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T-Shirts Now Available

Computers are for Creating

Buy a shirt and support shawnblanc.net

About the Design

Designed by yours truly. I have always liked the use and look of gears in design. They are a fun way to conceptualize creativity as something which requires work, thought, and momentum. Gears are also a great way to communicate the idea of computers as mechanical hardware.

Also, I very much like the slogan “Computers are for Creating”. It rings true for all walks of creative professionals — writers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, designers, developers, et al. It’s a phrase for folks like us.

About the Shirts

The shirts are dark grey, 50/50 blend, ringspun American Apparel Tees. These are very high-quality shirts (I prefer them over the 100% cotton shirts), and they offer superior screen printing results.

They will be hand-printed at a professional screen-printing shop located right here in Kansas City.

Orders will be taken until 11:59 PM CST on Tuesday, August 23. The batch will then be printed and will ship around the first week in September.

Pick one up today.

T-Shirts Now Available

Disclaimer  →

Since this site has grown from a hobby weblog into a full-time business, I want to be clear about how the revenue streams relate to what gets written and published.

The short of it is this:

  • Every word I write here is always my own honest opinion.

  • Sponsors and advertisers will always be identified.

  • I use affiliate links when possible, but I try to do so moderately and never in with intent to trick you into buying something just so I can get a small kickback.

If you want to know more, click through to the disclaimer page for more info and detail about the above.

Disclaimer

Update On the “Previous Entries” Experiment  →

Two weeks ago, as an experiment, I removed the “Previous Entries” link on the bottom of the homepage that would take you Page 2 of the site. In its place I put a link to recent articles, reviews, and interviews.

My reasoning for the experiment was to test my hypothesis that those who wind up at the bottom of the homepage are most likely new readers. And therefore, offering a link to the “best of” content would be more relevant for them and more likely to convert them into regular readers. My metrics for success in this experiment were increase in overall site pageviews and an increased rate of growth of RSS subscribers.

Today I compared the analytics of the site for the past two weeks against the two weeks prior to the experiment.

During the two-week experiment visits to the Reviews, Interviews, and Articles archive pages all went up noticeably. Which was to be expected. However, there was virtually no marked increase in overall pageviews or RSS Subscribers.

As a third metric — reader feedback — the vast majority of feedback I did receive was that current readers missed having a link to Page 2.

And so, I’ve put the link to Page 2 back at the bottom of the homepage.

On a side note: the most-clicked-on link of the recent articles, reviews, and interviews was to the Reviews page. Clearly that’s a hot topic, so I added that as a stand-alone link in the footer in addition to the archives.

Update On the “Previous Entries” Experiment

A Week-Long, In-Depth Look at How Writing This Site Full-Time is Going

It has been nearly two months since I began writing shawnblanc.net full-time, and it has been wonderful. I love this gig.

By far and away the most frequently asked question I’ve been getting is: How’s it going?

And so I am going to take this week and answer that question in great detail.

But to start it all off, I wanted to first say thank you. I would not be writing this if it were not for the support from all of you guys — the members, the weekly sponsors, the readers.

Those of you who have signed up as subscribing members are providing a critical income stream which has actually allowed me to publish this site full time.

To all the fantastic developers, companies, and other fine folks who sponsor the RSS feed or advertise on Fusion, thank you.

And really, to everyone — all of you nerds who continue to show up day after day — thanks.

A Week-Long, In-Depth Look at How Writing This Site Full-Time is Going

Previous Entries

On the homepage of a weblog, when you’ve scrolled to the bottom of the recent posts displayed but before you get to the footer, what should you see?

Most commonly you’ll find a link for “previous entries” or “older entries”. A link that takes you to Page 2 of the site. And page 2 is always the same format as the homepage.

There are some unique dynamics to weblog design. You’re designing for three groups of people:

  • Regular readers who check in daily, or near daily
  • Familiar readers who check in occasionally
  • New visitors

Regular readers tend to hang out at the top of the site or in the RSS feed. Since they are tracking with the weblog they are up to date with what’s been written lately. In fact, many regular readers may not even visit the site and read only from their feed reader.

