from his new book Outliers: The Story of Success.)
Happy Quote
December 28, 2008“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
—Andre Gide
Google's SEO Starter Guide
November 13, 2008 in Happy Links
A quick guide to SEO best practices (i.e. things you should do on your site to be viewed favorably by Google such that you show up high in their organic search listings), only this one is put out by Google proper. Nothing too revolutionary here, but it's worth a careful review given the source. It's a nicely put-together 22 page PDF.
Happy Link
October 26, 2008 in Happy Links
Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind: Great little collection of videos with the ever-wise Seth Godin and Tom Peters. With genius responses like this one from Seth on "is social networking good for small business?", plus some commentary on the current economic turmoil and (US) national election cycle, there are some real gems here. You can bang through them all in about 30min.
Elance
August 8, 2008 in 4 out of 5 stars, A service, Collaboration, Hiring, ProductivityElance: A place to (primarily) find freelance help, and also to find work as a freelancer. Elance, Inc. Elance has been around for a while (at least since 2002) and serves a wide range of businesses. I won't speak to their breadth, just their value to me as a non-Fortune-500-level entrepreneur. Elance's real benefit is in finding inexpensive (many of their providers are in Asia and Latin America) help for more specialized tasks that I can't afford the time to do myself, or that I don't have the skills to do myself.
For example, I have about 1,000 product images that I need the backgrounds removed from in Photoshop. My friend needed a customized Flash video player designed for his site. A quick (relatively simple) post on Elance, and we found the help we needed within 24 hours.
I like how careful they are about vetting businesses and providers to ensure everyone is the real deal. They also have an escrow service (free for businesses), and a fairly robust messaging and agreement system to make sure everyone knows what's expected and how the project will pay out. My results have been very satisfactory. The site is pretty complex, and as such, it's a bit cumbersome to use (I did muddle my way through without reading much and just guess-clicking and did ok however). Some of the communication structure feels more like insulation designed to make sure Elance gets their commission than a way to make my life easier. Most of their project management constructs are far too elementary to be useful. Free for businesses, providers pay 4-6% plus a monthly fee depending on usage. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Google Sites
July 23, 2008 in 4 out of 5 stars, A service, Collaboration, Free, Hosted "Office", Hosted software, Issue trackers, Productivity, Project managementGoogle Sites: A poor man's (pretty darn good) intranet. An online, Google-hosted wiki-meets-project management software service. Google gobbled up Jot Spot (a hosted wiki service headed by Joe Kraus) before it even really got going, it was later re-born as Google Sites. Google I have a growing and widely dispersed team for my latest venture. I've set up a Google Sites website which is serving as an "intranet" for this team, and it's working quite well. It's like a wiki in that anyone (whom you allow) can edit or add pages or documents. It also has several built-in tools to help you create things like, a file download repository, a todo list, an issue tracker, or an announcements board. Most anyone can set one up and manage it, it's not difficult, there are no HTML skills required. You have some limited control over the look and feel; for example you can easily brand it with your own logo and colors. They've made management of the site very simple. You can invite others as owners, collaborators or just viewers. You can also optionally make the site visible to everyone on the internet. You get 100MB of storage space for free, and can bump that up to 25GB per account for their paid version which costs $50/user/yr. They even have an API. My primary beef is no discussion forum built in. That would make it twice as valuable for us. Even if they just took Google Groups and married it in, we'd have a winner. This is a huge omission. I would also like the option not to have previous versions of all my pages available to everyone. It's not a huge deal, but I don't need the last umpteen version of a page viewable forever, and there's no facility to disallow this. Free for most everything, $50 per user per year for the deluxe version with lots of storage space. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
There are also many more options available through "Gadgets" like a Google Calendar, a Presentation (read: Microsoft Powerpoint-like document), or a Spreadsheet. Plus hundreds of third party gadgets like maps, weather, games, news feeds, and chat. Not to mention a million other useless things no one would ever want (Woody Allen quotes?). Fortunately it's easy to ignore that stuff.What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
RescueTime
