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Happy Links
November 30, 2005 in Happy Links- Entrepreneur hero Evan Williams offers "Ten Rules for Web Startups"
- Sony offers a cornucopia of lessons on how to completely blow it with customers. (In the wake of the rootkit debacle).
- The Beauty of Simplicity "Marissa Mayer, who keeps Google's home page pure, understands that less is more. Other tech companies are starting to get it, too. Here's why making things simple is the new competitive advantage."
- Keep It Simple waxes on about the impact of Too Much Information (TMI), Too Much Choice (TMC), Too Many Options (TMO) and "Time Famine" and the simple solutions being spawned as a result. How can you simplify as a competitive advantage?
- Top Ways To Use Web Analytics To Improve Your Blog or Website. A Google Analytics review will be coming here to WorkHappy.net as soon as Google opens it back up for registrations, but bookmark this if you don't have Google Analytics yet, and pay close attention if you do. Great advice here.
- How to Make a Million Dollars. Dripping with cheese, but loaded with good entrepreneurial motivation.
- What Not To Do offers advice from a seasoned entrepreneur (John Osher, sold his company to Hasbro for bank) who reveals the 17 most common mistakes startups make and how to avoid them -- plus, the 5 things you must do to ensure success.
Meet With Approval
November 21, 2005 in 4 out of 5 stars, A service, Free, Hosted softwareMeet With Approval: It is an extremely quick and simple event planning web-app. Use it for planning meetings, parties, reunions, weekends, corporate events, etc. This Side Up No login/registration. Free. Allows for for attendees to
choose which dates will work the best for them. Allows for the
event coordinator to base final date selection on the preferences of
all the attendees. (It's also got a very nice web 2.0 feeling interface
to it). It could always have more features, but gets the job done as is. Free Reviewed by TeevioWhat is it?
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Why is it the killerest?
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Happy Links
November 17, 2005 in Happy Links- Presentation Zen: [Bill] Gates, [Steve] Jobs and the Zen aesthetic. This excellent analysis comparing the presentation styles of both (sprinkling some Zen philosophy in as a framework) offers some valuable lessons. The comments that follow offer additional food for thought.
- Online Resources Small Businesses Shouldn't Live Without offers a beefy list of links for entrepreneurs.
- An interview with Jason Fried of 37signals by Business Week that seems focused on Jason's "doing less" philosophy ("under-doing" the competition, "one-downing" them). Nothing new (esp here where I can't seem to go a week without some Fried worship) but interesting nonetheless.
- Kathy Sierra over at Creating Passionate Users has an insightful missive on the tendency for passionate user to forgive almost anything. "Forgiveness is relative. We diss Windows with impunity, but when our Mac does the same thing, well, geeez nobody's perfect."
- Newsvine and How Big Companies Can Innovate offers some great advice on how bigger companies (any company really) can foster the innovative spirit (with Google as the poster child). (Frankly, reading through that just reminded me why I work for myself.)
- Interview with Entrepreneur hero Guy Kawasaki where he discusses brand advocacy and the second bubble. The interview is too short (grab his book, reviewed at right for a much better dose) but offers some tidbits. "The goal of a lot of online marketing is to get bloggers and networks talking about a product. The best way to do this remains creating a great product."
CartoonStock
November 14, 2005 in 3 out of 5 stars, A serviceCartoonStock:
On-line library of cartoons instantly available for licensing and
download for all publishing, presentation, merchandise and electronic
uses. CartoonStock Ltd Similar to CartoonBank.com, however where CartoonBank represents work that has been published in the New Yorker Magazine,
around 100 artists in all, CartoonStock represents around 300 artists
worldwide, has twice as many images searchable on-line and represents a
wider variety of art and humor styles. You can also syndicate
a cartoon to your own site and get affiliate revenue if visitors click
over from it and buy something. You can send free "e-greeting cards." The site is quite unattractive and somewhat hard to use, something
they claim to be working on soon. The director had this to say to me
about it "We will shortly be redesigning the entire site and enhancing
the services and range of images on offer." About $12.00 for classroom educational use, $32 for presentations, $44 for a non-commercial website. (more here) Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
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BillingOrchard
November 9, 2005 in 4 out of 5 stars, Hosted software, InvoicingBillingOrchard: Online billing and invoicing software. Very simple and clean interface allows you to setup all your clients, send pdf or html invoices, and give your clients a "billing center" where they can login and view all their invoices, time, etc. Craig Rowe It has time tracking, payment integration with paypal and authorize.net. It even has automated recurring billing. The system also has some great add ons like a support ticketing system and a knowledge base.
This online application is great for freelancers or small boutique design studios. Its a great tool to use in tandem with basecamp. There is a project management module that could be made more robust. All in all the system is solid, easy to use, and gives your business a nice professional polish. Starting $14.95 per month Reviewed by Gianni D'AlertaWhat is it?
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Why is it the killerest?
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Happy Links
November 7, 2005 in Happy Links- 9rules round 3 submission is Nov 14th for 24 hours. Polish up your blog and give it a whirl, these guys are insanely cool to work with.
- Jason Fried takes "Bubble 2.0" to task. "This is premature, cover-your-ass babble. Babble 2.0, not Bubble 2.0. Bad business decisions by a few don’t equal a bubble. Funding companies without a future isn’t a bubble, it’s crappy investing."
- 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs. Those all look great with the possible exception of number 3.
- Creating Passionate Users offers advice on how to spend your marketing and ad budget. "Let's say your marketing and/or ad budget doesn't have the same legs it used to... Or maybe you don't even have a marketing budget." (Man I love this blog).
- 37signals dusts off the Holiday E-Commerce Ideas report. Superbly done, chock full of great "duh" ideas for getting ecommerce right so you maximize Q4.
- Ramit lectures us on greed... and makes some good points. "Everybody seems to be in a big fat hurry to make money. I call this greedy, but not in the traditional sense of the word. It's greedy because I don't think it should be the first thing on anybody's mind."
- Solo-Tees offers a (moderately interesting) interview with Problogger Darren Rowse. "I don’t have too many long term goals - the online entrepreneurial space shifts and changes so quickly that I increasingly am finding myself setting monthly, weekly and even daily goals that are just as significant."
- Matt Eliason offers some excellent, insightful things to consider when launching an affiliate program. "Most affiliates are a waste of time. Yes, it is a sad fact - from my experience and from others who run an affiliate program, somewhere between 89-95% of affiliates either won’t generate a sale, or if they do, they will be so slow as to be and administrative anchor..."
- How to Boost Your Blog Traffic.
- Essential Resources for Creativity (163 techniques + 30 tips + books)
- How to Start a Business without Money. This is puffy advice, but he's onto something with his "become an expert" + boostrapping thing.
- 10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers. "You should worship at the altar of good design and make customer satisfaction your religion. These should be your commandments."