Familiar readers who check in occasionally are likely to only peruse and read what’s on the homepage. They come to the site, look to see what’s new that they haven’t seen since last time, and then move on.

New readers are actually most likely showing up for the first time onto a permalink page because they got to your site via a link or a search result to something specific. From there, if they like what they’ve read, they’re likely to read more articles or click to the home page and see what is happening.

And so, when someone (who is most likely a new visitor) has scrolled to the bottom of the recent posts on the homepage, before they get to the footer what should they see?

Is a link to Page 2 the best option? I don’t know; the advantages and disadvantages vary based on the site.

Advantages of having a link to Page 2:

  • It’s conventional: Lots and lots of sites use it.
  • It’s familiar: Because it’s conventional.
  • It’s simple: There is only one option: If you want more, click here. If not, see you later alligator.
  • You stay in the same context: The format of page 2 is the same as page 1 which means the reader is not changing contexts from reading to lists to reading again.

Disadvantages of having a link to Page 2:

  • On this site I post dozens of links to every one article. If someone is scrolling through page by page it means they are primarily scrolling through lists of links. And while that’s cool, links are not the premier feature of this site. Though they are the most common type of post, they’re not the most valuable.

  • Some of the work I am most proud of may not have been in the past few weeks or even months. Someone browsing page by page may never get to what I am most proud of.

What Others are Doing

I wanted to see how other weblogs handle pagination navigation. I took screenshots of the bottom of the homepage of 31 different weblogs to compare how they’ve implemented pagination navigation, if they’ve implemented it at all.

I chose sites that are run as a traditional blog, meaning the most recent posts are at the top of the page and usually where several posts are shown at once. I also chose sites that are published by people who (most likely) have thought through this sort of thing for their site.

Of the 31 sites, 19 had some sort of “older entries” style pagination navigation and 12 had something else.

Weblogs with pagination navigation: Kottke.org, Jason Santa Maria, TechCrunch, Jeffery Zeldman’s Daily Report, dooce, Seth Godin, Andy Ihnatko, 43 Folders, Cameron Moll, Panic Blog, Liz Danzico, The Hickensian, Simplebits, The Brooks Review, I Love Typography, swissmiss, This is my next…, Waxy.org, and 37signals.

Weblogs with something other than pagination navigation:

Trying Something New

Since the inception of this site I’ve had the common link to Page 2. I am now testing something new here: I replaced the link to Page 2 with links to recent articles, interviews, and reviews instead. I’ve also increased the number of articles and links that appear on the home page to 25 total.

The goal is to offer the best choice for the reader, based on what I, as the publisher of my site, consider to be the most valuable. Is a link to Page 2 the best way for a reader to continue exploring my site, or would they be better served by discovering the articles I’ve written and am most proud of? 1

Honestly, I’m not sure yet. Though I do think that if I only ever wrote articles it may be a different answer.

  1. Some readers have written in to suggest that I offer a link to Page 2 as well as a link to recent articles, reviews, and interviews. I somewhat like this idea, but my biggest hesitancy is that it may present too many options. When a user is presented with too many choices they will likely chose none. In fact, I already am feeling like having 3 links at the bottom of the page is too many. But at least they are 3 links of the same type. ↵
Previous Entries

Membership Update

Six weeks ago I announced that I was taking the site full time and that to make it happen I would be offering a membership to the site. There was a month-long membership drive with the goal of promoting membership sign-ups before I started my first day as a full-time writer for shawnblanc.net. (Which was yesterday, by the way.)

Here is a quick update on where things stand as of today.

For starters, I’m sure you will be delighted to know, the membership drive was a success. There are two benchmarks I have for the membership subscription base:

  • There is the minimum number of members which is needed simply to cover the necessities of life and the hard costs of running this site.
  • There is an ideal subscriber base which would cover the additional expenses now equated with publishing this site full time.

Up until yesterday the income I got from this site was all “extra” income. I had a full-time job and didn’t need the income this site was generating. The Fusion ads and RSS sponsorships covered the hard costs (primarily hosting and my internet service provider) and then what was left over I used to pay for software, hardware, and the other things I write about here.

But now that I’ve quit my full-time job, the income this site makes has a new priority: food and shelter. Or, put another way, the RSS Sponsorships help me buy food to eat instead of software to write about.