July 2, 2008 in 4 out of 5 stars, Hosted software, ProductivityRescueTime: A time management and analysis program. RescueTime (3 guys rocking it with some YCombinator funding to start) Because it achieves the holy grail of being fun to use, and darned useful too. It consists of two parts. An application (software) you install on your computer (PC or Mac) and a website which reports on your time usage. While it's pretty helpful even with zero configuration effort (just install and let it go), you can really make it come alive if you spend a little time telling it about the things you do through simple tagging, and rating for productivity. It's an intuitive process that unfolds as you want it to. The usability is solid. The first benefit to me was realizing just how much time I was frittering away with useless garbage. It was troubling information. Well, harrowing is more like it. And it has already changed how I use my time. As an entrepreneur, being accountable even if only to RescueTime is proving to be very valuable. The old "what gets measured gets improved" adage once again proves true. I'm rigorous about measuring so many other things, it's a little embarrassing I haven't applied that better to my time until now. I guess I just needed the drop-dead simple "do it for me" solution that RT provides. In addition to measuring time, RT lets you set up goals, which it then tracks for you. Some example goals might be "spend more than 3 hours per day working on my secret project" or "spend less than 1 hour per day on email." They also have some paid features that allow groups to use it together so you can compare how you spend your time versus the average member. I haven't dived into that. Everything I'm using is free. I've really resisted having a big crush on RT, but have so far failed. I love it. This is still immature software, and it's important to know that going in. I sincerely hope they can make their revenue model fly so that they can evolve this to the point where they build on the killer progress they've made so far. In fact, if they would address the issues I'm about to outline, I would be perfectly happy to pay a modest fee (say, $4/mo) to keep my records indefinitely (right now they only keep a 3 month backlog) and have the following features: 1. I'd like to do intra-application tagging. For example - if I'm writing a poem about my dog in Word, I'd like to tag that differently than a work proposal for a new client. As it is today, they only break things out that way for the web browser. 2. I'd like to be able to manually enter time. Right now it only tracks your time at the computer - which it does spine-tinglingly well. But if I have an off-site meeting, I'd like to enter that in as productive time to gather a more accurate picture. My other lingering concerns are privacy, and support. Privacy: You're sending some potentially pretty sensitive information up. They've got some mechanisms in place to limit what you send if you want. For example, they've got a web site whitelist so you can say "only send specifics from this set of websites" so you'd specify the top 20 or so websites you frequent, and everything else would be sent as generic web use. You can also easily turn off logging for a period of time, you can tell it to ignore certain data (which is claims to delete and ignore), and finally if you have a panic attack, you can delete your account and all data, which presumably deletes it all from their servers. However, even with all this, the privacy policy still feels a little weak. Essentially stating, "we'll never look at your data, unless we need to" [link]. Mint.com for example says something more like, "we won't ever look at your data, and couldn't if we wanted to" [link]. Obviously Mint.com deals with more sensitive data - but for many users, that doesn't matter. Support: This is a pretty minor concern, but I'll mention that I ran into some odd logging times, sent an email to support, got an almost instant personal reply (under 1 min) with some information, and a request to send some debugging logging information to them, which I did, but I never heard back (it's been about a week now). It wasn't a critical issue, it's free software, and it actually seems to be behaving properly now (I may have just done something stupid) so I didn't push it. Free for individuals, unlock some groupy/teamy goodness starting at $7.95/mo for the first 6 users, and $7.95/mo more per user after that. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
The software logs the applications you use (a plain text log). By default it logs in two-second increments to paint a pretty accurate picture. Then every 30 minutes it beams this information up to the mothership. The mothership is a glorious reporting site you can pull up to see how you're using your time. It features all manner of reporting graphs and charts. It shows you how productive you're being, where you spend your time, how you're doing on your goals, and more. What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Happy Quote
June 25, 2008 in Happy Quotes"There is nothing that drives a team forward like the fear of public failure, debt, and starvation. Leap off the cliff and start building the airplane on the way down and you might be surprised with what you can pull off.
