(How could I not title this post after one of my favorite David Byrne songs?) Gus has a terrific post on his blog about what he calls “the wilderness” – a period of time between major software releases “where I’m pretty lost, and I don’t know what to do.” His working theory on the matter is that it’s basically a…
mostly nonsense
For years I’ve used on-hold “waiting” contexts named after coworkers and family members to denote tasks that I’ve assigned to other people and am waiting on them to finish. But a few weeks ago I had a realization that there are two other types of relationships between tasks and people that I haven’t been tracking. And with a few quick…
I’ve always gone with portability and sleekness over outright power and versatility. I bought an 11″ MacBook Air the day they came out. I switched to an iPad Mini from the bulky third generation iPad. I walk around with a slim wallet. I keep my iPhone naked in my pocket – no case. So I was hesitant but very curious…
I’m probably not going to say anything new. But I wanted to put down on paper my system for staying on top of email since I so often see people with overflowing inboxes. And I’m not trying to specifically call out anyone I’ve worked with in the past with an unmanaged inbox. I’ve known plenty of very productive people who…
When I started selling my first Mac app in 2007, there was no App Store. I don’t even think “app” was a word. And there certainly wasn’t any ready-made infrastructure for selling software online that you could simply plug into. That meant, like every other independent developer, I had to piece together my own solution for accepting payments, hosting downloads,…
About six months ago I began collecting the email addresses of folks who downloaded my app, VirtualHostX. This was entirely opt-in. I simply placed a MailChimp signup form on my download page. I promised users who join a three email course introducing them to a few of the major VirtualHostX features and a 10% off coupon for when they purchased….
I feel slightly ridiculous even writing this post, but I always appreciate it when other folks review and suggest products that have made their lives a little better. So, here goes. The Tervis 12oz Tumbler is the best coffee cup I’ve ever owned. You would think it wouldn’t matter what sort of coffee cup you use, but after picking one…
After publishing my Mac app financials last month, I received mostly positive comments. But a few people did share with me, over Twitter and email, their displeasure for what I wrote. They seemed to think that I was only writing to jump on Jared’s bandwagon, to grab some cheap, easy traffic, or to show off. One person even gave me…
In this post I thought I’d share my history maintaining mailing lists for my products, how I make the most of them, and what sort of success they have and haven’t brought me. Near the bottom, I’m also going to share some real data about my open rates, etc. To begin with, it took me a long time to become…
Despite spending three years working in the Yahoo! Marketing department, I’m a terrible marketer when it comes to my own company. I’ll often be in the process of explaining to my wife some new marketing tactic I’m considering trying, when she’ll stop me and say “You sound like you’re apologizing for doing this. You don’t have to be embarrassed for…