Thankfully, the membership numbers have gone above that minimum level needed for me to sustain this site as my full-time gig. Moreover, people are still signing up — every day the membership base grows a little bit more. (Thank you!)

Once the membership numbers reach my ideal goal I will be able to budget for the purchasing of software and hardware as needed, and even set aside enough funds for things such as traveling to Macworld in 2012. I try to run a tight and frugal operation, but at the same time being involved in and writing about the design- and tech-savvy community isn’t exactly a free ride.

All this to say that the lights in my office will stay on, my internet service will not be disconnected, and if I skip lunch one day it’s likely out of forgetfulness rather than necessity.

I cannot express how very grateful to have this opportunity. I get to work from the comfort of my own home, keep my own schedule, and be involved in the things which I love and am passionate about. Not to mention I get to write for and interact with fine readers such as yourselves all day long. Thank you for helping make this a reality.

Regarding the Membership Drive Giveaway

For those of you who signed up for a membership during the membership drive, all the emails have been sent out to the winners. They were sent to the primary email addresses in your PayPal account, so if you don’t check that email often, you may want to.

There were 84 prizes in total, worth over $2,000. Many, many, thanks to all the writers, designers, developers, and friends who donated to the membership drive:

Another Shameless Plug to Sign Up for a Membership if You Haven’t Yet

Membership subscriptions are still available and will be indefinitely. Membership to the site is just 3 bucks a month — like a good cup of coffee — and includes some very cool members-only perks. Primarily that you’ll be supporting the full-time writing and growth of shawnblanc.net, and you’ll get access to Shawn Today, the daily, members-only broadcast.

And, what the heck? So long as we’re at it… Another fantastic way to support this site is to sponsor the RSS feed. Sponsoring the feed is a win-win-win situation: you get your product or service promoted to a large audience of design- and tech-savvy readers, the readers in turn get to discover something new they may have not known about, and I get to put food on the table.

Membership Update

The Daily ‘Shawn Today’ Episodes are Free to Everyone All This Week  →

There is now a dedicated landing page for Shawn Today. This page serves two purposes:

  • A lot of members want to tell their friends about Shawn Today but don’t know where to send them (since the RSS feed is private). This landing page is the perfect place to link to when talking or writing or tweeting about Shawn Today.

  • Many non-members have asked if I’d ever consider doing a trial membership in order to get a sample of what Shawn Today is like. By having some of my favorite past episodes available on this landing page it gives potential members a way to check out the broadcast.

Moreover, all this week the episodes of Shawn Today are freely available to everyone. It’s not just the members who have helped me get to this point and so I wanted to invite everyone into the behind-the-scenes fun that is the daily broadcast called Shawn Today.

If you head on over to the dedicated landing page you’ll find a few past episodes, today’s show, and it’s where the rest of this week’s episodes will be published to.

The Daily ‘Shawn Today’ Episodes are Free to Everyone All This Week

My Growing To-Do List for shawnblanc.net Beginning April 4

  • Write a review of LaunchBar
  • Re-evaluate my approach to time management and how I get things done to best fit my new schedule and work flow
  • Slightly refresh and update this site’s design and completely re-code the WordPress theme from scratch for better load times and valid HTML
  • Write about the differences between how I use and approach Simplenote and Yojimbo
  • Finish that review of Instapaper I started last Summer
  • Write a review about the SSD I put in last Fall
  • Begin asking folks for their participation in a new minimalistic interview series I am planning to launch
  • Begin working on a long-form interview with… (?)
  • Reply to the emails in my inbox from those who are interviewing me
  • Join the Mac Developer Program
  • Install [Redacted]
  • Join the iOS Developer Program
  • Begin work on Book Number One
  • Design a t-shirt or two
  • Remind everyone that memberships are still very much available and more awesome than ever
My Growing To-Do List for shawnblanc.net Beginning April 4

Membership Drive and Giveaway

Beginning the first week in April I will be writing shawnblanc.net as my full-time gig.

It is hard to put into words just exactly how excited I am about the days ahead — I’m equal parts giddy and petrified over here. There’s that feeling of: I’m actually going to do this! Um, wait. I’m actually going to do this!?