—Tony Wright, founder and CEO of RescueTime (review eminent)
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
June 19, 2008 in 5 out of 5 stars, A bookThe Dip: A book dedicated to a simple, but powerful and inspiring idea. I'm struggling to decide if it's Seth's best or not. It's certainly a contender. Seth Godin First of all - it's short (80 pages). And as anyone who writes can tell you, shorter is harder. And in this case, it's also better. The writing is focused, the idea is well developed, and the impact, at least for me, was very, very powerful. A buddy of mine and I were whining the other day about how hard it was to invest significantly in creating something that should be great, but realize that creating it was not enough. Not nearly enough. We thought it would be hard to go from concept to reality, and it was. But how surprising it was to realize that the really hard part had just begun. Taking that reality, and becoming a market leader, taking that hard-won reality, and turning it into the success we dreamed about when we started, that was the hard part. The really hard part. And boy, those early dream-filled days were great. That dream motivated us to tear into our projects with vigor and excitement. It was novel, and fun, and a fresh start, and endless opportunity. And that dream pushed us on in that way only the entrepreneurially-minded can appreciate. Past hurdles, and challenges, and finally our hard work and investment bore fruit. And there we stood at the great unveiling, the shroud lifted from our creation, and the response? Awkward and empty silence. Because while creating the thing is required (you can't get anywhere without doing that) it's not enough. It's not nearly enough. Because many have done that. But only a few — a very successful few — have pushed through the next stage to actually realize The Dream. And then I remembered that Seth had named this period we were starting to push through, he called it "The Dip." And suddenly the genius of the premise of his book struck me. I hadn't read it yet, only read about it. So I started here, my appetite was whetted. The idea had taken root, and then I bought the book and read it carefully. Letting his persistent presentation of the idea seep into me deep enough to last. And then I closed the book, carefully inventoried my situation, and made some drastic changes. I don't want to oversell this, because your experience may be different from mine. But I can honestly say that this book, perhaps because of the timing of when I read it, has had a dramatic and positive impact on me. In it, Seth defines "The Dip." He discussed the value of pushing through it (because so few are willing to do it, the competition at the other end is thin, and the rewards are enormous), how to do it (over-invest, quit everything else taking your energies), why we don't do it (his list of excuses stung with familiarity!), how you can quit a tactic, but retain a strategy, and how to recognize when you're not actually in a dip, but just think you are. Oh, and inspiration. Did I mention it was inspiring? There were sections of this book that had me clenching my fist in determination to make it through. And he ends with some probing and
through-provoking questions. Like this gem: "If I'm going to quit
anyway, is there something dramatic I can do instead that might change
the game?" So I finished the book a few weeks ago, and now I have a new perspective. I see with new eyes those around me who have pushed through The Dip. Here are a couple examples: Ira Glass - world-class host of This American Life. Here he talks about pushing through the dip. He doesn't call it that, but that's exactly what he's talking about. And Dean Kamen. Is there any question that he pushed (and pushes) through The Dip? Sure the Segway was a joke, but you watch this and tell me he isn't one of the greatest examples in the world for pushing though the dip. When the Dept. of Defense needed the best in the world to tackle the most difficult of jobs, I suspect the list was pretty short, and now Dean is truly changing the world. (And don't forget this awesomeness too). And there are more. Just from this week's news: Tim Russert and Tiger Woods. And someday, maybe, you. And me. $10.15 Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Get FogBugz for free for two users with "Student and Startup Edition"
June 12, 2008Alert reader John Sheehan points out that FogBugz has an un-advertised offer for students and startups allowing you to get FogBugz On Demand (that's the hosted variety) for free for 2 users.
To get it, sign up for FogBugz On Demand 45 day trial per normal, then in your "Settings > Your FogBugz On Demand Account" page, you can switch it to the free edition.
FogBugz
June 11, 2008 in 5 out of 5 stars, A piece of software, Hosted software, Issue trackers, Project managementFogBugz: They say it's project management software, which it is — but its real strength (and reputation) is issue/bug tracking. They have hosted, and installable versions of the software. I use their hosted version (dubbed FogBugz on Demand). Fog Creek Software I like and use Basecamp, but on a current large project I found myself heavily using Basecamp's ToDo lists for issue tracking, and they weren't sufficient.
