Happy Quote
August 16, 2007 in Happy Quotes"The key is to just get on the bike, and the key to getting on the bike...is to stop thinking about “there are a bunch of reasons i might fall off” and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way."
- Dick Costolo - Founder of Feedburner.com
Happy Quote
August 1, 2007 in Happy QuotesThere is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose the ventures before us.
-William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Happy Links
July 30, 2007 in Happy LinksRandom Edition
- Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret. No, seriously. I doubted too. It's not revolutionary, but it's a darn good idea. I've been thinking about this a lot since reading it last week.
- In Champagne Moments, Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) unfolds that familiar not-quite-satisfied progression toward success. "And so it went, in ant-sized steps forward. Every pat on the back came with a kick in the nuts."
- When To Dump That Great Idea. This one hurt to read -- but as I reflect back, ditching the stinkers for something better is essential. This article outlines the signs it is time to drop your current plans for world domination and replace them with something new.
- What it takes to be rich. Have you ever wanted to knock on the door of some huge beautiful house and ask them what they do for a living? This guy traveled to America's wealthiest zip codes and did just that.
Happy Quote
July 11, 2007 in Happy Quotes"We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company."
-Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks
Checking in on Authentic Jobs
July 10, 2007 in WorkHappy.net AdvertiserAs mentioned before, WorkHappy.net has teamed with Authentic Jobs to provide a means for finding web designer or developer talent, or finding work yourself (see the upper right column on this site).
I gave it a try myself
The last few months have given me an opportunity to utilize AJ (Authentic Jobs) for my own purposes. I've advertised for a copywriter, a PHP developer, and a Flash animator.
The results:
- Copywriter post: 10 responses, half were excellent, 2 were off the charts. The woman we hired should be the CEO of our company, she's superhumanly amazing.
- Flash animator post: 38 responses, about 10 were stunning.
- PHP developer post: 31 responses, most were solid including about 6 that just blew me away. The guy we hired absolutely rocks.
Some stats
AJ offers freelance and full time jobs. For fun, here's a quick run down of what's cooking on the full-time side as of today, July 10, 2007:
- 68 total job posts
- 48 are full time jobs
- High visibility companies hiring:
And a big thanks to Cameron Moll and Authentic Jobs for supporting WorkHappy.net.
Internet Retailer Magazine
July 9, 2007 in 5 out of 5 stars, A magazine, FreeInternet Retailer Magazine: A free magazine (print, or online) focused on information relevant to internet retailers (and associated consultants, developers, etc.). Vertical Web Media LLC It's a magazine consistently providing indispensable wisdom, ideas, statistics, data, analysis, case studies, and success stories. I'm a recent subscriber and I can't believe I didn't know about it earlier. A couple examples: in this month's (July 07) issue, I learned that adding three or more payment options at checkout (e.g. Credit Cards, PayPal, Google Checkout) has raised sales by an average of 14% according to payments processor CyberSource Corp. I also learned that Amazon (at the top of the list) spent $662mil on technology in 2006 on revenue of almost $11 billion (!!). Overstock.com was 2nd with $65mil in expenditures on revenue of $788mil, and Netflix 3rd with $48mil on revenue of $997mil. I can't recommend the email newsletter. It's far too often and noisy. The spam/content ratio of the magazine is what you might expect for free, but the gems are easy to find. It's only free for those in the U.S. :( Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
Fortunately it's also almost all online.How much does it cost?
Rating?
Happy Links
June 26, 2007 in Happy LinksRandom Gems:
- No Plan, No Capital, No Model...No Problem. Guy Kawasaki moderates a discussion with 5 no-VC-needed startups including our buddy Markus Frind. Great stuff all around. The standout was James Hong of HotorNot.com with his stories of making it happen, not just without VC funding, but without any money of any kind.
- Guy interviews Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless. Another group of untrained guys who followed their gut and are now a ridiculous success (selling 80-90K tee shirts/month).
- Seth tells us how to make a million dollars. It's not $1 from a million people (too hard to reach that many) but more like $10K from 100 organizations, push though "the dip" and dominate through excellence.
- The Ebb and Flow of Social Networking is an insightful little observation for those of you (us) fixing to make hay with the social networking phenomena. (That site distorts the graph, see it clearly here).
Adwords Optimizer
June 11, 2007 in 3 out of 5 stars, Analytics, SEO/SEMAdwords Optimizer: A tool to help you fine tune your AdWords ads. MindValley LC It's simple, it's free, and it works. Savvy AdWords users write two or more ads for a given ad group. Google then uses both ads and you can learn which ad performs the best by watching the CTR (click through rate) and conversion over time. Adwords Optimizer sends you a daily report of how your different ads are performing and which one has the best CTR, then offers suggestions for improving. It's a simple thing, and something you can do by hand-checking your AdWords account every day and keeping track, but Adwords Optimizer makes a tedious thing you should do every day (but probably don't because it's tedious) very simple. I wish I could view a back history of my reports. If you save all the emails you get, you have a crude history, but I'd like a screen where it listed all my reports so I could view past ones. It's a bit sparse on metrics (but it does provide what it promises to provide). Update: The signup process they suggest is confusing and lame, you can signup here. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
Rating?
Happy Links
May 14, 2007 in Happy LinksProfiled Product Updates Edition:
- HighRise now imports contacts from Outlook.
- Google Analytics has done a massive update to this already absurdly killer tool.
- Blinksale now lets you send PDF invoices.
- Freshbooks lets you send snail mail.
- Mailbuild offers up some "permission handouts" to help you help your clients get the picture about gaining explicit permission.
- And finally, XDrive continues to be the most reviled and hated product ever reviewed here. Talk about a total meltdown, read some of the comments on that thread.
Happy Links
May 1, 2007 in A podcast, Happy LinksPodcast edition:
Three inspiring podcasts with entrepreneurs who are making magic.
- Evan Williams entrepreneur-hero of Blogger fame, then Odeo, now Twitter is interviewed by Jason Calacanis. What a cool guy! Ev keeps it real. His conspicuous lack of smarm or slick is obviously a factor behind his ridiculous success.
- Dan Albritton co-founder of iminlikewithyou.com. Holy smokes this was some thought-provoking stuff about an industry you'd think was already saturated and spent (online dating). What a killer little company, and Dan's clearly a genius. Inspiring ideas for any entrepreneur.
- Leon Bambrick started a little company that makes a very simple software product (TimeSnapper). In this interview, he shares with geek-idol Scott Hanselman 25 excellent tips for launching your own Micros ISV. Great advice for aspiring MicroISV-ers out there.