In order to make this happen for longer than a few months, I need the support of you, the reader.

And so, leading up to my first day on the job, I am hosting a PBS-style membership drive. Which means that, for the next three and a half weeks, I’ll be talking somewhat regularly about the membership. (Though I promise that it won’t be all I talk about between now and then.)

Ideally, you are signing up to become a member because you feel like this site is already worth 3 bucks a month to you. The members-only perks are a nice bonus of course (Shawn Today seems to be a smash hit already), and the fact that your membership will be a significant contributing factor to my ability to go full time is the icing on the cake.

But let’s face it: everyone loves free stuff. And, to be honest, I really do love to give things away. And so there are things to be won if you sign up to become a member.

If you haven’t signed up for a membership yet, here’s the link.

The Membership Drive

Starting yesterday, and running until midnight CST on Sunday, March 20, anyone who signs up to become a member of shawnblanc.net will be entered to win a prize. These are all top-notch prizes from some of my friends and heroes in the creative professional community.

  • A 20×30 print from photographer Jorge Quinteros: The winner gets to pick any print they want. These are my three favorites: 1, 2, and 3. ($50)

  • First & 20 t-shirt: 5 of these fantastic t-shirts. I’ve got one and love it. ($20 each)

  • Evernote Essentials by Brett Kelly: 5 copies of Brett’s definitive guide on Evernote. ($25 each)

  • Fusion Ad Burst: The Fusion Ad network is giving away one Burst Campaign. This prize will only be given to a member with something relevant for the Fusion Ad network. ($500)

  • A signed copy of Being Geek by Michael Lopp ($25).

  • A signed copy of Managing Humans by Michael Lopp ($25).

  • Cameron Moll’s 24×16 Signed Colosseo Poster: This thing is gorgeous. ($100)

  • A Redeye Bundle from Idea Cafe: Includes a plain pocket Moleskine, Action Journal, and Dot Grid Book. ($40)

  • MarsEdit 3: A license of the best blogging software on the planet ($40).

  • Limited Edition, Pre-Production, Proof-of-Concept Coffee Mug From Yours Truly: I have no clue how much these will be selling for once they’re available, but I have an extra pre-production model that I’m giving away.

  • Icon Resource: A video training pack of high-def movies, project files, photoshop samples, and more from the world-class icon designer Sebastiaan de With. ($130)

  • Learning ExpressionEngine 2 by Ryan Irelan: Two bundles of the complete series basic training screencasts for EE 2. ($48 each)

  • MySQL and ExpressionEngine by Ryan Irelan: Two copies of this screencast primed to help you do some customizing of EE 2. ($12 each)

  • Securing ExpressionEngine 2 by Mark Huot: Two copies of this ebook which details the steps you can take to make your installation of ExpressionEngine even more secure. ($10 each)

  • LittleSnapper: 5 licenses of Realmac Software’s popular screenshot library tool. ($25 each)

  • Pixelmator: 2 licenses of this top-notch, image editing application for Mac OS X. ($60 each)

  • Flux: 1 license of The Escapers Web-development software. ($113)

  • Canned: 10 copies of Sky Ballon Studio’s iPhone app for sending pre-built text messages. ($.99 each)

  • Canned Email: 10 copies of Sky Ballon Studio’s iPhone app for sending pre-built email messages. ($.99 each)

  • Attachment Tamer: 5 licenses of Lokiware’s Apple Mail plugin. ($15 each)

  • Flare: 5 copies of the brand-new photo effects editor from the Iconfactory. ($20 each)

  • Due App: 10 copies of this great timer and reminder app for your iPhone and iPad. ($5 each)

  • Clyppan: 5 copies of this clipboard history manager for Mac OS X. ($5 each)

  • TrackTime: 5 copies of the time tracking application especially built for freelancers and creative professionals. ($25 each)

The total value of all these prizes is over $2,028. Thank you to all of you who have donated to make this giveaway possible.

How to Win

  • Anyone who signs up for a membership by midnight CST on Sunday, March 20 will automatically be in the runnings to win something.

  • You do not have to live in the United States to win — international members are most welcome and most eligible.