So several months ago I signed up for FogBugz. FogBugz didn't give me that instant love-at-first-site experience I've had with other software. But as I've begun to use it heavily, I have grown to adore this software, and I now completely rely on it to manage my projects. Its genius is in its maturity. It is mature, seasoned, and polished software that makes tracking multiple issues with difficult sticky elements not just easy, but enjoyable. You know software is great if you still love it, and use it heavily after several months. Now I can't live without it. It allows me to constantly keep on top of the hundreds of issues currently at play with my project, tracking them by sub-project, by team member, priority, and time. I have to say, it has also trained me to work more efficiently in managing my projects. Because it is easy to use, we use it comprehensively, and because of that, it has helped us improve the quality of our software. There are only four of us on our team, I'm sure it would really come into its own with much larger teams, and still be helpful for even smaller teams. My only real complaint is that it's packed with additional features, but they aren't real approachable. The usability, once you get the hang of the features you need, is solid, and even claravoiyant, but beyond that, the other features and capabilities of the software requires some hunting, digging and experimenting to get rolling. Hosted: free for 2 users, or $25/user, per month Installed: $199/user or less Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals Wrapup
June 5, 2008 in Analytics, Expert Advice
If you're not using Google Analytics, you're missing out. It's ridiculously powerful, informative, easy to set up, and it's free. If you're serious at all about your web efforts, you need to be using it.
I just finished up a series teaching you how to take Google Analytics beyond the very basic setup. In it I cover the use of Conversion Goals that help you go beyond tracking page views, to tracking desired visitor actions like making a purchase, filling out a form, signing up for an account, joining an email list, etc.
Here are quick links to the full guide:
- Part One: Basics of goal set up. What they are, how they work, how to set yours up today.
- Part Two: Setting up Funnels. Learn how many people start the goal conversion process, how many finish, and where the stragglers stop progressing.
- Part Three: Tracking goals with no distinct associated pageview. Let's say you want to track a software download, or your goal doesn't have a unique page at the end.
- Part Four: Tracking income from your goals. Beef up your analytics with information about exactly how your web traffic is impacting your bottom line.
My hope is that you'll utilize this valuable resource to improve your chances of success. Best of luck friend.
p.s. I've had a couple people ask, and if this is all overwhelming and you'd rather just hire me to set it all up for you, drop me a note.
Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Four)
June 5, 2008 in Analytics, Expert AdviceIn part one of this series I covered the basics of setting up goals in GA (Google Analytics).
In part two I covered setting up funnels.
In part three I discussed tracking goals with no distinct associated pageview.
Today, in the final installment, we'll be discussing how to track the income from certain goals. Google calls this "goal value tracking."
It's for those of you selling something. It allows you to track the income you make from a given goal. Having this extra information in your web analytics is very powerful in helping you make the right decisions.
Continue reading "Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Four)"
May 30, 2008 in Happy Links
Lessons from the fall Ex-CEOs from JetBlue, Starbucks, and Motorola discuss what they learned when they lost their jobs.
I said, "Mom, how are you?" And she goes, "Great. Why are you calling me at ten in the morning?" I just said, "Hey, I just want to tell you, I'm not with Starbucks anymore, but everything is fine."
Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Three)
May 29, 2008 in Analytics, Expert AdviceIn part one of this series I covered the basics of setting up goals in GA (Google Analytics).
In part two I covered setting up funnels.
These are both straightforward techniques that everyone should be using because you can do them without ever touching your website (assuming you have the GA code installed on your site, of course).
Today, I'm going to cover a more technically advanced topic. Namely, tracking things that don't have a distinct page view associated with them. This one will require some web page editing know-how, and a little bit of programming savvy, but not a ton if you carefully follow along.
Continue reading "Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Three)"
Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Two)
May 23, 2008 in Analytics, Expert AdviceLast time we discussed the basics of setting up goals in Google Analytics. Something so easy and valuable, everyone should be doing it.
Today we're going to cover funnels.
Continue reading "Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part Two)"
Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part One)
May 20, 2008 in Analytics, Expert AdviceSo you've signup up for Google Analytics. You've grabbed the code, you've pasted it on every page. You're done, right?
