March 13

How Excellent Customer Service Can Be Delivered Over Email But Without Gmail

I love helping people but I hated providing Customer Support with Gmail.

I’ve recently talked to dozens of online small businesses and it seems that at least half are still using email for customer support. I imagine most small business start this way. Happy Herbivore used email exclusively for over 5 years before we decided we need a better way to support our customers.

For our business, customer support got a lot more complicated when we began selling monthly subscriptions. Subscriptions are more involved than one off sales. We have a host of new issues that need support: credit ...

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January 27

Gumroad Sales Tracking with Google Analytics Goals

I'm going to show you how I used the Gumroad created events to complete Google Analytics Goals. Why? Because this is the only way that I can then associate conversions to a MailChimp Campaign. As of this writing, Gumroad's conversion tracking is currently limited to sending Google Analytics Events. Now you could create a custom report to display clicks and purchased events but that's not helpful if you want to see that information in your last MailChimp campaign.

Google Analytics Goals is feature that helps you keep "success metrics." You will most likely use Goals as a way ...

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January 18

Microconf helped us add 33% more revenue

One of things that makes Microconf a great learning environment is the collection of great speakers that share actionable business strategies that will help your business grow.

At the 2013 Microconf, several speakers hammered on two themes that every business should consider implementing. 1. Raise prices. 2. Sell Annual Subscriptions. In the 9 months since Microconf, we used these recommendations to add 33% more revenue and now annual subscribers make up 40.4% to our Meal Plan business (www.getmealplans.com). I doubt we are the only success story.

Once I’d been properly motivated, I had to go home and convince ...

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August 14

Struggling to Write

Why am I mad? Well, today I decided to get back on the horse and start writing again. But I started with a really unrealistic article to write. I'm trying to punch above my weight class and just getting my ass kicked. I should just be trying to get the wheels going and do a little research for this post along the way.

So I tried to switch gears and write a different post but I think my patience was just gone at that point.

The real problem is that I haven't been keeping to my goal to write ...

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June 25

How to filter Django Forms by the User

Today I'm going to tell you a story about how to add a custom filter to your Django Forms.

In the not too distance future, you'll be jamming to "White Snake" while you setup your own ninja searchable FAQ, you'll want your questions and answers to only show-up on your website. But right now we have a problem, I'm seeing other peoples domains because the Django ModelForm just pulls all websites in the Website table. Getmealplans.com is one of my wife's businesses but thepassionofvitamins.com belongs to my Jesus loving friend Jack. ¡No bueno!

"All uri's included"

...

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December 28

10 Tips to Increase Donations and Sales

This time of year many non-profits are emailing for donations. I typically support a few organizations at the end of the year one in particular is the Application Trail Conservancy. Their donation page is really bad. It's bad because it appears that it was slapped into their existing website. I'm going to assume that two primary most important reasons for this website are 1) to take donations and 2) to be an information source.

Mistakes they make on this page:

  • Selecting "Same as above" checkbox failed to copy my address
  • Make it easier for people to donate money. ...

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August 15

Learning to Program Django: Getting Started

Django is a set of programming tools that allows you to quickly and easily build a website. If you were building a house you would use power tools such as table saws and nail guns to quickly build your house. Power tools not only save you a lot of time; they also help you do a better job. Think of Django is a large collection of power tools that will enable you to build an entire website. If you want to program for the modern web I highly recommend you build your house with a modern set of power tools. ...

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July 18

Learning to Program My Advice as a Mentor

I recently started to mentor a young friend that is interested in transitioning from a skill-less office worker to future web developer. She's re-orienting herself with html and css for now. In the next few weeks, she'll start to learn how to code. My built-in language bias will no doubt steer her training towards subjects I'm already proficient with. I am primarily a python/django web developer so there is a very strong possibility that she will learn python and django first. Being keenly aware of my own bias I've been strongly considering recommend she learn ruby and ruby on rails. ...

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March 21

Do you want to make an extra $4000 a year?

If you could make an extra $4000/year and it would only required 40 hours of work a year, would you do it?

I like to ask this question when I meet people because most people say Yes; of course, we want to make more money with little effort. The vast majority of people probably will never even start because they are scared to fail. I'm not perfect. I've failed. I've had false starts. Currently I'm sitting on a project called ContextKick because I don't really have time to work on ...

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