  • I’ll be setting up a way for you to request a certain prize if there is one in particular that you’d love to get.

  • The drawing will be sometime the last week in March. Winners will be contacted by via their PayPal email address.

If you haven’t yet signed up to become a member, now would be a good time.

Membership Drive and Giveaway

A Quick Update

This morning, around 7:00 am, I was just sitting here in front of MarsEdit with the announcement written and ready to publish. And I just sat here. Too nervous to hit Publish. It was probably just a minute or less, but it felt like half the morning.

In some ways I thought today would never come. And for those few final moments before I published “Beginning” I had this uncanny feeling of sheer excitement coupled with total fear. I was giddy at the thought of letting you guys know about such a huge and exciting change. And simultaneously afraid at what trolls may come out of the woodwork to criticize my decision or poke fun at my (admittedly) bad

(https://shawnblanc.net/members/).

My wife, Anna, was this site’s very first reader back in July of 2007. She has proofread, edited, and given constructive feedback on every major article I’ve written — I never post those things without her feedback first (I figure if she likes it, and I like it, then it can’t be all that bad). Anna also helped me behind the scenes in the early days of this site by giving suggestions on questions I should ask certain interviewees — such as asking John Gruber what he eats for breakfast.

It was some time right after this past Christmas, just before the 2011 New Year, that Anna and I were having dinner at home and I pitched the idea to her about actually taking shawnblanc.net full time. I’ve tossed it out there before over the years, but it was always somewhat casual. But this time I meant it. And she meant it when she said she would be 100% behind me.

I brag about the readership of this site quite a bit. And I mean it when I write how amazing and talented you guys are. But, with all due respect my fellow nerds, this site would not be the site it is today without the support and encouragement I have received from my wife.

Thank you, Anna, for everything.

Also, I want to thank you guys, the readers. The support and positive feedback I received today has been absolutely phenomenal. Many of you have been helping spread the news on your website or via Twitter as well as writing in to say congratulations. Please keep it up, because so far sign ups are looking good.

It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet, so I really have no way to know if things are going really well or not. But I do know for sure that there is still a long way to go in order to make the memberships a viable enough source of income for me to keep the full-time aspect going for longer than the summer.

Those of you who have signed up already, thank you! If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

Current Members: Regarding your Perks and Info

For some reason unbeknownst to me, PayPal won’t let you build or customize the autoresponder emails that are sent when someone becomes a subscriber. Which means that the information about your perks as a member are given out on the final page stage of the subscription process. This includes the information on how to subscribe to the members-only broadcast, Shawn Today.

This was, by far, the most frustrating piece of the whole membership puzzle for me. There are many alternate options and workarounds, but I opted for what I felt would be the easiest for me to maintain and the easiest for you to access.

If you’ve signed up for a membership and accidentally missed this information during your subscription check-out, please email members@shawnblanc.net from your PayPal address and I’ll send you the info you need.

Coming up next: A Membership Drive With Some Sweet Giveaways

A little surprise for tomorrow: some extremely amazing and generous folks have donated a handful of prizes and gifts as bounty for a membership drive that will kick off tomorrow.

In short, between this morning and midnight on Sunday, March 20th, anyone and everyone who signs up for a membership will be eligible to win some amazing prizes. And these aren’t just hum-drum giveaways. They are top-notch, drool-worthy, items. But more info on that tomorrow morning.

A Quick Update

Beginning

This is a sentence I never thought I would publish: Beginning the first week in April I will be writing shawnblanc.net as my full-time gig.

When I began shawnblanc.net in July of 2007 it was with the intention of enjoying and exploring that place where creativity and computers come together — I am fascinated by that blend of the artful and the technical. And for almost four years now I’ve been exploring that place while writing this site on the side, as I’ve been able.

But writing on the side, as I’m able, is no longer enough for me.

I simply have to go full time. And so I’m jumping in head first. I’m actually doing it. And I can hardly believe I’m saying this.

After four years and hundreds of articles it all feels like the beginning. As if the hundreds of thousands of words that I’ve written here so far are simply the prologue. I cannot wait for what is next.

The Next Chapter

In many ways, shawnblanc.net will be the same as it has been. The focus and direction of this site is not changing.