Wrong. You've only tapped a portion of the Google Analytics Goodness. Setting up goals in Google Analytics is very easy, and very powerful. You only need to invest a few minutes to avail yourself of this very valuable additional data.
First, let's define goals:
Goals are desired visitor actions on your website.
For example, here are mine from a current venture:
- Created a profile
- Joined the email list
- Made a purchase
Yours might be things like, submitted a sales inquiry, viewed a key page, started or downloaded a free trial, upgraded their account, referred a friend.
Currently, Google Analytics only allows you to select up to four goals so choose wisely.
How goals work:
Goals are actually just a page view. Really, that's it. When you define a goal in GA, you tell it what page view constitutes the completion of a goal, and GA tracks it as a goal.
For example: let's say you want to track purchases.
You just tell GA to track your Receipt.html/ThankYou.html-type-page and define that goal as "Made a purchase" and as long as you have the GA tracking code snippet on that page, you're done defining that goal.
Let's walk through it:
Continue reading "Advanced Google Analytics: Conversion Goals (Part One)"
Interview with Guy Kawasaki
April 29, 2008 in An interview
Guy Kawasaki's "no-bull-shiitake" wisdom and style makes him an endearing and inspiring figure. He is best known to entrepreneurs for his writing and speaking. (His excellent Art of the Start is required reading for all WorkHappy readers.)
He also runs Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. A couple years ago he started his own blog and posted a flurry of excellent posts that pulled his blog into A-list status in a hurry. Then lately he has started a couple ventures of his own. Last year came Truemors, and this year, AllTop.
WorkHappy.net was included on the AllTop directory for startups, and since I had his attention, I asked him to spare a few minutes for some questions. Here they are:
1. So you busted Steve Ballmer's chops pretty hard. It made a ridiculously entertaining and enlightening interview, did he thank you afterward?
He did, as a matter of fact. Other than throwing my Macbook Air on the ground, he was rather gracious. Time Magazine had me write a profile of him, so I’m going to get the last shot.
2. You've obviously built a very successful entrepreneurial career of your own, including authoring books, and speaking. But your first claim to fame is having worked for Apple, how did you go from an Apple employee to a Venture Capitalist?
After my first tour of duty at Apple I started a Macintosh database company. Then I became a writer and speaker and then started another Macintosh software company. After that, I returned to Apple as an Apple fellow. Finally, after that, I started Garage.com which became the early-stage venture capital firm called Garage Technology Ventures.
3. So with all the advice you've given on pitching VCs, have you seen an improvement in the quality of pitches to Garage Technology Ventures?
Honestly, they’re not that much better. They are still too long, still using meaningless buzz words like “revolutionary,” and still don’t have credible business models. If only they would adhere to the 10/20/30 rule of Powerpoint: Ten slides, twenty minutes, 30 point font.
4. What concepts are you tired of seeing?
A fill-in-the-blank version of Facebook. That is, Facebook for guinea pig owners, Facebook for senior citizens, Facebook for Loch Ness monster believers. I’m getting anti-social in my later years.
5. When being pitched, what marketing approach most impresses you?
A product that is so compelling that adoption is close to involuntary. It hardly ever happens, though.
6. What are the most popular excuses you see for people who just can't get going on their venture?
They are working on their business plan. VCs fund people or products or services. They don’t fund “plans.” Step one for entrepreneurs is to build a prototype. That’s what truly counts.
7. You've been launching some new Internet ventures of your own lately (Truemors and AllTop), how closely have been able to follow your own advice from Art of the Start? (e.g. What meaning does Truemors make? What's Alltop's business model?)
I try to follow what my book says—at least until I figure out that my books is wrong. Truemors makes the meaning of democratizing information. Alltop’s business model is to attract people interested in narrow topics like food, wine, economics, China, India, and moms and then to sell ads to these self-selected audiences.
8. If AllTop and Truemors didn't have the buzzworthy name of Guy Kawasaki attached to them, what would you do differently to market them?
Not much. A buzzworthy name can only go so far. At an early point, the product is either good or not. It would be harder for someone without my visibility to market either Truemors or Alltop. On the other hand, more is expected of me, so judgment is harsher. Such is life.
