Serve Your Customers to Help Yourself

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I’m a big fan of automations. Generally, they are “set it and forget,” and I don’t have to worry about them working. When they break, I spend a fraction of the time troubleshooting that I would performing the task manually. A great, easy automation for anyone is post new content to Twitter. And while there are a TON of WordPress plugins for this, I thought the simplest solution would be an IFTTT1 integration. But when something didn’t work, they decided they’d rather use the opportunity to advertise themselves instead of serve the customer.

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When You Should Own the Platform vs. Paying for a Service

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Quick note! Subscribers to my newsletter, Build Something Weekly, got a sneak preview of this post earlier this week. I don’t always publish what I write there here though, so for my best thoughts you should totally subscribe.

My favorite episode of Looney Toons is Baseball Bugs. Bugs Bunny is heckling the Gashouse Gorillas and when they hear him, they make him play every position against them. He makes the winning catch by taking a cab out of the ball part, all the way to the Statute of Liberty.

While this is a funny cartoon, it’s no way to run a business. Playing every position (owner, accountant, sales, customer service, etc) can take a lot out of you, and prevent you from properly growing your business. One role that should require heavy consideration is tech support: when it comes to using your own tool vs. paying for a service, what should you do?

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Why Not Wanting to Pay for Software is Holding Your Business Back

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Earlier this month, Elementor announced that they are increasing their prices. Most notably, 1000 sites (called the Agency Plan) is moving from $199/year to $999/year. This is only for new customers but, as is common when software pricing changes, people are outraged. Not only is this sort of outrage getting old, but I would argue that if you’re not willing to pay what software is worth, you will never grow as a business. And not for the reason you think.

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On Buying Jeans and App Subscriptions

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It seems that increasingly, more software companies are moving to a subscription model, where instead of paying once to own the software (or app), you pay monthly, or annually, to keep using it at the latest features. Adobe was perhaps one of the first major companies to do it with Creative Cloud. Now we see it in WordPress plugins, and increasingly, iOS apps. Fantastical did it this year, and this week Deliveries announced they are moving to subscription.

But before I tell you why this is a good thing, I want to tell you about buying jeans.

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WordPress 5.0 Has Been Delayed – What Now?

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If you haven’t been following the dev chats in the WordPress Slack team, there’s a lot of confusion around exactly when WordPress 5.0 will ship. Release Candidate (RC) 1 is out now, and RC2, as I write this, is around the corner. These should signal that the answer is “soon” but there has been no commitment. The team is ignoring the fallback dates in January, and it seems “as soon as possible” is the current target. Many have already written thoughts on what that means for the community. I’m here to tell you what your plan should be.

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The Hunt for Good Webinar Software

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Yesterday, I gave a fantastic webinar on creating an Event Registration Form with Gravity Forms and decided to try something other than Zoom Webinars. I love Zoom and use it for all of my meetings, but my goal for attendees is to make is as easy as possible without the need for them to download anything extra. So far, I’ve looked at 3.

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Check out my Podcast Gear

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This summer I started two projects that require me to be in front of a microphone: WP in One Month and How I Built It. It’s a lot of work, but fun and rewarding. One important aspect of recording is making sure you have the right hardware and software. It can take a lot of research and get a bit pricy, but the quality of what you put out makes it worth it. I’ve spent some time finding the right tools; here’s my current setup.

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100 Words 006

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Is it, ‘$30 good’?

We live in an interesting world where apps, likely because there is not physical product just a download, are expected to be cheap or free. Video games are still $60 a shot, but an app that will make you more productive is $30 and it gets questioned.

I asked that very question recently when looking at some new Desktop Publishing software. Let me be clear: $30 is not a lot of money for a great app, but the question is, “Is it worth $30 to me?” I love to support developers, but if I don’t use the app, it’s money wasted.

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My Everyday Things, Part 1: Workflow

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Recently I started following Everyday Carry, a blog dedicated to showcasing the items that people must have on an everyday basis. I decided that in an effort to blog more, I would do a short, 3 part series on the stuff I use everyday. The series will be broken up into 3 parts: today’s installment is Workflow, then Carry/Misc, then Home Setup. Let’s jump in!

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10 Android Apps the Make my Life Easier

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It’s no secret that I love Android as a platform, and I favor Android phones over the iPhone. I did my Master’s Thesis on the G1, bought the Motorola Droid- the first Android phone available on Verizon, and recently upgraded to the HTC Droid Incredible. One of the reasons I like Android so much is because of the openness of the Market Place, and the ability to install non-market apps on your phone. Apps are very powerful for any platform because they make your phone more personal. Today I want to tell you about 10 Android apps that have made my life easier!

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