But in some other ways shawnblanc.net will be different. Or, at least, I hope it will be different. I hope that the quality and the pace of the publishing will rise to a new level of excellence. I hope that the community here will be able to grow and connect more. And I hope to expand to new communication methods in addition to writing.

It is hard to put into words just exactly how excited I am about the days ahead. I’m equal parts giddy and petrified over here. There’s that feeling of: I’m actually going to do this! Um, wait. I’m actually going to do this!?

An Invitation

And so, in order to make this happen for longer than a few months, I need the support of you, the reader.

Help me take shawnblanc.net full time

I am inviting you guys to join me on this journey, and help me take shawnblanc.net full time by becoming a member.

A membership subscription is just $3 a month — like a good cup of coffee — and includes some members-only perks. You can read all about the membership and watch a video I made by checking out the membership info page. But here’s the gist of the members-only perks:

  • Supporting the full-time writing and growth of shawnblanc.net
  • Access to Shawn Today, a daily video/audio broadcast of ideas plus what coffee I’m brewing that morning
  • The Members Showcase
  • Ability to ask questions, get advice, etc…
  • Possibility of winning some cool stuff

Hopefully the value and enjoyment you already get from shawnblanc.net is worth $3 a month to you and these perks are just icing on the cake. But however you slice it, I would love to have your support as a subscribing member.

Thank you

Surely shawnblanc.net has one the most amazing readerships out there. Because of you guys this site has been able to grow and mature into what it is today. And that is what is enabling me to take this leap and go full time.

And so now, I’m humbly asking, will you take this next step with me?

Beginning

Sponsorship Opportunities

One of the greatest assets a publisher has is the attention and trust of their readers. It is something cultivated over time as a person or publication slowly becomes a trusted advisor for the things they write about, link to, and share. In short: my RSS Subscribers are my truest fans. They’re the ones who have volunteered to let me share ideas, links, and more with them anytime I want.

And this is much of what makes an RSS Sponsorship so valuable — the sponsor gets exposure to an audience who’s already paying attention.

Placing ads into RSS feeds is laughable. The ads often look horrendous (if they work at all), and offer a minuscule return on investment for both the publisher and the advertiser. Sponsoring an RSS feed however is a fine idea. It provides the promoter with a high-impact way of getting exposure, and allows the publisher to keep their feed clean from ad clutter.

On Monday I began offering sponsorships to this site’s RSS Feed. Yes, the sponsorships help me to continue writing here, but long-time readers of this site know what an advocate I am for the freelance designer, the 3rd-party developer, et al. I am not exaggerating or lying when I say that part of the reason I set up sponsorships was to offer a top-notch promotional channel for designers, developers, writers, and more.

And so good news: for those looking to promote their product or service, shawnblanc.net is not the only site offering Sponsorships for its RSS Feed.1

  • Monday by Noon: a gem of the Internet. Jonathan posts a well-written, well-informed article on Web design and development every Monday. And now, just before his weekly article is published, you have the chance to be endorsed by Jonathan to his healthy readership of Web professionals.

  • Minimal Mac: a site that has taken off like a rocket over the past year. Patrick Rhone is a trusted advisor to many a Mac nerds and minimalists. He is offering you a chance to sponsor his RSS Feed as well. You get a promotion on Monday and a thank-you post on Friday.

  • The Brooks Review: regular, insightful writing about Apple, technology, and the Web. Ben Brooks is quickly becoming a must-read among many well-known technology sites.

Why am I promoting these other guys? Because sponsorship opportunities are a fabulous channel to promote you app, your book, your freelance business, and more. I get frequent requests from app developers asking me to check out and hopefully promote their app. I get emails from web developers asking me if I know any good designers, and vice versa.

There is certainly no shortage of top-notch products and services worthy of being made known. If you’ve got something you’d like to promote, book a sponsorship on this site. But I also recommend Minimal Mac, Monday by Noon, and The Brooks Review. I believe your promotion would do well there also.

  1. Savvy advertisers may think ahead and sponsor the same week — or back-to-back-to-back weeks — across multiple sites. ↵
Sponsorship Opportunities