9. Who makes the decision about where a site appears in the AllTop order of things?
Most of the time, it’s me. It’s subjective based on factors like the credibility a feed adds to our topic, the quality of the content, and how much we like the person.
10. Many of us at WorkHappy will read anything you write. Is there an author about whom you feel that way?
You flatter me way too much. I will read anything Tom Clancy, David Baldacci, and one other whose name I cannot remember right now. He always writes about snipers. As you can tell, I’m not a cerebral reader.
11. Are you done writing books?
Nope, I have a new book coming out in October. It’s called Reality Check. It contains the best of my blog and latest writing from the past three years.
12. You and John Ondrasik are the only guys I know of who like ice hockey (or at least admit to it). What are the rest of us missing?
Ice hockey is a beautiful sport. It combines physics, ballet, chess, and hand-to-hand combat. It’s hard to learn, and it’s hard to master. It is the only thing that I am not good at that I love.
Thanks Guy!
See also:
Did you know Authentic Jobs now has an affiliate program? Sign up and earn $75 per referral.
Authentic Jobs launches affiliate program, pays $75 per referral
April 21, 2008 in WorkHappy.net Advertiser
As I've mentioned before, WorkHappy is partnered with Authentic Jobs to help employers find top-flight web design and development talent, and to help that talent find work. I've used it several times myself to great success.
(You can see the job listing on the top of the sidebar on every page here on WH.net.)
Last week Authentic Jobs rolled out an affiliate program and they pay $75 if you refer an employer who makes a full time job post (or $25 for freelance posts).
Which is pretty juicy if you've got a website that might cater to this crowd.
The signup and management of this is just brilliant, incidentally. So simple and clean. Payments are made through PayPal and are paid instantly each time a referral listing is purchased. Take that complicated affiliate management programs!
p.s. they've also got a new API you can tie into with this for you technical types.
Happy Link - Gary Vaynerchuk analysis
April 10, 2008An excellent post by Jason Fried on the inspiring Gary Vaynerchuk provides an analysis of what makes him successful. Well worth studying.
Happy Links - Ecommerce Best Practices Edition
April 8, 2008 in Happy LinksI struck gold finding this blog packed with great information for those in online retail. (via)
A few examples:
- Welcome Email Usability Tips for Online Retailers
An excellent and thorough analysis of the subscription practices of 118 of the largest etailers. (42% used HTML layouts, 15% offered incentives like free shipping on next order). - Registration Usability - 87 Registration Forms Tested
This report discusses common fields requested during registration and how often they are used (e.g. Required First / Last Name - 54%, Required Birthday - 7%), discusses the ideal registration form length (as simple as possible, natch, but be creative if you need a lot of info), and ends with 13 registration form usability tips (e.g. Avoid hiding important information in graphics that look like ads or buttons that can be overlooked). - Losing Customers at the Register: 12 Checkout Blunders
Examples, dead-end receipt pages, and upselling at checkout. - Registration Usability - Permission Email Dos and Donts
In summary, don't send marketing emails to folks who sign up with you, unless they specifically request it. Otherwise you erode trust and lower open rates. She takes a few companies to task, then offers an 8 step checklist (Don’t pre-check the boxes for subscriptions).
Happy Links - Kevin Kelley Edition
March 18, 2008KK has been on some kind of wicked roll with a couple must-read essays.
- 1,000 True Fans
This mind-opening case for building a successful business by reaching the conceivable goal of having 1,000 true fans is at once exhilarating, motivating, and inspiring. I read it two weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about it. He confines his essay to artists, but I think it can easily be applied to what many of you are doing, "artistic" or not. It's the flip-side of The Long Tail and it's sure to get you thinking. - Better Than Free
Another gem making the case that the Internet is a giant copying machine dismantling previous models of selling copies of something. As such "When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable." He then goes on to outline eight things which can not be copied, and can therefore be sold. They are Immediacy, Personalization, Interpretation, Authenticity, Accessibility, Embodiment, Patronage, and Findability. He conspicuously leaves out advertising, which he addresses at the end of the essay.
Happy Quote
March 17, 2008"Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over....
Persistence is having the same goal over and over."
